http://www.eco-action.org/bougainville/index.html
resistance / protection of nature / freedom : check.
they look weird but they act right.
French asked: what are you talking about ozzie? Really?
Ozzie wrote:
Don't be fooled by anyone just for bearing the label of freedom fighter.
I think his point was that sometimes thugs, malcontents, and people who just want to have an excuse for perpretrating violence on others cloaks themselves under the label 'revolutionary' or 'freedom fighter' when in reality they are simply brutal terrorists looking for an excuse. Anyway, if it were the French, wouldn't they have already surrendered?
just had a visit from an elder.
this particular one, i believe is sincere.
but at the same time, i've been there before.
Jehovah has always used an organization.
This is one of the things that my family has all tried to tell me. I never really knew what to say UNTIL I read Ray Franz' "In Search Of Christian Freedom". Really good information on the 'truth' about the state of the early Christian congregation. Since then, I've looked up some stuff on the WT CD-ROM, and in many cases when it states that the first century Christians were 'highly organized' and that God has always had 'one true organization', there is NO <or very weak> scriptural support. As usual, as dubs we were (and they are) expected to believe whatever is printed.
Has anyone ever noticed that the journalistic integrity of the WTS would get any freshman English major flunked from a basic research course??
just had a visit from an elder.
this particular one, i believe is sincere.
but at the same time, i've been there before.
But the Watchtower society has not 1 bible online, its worse, if i ask for a bible in the kingdom hall, its a standard procedure that i have to order it and after 6 months it may be available for me.
I read somewhere a while back (maybe it was on this forum) that while the WTS claims to be a 'bible' organization, the Gideons publish as many Bibles in a year as the WTS has in it's ENTIRE HISTORY! If I'm not mistaken, it's something like 91 million copies of the NWT since it was released, while the Gideons put out almost 100 million a year. In comparison, I believe the statement was made that the WTS prints nearly a billion copies of the WT and Awake annually. Forgive me if my figures are wrong, I'm quoting from <a bad> memory. Bible organization indeed......
i have a cousin who challenged the jws.
her conversation went something like this:.
"knock knock".
Yeah, I've thought about the next time (or I guess the FIRST time since I've been out...lol) that they come to my door I'm going to tell them that I am a Christian, and that Jesus said we should be no part of the world and I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to anyone from an organization that was associated with the UN....
sunday morning i get a frantic call from my son ,that he thinks he just had a seizure, i am only a few minutes from him so at 90mpr i went to take him to the hospital.
while getting him from his apartment i see a moved refrigerator, things smashed on the floor.
okay , steve let's go, i fly to the er and this kid is shaking, we get in a room and the emergency doc.
My sick JW brother has to take steroids as a result of his illness, and the results aren't pretty.
Two different types of steroids. Medically-related steroids are anti-inflammatories such as prednisone, which are usually used for bad respiratory illnesses, lupus, etc. And no, the results aren't pretty (not to be confused with the much milder and nearly side-effect free 'inhaled' steroids. Can't tell you how many asthmatics I've seen that have had to be hospitalized because the listen to all the bad press about 'steroids' and refused to take their inhalers)
Bodybuilding steroids are anabolic steroids, which cause massive increases in testosterone, cortisol, and other substances. They also cause fluctuations in basic metabolic funtion which probably accounts for the blood pressure problems. The promote early cancer, testicular atrophy, bone and joint deterioration, and a whole host of other nasty problems.
I make the distinction because the medically necessary steroids, while having numerous side-effects, are beneficial and necessary. The anabolic 'roids are destructive. I just hate to see people stop their medical steroids because the press is too ignorant to make the proper distinction and scares people by just saying 'steroids are bad for you'.
Sorry. My medical moment for the day.
i ran across the following quote in tom clancy's "rainbow six" and thought it interesting...druids had been pagans...and to which human lives had been sacrificed.
that had doubtless been a measure exercised by the priesthood to maintain their control over the peasants...and the nobility too, in fact, as all religions tended to do.
in return for offering some hope and certainty for the greatest mysteries of life - what happened after death, whty the rain fell when it did, how the world had come to be - they extracted their price of earthly power, which was to tell everyone how to live.
I ran across the following quote in Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six" and thought it interesting...
Druids had been pagans...and to which human lives had been sacrificed. That had doubtless been a measure exercised by the priesthood to maintain their control over the peasants...and the nobility too, in fact, as all religions tended to do. In return for offering some hope and certainty for the greatest mysteries of life - what happened after death, whty the rain fell when it did, how the world had come to be - they extracted their price of earthly power, which was to tell everyone how to live. It had probably been a way for people of intellectual gifts but ignoble birth to achieve the power associated with the nobility. But it had always been about power - earthly power. And like the members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the druid priesthood had probably believed that which they said and that which they enforced because - they had to believe it. It had been the source of their power, and you had to believe in that.
Sound like anyone we know? How else do those with no education or training end up running a worldwide publishing empire and controlling the lives of millions of people? They develop power by using the threat of annihilation for not following orders, convince everyone they're infallible, that their word is God's law, etc. Like it says at the end - many of them probably do believe it because they have to. To question it is to question their ability to retain control and power.
I just thought this was interesting....
i just had to post this quote from a box on the first study article - "jehovah reveals his glory to humble ones".
august 1st 2004.. strong yet humble.
at the 1919 cedar point, ohio, usa, convention of the bible students (known today as jehovah's witnesses), 50-year-old j f rutherford, who was then overseeing the work, gladly volunteered as a bellhop, carying luggage and escorting conventioners to their rooms.
Hmmm...and all this time I thought he was just a power-hungry, ruthless a-hole who hid behind the bible to solidify his own power. Glad they set me straight on that one.....
i finally dumped aol after seven years.
for the last year i've had cable modem service....much faster...and my use of aol declined to almost nothing.
i finally dumped them and their slow crappy service.
Yeah, it's amazing how the newer versions of AOL REALLY screw up your PC. I don't know what the deal is, but everytime I've ever loaded AOL 7.0 or newer on my PC it's slowed it down a lot and it seems to lock up a lot more. I was one of the early members of AOL, back in the mid -90's when there was a 'per minute' charge. It was cool then, because there weren't nearly as many people online. Now it's just a waste of time. Cable and DSL RULE!!!
...dilemma?
my husband's ex-wife(a baptized jw) has been sending hateful messages with his children(a 4 and 10-year-old), whenever they come to visit us.
(i'm expecting), and she says hateful things about our unborn child to her children, and sometimes they repeat things they overhear her say about me and the baby.
You could point out to them that a recent WT article discussed grieving the spirit and that things like gossip, slander, and hurtful talk are just as grevious as are 'serious' sins like adultery, etc. Of course, we all know that in the WT world gossip and slander are typically looked at as a 'people will be people' issue and not dealt with at all....
i remember who my husband was before we were recruited,you know what i mean, his humor,his daringness.
i am sure i changed also but only to an extent because i had to many doughts.
as i quickley ran from the cult ,i could sit back and see the person that i married into the person that the watchtower created.
Why is that a problem? Didn't we read for years how the 'truth' transformed so many lives? Isn't that something to be proud of? I remember all the articles on how the 'truth' reformed drug addicts, criminals, abusive husbands, etc. Just once I'd like to see an experience like yours that says "Well, I was this normal person and now I'm all f'd up. But hey, I'm DIFFERENT!!"
But no, they aren't a mind control cult.......
