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.
FULANO - I'm not the one saying those things, I just gave the link to the website that does say those things. I have never been to Bethel, so I don't know first-hand. People can read it and make up their own minds.
Now fuck off, judgmental hot-headed asshole.
oh wow..... the public talk today is certainly embarrassing for witnesses!.
started (completely left field too...seemed to come out of nowhere) with condemning homosexuality, and anyone who even tolerates it.
if you like tv shows or movies with gay characters, you are "just as bad" (eg modern family tv show).
Just to throw in my 2 cents: as a gay man, when I became interested in religion again, ten years after leaving the borg, I researched for myself what the Bible had to say about "men who lie with men," etc., using worldly scholarship, Greek-English lexicons, the writings of the early Church Fathers, and so on.
I know lots of people gay and straight who are believing Christians like to argue that the Bible says nothing about homosexuality as we know it today, and have come up with all sorts of ingenious arguments about "temple prositutes" and so forth that can't be objectively proven. But I disagree. I think some folks just don't want to admit that the Bible - and therefore, God - condemns gay people point-blank, but all my research pointed the other way. I think it does, and most emphatically.
I don't want to get into the details of history and scripture, and anyone can do the same research I did. But if the patriarchal Jews and early Christians were really oh-so-accepting of adult, committed, loving, monogamous same-sex partners (and these did exist and were known in ancient Greek culture, at least) . . . where exactly is the evidence that any such persons flourished in either society? Hint: there is none, zero, zip, nada. "For such is what some of you were."
It's much simpler and more rational to simply conclude, as I did, that Moses (as putative author of the Torah) and Paul (as putative author of much of the New Testament) were simply wrong to condemn, as from the mouth of God, all homosexual acts and relationships. Just as they or whoever actually wrote in their names were wrong to subject women to men, and to condone slavery, rape of virgins captured in war, and genocide - not to mention eating shellfish and pork (yum).
If that disturbs anyone's conception of a loving God - well, consider that God if there is one is much, much bigger than the Bible, and let your thinking proceed from there.
http://gotoby.com/news/article/2245/watchtower-buys-former-faa-training-facility-in-palm-coast-for-$7025000.
watchtower buys former faa training facility in palm coast for $7,025,000the facility was owned by embry riddle and had been leased to the faa.
watchtower plans to use the facility in much the same manner as did the faa.by toby tobinadd a comment palm coast, fl june 30, 2014 watchtower, an entity ofjehovahs witnesses, purchased the former faa training facility in palm coast from embry riddle aeronautical university for $7,025,000.
“It’s not the type of business we think of often, but it’s still a business,” he said.
He's right about that!
Two hundred dorm rooms? Eight classrooms? Training facility? Sounds logical on the surface, but I smell something fishy here. More likely improve the property with free labor from the friends and flip it in a couple years for mucho profit to add to the WT investment portfolio.
Somebody above suggested nursing home, seriously? When they can easily ship old GB members or Bethelites off to regular homes and let Medicare/Medicaid foot the bill?
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.
FWIW, a little update: the page below at the "Christian Witnesses" site is pretty messy, but if you scroll down (or use the CTRL+F search feature) there's some info about the GB's luxury apartments "like high-end condos," with maid service of course, luxury cars, Rolex watches, and "green handshakes." I dunno how reliable the information is, but I figured the GB must be living very well - much better than their browbeaten, downtrodden, blue-collar slaves in Bethel and at all the Kingdom Halls around the world.
http://masonemerson.freeyellow.com/christianwitnessescom/id97.html
as the name says, i'm back for more.
i used to be fairly active on here but have been away for years and am back for more.. first, a bit about me.
i'm a 36 year old man.
Zeb: As a nurse you will see even more so people who have abused their health or ignored it and you think that these folk are oxygen thieves.
That's the most pompous, hateful, self-righteous thing I've heard in a long time. Especially coming from someone who has the effrontery to turn around and quote Jesus in the next sentence. Real JW/GB twisted & judgmental thinking there.
ok well i have updated you about the dilemma about my wife and family and more recently about the elders trying to schedule a shepherding call.. on our way back from th international convention she basically told me if i were to leave that we should go our seperate ways.. so i took a few days and thought about it.
it seems she was more mad about my waffling back and forth and going to the hall sometimes and just not making up my mind.. today i gave her a proposal- i will stop going all together unless it it an assembly or convention or memorial for her.. we will not discuss religious topics, as this is where most of our arguments have been centered around, at all.. we will support all of each others endeavors besides religious intrests.
i will talk to my family and let them know my intentions without getting into an details next month because my mother keeps calling me about it.
Sounds like a sensible, rational agreement to me, and gives you both time to think things through and adjust your expectations. Just stick to your guns and live up to your side of the bargain, maybe she might even change her thinking if she sees you are happier out of the borg. Good luck to you.
should christians drink tea?.
would you like a cup of tea?.
this seemingly innocent question has been asked countless times, and is regarded as a gesture of courtesy and hospitability in many parts of the world, in both eastern and western culture.
I'm tempted to say this is such a crock.
However, I well recall back around 1970-72, a directive came down from Brooklyn that the bulletin board was no longer to be called such - the word bulletin being derived ultimately from Papal bulls (decrees), waaaaaay back in the Middle Ages. So they said. And promptly, to avert Jehovah's displeasure, the thing was renamed the information board, which I suppose it is still called today.
So now they have their panties in a twist over freakin' tea?? I wouldn't put it past them. But it sure will upset the friends in Britain, or ought to.
this is definitely not a thing where media is paying more attention, they are definitely on the rise.
too bad the gb didn't think of foretelling that years ago haha.
i have only 2 theories, 1 is perhaps it's due to pesticides and acid rain, and if that is the case, then it will get real bad.
I'm no scientist, but here's a much simpler theory: with the increase in population in various places, too much water is being pumped out of the natural water table in order to support the population. Thus, things that have been stable for eons start caving in. Don't quote me on that, but I think I did read something to that effect a while back.
UPDATE: I didn't go looking for this but from my Google News page here's a National Geographic article under today's date with some pics and explanations. I think this is a more reliable source than any speculations you are likely to read on this board.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140724-sinkhole-pictures-photos-geology-science/
if you live in the twin cities in minnesota, come to the uu church in bloomington on sunday, july 27th.
i'm giving a presentation there about jws and about leaving, shunning, things like that.
one hour, 10:30, free on-site childcare available.. here's a link with more info.
I get the impression since I was in the borg (1970-77) there have been a couple of new songbooks. There were a couple in the old hot pink songbook that I liked, one about the Shulamite maiden (whoever she was) and another about "how pleasant to see brothers all dwell in unity." But the thought of singing those now nauseates me. The following would be highly appropriate to represent the borg, though:
Eve of Destruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwYNWYaS3bI
Bad Moon Rising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6iRNVwslM4
The In Crowd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOWO--z1S8A
I'm in with the In Crowd, I know what the In Crowd knows
Anytime of the year, dontcha hear, dressin' fine, makin' time
We breeze up and down the street, we get respect from the people we meet . . .
okay, let's do a big what-if: suppose the gb for its own unfathomable reasons suddenly got new light (tm) and decided to start appointing women elders and ministerial servants.
they would, of course, refer to the examples of junia (apostle), and priscilla and phoebe (deaconesses in wordlyspeak) in the greek scriptures; never mind what mental somersaults it would take to get them there.
stranger things have happened in wt history.. that being the case, would having women in positions of real authority make any significant difference in the congos or in the borg as a whole, and why or why not?.
Women who lead patriarchal-type organizations are simply "glove puppets" of the arrangement but give a lovely visible presence as figureheads. Think Maggie Thatcher's Velvet Glove.
steve2, with all respect your impression of Thatcher is mistaken. Far from being just a "lovely presence," she was an active, commanding leader who excercised more direct power than any American president ever has, and almost single-handedly changed the course of British history. There are any number of excellent books, articles, and video biographies online that make this clear. Whether she used her power for good or ill is still hotly debated in the UK, but to think she was a mere figurehead of any kind is to be deeply misinformed. The Russians didn't tag her "the Iron Lady" for nothing.
I don’t believe that women would really make any difference at all because they basically have the same mental abilities as men. Woman are functioning quite fine in the business and political world.
SAHS, yes it's well established that women are in fact human beings with skills and mental abilities equal to men's. So why then does anyone bother to notice how many women are in politics or business? Or whether any women are Supreme Court justices, or how many are on a jury dealing with a criminal case? No one counts blondes, brunettes, redheads, blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes, or southpaws. Are you saying women bring nothing unique at all to their positions, that women and men are interchangeable with identical points of view on all subjects? Just askin'.
