OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  75

  What was your eye opening moment?

  by WasOnceBlind in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if you had to pinpoint the time or experience that finally made you open your eyes, what would it be?.

  i think for me it was the time i saw my dad shun his brother who he had not seen in decades just because he was a da'ed jw.

  i thought to my self "no way jesus would do that.

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  OneEyedJoe

  The misquotes in the creation book was the moment where everything flipped upside down for me.
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  60

  Why don’t we have a better story?

  by iconoclastic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  1. some say we are all gods, and god is omnipresent..

  2. some say: god created his children who later challenged his sovereignty, who in turn asked his eldest son: go down to the world, do not resist the wicked, but be murdered by them, the value of which will be used to atone the sins of the world..

  3. universe arose out of a big bang.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Please educate yourself on evolution. You're making yourself look silly.
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  18

  The monthly broadcast as an opportunity to wake up

  by paradisebeauty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was thinking that maybe the monthly broadcasts are a occasion for some jw's to wake up.

  before those broadcasts they probably imagined that the gobgoverning y members are some very special peopleand that you see in their behavior and words that they are "chosen".

  but now all jw's can see them for who they really are: average men, some full of themselves, some ridiculous, some just normal men with nothing special.

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  OneEyedJoe

  You forgot to mention the constant appeal for more donations. I think the new prominence of the GB will be yet another polarizing force - it will cause many to question things and it will cause many to double-down.
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  22

  baptism regional Convention

  by antes8080 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello friends during the weekend i was in the san diego regional convention and the number of baptisim was way down.. there were 51 who got baptise thats the lowest number i ever seen, the attendance was 14,000 plus .

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  OneEyedJoe

  No IC last year? Wow those numbers are abysmal then. I hope the trend continues as AMIII and Lett get more air time.
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  14

  Are they banning college again?

  by thedepressedsoul in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i wasn't alive for this but my parents and many old timers told me that at one point it was pretty much a rule that you couldn't go to college.

  some of you may remember that from that time.

  over time they relaxed that rule to that you did what you had to do in order to provide for yourself.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Yeah, as others have said, this has been back in full swing for about a decade now. I managed to get through my degree just before the ban was re-instituted. Sitting in meetings and conventions and hearing them rail on higher education was intensely uncomfortable for me - especially when they'd resort to outright lies like saying that it's of no monetary benefit (in my case it paid for itself within a year after graduation) or is only pursued out of greed (bit of kettle logic there - I thought it was of no monetary benefit?) or pride. The horror stories of debauchery were also false - it's not hard to avoid if you want to, for the most part you'll only get in trouble if you're looking for it.
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  22

  baptism regional Convention

  by antes8080 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello friends during the weekend i was in the san diego regional convention and the number of baptisim was way down.. there were 51 who got baptise thats the lowest number i ever seen, the attendance was 14,000 plus .

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  OneEyedJoe

  I'm guessing there was an IC last year in the area? I'd be willing to bet that areas that were assigned to an IC last year will see a sharp decline in baptisms this year as the trend corrects itself.
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  45

  New Thought About Active J.W.'s

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from my own observations & conversations with selected active j.w.

  's, here are my conclusions:.

  's are very rapidly falling into two distinct camps -.

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  OneEyedJoe

  oppostate -

  I think you're right, but I would argue that this larger group is very much at risk of falling into category #2. That's exactly how it went with me, anyway. The more they try to assert control and impose guilt on everyone, and the more that's asked to prove loyalty (all the while there's nothing but failed doctrine coming out of the WT) the more people will move from the apathetic group to the disillusioned group.

  
  
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  34

  There is no right and wrong

  by campaign of hate in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i am a little tangled up in this train of thought, as it can go quite deep.. as a jw, albeit fully awake, we are taught that there is right and a wrong.

  smoking is wrong.

  going on the ministry is right.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Both events led to untold suffering and death. So surely the argument of right and wrong, and good and bad is invalid?
  

  This is a bit of a leap, if you ask me. Isn't it possible that both events are deplorable, and the people that think they're good are wrong? It is true that without some supreme score keeper, morality becomes a bit subjective and arbitrary in some ways, but you can still get to a useful definition of good and bad. It may never be perfect since we can't always work out all the consequences of an action, but we can do a much better job of defining it than the god of the bible ever did.

  You might enjoy the video below. Someone posted this here a while back and I found it to be pretty well thought out.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=550nhrMNImI
  
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  11

  Another Elevated Group of J.W.'s Now?

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why are only pioneers allowed to do "metropolitan witnessing"?

  why do they need "special training" to stand like a zombie for hours, speaking only to their fellow elite?.

  even a pioneer's mother couldn't answer me!.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Cults have a hierarchy for a reason - if you put someone new or someone that's less indoctrinated/invested in a position that exposes the cult in some way then it's more likely that they're going to wake up from it. I think the cart witnessing is like that - it was always fairly apparent to me as a lowly publisher that we didn't use methods of preaching that were likely to be very productive, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Just imagine what a publisher that already thinks that a little would think after a day of watching people pass by him. This could be enough to wake someone up a little, or at least send them on a path of inquiry.

  Also, it seems that they intend to trumpet the success of the cart witnessing at conventions and such, so it's best of if only the super indoctrinated are aware of the fact that these experiences are either fabricated or by far the exception.

  Plus, as others have said, it's a reward for the pioneers and might make some strive to pioneer thinking that it will be easier now because they can just stand by a cart. The pioneers are more likely to just be thankful for the easy time and not ask questions.
  
  
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  21

  New Light on HOLIDAYS and BIRTHDAYS? (September 2015 Watchtower)

  by FusionTheism in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  watchtower-- simplified study edition, september 2015, "is your conscience a reliable guide?":.

  in ancient rome, some christians had different opinions about certain foods and celebrations.

  what advice did paul give them?

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  OneEyedJoe

  This is just the standard article about how you're guilty if you stumble someone, but if someone stumbles you it's still you're fault that you got stumbled. There's just not enough guilt for them to heap on you if you're only responsible for yourself, so they make you responsible for everyone else too.

  Then, for good measure, they tell you to make your own decision on health care, and accept responsibility for it. I guess they're a little uncomfortable being responsible for the needless death of thousands, and they're trying to convince everyone and themselves that these deaths were the personal decision of the victim and that the responsibility lies there.