new york times 9/5/24.
" there are only two shakers left.
they've still got utopia in their sites.. "by jordan kisner.
I have always found the Shakers, Amish, Quakers, and Mennonites fascinating. I was surprised the Shaker membership had dropped to TWO seniors- no wonder I never met one in field Service.
My wife's (3rd Gen) German maternal ancestors were from a Germanic Mennonite/Lutheran group.
When I first went to Bethel, I almost expected an almost ascetic environment. I was quickly disabused of that notion after my first week of breakfast announcements of "family member" disfellowshippings. :)
new york times 9/5/24.
" there are only two shakers left.
they've still got utopia in their sites.. "by jordan kisner.
New York Times 9/5/24
" THERE ARE ONLY TWO SHAKERS LEFT. THEY'VE STILL GOT UTOPIA IN THEIR SITES.
"By Jordan Kisner
Jordan Kisner is a contributing writer for the magazine. She spent almost two years interviewing the last two members and their group of friends for this article.
The youngest Shaker in the world is 67 years old, and his name is Arnold. He lives alongside Sister June, 86, in a magnificent brick building designed to sleep about 70 — the dwelling house of the last active Shaker village in the world, at Sabbathday Lake in Maine. Together they constitute one of the longest-running utopian experiments in America.
It’s a triumph, as utopian experiments aren’t known for their durability, though the impulse — to start afresh apart from the mess of mainstream society, to reinvent society with like-minded people — has always been strong here. Out of the many that America has fostered, this is one of the most abiding. Out of the tens of thousands of Shakers who have lived out their faith in the last quarter-millennium, these two remain.
Brother Arnold Hadd and Sister June Carpenter live in an active village that is also a museum — they are inhabitants and custodians and exhibit all at once. Sabbathday Lake is a tidy, elegant configuration of buildings anchored by the brick dwelling house, constructed when the brethren numbered around 200. The Shakers maintain a small farm, with a herd of 70 sheep and four cows, and they sell herbs and teas harvested from their garden as well as furniture, beeswax candles and other “fancy goods.” Curious members of the public drive through even when Sabbathday Lake is closed to visitors, and pop out of their cars to wander up and down the dirt driveway, squinting at the Meeting House. Brother Arnold — Shakers go by their title and first name only — frequently comes out to greet people who show up, though he no longer offers tours. One weekend, two teenagers knocked on the kitchen door to ask if they could hunt turkey in the Shakers’ woods. He told them to go ahead."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/magazine/shakers-utopia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ik4.4mTp.P3Kqp4nPEf_E&smid=url-share
do jws feel this is a wise use of their donations?
does this bring honor to jehovah's name?.
9/1/24 :"new zealand abuse in care.
And some more stories about this issue in the New Zealand press: "Making Jehovah's name known" by Watchtower.
"The inquiry expressed ‘concern about the faith’s overall approach to the safety of children and young people in its care’.
The stories below include accounts of sexual abuse.
It was the early 1980s and Ms SC, then 15, was a member of the New Zealand Jehovah’s Witness community. Elders in the church – a fundamentalist Christian group, which adopts a literal interpretation of its bible and believes Armageddon is imminent – were concerned about her behaviour. She was required to attend an Elder’s home for extra religious study, led by his wife.
“I would often be at their place after school or to go on outings. In addition to one-on-one bible studies with the Elder’s wife, I would join their family regularly for their family bible study,” she recalled.
When the tuition was over, the Elder “would drive me home”, said Ms SC. Except that, “instead of going home, he took me to another area nearby where there were no houses or anything at that time. This was when the abuse took place. It happened many times over a period of four to five months. At first he touched my genitals, then he digitally penetrated me, then he had full sexual intercourse with me.”
Ms SC’s story appears as part of a 64-page case study focused on Jehovah’s Witnesses in New Zealand, part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care, tabled yesterday in parliament. The church unsuccessfully applied to the Court of Appeal at the 11th hour to halt publication of the case study pending an application to the Supreme Court to appeal an earlier ruling. The application was denied. "
do jws feel this is a wise use of their donations?
does this bring honor to jehovah's name?.
9/1/24 :"new zealand abuse in care.
If the volume of cases around the world has caused you some confusion, here is a bit more backstory that New Zealanders read.
"
Victoria waited 50 years to be believed.
The former Jehovah's Witness suffered decades of sexual and physical abuse from her father, a respected Elder in her congregation, that started from childhood through to her teens.
It wasn't until her early 20s that she attempted to tell another Elder about the abuse.
"I wasn't believed. It was because of the two-witness rule. I was asked, 'Where's your other witness?'"
The rule, based on the Jehovah's Witnesses literal translation of their Bible, says there must be two witnesses to a sin before an Elder - equivalent to a minister - can determine if there has been 'wrongdoing'."
do jws feel this is a wise use of their donations?
does this bring honor to jehovah's name?.
9/1/24 :"new zealand abuse in care.
Do JWs feel this is a wise use of their donations? Does this bring honor to Jehovah's name?
9/1/24 :"New Zealand Abuse in Care
"The Jehovah's Witnesses must pay $48,000 in court costs to the Crown for a string of failed cases brought against the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
The Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses Australasia sought a judicial review in 2023 in a bid to get out of being part of the inquiry.
The legal action was launched after three years of legal wrangling with the inquiry behind the scenes to avoid its scrutiny.
The bid was declined and the faith appealed the decision, but in April the Court of Appeal dismissed its argument.
The church has agreed to pay $32,321 in court costs to the Crown for the high court judicial review and $13,212 for the claim made to the Court of Appeal, according to Crown Law documents released to RNZ under the Official Information Act.
The faith has since applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, but a decision on this has not yet been made.
In June, the church tried - and failed - to get an advance copy of the inquiry's final report into the faith after filing an urgent claim at the High Court in Auckland.
It has agreed to pay the Crown $2629 in court costs for that action.
Just days before the final report was due to be released publicly, the faith made an unsuccessful last ditch-effort to block the case study in the final report about them. Crown Law said these cost were still being calculated.
The Jehovah's Witnesses was the only faith to file legal action against the Abuse in Care Inquiry.
It has taken legal action against similar inquiries that have occurred around the world, including in the United Kingdom and Australia."
since the begin of this millennium, when i became pimo on the way to pomo, i started higher education and made some promotion that lead to a higher management position.. i'm a regional manager now, acting in a management team and stakeholder manager.. in this position, we do intense feedback, coaching trajects et cetera, that goes under the waterline.
a issue i have to deal with is distrust.
i made an analyse of myself and found out that i don't trust the intentions of many of my stakeholders.. i want to do something about this, to become a better person and making further progression.. could it be jw upbringing related?
Trusting or Gullible? Hard to differentiate. :)
For the first 40 years of my life MOST poor decisions on my part were from being TOO trustful. I tended to believe most people. Including Employers, the government, Watchtower and JW Elders. lol.
I like Ronald Regans use of the common Russian saying. "Trust but verify". "Trust, but verify (Russian: доверяй, но проверяй, romanized: doveryay, no proveryay, IPA: [dəvʲɪˈrʲæj no prəvʲɪˈrʲæj]) is a Russian proverb, which rhymes in Russian. The phrase became internationally known in English after Suzanne Massie, a scholar of Russian history, taught it to Ronald Reagan, then president of the United States, who used it on several occasions in the context of nuclear disarmament discussions with the Soviet Union."
rev18:23 '....you deceived the nations with your sorceries'.. the interlinear for sorceries reads pharmakeia.. bible hub has some interesting definitions, i'll try to share screenshots below.
the gist of it is that sorcery involves drugs/medicines/poisons, with or without spells, sorcery is not the same as witchcraft or divination, or white/black magic.
i have long wondered about the connection between the medical/pharmaceutical industry's symbol of the serpent wrapped around a pole/stake, and the use of the word pharmaceuticals/pharmacy.. considering the common use of fluoride in public drinking water, nsaids with side effects such as depression, brain fog, dizziness, and opioids, mrna gene therapy, vaccines and so on, i wonder am i going mad, are these all coincidences??
Healing plants? What about the "Tree of Life" in Eden? Or the Prophecy in Revelation the 7th day Adventists featured? Rev. 22. [2] In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
Opium Poppy was prized since ancient times. Alexander the Great used it for his armies. It not only stops pain, it also stops dehydrating and dying from uncontrolled diarrhea common from polluted water in ancient times. Common in medicine cabinets around the world until modern times.
rev18:23 '....you deceived the nations with your sorceries'.. the interlinear for sorceries reads pharmakeia.. bible hub has some interesting definitions, i'll try to share screenshots below.
the gist of it is that sorcery involves drugs/medicines/poisons, with or without spells, sorcery is not the same as witchcraft or divination, or white/black magic.
i have long wondered about the connection between the medical/pharmaceutical industry's symbol of the serpent wrapped around a pole/stake, and the use of the word pharmaceuticals/pharmacy.. considering the common use of fluoride in public drinking water, nsaids with side effects such as depression, brain fog, dizziness, and opioids, mrna gene therapy, vaccines and so on, i wonder am i going mad, are these all coincidences??
The Snake on a pole symbol? Caduceus? Very Ancient origin "Pagan", yet the Jews used it.
"oldest imagery of the caduceus is rooted in Mesopotamia with the Sumerian god Ningishzida; his symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 BC to 3000 BC."
"The caduceus (☤; /kəˈdjuːʃəs, -siəs/; Latin: cādūceus, from Greek: κηρύκειον kērū́keion "herald's wand, or staff")[b] is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris, the messenger of Hera. The short staff is entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods."
apparently, the downsizing is still happening and from what i read those let go are over 50!.
sad because these people expected to be lifers.
now they have to make their way in the world at an advanced age with no education or desirable skill!..
When I was at Bethel, I was in my early twenties and had been self supporting for a few years. I was ASTOUNDED when middle-aged men who were Bethel Elders asked me about How to write a resume', what it is like working at a "worldly" company, how much do apartments cost, what jobs pay what. So many Bethelites were clueless from working in a cloistered environment.
I really feel for the Bethelites being laid off late in life, BUT, they are aware of Watchtower's history of failed prophecies and broken promises and they dedicated their entire lives to it. It is kind of like getting lung cancer in your 50s, and 60s after working in the research area of a large Tobacco corporation. A bitter pill, but one you took willingly.
After 60 years in the borg, I am primarily angry with MYSELF.
the bible is full of stories of god intervening on behalf of those that had trust and faith in him.
he rescues his people from various battles, trials and challenges from their enemies.
the rescued individuals or communities are quick to offer praise and gratitude to god for his mighty acts on their behalf.. the story of the israelites’ exodus from egypt and the parting of the red sea is a prime example of god’s powerful deliverance in the bible.
Well....if we use Watchtower's TWO witness rule...most of the Bible stories never happened.
Moses wrote about how God spoke and made promises to Abraham...that only Abraham heard. Three major religions are based on this hearsay.
