Posts by Mephis

37

Seems very easy to leave now, why do people hesitate?

by Xanthippe in

when i see people on here saying they've looked on several sites before this one, jwfacts, jwstruggle, youtube, etc., and then they make friends here, sometimes meeting up with ex-jws, it seems incredibly easy compared to leaving in 1989. .

no internet, no amazon to find ex-jw books, no facebook to link up with ex-jw groups.

still people find it so hard to leave.

Mephis

It seems to me still darned hard for people to leave. Just a lot more access to support and information as you do it now. I left mid-90s and the fundamental issues are still the same for any non-believing born-in leaving in their late teens today. Do you take the shunning (if baptised) or try to fade or keep up the masquerade? I've noticed a definite hardening on the shunning aspect over the past 20 years. The increased ability to remain in contact with people makes fading more difficult (I did a year of coming down with every sickness I could think of trying to do a fade - bit easier with once a week phonecalls). And the masquerade is one I have a lot of empathy for those who feel they need to do it because of their own circumstances.

I found my own personal choice easy to make given the options. But it's never going to be easy leaving a high control group which provides almost every social contact you have.

16

Do you think the 'Rama Singh misquote' situation is uncalled for?

by neat blue dog in

let's be honest with ourselves, even if you have an ax to grind with the wts.

i mean, the quote in question was merely a statement of what he believed to be a fact, or else he wouldn't have said it.

there was nothing in the quote (and everyone has the right to make accurate quotes under the fair use doctrine), that even remotely suggested that he was pro-creationism or anything like that.

Mephis

neat blue dog - I would agree with you, if the WT had included the rest of Singh's original piece. That it's because said people do not understand evolution and so evolution should be taught at colleges. And missing off that key part of what Singh wrote changes the meaning quite radically. Any fool can pull out sentences to make them say what they want them to say devoid of their original context. I remember being taught why not to do it as a 14 year old.

16

Do you think the 'Rama Singh misquote' situation is uncalled for?

by neat blue dog in

let's be honest with ourselves, even if you have an ax to grind with the wts.

i mean, the quote in question was merely a statement of what he believed to be a fact, or else he wouldn't have said it.

there was nothing in the quote (and everyone has the right to make accurate quotes under the fair use doctrine), that even remotely suggested that he was pro-creationism or anything like that.

Mephis

I think every instance of the WTBTS misusing quotes to twist them should be highlighted. What they wanted that quote to say is shown by what they replaced it with. Singh was being perfectly reasonable to ask for an apology. It is exceptionally bad form to do what the WTBTS did. That they did it without expressing any remorse, and have done similar things for years, shows they are either incompetent or dishonest in how they treat academic works. They are not forced to treat their material honestly, nor are they forced to apologise for treating it dishonestly, so the only thing left is publicising that this is the religious version of the National Enquirer. Caveat emptor.

10

Newton versus Watchtower quackery

by opusdei1972 in

the following is a watchtower's criticism against newton:.

down through the ages, talented scientists have indeed made surprising breakthroughs in their search for answers to puzzling questions about nature.

some, however, have also made serious errors in the process.

Mephis

They caveat their website stuff on science with calling it "true science" when they can get it to agree with their beliefs. Hardly a surprise that they're very keen to highlight the elements of scientists' work which are rejected as things move on. They confuse 'science' with 'religion'. One of them doesn't pretend to have all the answers all the time.

17

so back to thee days a week at the KH

by oppostate in

so now with the saturday viewing of videos at the kh there's pressure to be at the kh to see the gb do their thing.

this week's thing of course is beg for more money.

also they are meeting to practice singing the new songs when no new videos are out.

Mephis

@Daniel1955

The letter announcing that the tv station was going to be continued had the 'suggestion' that people start watching it together. They didn't set, I mean suggest, a day for it, but one would suspect this sort of thing will become more common.

55

Mays JW TV Broadcast/Your feedback is appreciated

by ToesUp in

jw
friends

i have a pretty good intuition but i have to admit i am going back and forth on the jw tv may broadcast.

i keep asking myself are they really in financial trouble (wishful thinking) or are they just grabbing for more money?.

i always appreciate reading everyone's thoughts and ideas on here.. let me know what you think.

Mephis

I agree with d4g's points, but do wonder whether there are deeper issues there. What triggered the restructuring to begin with? And the more recent cash grabs on kingdom hall funds hint towards a genuine current cashflow problem.

The capital projects are grandiose and obviously, in a sane business, would be carefully examined for value. Is there genuinely a need for hundreds of millions to be spent on RTOs? Or on increasing the pace of kingdom hall construction/refurbishment in a low growth area such as the USA? And where does the massive new development in Britain fit into things?

They clearly do have problems there, with many of them being a product of their own delusions.

172

May tv.jw.org program

by zophar in

jw
friends

the may broadcast on tv.jw.org.

we need money!.

http://tv.jw.org/#video/vodstudio/pub-jwb_201505_1_video.

Mephis

The Welsh language RTO cost £910k (c.$1.4m US) just for the 5 bedroomed house they bought in Snowdonia, and presumably there will be costs on top of this to make it fit for purpose. This at the same time as they're going to spend an estimated £150m (c$230m US) on a massive new facility at Chelmsford. It's an utterly bizarre use of money given the translation does not need to be done in rural NW Wales.

As Jesus was meant to have said: "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?". Clearly not for this lot.

38

ARE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY STATISTICS REALLY TRUSTWORTHY?

by TerryWalstrom in

of these, over 2,000 were admitted to concentration camps.

1,000 died in prison and concentration camps.

another 1,000 of jehovah's witnesses died in prisons and concentration camps.".

Mephis

The neutrality aspect is one where I'd trust little of what the WT self-reports. 1950 and Cold War Europe. Everyone had been an anti-Nazi or member of a resistance movement. The WT rides popular political trends just as well as everyone else. Look at how keenly they've hammered the Catholic church in the past, whilst Rutherford's political overtures get the whitewash treatment.

Just to add some more suggested figures, the best I can come up with is of c.30,000 'witnesses' in Germany, c.10,000 were at one point or another imprisoned in what was a clear attempt to eradicate the religion. Of those c.10,000, c.2,000 went to camps where c.950 died. If one wants to make a comparison, one could look to the death rates of those sent to camps for homosexuality where around 50% died.

Sources: Niermann, Die Durchsetzung politischer und politisierter Strafjustiz im Dritten Reich (Dusseldorf, 1995), 295 -305, Schmidt, 'Beabsichtige ich, die Todesstrafe zu beantragen', 105-107 and Wachsmann, Hitler's Prisons, 180-183

8

Legally can WT forcibly remove money from KH bank accounts with out the signees permission

by joe134cd in

i just wondered if the wtbts could legally remove the money from the congregation accounts with out the signees permission.

are the bank accounts deemed society property with the change of realestate ownership into the societies name.

legally could they get away with it if the situation arose , and if not how could they manipulate the situation so they could.

Mephis

In Britain, each congregation is registered as an individual charity. The trustees are typically the elders and some ministerial servants.There will typically be authorised signatories within that group who are able to access the kingdom hall bank account/s. It falls onto them to make decisions. Of course, they'd be very unlikely to kick against anything they're told to do but they don't get to pass the buck for those decisions.

139

Favorite Music Video

by WildTurkey in

.

what is your favorite music video?

after shes my cherry pie, i like foo fighters learn to fly

Mephis

Couple of mine, helps I like the songs too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPHFtKYPrE0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8