Posts by slimboyfat

32

BRANCH OVERSEER : "Apostates are GOOD people !"

by Aleph in

this is quite incredible.during his talk, the branch overseer, made a special talk dedicated to the apostates.. he clearly emphasis his point, "apostates used to be between us, really you can talk with apostates, those people are good, of course their point of vue is different than ours now but they are mostly very nice poeple, and you shouldn't be afraid to talk with them.

"though as usual, the reaction of the brothers was quite the same, impassive, i was very surprise by this statement.i cannot assume if this is just a one man step ahead towards the apostates, or really a change in their policies, this came from the mouth of a branch overseer.of course, for obvious reason, i won't give the name of the brother, which is famous, but only here in an central european country.i would have expected him to quote more scriptures, but he didn't, he could have use the one for jesus himself :"you should love your enemies", as apostates were really the "enemies" for the wtbs for such a long time, maybe now that the king of the north is awaken, apostates are not so bad after all ?

just wondering....

slimboyfat

It could be a doubter, or it could be a true believer. Sometimes the staunchest of true believers can innocently word things in a way that resembles a skeptic, because their true belief blinds them to the fact that what they say could appear subversive. If someone really, truly believes in Watchtower 100%, then it could make logical sense to make “charitable” comments about apostates because they are lost souls. If he 100% believes in Watchtower then he genuinely doesn’t view apostates as a threat to his own belief, just misguided people.

Most JWs don’t seem to fall into this category, however, because most JWs carry some doubts around with them. And most harbour at least some suspicion that apostates may endanger their faith if given the opportunity, and are therefore not inclined to be charitable or open toward them.

77

Advice on Disassociating

by HiddenPimo in

hello my exjw/pimo/pomo friends,.

i am working on penning my da letter and wondered if i should use it as a tool to maybe wake up individuals as the boe will have to read it.. anyone have any advice on what i should say versus what i should leave out?

i am not going to fade as my family can either be loyal to blood or loyal to a man made religion.

slimboyfat

Don’t do it.

16

How do they decide when to get rid of certain information in their publications?

by Tameria2001 in

i was recently watching a video on youtube and on the john cedars channel, he was talking about how the watchtower has discontinued quite a few of their books from back when i was still active.

so it got me to thinking about how do they decide that certain teaching doesn't fit them anymore.

so i was wondering does anyone have any ideas on how they come to that decision because if any of their members bring up something, that person can be disfellowshipped?.

slimboyfat

I’ve always assumed that the rule is: any statement on any issue stands unless it is contradicted by a more recent statement. I can’t point to anywhere that outlines this policy, but it just seems to be the way JWs approach teachings in the literature.

It’s true that the older a statement gets then it begins to raise a question whether it is still teaching, even when it has not been subsequently contradicted. An often cited example is the teaching about 7000-year creative days in Genesis, which was often stated in literature especially leading up to 1975. If I remember correctly the last statement to this effect was the 1980s, or earlier. So is it still current JW, or not? I don’t think it is clear. Unless someone has more information on this topic?

5

Mormon apostate gives testimony in church

by barry in

jw
friends

https://youtu.be/092o_pyo7sg it seems the mormons are fairly civil with their apostates.

slimboyfat

I think Mormons are more relaxed about dissent because their church has made a better effort at countering criticism and addressing difficult topics than Watchtower. So if someone stands up and complains, there is an attitude, “we’ve heard all that before, it’s old news”. Whereas if a JW speaks up about 607, Rutherford, UN, Malawi/Mexico, two witness rule, blood, and the rest, many JWs are going to be like, “say, what!?” And look in vain for official Watchtower responses.

Over the past few years the Mormon church has made efforts to produce official responses on controversial issues such as historical polygamy, racism, character of Joseph Smith, dubious Book of Mormon history and so on. Mormon missionaries are now generally at least aware of most controversial topics, so they don’t come as a complete surprise if confronted about them. Even if they can’t defend the points themselves, they are satisfied that the church has provided an answer to criticisms.

12

Near Death Experiences Studied By Neurophysiologist And Neuropsychiatrist

by Brokeback Watchtower in

this guy studied what happens with the human end of life phenomena and offers some interesting insights.

talks about alternate realities, and cultural effects on ones experience.

i think some might enjoy the way the whole matter is discussed.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78sktuk8zd4.

slimboyfat

I think there is a lot of wisdom in this video.

Existence and consciousness are mysterious, we don’t know the start of it. Sometimes we don’t notice things that are under our noses, and suffering can be avoided by giving up attachments.

11

I.B.S.A.

by APieceOfShitNamedTate in

jw
friends

anyone curious about our i.b.s.a.

cousins?.

https://vimeo.com/116005132.

slimboyfat

I am curious to know if there are any active BS left in Scotland or England af all?

29

Congregation memorial stats

by nowwhat? in

2 congregations met together attendance 355 which is close to exact number of combined publishers.

only saw a couple of new faces.

so it looks like once again the invitation work was a complete failure and relatives of jw's couldn't be talked into coming anymore!.

slimboyfat

More than double publisher count: 45 publishers, 95 in attendance, which is fairly typical. The largest attendance I saw was 135 in the late 1990s.

18

Would You Be Angry If You Were Maligned and Lied About Unfairly?

by minimus in

jw
friends

people can’t understand why people like trump and cavanaugh literally get angry and upset over accusations that can ruin their lives.

if i was falsely accused by a mob of something, i would be defending myself vigorously!

i think it’s ridiculous when people criticize others for not just taking it.

slimboyfat

A narcissist like Trump gets angry when anyone says anything that conflicts with his self-image and agenda with absolutely no regard for whether the comment is true or not. In fact what is true is not even a consideration in his response because he doesn’t operate on a basis that truth or falsehood matters at all. All that matters to Trump is what works in any given moment, which is why he insists on opposite descriptions of reality on different occasions, depending on what he is attempting to achieve.

18

I love it That JW`s Worship A God Named by The Catholics ,And Follow The Bible Of the protestants .

by smiddy3 in

the tetagrammaton 4 hebrew letters representing gods name in the hebrew scriptures as jhvh or more likely yhwh .. the name jehovah was unheard of before the 13th century simply because no one beforehand had added vowels to those four hebrew consonants representing gods name .. and then comes along a spanish catholic monk of the 13th century that adds vowels to those 4 hebrew consonants and he comes up with the name jehovah.. a name that the catholic church has used in and on churches since the 13th century throughout europe and elsewhere in the world.. and lo and behold the g.b.of jehovah`s witnesses in their wisdom stated in the first edition of the "aid to bible understanding" that they chose the name jehovah as the correct pronunciation of gods name because it was the most popular name in use in the world ?

logically by christendom `s religions ,who else ?.

then their is the bible cannon that all of the major christian religions have different books that they feel should make up the bible.. protestant religions .

slimboyfat

Only a small minority of JWs use the form of the divine name Jehovah, most use other forms. In the first century Jews used the divine name in the form Yaho. The important thing is to use Jehovah’s name. The strange thing is people who claim to follow the Bible yet seek to undermine the use of the divine name with excuses such as saying we don’t know the pronunciation or Jesus replaces Jehovah.

20

Help: project to gather statistics on JW congregation finances.

by Anders Andersen in

jw
friends

many countries demand that charities publish a yearly summary of their finances.. where i live (netherlands), charities must publish these statements themselves, and jw do this at jw-anbi.nl.

(i'm quite certain almost no jw knows about that site btw.).

anyway i've been working on automatically harvesting data from all the congregation finance statements to gain more insight in how the borg is doing over time.. now it occured to me that i could do this analysis for more countries and get an even bigger picture.

slimboyfat

Found it:

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5074251394580480/uk-jw-charity-analysis-project

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5202406642024448/almost-half-uk-congregations-financially-red