Posts by Ténébreux

29

#2 Talks

by dothemath in

brothers assigned #2 talks have no work to do at all as far as i can see.

if you're even a moderately good reader, you could look over it for about 2 minutes ahead of time.. when someone doesn't show up for the reading, and another brother fills in "short notice", there really isn't any noticeable change in the talk, or how it's read.

in other words, just about anyone could do it.. and then the counselor has to come up with terms about how well the brother read it.........etc., etc., etc.. the commendation is pretty much identical every week for this part.. the sisters have to do extensive research on their parts, but the younger brothers who don't do the #4 assignments have got it very easy..........for most, it's about a 5 min.

Ténébreux

Hello tenebreux! It does not work that way any more. No introduction and no conclusion.

Wow, that's amazing. Putting those talks together was actually one of the few things I really enjoyed doing. I absolutely hated hearing the same things repeated constantly, so I always tried to approach the subject from a unique angle that no-one had ever heard before, including myself. There's nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of "Will I be hauled into the back room and charged with apostasy for this or not?"

And thanks very much for that information, TheListener. This is all news to me. I take back what I said, the original poster is absolutely right. They have indeed taken all the work and thought process out of it.

29

#2 Talks

by dothemath in

brothers assigned #2 talks have no work to do at all as far as i can see.

if you're even a moderately good reader, you could look over it for about 2 minutes ahead of time.. when someone doesn't show up for the reading, and another brother fills in "short notice", there really isn't any noticeable change in the talk, or how it's read.

in other words, just about anyone could do it.. and then the counselor has to come up with terms about how well the brother read it.........etc., etc., etc.. the commendation is pretty much identical every week for this part.. the sisters have to do extensive research on their parts, but the younger brothers who don't do the #4 assignments have got it very easy..........for most, it's about a 5 min.

Ténébreux

Brothers assigned #2 talks have no work to do at all as far as I can see.

Well you still have to come up with an introduction and conclusion. If you want to do a good job, you can't just walk up to the podium and read your scripture. You have to analyze it for a while, think about what lessons could be taken from it (usually there will be several) and construct a presentation that gets the audience interested in the reading. Quite a task if you happen to get something from Numbers or Leviticus.

41

Is 2034 ''New Light''?

by MidwichCuckoo in

bear with me.

over the years jw have always strived after/prophesied (even though they deny this) a carrot ''date''.

as dates come and go, we hear about ''new light'', but according to the wt :-a new view of truth never can contradict a former truth.

Ténébreux

Is it a ''new thinking'' that 2034 is going to be a significant year on the basis that Noah had 120 years to prepare so WE will have the same?

Where does the 120 years come from? Genesis tells us that Noah was 500 years old when he became father to Shem, Ham and Japheth, and that he was 600 years old when the flood arrived. He must have been given the command to build the ark sometime in between, because God mentions his sons and their wives. So if his sons were old enough to be married (20? 30?) that's only 70 or 80 years at most before the flood. Or have I missed something?

20

Counsel by school overseer...

by in a new york bethel minute in

what was your worst point of counsel?

i think for most men, it was gesturing to an audience while trying to make it look natural.

i remember writing on my notes to gesture and to speak slowly... what was your hardest point of counsel to work on?.

Ténébreux

I think everyone dreaded "Gestures". You could always tell when someone was working on Gestures that night, because their hand waving always looked so forced and unnatural. So I used to gesture even when I wasn't being counselled on it, just to confuse everyone.

29

Do J.W.'s still spank their kids in Kingdom Hall libraries to punish them?

by hubert in

i've heard a lot on this subject, and was wondering if it's a common practice?.

can you go to a meeting and almost always see some poor kid getting a walloping in the back room for talking or misbehaving at the meeting?

or is this a thing of the past?.

Ténébreux

15 or 20 years ago, no meeting would have been complete without several kids being dragged through the back door, whacked loudly, and dragged back screaming. There seems to be a lot less of that in recent years though - mainly you just hear parents going "SSSHHHHHHH" every thirty seconds or so (which ironically is always louder than any noise their child was making).

37

How do the Kigdom Melodies compare to Christendom's Songs?

by Honesty in

i just have to comment about the canned wtbts music on cd the local congregations play on $150 cd players through $20 speakers set in the foamboard ceilings at their sales meetings worship services.

what a joke the music is that they use to sing praises.

the lyrics remind me of a high school pep rally with all the emphasis on 'we're joe hoba's witnesses and yada-yada-yah preaching from door to door and from house to house' or 'life everlasting in the pair-o-dice' crap that just tickles the dubbies ears so much they get all pretty and pink.

Ténébreux

They don't hold a candle to christendom's songs. I defy you to stack Kingdumb Melodies up against the collective works of Wierd Al Yankovic.

LOL... for some reason the Weird Al tune that popped into my head first when I read that was "Everything You Know Is Wrong". Strangely appropriate.

18

Do Jehovah Witnesses Believe in the Trinity?

by researcher1 in

hello, my name is brian jackson.

i am a seventh-day adventist and i am doing a bible project for my 11th grade religion class and i chose the topic of the trinity and decided to compare that of the seventh-day adventist teachings with that of your teachings.. what do you believe about the trinity?.

also, a little off the topic, but why don't you believe in having an american flag in your sanctuary?.

Ténébreux

As regards the flag in their meeting places,
They do not put them in buildings they own
but
if they rent a building and there is a flag in it, they do not remove the flag, but leave it where it is.

That sort of makes sense to me... they don't venerate the flag, but at the same time they try not to show disrespect for it. Removing or covering over an already-existing flag could be seen as disrespectful.

11

This is how I keep my sanity during the meeting

by Bonnie_Clyde in

i only go on sundays and not every sunday and only because i have to take my father who can't drive.. i often wished i could have other reading material during the meeting.

then i got the idea to order a spanish bible.

now i follow along in my spanish bible while the speaker speaks english.

Ténébreux

I remember a guy in our congregation who was learning Danish, so he used to bring Danish versions of all the publications and read from those. I wonder if he had the same idea...?

19

Have you ever commented at the meeting

by homme perdu in

im not talking about q & a from wt literature.

im talking about asking questions to the speaker during a meeting.

if not do you know someone that has did he or she get punished?

Ténébreux

I once saw a guy stand up during the Watchtower study to share his opinion with the speaker after the first question was asked, without even waiting for the microphone. He was obviously new and had mistaken it for an actual discussion. Before he had finished his first sentence, another Brother went over and sat him down again and the speaker said "This is Brother John, and he'll be happy to answer any questions you may have..."

26

Wacky quote about not killing DFd people

by rebel8 in

this is one of my fave quotes from the bizarre wt archives.

it illustrates how underhanded they are.

although this is an ?older?

Ténébreux

it seems like every week our PO brings up some group of people who used to be stoned to remind us how much God hates gossips, apostates, those who don't go out in service, whatever

Do "false prophets" ever get a mention?