do you think the jdubs will start up the door whacking again one day?.
there has to be many inside the org that are dreading having to do that again and as for the general public seeing this, it’s hard to imagine.
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“One day” , yes I am sure they will. It is their raison de’tre and they will do it out of sheer cussedness to show they are not beaten. They will dust off the magazine carts as well and hit the High Street .
It will start slowly with pilot schemes in non risk areas. The Org will make videos of ones saying how much 5hey have missed it and how glad they are to be back out there . In reality 90% of the publishers wlll groan and force themselves out .
denial..
C’mon the JWs themselves are past masters at avoiding questions and ignoring well constructed arguments. This goes all the way from individuals,like my family, who totally refuse to consider a valid criticism, right up to the top and the written articles.
Actually it is a skill you need to develop as a dub . In the ministry I used to try and develop this art of talking around a difficult question. I was once told by a c/o “ you don’t have to answer every question, just acknowledge it” ….. Like a politician, eh?
Ex Witnesses generally supply a reasoned argument, in my experience. Of course there will always be those who resort to name calling if you disagree, but they can be ignored.
I have found on line excellent reasons to not accept those teachings of the WTS that do not emanate directly from Scriptures. I am sure you can too.
no, this isn't about suddenly becoming aware of how much you hate airports.
it is about people with profound brain impairments like mental retardation, alzheimer's, stroke and dementia (often in a coma) suddenly becoming normal and lucid shortly before passing away.
this is important because the wt teaches that consciousness is a function of the physical brain.
The WT seems somewhat unique among religious groups to insist that there is no consciousness after death.
Actually some other groups teach that the soul is unconscious awaiting a future call. The modern Seventh-day Adventists for one
i am.. they are just fellow brothers, old and getting senile.... but enlightened, despite all the whining.....
I can certainly relate to a lot that DoubtingThomas says. Realising that the Watchtower is wrong is no reason to lose faith in God & Jesus.
A criticism hurled at me before now is that I should respect the ones who taught me about the Scripture... but that does not mean I have to follow all the things that they have reasoned out and proved to be in error.
Can you be a JW and not follow the GB? ... Well you can certainly witness to Jehovah if you like, but can you BE one of that Organisation known internationally as Jehovah’s Witnesses? No , as their written statements clearly show.
Being a Dub is all about loyalty, that is not to God but loyalty to the Organisation and the GB.
again, i'm a decade removed from the faith.
i'm catching up now, and can't believe what i'm seeing.. i get that jw leadership faced a dilemma.
there is no intellectual apparatus within the faith.
I very much enjoyed Oldschool’s post and everything he said is born our even more so today...
i found this on exjwreddit.
a pimo elder is in the middle of an event where a former co allegedly kissed a brother from another hall.. the co denied it so the other elders are frustrated because they can't have a judicial meeting.
if true, can he be disfellowshipped?
I say no. Kissing is not an act of sexual immorality, not Pornea. I know you can be d/f’d for viewing extreme porn but this is different.
in the Bible there are instances of same sex affectionate kisses.
Certainly a man would be strongly counselled , removed from any responsibility but I can’t see grounds for d/f … until he is found to have gone further…….
was a letter read to all congregations requesting parents with children volunteer together to perform maintenance labour at wt properties?
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can anyone confirm?.
Sisters? When I was a young boy I was asked to help the Literature servant. At the time she was a sister…. And did it very well. There were not enough brothers in our small cong.
Youngsters at K. Hall maintenance? Pre covid the locals were told to have a maintenance weekend when they would spruce it up. A few years back fathers would bring along their boys who mucked in. Later though for “ health and safety “ the work was limited to smaller teams of capable men.
Are they going backwards?
I haven’t, but I can understand why one might.
Some dubs have an visceral hatred of “ false religion “ . Others do not feel it so much. Many ex Witnesses fall out of love with the WTBT Society but still maintain a faith in God and Jesus . It follows that they seek to express that faith by looking for another religion.
i have another post here about how the wts is reeling from covid, as reflected in their abysmally catastrophic service report:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6315842470936576/annual-service-report-yet-another-analysis-big-trouble-wts.
here's another rupture showing.. in the latest "announcements and reminders" to elders, there is a paragraph with these sentences:.
I was appointed as elder in my late twenties, I felt inadequate and I was. A week later I was taking a Ministry School in the back room .My first job was to give public counsel to a man much older and I thought a better speaker than me. I just knew it was not right.
If they are having to lower the bar for appointment age it betrays that they have a problem.
there's already been a couple of threads on the 2021 report with insightful comments, but i'm vain enough to want to start my own topic with some additional thoughts..... as others on the other thread noted, it's useful to compare the 2021 numbers not only to 2020 but also 2019 (the last non-pandemic report).. there are some really troubling (if you're a wt headquarters guy) news in the latest report.. 1) baptisms plummet.
2021 - 171,393. baptisms dropped 20% in 2020, and 30% more in 2021. the total drop from 2019 to 2021 is an amazing 44%.. one could argue that without in-person assemblies and conventions you'd expect baptisms to drop.
but....if someone really wants to get baptized, jws will find a way.
I am not so sure that “it has never been easier to count time” . For some maybe but I know devout believing Witnesses who cannot bring themselves to write a letter . Whenever I did it in my dub days I found it incredibly boring and the notion that I was just counting time killed any motivation. Those Witnesses, older ones , admit they have slipped into inactivity. It remains to be seen if they can be reactivated in the future.
