here is a thread on the new letter to be read to all congregations in all branches on adjustments in door to door work due to the gdpr:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6274619758608384/2019-boe-elders-letter-may-13-england-ireland-data-protection.
i have...connections....to a foreign language congregation in europe.
Sir82 hit the nail on the head. When laws affect the life and liberty of ordinary JWs then Watchtower is bravely defiant. (Germany, Russia, Malawi, South Korea, and so on, the list is endless)
But when laws threaten loss of Watchtower funds or property then Watchtower can be incredibly flexible and amenable to changing their practices to avoid financial loss.
Do JWs notice this double standard? Does it disturb anyone in terms of their priorities?
here is a thread on the new letter to be read to all congregations in all branches on adjustments in door to door work due to the gdpr:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6274619758608384/2019-boe-elders-letter-may-13-england-ireland-data-protection.
i have...connections....to a foreign language congregation in europe.
Can report general confusion. An elder reading out the letter added a comment to the effect: “at this stage the elders don’t know any more than you do about the new arrangement, or how it is going to work”. Elders meetings followed the meeting. One defiant pioneer sister commented, “this will turn out to our benefit”, with no explanation how. Some others showed little interest.
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Any reactions from JWs? I was tempted to talk to JWs at carts about it, but I didn’t see any today.
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Half of them are made up? Seems optimistic.
sorry for the grammar and spelling errors if any..(me 29 raised in the org) (gf 25 not raised) just left her at the hospital with (call her sara).. sara had just ingested half a bottle of her antidepressant pill and half a bottle of melatonin.
this took place after a discussion we where having about a recent event that took place.
long story short, sara told me she slept with my best friend/coworker(call him tim) after a argument we had, the morning after it supposedly happened.. i was pretty torn but i was maintaining and i even thought sara was lying because tim was such a good friend.
Run and don’t look back!
someone on facebook is claiming to have reliable information that the gb is about to announce new light on the 144,000 -- that it's symbolic, not literal.. one person suggested that they will retain the two-class teaching and just change the meaning of 144,000. his idea was that the change would avoid three problems with the current teaching:.
1. embarrassment over more and more partakers at the memorial when the number should be getting less and less.. 2. embarrassment over 12 symbolic 12,000s somehow equaling a literal 144,000.. 3. solving the problem of running out of "anointed" ones who are old enough to be on the gb.. thoughts?.
I can totally see this being a thing. Partakers are what, over 20,000 now? They have to do something to explain it. Calling new partakers crazy isn’t a long term solution, is it?
It’s a bit embarrassing to admit a major and distinctive JW teaching has been wrong all this time. At the same time they abandoned the traditional JW teaching on the faithful slave, apparently without much sense of embarrassment. And despite the fact it makes nonsense of much of their own history and how the organisation developed.
The GB apparently don’t embarrass easily. And they are not unduly concerned about what ordinary JWs think. So why not make this change?
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
According to the letter the single exception for making notes is where the householder instructs not to call again. In that case the publisher is supposed to make a note and keep it with the map.
So the only record JWs will have from their ministry is a list of people who are actively hostile to their message - genius!
But I don’t even understand how this is an exception. Why are JWs allowed to make a note even in the case of “do not call” if they are to make no notes at all? The law seems pretty draconian and unworkable to me.
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Could I point out that this letter is addressed to Britain and Ireland, not England and Ireland - for some of us, not a trivial distinction.
The letter says you can “arrange a return visit” but you are not allowed to record their name or address. How are you supposed to do that?
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Presumably they have sent letters to foreign language congregations to explain how on earth this is supposed to work. Or will they just leave them to their own devices?
I can imagine a lot of pioneers being quite distressed about the pointlessness of ministry after this change. And pioneers in foreign language congregations times ten. They will feel confused and abandoned.
Watchtower must have been pretty scared of being fined to make this change.
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Stopping not at homes will be a relief, and not a big deal. But how is the ministry supposed to function without taking notes for return visits? It doesn’t seem feasible. Who would want to pioneer when there is not even the prospect of making progress with calls?
Are publishers even allowed to ask the householder if they can take a note for a return visit. The letter doesn’t make any allowance for that. Apparently it’s no notes at all! Did I pick up right, that they are allowed to give householders their phone numbers? But how many householders are going to take the initiative to contact? Zero, I suspect. And what publisher wants to hand out their number to first calls anyway? Unless to arrange a rendezvous, which does happen I suppose. My imagination is getting carried away.
And how are foreign language congregations supposed to locate and visit people in the target language? It seems impossible.
