i was going to put this in my thread about pyramid schemes, but i thought it's discreet enough to warrant its own.
1) there are many faithful jws.
2) there are many men and women who could take control and fill the void if the watchtower collapses.
I can't quite see the Watchtower splinter as the International Bible Students did under Rutherford's iron fisted rule. Then again, I can't see a total collapse. More of a deflation; a shriveling up. Under Rutherfordism you had a fanatical hard core who reconstituted their numbers after a short while.
Nowadays, you simply have a demoralized body of wannabe Witnesses with a bunch of neurotic/psychotic needy persons. They're not likely to be the type that can reconstitute themselves.
one thing i've never understood is judicial committees.
yes, i understand it's held to see if elders should go through with the disfellowshipping process.
but why give them all the power?
I'm sure they can disfellowship you in absentia. I myself was not even invited to my judicial committee yet was disfellowshipped.
i stumbled across something the other day that made me sit up because it seemed to perfectly describe a feeling i experience from time to time that apparently isn't uncommon.. it's called autonomous sensory meridian response or "asmr" and is a kind of tingly feeling on/in your head.
you can read about it here:.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/autonomous_sensory_meridian_response.
rebelfighter,
It is an amazingly relaxing experience if done the right way. Stress is released and the head and body feels completely different. I am sure there is a name for this but I have no clue.
Some good Indica will do the same.
may have missed this somewhere, but if bethel not providing meals anymore , what is point of the farms?.
or are meals still provided with simple self service now, without the waiter service of decades?.
seem to recall uk farm disposed of years ago as it cheaper to purchase requirements rather than sustain farm and its workers, was that the case?.
If meals are not provided at Bethel then what do they do, brown bag from store bought food? Do Bethelites get an extra allowance for food purchase? Do they have a little refrigerator in their dorm for keeping food in?
i stumbled across something the other day that made me sit up because it seemed to perfectly describe a feeling i experience from time to time that apparently isn't uncommon.. it's called autonomous sensory meridian response or "asmr" and is a kind of tingly feeling on/in your head.
you can read about it here:.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/autonomous_sensory_meridian_response.
On occasion, in the middle of the night while fast asleep, I would sense a rippling sensation inside my head that did not feel unpleasant but still worried me though. I had some control over its onset but was afraid that it might have been something like a stroke so I decided to end it.
why were we ever a jw?
were we mad?
we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.
OUTLAW,
why were we ever a jw?
were we mad?
we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.
How about you? Are you an idiot or the offspring of past idiots?
I'd be honored to be your ancestor.
Seriously, I have the innocence of youth to hide behind. I had an overwhelming curiosity about the Bible at age 13. It only took a small leaflet placed in my door to get the ball rolling.
As for there being only print media back in yesteryear, there were plenty of books and tracts written about the subject but you needed to have balls to go to a Christian bookstore to even glance at "apostate" literature.
After getting into the witnesses I developed a desire to collect the old books and literature. Unfortunately, I could not afford them. If I did I probably would have bailed out sooner and not lasted 8 years in that infernal swamp. I had an odd experience once with a 3rd generation witness and her husband when they showed me the book The Finished Mystery that had been passed on through the years within the family. Holding it in my hands I decided to open it and read some of it. To my bewilderment they both started yelling and gesticulating at me saying "No, no! It's different!". I remember just catching a glimpse of it. Something about Behemoth and railroad trains. How odd that they would hand me a book to admire and yet go ballistic when I did what any normal human being would do and open it.
Overall, it was my curiosity that got me into the JWs and my curiosity that got me kicked out. I'm not hard on myself for that but I do remain bitter over that crucial moment in time when the best years of my life were taken away from me.
raids on jehovah's witness premises now take place more than three times per month.
these raids on doctrinally pacifist* religious communities often involve many heavily armed and camouflaged officials, with the "discovery" of apparently planted banned "extremist" literature.
legal dissolution of communities can follow.. http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2228.
Instead of taking dictatorial positions, any nation which sees the JWs or anyone as a pathetic anti-social organization that violates societies norms should use television to out them. And no, I'm not referring to sound-bites from the worthless media. I'm more suggesting a regularly broadcasting television channel - the equivalent of the National Public Radio - which would dedicate a good commercial free half hour to the subject. It would not only be about the Witnesses but should include every authoritarian religion.
But then we don't have the imagination in this country to have such a thing much less do those hard-power barbarians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdyjb_v4gye.
http://imgur.com/a/yhraf.
.
You'll be sorely missed.
conventions always just seemed like more of a vacation to me than anything else, especially if you had to travel out of town for it, but definitely were exhausting especially toward the end of each day.
for some reason i didn't mind the special and circuit assemblies too much, probably because they seemed like more of a social event than anything else and only 1-2 days.
the memorial always was kind of boring to me.
slimboyfat:
...don't walk too slow between doors...
Just follow old Shelly:
