Posts by sir82

23

Happy Alcoholic Jehovah's Witnesses

by The Bethelite in

jw
friends

for many years since the witness organization, after i have told people that i'm no longer a jehovah's witness, people would say "oh the religion were people are not allowed to drink!".

"no they drink alright.....they can't do much of anything else but they do drink!".

in fact the first place i ever got drunk was bethel.

sir82

HE WAS A MAJOR ALCOHOLIC. It actually was a big joke how much he drank. Died in his 90's, still an alcoholic.
Was anything ever done to him? Was he DF'd? Nope

Can't remember if it was an elder's school, or a meeting with a CO, but we once had an in-depth discussion on whether "being an alcoholic" was a DF offense.

Answer: Nope!

The Biblical injunction is against "drunkenness". "Alcoholism" is not mentioned in the Bible, so no problem, just so long as the alcoholic is not evidently impaired.

There was a whole 'nother section on the "Biblical definition of drunkenness" - basically, the scriptures from Proverbs about "seeing strange things" and having "wounds for no reason".

Conclusion - so long as you aren't stumbling drunk, hallucinating, or passed out, it's all good!

I $#!+ you not.

So, yeah, no surprise that there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of alcoholic JWs.

40

Double Standards of the Watchtower

by Vanderhoven7 in

are you aware of any double standards promoted by the organization of jehovah's witnesses?

here a a few i am aware of:.

1. the wts equated joining the ymca with apostasy but felt free to join the un for 10 years (1991-2001).

sir82

JWs abhor and detest the vile Babylonish practice of having "clergy". All JWs are ministers, there is no such thing as JW clergy.....

....Except for those times when the WTS is sued for criminal negligence in child abuse cases. At which time, every single word of communication between Bethel and the local body of elders is protected due to "clergy - penitent privilege".

40

Double Standards of the Watchtower

by Vanderhoven7 in

are you aware of any double standards promoted by the organization of jehovah's witnesses?

here a a few i am aware of:.

1. the wts equated joining the ymca with apostasy but felt free to join the un for 10 years (1991-2001).

sir82

The only reason that anyone has ever attended a university is to feed their own personal unrestrained greed and lust for fame.....except for the JW attorneys and doctors who serve at Bethel.

36

The sky is falling- maybe

by joey jojo in

i am actually not a 'sky is falling' guy, but i wanted to comment on the australian bushfires.. you may or may not believe the science behind global warming, however i personally put more faith in verified, scientific data than the words of fat cat, self-serving politicians.

climate science has predicted, based on data, that we will see more prolonged, extreme weather events, higher average temperatures, rising sea levels due to ocean expansion and glacial melting.

and this is exactly whats happening.

sir82

Here is an article that will (or ought to) scare the bejeezus out of you:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html

Humanity is, quite likely, hopelessly screwed. Not in 12 years, but certainly less than 100.

Not that the problems are unsolvable - the issue is there are too many hundreds of millions of people on earth with similar attitudes to those expressed by some posters on this thread.

41

147th Gilead prt. 3 - this could stumble people

by neat blue dog in

during gerrit loesch's talk just released, he goes on a long list of the false end times predictions throughout the millennia.

i didn't expect it, but then he goes into the precursors to the bible students who, when their dates failed, changed christ's presence to have happened 'invisibly'.

then it goes right into the jws, and he reads the quote from millions now living will never die about how we can 'confidently expect' the resurrection in 1925, and then the life everlasting book that predicted 1975. of course, he doesn't say how it's still going on, namely with the overlapping generation and its' accompanying convoluted chart, but still, this is more than they've ever said on the subject, especially recently.. it almost sounds like a forced statement, to address any backlash from people reading 'apostate lies' online, because he also says how the gb 'humbly' admitted mistakes, referencing the non-apology after 1975 that disturbed raymond franz.

sir82

Saw this for myself.

Losch delivers the talk with all the warmth, feeling, and enthusiasm of a hostage reading his captor's statement at gunpoint.

Losch is old and has never been a vibrant speaker, but this was wretched even by his standards. He was so nervous he mispronounced words or stumbled in nearly every sentence. It was bad.

The only thing I can think of is what I wrote earlier - they WTS just wants to get [something] out there in their JW Broadcasting archives which addresses the "apostate claims" of false prophecy. Content, soundness of argument, reasonableness are of absolutely no importance - just plant the idea in the minds of JWs that "oh, that topic was covered in a broadcast" so they can ignore "apostate" info when confronted with it.

31

Don Adams has passed away

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

i received a call from a friend in new york city that don adams passed away late last evening (30 dec 2019).

many of you bethelites know him and he was the president of the society for a number of years after the gb got out of the corporate structure business.

from what i understand, he was generally liked by many there.. some in my family knew him.

sir82

Never met Don, but had Joel Adams teaching a 2-day elders school a number of years ago.

I recall my dad using the expression "sourpuss" - referring to an old codger who looked & acted permanently pissed off at the world.

Whenever Joel Adams was doing his "teaching", that word kept popping into my head.

48

2019 service report is out

by slimboyfat in

the 2019 report is out:.

https://download-a.akamaihd.net/files/media_publication/29/syr19_e.pdf.

the “average publisher” figure for individual countries has made a comeback!

sir82

I think quite a few people imagine the JWs as being wealthy.

Depends on your perspective.

In the US, for example, a typical US native wouldn't think so.

But for a recent immigrant, one who came with virtually nothing and now works 60-80 hours a week and sends 80% of their earnings back home, seeing other JWs "just like me" with nicer clothes, a functioning rust-free car, and a house, well, JWism seems like the path to a much better life. So why not listen to them?

Virtually all growth in the USA is in foreign language congregations, and virtually all of that growth comes from immigrants who are the target of those congregations.

I imagine it is similar in other countries.

12

Another Rare Beard Sighting

by neat blue dog in

this is from a recent article about malawi, and the caption calls the man "brother welosi mbendera".. .

sir82

"Oh, JWs in Africa can get away with beards...but not here."

Spoken or thought by 95% of JWs in the world.

41

147th Gilead prt. 3 - this could stumble people

by neat blue dog in

during gerrit loesch's talk just released, he goes on a long list of the false end times predictions throughout the millennia.

i didn't expect it, but then he goes into the precursors to the bible students who, when their dates failed, changed christ's presence to have happened 'invisibly'.

then it goes right into the jws, and he reads the quote from millions now living will never die about how we can 'confidently expect' the resurrection in 1925, and then the life everlasting book that predicted 1975. of course, he doesn't say how it's still going on, namely with the overlapping generation and its' accompanying convoluted chart, but still, this is more than they've ever said on the subject, especially recently.. it almost sounds like a forced statement, to address any backlash from people reading 'apostate lies' online, because he also says how the gb 'humbly' admitted mistakes, referencing the non-apology after 1975 that disturbed raymond franz.

sir82

Trying to get out in front of "apostate" info.

If a JW is confronted by "negative information" about the myriad prophetic failures of the WTS, all an "alert elder" has to do now is point the JW to this talk. "See? This is nothing shocking, even the GB talk openly about it!"

It doesn't have to make sense. There just has to be an extant explanation.

Same thing, essentially, with the goofy "generation" explanation. JWs don't have to understand it, and the organization doesn't care if they understand it. It is sufficient for JWs to know that "oh yeah, somewhere on JW Broadcasting, there is a talk from Splane with a chart that explains it. If I ever really need to understand it, I'll just look up that old video."

Of course, the video is all unadulterated bullcrap, and clarifies nothing. The important thing is that in the back of the typical JW mind, "it's all explained somwhere."

And now, for issues with date setting and false prophecy, "oh yeah, there's a talk by Losch somewhere on JW broadcasting that explains it all, so I don't have to think about it myself."

22

The Faithful and Discreet Slave Just "have" The Truth

by Number 6 in

in the late 80's when i was in my late teens i used to with my then wife to be attend a monday night pre-watchtower study at a local elders house.. this guy was revered as very knowledgable and he was scholarly and interesting to listen to; so at the time it was a genuinely enjoyable monday evening spent with oftentimes discussion would veer far of the subject at hand and lasting to well after 11pm some evenings.. this particular night, the subject up for discussion was "the faithful and discreet slave" and how we should be obeying them without question.

right in the middle of the study this elder said as a question not in the wt article; "how do we really know the current fds as lead by the governing body are the real deal.

i mean what actual proof do we have?".

sir82

I think some of the older generation were more realistic and less cultish. Perhaps they genuinely felt they had a
relationship with god that was not dependent on the mediation of the organisation.

My experience as well.

That generation (!) is pretty much marginalized now. The youngest of them are in their 70's, and increasingly pushed to the side as the current crop of younger elders & pioneers, all hepped up on "the organization", are running things now.