apostrate

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Posts by apostrate

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  53

  Commenting At The Meetings---Did You Enjoy It?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  was that important for you?

  most people, i believe, forced themselves to give an answer.

  i knew many elders and servants over the years being counseled because they rarely answered.. funny thing....my mom who is 88 cries if she doesn't give a comment.

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  apostrate

  howdy,

  As all of us here now know, the "meat in due season" being served has always been BALONEY!
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  53

  Commenting At The Meetings---Did You Enjoy It?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  was that important for you?

  most people, i believe, forced themselves to give an answer.

  i knew many elders and servants over the years being counseled because they rarely answered.. funny thing....my mom who is 88 cries if she doesn't give a comment.

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  apostrate

  Years ago I knew a "brother" who was relatively young, maybe in his 30's. He had some severe health problems, though. And when he answered at the WT study, you'd think he was going to give a fifteen minute talk! He seemed to have no sense of time. He was the type, as they say, ask him for the time and he will tell you how to build a watch!

  And he put his hand up to answer quite often. In fact, it was quite amusing to watch as the WT conductor would deliberately try to avoid calling on him! He would usually get called on only if no one else was raising their hand! It never failed to amuse me watching the conductor try to break in and cut him off!
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  43

  Did You Ever Get Screwed By A Jehovah's Witness?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  witnesses are supposed to be the "most honest people in the world".

  most jws i know of do not put business deals in writing.

  they simply "trust their brother".

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  apostrate

  I can't remember offhand actually being cheated by a JW. But, the memories that impact my mind the most are those when I was a teenager. I went to work for a couple of "brothers", elders in fact. They were bricklayers in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. They were absolutely the most obnoxious, filthy-mouthed, egotistical men that I have ever had the displeasure of knowing, JW or non-JW. Why did I continue working for them? Because I was a stupid, young, naive kid who didn't know any better, and didn't know "where else to turn".

  Actually, every once in a while they would hire another "brother" from some congregation who would come out on the job and be so disgusted by their behavior that they would go tell the other elders on them. Then the "brothers" I worked for would kinda tone it down for a few weeks, but their bad boy behavior would always return.

  Nowdays I'm a smart, old, wise, old man who figured out much too late that these two elders, being the successful entrepreneurs that they were, were just too important for the comgregations to take too much action against them. They contributed too much money to the Org so they got away with things the average JW would not have.
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  24

  If the organization is all about money.....

  by Pete Zahut in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  then why would they be so insistent about dfing people ?

  if it's money the watchtower org is after, it seems like they'd want to hold on to all the members they can.. how would you answer this logic?.

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  apostrate

  I once worked with a person who was from a 3rd world country. He told me that the people of his country lived in abject poverty while the rulers of his country lived like kings and were very wealthy. The rulers did not allow the people to become educated. Why? Educated people are hard, if not impossible to lead. I could have swore that he was talking about the Watchtower!
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  14

  Anyone Seen This

  by lambsbottom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2691254/how-jehovahs-witnesses-got-street-smart-believers-swap-infamous-doorstepping-standing-outside-train-stations-shops.html.

  it's a practice that's been the butt of jokes for decades: a pair of jehovah's witnesses turning up suited and booted on your doorstep.. but the days of the 140-year-old religious order's members trudging door-to-door in the rain could soon be numbered.. thousands have switched tactics to stand on street corners in more than a dozen cities across britain - and unusually for public preachers, they are staying almost completely silent.. leaders believe it is a better tactic in modern britain, where people do not like being approached directly and prefer browsing as if in a shop.. three years after the same tactic was introduced in new york, witnesses have been standing on pavements in at least 13 cities across britain and handing out tens of thousands of magazines.. unlike other evangelical preachers, they do not shout or call attention to themselves - instead standing in near-silence until someone approaches them.. 'i guess that's just not our style,' said mark o'malley, a spokesman for the jehovah's witnesses at their london headquarters.. 'we have used inventive approaches down the years.

  we used "sound cars" in the 1930s which would relay lectures in the street from megaphones on the roof.. 'radio was used a lot later on and our members wore placards and sandwich boards.

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  apostrate

  Street Work. Street Walkers. 'Nuff said.
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  64

  Speculation: Female Ministerial Servants coming soon

  by Londo111 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ive no source for this, just personal speculation.. * there is a good case to be made that there were female deacons (ministerial servants) in the bible.. * there is a lack of qualified brothers for basic assignments such as microphones, accounts, literature.

  in some cases, elders have had to do double duty because of a lack of ministerial servants or qualified brothers.. * women outnumber men in the organization.. * there is supposedly a surprising change coming "down the pipe".. perhaps the only difference between male and female ministerial servants is that women will still not be allowed to teach..

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  apostrate

  Women will probably never be allowed to become ministerial servants but they definitely WILL be allowed to lead the congregation in doing "The HUSTLE"!!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dqCJ6E78jM
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  40

  Who Really Profits from the WTBTS?

  by Freedom77 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  like they say in the movies, "follow the money.

  " the thought occurred to me the other day - the wt scam rakes in billions of dollars, and yeah some of that goes to operations and equipment.

  but bethelites at farm and factory get only a bare little dorm room and a monthly pittance.

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  apostrate

  About 20 years ago I worked at a major printshop chain. The owner told us at a meeting one time that, not only his company but any company, whether it is a printshop or some other industry, is doing very, very good if it makes a profit of 5 cents on the dollar. I recently checked out those statistics on the internet and it still seems to hold true today.

  And what is the biggest expense that a company, any company has? Labor! You have to pay your employees! Unless of course you are the Watchtower. They do NOT pay their employees! Oh yeah, excuse me, I understand that some of those at Bethel get $15 a MONTH! Wow! Must be quite a burden! Don't spend it all in one place.

  And the employees of the WT are considered volunteers (volunteers who are repeatedly told that they will DIE at the hands of Jehovah God if they do not become slaves to the organization). They pay the org for their work materials (magazines, books, etc) in the form of DONATIONS. Then they go out and "place" the literature and still give whatever money they receive to the org. Actually, as I write this, it seems that I'm describing the relationship between a prostitute and her pimp!

  The JW's pay for their own gas, their own transportation, EVERYTHING! The Society is not out any money at all!!! Even repairs done to the Kingdom Halls are done through volunteers, usually.

  I would imagine that if the truth be known (pun intended) WT is making in excess of 100% profit.

  Any money that the Society is out, for anything, is only money that they have taken in from the sheep!

  What they are doing with all that money is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if they are buying popcorn with it! Their manner of obtaining their money is a crime!
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  37

  How many things did you toss out in the name of Jehoover

  by love2Bworldly in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i had a flash back yesterday.

  my non jw husband and i went to disneyland and bought my young daughter a set of 7 dwarf toys.

  after a few months i felt guilty and threw them away, thinking they were demonized.

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  apostrate

  While I actually saw this type of thing happen several times, I will only talk about one particular experience I witnessed while living in Northern California. The Circuit Servant, who typically came around a couple of times a year, was a real pompous, obnoxious type. This was back around 1979. Once when he came around he let it be known in no uncertain terms that mustaches, just like beards, was not acceptable in Jehovahs Congregation!!

  I didn't sport a mustache but several of the "brothers" did. And by the end of the week, when the CS had left, sure enough, ALL these "brothers" had shaved off their mustaches. A lot of comments circulated about how different Brother So-And-So looked without his mustache! (Usually, by the tone of their voice, you could tell that what they really were trying to say was, Brother So-And-So looks so much better with his mustache!)

  Well, within about 6 to 8 weeks, they pretty much had all grown their mustaches back.

  Next time the CS came around, apparently the whole "Mustache-Gate" incident had been pretty much forgotten!
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  8

  I don't call this progress...

  by MidwichCuckoo in

  1. social
  2. current

  ...where communication/information has progressed vastly, the jw r&f have, in well over 100 years, progressed from sandwich boards to..errr..modernised sandwich boards as their up-to-date means of communicating.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2691254/how-jehovahs-witnesses-got-street-smart-believers-swap-infamous-doorstepping-standing-outside-train-stations-shops.html.

  comments are open at bottom of page folks!.

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  apostrate

  Yes, some missionaries have changed their tactics. But Jehovah’s Witnesses still heed the Founder of Christianity , Jesus Christ, who did not wait for people to come to him and who commanded: “Go therefore and make disciples. ”—Matt. 28:19.

  Yes, Jesus did command his followers to "Go therefore and make disciples". But notice that he did not say, "Go therefore and sell magazines and books!"

  Even if every Jehovahs Witness gave away every piece of literature, headquarters still makes billions because every Jehovahs Witness must donate (pay) for all literature that they obtain. And the Society makes it painfully clear by planting the notion in their mind at the Service meetings that the rule of thumb is to see what a book (or magazine) of similar size goes for at your local bookstore (Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc).

  It costs them pennies to produce this literature and they place (sell) it for dollars!!

  And what happens to the literature that the JW obtain (buy) but aren't able to place (sell)? They take it back to the Kingdom Hall and get their money back, right? Ha, ha, ha, ha, RIGHT!!

  On top of this, every JW pays for his own gasoline and transportation to go out and sell this stuff. Headquarters has no expense!! They don't pay their labor or anything!

  And as for the JW's being volunteers, these people are told time and time again, if they don't go out and sell this stuff, they will be destroyed at Armegeddon! (I believe the word here is coercion).

  Headquarters makes out like a bandit!! (Well, after all, that IS what they are!!)
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  27

  Demons - Possession - Dreams & Witnesses

  by objectivetruth in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i would like to get some opinions from you all.. .

  have you known a lot of witnesses that have dealt with demon issues?

  have you personally dealt with problems with demons?

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  apostrate

  Objectivetruth,

  You ask what I attribute that brothers experience to. This may sound weird but, I believe that many JW's want to fit in with the crowd, the group dynamics, and they will attribute to "demons" that which is pretty normal, mundane experiences.

  My friend who is still "in the truth", swears that the house that he was raised in with his sisters and aunt and uncle, was demonized and that he saw demon activity in the house. When I talked to his uncle, who is not in the "truth" and never was, he told me that it was all nonsense, no such things ever happened.

  At one time, when I was a teenager, we began hearing a "hoo-hoo" sound off and on over a period of time. It sounded a lot like an owl, but there were no owls anywhere near where we lived. Of course my mom immediately declared it was a demon. Probably brought in by ME! I had just recently bought a new "WHO" album, Quadrophenia of I remember correctly. (hoo-hoo, The WHO).

  Well, after a few days we found the demon. It was my brothers spider monkey. We never knew a monkey could sound so much like an owl!

  And then there were just dozens, if not hundreds of stories that I heard from the brothers and sisters about the same things we hear so often, you know, trinkets bought at garage sales, second hand stores, etc. You know, "Something weird happened, must've been that knick-knack I bought at Goodwill", etc.

  It just always seemed to me that ALL Witnesses just WANT to have their own DEMON story. They don't feel complete without one!