richard

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Posts by richard

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  26

  Guess what I saw today...

  by mrsjones5 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a jw parking a hummer at a kingdom hall.

  this is nothing unusual at this hall.

  when i drive by in the mornings to take the hubby to work, i often see lexus, bmws, mercedes, caddies, audis, etc.

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  richard

  Next time, put an Awake!-article on the wasting of natural resources behind the Hummer's windshield wipers.
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  50

  WTS Emergency Meeting

  by doinmypart in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the disaster relief committee at patterson organized 3 meetings this past memorial day, monday september 5, 2005. the meetings were held in lake charles, louisiana; bossier city, louisiana; and ball, louisiana.

  over 1,200 elders were in attendance from louisiana, missouri, arkansas, and texas.

  i took horrible notes, but want to share a few things.. the elder opening the meeting emphasized the importance of confidentiality.

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  richard

  Quote from the WTS Emergency Meeting:

  The brother said Red Cross gets money for every person they shelter so they didn't want JWs leaving the shelter.

  Can this be verified?
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  11

  Brainwashing/Mind control

  by Evanescence in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you think the jehovah's witnesses used any brainwashing or mind control techniques on their members?.

  what brainwashing techniques do you think they used?.

  what do you think works best on jw's to get them out of the mind control?

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  richard

  Among behavioral scientists, the existence of "brainwashing" and "mind control" is highly controversial. For starters, check this link

  www.cesnur.org/2003/brain_conv.htm
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  2

  Government slaps ban on three missionary organizations--Tajikstan

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  http://www.muslimuzbekistan.com/eng/ennews/2005/09/ennews05092005a1.html .

  http://www.muslimuzbekistan.com/eng/ennews/2005/09/ennews05092005a1.html .

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  richard

  This whole region is rather hostile towards foreign religions. For a continuous update, see http://www.forum18.org/index.php
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  12

  Anyone think that the 'Secret Subcultures' will bust up the Borg?

  by AK - Jeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i mean there seem to be several fairly well rooted sub-groups operating within the ranks of the witnesses now.

  many under the continuing premise that it is the 'truth'.

  i know of a couple.

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  richard

  There is also another process going on which I would call the development of ''paper membership": people profess to be Jehovah's Witnesses but they are not or hardly involved in any service activities. They may also be (covertly) critical on some or many of the WTS' teachings and practices but prefer to remain associated since they feel this is their social environment which provides a sense of community. They feel they have nothing to gain by being openly critical since disfellowshipment will cut them off from their community. This group must be quite substantial, since the annual amount of baptisms considerably exceeds the increase of publishers.
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  2

  Remarkable Survey

  by richard in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't know if this has been posted earlier.

  i found some interesting figures on the jws in the us, based on a research project - american religious identification survey 2001 - by the city university of new york.

  the data are based on a telephone survey among 50,000 households.

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  richard

  I don't know if this has been posted earlier.

  I found some interesting figures on the JWs in the US, based on a research project - American Religious Identification Survey 2001 - by the City University of New York. The data are based on a telephone survey among 50,000 households. The basic question was 'what is your religion'? This was compared with data obtained from a similar survey conducted in 1990.

  This sample gave the following results on the amount of JWs in the US. The figures between brackets are those published by the WTS)

  1990: 1,381,000 (WTS yb 1991: 952,312)
  2001: 1,331,000 (WTS yb 2002: 1,101,334)

  (The WTS figures are highpoints plus pioneers)

  Taking for granted that some of the difference between the CUNY and WTS data may be explained by sampling error, it's obvious that more people consider themselves JWs than as indicated by the Society. Further, it seems that the more than 15% increase in the 1990-2001 decade, as noted by the Society, might be questionable.

  A second observation from the CUNY research was: "Some groups such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses appear to attract a large number of converts ("in-switchers"), but also nearly as large a number of apostates ("out-switchers").

  The complete report can be seen/downloaded at http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_studies/aris.pdf - See particularly 'Exhibit 7
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  32

  Texas KH advertizing free pastoral counseling!

  by rebel8 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  came across this accidentally.

  jws listed in a mental health directory as providing free pastoral counseling!

  http://www.fortworthgov.org/health/or/mental2001.asp

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  richard

  This is a press release from the WTS, October 2000:

  "The Governing Body, which currently numbers 13 members, will continue to focus on Bible doctrine, evangelizing, and pastoral care. In 1999 more than 14 million attended the services of Jehovah's Witnesses".

  From: http://www.jw-media.org/region/global/english/releases/events/001007.htm
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  17

  Plain Truth Magazine plug: It is basically all anti-cult all the time!!!

  by Check_Your_Premises in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i got a free subscription from ptm.org for one year.

  for those of you not familiar with the story of the world wide church of god, they were a cult remarkeably similar to the jw doctrinally.

  it was founded by herbert armstrong.. after his death they went through a remarkeable and turbulent reformation.

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  richard

  WCG's mainline tendency since the early 1990s and its abandonment of Armstrong's teachings has resulted in many fundamentalistic split offs (Church of God International, Philadelphia Church of God, Global Church of God, United Church of God, and many others) each of which considers itself the true heir of Armstrong's doctrines. The Philadelphia Church of God (http://www.pcog.org), for example, publishes a (free) magazine that is hardly distinguishable from Awake! - except from its ranting and raving against WCG's liberal course and its continous emphasis on Germany as a threat for world piece.
• 
  17

  VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE

  by Oroborus21 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  don't know if anyone cited this previously here at jwd.. this is a very interesting, fair and accurate article summary of paper presented last june at a cesnur conference.. http://www.cesnur.org/2005/pa_brown.htm#_edn37.

  simon and jwd were mentioned!.

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  richard

  see http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/93172/1.ashx
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  20

  WTS and the mass media

  by greendawn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  given the extend of the abuse that the wts perpetrates on its members isn't it surprising that they don't get a lot more negative mass media coverage?

  i wonder why that is, is it because they have helpful, powerful connections or because being so rich they can buy them off?

  some extensive publicity in the mass media would cause them serious harm.

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  richard

  The media are generally not interested in religion, unless it concerns associated issues such as fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, cult violence at the level of Waco/Jonestown, Tom Cruise who advertizes Scientology, or a dissenting Mormon polygamist in Colorado. And as for child abuse, they have the RC church. So who cares for the WTS?