Mephis

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Posts by Mephis

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  211

  Where are you from?

  by BeautifulMind in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know we are all anonymous for our own personal reasons, so i understand if you would rather not say.

  but if you don't mind sharing that would be cool.

  i currently live in georgia, usa.

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  Mephis

  Originally Wales. Now Manchester, UK. Agree with Simon, wonderful city. Love living here.
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  80

  ANNOUNCEMENT CLIP ...2015 Annual meeting Sam Herd confirming what we knew a month ago about slow down and halt of worldwide construction

  by Watchtower-Free in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.

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  Mephis

  It's a longer term trend than just the new compound in the US, but it seems that has really pushed them over the edge. Wasn't there hints from one member of the GB that it was a tough call whether they did it or not?
  

  Donations seem pretty stagnant, at least on a per publisher basis, in the countries where they have to release accounts. With flatlined growth, their revenue is flat. So if they're reliant on third world growth then there has to be a cross-country subsidy to maintain what they've been doing. So would that explain it? Over-expansion, over-optimism as they come up with new ideas which stretch them too far financially without the donations ever catching up? They may not have taken enough corrective action soon enough, doing the whole Jehovah-jireh 'Armageddon will be here next year' thing, and they're now forced to make major spending cut-backs.
  
  Definitely think JeffT's point that their ability to sell land/buildings means they're still a long way off from a true financial meltdown. They have assets there to sell. They've already shown that they'll ride roughshod over local congregations to do that when they want to. They're mutating again so wouldn't surprise me to see them making even more moves to consolidate congregations in areas where either growth is absent or there's a real decline in numbers.
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  155

  Headline: "Islamic Invasion: Europe now scrambles for guns." How true is this?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a year to a year and a half ago, i would have taken this article at face value and believed it.. now, i realize this article comes from a dubious source.

  world news daily has a die-hard right-wing bias.

  so, in an effort to get real information, i'm asking my european exjw's, is this article all true?

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  Mephis

  How the hell are Muslims going to force entire communities into sharia law in Bolton?!! What nonsense. Really. Please. Stop.

  If you want a genuine concern, then it's the radicalisation of silly teenagers and how society in general, and Muslims themselves, address that. That's a real concern. Not Bolton suddenly falling under sharia law. Another would be how some interpretations of Islam don't mesh well with accepted standards and norms for Western society. But, my word, some tosh on this thread. About as coherent and logical as some of the muppets who do the English Defence League stuff.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaZCaWH96xw
  
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  105

  New Watchtower Propaganda and hate speech destroying families (Feb 2016 WT)

  by Daniel1555 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the following is a paragraph from the new february study watchtower article "learn from jehovah's loyal servants.".

  7 a conflict of loyalties may arise when a close relative is disfellowshipped.

  for example, a sister named anne [1] received a telephone call from her disfellowshipped mother.

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  Mephis

  The kicker is in the final paragraphs of the article which do the whole 'persecution' thing when shunning happens to JWs for becoming JWs. .
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  23

  If JWs Were More Tolerant Would It Help Their Money Woes?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  they don't want you bettering yourself.

  they hate college education.they applaud you if you quit full time secular work and instead, "pioneer".

  they cry that they have money problems.

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  Mephis

  They thawed on the university stuff in the mid-90s. Which is when and how I made my exit. The return to damning it was no doubt because of born-ins like me. We left. And we don't go back. And we contribute jack thereafter. So there's no winning solution for them here. They need the control to keep people inside. 2 in 3 born-ins leave in spite of being forbidden to do the higher education thing, in spite of dubs scoring bottom for education levels amongst religions in the US. The theory that people would go to university, get good jobs and still contribute seems logical, but how many would return after seeing the world outside the compound?
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  22

  November WT God's View Of War

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did anybody else read this article and just think wth?.

  sometimes god approves of war.. sometimes god doesn't approve of war.. when the israelites fought battles and won it was because god blessed them.. when they lost it was because god had not blessed them.. sometimes god fights for oppressed ones.. sometimes they must wait and have faith.. it is so clear that the bible contradicts itself on this issue and that the nation of israel had a totally different view of god than the early christians.

  it is also clear that the nation of israel was highly superstitious and would attribute every battle's outcome to the whims of a higher power.

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  Mephis

  Jehovah was with Judah, and they took possession of the mountainous region, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had war chariots with iron scythes.

  Better hope Gog doesn't read the bible or Armageddon won't go as planned.
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  80

  ANNOUNCEMENT CLIP ...2015 Annual meeting Sam Herd confirming what we knew a month ago about slow down and halt of worldwide construction

  by Watchtower-Free in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.

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  Mephis

  How stupid does he think people are?

  Very. He near enough says that the reason for reducing the number of pages for the WT and Awake is because everyone these days is too dumb to keep up with Jehovah's chariot.

  One thing which jumped out at me was the use of the word 'some'. Why only some? Why not all? What else is there? And absolutely no explanation for why costs have exceeded the money they've taken in.
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  16

  Japan closed 638 Congregations lost 6,000 Publishers in 10 years!!! WHY?

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  japan had a massive increase in publishers from 1950-1998. then in 1998 something happened and jehovah's blessing switched off!!!.

  1998 -222,912 publishers 3,802 congregations.

  2006 -217,519 publishers 3,164 congregations.

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  Mephis

  2014 was peak 215,703 and average 215,294 in 3057 congos.

  2013 was average 215,966.

  Demographics perhaps as initial converts die?
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  312

  Mass disassociation pact...

  by freemindfade in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  any takers?

  we can pick a date and pull the plug?

  lol .

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  Mephis

  I was intending to formally DA as a result of other stuff. But will hold til a date is decided, or at least see whether the idea takes off some :)
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  135

  Latest Leaked BOE letter to Elders Oct. 4th

  by Watchtower-Free in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  october 4, 2015. to all congregations.

  re: new provisions announced atannual meeting.

  dear brothers:.

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  Mephis

  He has a video up which shows the e-mail from his ISP. It looks legit, or at least unless Cedars has decided to throw away all the activism work he's done.

  Whether that will be the letter released now, who knows. But WBTS seems to have taken ownership of the one in the OP here.