Because they're not your real friends.
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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27
Use of first names at the KH
by Sour Grapes inhave you ever noticed that know one uses first names at the kh?
it is how are you brother jones?
how are you sister smith?
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113
New letter, re: Fully Utilizing Kingdom Hall Auditoriums
by suavojr inlet the merging begin!!!.
to all bodies of elders in the united states branch territory.
re: fully utilizing kingdom hall auditoriums.
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OneEyedJoe
I can't imagine a better place for them to do this than my (well I haven't been in months, so I guess now it's my wife's) congregation. They meet in a 2-auditorium KH with 5 congregations. When the CO comes to a congregation that normally meets on thursday, they already cram two congregations into one auditorium instead of changing the midweek meeting for the tuesday-nighters to a different night. It's a little full, and I know a number of JWs that intentionally skip those nights because it's uncomfortable, but they all fit just fine. I can easily see them dividing one congregation among the others and taking on the two congregations from a (recently remodeled) KH that's about 10 minutes away. That little shell game would leave them with 6 congregations meeting in the double auditorium hall (they were doing that at one time a few years ago) and sell off the KH that they just got finished fixing up on the congregation's dime.
Actually, if they do this right and divide up the congregations that are getting reassigned to new halls slowly and evenly distribute them among the surrounding congregations that aren't moving halls they'll even leave most of the R/F with a vague impression of growth. They'll notice that the KH is more full, but won't look around and realize that everyone's been a JW for 20-30 years and just got reassigned. Only the ones that actually have to change their routine will really notice anything, and most of them will probably think "wow this new congregation that we moved to sure is full, they must be growing quickly."
From their letter, it seems to me that they know exactly what they're trying to do - manage decline while selling it as growth. They start of talking about all the growth, but spend the entire rest of the letter talking about consolidation. I so hope they do this in my area, as my wife will likely be missing a lot more meetings if they add 20-30% more people to her congregation's roster.
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13
Were we meant to live forever?
by konceptual99 inso i believed for years that humans will one day revert to being able to live forever.
i was told the only reason we don't already is because adam and eve sinned.. if this is the case then why is nothing else in the universe capable of the same thing.
everything else has a finite lifespan.
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OneEyedJoe
Yeah, I often wondered what would happen when our sun ran out of hydrogen and consumed the earth. Perhaps we'd have the technology to leave by then, but doesn't the bible say "the earth will endure forever" or was that not true? What happens to us when our galaxy collides with andromeda? Or when the universe has expanded to the point where stars can no longer exist? Sure, that's all a long way off, but not as far off as forever. It was deeply unsatisfying to imagine that god would have to intervene periodically to keep things running.
The funny thing is that the 2nd law of thermodynamics (the same one that they love to use to "prove" that life cannot form without divine intervention - forgetting that the earth is not a closed system) proves that nothing can last forever. Eventually everything will reach a state of maximum entropy.
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OneEyedJoe
Ostensibly the brochure is to show the GB's (oops I mean Jehovah's) love for those that are inactive, but the real reason is to pigeonhole inactive people into a few categories to explain to the R/F why people are inactive. This just shores up in their mind 1. inactivity is "leaving jehovah" and 2. there is no valid reason to become inactive.
The brochure won't change anything. Actually, if anything, it'll make things worse once they try to use the brochure on someone and they don't respond - now they're inactive and ungrateful/obstinate.
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6
Why being disfellowshipped from the Jehovah's Witnesses cult is a good thing
by Finkelstein inone of the many reasons are people are free to enhance their intellectual growth through pursuing education, something the wts demeaned for very much of its existence.
education is a good thing for humanity for knowledge can and does help resolving some of the problems mankind has to endure.
new discoveries in health and medicine.
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OneEyedJoe
To be fair you can do all that without being DFed if you're careful (and maybe a bit lucky).
The only reasons for being DFed that I can think of would be to separate yourself completely from association with a morally bankrupt organization, for a sense of closure and to eliminate pesky guilt-tripping and manipulative contact from cultists.
The reasons to leave in general, on the other hand, are vast and innumerable. You can live a life of integrity, intellectual honesty, and freedom. You can give and receive true unconditional love. You can have open discussions about religion and philosophy without being careful not to step across some doctrinal line. You can live on your own terms and learn to be happy (whatever that means for you) without unnecessary feelings of guilt, fear and obligation being constantly pushed upon you.
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31
MORE PROPAGANDA FROM THE CO!!
by DATA-DOG inwell, once again my "friend" has shared their notes with me from the latest co visit.
besides the usual 1914 assertions/ world getting worse all the time/ our day is the worst of all time nonsense, the co mentioned some interesting things.
number one won't surprise you.
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OneEyedJoe
Perhaps in the future, CO visits will be broadcast from Cult Headquarters. Any problems any in the cong have, you have 5 mins in the second school to skype Cult Headquaters.
For some reason "Cult Headquarters" is cracking me up.
I think the more likely approach will be that any problems in the congregation will simply be met with instructions to suck it up and wait on the desert god to (never) fix it.
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25
All quiet on the western front
by campaign of hate inrecently it seems very quiet in jw land.. jw broadcasting has been in full swing for months now, nobody bats an eye lid at that anymore.. so the question is, what is next?
the next organisation change, the next doctrine change.
it seems like this is the quiet before the storm.. the way things are going, it's almost like they try and one up their last change, things in jw land get that bit more crazy every year.. i'm hedging my bets toward a monthly public talk broadcast straight from new york.
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OneEyedJoe
There's definitely been new light at the conventions - last year Losch even used the term "new light" when giving the bit about third heaven, then he sorta stumbled to correct himself saying "new understanding." But I guess it's always been trivial stuff intended to make people feel like there's progress being made and to have something to talk about and act all holier than thou. Like I said, not really what we're talking about here.
I definitely expect that we'll see some sort of monthly broadcast public talk...they've been making such a fuss about getting monitors and projectors into all the KHs that it seems unlikely that it's just for a yearly dog and pony show.
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12
There is no God.
by nicolaou init had been raining and i could smell the pine trees nearby.
god wasn't necessary.
the clouds cleared and the sunlight blazing from above paid out a bonus in the puddles at my feet.
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OneEyedJoe
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by one of my favorite authors - Douglas Adams
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
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25
All quiet on the western front
by campaign of hate inrecently it seems very quiet in jw land.. jw broadcasting has been in full swing for months now, nobody bats an eye lid at that anymore.. so the question is, what is next?
the next organisation change, the next doctrine change.
it seems like this is the quiet before the storm.. the way things are going, it's almost like they try and one up their last change, things in jw land get that bit more crazy every year.. i'm hedging my bets toward a monthly public talk broadcast straight from new york.
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OneEyedJoe
I still expect a "you must tithe, although we won't actually call it tithing, if you want privileges in the congregation" article some time fairly soon.
That's a tough call...I don't think they could do it. They're already having enough trouble getting men to "reach out" as it is, and I suspect that there would be at least a few that would step down if they did this. They're already milking the R/F dry, I don't think there's a whole lot more mileage there - I think their only option to increase margins is to cull the flock of the deadwood and consolidate.
Isn't there always some noo-lite at the convention? What was it this year? Though I guess saying that the number of toes on a statue isn't important or coming up with some BS new explanation for what third heaven is probably doesn't qualify for what we're looking for in this thread.
I could see them announcing inactive ones as no longer a JW, but to be honest I don't think that'll happen. If they had to go back through their records and announce all the inactive ones at once it would create quite a stir...though I guess they could just do it going forward or only for cases when they hear of an inactive person that's still associating with JWs.
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69
Thinking of Going Full Disclosure With Wife. Sorta
by freemindfade insoliciting any and all opinions.
as some of you may know, wife is full in pioneer.
my fade has gone from us fighting.
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OneEyedJoe
If you're the social one, you have a huge advantage. Just start making non-cult friends. It'll show your wife how wrong the cult is about worldly people and help her see a way out if there's already a social group outside of the cult waiting for her. Obviously it's not just that easy, but you're going to need non-cult friendships sooner or later no matter what happens.