Posts by Mad Irishman

21

November 2015 Awake

by username in

ok. when i first looked at the cover of this issue of awake i was instantly struck on how creepy it looked.

my first impressions were the picture looked almost masonic in nature.

well, further investigation has led me to another picture that shows a grand masonic hall.

Mad Irishman

The top photo is a photo of a Baptist Church.

19

For those of you who is contemplating leaving the Borg, consider...

by James Mixon in

i know it's not easy for you to walk it's a big decision, family and etc.. if you are afraid consider this.

i have been here for a few years and i can count on one hand from posters who made the statement, i can't take it anymore, i'm going back.. what is it that members here have given up their family and friends to be free.

is it so we can have sinful fun, we are our own person and no one will tell us what to do?.

Mad Irishman

"The stories of people immediately becoming promiscuous drug users after walking out of the KH are just made up from the pages of the WTS."

I can't agree with this statement. I personally know dozens of ex-Witnesses who the second they left became incredibly promiscuous (so much so that some of them would make a promiscuous person blush) and alcoholics and drug users. You haven't seen that with people, especially those under 30? Because I have. They go absolutely nuts. One of my female friends confided in me that she slept with every guy she met after she left and she was completely reckless. I know 3 other ex-sisters who became strippers. If anything most of the younger people I grew up with who left went absolutely bonkers once they left the JW's. They had no code at all.

I'm sure it's different with older people, but certainly not with Gen X'ers or Millennials .

5

The Great Leap err Sideways

by Slidin Fast in

one of the most disturbing aspects of the recent cut backs is the big brother communist undemocratic aspect to it..

in china in the fifties untold millions died of starvation when on a whim the great leap forward made the economy do a u turn.

anyone who objected even slightly was in big deep trouble.

Mad Irishman

Sometimes I wonder if anyone on this site ever went to college or not, because there is not a lot of critical thinking going on sometimes.

Do you know anything about China? Do you know anything about what happened there in the 20th Century aside from what's on Wikipedia? So many members on this site connect abstract facts to something else that is abstract, both having no bearing on one another, that it is unbelievably laughable!

What does Chairman Mao trying to change China into a socialist society have to do with recent changes in the JW org? Ah, I don't see a logical thread connecting them aside from some crazy abstract theory by someone has too much time on their hands. Mao's stupidity killed some 50 million Chinese. Unless you have some digital pics of a bunch of dead JW's laying around somewhere I don't see a connection.

8

Pope Francis Versus Geoffrey Jackson

by Village Idiot in

a world of difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=74p8p3yekoc.

fast forward to 3:12 .

Mad Irishman

Please don't compare the JW's to the Catholic Church.

I know Catholic boys who were raped by priests for years and years and years even after it was well-known in the parish or the parish that they came from before that about what was going on. It is known, and this is indisputable, that priests were actively molesting and their higher ups were covering it up. These priests didn't molest one or two or ten kids. They molested hundreds! I know one who molested over 400 boys, one of which was my friend who killed himself now. And the Catholic Church not only did nothing at all, no rebuke even from the inside, they helped these monsters by moving them around to one place after another and even to one country after another (nobody got defrocked or excommunicated and there was no acknowledgement that any molestation even happened). Do you know how many kids were raped and molested by Catholic priests? We're talking about hundreds of thousands. And Pope after Pope not only covered it up they kept those guys going when they knew they were still molesting kids.

For all their faults I don't know of a single Witness case where anyone knowingly knew someone was actively molesting and they did nothing (perhaps there is but I haven't heard of that case yet). But in the Catholic Church they knew priests were actively molesting and they did nothing. As a matter of fact the Pope's and Bishops covered up for those who were actively molesting. The key would here being "actively."

To compare the two is simply an insult to those Catholic kids who were betrayed by every level of power in the Catholic Church. Comparing the Catholic Church scandal to JW's is like comparing the Titanic to Gilligan and Skipper's boat. Now this Pope makes a few conciliatory comments and he's great? He's a joke too!

51

Britain Branch Construction - UPDATE

by The Searcher in

definitely something going in the london bethel.. i thought i'd ask them again (and record it again) what the situation was regarding the new britain branch construction work.. i got the same sister (debbie) and here is how the conversation went: .

me: i've been told that construction of the new branch has been stopped - is this true?.

debbie: no, it has not ceased, it's carrying on as normal - can i ask where you're calling from?.

Mad Irishman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1LF7itBndo

49

Are the GB very intelligent men with higher than average IQ? Or are they stupid men who were put in their position by sheer “LUCK”

by John Aquila in

are the governing body of the wt wickedly smart with extremely high iq or are they leaders of the wt because they were at the right place at the right time.

(in other words, pure luck )-think lottery.

ive seen them talk in jwtv and you can never convince anyone in the whole world that these guys are in the same category as someone smart or cunning like jim simons who founded renaissance technologies or bill gates.

Mad Irishman

Whether they are legit or not IQ would have nothing to do with it. The apostles weren't geniuses. And I don't hear anyone calling GB members geniuses. And I've worked with some pretty intelligent people in Corporate America through the years. Intelligence is relative and people with high IQ's can be completely inept in something they are not good at.

Most people could not tell someone who had a Genius IQ from someone who does not. They can spot an idiot right away. But a 138 IQ verses a 160 IQ isn't that noticeable to most people. Just saying.

49

I hope the letter about deleting the Theocratic school is true.

by John Aquila in

yesterday i was with a group of brothers that wanted my advice on re-roofing a home.

three of them were ministerial servants.

all of them are from the spanish congregation.

Mad Irishman

Wasn't it this time last year that all these supposed things were coming out at the Annual Meeting and none of them turned out to be true accept, a think, that there would be a few new songs?

22

are there really 8 million jw's?

by wannaexit in

jw
friends

last circuit assembly there was 700+ present and 1 baptized.. recently there was a foreign language assemble of over 500 and 1 baptized.. in the last 5-10 years i haven't been to one assembly where there has been more than a handful baptized.

at the memorial all i see are the same old faces that have been coming since the flood.. the hall complex i attend has 6 congregation and several groups-there is negative growth.

when you factor in the demographically aging folk and the many who have already passed away, i don't know where they get the 8 million.. i know that most of the growth is from the developing countries, but still i think they are fudging their numbers.

Mad Irishman

If they wanted to fudge numbers they would count everyone who attends meetings and not just "active" publishers.

I've always thought this. Just count everyone, but they don't. If they were fudging they wouldn't be publishing that active publishers have gone down in some countries or that there are double the amount of anointed than there were 20 years ago .

You can't just believe things because you have a hunch or you'd like to believe it. You have to have proof and use discernment with the evidence that is out there. The evidence proves the exact opposite of your hypothesis.

11

"Alarmageddon"

by stuckinarut2 in

" alarmageddon " .

this term came to mind as i thought of just how weird it is that witnesses actually look forward to seeing billions of people killed..... also, at how strange it is that the org has repeatedly tried to work out the date or time for it to happen.

(although they will deny doing this ...but the old publications and talks etc are there on record!

Mad Irishman

It wasn't my experience that Witnesses were all looking forward to billions of people being killed. That's just plain propaganda. Most are worried sick about those people being killed and are troubled by it and are constantly asking questions about who might be saved and who wouldn't and what about this and what about that.

Generalizing what some individual nuts may say is different than brushing everyone and everything with the same broad brush.

73

Everybody loves Raymond

by Saintbertholdt in

a while ago the user vinman started a forum thread called: "ray franz was an idiot".

the reaction to it was quite negative but i have to admit that the title of that thread was intriguing to me.

by nature i am an iconoclast.

Mad Irishman

Ray Franz was a man like any other man. He had good virtues and he had not so good virtues.

I met Ray Franz and Ed Dunlap more than once in private social settings. Ed wasn't the brightest bulb, but very kind and very sincere. He never wanted to be outside of the JW world. He just wanted everyone inside it to believe the few points of emphasis he believed, which, believe me, he was relating to everyone he came in contact with. I remember he was very high on believing there was no scriptural basis for everyone who was a JW to go out in field service. It was a conscience matter to him.

Both Ray Franz and Ed Dunlap felt how they interrupted the Bible was correct; just as their adversaries did. Ray wanted more of the limelight in that he wanted to be the "go-to guy" on the GB just as you have guessed. Most men in his position would have wanted the same because he was in the trenches doing the work but it was all behind the scenes. He resented that. That's understandable--right or wrong. I've worked for project managers where I have accomplished a task and they have taken credit for it. It's not the best feeling to say the least.

Did Ray Franz plan ahead, or at least think of planning ahead, when things started to look like they may go down a rabbit hole? Nobody can know for sure without the evidence to prove it; a note in a journal or a letter of correspondence to someone. He didn't seem to want a fight, but he did take everything he needed if he got pushed too far. Remember, he was dealing with family and lifelong friends, so he may not have wanted to go the route he evidentially did in the beginning. It looks like he was prepared for a fight, but we don't know if it was for a different fight he never had to face; and then he decided to use his knowledge and correspondence to write his book. I would hazard a guess that he took whatever document-wise as a defense for any challenge he faced with the GB.

All anyone can do is make an educated guess. He was like most men who were in the upper echelons of power. He was full of hubris and needed to prove he was right. Sometimes that is good. Sometimes it isn't. The judgment of a man's character is up to each individual.