Bodhisattva

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Posts by Bodhisattva

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  6

  I'm just too smart for my own good!

  by lv4fer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when the elder called to talk to me the other day, he told me that one of my problems was that he didn't want to boost my ego, but that i have a higher than average intellectual ability and part of my problem was that i look too deep into things.

  i tend to analyze things a bit too much.

  he thinks its because i went to college, that may be part of my problem.. imagine that, i'm just too smart.

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  Bodhisattva

  By the time the third or fourth elder told me "you think too much," I knew that getting out was a good idea.
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  5

  The Catholic Day (or Irish Day)

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  yerusalyim.

  "vanity!

  it's my favorite sin!".

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  Bodhisattva

  Happy Cinco de Mayo, which is Mexico's independence celebration. Or as I once heard a brainless radio twit say, "It's the Mexican 4th of July." Alas, Mexicans of Orthodox faith may use a Julian calendar several days behind the common Gregorian, but the whole nation is not 60 days ahead of the rest of us.

  We think about words so little. Why would one ever need a "hot water heater"? Do you buy it off the back of a van? A friend mentioned that at work they "had a going-away party for some people who are leaving." Good thing, since throwing going-away parties for people who are sticking around is just confusing. Then there was the expert who testified at the O.J. trial that some hair in evidence was identified as 'belonging to an African-American.' Presumably he had not positively identified the owner of the hair, or that the owner's ancestors were necessarily U.S. citizens, just that he was black.

  Edited because the Forum Code here doesn't use angle brackets.
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  Medved Bites the Dust

  by Carmel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did anyone hear about alexander medved meeting his demise in an helicopter crash in russia?

  if so, there goes the king of the north theory #14 as promulgated by one of our former contributors... watch out putin, you were on the list... carmel

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  Bodhisattva

  General Alexander Lebed. Michael Medved is a censorship-promoting movie critic.
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  10

  WTC Electronic Hijacking Update

  by SYN in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  reporting back on the hijacking of the planes that hit the wtc/pentagon using remote control devices!

  grabbed it from http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=75&contentid=306&page=2 (it's short so i just pasted it in the forum box!).

  in the mid-seventies america faced a new and escalating crisis, with us commercial jets being hijacked for geopolitical reasons.. determined to gain the upper hand in this new form of aerial warfare, two american multinationals collaborated with the defense advanced projects agency (darpa) on a project designed to facilitate the remote recovery of hijacked american aircraft.

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  Bodhisattva

  If the 19 men implicated in these genocide hijackings are not guilty, I would like to know where the people who where are those who were expecting them? Whenever I've made trips by plane, I have had someone expecting me or have had at least rental car or hotel reservation.
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  53

  In 1968 WTower they said -

  by mouthy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have just finished reading watchtower of aug 15th 1968.

  ( i was still there then) i couldnt believe what i'm reading & i qoute.

  "are we to assume from this study that the battle of armageddon will be over by the autumn of 1975 & the longed looked for thousand year reign of christ will begin by then?

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  Bodhisattva

  I hate to say it, but I don't know that the theory of the time between Adam's creation and Eve's creation has ever been formally revoked. In which case the question of when Cain was born becomes important. Why? Because, if the WTS wants to revise their chronology only slightly, they can say that little time needs to have passed between Eve's creation and the first sin, or between the first sin and Cain's birth. Thus if Adam was 130 when Cain was born (I do not recall what the WTS chronology says), then Eve may have been created only about a year before, sinned along with Adam, been banished, then become pregnant. In the extreme she might have been pregnant before the banishment. Thus a new deadline of 2205 (if Adam was 130, 1975 + 130) could be established. It would not spur on activity now, but it would continue to justify the existence of the WTS.
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  21

  BOE 2-15-02 What Does It Really Say?

  by silentlambs in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the 2-15-02 body of elders letter a paragraph is dedicated to child abuse issues.

  many have claimed this an adjustment for the better with regard to wt policy.

  sadly this could not be further from the truth.

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  Bodhisattva

  Path, I agree with a lot of what you said. But won't the elders go to the authorities, regardless of the wishes of the victim, if the Legal Department tells them to do so?

  In an NPR interview Thursday or Friday, a cardinal explained how in the past if the victims reported on a priest but asked that the police not get involved, their wishes were respected. But now, he said, in his diocese they would respond that the police should be called, and he opined that this should happen everywhere.

  So should the wishes of the victims be respected? Or is their reluctance to go to the police merely a continuation of their reverance for the abuser that may have been instrumental in the abuse?

  For the silentlambs cause, I would recommend summarizing things something like this for each issue:

  Problem: For many years, victims in non-reporting states have been discouraged from going to the civil authorities so as to prevent besmirching the congregation's reputation, especially when no judicial action is taken. Some are even threatened with punishment, and some have been disfellowshipped for doing so.

  Response: The February 15, 2002 letter to bodies of elders in the United States instructs "Never suggest to anyone that they should not report an allegation to the police or other authorities. If you are asked, make it clear that whether to report the matter to the authorities or not is a personal decision for each individual to make and that there are no congregation sanctions for either decision. That is, no elder would criticize anyone who reports an allegation to the authorities. [emphasis added]"

  Comment: While this gets rid of the disfellowshipping, it does not do away with the fear. To a witness, being told that there are not sanctions or criticism for doing something is code for saying that something is wrong but not punishable. Why would one have to say 'there is no punishment for doing this' about something that is not only not wrong, but a civic responsibility? Very often the elder will not be asked about whether the allegation should be reported, because the same power over the victim that allowed the abuser to do these things also makes the victim feel guilty about telling. The Watchtower should instruct elders to encourage the victims to alert the civil authorities to any allegations and, even if they doubt the victims credibility, they sould alert the authorities themselves if the victim does not.

  Something like this that tells people where we started, what has happened so far, and what more needs to be done, would be a good thing on the silentlambs website.
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  9

  Landover Bapist under attack!

  by Elsewhere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a crazy site that is trying to shut down the landover baptist web site.

  i can't help but wonder if it is a joke.. http://207.67.219.101/objective/index.html.

  fyi: landover is located at: www.landoverbaptist.com.

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  Bodhisattva

  I'm still trying to nail it down as a joke. If it's not, it's scary. Touches a lot of nerves - censorware, America as a Christian nation (as opposed to a secular one), and so on. But this got me to laugh, even if it wasn't supposed to:

  Any message you read claiming to be from Jim Carlson or any other OBJECTIVE: Ministries member that contains vulgarities, sexual innuendo, bad poetry, or other un-Christian sentiments is to be considered a FRAUD and ignored.

  The juxtaposition in bold made me laugh. It is startling how blatantly people are told to ignore anything that makes the teller look bad - the Watchtower is much more subtle about ingraining this sort of thinking.
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  3

  Child abuse policy

  by Smitty in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  the pope is considering adopting a child abuse policy similar to jw's.

  they've already accepted the policy of 'one strike youre out'.

  now they're considering applying it to those cases that involve pass offences.

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  Bodhisattva

  So the Catholic Church will promptly start threatening victims of child sexual abuse with excommunication if they tell anyone?
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  20

  The Usual Jaw Dropping WT Hypocrisy

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the latest watchtower contains a life experience from a. brother in nigeria.

  he recalls an incident from his youth.. "another time, the principal of the baptist school attempted.

  to abuse me sexually.

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  Bodhisattva

  Meanwhile the Watchtower continues the misconception, also being advanced by some in the Catholic Church, that this is about homosexuality. This is rape, and rape is about power, not sex.
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  3

  JWs using new methods to gather lost sheep

  by radar in

  1. jw
  2. friends
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  Bodhisattva

  If not, he is probably barely tickling the beast. I've been to farm shows, and let me tell you, the boy sheep are well endowed.