Posts by TallTexan

16

Who is more powerful? A leader that convinces people, or threatens/kills?

by DavidChristopher in

which do you think is the most powerful leader?.

the leader that can convince his people to follow his example, and trust him.. or the leader that threatens his people, and carries a big gun.

any thoughts?

TallTexan

A leader who leads by force will only have control as long as he is immediately in a position to impose sanctions upon that follower. The follower follows out of fear and only when afraid he will get caught.

A leader who leads by the 'cult of personality' (for lack of a better term) motivates his followers to follow even when he is not in a position to impose sanctions. They follow because they want to and believe it's right.

How many of us followed JW teachings even when no one was around because we thought it was the right thing to do?

58

Osama: How You Like Me Now?

by prophecor in

osama bin laden says he's willing to call a truce.

bush administration says, " in a pigs eye, kiss @$$ !!!

is he manipulating the situation to his advantage, or does america have him on the run?

TallTexan

Really, you Republicans need to face the music and stop blaming others. Clinton's been gone for quite a while now.

See, that's the difference. Liberals place blame with no solution of their own - Republicans deal with the problem.

Clinton wasn't gone for more than a few months on 9/11/01......

58

Osama: How You Like Me Now?

by prophecor in

osama bin laden says he's willing to call a truce.

bush administration says, " in a pigs eye, kiss @$$ !!!

is he manipulating the situation to his advantage, or does america have him on the run?

TallTexan

True, but at least he'll be dead and good riddance I say. Anyone who thinks the "war against terror" is wrong is IMO an enemy of the American way of life.

Right on.....

To EnigmaOne....

True, terrorism is a tactic, but it's a tactic that must be learned, organized in some way and carried out. If you can interrupt portions of the 'supply chain' as it were, then you can help disrupt the tactic. OBL's too busy running for his life to be able to carry on a well-organized (note I said WELL organized) campaign. His latest message is a "let me be and I'll let you be" ploy. Of course he's going to issues 'warnings' - he has to make some kind of threat to keep his kooky followers happy.

58

Osama: How You Like Me Now?

by prophecor in

osama bin laden says he's willing to call a truce.

bush administration says, " in a pigs eye, kiss @$$ !!!

is he manipulating the situation to his advantage, or does america have him on the run?

TallTexan

ahhh, yes! i have been looking for a label for myself. thanks for that...

Glad to help.....

17

New light for the Catholic Church

by TallTexan in

this may have been covered already, but i missed it if it was.. a lady i work with who is catholic told me that not too long ago the new pope changed the catholic doctrine on purgatory - in that now it no longer exists.

of course i couldn't help but think "hmmmm....new light....".

my question to her was "well, do all the people that paid to get their loved ones out of purgatory get a refund?".

TallTexan

Well, thanks for the input. I wondered at the time why it hadn't been more publicized if it had indeed changed.

Rodentboy - as far as proof goes, that's why I posted the topic. It was something I heard that I was questioning - I wasn't making a statement that I knew was a fact.....

18

Did I do wrong on skeeping the "fading" stage?

by flag in

up to last month i was a witness in "good" standing in the cong.

i was not from the elite circle but everybody respects me and a lot of people go to me for advice or comfort when they feel left out by "holy ones".

so, i don't know if i made a mistake by cutting all jw activities at once because now i think i'm the topic of the conversation and phone calls already started to come this past weekend.

TallTexan

"you are smart and I know you will comeback"

Tell her your are 'apostate' and you will go from being 'smart' to being incredibly dumb and simply 'unable to grasp the deeper things.'

My friends always talked about how well-versed in the scriptures and JW doctrine I was. My cousin once made the comment "You don't go to meetings anymore and you still know more about the truth than most of us." (Just showing what I learned here...lol).

However, when I began to share some of the things I was finding out with them, I suddenly, in their eyes, became unreasonable and stupid. I was hoping that they would think "well, he's always researched things well before, so maybe there's something to this." Didn't happen. Once you express doubts or disbelief you also lose your IQ in the JW's eyes.

You are smart to stop. Don't ever start again.....

21

Speaking of Texas.....

by lonelysheep in

jw
friends

there's a (small) possiblity that later this year, the dallas/fort worth area will have another jwd member to call the place home.

i'm browsing places in tarrant county, grapevine, & fort worth.

the houses in fort worth have me floored!

TallTexan

I have a theory that much of Texas' aversion to the WTS is an ingrained distrust of anything from a particular (unnamed) region of the country. No data to support this yet, so maybe I shouldn't call it a theory.

AuldSoul......no, we just know BS when we smell it.....

21

Speaking of Texas.....

by lonelysheep in

jw
friends

there's a (small) possiblity that later this year, the dallas/fort worth area will have another jwd member to call the place home.

i'm browsing places in tarrant county, grapevine, & fort worth.

the houses in fort worth have me floored!

TallTexan

Yeah, the housing prices on the east and west coasts are so artificially inflated it's rediculous. Enjoy 'cheap' housing in Texas while it lasts. It's funny watching people come here from the 'coasts' and marvel at the low cost of housing. I know someone who just paid $375,000 for a 1300 sq ft dump in N. Hollywood - what a joke.

35

What is your rating?

by billyboy in

jw
friends

as a bit of a newbie , i'm interested as to the overall viewpoint of site users and spectrum of views.. using a crude gauge , where 1 = completely convinced "stepford"jw ("jhs organisation is wonderful etc") and 10 is a completely rabid "tear down the tower" apostate/ex-witness pathalogically hating the whole jw structure , where do you fit in?

(apolgies to both groups - no offense intended).. i'm about 2.5 - somewhat disillusioned , keen for reforms in certain areas but broadly accepts the teachings and loves the lifestyle.

would never leave.

TallTexan

10+....if I could pull a "Fight Club" ending for the WTS buildings I probably would....

If they would own up to their lies and mistakes and allow people to make a choice knowing those things, then I'd probably drop to a 5.....

34

Are you allowed to fall asleep at the meetings now??

by stillAwitness in

jw
friends

the sercuit overseer gave the expierence about an interested one who would come to the meetings every sunday but admitted he would always fall asleep because he worked a double shift at work the night before.

the s.o said: "and sure enough he fell asleep during my talk.

" but he said that it was so encouraging because even though he worked the night before he still tried to get what little he could of the talk and the guy related afterwards: "i would not want to be caught falling asleep anywhere else but at the hall.

TallTexan

If they allow sleeping at the KH now, all they have to do to boost #'s is recruit some homeless folks. They'd love to have a warm place to nap for a few hours...

I guess they simply don't realize that people who are sick and/or tired will not show up to hear another WTS infomercial. Maybe if they had ANY new information or ANYTHING exciting to discuss that getting people to the meetings wouldn't be so hard....