Posts by rebel8

76

Bizarre comment about jw.org at SAD

by sir82 in

jw
friends

recently attended a sad.. bethel speaker was gushing about the wt's embrace of new technology, in the part of his talk warning about "apostate" web sites.. a loose summary of his comments:.

"and the brothers at headquarters have made it very safe for you to go to our website.

in fact, the brothers talked to the folks at google, and they made a special arrangement so that when you type in 'j w period' into the google search engine, it automatically shows you the jw.org website.

rebel8

OMG you can't make this stuff up. This is the dumbest thing since Sparlock and the sign language masturbation video.

This is how it really went:

A troup of GB went over to the Google corporate headquarters and demanded a meeting with Larry Page, and he gleefully acquiesced to their demands after agreeing to be baptized on the spot in the lobby's fountain, and then went right out and bought a 4-door field service car.

OR:

A troup of GB went over to the Google corporate headquarters and demanded a meeting with Larry Page. He refused, but they stalked him outside the building and approached him in the parking lot. He listened to their wackadoodle request to protect them from Satanic keywords. He pretended to gleefully acquiesce to their demands. After they left, he laughed his ass off and posted about it on Google Friend Connect (or whateveritscalled).

OR:

A troup of GB went over to the Google corporate headquarters and demanded a meeting with Larry Page. The security guard asked them to leave. They pulled out Reasoning From the Scriptures and pointed out the freedom of speech (even though they still failed to realize their propaganda does not apply on private property, and it does not cover trespassing). The guard texted his coworker, who came out and pretended to be Larry Page. It was the most legendary practical joke Google hq had ever seen. He played it out to the end, agreeing to shave his beard and have a home bible study.

7

the stunning symbiosis between fiber arts and mathematics

by Hortensia in

http://app1.scientificamerican.com/article/the-stunning-symbiosis-between-math-and-knitting-slide-show1/.

also very interesting is a ted talk by an australian scientist who crochets and started an international project knitting coral reefs..

rebel8

You are a smart person. I can tell.

26

Pioneering: How the GB shamelessly capitalizes on members' worldly desire for prominence.

by Island Man in

the bible likens the preaching work to a sacrifice of praise - praise to god.

pioneering is also a sacrifice that involves praise.

it's the sacrifice of a specified number of hours that wins you the praise of men.. when you really analyze the psychology of pioneering it is apparent that the praise of men or prominence before men is at the heart of it.

rebel8

Well I suppose some do it for that reason, or maybe many.

I was of the era that if you were not strenuously exerting yourself, doing all you can, not "being kind to yourself", then your eyeballs were going to be the snack for a few large crows.

So I did not have enough money to survive, no health insurance, etc., and I was hoping day by day that jehoopla would provide.

I pioneered out of fear and because I was forced to (I was not allowed to get a full-time job after high school), not out of some lame desire for recognition. Admiration from that ship of fools was never something I valued.

Pioneering proved to me, once and for all, that jehoopla either did not exist, was not able to help his followers, or did not care.

3

2013 Yearbook of Jehovah Witnesses Reviews on GoodReads

by mynameislame in

jw
friends

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17186092-2013-yearbook-of-jehovah-witnesses.

the 2014 reviews were there too but not nearly as many as the 2013 yet.. .

more interesting than the reviews of the yearbook were the number of other reviews and ratings posted by the various users.. some of them were quite impressive with the number of books they had read and rated.. .

rebel8

I like doing reviews on Amazon. I've reviewed many of the books I read over the years. It's both therapeutic and informative for innocents.

For a while, I had a guy following me and responding, "Apostate!" sorta stuff on all my reviews. Luckily, he copied and pasted his response to me--same one every time--so I reported him to Amazon as harassing. He stopped.

36

An Anti-Witnessing Campaign, Please Join Me!

by What Now? in

in the past few weeks, the shunning issue has become a very personal one for me, and i have begun to realize that it is not just enough for me and my family to fade out.

after some recent events, i am motivated to start some anti-watchtower activism of my own.. i, like many others, have hoped that there would be a scandal of epic proportions within the organization, something that would wake others up and trigger a mass exodus.. while i am still hopeful that this may happen, it seems that the organization is too good at damage control, and heightening the paranoia surrounding apostates.. but what if the ex-witness community tried a different approach?.

what if, to borrow a hockey term, a sort of shut out situation was created?.

rebel8

I have placed the letter template, instructions and explanation on my blog, if anyone's interested.

cultprevention.blogspot.com/2014/02/free-letter-template-stop-jehovahs.html

36

An Anti-Witnessing Campaign, Please Join Me!

by What Now? in

in the past few weeks, the shunning issue has become a very personal one for me, and i have begun to realize that it is not just enough for me and my family to fade out.

after some recent events, i am motivated to start some anti-watchtower activism of my own.. i, like many others, have hoped that there would be a scandal of epic proportions within the organization, something that would wake others up and trigger a mass exodus.. while i am still hopeful that this may happen, it seems that the organization is too good at damage control, and heightening the paranoia surrounding apostates.. but what if the ex-witness community tried a different approach?.

what if, to borrow a hockey term, a sort of shut out situation was created?.

rebel8

^Right. And this has been discussed at length and repeatedly in this forum.

The limitations you mentioned are why you need to put your request in writing, keep documentation that you sent it to them, tell them you're going to put them under citizen's arrest for breach of the peace if they trespass, and then do so.

For most dubs, that will be effective. They don't want to be arrested or sued.

But you must make a prior notification in order for this to work.

http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/citizen-s-arrest.html

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/breach+of+the+peace

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/266002/1/trespass-at-your-own-risk-so-sayeth-the-governing-body#.Uwo0jM4pc1I

36

An Anti-Witnessing Campaign, Please Join Me!

by What Now? in

in the past few weeks, the shunning issue has become a very personal one for me, and i have begun to realize that it is not just enough for me and my family to fade out.

after some recent events, i am motivated to start some anti-watchtower activism of my own.. i, like many others, have hoped that there would be a scandal of epic proportions within the organization, something that would wake others up and trigger a mass exodus.. while i am still hopeful that this may happen, it seems that the organization is too good at damage control, and heightening the paranoia surrounding apostates.. but what if the ex-witness community tried a different approach?.

what if, to borrow a hockey term, a sort of shut out situation was created?.

rebel8

IMO, proactively writing to the kh with a no trespassing/dnc letter is even better. Then they can't even come to your door.

Your neighbors will prefer it because they avoid both confrontation and an annoying visit.

Some have provided a template letter and address to send it to. Then all the neighbors have to do is print, sign and mail. example--

[Current Date] Jehovah's Witnesses [Address of closest congregation] Dear Sirs: This letter is to serve as formal notice that effective today you may not enter the property of [address]. This “No Trespass” notice will remain in effect until rescinded by me. Failure to comply with this notice may result in your arrest by police, citizen's arrest, and civil litigation, in which you will be named personally and as an organization. Furthermore, please do not contact me in any way.

Please refer to the following.

-[cite your state/local laws on trespassing here]

-[cite your state/local laws on citizen's arrest]

-Correspondence regarding trespassing from the Watchtower Society to you dated September 2004

Sincerely,

[signature]

[printed name]

27

The zeal has gone out of the preaching work , their is no more urgency to the work.

by smiddy in

this is an observation i have made .

yesterday a group of jw`s entered the street where i live , i`m at the end of a street and they stood around and obviously joked and mucked around for about 10 minutes as a group opposite my house .their were 3 teenage girls ,1 teenage boy , and 3 older men .

this was about 10:30 am on a saturday.

rebel8

Maybe there were pockets of zeal here and there, but in general, I doubht "zeal" and "taking it seriously" existed in any broad manner.

When I talked to the elders about how much I hated fs as a pioneer, and the other pioneers hated it too, they said jehoopla commanded us to exhibit joy in serving him, so we better figure out a way to enjoy it. We never did, but we sure found a way to make it more tolerable--goofing off.

The dubs I went in fs with, from half a dozen or so different congregations:

planned their RVs so they would spend the most time driving from one side of the territory to the other
spent most of the time talking about, planning, or taking breaks in local restaurants
knocked lightly so the householder wouldn't answer the door
chose their territories to maximize the NAHs (i.e., Yuppie suburbs on weekdays when most would be at work)
spent unnecessary time in the car warming up
visited inactives or elderly dubs and counted time
gamed the system to count more time than was actually served ("starting time" by leaving a ragazine at the laundry by the kh, then driving to a far away territory while counting time; saying a word or two to an unbelieving or unbaptized family member before attending the service mtg to start time and keep counting it through the meeting)

40

Memorial compulsory for "respectful observers" ?

by sparrowdown in

maybe i am ignorant but why why why pray tell.

if i am not jewish and not of the 144k why is it necessary (compulsory even) for me to attend the memorial ?.

what is the scriptural precedent?.

rebel8

I am not one to defend jws ever, and I'm sure not now either.

But...once you drop the filter of xianity, why is this even an issue? There are lots of ceremonies you go to just observe but not participate in. Inaugurations, weddings, baptisms, graduations, etc.

The only reason I can think of that this would be of any importance whatsoever is "other churches have all members participate in the eucharist, and dubs don't"...which begs the question, why does it matter what other churches do?

16

666 is 66 today

by bigmac in

jw
friends

its my birthday !

just thought i'd share..