reading all these 1914 threads lately has made me think a lot more about my own feelings of the jw movement in the early years.
particularly how i feel they got kind of "lucky" that something big happened on whatever numbered prediction 1914 was for them.. we have all seen individuals ride out the rest of their sports, acting, etc.
careers on one big break.
Good points all,
I guess when it really comes down to it, society as a whole has to be held responsible for producing enough people who buy that crap. Watching "The Life of Brian" makes you realize how people can create their own bandwagon, jump on and be thoroughly convinced that it's taking them right to God.
(And I know that the life is Brian is not a "True Life Story" but it could be..... )
Brad
Re: Betty and Veronica.... I can't ge the new version of two two... just a red x, so I have to give an answer based only on the comic book ones...........
Hmmmmm... too close to call, they both have such beautiful smiles and eyes..... lol
Brad
... on the watchtower society.
i am not one who will ever bother to waste my time heaping praise on the jw religion as though it were some kind of improvement on society.
i have no qualms in saying that it was, is, and always will be a dangerous religion ?
under74,
I thought squinks assessment was pretty damn good. Sure there is the exception to the rule, but I have had experiences myself and been told by many other people stuff like this:
Bro,Supernice - "You know Brad, we really want you to come back...........(a long, pleasant conversation ensues where Brad becomes convinced that they really want to help.... so)
Brad - "You know Bro Supernice I appreciate your concern. I want to tell you about my problem so that you can help me......(tells problem).
Bro Supernice - "Well, Brad, that was the reason that you were df'd so you have to get over that problem yourself. You're on your own until you can prove you're repentant and get re-instated", and walks away.
I think that might be what squinks was refering to.......... when the line is drawn in the sand..... their line, by the way, that's it..... the love ends. That's my take on it anyway.
Or how about a conversation with my sister about my wife (now ex-wife) cheating on me, etc...... and she says she can't talk to me. I'm pleading for my emotional life at this point......... and she says, without batting an eye, "Don't take it personally, Brad, I can't talk to you only because you're df'd"
That is just plain ignorance. Just because they don't realize that it's cruel and hurtful doesn't make it any less so.
Brad
what percentage of jw's do you think would be happy to wake up tomorrow and honestly see all the people dying and everything else that goes along with armageddon as they've been taught?.
on the other hand, how many use the religion/belief as a way to feel superior to others and would never really want to see all that suffering or perhaps just wouldn't want to do the clean-up work after?
i guess a third question is warranted, based on their teachings...... how many hope they die a natural death and will be resurrected after all the nasty sh*t goes down?
Jim,
I was thinking the other day about cults that actually do knock themselves off. (I do have a great respect for life) but it's interesting that some of the "Kool-Aid" and "We'll go off in a space ship behind a comet" cults that do wipe themselves out sort end some of these people's mental/emotional miseries.
JW's do it the other way around. They don't physically take the poison, it's just emotionally and spiritually that they do it. Then they go around, in essense telling the whole rest of the world that they are taking poison every moment of their life.
A good chunk of my relatives are in it, so I'm not necessarily saying I want them to take poison instaed of feeding it to us, but if I had to choose...... better to be rid of 6 million emotional and spiritual blackmailers than 6 billion "better adjusted people (for the most part.
I hope I don't offend anyone with these statements, I just thought the comparison of different ways cults are run is interesting.
Brad
reading all these 1914 threads lately has made me think a lot more about my own feelings of the jw movement in the early years.
particularly how i feel they got kind of "lucky" that something big happened on whatever numbered prediction 1914 was for them.. we have all seen individuals ride out the rest of their sports, acting, etc.
careers on one big break.
CRR,
I agree with WWII being bigger than WWI. That makes what I am trying to say, (even if I am not doing it so well at this point ) a liitle more true.
Once they grabbed hold of the 1914 date, (even though they had already been wrong on some others), they had no need to look anywhere else. It made sense to the followers at the time. "Yeah, you're right Pastor Russell, that was a turning point in history. It makes complete sense that that was when bad ass Satan was thrown out of Heaven by good-guy Jesus/Michael."
Or did you mean CRR that they maybe would have stumbled around until 1939 and gotten lucky on that one?
Brad
what percentage of jw's do you think would be happy to wake up tomorrow and honestly see all the people dying and everything else that goes along with armageddon as they've been taught?.
on the other hand, how many use the religion/belief as a way to feel superior to others and would never really want to see all that suffering or perhaps just wouldn't want to do the clean-up work after?
i guess a third question is warranted, based on their teachings...... how many hope they die a natural death and will be resurrected after all the nasty sh*t goes down?
Remind me not to post topics at 6:30 A.M., when, despite being exhausted, I have not gotten to sleep yet.
all_forgiving,
Thanks for the advice and I will use it to remember to take a trip soon, but I am not a JW, never want to be one again and have my eyes FULLY open to that organization. I was just asking it hypothetically, as in how how many JW's really want to witness what they are taught to believe will happen.
As far as the trip goes, any suggestions? I was thinking maybe Arizona would be nice to see soon.
Brad
reading all these 1914 threads lately has made me think a lot more about my own feelings of the jw movement in the early years.
particularly how i feel they got kind of "lucky" that something big happened on whatever numbered prediction 1914 was for them.. we have all seen individuals ride out the rest of their sports, acting, etc.
careers on one big break.
Golf,
HMMMMM!!! But wasn't Russell predicting originally that Jesus would come right down to Earth in 1914? If he thought that men were behind it, does it make sense for him to predict that?
Brad
P.S. I am not discounting that the events leading up to that time may have pointed to an outbreak in hostility, by the way, just as to how much relevance that had on Russell's mind.
what percentage of jw's do you think would be happy to wake up tomorrow and honestly see all the people dying and everything else that goes along with armageddon as they've been taught?.
on the other hand, how many use the religion/belief as a way to feel superior to others and would never really want to see all that suffering or perhaps just wouldn't want to do the clean-up work after?
i guess a third question is warranted, based on their teachings...... how many hope they die a natural death and will be resurrected after all the nasty sh*t goes down?
What percentage of JW's do you think would be happy to wake up tomorrow and honestly see all the people dying and everything else that goes along with Armageddon as they've been taught?
On the other hand, how many use the religion/belief as a way to feel superior to others and would never really want to see all that suffering or perhaps just wouldn't want to do the clean-up work after?
I guess a third question is warranted, based on their teachings...... How many hope they die a natural death and will be resurrected after all the nasty sh*t goes down?
reading all these 1914 threads lately has made me think a lot more about my own feelings of the jw movement in the early years.
particularly how i feel they got kind of "lucky" that something big happened on whatever numbered prediction 1914 was for them.. we have all seen individuals ride out the rest of their sports, acting, etc.
careers on one big break.
vittvin,
I'm not saying I even believe in a God vs Satan thing. I'm just using their own beliefs/fear tactics and trying to place their success failure based on how much the Great War helped to "prove" those same fear tactics.
I thought this quote was interesting, vittvin:
Give it another thousand years, then they`ll have there scrap, another thousand and Satan get angry, then woe to the earth!
This is just to crack a joke, not to offend, but you'll never succeed as a cult leader. All doomsday cults/high-control groups need to appeal to each humans innate selfishness. If it ain't gonna happen in their lifetime then they ain't joining.
IMO, even when they changed the "generation" interpretation in 1995, they had to start scrambling to make more immediate doomsday predictions. When they changed it to the generation that saw the generation of 1914 they essentially extended it for potentially another eighty years. DOH!! I think that's why, in 2004, they started using the example of Noah's day when man was given 120 years to shape up. Thirty years is easier to take than another 70, based on the 1995 change.
These doomsday thinkers are not necessarily the brightest. It's a good thing for them that FEAR and GUILT are such heavy burdens or they'd have been sunk by now.
ColdRedRain,
I still think the Great War of 1914 was considered to be bigger than all others. The simplicity of doomsday prophets is that they take regularly occuring events like wars, earthquakes, etc. and allow the media to promote them, and go along with the flow, showing how their "prediction" is coming/has come true.
Brad
reading all these 1914 threads lately has made me think a lot more about my own feelings of the jw movement in the early years.
particularly how i feel they got kind of "lucky" that something big happened on whatever numbered prediction 1914 was for them.. we have all seen individuals ride out the rest of their sports, acting, etc.
careers on one big break.
Simon,
Did they really not say anything about 1914 until that much after? I know/figured that they never really used it to that extent immediately since I don't think it was considered to be a World War even, immediately. But I would have thought that their "re-writing" of prophecies would have been done a lot more subtly than that.
Like 1995, where they didn't have to change 1914, they just changed the "interpretation" they had of generation.
I would have thought they would have gradually exemplified the importance of their "rightness" in the year that they very likely wouldn't have done more than how they protected themselves with the 1975 thing. I'm sure the news, during the war, gradually as well revealed that this was the "greatest" war in history. Make sense?
Brad
