Posts by sparrowdown

65

Short stay

by midnight in

after much research and prayer i am returning to being a jehovah's witness i can find nothing that eliminates them from being god's directed people , in the end they will reach the end of there journey despite mistakes and errors just like the israelites entered the promised land , thanks for your input and all the best on your personal journey ☺.

midnight..

sparrowdown

"...like the Israelites entered the promised land..."

Phht. The promise land is soooo old testament. Spoiler alert! In the second part of the book an apostate called Jesus comes along attempts to expose the jewish system to be a swamp of corruption not unlike Washington, he also cryptically talks about a kingdom in heaven - of all places! This Jesus character gets quite popoular amongst the people the jews thought were gross and so he ends up pissing off a lot of people. The people in the end either take off in fear or turn on him sorta like in the Great Gatsby and he gets executed for his trouble!

Yeah, I know go figure!

Oh and BTW good luck with the JWs.

46

Some apostates are coming across as crazed psychopaths

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

i'm not sure whether or not my view on this is correct so please leave your input.

in recent months i've been viewing youtube videos.

again, it might just be my view but there has been an increased amount of random people grabbing a camera and doing vlogs.

sparrowdown

Like Austin Powers says "oh behave" all you naughty apostates.

Also, I hate to break it you but apostates already have a bad name it's "apostate."

Seriously though I couldn't give a rat's what witnesses think of apostates and I am done judging people.

We don't have to wear an apostate uniform and all agree on which form of activism is good or bad.

39

In praise of Randall Watters

by nicolaou in

jw
friends

exjw's of a certain age will remember randy's site well.

freeminds was instrumental in waking me up along with ray franz's books.

if net soup and armageddon okies mean nothing to you you're probably under 30.. whatever caused randy to post what he did recently is something i can only guess at but it won't be what i remember him for.. randy, i wish you well and thank you for all you've done over the years .

sparrowdown

I only started waking up a few years ago but Randy's experience was one of the first I read on the internet it helped greatly because as an asleep dub I thought rather naively that bethelites had some sort of blessed existence. Randy's experience helped me see there is no such thing as a blessed existence no matter how far up the JW ladder you happen to be. I also watched a great interview he did with Steven Hassan.

For me it was never one thing or one person that woke me up it was many things and many people over time. Even OUTLAW with his jokes helped wake me up. WT chews people up and spits them out regardless of the how hard they worked because it is a thankless org so as an ex-jw I would like to thank Randy also.

Thanks to you too Nicolaou for posting this.

130

Not a sympathizer

by Richard Oliver in

i think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.

i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.

i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.

sparrowdown

I have found most people on here to be clear when they are spouting opinion and clear when they are stating facts and are happy to provide clarification if there is any confusion between the two.

No examination of WT can be made without at least some speculation simply because WT is not a very transparent organization, their elder's rule book is secret from members and so are their finances.

As far as jokes, irony, hyperbole, sarcasm and parody directed at WT is concerned it helps let off steam - so what?

23

Clearly, they're hunting down irregular publishers

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

look at this graph:.

it has the % difference between the peak number of publishers and the average number of publishers for that year.

this number can only be positive.. what the graph tells us is that there is a clear trend towards hunting down inactive and/or irregular publishers.

sparrowdown

Remember also that their bar for being counted as a publisher is set pretty low. You can be in a nursing home and count 15 minutes a month or invalid and write a couple of letters an be counted as a publisher.

41

Numbers don't lie... and these numbers are beautiful!!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

the numbers don't lie... definitely slowing down!!.

in the 40´s the average growth per year was 20%in the 50´s it was about 10%they had four decades of solid 5% per yearnow the average for the past 16 years has been 2%.

maybe in the future it will be 1% or 0 or even negative????.

sparrowdown

Going by the emphasis on shunning and loyalty over the past year the GB believes it's shrinking publisher stats and knows exactly the reason for them - it's members are waking up and walking/fading for some time and the effect has caused an insidious erosion of the overall number of publishers. My guess is they (GB) just don't want the numbers to fall too low before they have fully transitioned into a primarily internet based religion.

41

Numbers don't lie... and these numbers are beautiful!!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

the numbers don't lie... definitely slowing down!!.

in the 40´s the average growth per year was 20%in the 50´s it was about 10%they had four decades of solid 5% per yearnow the average for the past 16 years has been 2%.

maybe in the future it will be 1% or 0 or even negative????.

sparrowdown

I have a feeling that in the future "publishers" will be replaced by "views" "hits" and "subs."

41

Numbers don't lie... and these numbers are beautiful!!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

the numbers don't lie... definitely slowing down!!.

in the 40´s the average growth per year was 20%in the 50´s it was about 10%they had four decades of solid 5% per yearnow the average for the past 16 years has been 2%.

maybe in the future it will be 1% or 0 or even negative????.

sparrowdown

This figure could also explain the theocratic "CPR" being performed over the last couple of years in the form of shunning talks/videos and apostate warnings and general demonizing of anyone not loyal.

14

elders are leaving me alone. what to make of this?

by nowwhat? in

i am a born in that goes back to the 1960's i am in a very zealous congregation with super dub elders.

i have been inactive for 3 years and only go to about 2 meetings a month.

i made my displeasure known about the overlapping generation b.s.

sparrowdown

I find many elders are just indifferent. They neither encourage nor admonish could be a few reasons for this.

They don't care enough about the borg or individuals to be bothered chasing people.

They do not want to jeopardize their position as elder by getting involved in a potential apostasy trial.

They are tired, burned out and have no time to harrass grown-ass men about personal decisions.

Either way it's probably preferable than them hounding you but doesn't help much if knowing where you stand with them is important to your frame of mind - as sometimes the not knowing can be hard to deal with. It's like perpetually wondering if today will be the day some zealous elder decides to give fuck about your absence.

32

Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me

by StarTrekAngel in

so i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.

i have been absent for almost 2 months.

my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.

sparrowdown

STA - You seem to be on the right track with not talking about your "spiritual report card" just don't go there if you want to remain under the radar. This is a fishing expedition for sure. Remember to smile and talk about the price of eggs and the weather.