Posts by OneEyedJoe

32

2014 Watchtower Publisher Statistics

by jwfacts in

the 2014 grand totals page has been released onto facebook.. .

.

i have started updating the statistics and graphs at jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php, and will release highlights as i work through it during the rest of the day..

OneEyedJoe

I'm curious about what warrants these additional congregations in the first place. With 275,581 baptized, this amounts to an average of 2.38 additional publishers per congregation (using the 2014 number of congregations, or 2.42 using the 2013 number of congregations). This certainly isn't enough to warrant all these new congregations. It's not as if large numbers of people are being converted in a local area to the point where new congregations are being formed purely out of new converts.

Looking at it another way, it makes a little more sense:

dividing the newly baptized into the newly formed congregations gives us 173 new cultists in each new congregation. Of course, the effective growth would have to take in account the number that stopped publishing to get the true net growth. Once you do that, you're down to about 106 new ones per new congregation, which is a pretty typical congregation size.

One thing that's for sure - the big J definitely isn't "speeding up the work" and the need for new KHs has dropped significantly in the past couple years. This stands in direct contrast to all the cult's raving on about how many new KHs are needed in order to drive up donations.

20

Is child abuse becoming the 'Benghazi' of exJW's?

by Simon in

i've been noticing a trend recently that seems to becoming prevalent in posts which i think is a little sad and counter productive where, whatever the topic is actually about, someone will be keen to remind everyone about child abuse issues within the wts.. any sort of abuse, especially that of children, is a very serious issue but i'm not sure it's prevention is necessarily best-served by brining it up at every opportunity.

it ends up looking a little like the republican party's obsession with benghazi where they harp on about it to such an extent that people have become blind to it and it almost becomes a punchline.

people become less and less convinced of the claims because they hear them too often.. trying to turn any discussion into including comments on it, however well-intentioned, starts to look misguided at some point.

OneEyedJoe

100% agree. When I was first dipping my toes into the water here, before I found jwfacts the apostate community seemed somewhat obsessed with the child abuse issue. Of course, i had been inoculated by the cult against things like that with the 'imperfect men' excuse. As Simon pointed out, mentioning it in small, out of context, doses like that makes people more prepared for the full information and actually does the topic a disservice. Much like a vaccine, you get used to everyone harping on child abuse so if you ever come across the full information to realize that it's a systemic problem, you're more likely to dismiss it.

If we limit the child abuse discussion to topics that present the full story, people stumbling upon it are more likely to see it as a credible, systemic problem. That can only happen, though, if all the information is presented, otherwise the 'imperfect men' excuse covers everything nicely, perhaps with a touch of persecution complex.

This has been on my mind for a while, but I didn't know how it would be received if I brought it up. The many off-handed references here to the pedophile protecting GB or similar comments probably delayed my awakening by several months. For someone in a different situation, it could very well push them back to the cult forever.

12

Has anyone ever gotten disfellowshipped for going to University?

by SonoftheTrinity in

jehovah's witnesses claim no one is disfellowshipped for pursuing higher education.

somehow it seems there must be some halfwit sorry excuse for an elder somewhere who personally felt threatened by over educated young whippersnappers and decided to mark every nerd he could point his sweaty little finger with.

OneEyedJoe

I think they'd be hard pressed to justify DFing someone for going to college, but as is often said around here you can be DF'd for literally anything that 3 elders agree on.

The only exception that I could think of is if someone went to an overtly religious college, especially if they require that you take classes on religion, as many do. But even so, I've never heard of anyone getting DF'd for that.

14

No Mans Land.........The Void..........Whatever........

by Night Owl in

jw
friends

having a believing spouse, but no longer having any desire to go to the meetings, or service, this is what i've come to call this space i'm in, and i'm sure a few others are in this same space.. nightowl .

OneEyedJoe

Yep, your certainly not alone. There was another thread on this topic a while back - you might check it out if you, like me, find some comfort in knowing that you're not alone.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/281621/roll-call-those-us-stuck-our-spouse-whos-spouse-still

29

Could the allowance of blood fractions be curtailing the growth of the religion?

by Apognophos in

so, imagine that you're just a regular joe who's not familiar with the witnesses and is looking for the answers to life, the universe, and everything.

you hear a knock at your door.

before long, you are studying with a jehovah's witness.

OneEyedJoe

Gone and forgotten - first off, welcome!

On your view of blood - do you believe blood (as a symbol of life) to be of more importance to god than life itself?

It seems to me that upholding the sanctity of blood at the expense of life is like a man choosing to save his wedding ring at the expense of his marriage. I urge you to look into the matter prior to having another surgery - I'd hate to see this cult take another life, especially after you've already escaped.

56

2014 increase in Memorial Partakers to 14,121

by jwfacts in

i have updated the article at memorial partakers with the figures released for 2014. no surprises here, it has risen yet again, this time by 6% over last year, and is now 14,121.. .

.

OneEyedJoe

Simon - in 2007 they gave the new light that the anointed weren't sealed in 1935. So I guess they declared open season on the heavenly calling and quite a few deciced they were worthy.

32

2014 Watchtower Publisher Statistics

by jwfacts in

the 2014 grand totals page has been released onto facebook.. .

.

i have started updating the statistics and graphs at jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php, and will release highlights as i work through it during the rest of the day..

OneEyedJoe

Coalize - at least where I am, the stress that you can count it as a Bible study if you read a paragraph in whatever study brochure they're using (used to be "what does good require of us" but I think it's changed) and ask them the question. Basically if you do anything beyond throwing the latest magazines in the door and running away, you can count it as a Bible study.

11

Everlasting Life on Paradise Earth - My musings of why it cannot be true

by leaving_quietly in

actually, just one musing.. there are a number of scriptures that wtbts uses to support their doctrine of everlasting life on paradise earth.

the vast majority come from the hebrew scriptures.

using just one verse, i believe i can disprove this doctrine quite soundly.. the verse is john 6:68.. simon peter answered him: lord, whom shall we go away to?

OneEyedJoe

Yeah, I always thought it was odd that he would say that if an eternal future in paradise was the plan from the beginning, as the doctrine goes.

180

Please post new forum feedback or questions here

by Simon in

well, the switchover happened - there were a couple of things i had to fix which meant the posting was disabled for longer than i planned but it's now enabled and some people have already posted.. if you have any questions about the new format or suggestions on how to improve it, please post them here.. if you are having trouble signing in or posting then you'll need to email me instead.. many thanks to everyone for their patience during the changeover !.

OneEyedJoe

I tried quoting someone and I couldnt turn it off again, I see you lot have it working so it must be me being a dumbass.

What's worked for me is to hit enter a couple times, then go back to the top and hit the quote button and paste in the quote. Once you've created the quote, you don't need to turn it off, just click down below the quote and type your comment. Maybe not a perfect solution, but easy enough.

5

Suggestions for ways to improve 'jehovahs-witness.com'

by Esse quam videri in

i am hesitant to continue on this board.

my main reasons are that not enough content is shown on the screen which means more scrolling,and there is no indication of how many views each posting receives.

this, in my opinion, is critical to keep the postings coming.

OneEyedJoe

Yeah, the views thing has been mentioned by a number of folks, and is certainly a nice-to-have feature.

Font size can be adjusted in your browser settings to suit your taste.