OrphanCrow

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Posts by OrphanCrow

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  13

  Clickable Link Function

  by cofty in

  1. forum
  2. tech-support

  hi simon - the site seems to be stripping out links.. can work around it by pasting the url but it was neater to be able to embed the link in some text.

  is it a temp glitch?.

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  OrphanCrow

  kate:.... and I am not insinuating anything

  And this is why I keep coming back...the humor on this board is great. Good for my morning laugh, as always! :)
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  44

  What crime should elders report?

  by kramer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so, i am trying to get my head around what the right position of elders should be when they come across crime is.. i think i get the issuess around clergy confidentiality - and how that might potentially be breached when they talk about it to other elders, let alone the police.. but if people are saying that elders - or clergy of another faith should report crime to the police when it is confessed to the, then where are the boundaries.. so if someone says they should report to police on a confessed example of child abuse, that's one thing.. how about reporting to police consensual sex between a 19year old and 15 year old - which is statutory rape in the uk.

  how about criminal fraud if they come across it.

  assault on a congregant?.

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  OrphanCrow

  Landy: With the exception of crimes committed against minors it should be victim who reports the crime to the police.

  In an ideal world, yes...that is what should happen.

  I think the issue of reporting crime to authorities could be solved very simply: remove the elders from the equation. The elders shouldn't be involved until after the crime has been reported to the police by the victim(s). The elders should be there for the congregants in the role of support and counselling.

  The WTS could fix this problem so very simply. All they have to do is announce that the congregation should consider going to the police first in the case of serious crime like child abuse. The congregants could easily be told to go to the police themselves....like the rest of the world does.

  As far as the OP's question goes...which crime should elders report?...I think there is a problem when a person places serious violent crime, like the rape of a child, in the same category as pickpocketing. The one crime results in grievous bodily harm and the other is a minor property crime. Surely the elders and others can distinguish the difference between petty crime and crime that causes serious physical and mental harm. Surely to gawd they can...

  But,...I suppose the WTS has a problem categorizing what they determine to be the "sin of fornication" in the same category as "grievous crime". After all...the bibble doesn't really speak out against raping children, does it? Or against beating up women, does it?
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  4

  Editorial | Keep level heads when negotiating Jehovah's Witnesses contract

  by OrphanCrow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  editorial | keep level heads when negotiating jehovah's witnesses contract.

  the cambria county war memorial arena has ended its current fiscal year about $18,000 in the black.

  that’s a far cry from the anticipated loss of $27,000 that had been projected for the authority.that’s fantastic news, considering some years the facility posted losses of $200,000 or more.“we’re showing a positive business model,” steve st. john, arena general manager, told our dave sutor.

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  OrphanCrow

  Editorial | Keep level heads when negotiating Jehovah's Witnesses contract

  
  

  The Cambria County War Memorial Arena has ended its current fiscal year about $18,000 in the black. That’s a far cry from the anticipated loss of $27,000 that had been projected for the authority.
  That’s fantastic news, considering some years the facility posted losses of $200,000 or more.
  “We’re showing a positive business model,” Steve St. John, arena general manager, told our Dave Sutor. “That’s our goal going forward.”
  The manager noted that all debts have been paid and the cash flow is “very good.”
  Those are positive signs that the arena may have finally stopped bleeding money and is booking attractions that are helping it turn a profit and signing moneymaking rental agreements.
  One of the arena’s rental pacts is with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The religious organization has been holding its annual regional meetings during multiple weekends in June at the Johnstown facility for the past four years.
  When the group wrapped up its 2016 meetings, its leadership met with St. John to ink next year’s dates.
  But the manager wasn’t immediately moved to sign, saying he wanted to explore if the two sides can come to terms on a more lucrative agreement for the War Memorial.
  “The reason I didn’t sign it is I asked them, ‘Do you have the ability to come to the table and help me make the arena’s situation better?’ ” he told his bosses, the Cambria County War Memorial Arena Authority, at a recent board meeting.
  The current pact, he said, is a break-even situation.
  Talking points with the group include costs incurred when the group requests rental chairs instead of the floor seats supplied by the arena and the high costs of janitorial supplies.
  “I’m looking at working with the Jehovah’s Witnesses on ways that they can increase the amount of rent that they’re paying for the services they’re getting,” St. John told our Dave Sutor.
  “We’ll see if they have any room to work.”
  City leaders are urging the authority to proceed cautiously, and we agree. The economic boost the group’s yearly treks to the Greater Johnstown region is a positive.
  “They’re spending money in the city,” Lisa Rager, executive director of the Greater Johnstown/Cambria County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said. “They’re dining out. They’re visiting things.
  “These are the exact types of guests we need to have here … it seems like they’ve been well received.”
  Dean Gindlesperger, authority chairman, concurred.
  “We love being part of bringing people into the area and spending their money at our hotels and our restaurants and everything,” he said. “That’s great.”
  But he quickly curbed his enthusiasm.
  “However, I think we have to be careful how much we pay out for everyone else to make money without getting anything back.”
  Past agreements had the Jehovah’s Witnesses providing in-kind services. This year, the attendees helped remove the rink’s dasher boards in preparation for an upgrade to the arena’s floor and ice-making equipment.
  St. John was very appreciative of the work the group has performed to date, but said his preferred method of doing business is cash in hand.
  “Anytime that anybody does something for me on trade,” he said, “I always feel like I got the less of the deal.”
  Given the specifics of the in-kind work, we can understand St. John’s position.
  It appears as if St. John and the group’s leaders are walking a tight rope. Too high a price and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are likely to move their convention elsewhere.
  Let’s hope both sides keep level heads.

  *I never know where to post things like this...is it in the 'right' category of "friends"??
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  9

  I know longer want to cherry pick holes in the organisation.

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  instead i would rather spend my days picking fresh cherries from a tree, in fact i am having so much fun i have got the whole family involved, and the freezer is full of red berries, black currents, and today is more strawberry picking.

  i have also gone to a farm and made my own yummy honey.. anyway have you been berry picking?

  do you have any ideas how i can really enjoy my fresh goodies?

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  OrphanCrow

  Fresh fruit? The ones you don't eat right from the tree are good to make into wine. Or something alcoholic :)

  An easy liqueur: Pack a mason jar with raspberries (or whatever fruit) add a cup of sugar and fill with vodka. Turn the jar a few times a day to dissolve the sugar and wait several months...around Christmas you should have sweet berry liqueur to toast the season with.

  *or you can just make juice from the berries, save the pulp and make fruit leather. Two for the price of one - juice and leather
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  44

  Expanding number of DC/RC's

  by DwainBowman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  according to my elder in law, by next year the number of dc/rc's will increase by 143. the size of conventions will get smaller.

  the elder in law says the goal is to make them all have around 2,000 or so at each.

  they are going to make more manuals detailing each job and it's responsibilities.

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  OrphanCrow

  Sorry, Steve - I got it backwards...or upside down, or something :)
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  23

  I have a favor to ask. I need to find a statement that was in one of the magazines, but I can't find it now. Can you help?

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have a favor to ask.

  i need some information found in a watchtower that i can't seem to find in my library.

  today, the watchtower teaches that the governing body is the faithful slave.

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  OrphanCrow

  somebody: ...Jesus further said that his followers would not be left in doubt and darkness

  Geez, all a person has to do is read this thread and know that the WTS has *beeped* that one up big time

  Lol!
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  21

  Why isn't the Boston Globe doing a better job?

  by Londo111 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/north/2016/06/29/who-are-jehovah-witnesses-who-live-among/z39a6dvdcp5lvufo7y7ozo/story.html.

  why isn't the boston globe doing a better job covering this group?.

  after all, the movie spotlight won an oscar about this paper and their groundbreaking journalism into the catholic church covering child abuse.

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  OrphanCrow

  And some more about the numbers you posted, Mad Irishman.

  You say that the RCC has 51,000 priests who offended. Well, compare that to the JWs who, it is claimed, have a list of pedophiles that they keep secret at the WTS headquarters. And then do the math.

  51,000 priests out of a 1.2 billion membership

  20,000+ JW pedophiles out of an 8 million membership

  And we have no idea how many victims there are in the JW population.

  It looks to me that the problem is really magnified in that little isolated cult of the JWs. Really magnified.

  Another difference: the Catholic faith does not restrict their parishioners from reporting child abuse to the authorities. They are not stopped from doing so. The WTS says that parents can report...but they don't say they should report. And we also know that taking another congregation member to court is highly frowned on in the JWs. The WTS doesn't like it

  On a related note, the WTS could so easily fix the reporting problem. So easily - they just have to tell their congregations that child abuse is a crime and to encourage all parents and others to first report to police and then go to the elders for support and counselling. So easy. You know...the way everybody else does it...police first, church second. The elders should be there for backup - not first line reporting. The JWs themselves have to step up to the plate and bypass the elder system by going to the police first
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  1

  Another media fluff piece - Ontario convention

  by OrphanCrow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the wts is sure putting out a lot of counter media pieces this summer.

  fluff pieces.

  i have read several about the jws wonderful volunteer cleaning at several venues and blah, blah blah.... here is one from the northern ontario convention in sault ste.

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  OrphanCrow

  The WTS is sure putting out a LOT of counter media pieces this summer. Fluff pieces. I have read several about the JWs wonderful volunteer cleaning at several venues and blah, blah blah...

  Here is one from the Northern Ontario convention in Sault Ste. Marie:

  2300 Jehovah's Witnesses and one with an incredible gift (13 photos)

  
  For the first time in over 20 years the Northern Ontario Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses was held in the Sault this weekend and a couple of special gift-givers were in attendance.
  Colleen Cyrenne says her 24 year-old son Jacques Vaillancourt has been able to accomplish amazing things thanks to being involved in the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
  The mother and son came up from Sheguiandah on Manitoulin Island this weekend to gather with around 2300 other religious followers at the Essar Centre for the 2016 Northern Ontario Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
  36 congregations from as far west as Thunder Bay and as east as North Bay came to attend the regions biggest annual gathering of Jehovah's Witnesses.
  It was the first time in over twenty years the conference was held in Sault Ste. Marie.
  Cyrenne described her son as being severely autistic but that the structure of their religious faith - going to conventions, studying the bible, doing 70 hours of faith work a month, etc. - has allowed him to excel in many ways.
  Autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a developmental disorder with a set of symptoms that hurt the individual’s ability to function socially, at school or work, or other areas of life.
  How profoundly that individual is affected by those symptoms dictates how severe the disorder is in that individual.
  At the weekend convention, Vaillancourt handed out 225 cut-out, hand-drawn pictures of “good-example Bible figures” and his mother handed out hundreds of fabric and plastic flowers attached to clips, so many she lost count.
  The figures Vaillancourt drew are meant to help remind people of the many good teachings in the bible and Cyrenne's flowers are a loving gift.
  “I just make them until I can’t make them anymore,” said Cyrenne, who has been doing it for so many years she doesn’t know how long.The young man, whose disorder is obvious through conversation, goes door-to-door, often on his own, spreading the religion’s message and even conducts bible study groups with young children.

  Read rest of article at link...
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  23

  I have a favor to ask. I need to find a statement that was in one of the magazines, but I can't find it now. Can you help?

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have a favor to ask.

  i need some information found in a watchtower that i can't seem to find in my library.

  today, the watchtower teaches that the governing body is the faithful slave.

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  OrphanCrow

  sparky: YOUR WORD IS TRUTH
  

  Is the Pope Gods Intermediary?
  "There is such a governing body today, even as Jesus foretold, a "faithful and discreet slave", whom he has set over all his belongings." pg.28 final paragraph
  AWAKE February 8, 1965 page 27-28

  Yes. I remember that teaching.

  I was always under the impression that the GB were declared the faithful and discrete slave back in the 60s. Good find
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  23

  I have a favor to ask. I need to find a statement that was in one of the magazines, but I can't find it now. Can you help?

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have a favor to ask.

  i need some information found in a watchtower that i can't seem to find in my library.

  today, the watchtower teaches that the governing body is the faithful slave.

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  OrphanCrow

  VI: And Geoffrey Jackson told the ARC that it would be presumptuous of them to claim they're God's channel of communication.

  I remember that exchange as Jackson saying "that it would be presumptuous of them to claim they're God's only channel of communication"

  He didn't deny it..he denied being the sole channel - which is what they really claim

  introvert: Also makes me ill in a fashion that's hard to describe, like when you meet with and have to interact with patients from the psych. ward.

  Me too. I have the same reaction. It is because the words and method of writing that the WTS uses are a "word salad" - they don't really make logical sense and reading the WT words is like listening to a schizophrenic ramble on and try to make an argument. You get lost in the process. Your brain becomes numb

  I avoided reading their literature for years. It screws with a person's head trying to follow the maze they weave