OneEyedJoe

Joined

• started 34 topics
• posted 2,930 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by OneEyedJoe

• 
  9

  priorities

  by drawcad_1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is it just me or is the focus on building projects.

  i read through the study for this weekend and all of the focus was on new building construction.

  i was waiting for them to talk about the ministry, and it was in there, but not as the main priority.. i am amazed after visiting an old congregation of mine back in new england just how few (none) of the publishers had helped out on the new headquarters.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  There's good money to be made in real estate, so of course that's top priority.
• 
  21

  Period of time from crack to avalanche

  by NeverKnew in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know, people are very different and have different levels of holds to the organization, but i'm insanely curious about how long an exposure to ttatt may marinate before culminating into an action to research further.. from your earliest memory of a planted seed due to an event, challenge from another person, accidental website hit... whatever... (the crack) to the time the ttatt became a reality, (the avalanche), how much time expired?.

  i guess we have to remember that everyone here is a success story and that for many, it may be never.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  Echoing phizzy and vidiot, I always knew there where things that weren't quite right, and for the last 15 years or so I was an atheist trying to convince myself that good existed.

  The last crack was the rehash of the overlapping doctrine early this year. The time between that and me looking online was about 3 months. Once I went online and found jwfacts, I was mentally out inside of 3 days.
• 
  5

  Did you piss on their parade? Christmas?

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when you were a jw and someone mentioned 'have a nice christmas' or 'have a nice holiday' did you just say 'thanks, enjoy it yourself' or did you piss all over their good mood and bore them to death about why you don't celebrate it?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  For most of my JW life, I usually said something intended not to stand out as unusual, while technically not saying "merry christmas" or whatever. "You too" or "back atcha" type stuff. A couple years ago, though, I just decided that it didn't matter if I wished someone a merry christmas, because I genuinely wanted them to enjoy their christmas. Same for new years or whatever. I wasn't afirming their belief system, just wishing them well in the traditional way. Of course I was careful not to do that around JWs...
• 
  40

  Governing Body new Branch letter begging for donations !

  by ToesUp in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just want the governing body to know how "happified" i am today.

  keep sending those branch letters to the congregation(s) about sending your donations in.

  not only did you humiliate the rank and file with your tony morris tight pants talk but now you are begging the same people you humiliated for money.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  I read this letter four times when it came in. I cannot for the life of me understand what they are saying. This looks like a letter that got washed through a dozen committees and ended up saying nothing.

  That's a good way of putting it. At first it reminded me of many of the emails I get at work this time of year, where they basically say 'thanks for all the hard work, we've got a big year ahead next year!' The primary difference, though, is that those emails always actually provide something of some substance. This letter, on the other hand, was just a bunch of fluff about nothing and says 'give us more money unless you're unhappy with the way god's been treating you.' The bit about giving in proportion to your blessing almost has the same attitude as AMIII in his zone visit: "Take it up with god!"

  I'm so glad that I stopped giving money to this cult years ago. Ironically, I stopped giving them money when I saw the over-the-top and unneccessary renovations that were taking place and I determined they had more money than they knew what to do with. The reality, though, was that those renovations where a symptom of the exact opposite.
• 
  40

  Governing Body new Branch letter begging for donations !

  by ToesUp in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just want the governing body to know how "happified" i am today.

  keep sending those branch letters to the congregation(s) about sending your donations in.

  not only did you humiliate the rank and file with your tony morris tight pants talk but now you are begging the same people you humiliated for money.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  There is ample evidence that Jehovah is speeding up the work.

  They keep saying this, but never actually cite any evidence.
• 
  40

  Governing Body new Branch letter begging for donations !

  by ToesUp in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just want the governing body to know how "happified" i am today.

  keep sending those branch letters to the congregation(s) about sending your donations in.

  not only did you humiliate the rank and file with your tony morris tight pants talk but now you are begging the same people you humiliated for money.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  When was this letter read? Any more details on the contents beyond it begging for more money? I haven't been to a mid-week meeting in a while (yay!) so I may have missed it if it came in recently.
• 
  32

  What's with this "no windows in kingdom halls" thing?

  by Trapped in JW land in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i hear many people on this forum say that kh's don't have windows.

  but i have never been to one that didn't have windows.

  is this only in a certain area or something?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  Kingdom halls in my area used to be built with windows - one of the older ones I've been to had windows last I was there, but that was probably 15-20 years ago, now. I haven't seen a new kingdom hall in the last 20 years that was built with windows, but that may vary depending on climate and local culture. I've often heard from the platform that it is because people sometimes would throw rocks through them. Sometimes this is mentioned in the context of "angry appostates" or "protesters." Litterally every time I've heard it, though, it follows the script below nearly verbatim:

  <discussing questions/objections people might have regarding JWs, things like "you don't believe in Jesus" etc.>
  "Some people even wonder why kingdom halls don't have windows. 'What are you doing in there that you don't want people to see?' they ask. Well there's a simple answer - we don't have anything to hide, but at one time when kingdom halls had windows there was often a problem with vandalism. Sometimes people <sometimes this is changed to appostates or something similar to fuel the persecution complex> would throw rocks through them. So, after a while, it was decided that new kingdom halls would be built without windows. We can also assure people that are meetings are open to the public, and invite them to attend."
• 
  85

  Mormons getting hollowed out: The tipping point has occurred.

  by Qcmbr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ever since mitt romney turned the spotlight on the lds church a growing tsunami of disaffection has been accelerated and brought to a head.. the lds core faithful members are leaving in increasing numbers such that growth has not simply stagnated in the west but it has actively reversed.

  to their credit the church is responding aggressively but not only is it too late, it is an impossible task.

  you can only paint sh*t so many ways.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  I think were both right new halls will be built for mutiple congregations and ownership issues but at the same time this allows for them to quietly delete congregations with out anyone knowing the numbers are down. Some one posted here that they know a co in a circuit near Seattle Wa, and he was told by this co that there lossing half a dozen people per circuit per assembly. No way to know for sure but the last few circuit assemblies I attended seemed down in numbers as well as the District assemblies. But there always changing things around so it hard to tell. Maybe that's the reason why so people won't figure out that the numbers of people attending are down.

  On the topic of anecdotal evidence for decline, I'll add my observations: The last CO visit we had, in his final talk he said what boils down to - the elders have expressed concern to me about meeting attendence, but I don't think it's a problem because your congregation has some of the best meeting attendence in the circuit. Our meeting attendence is probably 70-80% on sundays and 50-70% on the mid-week meetings. That was never passable when I was a kid (we'd get local needs talks if it dropped below 90% for sundays) in the same area so something must've changed. I think the trend is that meeting attendence is dropping everywhere and they've switched from trying to recover the ones that are leaving to trying to put on a good face so that the ones who are still there don't leave too.
• 
  85

  Mormons getting hollowed out: The tipping point has occurred.

  by Qcmbr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ever since mitt romney turned the spotlight on the lds church a growing tsunami of disaffection has been accelerated and brought to a head.. the lds core faithful members are leaving in increasing numbers such that growth has not simply stagnated in the west but it has actively reversed.

  to their credit the church is responding aggressively but not only is it too late, it is an impossible task.

  you can only paint sh*t so many ways.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  but is all about ownership

  I suspect that has a lot to do with it...just probably not in the way you meant it...
• 
  24

  CREATIVE "DAYS" - What do JWs believe?

  by Bloody Hotdogs! in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few weeks ago, i asked you to critique my website article on dinosaurs (http://www.jwbeliefs.com/what-do-jehovahs-witnesses-believe-about-dinosaurs/).

  it was pointed out that much of what i wrote depends on the creative "days" being relatively short - something i believe jws teach.. after being prompted to review my conclusions/research, i was more convinced than ever that jws promote relatively short creative days.

  the nail in the coffin was the teaching that day seven is indicative of the length of the other six days (i.e.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  Sir82 hit the nail on the head. The 7000 year "day" teaching has been quietly retired and they've backed away from it. I suspect that they didn't want to upset the oldtimers by publishing a QFR on the matter, and now they just go with "thousands of years" instead. This is clearly their trying to have it both ways. When old timers read "thousands of years" they think "7000 years." When younger or more scientifically literate JWs read that they read it as being much longer to coincide with their scientifically accurate understanding of the age of the earth/universe.

  The other thing I'd add is that even COs seem to have the idea that the 7000 year "day" is "old light." I don't know how much of it was in the outline, but I distinctly remember a couple years back a CO gave a long talk in which he talked about how Jesus had been hangin' out with Jehovah for at least 13.8 billion years since that's the age of the universe and jesus was around before that.