Posts by sir82

-- Inserted a statement indicating that the elders can inform new publishers and remind those approved for baptism that (1) the elders collect personal information on the Congregation’s Publisher Record (S-21) so that the organization can continue to care for the religious activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide and so that he may participate in spiritual activities and receive spiritual support and (2) any personal information is handled according to the Global Data Protection Policy of Jehovah’s Witnesses found on jw.org.

-- Inserted direction for the coordinator of the body of elders to ask the baptism candidate if he has made a personal dedication in prayer to Jehovah to do His will.

-- Inserted direction that when the baptism candidate is a minor, his believing parent(s) should be present for the sessions.

-- The number of sessions held with the baptism candidate to determine whether he qualifies for baptism has been reduced from three to two.

16

I attended my JWs Grandfathers funeral

by joe134cd in

i attended my grandfathers jw funeral the other day.

firstly i am a rabid apostate, and certainly not wt greatest fan.

that been said however, i will certainly stick up for them when they do the right thing.

sir82

I've noticed a trend of JW funerals "loosening up" a bit, allowing the service to be more personal, less JW sermonizing.

A lot depends on how popular / prominent the deceased was. Your "average rank & file" JW funeral will probably follow the JW-approved script/sermon pretty closely, while a very popular, well-connected, and/or wealthy JW's funeral will most likely be quite different.

41

Creepy display

by neat blue dog in

.

i dunno about you, but if i walked up to this display at an expo i'd be a little creeped out..

sir82

They look like they're all animatronic.

Do they break out in a chirpy rendition of "From House to House" when you press the start button?

39

Publisher ID - I Saw It In Person & It Was Terrifying!

by thedepressedsoul in

i'd like to start off this post by saying, we all know that the wt loves control.

it's clear by their history, their wt's, the elder arrangement and so on.

however, after witnessing and using the publish id program in person, it takes this need for control to a whole new level & it was scary.. if you've ever seen builder assist (the website program used for ldc volunteers) or the metro program, it actually looks pretty similar to that.

sir82

A couple more questions:

Was your walk-through of this program in the USA? As far as I know, the US branch does not have that much info on r&f publishers at the congregation level.

If not: Do you know of plans to roll this out in the USA? If so, when?

Did this program have any sensitive data that might compromise people in real life? It's one thing for Vlad the hacker to find out how many hours a JW had in field service in October 2014, and it's another matter entirely if he can look up a street address, a phone number, names & ages of children, etc.

14

Set ptermber AT study article: "Armaggedon Is Good News!

by Room 215 in

omg, is this the apotheosis of bat-shit craziness or not?

.

sir82

The JW preaching message, boiled down to its essence:

"Worship God the way we tell you to, or God will slaughter you, your family, your friends, and 7 billion other people, real soon now."

To be fair, that is merely a variation on the essence of the "Christian Gospel" message that has been preached for ~2000 years.

2

You would not be here if jehovah destroyed wicked in...

by road to nowhere in

heard this one again.

depending on the timeline i would be here because my parents were born before the date given this time and were "in".. that assumes they still met, the same wiggler got through, and on and on.. maybe things should hold iff forevwr as there are still future generations coming.

the combinations of who mates with whom and when are boggling.

sir82

Wanna blow a JW's mind?

"You would not exist if it were not for Adam & Eve's sin."

Example: My parents met in a roller skating rink in the midwestern USA. They lived there because their grandparents emigrated from eastern Europe due to economic hardships, working for the railroads and in coal mines. If Adam & Eve hadn't sinned, there would have been no roller skates, no rinks, no cars to travel to the rinks, no economic hardships, no railroads, no coal mines, etc. etc. If my parents had never met, I would not exist.

Now just repeat that for a few thousand generations, going back. My parents would not exist if their grandparents had not met due to living in a particular geographic location due to a unique set of circumstances brought on by injustice, hardship, war, crime, political upheaval, etc. etc. etc. My grandparents would not have existed if my great-grandparents had not met due to similar, but completely different, unjust circumstances, etc.

You, Mr. JW, fully owe your existence to Adam & Eve's sin.

49

A deeper examination of The New World Translation

by Terry in

shorturl.at/ouakr.

sir82

the horrible rendering of John 17:3

I still can't get over how this monumental doctrinal change slipped past virtually all JWs without even a peep or murmur.

For decades - many decades - basically 1950 - 2013 - every, I mean every, baptism talk outlined the "steps to qualify for baptism".

Step number 1 was always "taking in knowledge" (as the old NWT put it), which of course meant a sit-down, hour-a-week, question and answer "Bible study".

Three times a year for 60+ years at baptism talks, plus countless WT articles, plus every study book....John 17:3 meant "getting head knowledge", studying a WT publication with a JW to get a mental understanding of God.

Not "knowing" God - no, no! That was the pagan-inspired Babylon the Great that mistranslated John 17:3 - it wasn't "knowing", oh no - it was "taking in knowledge" - a purely intellectual emotionless exercise.

Then one day in October 2013, bam!

From that minute onward, John 17:3 was "knowing" - you have to know God as a person, develop a "relationship" with him, etc. It's so much more than mere head knowledge! It's personal!

There was no WT study article explaining this change, there was no convention talk, there was no "Questions [we made up but we pretend they are] From Readers" on it - nothing. Just a complete 180 degree flip flop on a core fundamental teaching.

And now, just like Airstrip One has always been at war with Eurasia (or was that Eastasia), John 17:3 has always meant "knowing", not "taking in knowledge".

Madness.

12

How Does It Make You Feel Kids?

by neat blue dog in

a recent printable kids activity asks kids to describe their feelings when marketing various jwdotorg products:.

.

meanwhile, here's a recent public post from harvest inn's social media profile:.

sir82

Kids are not very polished at hiding their true emotions.

That kid feels like every JW feels - but the adults know they "should" be happy, so they fake it.