A must read.
berrygerry
JoinedPosts by berrygerry
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"I'm Perfect, You're Doomed" . Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing
by stuckinarut2 inhey all,.
we have purchased a bunch of great books recently, and one of them is from author kyria abrahams called "i'm perfect, you're doomed".
i'm only 5 chapters in at this stage, but i just have to share that this is a great read!.
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berrygerry
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Griffin Assembly Hall (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) now a Megachurch
by Sanchy inmy mom, while pregnant with me, was one of thousands of jw volunteers to work on the construction of this once beautiful assembly hall in south florida circa 1984. it had a beautiful pond, waterfall, and even a resident alligator.
many remember it as well for it's huge plaster murals on the walls showing scenes of paradises.. pics as it was before (sorry for the low quality, struggled to find good pics of the auditorium as it was, if you have any good ones, do share them):.
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berrygerry
But why did the org sell it? Circuit assemblies are such good money makers.
Keep in mind that C.A.'s are only one day in length now, while the cost remains the same as a two-day C.A.
Therefore, twice as many circuits can be exploited in one building, all the while doubling the income.
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attended funeral.
by zeb into show respects for the older bro who died.. first thing i noticed.
the noise!..
jw never learn to sit and do so quietly.
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berrygerry
What i have noticed at jw funerals is no one cries. Its honestly really creepy.
A "genuine" elder passed away.
I sat at the back at his funeral, and was crying.
My friend (an elder) in the row ahead, turned and looked at me as if I were an alien.
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Not the "Faithful & Discreet Slave" after all!
by Nicholaus Kopernicus in"1 god, who long ago spoke on many occasions and in many ways to our forefathers by means of the prophets, 2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a son, whom he appointed heir of all things..." hebrews 1:1,2. the wtbts/gbojw avoid reference to this scripture.
could be due to it undermining their claim to fds status?
maybe a good reasoning point with jw's?
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berrygerry
Yeah, except the Bioble doesn't say that it's only for a select group.
WT used to reference Tyndale:
I defie the Pope and all his lawes. If God spare my life, ere many yeares I wyl cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture, than he doust.
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How do you categorise the Society - Cult or High control religion
by UnshackleTheChains ini have often seen many categorise the organisation in different ways.
some say cult, some say high control religion.
cult or high control religion?.
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berrygerry
1. Sadly, I now have a mother who outright told me that if I dissociated, she would have to remain loyal to Jehovah and shun me.
2. Unfortunately, if you want to find real psychological and sociological scientific literature, you won't find it by searching for "cults."
1. You answered your own question.
2. See link.
"Dependence on a leader
Cult leaders demand loyalty and suppress criticism. For them, power must be absolute. Authoritarianism takes precedence over anything else. They often claim that 'special' knowledge, secret ancient doctrines or divine revelation is guiding them.
But cults, because they only serve the leader, exploit and pervert that useful habit and, to establish and maintain itself, does everything possible to destroy family ties, and any other secure and conventional anchor in a person's life. This has the effect of strengthening a member's bond with the cult and its leader. From this viewpoint, the cults that promote celibacy and the cults that encourage indulgence in sexual promiscuity are seeking the same ends — the destruction of normal family life and the substitution of dependence on the cult group authority."
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Clearly, they're hunting down irregular publishers
by ILoveTTATT2 inlook 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.
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berrygerry
Aug 15, 2011 QFR - http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011609?q=peak+publishers&p=par
Peak publishers and average publishers. “Publishers” includes baptized Witnesses of Jehovah as well as unbaptized ones who qualify to be Kingdom preachers. “Peak publishers” is the highest number reporting for any one month of the service year and may include late reports that were not added to the preceding month’s report. In this way some publishers may be counted twice. However, the peak figure does not include the number of publishers who actually shared in the ministry but forgot to report. This emphasizes the importance of each publisher reporting promptly each month. “Average publishers” is the typical number of different ones reporting time in the ministry each month.
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Numbers don't lie... and these numbers are beautiful!!
by ILoveTTATT2 inthe 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????.
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berrygerry
The only place it gets close to relating it to Witnesses is in the Insight book under "Love":
One’s Love Can Cool Off. Jesus Christ, in telling his disciples of the things ahead, indicated that the love (a·gaʹpe) of many who professed belief in God would cool off.
Yup, written completely ambiguously.
Many who professed belief in God - could be "weak" JW's, "Christians" "theists," etc. etc.
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Giving money is thrilling?
by punkofnice inwatchtower study edition nov 16 pg 19. classic............................ .
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berrygerry
"and to see how such resources are used"
Actually, it would be thrilling to see how these resources are being used.
How about publishing third-party audited financial statements with full and complete disclosure?
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Clearly, they're hunting down irregular publishers
by ILoveTTATT2 inlook 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.
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berrygerry
I think that it is more a case of secretaries fudging the average numbers to not show irregular / inactive numbers.
The Peak number is the nuttiest number-generator that could only be dreamed up by David Miscaviage.
(There was a family of 12 that moved from one city to our congo in a different city. Those 12 publishers would be counted in each city in the Peak publishers for that year.)
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More congregations? One of the strategies they used to inflate the numbers in my city.
by Tempest in a Teacup ini looked at the 2017 yearbook figures this morning, and it reminded me of something which happened in my former congregation 2 years ago.
it was a tiny foreign language congregation with at most 25-30 publishers.
comes and splits a 30 member congregation into....three.
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berrygerry
"That's why I am not keen on using the number of congregations as a measure of growth or stagnation in jw organization. Worldwide - and even nationally - numbers that comprise congregations vary enormously."
I had thought similarly.
However, I added the congo numbers to the Western country spreadsheet, and they have generally dipped proportionately to the publisher dip (Canada and Britain increased - probably foreign language)
( 87 fewer total congos in the Western countries listed - 32499 in 2016, 32586 in 2015 )