My earliest recollections were ~3 million JWs during a period of ~3 billion world pop. Now 7.1 billion world pop and 7.8 million JWs. I don't know how you measure the error in the measurement of the world population. But has the definition of what goes inot the JW claimed number stayed the same from late 70's to now? I'd bet not. I would bet that their definition has diffused itself so they can count additional gray hues of JW. So while it may be that JWs have kept up a 1:1000 world population ratio, they may not have. Can the error / wiggle room in the JW tabulation be characterized?
Posts by rmt1
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673 more branches closed?
by Viva la Vida init seems the finland branch has taken over the work from estonia, latvia and lithuania (see http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/offices/finland/).
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"Why would everyone be included this time...unless something special is about to happen?"
by Separation of Powers inso, i am talking to a long time friend, you know, the non-judgmental type that doesn't really mind that i don't go to many meetings and am never out in service.
he tells me that the annual meeting is coming up and that the whole congregation is invited...well, at least the active "approved" whole congregation.
he speaks with an excitement that puzzles me, like he just got invited to the locker room of his favorite football team when they won the superbowl.
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rmt1
What policy change can cause maximum change in rate of fleece? Following the money simply says that lake side retreat of administrative buildings. A coplaint about the No Child Left Behind Law is that it encourages teachers to "teach to the test". All that TWS needs to do is teach to the construction project. Past new light has revealed that bombshells of obvious deceit, deception, or noteworthy inconsistency have not penetrated the hardened bunkers of cowardly minds, and have not dislodged a great many of those who know full well it's BS (you know who you are) but are hooked in by parental, family or work connections.
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What gives you away as a (former) JW?
by perfect1 inthese days my jw past stay safely under wraps from nearly everyone.. i dont dig it up- and i see no need to talk about it with anyone.. sometimes i feel as if my past is a large and terrible secret, and i will be found out eventually.
people can sense i am different.
i never talk about my family.. i guess people chalk it up to being a private person or let me be a mystery.. however, there is one thing that i feel completely reveals me as having been raised a jehovahs witness:.
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rmt1
No friends, wife sufficient.
Wrapping is an engineering challenge, but knowing what to do for fixings, bows, ribbons, cards, hanging disposable glitter and balloons, waaah?. I make a lousy birthday organizer and cannot remember the mundane holidays.
I like to think I could be making mad stacks if I craved money, and that not making mad stacks is a reflection of autonomous priorities rather than a symptom of an involuntary inability to persist at constantly developing and honing marketable skill sets. (You have to be much much smarter than I will ever be to make money in astronomy, heh.)
I also get by with older car, lower savings buffers, pretty much as if I never grew up on the first world surrounded by opportunities for investment and long term planning. -
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Don't Allow Common "John and Jane Doe" (spiritually dead) to Corporate Broadcast! Keep us Clean!
by AuntConnie inlife's not so great, i've been sulking after it was annouced, the annual meeting of directors is allowing everyone to view the event!
here comes the congregational corpes "john and jane does" to a meeting they should not be allowed to attend!
jehovah's witnesses enjoy their royalty just like americans do.
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rmt1
No, you couldn't just ask for less. Didn't they put on a Nibelungenlied if there was the spectre of a reduction in literature order, which was tantamount to admitting spiritual weakness in the cong?
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Thank you Jehovah for the GBs unapologetic manner in providing these adjustments.
by Joepublisher1 ini was shocked when i heard a circuit overseer include a strange comment in his concluding prayer at the end of this sundays meeting concerning the adjustments discussed in the watchtower.
he said, in part (and im paraphrasing) thank you jehovah for the governing bodys unapologetic manner in providing these adjustments.
i thought to myself, what a strange expression to make in prayer to god!
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rmt1
I've been out too long and was thinking of this guy as an ordinary human being. I'm happy to say I haven't been around these pricks in over a decade. Some of the recent posts jogged my experiences of being in the concentration camp during the visit of the commandant. {{My friend Mike and I would go to these visits as would two Stormtroopers to the convening of the Imperial Visit, with the Emperor's March blaring and Star Destroyers pulling into the KH parking lot. And then those strings rip at the first sighting of the 'oh, no, I'm not God' visiting person.}} I can hear the voice control, sophisticated intonation, fully self-aware performance of stentorian command punctuated by subtle theatre. It is a crowd, you see, and they come to see a performance. These tricks were (in my memory) used by every CO / DO to ground, gird or armor the actual money shot statements. It's an art of the voice, a feat of the body, it bypasses critical analysis in social survival groups, it's a silverback ape / tribal leader / 'big man' critical skillset. Now I can hear the technicolor dolby scotchguard rain-x temperpedic version of this word 'unapologetic'. Now that I just had a 10-15 minute recollection, the probability is higher this word was chosen carefully, locked, loaded, and pulled out of its holster at the precise moment for maximum effect.
Can I ask: Was the intonation such as to imply that he just thought of this word on the spot, after searching for the right word, and being reluctantly forced to use this word? You can usually tell a fake, theatrical preoccupation with bon mot.
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If the big change at the AGM meeting is dropping the literal 144,000...
by slimboyfat inthe best conjecture seems to be that the gb are going to drop the literal 144,000 teaching, especially in view of the december watchtower that pointedly does not mention the 144,000 number.
if they are dropping the literal 144,000 number, but still claim that only a small number are anointed, and can partake, and that only a few are left on earth, then it is fair to ask what has really changed?
they are simply clearing up the embarrassing situation that there were obviously more than 144,000 "anointed" believers from 36 ad until now, and that the number of partakers has been increasing in recent years.
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rmt1
Well, that would sure cheapen my own recollections of the memorial, and I'm out a while. TWS Last Days scales as Zeno's Arrow.
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If the big change at the AGM meeting is dropping the literal 144,000...
by slimboyfat inthe best conjecture seems to be that the gb are going to drop the literal 144,000 teaching, especially in view of the december watchtower that pointedly does not mention the 144,000 number.
if they are dropping the literal 144,000 number, but still claim that only a small number are anointed, and can partake, and that only a few are left on earth, then it is fair to ask what has really changed?
they are simply clearing up the embarrassing situation that there were obviously more than 144,000 "anointed" believers from 36 ad until now, and that the number of partakers has been increasing in recent years.
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rmt1
sir82, your post triggers for me my absolute favorite scriptural passage of all time, from a tome not seen in any KH or branch office, which contains in its few hundred pages a thousand times the wisdom of the entire TWS printed output over more than a century, and which was for me from about 16 yo a stalwart ground truth and basis for making sense of, and surviving, the JW concentration camp, which I myself cannot wash my hands of helping to run.
"…if you were going to raise tough, strong, ferocious men, what environmental conditions would you impose on them?"
"How could you win the loyalty of such men?"
"There are proven ways: play on the certain knowledge of their superiority, the mystique of secret covenant, the esprit of shared suffering. It can be done. It has been done on many worlds in many times."This passage is blocked off in red ink in my edition.
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Cheers! Here's to lost opportunities and forgotten memories.
by pronomono init's 1am and i'm halfway through a glass of brandy.
i've been cleaning out the closet (literally), and reminiscing about old times and decisions i didn't make.
it's times like these i regret being brought up as a witness the most.
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rmt1
I try to stay so busy that I cannot think straight for long on any one thing. This thread Did make it occur to me to wonder where that first JW crush went to. Turns out she's in real estate. Well, I'd have to say the song "Unanswered Prayers" from Garth Brooks No Fences does all the reflecting I need to on this matter. Now some sleep and back to trying to download this insufferable Python / IRAF / PyRAF distribution that lets me extract spectra precisely to the pixel.
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THE DIVORCE OF THE CENTURY!
by JW GoneBad inso there is a rumor going around about 1914 and its possible demise!.
i cant help but think of the many and i say many divorces (not to make light of the matter) that jw families have had to deal with among their ranks over the years.. however, knowing how long the wtbts and 1914 have been together and the thought of mother (wtbts) doing away with her man (1914) after nearly 100 years of marriage is truly heart breaking for some.
many old-timers probably still think of the old days when they were like any other happy couple; inseparable, always holding hands, romantic and the like.
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rmt1
To pursue your parable or analogy to its logical conclusion, she will poison him. Generally, in a way that retains full mobility, plausible deniability, freedom of speech, capacity to conspicuously mourn, the right to sympathy, and other devices, designs, and strategems.
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In 10 words or less express your joy at being free from JW prison.
by Wasanelder Once ini love and enjoy life as never before!.
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rmt1
Freedom to pursue the self-directed persistence of this species.