when did the jws make the rule that you couldn’t clink glasses together and raise glasses of wine?.
and why the change to being a conscience matter now?.
As the members of the governing body change so do the rules. No god involved just the opinions of the men in charge.
I think it might also be that they like to throw the rank-and-file a bone now and then to try to keep them happy and feeling grateful. Give them back something that they shouldn't have taken away in the first place like they did with beards. Never admit you were wrong but present the change as new light that came about through prayerful consideration.
as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.
there are about 90 at this point.
from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..
That's funny Betheliesalot. I did the same thing. I volunteered for overtime on weeknights to get out of going to meetings and also worked a half day on Saturdays. It worked out 100 percent for me. Not only did it help to keep me sane it also helped put in a better financial position where I had more money to spend, money to save to buy a house and more money to add to my retirement account which apparently somewhere in the back of my mind I was beginning to think I might need. I'm now happily retired without the financial worries I see some jdubs I knew have living in poverty still waiting for Armageddon which is always just around the corner.
i was reading the march 2025 wt today, and i notice this: "march 2025 p. 29 jehovah’s hand is not too short p.29-31 (retirement, but qualified statement) (notice , it is not wrong, but, in the end we must rely on their god.
retirement is alluded to as "making the quest for material things the focus of our life.
" are we confident that their god will provide (why have retirement then?
The average life span of both men and women has increased by decades over the last hundred years. In the past I think a lot of witness could count on death to get the out of the financial fix that taking the Watchtower's bad advice based on their belief that the end of the world was just around the corner could bring. I remember when I was first married telling a life insurance salesman, we didn't need a financial plan because the end was coming soon. Fortunately, I got over that belief a year or two later while still a Jdub and started thinking long term and planning for the future.
I personally know a witness who can't even afford a one-bedroom for him and his wife at this time in the neighborhood where they once lived and went door to door preaching that the end was near.
final thoughts after 15 hours of the 2025 assembly.
after dedicating 15 hours to the 2025 assembly, i walked away with a heavy sense of spiritual emptiness.
the only part that managed to stir anything within me was a single video on day one titled “what does jesus see in you?”—a piece with sentimental appeal, but still surface-level at best.. .
Beth Sarim:
Couldn't the same logic be applied to their once-a-year memorial? Why show of for a once-a-year event when you can celebrate Christ's death everyday if you so choose?
2025-01-15-ages for ministerial servants and elders.. see page 2. .
https://pdfupload.io/docs/1b0b5c00 .
https://imgbox.com/p3a9yjmr.
I remember back in my JW days we used make fun of Morons because they had these young guys with no life experience going around with badges that said elder so and so. Out of desperation it looks like Watcher is heading down the same path.
What I came to see in the elders in different congregations was there were some that were good people and some that were pretty horrible people but the main requirement seemed to be their loyalty to the organization and their willingness accept and carry out whatever Watchtower told them to do.
hope everyone near to the region affected in california is ok. it's shocking to hear of the destruction.
these affected areas are some of the places i visited when i came on a tour of the us.
malibu, santa barbera, la, santa monica, hollywood and so on..
Simon, I agree with you that all the DEI nonsense going on ridiculous and in a lot of cases dangerous, but I don't know how much of that has affected the wildfire situation in California. I think that will take time to analyze but I do think a lot of people have woken up to the dangers of all the woke craziness that has been going on and that is why Trump is president again and why Pierre Poilievre will probably be the next prime minister of Canada. It's not because everyone on the right are Nazis as they keep saying. It's because they refuse to look at how far down the rabbit whole their own side has gone correct it. I think I'm getting a bit off topic.
hope everyone near to the region affected in california is ok. it's shocking to hear of the destruction.
these affected areas are some of the places i visited when i came on a tour of the us.
malibu, santa barbera, la, santa monica, hollywood and so on..
hope everyone near to the region affected in california is ok. it's shocking to hear of the destruction.
these affected areas are some of the places i visited when i came on a tour of the us.
malibu, santa barbera, la, santa monica, hollywood and so on..
I think it's going to be a while before all the facts as to what went wrong comes to light. Right now all I see is a lot of finger pointing. One fact that can't be disputed is that two years ago we had record rainfall and last year we had hardly any. Anyone familiar with Southern California knows that when we get rain all the hills green up and it looks like other parts of the country that always get a lot of rain. If we get a lot of rain we get a lot of plant growth. When we don't get rain all the plants that looked very green and healthy dry up in a very short amount of time creating a huge fire hazard. Combined that with Santa Ana winds and the chance of a brush fire goes way up. Make those Santa Ana winds blow through the area at close to 100 miles and hour an fire would be pretty much uncontrollable no matter the amount of resources you have to fight it.
One thing saw I think about six months ago was a story about people stealing fire hydrants around LA. You can look this up and see videos of people stealing them. At the time I wondered why people were able to just unbolt them and take them without any water coming out. I heard that about 100 fire hydrants had been stolen. My question then was why is no water coming out. My question now is wouldn't the police and fire department notice that not only were the hydrants being stolen but it was relatively easy because on water came gushing out.
i was doing some heavy duty binge watching on youtube.. there are lots of helpful topics including ‘how to declutter your home’, ‘things you shouldn’t tell people’ and several videos on ‘types of people you shouldn’t have in your life as well as types of behavior you shouldn’t tolerate’ (especially after a certain age).. what i got out of it (most i already knew but was nice to see it mentioned):.. first, you should live life authentically, especially at an older age.
you should be free of other people’s opinions, judgments and expectations of you.
you should be free of this as you have accumulated enough wisdom in life to know what serves you and that other people’s opinions do not define you; you should not be guilt tripped into doing favors or being exploited (financially or time wise) by anybody manipulative or irresponsible, etc… walking away is not ‘selfishness’ but ‘self care’.. it was mentioned in all of them to remove people from your life who are critical and fall into these negative categories whether they be family or other.. (the name of jehovah’s witnesses was nowhere mentioned - but i was struck by the fact that all these negative things appear in spades in the jw religion (and probably in some other religions as well).. watching all of this just reinforced what i knew for many years: ..the best thing i did was to ‘fade’ from the religion and get out of that environment!.
I think a big part of living your life authentically is learning learning to say no. Learning to say: No I don't believe that or no I don't believe that anymore. No I don't want to do that etc. It can make your life so much better in a lot of ways but it can also cause some people or groups to turn on you so you have to be prepared for that.
