Rich, I'm so sad for what your family is facing and whatever hurt him so much to have resorted to that act. Take your time. Know that we care about you, ok?
Michelle
JWdaughter
JoinedPosts by JWdaughter
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113
I just found out that my youngest brother committed suicide
by SnakesInTheTower inmy middle brother called me a couple of hours ago.
our youngest brother, josh, who was 38, was found by his friends in his apartment.
he hung himself.
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74
Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)
by OnTheWayOut ini don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .
org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.
instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.
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JWdaughter
The woman who was denied as being a JW for her religion or the girl who was supposedly removed from being head girl at an anglican school because of her religion (while her mom says she is not really a JW) were likely unbaptised publishers.
I think it is interesting how the WT plays that, denying those who serve them based on their baptismal status in the newspaper, yet counting them for reporters regarding attendance and participation. Unbaptised publishers (like the african student) play it too, yet they can be removed from the congregation if they get a blood transfusion.
Unbaptised publishers are counted for bragging purposes, and denied if they die for the borg or commit a crime. Hmmm. Perhaps JWs and unbaptised publishers need to get a clue. They WT wants their baptism numbers for their own purposes, but will never do anything for you because of your baptism, yet they will accept your service for their own purposes and still deny you when push comes to shove. THey will also shun you even if you haven't committed to them.
Unless you are rich and famous. I would never get away with what the Williams have. I don't blame them, they are smart enough to not get totally trapped. They are sitting on a fence. Its probably getting kind of sore though.
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Living with Islam
by fulltimestudent inindonesia is a large nation to the north of australia.
more than 250 million people live there, and around 204 million (88%) are muslim.
the indonesian armed forces have nearly a million personnel, either as active servicemen or reservists.. australia, with a population of 23 million, and an armed forces of 80,000 (active and reservist), has no choice but to live in co-operation with indonesia, though the relationship is sometimes strained.
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JWdaughter
I have lived in Muslim and non Muslim lands. Good, bad and ugly in all. Different lives. But I felt safer at 1am alone in Cairo after the revolution than I did in NYC at any time in any neighborhood. The only violence I experienced in Cairo was from a Christian who was kind of paranoid. He aimed a loaded gun at me when he didn't know who was at his door. He didn't shoot, so that's good.
I accidentally left 3500qr(about $1000) and a BlackBerry in my office over the weekend and while it was cleaned by a crew (Muslim, Christian and Hindu) it was all there on Monday when I returned.
Everyone tried to help me, gene r ally and most depths had a women's line or office. Much easier and nicer offices than men had.
OTOH, disabled people were just recently accepted in public(severely) and facilities were often not accommodating, even govt offices and health care. That bothered me the most, however, I learned that enormous amounts of progress happened rapidly.
The young adult generation was the last of the racists since the good schools had locals and south Asians represented and the locals were being tutored by Indians and pakis. Once they weren't drivers and Nanny and maids, respect happened where before the best attitude was a kind of noblesse oblige. Education is amazing.
OTOH, I'd starve to death in Pakistan or die of food poisoning. Eh.
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Recent announcement on literature placements
by dbq407 ini find it interesting that the other night they announced that literature is not to be left indiscriminately.
they said to only leave literature if the householder engages you in conversation.
it used to be that they would try to get any literature into every hand of every person.
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JWdaughter
Working in employee benefits, we have printed and electronic versions of about everything as well as audio cds and dvds, downloads, electronic enrollments, all the bells and whistles.
They never inquire about how or where or when we use any materials. Why? Our success is measured by our customer enrollments. We may get training, but all the numbers that matter are NEVER about our literature or link dispensing. Bragging about magazine distribution when it is basically free toilet paper is odd. It validates nothing so far as evangelizing. Yeah, the company inquires about which tools we find effective, but they can tell by our ordering patterns as we have freedom to get what works for us.
Our hours mean nothing, likewise, to a anyone but us. We are responsible adults and some are amazingly successful part time and others couldn't sell the fountain of youth to Joan Rivers back a year or two ago. Those folks find other ways to support themselves. Yet JWs are supposed to show their love for truth by wasting their lives in a very unsuccessful endeavor that yields zip, zilch, nothing.
Stupid business model. They could actually do good with all those wasted, counted hours.
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heart troubles
by zeb indear all,.
my health took a beating over the years with stress from various sources, not a little from the wt; and dangerous areas of work involving fumes and so on.
the arc also took its toll and i have had recently a heart attack.
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JWdaughter
In spite of wt teachings about how awful our times are, medical care is amazing. I have great confidence that we will hear from you again. i sure hope so!
No matter what, how good to know you made a positive impact on humanity. When you are feeling good again, pls check in and tell us!
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The Horror of mom needing blood and almost dying...you dont want this!!!
by Witness 007 inmy mom was unwell for awhile bruises on her body....doc tells us she has a form of lukiemia.
of course "no blood" she is anointed and stubborn as hell.
her platelets (blood fraction 2% of blood volume) are 4 should be 150!!!
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JWdaughter
Im sorry to hear this. Your poor mom! Its hard when your hands are the tied and she is thoroughly deluded. -
74
Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)
by OnTheWayOut ini don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .
org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.
instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.
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JWdaughter
I'm not excited over a dip in some numbers, but I am hopeful because of a dip in ALL the numbers. I am hopeful because of the demonstrated trend.
It's like dirty hair. For a certain amount of time you can put stuff in to make your hair look better (maybe even better than when its clean). You can fiddle with it, you can use barrettes, you can comb it another way, you can just wet it down. . . but at some point, you need to wash it again or it will never look good again.
The WT has done all the fiddling it can. It needs shampoo but there IS NO SHAMPOO that will fix what's wrong with it now. Its infested with vermin and you need to shave the hair off.
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What is the monthly stipend that the bethelites receive every month?
by StephaneLaliberte inwhat is the monthly stipend that the bethelites receive every month?
does any one has an actual number?
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JWdaughter
Unlike SOME at Bethel, most Bethelites do not have access to the autos in the Bethel garage.
When I was in, they were getting $14 a month. I figured that would keep me in feminine hygiene products and really bad shampoo.
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Just read "Zealot - The Life And Times Of Jesus Of Nazareth"
by EdenOne inso, keeping in mind that mrs. eden isn't so comfortable with english, i have been searching for books on the subject of the historical jesus and who wrote the bible, and i got very frustrated because there's not a lot of those in my native language.
most of what i read in english simply hasn't been translated, which is a shame.
in any case, i managed to get two: bart ehrman's "misquoting jesus" and reza aslan's "zealot".
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JWdaughter
I think Ehrman and Aslan are both interesting writers and pretty honest in what they present (unlike some religiously oriented types we have all read that will say anything to support their (current) teaching or belief.
They have different perspectives. Erhman is more theological, Aslan is more oriented to the historic. They both wander into the realm of the other pretty comfortably, but they are essentially focused on different things. I think that they both have good information to offer. Both are easy reads in some cases. Ehrman has some more scholarly works out, I think and Aslan might fairly be construed as more of a writer for the common man. I like them both a lot. Both are in my library.
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Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)
by OnTheWayOut ini don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .
org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.
instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.
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JWdaughter
I didn't know they stopped supporting missionaries! So, basically the "worldwide work" fund is just supporting the guys in Bethel pretty much and a few printeries.
I think they are on the downhill slope. . . I just hope the skis are waxed and they don't dawdle. It would be nice if it was effectively over soon. I recognize that there may always be something left of the org., but like some other sects, I hope that they effectually disappear ASAP. The Worldwide church of God had a much smaller distribution of magazines than the WT, but they had 8 million at one time and before they shut down entirely went down to less than a 100,000. They renamed and re-theologied the entire thing and are about 50,000 members now. They never had that many going to church members, but they had a lot of supporters outside the regular attendees. They had their own child abuse scandal (incest, leader) and financial accusations flung about. The WWCOG went from viable to actually gone in 20 years. The current church has nothing to do with the original other than a history and some of the dregs of the assets. Its an entirely different religion.
Does that give any of you all hope?
I remember being able to get the Plain Truth magazine everywhere in little newspaper stands. Didn't have to wait for it to be delivered. It was full color and always free. Its gone now, but because of their distribution, they looked bigger than they were. I thought they were a LOT bigger-I thought they were WT competition.
Anyway.