Mad Irishman

Joined

• started 0 topics
• posted 263 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Mad Irishman

• 
  44

  Money woes show it ain't the truth

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovahs people do not beg for money.

  [...] we have never considered it proper to solicit money for the lords cause, after the common custom .

  it is our judgment that money raised by the various begging devices in the name of our lord is offensive, unacceptable to him, and does not bring his blessing either upon the givers or the work accomplished.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  But did you ever feel coerced? I gave what I wanted when I wanted. I never felt pressured to do something I didn't want to do. That was just my experience.
• 
  46

  Jehovahs Witnesses and the Name , HOW Important. ?

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovah`s witnesses place great emphasis on the importance of god`s name as jehovah .so much so that they are often accused by christendom`s religions as substituting jehovah for christ.. the old testament ( hebrew scriptures identify god as the tetragrammaton four hebrew consanants yhwh and not jhvh.

  as mistakenly believed by a 13th century spanish monk .. modern scholars including the j.w.`s agree that the more accurate pronunciation of gods name would be more nearer to yahweh than the name jehovah .. so why do j.w.`s insist on the name ?

  jehovah ?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  Smiddy,

  I don't understand why ex-JW's get so hung up on this.

  "Jehovah" is the universal English term for God's name. It isn't a JW thing. George Washington used it. Thomas Jefferson used it. Abraham Lincoln used it. Herman Melville used it. Ernest Hemmingway used it. For goodness sake, Steven Spielberg even used it in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie.

  If you go and find most English Bibles that pre-date WWII you find the term Jehovah used as God's name. 17th, 18th, and 19th Century English and America literature is full of the use of Jehovah. It is just an English reference to God's name. I've never thought it had anything to do with JW's, especially when I read "Jehovah" in use in American literature and American history growing up over and over and over.

  The colonists used the term Jehovah for God's name. That was 400 years ago in America. There were no JW's then.
• 
  11

  Not for unthinking Christians. The OUP blog looks at the question, How Did Life Begin on Earth?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  oxford university press daily offers thoughts on many serious topics.

  in this life it examines the possibilities of a 'non-created' beginning of life.. the blog post commences:.

  quote,"news broke in july 2015 that the rosetta missions philae lander had discovered 16 carbon and nitrogen-rich organic compounds on comet 67p/churyumov-gerasimenko.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  Sorry, all of these ideas are just theories. When they can replicate something scientifically then there would be a real news story. There are no examples of life starting on its own anywhere in science so the onus is on science to prove it. Otherwise, it's just, don't hit me for saying this, science ... fiction ...
• 
  22

  Similarities between the Governing Body and an abusive spouse

  by Zoos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was looking at a list of methods used by abusive spouses to manipulate and control their "domain" and was struck by how similar the mentality is to the governing body's approach to the flock.

  obviously not everything on the list applies as there is no sexual component in the congregation and there is no physical contact, but the similarities were shocking.. http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm.

  abusers use a variety of tactics to manipulate you and exert their power:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  Sorry GrreatTeacher. It was simply a double post.
• 
  22

  Similarities between the Governing Body and an abusive spouse

  by Zoos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was looking at a list of methods used by abusive spouses to manipulate and control their "domain" and was struck by how similar the mentality is to the governing body's approach to the flock.

  obviously not everything on the list applies as there is no sexual component in the congregation and there is no physical contact, but the similarities were shocking.. http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm.

  abusers use a variety of tactics to manipulate you and exert their power:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  LoisLane,

  My female friends have told me EVERYTHING about their experiences.

  Punched in the face. Check. Punched in parts of the body where no one can see the bruises unless they were undressed. Not having access to the checkbook. Not being allowed to drive. Not being allowed to work. Not being allowed to have anyone over the house. Insulted with the most heinous words and name calling. Being told they were worthless. Scum. Losers. How about being punched in the stomach when they were pregnant? How about being dropped off in the middle of the woods and told to walk home? How about killing the family dog in front of them?

  How about being raped after an argument? Would you like to know in what why their husband raped them because they confided in me that too.

  From my sixty years of experience I don't remember the Governing Body doing any of the above, so to make the analogy of the GB being like an abusive spouse is emotionally immature, really reaching, and an insult to real spouses who have been abused. Make another analogy, but not that one.

  If you can't take dissent maybe you should go back to being a JW. Seems like you would fit in fine there. I'll go sit in the corner now.
• 
  28

  Candace Conti

  by Pubsinger in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  so we know that wt settled out of court for an undisclosed sum and that presumably there was a 'gagging order' attached to the settlement.. not having really thought about what a 'confidentiality clause' meant before, i assumed in the past that it meant that you weren't allowed to disclose the amount of the settlement or any details about it.

  but from the total and absolute silence once the settlement was made, i can only assume that it is a total gagging order.. how can the courts allow such a restriction to be put on a victim?

  protecting the abusers and allowing the institution to cover up the lengths they go to to avoid admitting their guilt?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  Almost 100% of all court settlements come with a stipulation that the aggrieved party not discuss the settlement. That is how the U.S. legal system works no matter how big or small the case is.
• 
  22

  Similarities between the Governing Body and an abusive spouse

  by Zoos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was looking at a list of methods used by abusive spouses to manipulate and control their "domain" and was struck by how similar the mentality is to the governing body's approach to the flock.

  obviously not everything on the list applies as there is no sexual component in the congregation and there is no physical contact, but the similarities were shocking.. http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm.

  abusers use a variety of tactics to manipulate you and exert their power:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  Thanks Zoos.

  My point is simply that finding a bean in a bag of rice doesn't make it a bag of rice. You can make anything correlate to something else if you try hard enough; and too many times people go to these great lengths and try and make these mental gymnastics to try and make a point about something that doesn't fit the topic at hand at all.

  My boss tries to exert some kind of control over me. That doesn't make them equivalent to an abusive spouse.
• 
  11

  New Bibles on the website

  by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was going through a few websites and isolating text of the 'deuteronimist history' for my channel on youtube today when i opened a tab to jw.org to see if they had actually dome anything in a few days.

  to my surprise up popped the new bibles.. no for many year the only one they had was nwt 1984 and as of 2 years ago the rnwt with audio coming in slowly.

  (the guys that do ezra are crap and lett ruins mark) a week or two ago they started adding a study bible starting with matthew.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  When I grew up in the truth the brothers and sisters didn't use the New World Translation exclusively. In our hall some people used the King James, some the NWT, some the Bible in Living English, some the American Standard Version, some the Emphatic Diaglott. So having any of those versions on the website is meaningless. It's only been in the last 30 years that most people use the NWT. But I've heard many, many people quote other translations during meetings through the years all the time.
• 
  22

  Similarities between the Governing Body and an abusive spouse

  by Zoos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was looking at a list of methods used by abusive spouses to manipulate and control their "domain" and was struck by how similar the mentality is to the governing body's approach to the flock.

  obviously not everything on the list applies as there is no sexual component in the congregation and there is no physical contact, but the similarities were shocking.. http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm.

  abusers use a variety of tactics to manipulate you and exert their power:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  As someone who has had several close female friends abused by their spouses your analogy of the GB and abusive spouses is a rather stupid one. I mean do you know women who have been abused? You must not to use this analogy.

  As much as you may disagree, dislike, or loath the GB of the JW's making an analogy to spouses who are monsters is rather vitriolic and makes you seem like you are completely blinded by your emotions. By your analogy anyone in the workplace or Corporate America or the government falls into this same definition, including the military, labor unions, etc., etc.

  I mean you come on here and you see these analogies of the JW's to crazy over-the-top things like ISIS, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and abusive spouses and you start to sound like you're drinking your own off-brand of Kool-Aid. Who in the world would take that kind of analogy seriously? Not a thinking person that's for sure.
• 
  14

  My brother-in-law just graduated PSS

  by Frazzled UBM in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i was scrolling down facebook and i saw that my brother-in-law was getting lots of likes and congrats (including sadly from my wife) for graduating pss.

  initially i thought peter pan (he is incredibly immature for a 23 year old) had gone against character and completed some sort of educational or vocational course until i found that pss stood for pioneer service school.

  i was tempted to comment how sad this was but instead commented that "no matter how much you do they will always make you feel like it is not enough".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mad Irishman

  Kind of a crappy thing to post to someone. You have to edit yourself to be kind sometimes you know.