Posts by rmt1

41

New Light not accepted by all..

by Dis-Member in

jw
friends

i came across 3 very long serving regular pioneers today in the street.

they are out preaching full time ever day.

they are at the forefront and spearhead the teaching of jehovah's witnesses on ground level.

rmt1

"proof that even dedicated WT workers do not read their mags as they come. (not eager for food at the right now time).

They study at the last moment. in the second hour of the sunday meeting.

The "FDS sans apostles" idea "we love", will be only studied at the coming meetings."

I confess I am not a practising JWologist, one who scientifically studies JWs ('dubologist', vernacular).

But this point you raise is more eye-popping than anything I've cobbled together about the recent change.

Are you saying that they are saying that all the apostles from the New Testament have been kicked out of the heavenly 144,000 club?

33

"Why would everyone be included this time...unless something special is about to happen?"

by Separation of Powers in

jw
friends

so, 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.

"I think it's an opportunity to fill up the Assembly Halls and charge the circuits/congregations for their use. Sat & Sun. Easily 3 meetings each day. Six "assemblies" @ $10K or $20K or more from each Assm Hall? CHA-CHING! Funds raised at KHalls for those events may even be directed to be sent to the WTS."

Fewest moving parts, maximum occam.

67

3 more branches closed?

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

it seems the finland branch has taken over the work from estonia, latvia and lithuania (see http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/offices/finland/).

rmt1

Well, there are accounts where the crowds came to Jesus, for they only had dough and tomatoes and cheese, and he performed a great miracle that fed thousands.

33

"Why would everyone be included this time...unless something special is about to happen?"

by Separation of Powers in

jw
friends

so, 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.

rmt1

I have seen one employer who is a Picasso or Rembrandt of dabbing a bit of "we're all in this together" on your festering wound of real insult or injury that you sustained from him or some coworker or third party, and then skillfully redirecting your not-entirely, or even remotely, addressed boohoo to some grand painting of the future. He keeps the ball of the conversation, he keeps the air filled with his voice, he keeps your ear filled with words and more words, he keeps talking so that you do not have a space to insert your opinion or draw attention to what hurts, he speaks over your interjection as if you had not spoken and as if your mouth did not even exist, he redirects your attention to his goals, and his last move is to perfectly execute a structured retreat from the conversation, keeping his rifle of a mouth trained on you, keeping your ear filled, talking about his goals as if they were your goals, even if you aren't aware of it just now, and then SNIP, he is out the door, out of the conversation, out of your reach, the case is closed, the doctor's visit is over, what are you bitching about NOW?, didn't we just go OVER this?. Your injuries fester but he distracted you long enough to see the bright side of just going along with the general flow that he outlined that leads to his goals, which are, after all -and let's not be selfish or self-centered or paranoid or go off the rails or make mountains out of mole hills or cause undue trouble with others or indulge in imagined sleights or be immature- good for you, and good for the team. I love Big Brother.

25

Dinah's "friends"...

by Viva la Vida in

an example on how the wt gets things out of proportion.

this is all we know about dinah's "friends" from the bible: .

"and dinah the daughter of leah, which she bare unto jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land" (ge 34:1).. wt conclusion: .

rmt1

There's some law that if someone slept with a girl he could pay her father a shekel and that's that. Fiddler on the Roof. So there's a disconnect in this story. Either they are groovy and pound-wise and there's a mechanism to smooth over this event, so that neither father figure loses face. Or, they are not groovy, they are genetically arrogant, and they accuse the other side of rendering their sister a 'harlot' as if the face-saving shekel option did not exist.

67

3 more branches closed?

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

it seems the finland branch has taken over the work from estonia, latvia and lithuania (see http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/offices/finland/).

rmt1

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?

33

"Why would everyone be included this time...unless something special is about to happen?"

by Separation of Powers in

jw
friends

so, 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.

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.

46

What gives you away as a (former) JW?

by perfect1 in

jw
friends

these 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:.

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.

38

Don't Allow Common "John and Jane Doe" (spiritually dead) to Corporate Broadcast! Keep us Clean!

by AuntConnie in

life'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.

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?

18

Thank you Jehovah for the GBs unapologetic manner in providing these adjustments.

by Joepublisher1 in

i 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!

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.