Posts by SAHS

51

Bearded students on Ministry school?

by NikL in

jw
friends

so at last nights ministry school we had 2...yes that's right two that had parts and gave them with beards.. i found it interesting.

i thought the consensus was that you couldn't have any extra privileges if you wore one.. maybe the school is different?.

anyway, anybody else seen this in the u.s.?.

SAHS

“

darkspilver

”: “As recently as October 7, 1949, the new east window of Stepney Parish Church, the mother church of East London, England, was unveiled by the Earl of Athlone. The photograph of this church window, as published in "The Illustrated London News," October 1, 1949, shows a cross with a young man nailed to it, beardless and with short hair, to represent "Christ crucified, but triumphant."

Thanks - interesting

Artist was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Ray_Easton

The Church is: http://www.stdunstanstepney.com/photos-building.html

(the website wrongly says it is the West Window )

And notice also that Jesus is shown on a CROSS!

Now, a totally clean-shaven “man” on a little telephone pole, as was depicted so earnestly by “judge” Rutherford – well, that really IS ridiculous, isn’t it?

51

Bearded students on Ministry school?

by NikL in

jw
friends

so at last nights ministry school we had 2...yes that's right two that had parts and gave them with beards.. i found it interesting.

i thought the consensus was that you couldn't have any extra privileges if you wore one.. maybe the school is different?.

anyway, anybody else seen this in the u.s.?.

SAHS

I grew a big, bushy beard in the 1990s and was told that “the beard must go” if I wanted to remain on the Theocratic Ministry School. The elders said that it was “regionally determined” and that “we are ultra conservative.” (My folks had been away in Québec for a week, during which I had let my beard grow, and I decided to keep it.) It was in a rather small town.

Meanwhile, a Jamaican brother in the other congregation already had a goatee – and had already been on the ministry school for some time.

When the elders advised me that “the beard must go,” then I actually went to high-end city lawyer’s office and had them courier a very detailed opinion letter to our presiding overseer / coordinator of the body of elders, my dad, and the Canadian branch legal department!

As a result, fortunately for me, the branch office called our presiding overseer and actually told HIM off! According to my dad (a well-known and long-time elder), the Bethel told our presiding overseer to the effect that that is not how we do things. My dad informed me that I had, in effect, won my case!

The very idea that the local elders felt that they could – and should – micromanage every little detail of their congregation’s lives, right down to their dress and grooming, left a most definite and pronounced bitter taste in my mouth – which was to eventually validate and inspire my departure from the Jehovah's Witness sect (at least mentally, for now).

184

Outcome - Banned in Russia - Final

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

i just watched the live feed from the russian court room and followed the updates on the russian exjw forum.. just waiting for confirmation from other sources...but, it looks like the final (and expected) result is:.

banned.

which means that the wts property in russia now belongs to the russian state..

SAHS

“OrphanCrow”: “And practices (preaching, blood refusal, etc) will not be allowed.”

👍👍

115

Could a petition to make shunning illegal work?

by aboveusonlysky in

jw
friends

we're currently watching leah remini's series about scientology and the main thing she seems to focus on is the shunning policies of the scientology organization which let's face it are very similar to jw procedure.. i was wondering with all that's in the media recently about bullying could a petition be put together to get the goverment to consider making religiously mandated shunning illegal?

has such a thing been tried before?.

https://petition.parliament.uk/help says the following - .

SAHS

“Simon”: “So what do they care then?

A club they don't want to belong to doesn't want them as a member ...

That's where this always ends up. "I want to leave - but how dare they say I can't be a member!".”

Actually, disfellowshipped or disassociated people don’t have to care that they are no longer considered members – quite a lot of them really couldn’t care less. The problem, however, is that their close family members are severely pushed by the Watch Tower organization to completely shun them. It is, in effect, an extremist, totalitarian regime functioning within democratic countries – and operating above the law.

The thing is: Just how much “above the law” should religious sects/cults be allowed to operate? Acid-in-the-face attacks? Stoning? Shootings? Arson? I mean, just where do we – or should we – draw the line? And doesn’t such undue influence and coercion/blackmail constitute a clear and present danger to emotional and mental health? (And, of course, what about the Watch Tower’s most unique and deleterious blood issue, which has actually killed thousands of men, women, and children/babies – also a result of the intense fear of disfellowshipping?)

The real culprits are those at the very top of the Watch Tower organization; i.e., the executive doctrinal policy makers. The leadership which promotes, promulgated, and perpetuates such clearly harmful tactics are most reprehensible – and therefore liable.

115

Could a petition to make shunning illegal work?

by aboveusonlysky in

jw
friends

we're currently watching leah remini's series about scientology and the main thing she seems to focus on is the shunning policies of the scientology organization which let's face it are very similar to jw procedure.. i was wondering with all that's in the media recently about bullying could a petition be put together to get the goverment to consider making religiously mandated shunning illegal?

has such a thing been tried before?.

https://petition.parliament.uk/help says the following - .

SAHS

I agree that no one can be forced to communicate or associate with anyone else, and I agree that publicly announcing that so-and-so has effectively chosen to no longer be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses is simply and rightly stating a fact; HOWEVER, the problem is that the Watch Tower corporation has deliberately and consistently published in its enormous collection of literature the very clear and binding directives to all its membership that they absolutely must shun any who lose their standing within the organization (or else!) – regardless of any close family ties, and regardless of the very real and profound psychological and emotional damages this inevitably causes.

So, although the secular law cannot mandate fellowship among members of any group, I think that the government should carefully investigate the practices of blatant coercion within religious groups, especially considering the tax-free status demanded by such groups and the very real damages suffered by many people in the community.

Whether or not the government can, or should, enact legislation to directly adjudicate specific cases of damages suffered from a religious group’s harmful policies, the thing which is perhaps most important is the public reporting on such harmful policies and their effects on real people in the community through the media. No doubt just one minute of coverage in the general media exposing the destructive tactics of these disingenuous religious outfits would probably be of greater worth than all the petitions we can muster. That gets them where it hurts the most: their public reputation. And such negative public exposure is the worst enemy of an outfit like Jehovah’s Witnesses – because it has the greatest power to cost them dearly in the very thing they need: the numbers of new members!

15

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 4-2-17 WT Study (January 2017)(ENTRUST)

by blondie in

jw
friends

blondie’s comments you will not hear at the april 2, 2017 wt study (january 2017) (entrust).

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-january-2017/these-things-entrust-to-faithful-men/ .

excellent general website: www.jwfacts.com .

SAHS

“blonde”: “In one congregation, there were not enough younger brothers to handle accounts, sound, stage, literature, magazines, territories, hall maintenance, etc. The elders wanted to have sisters handle some of this, but the CO said absolutely not, if no brothers qualified then the elders would have to do it.”

It seems really strange and ridiculous to me that theoretically some young punk guy covered with tattoos who has been in a drug gang and been in prison but who happened to quickly move up the ranks and just recently became a ministerial servant would automatically be qualified to perform all those congregation duties simply for being male – WHEREAS, a kindly, mature, elderly sister who has a lifetime of experience with regular pioneering – or perhaps even have been know as one of the anointed remnant for many years – would automatically be disqualified simply for being female.

Indeed, in this example, the young tattooed, punk (male) ministerial servant would be seen handling the microphones or sound system, working behind the literature counter, doing the congregation accounts, etc., . . . . while the mature elderly pioneer sister (female) would probably be seen scrubbing the toilets or baking brownies for the pioneer service school.

So, evidently™, either the Watch Tower is run by a little bunch of old men making up and embellishing the rules as they go; OR, this Jehovah God isn’t really a God of justice and fairness after all!

158

Circuit Accounts Servants Confesses how the SCAM WORKS!!

by JT in

jw
friends

yes, i too have wondered how an assembly that is held in a fully paid for assembly hall, with no food service, could possibly have $10,000 in expenses.

i suppose the bethel speakers have transportation expenses - maybe $1000 or so.

as for rent on the assembly hall, well you have already paid for it once, why pay again?

SAHS

“Hecce”: “Juan: add to the profits from those huge conventions the sale of the new releases...”

Yes, new releases with per-item production costs of next to nothing (especially now with those thin little magazines, brochures, and tracts), all produced tax-free and by slave labor. And a lot of those new “releases” now are in an online, downloadable format (everything is, right from the Bibles and songbooks to their own in-house videos and animated Caleb and Sophia cartoons) – which ends up costing practically less than nothing!

19

Jehovah is sending a warning to Putin--so say jw's

by wannaexit in

jw
friends

dubs in a pro-jw forum are talking about the earthquake in kamchatka russia.

they are speculating that this is jehovah's warning to putin.

what kind of twisted logic is this?.

SAHS

“wannaexit”: “Dubs in a pro-jw forum are talking about the earthquake in Kamchatka Russia. They are speculating that this is Jehovah's warning to Putin.”

Could you please provide the direct link to this “pro-jw forum”? I was just curious to see what they wrote on that Website. Thanks.

158

Circuit Accounts Servants Confesses how the SCAM WORKS!!

by JT in

jw
friends

yes, i too have wondered how an assembly that is held in a fully paid for assembly hall, with no food service, could possibly have $10,000 in expenses.

i suppose the bethel speakers have transportation expenses - maybe $1000 or so.

as for rent on the assembly hall, well you have already paid for it once, why pay again?

SAHS

It’s amazing how many expenses they seem to come up with for a completely volunteer and tax-free organization. The amounts automatically allotted to be passed onto the Watch Tower headquarters from circuit assemblies (now “special assembly days”) sound to me more like arbitrary corporate dividends than actual “expenses.”

It kind of reminds me of how CEOs of large government companies keep conveniently voting raises for themselves (for example, Hydro-electric enterprises).

And, of course, whatever amounts the Watch Tower headquarters recommends for themselves, they know that that is what they will always end up getting, one way or another, as a phantom “expense.”

26

Follow up: the baby did not survive

by Captain Schmideo2 in

jw
friends

it was always a long shot anyway.

but, after a week of emotional pain for the mom, and extreme physical pain for a helpless infant, the baby's body finally succumbed.. all those prayers from the parents, from family, from friends, were absolutely worthless.

that is a deity for ya!

SAHS

The JW religionists have all their bases covered:

If the child dies (as has so unfortunately, often, and needlessly been the case), then it is thought to be Jehovah’s way of providing an opportunity to show faith, trust, and loyalty to Him in awaiting a resurrection while, in the meantime, supposedly being the impetus for the parents to keep preserving (enduring) in the WT religion down “to the end” so that they might (hopefully) one day be reunited with that child. (Of course, one ridiculous aspect of it is that quite often the child had to end up dying in the first place due to the WT’s extreme fundamentalist and cruel interpretation regarding blood transfusions!)

Yet, if the child is still currently living, then it is thought of as apparently being an opportunity to show Jehovah how one’s faith and comfort in Him (a.k.a. the WT) can help one to COPE with the trying situation at hand.

So, in other words: Whatever happens, trust in Jehovah (i.e., the WT) to make everything all better.