Congratulations Nic. Your metaphor of the broken chain reminds me of the work of sociologist Daniele Hervieu-Leger who described the passage of religious traditions down the generations as a “chain of memory”. The idea is that society as a whole has broken the chain of religious transmission and thus become secular. In your own case the chain of Jehovah’s Witness belief has been broken. There is no chance your granddaughter will ever return to JWs in later life because she will never be indoctrinated in the first place. JW belief holds no fundamental place in the worldview of the next generation, and can’t signify chilike security or certainty as it perhaps did for you or me or others brought up in or around the JW religion. As you say, the chain is broken.
slimboyfat
JoinedPosts by slimboyfat
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24
Just wanted to share my little bit of good news.
by nicolaou ini haven't been posting here much lately, i think i only created one topic in 2018!
but this is worth it.. i am a grandfather 😊.
it happens all the time but damn, it feels good.
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More on South Africa
by zeb inhttps://killingfieldsmovie.com/.
write to your mp help these people to leave to come to safety..
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slimboyfat
Given the history of the country, it seems to me, the absolutely remarkable thing is the relavite lack of racist retribution against white people in South Africa. They are dealing with a difficult situation and a tangled history, and I think they should be commended, both black and white people, for the good will and genuine efforts at reconciliation, as imperfect and incomplete as those efforts may be. And on this thread, thanks to Earnest for sharing some facts and personal experience to counter the general climate of ignorance on the topic. Genocide is not a word to throw about lightly for the purposes of political rhetoric. Neither should the politics of South Africa be exploited by those ignorant of its details as a vehicle for promoting agendas closer to home.
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Ronald L. Lawson Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Queens College – Papers on Seventh-day Adventism, with some comparisons with Jehovah’s Witnesses
by jwleaks inronald l. lawson ph.d., professor emeritus, queens college, cuny – papers on seventh-day adventism, with some comparisons with mormons and witnesses.
9 january 2019. link.
a question that continues to draw research in the sociology of religion is what factors spur the growth of religions (kelley 1972; iannaccone 1994; bruce 2002; hoge and roozen 1979; stark and finke 2000).
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slimboyfat
There are only around 50,000 Christadelphians worldwide, concentrated in Britain, Australia, North America and a few African countries.
Interesting video on Christadelphian Numbers.
The Assemblies of God is a huge Pentecostal denomination with millions of members in South America in particular.
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Ronald L. Lawson Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Queens College – Papers on Seventh-day Adventism, with some comparisons with Jehovah’s Witnesses
by jwleaks inronald l. lawson ph.d., professor emeritus, queens college, cuny – papers on seventh-day adventism, with some comparisons with mormons and witnesses.
9 january 2019. link.
a question that continues to draw research in the sociology of religion is what factors spur the growth of religions (kelley 1972; iannaccone 1994; bruce 2002; hoge and roozen 1979; stark and finke 2000).
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slimboyfat
Yes Ryan Cragun is very good. Here is another he wrote:
Lawson also wrote an article decades ago demonstrating the differing trajectories of JWs and SDAs: SDAs have become a denomination of Christianity while JWs remain sectarian in character.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240592299_Sect-State_Relations_Accounting_for_the_Differing_Trajectories_of_Seventh-Day_Adventists_and_Jehovah's_Witnesses
Their work is a good counter to Rodney Stark who at one time argued both JWs and Mormons were on course become major world religions in this century.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537909708580796
I know all these artilces are not accessible, sorry.
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You Don't Have to Tell the Elders Anything!
by minimus inif you were ever brought before a judicial committee, and were about to be interrogated by the elders, just remember...you owe them nothing.
they are mere men and no better than you!
even if it wasn’t a judicial interrogation , you should never feel obligated to them.
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slimboyfat
Mostly a good idea, except possibly when they’ve already got evidence, and ask you to confess as a test of repentance. Need to be careful because it’s a rigged game. Not that I have any experience of this. It’s what I gather from what others have said.
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3 BOE's Just Arrived!
by Atlantis in2019 literature requests inventory guidelines.
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/61d2fbfb4e9fe98207232706d268cefe20190108210049/f1225274c08578aa9fc436bc3165671b20190108210049/eed346 2019-assignment to view the special talk https://wetransfer.com/downloads/a5a5e609608a179d2b25b7c0609ee33420190108210028/e9d368033ab2845e214166bd31f3187720190108210028/0a64d5 2019-announcements and remindershttps://wetransfer.com/downloads/d64d5acb5ff60667f04937d335ddb5d220190108210004/377677b2c0da62f04f2750c7ffdb9ba320190108210004/6cb41datlantis!
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slimboyfat
It's very likely they eliminated the magazine servant position due to a lack of ministerial servants.
And the lack of magazines,
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The downfall of the Governing Body
by john.prestor inin a book i read a while back by the sociologist randall collins he says truly powerful people don't get angry because they get what they want in other ways, and he shows a picture of two runners where the one who's losing looks at the girl that passes her rather than ahead at the finish line, guess she doesn't wanna win the race after all.
i want to apply these to the governing body and their actions, the pattern of their actions, in printing all the hateful rhetoric against people like us and why l'm pretty sure, pretty damn confident in fact, it's all downhill from here... thanks to them and them alone.. the moment you let somebody get in your head and let them stay there they beat you, they win, they establish power, we got in their heads, they know we present a threat to them, we won't shut up, we're more brazen than we used to be, we're in the news, we're on tv, we're online we're at conventions we're in the kingdom halls, hell we're just about everywhere.
yeah, we don't have this completely down yet, sometimes we come on too strong or do something stupid, and i'm pointing the finger at myself here too, but for the most part we know how to fight this battle: we drag them into the light when they wanna hide in the dark like jackals lurking in the woods sneaking up on weak and wounded deer.
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slimboyfat
Indeed, very true. When Gary Breaux came out and said they would never change their rules because of “apostate” pressure, it was clear they have lost it. It’s all over bar the shouting.
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At 1.4% growth the last 2 years, it's safe to say, jw.org and cart witnessing is an abject failure!
by nowwhat? inso much for jehovah blessing this new arrangement.
they are barely keeping up with the birthrate!
so basically the org spent millions of dollars on their website and broadcasting so the only growth they are still getting comes from born ins and illiterate and superstitious folks from africa.
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slimboyfat
My take on the cart witnessing was that this was a brainchild of a GB member , started in New York and although the tangible results were negligible , it gave a good impression of activity to see JWs outside train stations & in high footfall traffic areas , so the GB decided to run with it.
That’s pretty much their own account of how it came about. There was a video about it shown at the meeting a few moths ago. It said that carts/metropolitan witnessing started as a special campaign in France, the GB decided to copy it in New York, they liked it and rolled it out across the world. They stopped using tables because carts are easier to transport.
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The pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton according to Gérard Gertoux
by Narkissos insome time ago i stumbled across a book by french author gerard gertoux, about the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton.
the book was also published in english (cf.
the author's site at http://gertoux.online.fr/divinename/) .
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slimboyfat
The fact is the old Hebrew language had no vowels that’s why they switched to Aromaic.
Yeah but some speculate the switch might have had an olfactory cause as well.
The above quoted post got a thumbs up from someone! Whereas Earnest’s factual responses got none. There is no justice in this world! (I would have given Earnest a thumb up but for some reason the thumbs buttons don’t work for me)
I can’t say I’m terribly in favour of the use of “maggot” for Gerard Gertoux either, as on the previous page. What is that all about?
The quality of discussions these days hovers between depressing and hilarious.
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Joke Sharing Thread
by Vanderhoven7 ingot a good joke or two?
why not share them.
here is a fun one.. retirement can be fun.
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slimboyfat
Jokes can have an ideological agenda, but they should at least be funny to start with. I find it interesting that sarcastic “jokes” from a certain side of the political spectrum often lack this basic sense of humour.
I said to the doctor: some days I feel like Donald Duck and some days I feel like Mickey Mouse.
The doctor said: how long have you been having these Disney spells?