Posts by AnnOMaly

5. Instill fear, such as fear of:
a. Thinking independently
b. The outside world
c. Enemies
d. Losing one’s salvation
e. Leaving or being shunned by the group
f. Other’s disapproval
[...]
8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority
a. No happiness or fulfillment possible outside of the group
b. Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc.
c. Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family
d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly, brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll
e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family

E.g. p. 24:

"One of the darkest periods in human history nears. ..."

" ... That will not be the time to let anything divide us. We will certainly not want to turn to the world for assistance. Rather, we will want to stick close to our brothers. Of course, we will not survive just because we are part of a group. Jehovah and his Son will bring those who call on Jehovah’s name safely through that calamitous time. (Joel 2:32; Matt. 28:20) Nevertheless, is it reasonable to think that those who have not maintained unity as part of God’s flock—those who have strayed off on their own—will be saved? —Mic. 2:12."

63

w14 12/15-E Study Edition

by wifibandit in

click "premium download".

.

pdf: http://bayfiles.net/file/1kv2k/uaqn2y/w_e20141215.pdf.

AnnOMaly

I could never do the math on how Guy Pierce got married in 1977 and has great grandchildren

Could it be that he was married earlier, and his 1977 marriage was his 2nd?

"Guy married a woman who had two children, whom he adopted, and together they had two more children. They were divorced after some of the older children left home. In 1977 he married Penny, who was a single mother with two children of her own. ln his years of raising a family Guy experienced a divorce, raised his adopted children, his own children, and his stepchildren." - from Cedars's comment at jwsurvey.org - supposedly from Pierce's obit.

45

A rose by any other name..............

by sparrowdown in

jw
friends

i'm curious, why and how did you choose your username?.

does it hold any special significance for you, is there a share-able back story?.

for me sparrowdown is a playful reference to matt 10:29 and the title of the movie black hawk down.. matt 10:29 was my go-to scrip to "prove" that god cares about us as individuals.

AnnOMaly

Anomaly made into a name. I always felt like an anomaly. I began to see anomalies galore in Watchtower world and I was kind of influenced by the Matrix sequels (Neo was the anomaly in the Matrix).

11

"The Cyrus Cylinder"

by Doug Mason in

i suspect that i am the last one here who has read the book: the cyrus cylinder: the king of persias proclamation from ancient babylon, edited by irving finkel; published by i. b. tauris, 2013; 144 pages.. so i simply wish to record my deep admiration for the book.

it explains and analyses the cylinders text as well as providing a sympathetic account of the people involved with its ancient and modern history.

(chapter 1: the babylonian perspective; chapter 2: discovery; chapter 5: a persian perspective.

AnnOMaly

AnnOMaly , I think I know you from another ex-witness forum. You used the same nickname, but I was not OPUS there.

Oh right? Which one? What name did you use? PM me if you don't want to disclose it on here.

11

"The Cyrus Cylinder"

by Doug Mason in

i suspect that i am the last one here who has read the book: the cyrus cylinder: the king of persias proclamation from ancient babylon, edited by irving finkel; published by i. b. tauris, 2013; 144 pages.. so i simply wish to record my deep admiration for the book.

it explains and analyses the cylinders text as well as providing a sympathetic account of the people involved with its ancient and modern history.

(chapter 1: the babylonian perspective; chapter 2: discovery; chapter 5: a persian perspective.

AnnOMaly

opus: http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/babylon05.html

Thanks Doug. Only read bits of it, but I found it interesting about the suggestion that burial chambers found in Ketef Hinnom (Jerusalem) were still being used after 587/6 BCE during the exile. It sparked my wanting more info about it and so, rooting around the 'net, I saw someone else contend that the chambers were where only the higher classes were buried. Seeing as only the poor were left in the land, so the argument went, these chambers couldn't have been used until after the exile when the higher status Jews returned. There was a counter-argument to that too. Anyway, I learned something new :-)

18

My DF'd father going in for cancer surgery

by PaintedToeNail in

jw
friends

in january or february of this year, my father was df'd for viewing pornography.

he was diagnosed with a rare-ish lung cancer in august, it doesn't have good recovery odds.

he had been struggling with a porn problem for awhile, asking the 'brothers' for help.

AnnOMaly

I'm very sorry to hear of your dad's illness and situation. I hope a new support network can be found to help him through this (are there charitable groups associated with the hospital?). Perhaps your brother can print out some of the FB messages so he can read them without sitting up?

9

SHOCKING elder's talk: "..when we are baptized we abdicate all responsibility to think for ourselves.."

by yadda yadda 2 in

i found this recorded elder's talk (presumably genuine) quite disturbing in how he states that in order to maintain unity, jw's have given up thinking for themselves and passed over their thinking ability to the governing body.. "when you're baptized, your thinking is not your own anymore...your thinking is done for you...we carry out to the letter everything the society tells us to do..." .

his concluding statement "stop thinking for yourselves!".

there's the usual reference to the korah and those who challenged moses, but "you in the congregation are safe as long as you don't speak out against the elders and jehovah's organisation...".

AnnOMaly

No background noise, as Listener said. Too blatant, 'in your face.' Lingo was off for a elder. One of the give-aways was mentioning Ray Franz and CoC by name and title. Only long-timers (or 'apostates') would recognize the name, and this 'talk' was produced in the clean digital, rather than fuzzy analogue, era.

24

I still love Kingdom Melodies.

by POs Son in

jw
friends

ok, at the risk of getting flamed, i have been out for over 20 years, and still love kingdom melodies.

i remember them for the good times, the conventions and assemblies, hearing the orchestral versions, imagining the orchestra playing.

some pieces were really nice.

AnnOMaly

I still like a lot of the Kingdom Songs from the pinky-purple and brown books (but the new one - ugh).