Posts by zugzwang

Another way the RCC is like the WTS or vice versa is that both are good at using media events (such as the death of the Pope) to their own advantage. Without question, RCC #'s will increase sharply for a while as a result of the Pope's death.

48

The Dumbed Down Awake Sinks Lower ( May 8)

by metatron in

jw
friends

the latest awake has, on its final inside page, a section called "for family review" that consists of questions.

that witless families can ask their kids after they've read the magazine.

this new feature follows questions.

zugzwang

Back in the day when I was a zealous pioneer there used to be a group of us pioneers who would go on the college campus to do street work. There would be large groups of students who would all walk together and if you could get one student to take a mag then every student following them would take one. Some days I would literally place 300 to 500 magazines. The really funny thing was that after a group of 50 or 100 students would walk by then there would be a lull in the action. No students would walk by for a while. So we would walk down to the bottom of the hill and check the trash cans to see how many of the mags we had just placed had already made it into the barrel. Sure enough there would always be at least a 1 to 5 ratio of discarded magazines. So we would take them back out of the garbage and then when the next group of students would go by we would place those same mags again. (As long as they hadn't been soiled by anything in the garbage.) And of course that meant I sometimes got to count 2 placements with the exact same magazine. My all time record, 681 magazines in one day. And it wasn't hard to come up with that many magazines. I was also the "magazine servant" at the time so I had an announcement made that any publisher who had magazines at home that they felt they wouldn't place could bring them up to the magazine counter and we would be glad to see to it that they got redistributed to other publishers who were in need. We literally got thousands of magazines (between 3 and 4 thousand if I recall correctly.) Now that is just one congregation of about 80 publishers, multiply that by 90,000 congos and you know there are a lot of old mags out there that never get placed.

50

Okay, what made YOUR day ... Enquiring Minds want to know !!!

by talesin in

jw
friends

i'll share first.

here's what made my day so far .... .

~ fresh asparagus ... steamed ... slathered in butter.

zugzwang

Winning $300 today at the casino.

19

The Pope is NOT the voice of God on Earth

by Survive1999 in

i have always been a little bit puzzled by jws loudly proclaiming that the pope is not the "voice of god on earth", and turning around and vernerating the watchtower as "the voice of god on earth.".

i have repeatedly told jws to apply the same standard you do against the pope to the watchtower and you will be more than a bit dissapointed.

the best answer i could ever get was, "well that's different".. can any exjws explain this?

zugzwang

Under74,

Don't sweat it. Most all of organized religion has similarities to the RCC and the WTS. Some are just more destructive than others.

19

The Pope is NOT the voice of God on Earth

by Survive1999 in

i have always been a little bit puzzled by jws loudly proclaiming that the pope is not the "voice of god on earth", and turning around and vernerating the watchtower as "the voice of god on earth.".

i have repeatedly told jws to apply the same standard you do against the pope to the watchtower and you will be more than a bit dissapointed.

the best answer i could ever get was, "well that's different".. can any exjws explain this?

zugzwang

Under74,

Read my whole post. I said the RCC has survived because they have become soft. Just like the WTS is going to have to do. That is why they will drop the blood ban and have softened many policies such as alternative service. The Catholic church used to burn people at the stake, they don't do that anymore. If they did they would not have survived. Pope John Paul II was so embracing of other faiths that basically he had the view that if you have any type of faith that is fine. Christian, Jewish, Muslim, whatever. That is radically different than the church used to be. The same with the WTS. Only with the WTS their changes are more obvious because they have been around far less time and have had to change far quicker than the RCC.

19

The Pope is NOT the voice of God on Earth

by Survive1999 in

i have always been a little bit puzzled by jws loudly proclaiming that the pope is not the "voice of god on earth", and turning around and vernerating the watchtower as "the voice of god on earth.".

i have repeatedly told jws to apply the same standard you do against the pope to the watchtower and you will be more than a bit dissapointed.

the best answer i could ever get was, "well that's different".. can any exjws explain this?

zugzwang

In many ways the WTS is a miniature Catholic church. A top down power structure with all authority being placed in 1 man or a small group of men who claim to speak for God. The way the Catholic church has survived is by not enforcing their mandates. The Catholic church would be a lot smaller if excommunication of it's members took place for breaking church law. Such as using birth control, premarital sex etc. But the Catholic church has changed over the years, just like the WTS has, in order to survive. Though the numbers are impressive for the Catholic church it is basically the WTS big brother. It's been around a lot longer but it is basically the same.

14

The RCC is out-pacing the JWs in the USA

by Amazing1914 in

jw
friends

ranked #1: roman catholic church - 66,407,105. .

see: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/04yearbook.html.

ranked #1: roman catholic church: 62,391,484. .

zugzwang

That's all nice and fine as long as no one is under the delusion that the RCC represents God any more than the WTS does. The RCC is just like the borg except they have been at it longer. Lies, intolerance, pedophilia. . . just on a grander scale.

126

What Was Your Greatest "Privilege" In The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

was it being able to join the theocratic ministry school?

being a regular pioneer?

"handling microphones"?

zugzwang

One day when I was "serving shoulder to shoulder" with my "brothers" at Brooklyn Bethel I had the privilege of riding in an elevator all alone with Henschel. I tried to think of something profound and spiritual to say. He simply looked at me and said, "Are you gonna watch the game?" "Uh, yeah probably," was my reply. What a 'privilege,' it was like having a private audience with the JW pope.