Posts by sir82

49

Pink slips at Bethel

by beavis in

jw
friends

does anyone still have any friends at bethel?

it seems that there is a massive layoff at bethel in all three american complexes.

the layoff is supposed to affect everyone between the ages of 35-50 or maybe 60. i feel sorry for persons who chose to stay there, they gave up going to college, possible job offers or making a decent amount of money, having children, the list can go on and on.

sir82

Still waiting for proof, more than just anecdotal evidence, of the "massive layoffs" at Bethel....

Not sure what would satisfy you as "proof", as opposed to "evidence", but anyways...

About a month ago, there was a short-notice (letter went out on a Wednesday for a Saturday afternoon meeting) meeting that the CO called with all service committees in our circuit. We are supposed to help look for "affordable" housing accomodations for a number of "special pioneers" that will soon move to our area.

The number of "special pioneers" has hovered around 200-250 in the US for the past decade at least. Virtually all are assigned to Appalachia (sp), or the sparsely populated territories out west. Now, suddenly, we here in a major metropolitan area are to expect an influx of "special pioneers", this influx lining up exactly with the timing of the "layoffs" from Bethel, which, according to many other threads, is being phased in over the course of many months...

Not exactly a mathematical "proof", but sounds like pretty strong circumstancial evidence to me...

47

Attended the Circuit Assembly - the work IS slowing down.

by jgnat in

jw
friends

only two baptisms, two, count 'em.

both were obviously children of jw's.

the last circuit assembly there were at least a dozen.

sir82

When you refered to 900 and said "district" did you mean Circuit and also that seems a bit small, even for a Circuit

Many circuits split into "A" and "B" sides, sometimes you'll even see a "C" side. If the assembly hall only holds 1000 people comfortably, and there are 2000 people in the circuit, they will split up the assemblies into different days.

47

Attended the Circuit Assembly - the work IS slowing down.

by jgnat in

jw
friends

only two baptisms, two, count 'em.

both were obviously children of jw's.

the last circuit assembly there were at least a dozen.

sir82

The True Believers (TM) will always see "simplification" as a good thing.

True enough. Whatever they do, it will trumpeted as a "simplification", and another sign that "Jehovah's chariot is on the move".

I guess it comes down to which circumstance is less demoralizing--baptism talks with no candidates, or scrapping the talks altogether. There is no $$$ effect to sway the decision one way or the other.

47

Attended the Circuit Assembly - the work IS slowing down.

by jgnat in

jw
friends

only two baptisms, two, count 'em.

both were obviously children of jw's.

the last circuit assembly there were at least a dozen.

sir82

It is a matter of time before baptisms are ditched at special assembly days (and possibly circuit assemblies as well)

I agree, it is quite absurd to dedicate talks for 1 (or 0) baptismal candidates, not to mention the expense of filling, cleaning, etc. a pool every weekend, but....

An announcement that no baptisms are to be done at any SAD or CA anymore would, I believe, have a devastating effect on morale. It would seem to indicate that the Society is giving up on the work "speeding up"--that it expects the malaise to continue. That's not the message they want to send.

In addition, fully 1/4 of the JWs in the US belong to Spanish-speaking conregations--and in many areas, if not all, baptisms even at their SADs and CAs are well into the dozens. It would make little sense to ditch baptisms for one group, but not another.

The decision to cut back Awake to once a month was similarly demoralizing--but there, you can at least see the reason--big $$$ savings. It costs the Society nothing to "sponsor" baptisms at SADs & CAs (any maintenance costs are borne by the local circuit), so I don't see them taking this risk.

75

I'm so angry!!!!!!

by lola28 in

jw
friends

well it looks like my plan to fade might not work after all.

yesterday afternoon i was in my office when two elders stopped by for a visit.

they came into my job and began to question me in front of my boss and my new assistant!

sir82

What I would do is call the branch. Tell them you've been inactive for a while, in a "spitritually weak" state, you haven't been to a Kingdom Hall for years, etc. all the stuff that they would want to hear, that makes you sound like a "wounded sheep".

Then say how intimidated you felt by having 2 elders come in to your work place, harrass you, then refuse to leave. Say you feel so awful and guilty, and stressed, and now you're not sure if you want to go back to the KH, etc.

Make sure you give them the names of the elders who came in.

If you sound convincing enough, and the CO in your area is not a total nutcase, he should come after those elders and read them the riot act. What they did is way beyond what elders are "encouraged" to do.

15

Re:Richie, what would happen if?

by carla in

jw
friends

what would happen if the kh he formerly belonged to started getting calls about the appalling behavior of his treatment by his mother?

no names would even have to be used, i would think they would know who it was about.

calls from all over the states and if any called from other countries.

sir82

Call'em up & tell them you want a study.

Then, when you have their interest, talk about whatever is on your mind.

34

Who really has the "TRUTH"???

by architect in

even if all else looks bad, due to the fact that jw's preach the goodnews of the kingdom in harmony with matt 28, doesn't this make them the true religion since technically no other religion can make this claim?

sir82

>Anyone who follows a god that says 'Worship me or i'll KILL you' is as far from the TRUTH as the earth is from the sun.

You are talking about the cult teaching, right? If so then you are ok. Now if you mean that the Bible teaches that, you are absolutely wrong. All souls live on after the physical realm is traversed. There are two possibilities, 'smoking or non-smoking'.

Ah, so the correct, Biblical version is, "Worship me at some point during your miserable 70 or 80 year existence, or you will be tortured with excruciating unrelenting pain for billions and billions of years....."

Yes, I can see how that is a better alternative.

26

Can an extremely "overweight" JW's man become a JW elder?

by booker-t in

jw
friends

i remember years ago at my kh there was a brother that was "very" heavy.

he was a very nice guy brother grover(not his real name) was very helpful to all of the elders and ministerial servants but he never became an elder.

i always wondered why and i think it was because he was "heavy".

sir82

Apparently, you never had Terry Angelacos as a CO. When I had him in the 80's he was well over 300 pounds, maybe approaching 400.

28

Going Door to Door...

by Priest73 in

jw
friends

some thing just occurred to me.

i live in a city 500+ miles from my home town.

in a large metropolitan area.

sir82

why aren't we going when people actually answer the door?

The Society is very well aware that most wirtnessing is done when people are not at home. They give lip service to "going where the people are", but in practice, no one really does it (except for the super-zealous types).

Frankly, the Society doesn't much care if anyone hears the message or not. Field service has been little more than a team-spirit building ritual for at least the last decade or so, at least among native-language-speaking congregations in the US and western Europe. A means to measure the "spirituality" of brothers "reaching out", and a way to reassure the members of the group that they really are different & special & unique.

Think about it. Imagine you control hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in a multi-national publishing empire. If you really, truly, deep-down in your soul, honestly believed that hundreds of millions of angels were poised and ready at a monent's notice to pour out death-dealing streams of fire and sulphur on humanity, obliterating billions of lives, including innocent babies and children, and the only thing preventing their annihillation was the knowledge that you possess, would you depend on Brother Pioneer-Shuffle and Sister Oh-My-Lumbago to knock on doors on a Saturday morning, or sand like a cigar-store Indian with a 6-month old copy of Awake held out in your hand?

Sorry. The Society doesn't really believe the end is coming any time soon. The irony is, the "sheep" are finally reading that message, and the powers-that-be are getting in a tizzy, because their control is slipping.

17

JW Assumptions in their Literature

by XBEHERE in

below is the text for the day notice the highlighted areas:.

text for thursday, april 20, 2006. .

thursday, april 20. here i have two daughters who have never had intercourse with a man.

sir82

If God really wanted us to come away with that understanding, why not "inspire" the writer to write it that way?

Why wait 3000+ years for a publishing company to come up with various possible explanations, none of which is even hinted at in any text in the original writings?

And what about all the poor saps reading those verses in the intervening 3000+ years, who did not have the benefit of the publishing company expounding their guesses as to what the writer "really meant"?

I have yet to hear any compelling answer to the above questions, which could be asked of just about any Bible verse in which 2 contradictory opinions could be formed.