Mephis

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Posts by Mephis

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  14

  Secret disfellowshipping

  by disillusioned 2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i always thought it was ridiculous that when a person was disfellowshipped they didn't tell us why.

  everybody would speculate, but we wouldn't know the real reason.

  also i thought they were only supposed to be disfellowshipped if they weren't repentant and wouldn't stop doing the wrong thing.

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  Mephis

  I was in when they did use to say. Didn't really stop the speculation. Just fanned it really - "who with?!". To be honest, it was kind of rare in my congregation not to know why someone had been disfellowshipped - small communities and all that fun. And if you were still not sure, local needs was always enlightening after public reproof. All a bit of a farce really. It's not like the PO ever stood up and said "X has been disfellowshipped because he said he stopped with the koolaid and realised it was BS" or "We disfellowshipped Y because we just really didn't like her so decided not to believe her story after asking her inappropriate questions for several hours".
  
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  23

  Are the writers in the writing department purposely misquoting people?

  by paulmolark in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  after reading that great post about the june 1 article on science i got to thinking.

  although it is great to believe there is this huge group of guys in the jw writing department that are constantly looking to mislead us by twisting the words of scientist etc... i really think it is more likely they are google researchers that do not have the ability to grasp the thoughts that are being expressed in the scientific article they quote mine from.. i honestly believe the reason that this happens is because of the individuals they use to write these magazines.

  these are not college educated men.

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  Mephis

  They do it with the bible, so to me it's a carry over from that. Find a sentence which works, shoehorn it into the text, job done. I agree with those arguing that it is impossible for some of the misquotes not to have been done other than with the deliberate intent to deceive. There's just no way one can hack some of their misquotes without it being deliberate. It could well be a reflection of poor writing and editorial standards, an absolute incompetence which allows deception to be published, but I'd be more inclined to think that it is an organisation operating in a way which reflects its absolute contempt for those reading what it puts out. Few will fact check at the time, and even those do so against strong warnings not to do so. And everyone is aware of the penalties for speaking out about errors. One learns to let things slide into a safe blindspot.
  
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  22

  Everything seems to be changing... why not birthdays?

  by StarTrekAngel in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if we look at all doctrines, we see an overall effort to conserve unity and control.

  - assuming most birthdays, if allowed, would probably be oriented to children, then that means 40 celebrations per year.

  so all in all, this give a total potential attendance to a birthday of 30 families (120 attendance / 4 family members).

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  Mephis

  Yeah, I'm on the this is 'control' view of it too. As Crazyguy says, it forces a split from normal society. It becomes a distinguishing feature which acts as a bond between them all. A loyalty test in its own way. It also helps to reduce any sense of value in oneself - there isn't a day in the year where you are celebrated. Which is the brass tacks behind a lot of Rutherford's fulminations about eg Mother's Day taking away from worship of the great bearded sky daddy. You are worthless. Remember it. Work harder, pray harder, do more. Think you have a good point that the spending of money on a person does feed into that too - life without any luxuries is set as the standard. If one takes something like the principles behind eg Maslow's hierarchy of needs, JWs rarely meet all of them - their doctrines actively operate to prevent it. That's not an accident.
  
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  31

  German Branch visit talk Mark Sanderson (Parents; don't hinder young children to get baptized)

  by Daniel1555 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the video streaming of the german branch visit program was excrutiating 3.5 hours long.. i just went to see the last 45 min (part of mark sandersons talk).. i think sanderson is quite a sympathetic speaker and he kind of made a loving impression.. he didn't mention controversial stuff (except for one thing i will come to soon).

  he mostly talked about how to find joy, even when life is not easy, and how much the gb loves the rank and file.. one point seemed soooo important to him.

  parents and children.

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  Mephis

  Hope you don't mind Daniel1555, but I've uploaded the audio file to youtube to allow for easier sharing/listening.

  https://youtu.be/lJjWxn3HcKM
  
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  37

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

  by Xanthippe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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.

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  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.
  
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  16

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

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  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.

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  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.
  
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  16

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

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  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.

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  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.
  
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  10

  Newton versus Watchtower quackery

  by opusdei1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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.

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  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.
  
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  17

  so back to thee days a week at the KH

  by oppostate in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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.

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  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.
  
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  55

  Mays JW TV Broadcast/Your feedback is appreciated

  by ToesUp in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  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.