a new letter was posted in jw.org to the elders who are under the brazilian branch:.
january 25, 2016to all bodies of eldersref .
: clap when given a readmission addear brothers:we would like to inform you about a recent adjustment.
juan:
"Not long ago it was dictated in a study article it was inappropriate for couples to hug, hold hands and otherwise to grab-ass during song and prayer."
Really? That's insane. Do you have a reference for this?
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/182453/new-light-dont-hold-hands-during-prayers?page=1&size=20
a new letter was posted in jw.org to the elders who are under the brazilian branch:.
january 25, 2016to all bodies of eldersref .
: clap when given a readmission addear brothers:we would like to inform you about a recent adjustment.
this is in response to the thread about the supposed suicide of a bethelite in 1995.. when i went to bethel i and everyone else, signed a form stating that "if we died while at bethel the wathtower bible and tract society,had the right to keep our body.".
yes, we thought it strange at the time but as a twenty years old you didn't think much about stuff like that.
besides we were never going to die anyway.
Oh...just thought of something...maybe this is it...
Property held as a cemetery is tax exempt. Maybe the WTS needs bodies to keep their cemetery property tax free.
this is in response to the thread about the supposed suicide of a bethelite in 1995.. when i went to bethel i and everyone else, signed a form stating that "if we died while at bethel the wathtower bible and tract society,had the right to keep our body.".
yes, we thought it strange at the time but as a twenty years old you didn't think much about stuff like that.
besides we were never going to die anyway.
cangie: Thank you once again, Orphan Crow...
You are most welcome, cangie.
I am still trying to figure out why the WTS would want the Bethelites' bodies. I can understand the no headstones thing - headstones cost money. But...why wouldn't Bethel want to release bodies to family instead of keeping them??? Wouldn't a burial mean that Bethel picks up the tab instead of the family? Isn't that somewhat out of character for the WTS?
this is in response to the thread about the supposed suicide of a bethelite in 1995.. when i went to bethel i and everyone else, signed a form stating that "if we died while at bethel the wathtower bible and tract society,had the right to keep our body.".
yes, we thought it strange at the time but as a twenty years old you didn't think much about stuff like that.
besides we were never going to die anyway.
For a brief history of Watchtower cemeteries
http://truthhistory.blogspot.ca/2015/02/find-grave.html
...the Society had its own burial ground at the Rosemont United Cemeteries in Ross Township, Pittsburgh. Here CTR and a few Bethel family members and Pilgrims were buried, and their names inscribed on a pyramid monument...
...shortly after the headquarters moved from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn for the second time in 1919, this cemetery was to all intents and purposes abandoned...
To replace the Pittsburgh plot, a new cemetery was created on Staten Island, New York. In 1922 the Society bought 24 acres of land in Woodrow Road, Staten Island. The area is sometimes known as Rossville and also Huguenot Park. The purpose was to build their own radio station WBBR which started broadcasting in early 1924. There was also some farming done on the land, in what was then very much a rural area.
A new graveyard was established nearby in the same street, alongside an historic landmark, the Woodrow United Methodist Church.......This small burial plot was used until at least the late 1960s....
The Woodrow Road graveyard was accessible to the general public. It was obviously the policy to have no grave markers. It is reported that today you can recognise the area belonging to the Society simply because it is the only section in the cemetery without headstones.
In the 1960s the Society purchased two properties at Wallkill, Ulster County, about 100 miles north of Brooklyn, NY, totalling a reported 1200 hectares (around 3000 acres). These became known as Watchtower Farms, and extensive printing operations were transferred to this area from the early 1970s onwards. A new graveyard was created on this property that is known as the Watchtower Farms Cemetery. It is a private cemetery on private land and is therefore not accessible to the general public.
so, i posted this thread:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5743929701957632/this-fair-description-jehovahs-witness-religion-encourages-strife-numbs-human-conscience-fills-brain.
on another forum, and as well posted it here primarily to ask a question.. an astute redditor went to the beginning of the 2004 article - .
berrygerry: I do not feel like shelling out $20. to verify if that quote is in the book or not, and the local library does not have a copy.
I found a free copy of Leary's book on archive.org
https://archive.org/details/startyourownreli00learrich
I downloaded the pdf version, did some searches, but found nothing at all to match the quote in the WT.
so, i posted this thread:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5743929701957632/this-fair-description-jehovahs-witness-religion-encourages-strife-numbs-human-conscience-fills-brain.
on another forum, and as well posted it here primarily to ask a question.. an astute redditor went to the beginning of the 2004 article - .
My guess is that "The former Methodist missionary" refers to Huston Smith.
Leary and Smith hung out together.
Huston Smith was raised Methodist.
Strange sources for Watchtower literature. Very strange.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Smith
Due to his connection with Heard and Huxley, Smith went on to meet Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), and others at the Center for Personality Research, where Leary was Research Professor. The group began experimenting with psychedelics and what Smith later called "empirical metaphysics."[7] The experience and history of the group are described in Smith's book Cleansing the Doors of Perception. During this period, Smith was also part of the Harvard Project, an attempt to raise spiritual awareness through entheogenic plants. During his tenure at Syracuse University, he was informed by leaders of the Onondaga tribe about the Native American religious traditions and practices, which resulted in an additional chapter in his book on the world's religions. In 1990 the Supreme Court ruled that the use of Peyote as a religious sacrament by Native Americans was not protected under the US Constitution. Smith took up the cause, as a noted religion scholar and, with his help in 1994, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendment, basically overturning the Supreme Court's decision.[8]
Smith is a practicing Christian who credits his faith to his missionary parents who had "instilled in me a Christianity that was able to withstand the dominating secular culture of modernity."[9]
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35388594
giordano: .....and the saddest thing is that there is no purpose to this mindless act.
We don't know what was going on in the mind of the shooter yet:
RCMP in Saskatchewan said they were called about "an active shooter" at 1 p.m. CST and said they had a suspect in custody 45 minutes later.
The suspect was arrested outside the school and a firearm was seized. Another school in the community, for elementary grades, was also put under a lockdown. Levy said the lockdown had been lifted.
Saskatchewan's air ambulance system was dispatched to La Loche, which is about 500 kilometres northwest of Prince Albert, Sask., around 1:35 p.m. CST.
"We have no idea what happened and how it happened and why it happened," Kevin Janvier, acting mayor of La Loche, said Friday afternoon. "It's something we should never hear of happening and it's happened today."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35388594
i've had a life long fascination with native americans, starting of course as a kid who watched westerns, and then learning of about their true culture and spirituality.
i have often wondered how jws in other countries, particularly the us, would interact with the indigenous people of their country.
do any americans here have any stories about witnessing to native americans?
Just gotta say...this is the best title thread ever.
:)
