been lurking here for yyyyyeeeeears, but was too busy with school, jw life and other interests.
now that i'm done with education for the time being anyway, plus the jw life is under pretty good control, i can spend some time and throw my views here and there in some attractive topics.. born-in, and deeply indoctrinated, but with life experience came better comprehension of my lot in life and have come to accept that, just like the family one is born into, jws are my family, friends, my ultimate and overall identity.
a jw is what i am; like the song 'hotel california', and like so many on this board, check out anytime you'd like but one could never leave.. remember like it was yesterday the failed 'the wolf is coming' calls of 1975, mid-80s, late 90's, y2k, 2004 or so, and same will be with the latest effort to get people overly excited about 'the end'.
It seems that the Borg can be ok if everything goes smoothly. Can be good friends and social network. If someone in your family needs blood or gets dfed then it's awful. That's a big risk to take for anyone with kids. I agree with Paul. I think that they are going to have to become more main stream in the future.
Of course it's not the "truth". But neither is any other religion either.
so i was just thinking about my days at wtf and driving out for book study when it dawned on me.. bethelites are given a stipend for travel based on nyc public transportation.
depending on how you pay let's just call it a $5.00 round trip.. if you drive your care you're also reimbursed for mileage at the standard irs rate.
let's round that down to .50 per mile.. if four bethelites get in a car and drive an average of 30 miles to the (former) bookstudy the society is spending 4x$5.00 for the stipend plus and additional $30.00 for mileage.
That could def be part of it. I always assumed it was more of a liability issue. If an elder has book study at his house and ends up molesting some kids there the org could def get blamed for it.
here we go again!.
just to keep the flock busy, yet another pointless tract campaign starts in our part of the world..... invite people to a convention 2,500 kms away!.
seriously stoopid...... .
we already had that one here. Do you know if there are any other campaigns scheduled for this year?
i received some statistics from a friend in bethel in brooklyn.. here are the numbers:.
jw.org:840 million visits1 billion publication files downloaded150 million videos watched/downloadedwebsite available now in 540 languagespublication available in 700 language for downloadover 100,000 online bible study requests availablenew caleb/sofia video will be available from 1 september (topic: caleb & sofia's visit to bethel) .
pioneers: 167,000 vs 2010 no of pioneers: 132,000 - increase of 6.1%p.a.
Da.furious
your Caleb video info was dead on. Please keep us posted if you have any other snipits from your bethel friend.
as we all know, the org now wants everyone to count the number of flimsy, one page tracts on every monthly report from now on.... so, what is the general buzz around the traps about how many the average witness is reported to have placed?.
(yes, it is a seriously stupid thing designed to keep the flock busy and also designed to measure their 'spirituality').
i need to fudge my report, and i havent got the foggiest clue what sort of numbers each witness has on average 'placed'......
If u were pioneering then I would say 45-60 is adequate.
it seems to me like certain people actually benefit from joining the religion.
primarily i'm thinking of ones with drug problems who are only able to quit because they are working towards baptism.
another example would be those who are always getting in fights or who have a big ego, and who learn to be pacifistic and humble as a witness.
I agree with the OP. I wish that I didn't. But I do. For some people there life is better as a witness than it would be otherwise.
I.E. I know a young deaf man who became a dub. He now has tons of friends and is getting married to a girl from a really good witness family. They fully accept him as part of theIr family.
Its still a cult. But for some, life in might be better than life out.
i haven't really been on here in like, a year.
my stbx introduced me to this site and then a whole buch of life happened and i just sort of never had time for forums.
but here i am at 3am, another sleepless night, and i feel like i am simply lost.
I really wish I had something brilliant to say...
but I'm not all that clever...
I really hope that you get everything worked out. A tumultuos home life is bad for the spirit. I am pulling for you and your kids!
hi, i am also a practicing jehovah's witness and very proud of it,to say the very-very least..!
i am a middle-aged man with many decades of being a witness of jehovah god in england.. this important letter is personally to you, just as many of the bible's 88 letters are to be taken personal by you the reader.
i am writing to you to urge you to take stock of your life, think what your future holds for you.
Sheeshhhhh!!! Why so long. Can't jehovah be a little more concise? I lost attention after about 40 lines.
i struggled as a jw to accept that the good news of the kingdom was ever going to be preached in all the inhabited world by jws, as there were many parts of the world with few to no jws.
there are not enough to cover the 3 billion plus people in asia to allow everyone to get a chance to hear the message.
it also was offensive to me that jehovah would kill those billions that had never had a chance to accept the watchtower message.
Interesting OP. I have definitly been hearing rumblings of this at the Kingdom Hall. I am very anxious to hear what is said at the annual meeting and branch visit this year.
on coftys thread about his former pastor trying to re-convert him, which is very long but a tremendous discussion of the problem of evil, a poster, sunny23, wrote :.
" having been 7 months since i first posted on the first page of this topic i have just read those posts and acknowledged a huge transfromation in myself for the better."..
i was only thinking the other day how, as i discovered this site and ttatt, i really changed as a person in so many ways, and i think mainly for the better.. i have been "born again" !!.
There is no doubt that learning TTATT had a profound effect on me. It's been about 8 months for me. I feel more empathy for people (Jws and non). I also think that I appreciate kind deeds done for me more. I'm still physically in so I am sure that more drastic changes are in store after I am totally out.
Or if you believe my wife then I have just had some sort of a nervous breakdown.
