OrphanCrow

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Posts by OrphanCrow

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  16

  Cults and extreme belief

  by Butyoucanneverleave in

  1. social
  2. current

  a&e has a new show this season called cults and extreme belief.

  the second episode will air on 5/29 at 9:00 pm and jehovah's witnesses will be featured.

  hopefully they do a good job exposing them for what they really are.

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  OrphanCrow

  Wakemeup: Who's the poster on here that says 'Let's review. It's a cult.'"
  That would be the illustrious @jp1692

  Actually, that would be Oubilette that used to post here. He is the original poster who coined that phrase, I believe.
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  19

  Judgment Day in Russia

  by Tahoe in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-are-having-their-homes-raided-even-remote-towns-934734.

  law enforcement officials in birobidzhan, russia, a small town close to the border with china, raided 20 homes belonging to jehovah’s witnesses, according to members of the religious organization.. the raids were conducted by around 150 police officers, who nicknamed their operation “judgement day,” jarrod lopes, a member of the jehovah’s witnesses, told newsweek.

  police confiscated photographs, bank cards, money and electronic devices from the houses they searched, said lopes.. a criminal case was opened against a man named alam aliev, who will be kept in pretrial detention until july, members of the religious group said.

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  OrphanCrow

  Carla: are calling on the international community to help them protect their right to worship freely"-
  They ask the help of the same international community that they hope is destroyed at the big A? They dare to come to satans domain for help?
  They wish to worship freely yet deny the same freedom to members who wish worship differently or not at all and to leave with intact families?

  Exactly.

  And you just gotta love it when a Christian Scientist journalist is the one to write up the org's whining for those horrible worldly people to read.
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  46

  Paranormal stuff: is it a cultural thing? Rant ahead

  by Whynot in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  paranormal stuff is common where my family is from it's almost expected.

  native american background, my great grandmother was a witch doctor a damn good one too, my non witness relatives dabble in it.

  so i have seen stuff and experienced stuff.

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  OrphanCrow

  Mental clarity:
  what was really interesting for me to discover was that there used to be a group of scholars who were doing these experiments on university campuses which would be completely impossible to do now because of changed attitudes and perceptions regarding was is considered "science"

  Parapsychology was never really accepted in the scientific community. Parapsychology never did meet the requirements of basic scientific methodology.

  Science has always been science. Nothing changes that method. Validity and reproducibility is essential to science and it is on the first requirement - validity - that parapsychology fails miserably.

  Validity means that the means of measurement is valid - in other words, does the measurement actually measure what the scientist says it does. In parapsychology, that is not possible. It never has been possible and it likely never will be. That is why parapsychology fell out of favor. It cannot claim validity and therefore cannot be science.

  Ideas about what science is hasn't changed. But people continue to try to change it to something it isn't.

  Parapsychology tried and failed the fundamental test to qualify it as science.

  By the way, the class you took sounds interesting. But it isn't science. It is anthropology.
  
  
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  46

  Paranormal stuff: is it a cultural thing? Rant ahead

  by Whynot in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  paranormal stuff is common where my family is from it's almost expected.

  native american background, my great grandmother was a witch doctor a damn good one too, my non witness relatives dabble in it.

  so i have seen stuff and experienced stuff.

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  OrphanCrow

  Why not: I don't have the funds to publish scientific research or get it peer reviewed. Although, I know there are researchers on such cases but their research, even though professionally done, keeps getting rejected

  Not only are you lacking the funds, but you are also lacking the fundamental knowledge of how scientific research is conducted or even what it is.

  Professionally done? I highly doubt that. Correctly done scientific research that passes the scientific requirements does not get rejected .

  Rejection means that the research has not been done correctly.

  Science is a term and discipline that is used incorrectly by people who are not scientists and who don't know anything about the scientific method. Just calling yourself a scientist doesn't cut it.
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  21

  Help with article on Watchtower Changes due to Legal Pressure

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  at https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/8j8fj9/what_legal_requirements_have_forced_the/excircuitoverseer started an excellent thread on areas watchtower has changed due to legal pressure.

  this has promoted me to gather the information into an article.

  there is a number of points that i would like to expand on, and need assistance in finding information.. the article is at https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/changes-due-to-legal-pressure.php.

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  OrphanCrow

  Gone for good:
  Orphan Crow-
  Your link looks very interesting, but pdf seems to be only available with a membership -sign in? Are you familiar with the process?

  Yes, I am familiar with the process.

  For those of you who can't access the pdf, I suggest using sci-hub. If you are ok with 'borrowing' it from a free access site. Use the Russian scihub site

  Just paste the URL in the search and you should have no problem downloading. Sorry, I would post the sci-hub link but I am on mobile and having issues with posting it.

  I didn't have any problem downloading it. It is an excellent paper.

  Edit to add: ha! Here is the sci-hub link

  https://sci-hub.tw/
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  21

  Help with article on Watchtower Changes due to Legal Pressure

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  at https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/8j8fj9/what_legal_requirements_have_forced_the/excircuitoverseer started an excellent thread on areas watchtower has changed due to legal pressure.

  this has promoted me to gather the information into an article.

  there is a number of points that i would like to expand on, and need assistance in finding information.. the article is at https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/changes-due-to-legal-pressure.php.

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  OrphanCrow

  This paper may help you, jwfacts:

  Disciplined Litigation, Vigilant Litigation, and Deformation: Dramatic Organization Change in Jehovah's Witnesses

  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/0021-8294.00034
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  27

  who has been out the longest?

  by stan livedeath in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  who has been out of the cult the longest ?.

  i'll start--i resigned in 1971, but attended occasionally as a non-interested husband to keep the wife sweet, untill my last circuit assembly in autumn 1980. no connection with the cult since then.

  so--its either 47 or 38 years, depending on how you see it.. which begs the question--why am i on this site now ?.

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  OrphanCrow

  Ha!

  I can join the senior club too

  I left in 71, never baptized, survived Armageddon in 75, and here I am

  I was pretty young when I managed to escape - 13 going on 14
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  34

  What really happened around 1918 when WT leaders were imprisoned?

  by dubstepped in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i had never thought about this until just now when i saw that nathan natas posted some early tract from rutherford, and it made me think back to what little i could remember of the history i was taught.

  i now know that in most cases the dubs will spin stories in their favor.

  so i'm now assuming i was told some fictitious story about what happened when the leaders were thrown in prison and things looked bleak for the cult way back when.

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  OrphanCrow

  It is interesting to note that there were other Bible Students that were arrested and imprisoned during WW1 that we hear nothing or little about.

  I found this story about a female Bible Student who was also arrested and imprisoned:

  UNITED STATES v. EMMA MARTIN (1917-20) is the first criminal prosecution -- local, state, or federal -- that we have found that resulted in a FEMALE "Jehovah's Witness" spending any significant amount of time in jail or prison.
  Emma Martin, of Colton, San Bernardino County, California, became an official "Colporteur" for the WatchTower Society in June 1916. Martin had been a "Bible Student" since 1905. However, when her husband died in 1916, she began supporting herself by selling children's books door-to-door, and thereafter, by selling WatchTower literature door-to-door. Martin claimed that the "commission" from such literature sales was her sole means of support. Martin also was the "pianist" for the local Congregation, which met in rented halls.
  Emma Martin was jailed in March 1918 during the nationwide federal sweep of Bible Students whom were selling copies of the seditious THE FINISHED MYSTERY book, as were three others (MALES) of her fellow San Bernardino County Bible Students. As were most arrested Bible Students across the United States, Martin was indicted in April 1918 on two federal charges -- causing insubordination and disloyalty amongst members of the military during a time of war; and obstructing the recruitment and enlistment of members of the military services. Emma Martin's fellow Bible Students blessed and encouraged Martin for her "martyrdom" both in the courtroom and later at the jail. Martin reportedly spent all of her time in jail preaching to the jail "matron" who constantly looked after Martin's welfare. That matron reported that Martin preached to her that "the end of the world" would occur before the start of 1919, and that she (matron) should get right with God.
  At Emma Martin's trial in July 1918, a jury found Martin "guilty" only on the first count of the indictment. That federal jury also recommended "leniency" to the sentencing judge -- presumably because Martin was a "female". Emma Martin ultimately was sentenced to three years in federal prison, but was released on $5000.00 bond during her lengthy -- probably intentionally drawn out -- appeals. However, after Martin's conviction was ultimately affirmed by the USCA in early April 1920, Martin was shipped to San Quentin. Only a few weeks later, on June 23, 1920, Emma Martin's sentence was commuted by President Woodrow Wilson, and she was immediately released and returned to San Bernardino. (It is not known how much time that Emma Martine spent in county jails between the time of her arrest and conviction.)
  Like all good Jehovah's Witnesses, Emma Martin repeatedly "shaded", "spun", and outright LIED during her trial testimony. For example, Martin could quote and explain from memory many sections throughout THE FINSIHED MYSTERY book, but the parts of the book which were "seditious" -- for which people wanted to buy the book, and for which JWs were being arrested and jailed -- Martin supposedly had never even read those parts.
  It is also clear from Martin's testimony that, as it has done for decades, the WatchTower Society published material specifically designed for "public consumption", while it made sure that its members received a verbal, off-the-record interpretation of such. For decades, multiple publications of the WatchTower Society have made much of its LETTER, dated March 7, 1918, in which it ordered its members to remove offending pages 247-253 from their large stockpiles of the FM book prior to selling such. It is clear from Martin's testimony -- to those who exercise "discernment" -- that many Bible Students removed the offending pages from only one copy of FM at a time. Those removed pages were then kept in their pocket; and if/when a sales prospect inquired about such, the pages were then given to the prospect for their perusal. If the prospect wanted to buy that copy of FM, the purchaser naturally asked for, and were given, the removed pages. "Qualified" purchasers were straight out asked if they wanted a copy from which the offending pages had not been cut-out. Despite testimony to the contrary, Martin testified that after receiving the Society's letter, she had not sold a single copy of FM with the offending pages intact.
  Notably, Emma Martin and several California "Bible Students" had been arrested "weeks" before "Judge" Rutherford and his WatchTower Directors were arrested. Click here to read the untold "rest of the story" as to what happened when the "really important people" were arrested.
  Once again, it is anyone's guess as to why "EMMA MARTIN" is not an honored name within today's WatchTower Cult community. The odds are, as do a significant percentage of "Jehovah's Witnesses", Emma Martin may have "awakened" at some point in her later life -- with the result that Martin's service and exploits were purged from the Cult's history.

  http://jwemployees.bravehost.com/NewsReports/2036.html
  
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  63

  2018 Convention movie: Jonah.... oh my god it's bad......!

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so, once again the society has produced a cringe-worthy, spew-inducing piece of "cinema".. i don't recognise this religion anymore...... enjoy this review:.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f0tovqkfem.

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  OrphanCrow

  I had never heard of James Bartley before, Sir82. Thanks for that. It is interesting.

  I found this article that states the claim was 15 hours in the stomach of a whale:

  Did a 19th-century sailor get swallowed by a sperm whale and survive?

  The article concludes with this (full article with original 1891 newspaper clipping at link):

  The Great Yarmouth Mercury in the UK started this scoop rolling on 22 August 1891 and the Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton, Queensland, snapped up the bait on 11 September. Dozens more papers ran the story virtually word for sourceless word over two years. It wasn’t until 11 May 1907 that Adelaide’s Evening Journal declared “Champion Fish Story, A Hoax Exposed”.
  But the tale refused to die and was rerun in many papers over the next two decades. It appeared again in various publications in 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1942 (when Melbourne’s The Age gave it a run), 1944, 1947, 1948 and 1953. The yarn continued to be published right up until 1985, when the Sunday Mail even reported how Bartley had settled down as a cobbler in Gloucester, England.
  Historians have since concluded that the Star of the East was not a whaler, and there was no James Bartley on its crew manifest, while scientists confirm it is not possible to survive for 15 hours in the stomach of a sperm whale. For nearly 100 years the media largely swallowed this whale of a story without once trying to interview or find a picture of Bartley. It’s a great example of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story.
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  28

  advice please/data protection

  by Phoebe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have just received an email from an elder's wife regarding the new data protection laws.

  between the lines it sounds like she has been asked to contact me.. she says they 'don't want to leave me out' so they want me to fill out the form as 'i'm still part of the congregation'.

  also, my blood card needs updating, apparently.. the elder in charge will be in contact.. obviously, i'm not doing either, but what do i do?

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  OrphanCrow

  "...an unauthorized elderette"

  Is there any other kind of elderette besides unauthorized ones?