i was told by several elders to not get a dog when i was looking for one in the 80s.
the end was close and we needed to focus on the preaching work.
i know some have pets but a lot don't.
No, not around here.... cats and dogs are as popular as they are with the general community. Animals that need a high commitment might be avoided in view of the demands that the WTS make on their time....
In my time I have known horse owners, reptile keepers ,aquarists , snake keepers aviarists ...and I have always lived in towns.
i appreciate all my friends who stop to read what i write and post.
you help me more than you know simply by being there as a sense of 'family of friends' for me to talk to and 'share' thoughts with.i guess if i didn't have stories left to tell or people to listen, i could pack it in and join elon musk in a colony on mars.january 15, 2020. .
which world is this?_________________when the doctor pulled my screaming body out of mom all those 7 decades ago, i landed in a post-wwii world.it was--compared to today's world--an alien planet.the world i live in today has nothing in common with the world in which i grew up.there were no cell phones back then--there were black telephones with a dial-tone and an operator who placed your call.everywhere you found telephone booths!
Yes that's right Terry, I am a little younger than you but have essentially the same memories. As a boy :-
I grew up expecting to go to jail at 18, since Britain then had National Service in the millitary.
Perhaps one house in the street had a black and white telly and all the kids would crowd in to watch at tea time.
We were taught to offer a seat to a lady or old person
I wore short trousers untill I was 11 or 12
When I went House To House for JW , I had to learn a 3 scripture sermon . My older companion had to be able to discuss the Trinity, Hellfire etc. We could expect a long talk at least once every time
Was the world better then? In many ways yes....
when the doctrine regarding 1935 being the close of the calling was done away with in 2007, it was not unexpected to see the number rise.
over the next few years it went from around 8,500 to 10,500. this seemed to indicate that there were a couple of thousand people that may have felt they had the calling all along, but too shy to profess it.
for the 30 year period between the mid 1978 and 2007, parktakers had barely dropped.
Who can say for sure? ... If the WTS have any detailed breakdown of the figures, they certainly are not sharing it.
IMHO.. they may be a mix of third world converts from other Christian faiths who cannot give up their aspirations to go to heaven... and some established dubs who do have that narcissism that Finkelstein was talking about.
NB 8500 to 20,000 is a hell of a jump when you see it like that.... for a group that is supposed to be reducing !
so in this past week i came across a stash of my old elder stuff.
i've scanned a bunch of notes and agendas, and public talk outlines.. check out an agenda and my notes from the meeting here: https://imgur.com/gallery/qqmyczn.
i’ve put an explanatory note on each image in imgur.
Well, this looks terribly efficient and business like. My recollection of elders meetings were much more rambling and verbal. Individuals never kept notes , people would raise matters as the thought came to them and the P/ O or Coordinator usually had no idea of how to keep control.
Later the Secretary was obliged to take minutes , but that was it.
NB , did you really get through that agenda in one hour? We used to have meetings that lasted hours on end. That I included a break for tea and biscuits half way . Meetings were held in an elders house ...much more comfy than the K Hall.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51049853.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31987242.
"How can you trust them? "
I am sure that the mods would rightly jump on any expression of racism or abuse to other ethnic or religious groups , anti semitism would probably get you banned ... yet Islamaphobia seems rife around here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51049853.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31987242.
"Your Muslim friend is a “lovely” person precisely because he is a bad Muslim."
No, mainstream Islam does not endorse or support terrorism. The terrorists are the bad Muslims because they distort the faith.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51049853.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31987242.
A sad story , " An impressionable young man who fell in with a bad crowd" they said at his conviction. ... but then he goes and does this in prison? ... Jail does not seem to have tamed his radicalism.
Would he be where he is now if his parents had been more patient in the beginning? I guess we will never know.
Incidentally, I must agree with 'LoveUniHateExams' even though the regular dubs would be horrified at the suggestion.
I totally disagree with MeanMrMustard .... I have known and worked with Muslims who were lovely people. We are hearing of a tiny minority.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/montana/articles/2020-01-08/court-reverses-35m-verdict-against-jehovahs-witnesses.
“The state's high court said in a 7-0 decision Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, that the church is not required to report because its doctrine requires that clergy keep reports of child abuse confidential. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) “
Is that strictly true? Did the High Court know that if an abuser is reinstated, elders may inform other parents of the circumstances and advise them to keep their kids well clear of him? That’s what the ‘Shepherding the Flock book says.
on 10 june 2019, the finnish jw organization lodged an application against finland with the european court of human rights.
the case was quickly - by the court's standards - communicated to the finnish government on 10 december 2019. the complaint itself isn't available online but there is a brief summary (see the link above) prepared by the court:.
the application concerns the jehovah’s witnesses’ religious activities in finland and their compatibility with the data protection regulations.
"Well I views this is high stakes for the org. After all if the dubs can't note anything, how are they going to properly remember where the people with issues and the foreigners live? And if they don't know where those people love, how are they gonna exploit them?"
(I like your misspelling in the bottom line )
True... British dubs now go H to H with no record kept at all. Not Homes are never called on and only exceptional calls are returned to from memory......
in 1976 when i was a young lad of 6, fred franz came to glasgow and gave a talk in govan a suburb on the south side of the city (for those of you who dont know).
our congregation hired a bus to ferry us all to the hall and it was standing room only.
being only 6, i have only the vaguest of memories other than an old man shouting and bawling from the stage.
Number 6 speaks of Jack Barr in his o/p.....I met him once, went "on the work" with him just before he was called to the GB. The Scot was then at the London Bethel.
Funny thing was that was a most humble and unassuming man , totally unlike the image we have of A Morris 3rd or Steve Left. He was 'old school" .I don't think he would fit the Televangelist GB of today.
Regarding Hero worship, I recall once in around 1960 Bro Knorr was to be a speaker at a convention in the North . My older sister and her friends travelled up to attend, because HE was there. I remember my non witness dad grumbling about "hero worship".
