Posts by OneEyedJoe

42

2016 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

by wifibandit in

the 2016 yearbook is now on the official site.

pdf.

it has been added to the archive of all prior yearbooks.

OneEyedJoe

Interesting stats for the US, peak/average

2014: 1,243,387/1,186,598

2015: 1,231,867/1,195,081

So while there was just shy of a 1% increase in average publishers, there was a decrease in the peak publishers by about the same percentage. Since they like to use the peak numbers to declare the number of JWs worldwide, is it fair to say that they're declining in the US? Even the increase in average publishers roughly matches the growth rate of US population, so they're doing an awful lot of preaching to merely keep pace.

11

Generation Teaching Hall of Shame chart

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

this is a much simpler chart and replaces the old one which was getting too difficult to maintain.. direct link: http://oi68.tinypic.com/voy2qs.jpg.

.

OneEyedJoe

That's terrific. I love how they go from using words like "prove" "beyond question" and "obviously" to "apparently" and "evidently" as time ticked by. What's the matter guys? Your new light coming through on a dimmer switch these days?

26

The Pain of Coming to a Decision

by daniel-p in

jw
friends

it's been at least a couple years since i've posted anything on here, and much longer than that since when i was active.

ten years ago i first came here all in turmoil over my disillusionment of my beliefs.

i've been through lots of ups and downs since then.

OneEyedJoe

Your words are all too relatable to me right now, even though I don't have kids. It's a immensely difficult thing just to think about. Just know that the situation you're in isn't a simple one and no decision that you make here is "bad".

Wishing you all the best.

32

No Soliciting signage and JW Policy

by Oubliette in

does anyone have a copy of the boe letter directing publishers to not go into apartment complexes and/or condominium complexes with no soliciting signs?

i ask because yesterday and buttheaded jw (that obviously had no idea who i am or my past) was knocking on doors in our condo complex.

he would have had to drive past a sign which clearly states "no solicitation or material distribution.".

OneEyedJoe

I don't have the letter, but I distinctly remember that the policy is only that they don't go where there's a no trespassing sign. Because they are not selling, no soliciting signs do not apply to them. They are advised, though, that should it be indicated that a no soliciting sign is considered by the owner as applying to them, they should then excuse themselves.

Long story short, get a no trespassing sign.

56

What made you turn atheist or agnostic?

by LevelThePlayingField in

if you were a jw and are now an atheist or agnostic, what was the tipping point that made you turn to it?.

the reason i ask is i have noticed that many who leave the jw's seem to turn to atheism, versus still having some form of a faith.

have many of you given up on god first or have you had atheistic views first and then found atheism to be true.

OneEyedJoe

If I'd been honest with myself, I would've identified as atheist a decade before I left the cult. The cult mind control was the only thing that kept me believing in the possibility of a god for that long. The thing that made me atheist was just thinking and learning about the the things that are often given as reasons God is necessary. Morality, existence of life, the existence of the universe, and a meaning to life. I realized that not only is god unnecessary to explain or provide necessary answers to these things but in many ways the hypothesis of god limits us on all these topics. At that point there just wasn't any need for god in my life.

8

No One Ever Thanks Police ??

by berrygerry in

so, this week's sm has extracts from the yearbook.. the [police] chief turned to his assistant and said, in all my 32years of serving on the force, i have never heard anyonethank us for our work!.

.

in our area, people thank the police daily, never mind in 32 years..

OneEyedJoe

21

Pictures in the Watchtower

by Sour Grapes in

jw
friends

after sitting through last sunday's watchtower i got so sick of seeing the bobbing/nodding heads when talking about the pictures.

they act like god himself took the picture.

there must have been 10 comments about the group in service and the one brother was looking at his phone with a smile, which is a dead give away that he was reading something interesting.. what got me was how the older brother in the posed picture had a bible in his hand had a stern look on his face looking at the young brother.

OneEyedJoe

" They act like God himself took the picture."

Lol!

The reverence for the pictures in the watchtower is something that always bewildered me. They'd give a comment about a picture as if the act of someone drawing something or staging a photo makes the situation depicted not only real, but the only possible outcome. Picture of some jw boy being friendly with a worldly girl next to one of her holding a pregnancy test? Just goes to show you can't be nice to worldly people without having unprotected sex and someone getting pregnant. The picture showed it, so it can't go another way. Ugh. Idiots.

3

If You Dont Disassociate Yourself, Are you Still Counted in Average Publishers on Annual Report?

by truthlover in

jw
friends

for all the newbies and angry ones of the forum and other forums, is it beneficial to show your stand to indicate that numbers are dropping in the org rather than increasing?

this is to those who are in a position to do so.

i know many cannot due to family members in the org.

OneEyedJoe

You might be counted in the "peak publishers" number for the year that you went inactive, depending on when you go inactive (i.e. you'll be counted if you turn in a report for August and that was the month they had their peak, otherwise you won't be). You'll be counted partially for that year in their "average publishers" number, i.e. if you turned in time for 6 months, you'll make up 0.5 publisher. After you've stopped turning in time for a full service year, you're no longer counted in any way.

The most important thing, though, is that nothing you do is going to change how you're counted. If you disassociate, you'd still be counted for the time that you turned in that year. So as far as tacitly bolstering their statistics you have nothing to worry about.

31

Request for Research Help: WTS Views on Intersex Individuals

by Oubliette in

request for research help: .

several recent threads have gotten me started on an essay and i need some research help.

does anyone have access to anything the wt has ever published on intersex people (they might have used the now-outdated term: hermaphrodite)?

OneEyedJoe

I have not been able to find much of anything of merit that the WTBTS has published on the subject.

You could say that about practically anything.

I don't remember ever hearing anything about this myself...I wonder if they might've been smart enough not to dive into the topic.

29

Local Needs part given after Ministerial Servant left the organization

by cappytan in

jw
friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbb8rt2bem8.

some crazy cult language in this talk.. some highlights:.

18:15 - obey.

OneEyedJoe

Parts like these always left me feeling dirty. Almost felt like maybe I was in a cult. I don't think I ever heard a list of potential grievances given from the platform, but man that would've been the cherry on top for me - I could've related to a lot of those for a very long time before I actually woke up. When they tighten the grip out of fear of apostates like this, I think it ends up pushing away a lot of the fence sitters.