OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  20

  Why the verb shun is missing from the JW lexicon

  by cognisonance in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so my parents when i confronted them about how unhappy i am at them shunning me, responded by saying: "you keep using the word shunning, we're not shunning you.

  "i am a bit confused how they can say that.

  i'm an ex-jw and an atheist.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Aha that's it! Highly significant that they begin to own this word, in my view

  Well, nevertheless the fact that they admit they in fact shun people as stated on the website, and they use this word, means that when someone says they don't shun people, you can just show them the website. This will shut them up
  

  I don't think it's so significant, given the context. JWs will do lots of mental gymnastics to deny what their own leadership has said when they know it's morally wrong. I once complained at how they demonized education and was told that they don't really mean that no one should go to school, it's just that there's a lot of people that go to school and get a useless degree, wasting their time and money, and they have to phrase things more harshly to get through to those ones. In the case of their use of the word shunning in an FAQ - I would fully expect any JW that denies shunning to say something like "well this is a FAQ for the public, so they're putting things into broad terms that the public will understand. It's not really shunning."

  The cult trains JWs to compartmentalize information (e.g. they'll tell you at the door that they're not looking to convert anyone, they just want to talk about the bible!) to the point that they'll see it when the cult is doing it and think that it's a valid approach to explaining things. Most JWs know (at least implicitly) that they lie to the public for their ends, so they'll have no problem claiming that they've lied to public when cornered.
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  23

  youngest baptised.

  by zeb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what is the youngest you have seen someone baptised?

  i recall seeing a 9 yo girl baptised..

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  OneEyedJoe

  I've seen a 7 year old get baptized. I recall COs giving talks in which they mentioned 5 and 6 year old children getting baptized. One CO himself was baptized at 6.
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  12

  John 1:3

  by Hi y-all in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  john 1:3 states in the nwt, "all things came into existence through him, and apart from him (the word, or jesus) not even one thing came into existence.".

  the wt states apart from him one thing came into existence, that is, jesus the first created being.. is there an explanation for this apparent contradiction?.

  thanks!.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Is there an explanation for this apparent contradiction?
  

  Yes. The bible is nonsense, rife with contradictions.
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  20

  Why the verb shun is missing from the JW lexicon

  by cognisonance in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so my parents when i confronted them about how unhappy i am at them shunning me, responded by saying: "you keep using the word shunning, we're not shunning you.

  "i am a bit confused how they can say that.

  i'm an ex-jw and an atheist.

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  OneEyedJoe

  If you refuse to name something, it becomes much more difficult to criticize. They know the practice doesn't stand up to scrutiny, so they never name so that any criticism of the practice is fraught with grey areas that the cult mind can retreat in to as a refuge.
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  27

  An honest question for those who were "born-in"

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  just wanted to ask a question of those who were born in as i was.. how did you feel to have been "privileged to have been born into the only true faith - the truth"?.

  did this make you feel confident, or proud - or perhaps arrogant?.

  how did you reconcile the fact that 99% of the earth's population was not born "into the truth"?.

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  OneEyedJoe

  I wasn't really aware of the coincidence of my birth until my late teens (don't get me wrong, though, I was an arrogant little cunt as a child as far as religion was concerned - so proud to "have the truth") at which point I started thinking, "If I hadn't been raised a JW, I'd definitely be an atheist." I had enough objectivity to see that JWs must look pretty wacky from the outside, but still trapped by the pressure of family (and, well, everyone I'd ever had any sort of relationship with) to not rock the boat. In retrospect, once I started letting myself think about things with any objectivity at all, my JW days were numbered.
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  33

  New "Annointed" Brother In My Old Hall...

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i've only just stopped laughing.. in my old hall there's a brother who's now claiming to be of the anointed.. he's 28.. i do wonder if he's doing this for attention, if he's awake and messing with them, or if he really is that deluded.

  when i was in he was an ms. which surprised even me because only a year earlier than that he was "a bit of a lad", is rubbish at talks and relies on his elder uncle to get him out of trouble all the time.. i guess this now means he's get his pick of jw sisters.

  he's been after the same one as the rest of his peers since 2014..

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  OneEyedJoe

  Before I left there was an 18 year old kid in my congregation that decided he was anointed. Real self-righteous little prick, that one.
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  12

  J.W. dogma refuted by their own RNWT Bible

  by The Fall Guy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  perhaps potential j.w.

  recruits can use this example on their study conductors - and then witness the cognitive dissonance at first hand.. w98 2/1 p. 11 par.

  13 – “when jehovah made his covenant, it was only with israel; those of the “vast mixed company,” although present, were not named as participants.”.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Too wordy to work on 95% of JWs, in my experience. When faced with more than a few sentences, especially about something as abstract as a covenant with modern JWs being modeled after one with isreal and figuring out who was included....what's going to happen is they won't focus enough to hold it all in their mind (they've been trained not to think, the cult does that for them) at once. Because they can't keep proper focus they just assume that the bit that they're missing is the explanation for the "apparent" contradiction, and that if you asked the right elder or GB member you'd get a very satisfactory answer indeed.
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  61

  The "circle" of the earth

  by stillin in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a fair bit of time was spent discussing the (one) scripture in the bible that "proves" that when the bible touches on scientific subjects, it is absolutely correct.

  this was at the most recent clam meeting this past week.

  from isaiah, the reference to the "circle" of the earth.

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  OneEyedJoe

  I've always taken a slightly different approach to arguing the worthlessness of this scripture (or any other) to prove that the Bible is scientifically accurate. My question is, if that scripture had instead said something like "all the nations of men lie flat before him" would they that as evidence that the Bible is scientifically inaccurate? Now, of course this relies on whomever you're questioning to have some intellectual honesty, but I strongly believe (and especially of this passage in particular) that the verse would instead suddenly be interpreted as being poetic language, and not to be read literally. The follow-up question is to ask if any verse that is not scientifically accurate can be interpreted as being figurative or poetic, is it fair to give the Bible credit for the verses that happen to align (however superficially) with an accurate understanding of science? In a book that large, you're bound to have countless statements that happen to be right, and if you unfairly ignore the failures then any book of that size will appear to be flawlessly scientifically accurate.
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  27

  September 7, 2017 Re: Donations for Disaster Relief Work

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  september 7, 2017 to all congregations in the united states branch territory re: donations for disaster relief work.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Give us your money, we won't tell you what we're doing with it, though. And for god's sake don't earmark it in any way so as to ensure that it's actually used for disaster relief.
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  23

  Do you know anything about Live Kingdom Hall?

  by Hecce in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i learned recently about this link that allows for a person to listen or watch the meetings at the kh that have contracted the service.

  you have the option to watch the meeting live or just listen.

  there will be a recording of the audio available until the next meeting.. i don't think that this is an official wt arrangement, it might be a private enterprise like the preaching materials .

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  OneEyedJoe

  This made me imagine what would surely be a terrible show on bravo: Next time, on Kingdom Hall Live! Brother Stevens makes a shocking announcement! Will brother Henderson get disfellowshipped? Has sister Meyers been secretly dating a worldly boy? It's all going to be exposed next week!

  In all likelihood it's just someone that figured they might be able to get a little cash out of the cult. If it were official it'd probably just be on JW.org. And knowing the cult's penchant for control, it'd probably be a feature that isn't even listed until you've logged in and have been approved by a local elder to use it. Also, they'd use that font that they were so proud of when they released the new bible.