Posts by Incognito

26

Xmas / New Year - Time to Review Your Finances

by Simon in

it's that time of the year again, when most people spend too much buying too much crap for people .... it's also a good time to take advantage of the few days off to look at your finances and make sure you're not being "gouged" by the big companies that, well, like to extract as much money from people as possible.. for us, one of the biggest culprits was telecoms.. think about it: years ago you just had to buy a tv and probably paid to have a phone line.

nowadays you have cell phones for everyone in the family and a million and one tv channels (all showing crap or repeats of crap) and extra for movies and pay-per-view.

you can easily be paying hundreds of dollars per month.. it can all add up, quickly.

Incognito

That $25 may not sound much ... but per month, over 5 years, it's $1,500 even before you earn any interest for it.
So reverse it - imagine someone will pay you $1,500 to not watch a couple of channels. Hells yeah I'll switch over! - Simon

What is not even mentioned here is what any of us would need to earn (before tax and other deductions) before we would actually have $1,500 in hand.

$18 is quite a lot when you consider that they basically just give you VOIP anyway.

True, but my comment was mainly related to conventional landline costs (ie: Bell). Each company's goal is to make money so they will often charge what people are willing to pay.

I'm amazed so many people continue to remain loyal to Bell (and their excessive prices) simply because they have been a customer for years and therefore, refuse to even consider other options.

Our only hold-back in switching to Ooma is they don't yet (hopefully soon) offer numbers local to our specific location. We can't yet port our current number to the Ooma service. I'm OK with a new number but the better half, not so much.

26

Xmas / New Year - Time to Review Your Finances

by Simon in

it's that time of the year again, when most people spend too much buying too much crap for people .... it's also a good time to take advantage of the few days off to look at your finances and make sure you're not being "gouged" by the big companies that, well, like to extract as much money from people as possible.. for us, one of the biggest culprits was telecoms.. think about it: years ago you just had to buy a tv and probably paid to have a phone line.

nowadays you have cell phones for everyone in the family and a million and one tv channels (all showing crap or repeats of crap) and extra for movies and pay-per-view.

you can easily be paying hundreds of dollars per month.. it can all add up, quickly.

Incognito

Much cheaper than the $18 a month the local cable company was charging. - Simon

Sounds as though your cable phone service was already a reasonable amount.

We had been paying about $45 through Bell for only the most basic package including some N-A long distance so when Rogers offered a $19.95 package which included more features, we never looked back. After 2 years, the cost has increased considerably so we are now considering Ooma. It's nice to receive positive feedback on Ooma voice quality as we don't know anyone using it. We had previously tried MagicJack but the quality was terrible even though our cable internet bandwidth far exceeded MJ requirements and the router was programmed to give priority to VOIP.

62

Meeting Attendance levels

by freddo in

jw
friends

i attended a sunday meeting today after missing a couple due to a bout of chronic apathy.

out of 74 publishers we had a grand total of 33. wonderful.

for those that attend, how are you finding the numbers?.

Incognito

All I know is the seats are full. - A Believer

As you visited a cong you don't normally attend, you may not know the usual attendance.

Some congs are located in areas which are desirable locations due to job availability or lifestyle. Perhaps an affluent area which has stature or a vacation destination?

If there had been a recent merger of congregations, the remaining or newly formed congregation would be expected to have more regular attendees than before the amalgamation.

A locally observed situation at one location is not solid proof of what is occurring throughout the region, state, province or country.

18

Thread Post View Is Stuck At 10 & Can't Be Changed!

by Divergent in

i browse this site on mobile and noticed that the thread post view is now stuck at 10. previously, i could set it at 20 and it stays that way, but now if i set it at 20, it goes back to 10 again the moment i click on another topic.

i hope that you can look into this as it is extremely irritating for me to keep having to change it.

i want to view as many posts as possible in one page!

Incognito

I too experience the same issue as Divergent. I use a a few different devices but commonly use Chrome as my browser.

While the initial topic listing page consistently remains set to 20 topics per page once chosen, each topic returns to 10 postings per page when each post is first opened. This situation has recently changed as once 20 posts was initially chosen in one post, all subsequent posts then opened with 20 posts per page which remained a constant setting from session to session.

129

Hi forum

by A Believer in

i proably shouldnt be on here but i feel like saying this.

i have been for the last couple weeks been studying religion.

i've learned the only ones who today do what the bible says to is jw.

Incognito

I find it odd that active JWs posting here, often won't freely admit to being a JW but instead claim to be a member of the public who must defend the JW religion.

Having grown-up in the religion, I was always taught to be proud to represent Jehovah as one of his people. Just as the song: "We're Jehovah's Witnesses. We speak out in fearlessness."

There now seems to be a sense of embarrassment as JWs who actually do go door to door, often introduce themselves as bible students or volunteers, not JWs.

20

Is this a sign then, should I lol?

by Alostpuppydog in

so the elder (who was my teacher) has informed the rest of the congregation and has now revolked my enterance into their or any hall.

and so now they are looking into getting a restraining order and have called new york and that's what they have decided to do.

just because i was made to feel so depressed and hated that i was thinking of suicide.

Incognito

... just out for the severity of how I was feeling I felt I had to say something for help.

How about simply asking for - Help?

The threat you offered, needs to be taken seriously. No one can predict what you will or won't do. The only method that might give some indication, is what you have said. You're lucky that matters did not escalate so that you are being dealt with by a SWAT team.

Whether or not you consider your father to be a JW, it appears he may feel some allegiance to the congregation and the elders do communicate with him. You yourself said: "And as for informing me, they have sent me no texts or anything, other than having had told my Dad that's what NEW YORK HQ told them to do to me." If your father was a stranger to them, they would not be communicating to him what NY HQ had said.

38

An old Kingdom hall now a church?

by HereIgo in

have any of you heard of anything like this.

i remember an ex jw from ohio taking video of a former kingdom hall that is now a church.

apparently the society sold it to the church.

Incognito

Two that are local to me are now churches. I've also seen one as a dental office and another as a child's daycare.

With declining JW attendance, we should all expect to see more of this on a regular basis!

33

New, but needed to vent- thank you :-)

by Danni Jackson in

i discovered your website this morning as i was trying to find some information about 'marking'.

you see a very close friend of mine was 'marked' earlier this week and as i know the ins and outs of the situation (as we are close friends) i disregarded the talk immediately as i know my friend is obviously having issues but is no way a 'danger' to anybody else's spiritual health.

basically they are dating a non-believer- hence the talk.

Incognito

Hi Danni,

Another welcome to you!

It's telling that you come here to vent and express your personal opinions, having recognized and accepted you can't have a similar discussion with your brothers & sisters from the kingdom hall. I see Steve2 posted similar.

Her reasoning being that one of her friends was not baptised at the time of the marriage and the others fiancé was studying at the time.

So exceptions are made not due to love or other christian principles, but are rationalized when desired because of a 'technicality'. Obviously, these rationalizations don't sit well with you otherwise, you would not have mentioned the prior matters and would not be experiencing distress about the marking of your friend.

so this is my first experience of hypocrisy in the truth. And I am really struggling with it. Now I am not really here to change my religion as I did do a lot of research into the 'watchtower' earlier on in my study

Did your prior research reveal 'marking', 'disfellowshipping', 'theocratic warfare', 'WT child abuse procedures' or what happens to any JW who disagrees with any of these matters or does not adhere to behavior dictated? If you were not aware of of these matters, what else did your research fail to identify? Did your research include information beyond the literature published by WT?

I believe you are a good person who wants to do what is right. Jesus examples regard personal beliefs and behavior, not those dictated by men as being acceptable. The bible indicates Jesus was opposed to the scribes and pharisees yet the Watchtower's Governing Body have set themselves as the modern day equivalent.

26

Utah Jehovah’s Witnesses church forced woman to listen to audio of her rape, lawsuit says

by AndersonsInfo in

http://www.sltrib.com/news/4465861-155/woman-sues-utah-jehovahs-witnesses-church.

utah jehovah’s witnesses church forced woman to listen to audio of her rape, lawsuit says.

a woman is suing a jehovah's witnesses church in weber county after, she says, one of its instructors repeatedly raped her when she was a minor and the organization's leadership forced her to listen to an audio recording of one of the assaults.. the woman filed the lawsuit wednesday in 2nd district court, accusing the kingdom hall of jehovah's witnesses church in roy — as well as naming the alleged perpetrator, several church leaders and the watchtower bible and tract society (the religion's headquarters located in new york) — of knowingly allowing the "unfit" instructor to rise to a position of authority without warning members of his "dangerous propensities" and past sexual transgressions.. read more: http://www.sltrib.com/news/4465861-155/woman-sues-utah-jehovahs-witnesses-church.

Incognito

Too bad she is only suing for $300,000. That is not enough of a punishment and surely is not enough compensation. - rebel8

I expect she would need to base her lawsuit on estimated damages or losses incurred. If she is successful in her original legal action, punitive damages can likely be awarded by the jury or Judge even though not specified within the original action.

28

Another "good" elder might be getting the axe....

by humblepotato in

jw
friends

so our congregation is full of hardliner elders, 3 of them, who are not gentle, kind or loving.. people have either moved away or quit trying because one elder inparticular was going to drive them crazy with all his rules and nit picking and being righteous over much.

(and he is pissed that he hasn't been accepted to the school.

hmmm, i wonder why!).

Incognito

Being removed as an elder maybe the best thing that could happen for him.

If he is as reasonable as you claim, he may awaken to the lack of love and compassion shown to his daughter, himself and other members of the cong. His removal may also cause some dissension within that congregation. Let's hope.

I think some reasonable people (elders & regular JWs) believe they can influence positive change from within. Ray Franz was a prime example of opposition displayed against someone attempting to change viewpoint and policy from within. As a member of the GB and with a highly influential Uncle also a GB member, Ray likely had the highest potential to influence positive changes yet consider how he was treated. How much less success would a lowly elder or regular R&F witness have in influencing change?