berrygerry

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Posts by berrygerry

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  51

  My first post

  by thewalker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi, i just joined the board and wanted to present myself.. i'm active, in fact very active in congregation activities serving "where the need is great" in a foreign language congregation somewhere in western europe.

  as a young brother, i'm seen as an example as i'm doing all a good witness should do.. i had doubts years ago but i decided just to ignore them and move to another congregation to preach more.

  that worked for some years but i'm now at the exact same point.

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  berrygerry

  Hey Dude:

  What

  Divergent and DOC said.

  
  

  Waking up is indeed, hard to do. (A play on the song "Breaking Up is Hard to Do")

  
  

  The lack of love bothered me for years as well. James 1:27 sums up what God wants in one sentence. WT - orphans and widows - well, widows if they have assets.

  
  

  As many have said, take a deep breath, and then take another.

  
  

  This post is worth a read for those waking up: https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/2bh9eq/almost_exjw_in_a_very_diffucult_situation_need/cj5hvb8

  
  

  BTW - Is your username for the song (I love the whistling)?
  
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  74

  Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .

  org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.

  instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.

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  berrygerry

  sir82 ' ... Number of baptisms declined for the 2nd year in a row....'

  Perhaps the congregations are running out of 8 year olds.

  A corporation can "borrow" from the next quarter to make the present quarter acceptable. You can possibly do that for two, and rarely three, quarters.

  At some point, there will be an accounting.

  The 15-minute report rule, and the infant baptism, have been used up. Now, the accounting begins.
  
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  20

  We were shown how to google jw-org last night

  by StarTrekAngel in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so last night i went to the meeting with my family.

  had not gone in 2 weeks.

  as usual i sat down reading the bible.

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  berrygerry

  Exactly why they will lose the information war in the end.

  .

  The harder you try to suppress the truth, the more inevitable it is that it will find a way to come out.
  

  Arianna Huffington
  
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  4

  UK Charity Investigation

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i do not know the background of the tiff (is there one?

  ) between cedars and this board, but i do not think that his efforts with the uk charity office should be unassisted.. he is asking for brit ex-dubs who have been impacted by shunning.. https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/3t7pac/help_needed_shunning_experiences_from_uk_exjws/.

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  berrygerry

  I do not know the background of the tiff (is there one?) between Cedars and this board, but I do not think that his efforts with the UK Charity Office should be unassisted.

  He is asking for Brit ex-Dubs who have been impacted by shunning.

  https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/3t7pac/help_needed_shunning_experiences_from_uk_exjws/
  
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

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  berrygerry

  Once attained, profits take over and a hard look is taken at price increases,

  Yes, but your customers need to be employed and have disposable income.
  
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  13

  Question time

  by Sabin in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  with all the evidence stacked against them on child abuse issues, why do you think they are still refusing to play ball with the authorities?

  why not put their hands up & say "we got a problem, we need help to change our medieval policies, we need advise on how to conduct our affairs in away that is in the victims best interests".. do you think that it is blatant, selfish pride.

  the risk of losing money & struggling as a consequence, or they truly believe that jehovah is protecting them & by admitting they have acted in this inconceivable way would bring reproach on his name?.

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  berrygerry

  WTS has developed the worst imaginable case of "god-complex."

  They are arrogant, and absolutely accountable to no man.

  One of Canada's most interesting personalities had similar bombastic arrogance, Conrad Black.

  When his hand was caught in the cookie jar, his former company simply wanted seven million.

  Instead, he gave them an FU, and lost exceedingly more in cash, prison time, and his life of privilege.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/business/14react.html
  

  WTS echelon act no less entitled.
  
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  29

  2015 Worldwide Memorial Attendance: Another Sign of Decline

  by steve2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jw memorial attendance last year - 2014 - was about 50,000 shy of 20 million.

  some posters on this forum had confidently predicted before the 2014 memorial that attendance would hit more than 20 milion.

  they were wrong.. now, in 2015, and the memorial falling on a weekend night (where attendance is historically much higher), attendance has not only failed to top 20 milion but has declined by more than 87,000 in attendance over 2014:.

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  berrygerry

  But I do agree that the current numbers - likely to be published in full in the 2016 Yearbook - show the decline is happening sooner than expected.

  I still say that the US will not show growth in the 2016 YB.

  Let's not forget 20 million is still a pretty huge achievement.

  It is and it isn't.

  With the 15 minute rule completely used up, and the kiddies' baptism rate also being used up, there needs to be something to create artificial numbers.

  I SEE the Mormons out virtually every day. Given that it is ONLY Mormon elders that are out, whereas ALL Dubs are MINISTERS makes a sad comment.

  As well, that 8.2 million is PEAK pubs, which includes 15-minuters and 1 every six monthers.

  "Studies" include 3-minute "door-step" studies. What a creative joke!
  

  I heard a comment a few weeks ago that "You can smell Armageddon in the air."

  Maybe, but not Armageddon of the kings of the earth, unless those kings are in Brooklyn / Warwick.
  
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  19

  Can you prove that WT policy of shunning is unscriptual? Will soon be discussing with somebody, give me all your ammo!

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  will soon be discussing w/ somebody still in about that.

  i want to make sure i am not missing anything good.

  so any scriptures, articles whether wt articles or secular about effects of shunning, etc, or your arguments against how wt interprets their scriptures, etc.

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  berrygerry

  The onus is to prove that shunning IS scriptural, not the other way around.

  That having been said,

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/disfellowship-shunning.php

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/disfellowship-shunning.php#unscriptural
  

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/disfellowship-shunning.php#bible

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/disfellowship-shunning.php#history

  As JWFacts notes, shunning was condemned by WTS in 1947, but then copied RC in 1952.

  Also, in WT August 1, 1974, there was a fairly balanced article on not being fanatical shunners.

  Divine Mercy Points the Way Back for Erring Ones
  Maintaining a Balanced Viewpoint Toward Disfellowshiped Ones

  The Ray Franz' and others' "revolt" in Brooklyn led to the 1981 position that has been vigourously applied since.
  
  
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  52

  1914—The Turning Point in History - Really?

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1914the turning point in history.

  30 from the human standpoint, the world troubles and global wars foretold in the bible were far from the thinking of the pre-1914 world.

  german statesman konrad adenauer said: thoughts and pictures come to my mind, .

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  berrygerry

  1914—The Turning Point in History

  30 From the human standpoint, the world troubles and global wars foretold in the Bible were far from the thinking of the pre-1914 world. German statesman Konrad Adenauer said: “Thoughts and pictures come to my mind, . . . thoughts from the years before 1914 when there was real peace, quiet and security on this earth—a time when we didn’t know fear. . . . Security and quiet have disappeared from the lives of men since 1914.”25 People living before 1914 thought that the future “would get better and better,” reported British statesman Harold Macmillan.26 The book 1913: America Between Two Worlds notes: “Secretary of State Bryan said [in 1913] that ‘conditions promising world peace were never more favorable than now.’”27
  31 So, right up to the very brink of World War I, world leaders were forecasting an age of social progress and enlightenment.

  WTS often trots out these quotes as though the start of war in 1914 was a complete surprise to the entire world.

  PBS is running a show (produced in 2014) called S/Her Majesty's Secret Service - about MI6.

  MI6 was formed in 1909, expressly because of the rising threat of German militancy.

  Hmmm.
  
  
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  79

  So this Cute Chick at the KH ...

  by brandnew in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thought she was gonna take a pic of me on the sneak.

  im df'd...been df'd for over 19 years already.

  so she probably would have gotten away with it without anyone knowing.....except that her flash was on.

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  berrygerry

  Oh, and they like the bad boys more than they will ever admit.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDLLPW20y3U