Dune

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Posts by Dune

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  7

  JW Service a Trap?

  by zack in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was a child and growing up in the org.

  surrounded by family who had.

  been converted in a communist country, i always heard stories told with much authority.

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  Dune

  Nice Observation.

  It seems that the further away from the US (and western world) your congregation is, the more likely you'll become a matyr.

  Remember the Mexico & Malawi Fiasco?

  Mexican witnesses were allowed to bribe local officials into allowing them to obtain a card that would allow them to be exempt from military training. Malawi witnesses couldnt even get a card that only stated which party they were a part of, this fueled avoidable aggravation towards the witnesses in the area.

  I've spoken about this to a couple of witnesses. There arent many western witnesses that will drive to the kingdom hall in an inch of snow, let alone die for the belief.
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  19

  True story or JW Folklore?

  by Do Not Call in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few years back, i was told a story by a 'mature sister' about a man who was df'ed after his death, just before his burial.

  apparently, they found voodoo related necklaces etc.

  under his clothing.

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  Dune

  I was reading a stephen king book during field ministry and this sister noticed. She went on and on about how she used to read S.K and came under demon attack. I've read most of King's novels and i'm now on Neil Gaiman, no demons yet

  Its amazing how you hear all these stories but never question the validity.
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  24

  Do CO's discuss inactive publishers?

  by Inquisitor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  during his visit, what exactly does the circuit overseer discuss with the body of elders with regards to inactive publishers?.

  are inactive publishers even on the agenda?

  or is this of no concern to the co and pretty much left to the discretion of the local boe?.

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  Dune

  It's recurring.

  If you search through the watchtower library you'll find the occasional article about "taking care of the sheep within the fold" and they'll allude to that one lost sheep and how the shepherd went out and found him..blah.blah.blah.

  It depends on a whole lot of factors, like if the elders say they're doing everything they can to get back to you (even if that's a lie) or if there are bigger problems in the congregation or if they were able to catch you that day.

  The CO we had 7 years ago didnt check on inactive ones at all, he was a field ministry whore. The CO we had 4 years ago always began his service talk about how there were ___ number of inactive publishers in the congregation.

  It really depends. The elders in my congregation didnt even do shepherding calls, so its not a surprise that I dont get the unwelcomed visits.
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  24

  Do CO's discuss inactive publishers?

  by Inquisitor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  during his visit, what exactly does the circuit overseer discuss with the body of elders with regards to inactive publishers?.

  are inactive publishers even on the agenda?

  or is this of no concern to the co and pretty much left to the discretion of the local boe?.

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  Dune

  I was informed that the next time the CO comes in march, that i'll be placed on the "inactive" list.

  I'm sort of expecting a visit, therefore, i'll be away for most of the week :-).

  I think the CO will have to ask questions like "how spiritually strong was the person before they became inactive?" and they'd probably want to even visit the inactive ones.

  It kind of depends on the CO though, there are some CO's that dont care about inactives and focus on the field ministry, but there are others that make it their duty to visit all inactive witnesses. It just varies.

  You'll probably get a visit by the next CO if you're lucky.
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  3

  Baptized and offered a bible Study?

  by Dune in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  long story short.

  fading for about 5 months, got the inevitable elder visit, basically did the "i'm busy with school and work" bit, hinted at not believing in the religion anymore, but didnt push it enough to be labeled an apostate.

  at the end of the 'visit', the elders offered me a bible study.

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  Dune

  Long story short.
  
  
  Fading for about 5 months, got the inevitable elder visit, basically did the "i'm busy with school and work" bit, hinted at not believing in the religion anymore, but didnt push it enough to be labeled an apostate.

  At the end of the 'visit', the elders offered me a bible study.

  What i want to know is if anyone ever accepts the bible study? I mean, you already went through it when you got baptized why would you go through the entire process once again?

  Isnt it obvious that the bible study didnt work last time?
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  15

  What's the most meetings you went to in a row, without missing any?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  lets put it at 3 meetings a week.. my record is about 12 meetings in a row without missing.. normally, i'd miss 1 meeting per 2 weeks, in my best days..

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  Dune

  September 1996 to August 2006. Only missing meetings if it snowed or I was sick. So I guess I missed about maybe 3 meetings a year between that time. If i'm counting service/theocratic as one meeting and public talk and watchtower as one and the book study as another.. 30 meetings out of 1560 meetings over the period of 10 years. I can count on one hand the number of times I missed the book study, 1 being on 9/11. It was a good run *sniff*
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  14

  My reign of fading is over :-(

  by Dune in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i wake up this morning, thinking that it'll be a good day.

  i'll be studying for a couple of hours then going to see apocalypto.

  i wanted to be out of the house by 11am.

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  Dune

  I wake up this morning, thinking that it'll be a good day. I'll be studying for a couple of hours then going to see apocalypto. I wanted to be out of the house by 11AM.

  My immediate family who are still active go out as they normally do on saturdays. Around 10:10, they come back because of lazyness, but a couple of minutes later an elder comes in.

  It really sucked. I was kinda hoping they'd get bored and stop trying to call me/meet up with me, its been 4 months and the amount of calls had lessened exponentially, then BAM!, i get a visit.

  I tried to be as polite as possible, but at the same time completely aloof. They sat and i stood up looking down at them. One of the elders refused to give me eye contact and the other elder wavered alot. Most of my answers consisted of "oh really?", "uh huh" and "is that so?".

  I set up a time to meet up with two elders a couple of weeks from now.

  A part of me wants to just skip out on it, while the other part feels that i should just duke it out and take the disfellowshipping/dissassociation, i dont think i'll be able to just feign stupidity for an hour of questioning though.

  The only thing i do know is that i'm never going to a meeting again.
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  8

  Jehovah's Witnesses are Democrats!

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i always suspected it!

  http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/images/image040.gif.

  most of course claimed to be independent or gave no answer to this question.

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  Dune

  I grew up thinking that there werent any white witnesses except for the ones at Walkhill, lol.

  Its kind of weird because i live in a metropolitan area thats very diverse, but go to the meetings and the conventions and 90% of the people are black. Then i'd read the magazines with asians, whites, blacks, arabs and latins all in the same picture and i'd think "yeah...right".

  I dont think that there is something in blacks that makes us inherently inclined to join the JW's.

  I think its more of an economic/social background factor. Witnesses, on average, make less than most other religions. Blacks, on average, make less money than those in ethnic groups. So i'm not surprised to see such a high percentage of blacks, and a very low percentage of Asian (who average to make more than all other ethnic groups.)

  I'm very glad you posted that, I find it amazing how blacks, who make up 18% of the population, can represent 37% of a group. I think i've found my thesis for a paper next semester :-D.
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  145

  --- A Question for ALL Atheistic ex-Dubs----

  by gordon d in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  which child is wiser?

  while starting a hunt for easter eggs one child runs to a big tree and finds nothing then that childs brother says, go look under that rock i promise youll find one there!

  the child throws down their basket and says, i give up!

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  Dune

  If it wasnt for your use of "easter eggs" i'd have said that illustration came straight out of a watchtower.
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  21

  College...(don't tell the elders)

  by SB in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey all, i'm new to the board, and happy to have found it.

  i'm going to college for the first time (i'm 25 yrs old).

  does anyone have any advice on how to handle the challenge?

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  Dune

  Congrats. I'm a Junior and i think that one of the single most important thing to get down is your time management.

  I could handle the course workload of my freshman year but i was wasting time playing video games and watching television. Once you allot time to specific things and stick to them, you'll do extremely well, promise.

  ~Dune.