the man who hung the moon .
(a story from my family's history).
she never spoke about her parents, except to say they had been murdered.
Another excellent and moving story, Terry! Thanks for posting it.
If you're anything like me, that watch will never leave your family. Would you consider sharing a picture of it? I love to look at family heirlooms and imagine all the tales they could tell. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
delete if already posted.. .
2015-november 19, boe.
.. re: review of circuit account balances.
Does their greed know no end?
i predict that in the not distant future there will be articles encouraging individuals to donate their "excess funds" to the World Wide Work. Something like, "We are hearing of brothers who are donating all their excess property and funds and planning to live out their remaining days in this system sharing in the ministry. What a fine example for those who have more than they really need." There will be talks about how "unrighteous riches" in trust funds, savings and retirement accounts, and the like, could be put to better use by donating them to the Society. That shows that one is trusting in Jehovah and storing up treasures in heaven instead of trusting in one's self and storing up riches on earth. Far better to give everything to them than leave to it to worldly relatives who might squander it or use it to support immoral lifestyles.
Basically, this letter directs the circuits to live hand to mouth and essentially plan to run out of money just before the next assembly. Then the begging can start all over. And this is on top of their rigging the contribution and expense announcements by front loading the expenses with a pre-determined contribution to the Society. It's duplicitous and deceitful, to say the least. I call it a shameless scam.
john cedars has posted his latest blog "the trouble with apostates (and why it shouldn't put you off becoming one)".
i acknowledge that he is entitled to his opionin just as we are ours but i am disappointed in some of his comments.. at this stage i'll try to be objective about it.
he is defending his own position after all.. what bothers me most is his comments about athiests and christians which he seems to identify as being in conflict with each other.
i think this thread might be more appropriate in the Adult and Heated Debate section. I don't think it presents a very good first impression to any first-time visitors who might happen by.
That said, I wonder why Listener chose to post his comments here instead of on the website more directly concerned. Is he prohibited from posting there? Or could this be a case of "forum shopping?" A less charitable person might see it as a form of evangelism or activism in itself, maybe even self-promotion.
As far as I'm concerned, Cedars can post whatever he wants on his site. If you want to take him to task, do it there. If you don't want to hear what he has to say, don't read his posts. But it seems unfair to attack him on an entirely different site. That smacks of gossip-mongering to me.
For the record, I don't agree with everything Cedars says and does. But he's performing a yeoman's work in exposing the Watchtower as a dangerous and mind-controlling cult. So is Simon, ApostaChick, Katie Kitten, Jakke Control, Mike & Kim, and many others, each in their own way. Some may be more to your taste than others. You might favor the approach of one more than another. You may find some cartoonish or even off-putting, but that doesn't diminish the value of the underlying message they're trying to put across . They are all to be commended for their efforts, even if you would have put or done things differently. Well, why didn't you?
____a true story___.
shortly after the incident, i drove back along the pacific coast in a euphoric daze of confusion, tears, and exhilaration; there was no place for it to go inside my head.
i pulled over on the shoulder of the road and sat in stunned silence.
"Very nice, me lad, very nice indeed," said the grizzled old captain as I spun my tales of yore. (Scene dissolves into a beautiful ocean sunset.)
Another good one, Terry. Keep 'em comin'...
and i don't mean that stupid made up shit russell just invented only a 100 yrs ago.
he never passed the 7th grade and declared that the world was too stupid to understand the bible without him.. who do you follow and pore money into the watchtower?.
prologos and adjusted knowledge:
Years ago when I was traveling for work, I attended some meetings in the Fort Lauderdale, FL area. The Watchtower Study conductor emceed it like a game show. Or maybe a really enthusiastic news anchor. Most entertaining. If that guy wasn't in show business, he should have been.
does anyone else have those things that everyone else seems to know ... except you?
it's like you were off the day it was taught in school and you don't know that you don't know about it.
but everyone else does.. i have a couple .... first, days of the month.
The Rockwell Retro Encabulator routine is pure genius!
I'm amazed at this guy's ability spout all that BS with such a straight face! Reminds me of that scene in Airplane where the captain (Dean Martin) gives the precocious kid a line of double-talk to make him think they hadn't reversed course when they really had. Hey! Wait a minute... I know of a couple of Internet TV sites and YouTube channels where he'd fit right in! Just sayin'...
I can regurgitate all kinds of trivia and have had to memorize lots of numbers and rules and regulations for aviation jobs I've held, but I could never remember off-hand whether my (first) wedding anniversary was on the 21st or the 24th of a certain month and year. I always had to google a calendar of that year and look it up. Go figure...
this is probably old news and was commented about in early 2015, but the ithaca news reported on the 3/15 sale of kingdom farm in s lansing ny.
this is the property that was directly across the road from the old gilead site, which had sold a number of years ago.
but about 500 acres still was operated by the jws as kingdom farm.
some time ago, i wrote an extensive article on shunning and published it on my website.
since that website had views on doctrinal matters that no longer reflect my current stand, i took the website down.
however, my views on this matter are still current, and for the benefit of everyone here, i'm going to post the article here.
I appreciate your reasonable and balanced approach to this sensitive topic. (I would have said "masterful," but that word has been forever soiled by the recent WT video.)
If the WT would take such an approach to this and all their other policies masquerading as Biblical doctrine, they would have far less opposition and keep far more of their members.
i have a number of old books and am looking at selling a few.
in particular i have all the old yearbooks (from 1927?
) and i was looking at selling the 1934 yearbook.
I would be interested in the 1934 Yearbook as well, if LevelThePlayingField passes.
Thanks for letting us know it's available.
my middle brother called me a couple of hours ago.
our youngest brother, josh, who was 38, was found by his friends in his apartment.
he hung himself.
So sorry to learn the of your loss, Rich. I've always enjoyed your posts.
I lost my own brother (only 15 months younger) a few months ago in a freak accident at his home. So silly, so totally avoidable, but so fatal. Life truly turns on a dime.
I know it sounds trite, but hang in there. He will never truly be gone as long as you call him to mind and remember the good times and what you meant to each other.
My best to you and yours.
