Posts by Athanasius

43

Elders in their 20's?

by Princess Daisy Boo in

my little sister called me just now.

exciting news - stop the presses - her husband has been made an elder.

she is 27 and he is 26... is that not a little young to be an elder?

I was only 25 when I was first appointed elder. In fact I was the youngest elder in our congregation. The other elders were in their 40s and 60s. A congregation near us had a 24 year old elder. Of course that was in the early 1970s and at the time the Society didn't appoint anyone younger than 20. Don't know what their age requirements are now.

34

Obama, "We Are No Longer A Christian Nation,"

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

.

we are also a jewish nation, a muslim nation, a buddhist nation, and a hindu nation and a nation of non-believers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjr-n0qz14.

Athanasius

It seems to me that there was another man from Illinois who sought the Presidency and who had little national experience. In fact he had served only one term in Congress. However, many historians consider him our greatest President. His name, Abraham Lincoln.

8

Counting time / Time Wasted

by tinker in

jw
friends

my husband works at the local community college.

yesterday he said the witness's have a table set up with tracks, magazines and video monitor running.

2 brothers were there about 4hrs.

Athanasius

A couple of years ago the JWs had a table set up at the local Walmart. They had the Watchtowers, Awakes, and some books on display. I stopped and looked at their publications and then asked if they had the Book Of Mormon. I was expecting them to say they were JWs and make it clear that they would have nothing to do with LDS literature. But the woman just smiled at me and said: "No." And that was it. She didn't even try to push her Watchtower literature on me. So I just walked away.

69

The Suicide of Jason R: a rational battlecry

by inkling in

ok, here is a short introduction:.

worf has posted an email sent to him by someone who claims: to have testified.

in court in a case involving the illegal digging up of the body of a young bethelite .

Athanasius

How do we know that this isn't Watchtower dis-information, planted here to discredit this site in the eyes of JW lurkers? Could the dis-information also have a dual purpose by reactionary GB members? From what I've read in Ray Franz's book Dan Sydlik was one of the liberal members of the GB. Maybe the Watchtower monitors are laughing their heads off at how the "apostates" are wasting their time and resources debating this issue.

40

Did you read the whole Bible when you were a JW?

by outofthebox in

jw
friends

after an informal poll in my congregation (and many awkward responses) i found out that almost nobody had read the whole bible ever, not even the elders (surprise!).

brothers and sisters with 20, 30, 40 and 50 years as jws don't know what the bible says.

so, if god decides that a test is coming, will they pass it?

Athanasius

I read the book of Exodus in the King James Bible when I was 10 but didn't read the entire Bible until I was 28 and an elder. However, I didn't use the NWT, instead I read the New English Bible which had recently been published. It was much easier to read and understand than the NWT. Later I read the Today's English Version. I often used the New English Bible, the New International Bible, and the Today's English Version in my talks in place of the NWT.

Though reading these other Bible translations didn't cause me to suddenly leave the JWs, they did cause me to question the Watchtower for using an inferior translation. And this led to other questions and my eventual resignation as an elder and departure from the JWs.

27

Kingdom Hall is packed

by Junction-Guy in

jw
friends

right near my apartment there is a kingdom hall that sits next to the interstate.

i passed by there tonight at 5 pm and it was totally packed.

i mean there were cars lined all up and down the driveway.

Athanasius

I agree with Changeling that it was probably a funeral or memorial service. This happened recently at one of the local KHs. A few months ago an elderly sister who had been active in the JW work for over 60 years passed away and her memorial service attendance was almost 400 people. KH weddings used to be done on Saturdays, do they have them on Sundays now?

140

I have a theory. Please take my poll!

by changeling in

jw
friends

i'd like you all to tell me 2 or 3 things:.

1- were you raised a witness or not?.

2-if you were, was your family very "theocratic" or not so much?.

Athanasius

1. Yes.

2. Mother active JW, father not a JW so was raised in a liberal home.

3. Christian.

33

Four years late. Just watched Passions of the Christ. I have a question

by shopaholic in

as you know this movie was banned for jws.

any faithful witness would not watched a non-jw bible movie (even though they do it all the time but that's a different subject.

) i watched it this pass week over a couple of days.

Athanasius

I saw the film in the theatre when it first came out in 04. My girlfriend was an Evangelical Christian and she got very emotional during the film. Some of the scenes were difficult to watch, but it was still an excellent film.

Since I've been out of the Watchtower since 1984, I don't know if the local congregations have a banned film list. However, back then there was a congregation in my area where the elders did forbid their congregation members to attend R rated movies. But I would think it's still a local option.

22