Posts by AllAlongTheWatchtower

17

A little Biblical humor (groan)

by bikerchic in

a little biblical humor.

q. what kind of man was boaz before he married ruth?

a. ruthless.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Lot's wife; a real pillar of the community.

First insurance salesmen? Noah's sons, they provided blanket coverage.

46

Who masterminded the WT mind control 'routine'? Was it deliberate?

by Gill in

is the wt policy of five meetings a week, daily text, book study prep, book study, thursday meeting prep, thursday meeting, watchtower pre study, public talk, watchtower study, a deliberate ploy to keep the members under mind control?.

is this 'routine' carefully thought out and planned by someone or did the watchtower society just evolve this way 'accidentally'?.

is there a 'mastermind' at work aiming to keep jws tightly under mind control and if so , who is it?.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Thanks for taking an interest Gill, I was worried I might have gone too far off topic. Ah crap, just noticed I misspelled phenomenon, too. Oh well, to err is human.

24

Affirmative arguments for the non-existence of Jesus

by WhatSexRU in

i was just reading a thread on this forum called saviors of the world?.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/136105/1.ashx.

that thread discussed similarities between the various saviors, or messiahs that are said to have walked the earth, most of them appearing long before jesus supposedly emerged.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I've got this theory I came up with (well, actually, I recently found out it's not an original idea, others thought of it before me). Much of the material in the new testament is from the writings of Saul/Paul. I think he's got second place when it comes to amount or percentage of material, and first place when it comes to number of bible books. (I had actually researched all this before, and attempted to post it here with links as references, but my comp crashed in the middle of it...too lazy to do that work over again).

Yet Paul only claimed to have seen Jesus in a vision, a la the whole "Road to Damascus" incident. He never actually met him, or was there for any of the events of his life. Supposing he made the whole thing up? He was originally a sort of Gestapo character, going around trying to destroy the Christians...what if he got the idea to destroy it from within instead, and "converted", so as to insert his own ideas, and water down the original? During the periods of unrest, revolt and war between 70 and 135 AD, the Jews as a people were scattered and exiled, which pretty much killed Jewish Christianity, and left Pauline Christianity as victor by default.

While researching all this stuff, I found out about a group of people called the Ebionites, who apparently actually branded Paul as an apostate. Google 'pauline christianity' or 'ebionites" if you find this idea to be of interest, there's lots of info out there.

46

Who masterminded the WT mind control 'routine'? Was it deliberate?

by Gill in

is the wt policy of five meetings a week, daily text, book study prep, book study, thursday meeting prep, thursday meeting, watchtower pre study, public talk, watchtower study, a deliberate ploy to keep the members under mind control?.

is this 'routine' carefully thought out and planned by someone or did the watchtower society just evolve this way 'accidentally'?.

is there a 'mastermind' at work aiming to keep jws tightly under mind control and if so , who is it?.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

On a related note, I recall a couple people here mentioning hypnotic practices of the JW meeting setup; it was said that having a speaker and a second person on opposite sides of the platform kept the eyes of people in the congregation moving constantly from left to right, and that this was a key element in inducing a semi-hypnotic state in people. I searched the web in an effort to validate or dispute this theory, but was unable to find much info, except that a woman named Francine Shapiro apparently came up with a possible method of therapy called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), to reduce negative emotions and stress associated with past memories or images. (As yet unproven, as near as I could find.)

http://home.fuse.net/jburik/emdr.html

1) Do you believe in this phenomonon, or is this an idea from the lunatic fringe?

2) Do you think the GB or others knew of it and utilized it purposely?

Note: I apologize if this diverges from the original intent of the thread too much, and will gladly edit it out and start it as a new topic if desired.

57

13-yr old girl writes: example of Witnesses lying

by Dogpatch in

jw
friends

i get emails like this all the time.

some jw gets upset at the stuff on my site, and wanting to add more weight/shock value to what they say, they either mention in passing that they are "not one of jehovah's witnesses" or are a child.

this one claims to be a 13-yr old girl!

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I'm not a girl, and was never a JW, but I was raised in the WCG which is similar, and at the age of 13 I'd have been TERRIFIED to call an adult by their first name. Even after I was out of the WCG by being DFed at 13, and in foster care, when the family who was caring for me suggested that I call them by their first names (since 'mom' or 'dad' would have been awkward at so early a stage), I was kinda scandalized, and blushingly replied "no ma'am, I don't think I can do that either".

hey yeah randy why and how you left bethel is between you and jehovah but ...

I'm guessing JW kids are raised the same way. So I'm guessing also, that the poster is correct. Unless of course 'theocratic warfare' means it's ok for kids to be disrespectful of (apostate) adults, too, as well as tell lies in a courtroom.

127

JW Fired for Refusing to Sing Happy Birthday

by Kenneson in

jw
friends

in mesquite, texas, sabrina ballantine says she was fired from razzoo's for refusing to sing happy birthday.

she is a jw, who does not believe in celebrating birthdays and singing this song.. "razzoo's settles lawsuit over religious firing.".

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/dn-localbriefs_20bus.art.state.edition1.376bc98.html.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

There's a restaurant that opened a couple years ago in my area called Texas Roadhouse or Texas Steakhouse, something like that. My wife and I tried it soon after they opened, it was a bit odd when we walked in and there were peanut shells all over the floor, and we were told that it was expected and customary to throw the shells there, from the complinentary bowls of peanuts placed on all the tables. The food was pretty good though, I'd put it about on a par with Outback or any other decent $20 a steak place.

The other odd thing, was that every 15-20 minutes or so, all the waiters and waitresses would stand in the aisles and sing songs like Deep in the Heart of Texas, with all the hand clapping and stuff. I remember that I left our waitress a pretty substantial tip, and said something to her about how I could never work there, cause I can't carry a tune in a bucket, and don't like to sing. She replied that she didn't mind it so much, and that it was actually kinda fun.

The point to all this rambling being, that I'm sure the girl in question knew she was going to have to do this ahead of time, yet took the job. It's usually pretty clear-cut what your responsibilities are going to be when you sign all the dotted lines. I used to work with a guy, who though he was studying to be a Muslim, still made and served pepperoni pizzas to the customers-he just didn't eat any himself. Had he refused, he'd have been fired-pepperoni is the top seller at any pizza joint. I don't think she deserved the settlement. It's not like they forced her to sing from a Catholic hymnal or something, 'Happy Birthday' is only an issue to those groups who MAKE it an issue, like JWs, WCG, and some others I may not have knowledge of. In the US, there's an "At Will" employment law, meaning the employee or employer may terminate the work relationship with no given reason. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment

There are clauses within that law, and precedents which pertain to it, in the area of discrimination vs sex, religion, race, etc, however in this case I don't feel they really apply. Perhaps the business owner should have been a bit wiser, and simply terminated the girl without stating a reason, which is perfectly within their rights under the 'At Will" law.

48

Posting Here: secretly or openly?

by AllAlongTheWatchtower in

just curious, how many of you have to hide the fact that you post here from family?

i'm especially thinking of those with spouses who are in, while they themselves either never were, faded, dfed/daed, etc but if you are a child hiding it from parents, that applies too.

if you are posting secretly, how secretive do you have to be?

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Just curious, how many of you have to hide the fact that you post here from family? I'm especially thinking of those with spouses who are in, while they themselves either never were, faded, DFed/DAed, etc but if you are a child hiding it from parents, that applies too. If you are posting secretly, how secretive do you have to be? Going to the library to do so? While the spouse/parent is at meetings? From work? At first I was posting here secretly, but gradually was able to reveal it to my wife. I even had hopes at one point that she would join herself, but that seems to be a forlorn hope. She says she doesn't like "hater sites" where everything is all negativity.

She was never baptized, never officially a JW, just studied with them and started going to meetings, but I eventually managed to show her how bizarre some of the doctrines of the JWs are, and she no longer does so now. (Thanks to many here who helped me with that, particularly jgnat and Check_Your_Premises.) She is still kind and friendly to the ones who stop by here on occasion (guess they have her down as a return visit or something?) to give her new booklets, but is no longer interested in them. I now post here openly, sometimes she will even sit in the room with me while I'm reading and typing, and ask me some questions.

I think one of the most eye-opening things for her was when she kept looking at the screen one day, and finally being able to stand her curiousity no longer, asked me "Are these people really the ages that show up by their names, or what? There's no way that one person is x years old" (some people have their age on the board set to close to 100, or less than 10; in those cases I assume it's to honor their "birth out of the truth"). So I told her how families were split because of shunning, and how some people here had to hide themselves to keep from being 'outed', and were probably just putting random fake ages as part of their cover. I could see by the look on her face that it really hit home.

7

I'm online at home....

by ex-nj-jw in

jw
friends

finally i got my computer and internet connection at home!!

i'm using an old windows system so i can't use all the "cool" smiley's right now!.

i can finally stop having withdrawal symptoms when i leave work and can't log onto jwd!

AllAlongTheWatchtower

LMAO at the ads that appeared at the bottom of the screen for this thread:

rapid detox

addiction help

bethel tours

Snakes is right, this IS rehab.

22

A call from the GRAVE!

by ButtLight in

jw
friends

ok, since others are posting "boo" threads, i will too.

would you bury a loved one with a cell phone?.

i was watching sylvia browne yesterday.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I recall a couple years ago, hearing a story about a guy who put in his will that he wanted to be buried in his car. As I remember, there were some legal battles involved, something about having to have all the gas and anything else hazardous removed first (like the battery), but as far as I know after doing all the proper things, he got his wish. I tried to find info about it on the net, but right now any searches for 'buried car' bring up the stories from Tulsa OK that are blanketing the net right now, regarding an old car the town buried in the 50's as a time capsule, and is being dug up today or tomorrow as part of a ceremony.

Maybe the ghostly lady can give him a call on her cell, and he can drive over and take her out for a date.

24

Plain Truth

by mrsjones5 in

i have a free subscription to a christian mag by the name of "plain truth".

the july/august issue has an article about the borg in it called "trapped in the watchtower.

pretty good.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I too would urge caution...I'm a former member of the WCG, and I can attest that in the past, they were much like JWs. I was DFed from WCG in the summer of '83 at the age of 12 or 13-don't actually remember whether my birthday had occurred yet or not, which is also in the summer. My sin was that in May of that same year, I was taken by the state as a ward of the court and placed in foster care due to abuse issues. How audacious of me! I was a bad apple with a bad attitude, and might spoil the whole barrel. I was bad association, and a potential corrupting influence on the other youth.

Since joining this site (not because of WCG, but because my wife started to study with JWs, and I feared the impact that would have, the moreso because I already had personal experience with high control groups), I learned about the WCG "reformation". I put that in quotes, because there are many watchdog groups on the net I've seen that doubt the WCG's motives and honesty in changing. They raked in millions back in the Armstrong days, and the money they use today is tainted, in my opinion. My parents alone ~~donatedtithed~~ had thousands stolen from them.

http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/artcls/asurviv.htm <---- This site contains much information about the WCG. Though I disagree with their religious outlook, it does contain valuable information, if a bit biased toward their own beliefs. One thing I found there is an item which I mentioned in another post recently (don't recall the thread it was on) about how the WCG is even considering a name change to further distance themselves from their past. Seems dishonest and sneaky to me.

http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/artcls/wcgname.htm