old people are allowed to be grumpy,eccentric and outspoken.
i think of the old-timer jws in my local congregation during my childhood and youth.
some of them were very critical of “the brothers” but the presiding overseers and later, the elders, tolerated their ravings, seeing them as still loyal but eccentric.. i even recall a watchtower article or two in the late 1960s that talked about the disappointment many older ones felt as this system of things wasn’t showing any signs of imminent collapse.
Anything and everything that promotes WT stories.
Here are a few I have heard recently.
"We are the happiest people on earth, the world look at us and wonder why they can't be happy like us".
"Before 1914, when the world was a lovely place for people to live"
"Buying or selling your house can only happen with Jehovahs help"
They don't need to be elderly to hear these things, a JW of any age can say stuff like this.
i was reading redpill2006's post and i noticed that some mentioned that get-togethers or parties have been largely discouraged.
i stopped attending meetings in 2003/2004 and i remember my congregation still had get-togethers, although they were few and far between.
they were not completely discouraged though, has this changed?
I remember about 8 years the WT discouraged these, Before that we had a lot of these congregation get togethers, then nothing after that, it was something about the way to pay for the hire of venues not being acceptable. Anyone have any more details? Thanks
not completely but the expensive renting of halls or assembly hall ownership.
maybe with streaming they could have assemblies at the kh and stream the program.
i bet they cut costs in a lot of ways.
A lot of interesting comments on this one. Recently our circuit had a change of city location for an assembly. It was suggested to those who did not need to travel, that the money they saved on accommodation could be put in the contribution boxes at that assembly.
my wife's parents are in very bad shape.
they are both 2nd gen jws.
my father in law worked for a large american manufacturing company in the 60s and early 70s.
"Simplify your life, reduce your work hours, don't forget to donate to JW.org," This is what we hear coming from the talks, this is what we get told to do as a service to God. It is unfortunate that the very ones that can-not afford to do these instructions, are the ones that listen and continually live day to day struggling. And then when they get to a point in their life, where they financially have nothing, guess who gets the blame for their situation, none other than Satan and the pressures of this wicked system of things.
The end is so near!
i am shaking all over right now.
i think it's worse that the bunker video.. i used to think there was no way that these people would actually "drink the cool aid" if you get my drift, but seeing this video i am now not sure it could never happen.. having a wife who i love dearly trapped in this cult is really freaking me out right now...
Quoting Vidiot; "Personally, I suspect that the GB is "projecting"......deep down, they're scared the authorities are coming for them."...
They and the Elders do believe that they could be taken away by the authorities, One elder from our congregation recently gave a stirring talk from on stage about how we (as a congregation) would cope if the authorities walked in the KH door right now and arrested and took away all the elders.Think about it brothers, because it could happen, we were told.
it’s a three for one deal.
about 10 years ago they merged 3 struggling rural congregations into one in the largest town.
at the time there were about 75 publishers.
And those 30 will still believe that there is a lot of interest out there.
talking about tomorrow's wt study, that mentions over a quarter of a million baptized every year, a jw asked how many that is a day.
i got out my calculator and answered over 778 a day.
of course they were amazed at the growth, but immediatly i googled another statistic and read it aloud:.
Another way to look at it. Average numbers baptized per congregation per year. that would make it just over 2.
In our circuit there are around 11 congregations, So that would mean around 25ish on average should be getting baptized in our circuit. I know that there are nowhere near 25 getting baptized in this circuit per year.
the meeting today was quite disturbing as usual and had to endure 2 talks by yet another egotistical, pompous co who gives talks like a hardcore southern baptist, but people adore no matter what crazy shit spews from their mouth.
today, he talked about jesus illustration about how if your eye or hand stumbles you, remove it.
he went into gory detail about how somebodies eye ball is pulled out from their head, and what it takes to cut someone’s hand off...perhaps even with a pocketknife...in front of many small children in the audience.
Saying that people who put off baptism are needlessly endangering their lives since only baptized ones can be saved...and then a few paragraphs later stating that we shouldn’t pressure people to get baptized.
That was in the WT study, and I also picked up on that double take. What they are telling any one not baptized that is listening, is that if you don't get baptized, you will die when the end comes very soon. And by the way, because we are a very loving and considerate organization, don't let anyone pressure you into getting baptized.
