this is the scuttlebutt in one of the "bethel congregations" by us.. no details as to exactly what this "faith-testing" announcement might be.. anyone else hear any of this pre-zone visit hype?.
.
.
So far its just fluff intro and a summary of the watchtower.
I know I'm being paranoid, but todays WT seems to be making lots of hints that could be groundwork for a literal drink the koolaid type pronouncement. Also in the intro there was a full minute, maybe 2 saying not to record, or stream the program, and don't even share your notes with anyone (that's right, anyone. Not the typical "recordings should be for immediate family that can't be present" stuff that they do at conventions.
as a child, i was made to believe that i loved my mom and family and close friends but that i loved no one more than jehovah god.
did you ever really love him?.
.
So there's this all-powerful guy out there who created you with the ability to reason, but in order to get his approval you have to bypass your supposedly god-given powers of reason, opting, instead, to rely on faith. He gave you the ability to weigh the evidence before believing something, but refused to give any firm evidence to even demonstrate his mere existence. And if you don't blindly believe in him (and, what's more, spend all your free time in pursuit of his "kingdom interests") you will lose any opportunity at an afterlife.
No, I could never love that guy. That guy was a dick.
i happened to attend a session of the summer convention on sunday morning.
one thing that that struck me was how their view of paradise was that we would all be the same.
they kept talking about how nice it would be if we all spoke the same language.
I've said it a number of times here, but I often thought that for me to be happy in the jw paradise I'd pretty much have to be lobotomized. The bulk of things that make me happy would be impossible or unlikely in jw-world - Scotch, cars, computers, beef, etc, etc.
i posted here a week ago some disturbing news for congregations being consolidated in britain.
my goodness that was nothing !
a letter was read today from bethel addressed to all congregations in britain that can only be described as the biggest news for years.the main points:.
i wonder if the wts will try the sell and lease back method ?
sell the hall to a bank--pocket the dosh---then lease it back
the congregation would have to pay the rent --of course.
My instinct is to say that would be to obvious a scam - but the r/f aren't exactly known for picking up on the obvious...
We should stop giving them ideas.
i've, over the years, looked into many religions.
obviously, from those that have seen me post here, i've become an atheist simply because i couldn't find any reason to believe in god.
recently, though, over the past few months, a new change has started.
I seem to be somewhat of an oddball in this respect (though I think there were a few here that went through a similar process). I've been atheist in all but name for probably about 12 years (all my adult life). Of course I did lip service to god, sometimes I prayed but it was always more of "cover your bases" kind of way because there was always that little bit of doubt that the JWs might be right. All the while I spent much time musing on the impact of atheism on morals and on the meaning of life and the conclusion I always came to was that religion was unneccesary. But always there was that tiny bit of doubt. When I found jwfacts, and the outright lies in the creation book, it was like flicking a lightswitch. In that moment I became a full-fledged atheist and a weight was lifted from my shoulders (but a heavier one replaced it since I'm not stuck in for my wife's sake).
This seems to be a pretty common tragectory that people take upon leaving their religion - once you start thinking about things critically it's a difficult habit to lose. This appears to be especially the case among former JWs. So much of the JW religion is about mocking other religions and pointing out their flaws that it makes it very difficult to then go and join up one of those religions without being able to see them for what they are.
if you don't know, km's are now online too.
under the heading, "i cannot find him at home again!
" it mentions how a text message or email is to be counted as a return visit.
"can u text me your field service report"
I've gotten that one. The funny thing is that the elder sent it as a group text and I guess one moron doesn't understand how group texts work and he texted everyone his service report. I don't know who it was, but it was during one of the many tract campaign months and his report was: "12 hours, 15 tracts"
Clearly it was a productive month in the ministry...I mean jesus christ, we're told to leave them if no one is home, so he's hitting like 2 houses an hour, tops and that's assuming that nearly half the houses are home and refuse to take the tract!
i posted here a week ago some disturbing news for congregations being consolidated in britain.
my goodness that was nothing !
a letter was read today from bethel addressed to all congregations in britain that can only be described as the biggest news for years.the main points:.
Punk - that's a good question. Since they have a dedication ceremony for KHs, do they disfellowship them once they're sold? Could I get disfellowshiped for pulling into the parking lot of a building that was previously used as a KH?
the borg has many inconsistencies, when the topic is helping humble and honest people achieve their full potential.
consider a working man who works 40 to 60 hours a week and still manages to show up to all the meetings, participate, do all of his assigned work within the kh, but his ministry has slipped to 8 hours per month.
this same man is working hard to move up within the ranks only to get shut down without even knowing.. .
Yeah, I was once told point blank (with no option for appeal) that I was no longer going to be used to read the WT or say prayer (not that I ever wanted to even while I was indoctrinated) because I didn't comment at meetings frequently enough (my wife's lack of commenting was also brought into discussion briefly). It was indicated to me that this was something on which the entire BOE agreed.
A few months later there was a WT study that had something about elders and how they need to treat the flock with understanding. A couple elders made similar comments that if they observe something worrying like someone's not putting in as many hours in serve-us or not commenting at meetings, they wouldn't want to just pull their priveledges immediately, but they should talk to the person to see what the problem is and if there's anything that they can do to help. It was hard not to get up and walk out the fire exit. I do think that the clear hipocricy helped me get my wife a little closer to seeing the cult for what it is.
its becoming clear that the borg has plans to sell off as much property and kingdom halls as possible.
they will even make it a pain in the ass for believers to get to halls but they don't care!!!
they have seen the results of lawsuits against the catholic church in the 100 of millions of dollars.
I wonder how far they would consider unreasonable travel time to the KH?
Twenty minutes? an hour? I'd be interested to see where they draw the line.
Well, they've always liked to pepper the year book and WT with stories of people that make a 6 hour hike across swamps and rivers to make it to meetings...they'd probably just ramp up on those (and work a few into the study articles and KM) before they finalize the sell-off and make the R/F feel guilty (that's right in their wheelhouse) for complaining about an hour drive to the meetings.
i apologize for not posting all the info with hi-lights, but it's nothing you geniuses can't figure out.
i have no laptop and can't use the wife's, it's too risky.
there are two websites i checked out, just out of curiosity.
Nice. I agree that they definitely met most, or all, of the criteria that make a business ripe for rebranding.
On the shared computer front - I use Google's chrome browser, which has an "incognito mode" that leaves no trace once you close the browser window (assuming your wife isn't one to examine/interpret router logs)
