Bttt any video leaked yet? Trying to decide if I want to go to the meeting to see it.
I can't imagine any scenario in which it would be worth it to go to the meeting.
Bttt any video leaked yet? Trying to decide if I want to go to the meeting to see it.
I can't imagine any scenario in which it would be worth it to go to the meeting.
as hillary clinton might say, what difference does it make???.
even if god's kingdom was established in 1914, why is that such a big deal?
other than unprovable actions in heaven, what can jws say is the significance of it all...with a straight face?.
AFS - wikipedia has numbers on the mormons. One of the biggest differences between lds and jws, though, seems to be that the mormons aren't really obsessed with stats
If I remember correctly, there's roughly 15 million that identify as LDS/Mormon but only 5-6 million regularly attend mormon services. Since mormons are more family oriented (with many having only family services or setting up small groups hosted in homes) it's difficult to make a direct comparison. For your purposes, though, I'd just go with the ~15 mil number.
This makes me think of Winston Smith out of 1984 with the TV on his wall.
Just wait 'till they start having public talks by GB members played. Not to mention the tie-ins at the convention this year. Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the parallels to 1984.
i saw some jw's in my neighbourhood today from my ex kh.
they were on the ministry and happened to call at my door!!.
i calmly explained i had da'd and now went to a regular church.
Well done. As was wisely said, harboring resentment is like taking poison and hoping it kills your enemy. I envy your freedom, go live life for all those who are still trapped!
all the dubs pouring into melbourne, australia for the international convention gonna choke on their cornflakes when they read this .... http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/former-jehovahs-witness-lifts-lid-on-stifling-doomobsessed-religion/story-fni0ffsx-1227092921890.
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That's a great article, written just right. Just enough in there to stir up any doubts that an active JW might have without setting off the "appostate" alarm bells. They don't make any accusations except for the revisionist history, and most dubs know of at least one instance of that (1914). The fact that it also seems to be aimed at the general public, not active JWs, it provides yet another excuse for the doubting JW to read it - I want to see what the public is being told about us (to use in my ministry, of course!).
Plus it also makes JWism sound like miserable drudgery to the public (which, of course, it is) and will add just a little more to the public apathy towards the cult.
the jan. 1, 2015 w shows an updated printing of 52,946,000 copies each issue in 228 languages.. this is an increase of 7,002,000 copies per issue over last year, this is the biggest increase i have seen in the printing of the w per issue for any one year.
thus, including the study edition over 70 million copies of the w are now being printed each month.. .
i wonder if awake!
With just a monthly public Watchtower and monthly Awake, it now covers a distribution time that two editions of the Watchtower and Awakes used to, so it would make sense that it is far higher than the past. Add to that it is now being left in the streets on trolleys for free pick up. I couldn't find any print numbers on the study edition? That must have dropped off dramatically since it became an internal only magazine, and even more so now JWs are encouraged to download it instead.
A great point, paul. If the circulation hasn't doubled since they switched from two magazines a month to one, then it really should be interpreted as a decline.
Viva la Viva nailed it:
Agreed.
I also agree that this is definitely not to help JWs explain 1914 to others, it's to shut down any doubts that are coming up due to the fact that 100 years have gone by and not one damn thing has happened. if someone at the door asks about 1914, there's no way that they're a potential bible study...they're asking because they know a thing or two about JWs and they're trying to sow seeds of doubt. That's why the 1914 stuff is always at the very end of their indoctrination manual - for them to have any chance of convincing someone of it, they have to wait until they're already deeply invested.
Also, just because they're doing this big 1914 shebang right now, doesn't mean that they're not planning on scrapping it eventually. Right now they're doing damage control and buying time. Afterall, they can't be seen as having capitulated to the passage of time by changing/abandoning 1914 on the 100 year aniversary. Or maybe they just don't quite have the votes to change it yet. Personally I'm about 50/50 on whether they change 1914 before 2034 or a few years after. They do love to set dates, and the current GB is far enough removed from 1975 that they may well believe the lies they tell about what happened then (that some witness privately speculated that 1975 would be the end but the WTS never promoted the date). If they believe the lie that they've been forced to tell for years, then they'll probably see 2034 as valid because they're predicting it, not "some witnesses." 2034 is a long ways off, though, so I don't expect them to start pushing it for another 10-12 years. In that time a lot of things (including 1914) could change.
the public edition jan 1, 2015 is talking about a survey of praying to jesus and makes this comment:.
youth crossed out the name jesus on the survey.
and wrote god instead.. it then goes on to say no one talked to a heavenly creature that is not god without being spoken to first?.
Well they're certainly old pros at crossing out Jesus' name and writing in Jehovah.
the jan. 1, 2015 w shows an updated printing of 52,946,000 copies each issue in 228 languages.. this is an increase of 7,002,000 copies per issue over last year, this is the biggest increase i have seen in the printing of the w per issue for any one year.
thus, including the study edition over 70 million copies of the w are now being printed each month.. .
i wonder if awake!
They're probably counting downloads from jw.org. wasn't there something that said you could count it as a placement if you email someone a pdf of an entire magazine? Why wouldn't they follow their own rules when they count circulation? This cult certainly isn't above a little creative accounting.
in your experience, what would the org have to do that would cause the most people to leave?.
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If the past is the best predictor of the future, then the combination of a new round of date-setting (that will inevitably fail) and a highly visible coup of the leadership might knock a few loose. The combined failure of 1914 and the JFR's takeover reportedly knocked loose 3/4th of the bible students. The group had less momentum then, though (and was much less controling/culty) so I wouldn't expect to see the same result if it happened again. More like 5-10% loss, tops.
To knock someone out they have to be convinced that any scandal isn't the result of a "few imperfect men" but is a systemic problem. At this point the WTS has so much control over the individual JWs that most won't let them venture far enough into unsafe waters (the internet chief among them) to come across such evidence before shutting it down.