Posts by JWdaughter

41

May 15, 2017 TO ALL BODIES OF ELDERS Re: Regular Pioneers

by wifibandit in

may 15, 2017 to all bodies of elders re: regular pioneers.

uk version.

JWdaughter

What is the benefit to being a pioneer, again? No "wholesale" magazine price (which was a joke in any case) No free anything. No special seat in the cong. Nothing other than a weird bragging right (that really mostly speaks of nothing better to do)

My aunt was a week out of traumatic surgery (with a lifespan of 11 months) and can't wait to go spend it getting in her hours at "the cart". Seriously. She is speaking to me (and never stopped) but thinks that standing there mute while folks walk on by is a good way to spend her days not in chemo. Seriously breaks my heart. I guess she's got nothing better to do. . . but I wish that her good heart could be doing some actual 'good' in the world with her limited time left, rather than this nonsense. I'm not sayng a word to her-life is hard enough, but its a sad way to spend ones last days. And NOT being a pioneer anymore will break her heart-as this seems to tell me that she will be removed as her service time hasn't been long enough. Nice way to send her packing, right?

"That chemo is just taking you out of Jehovah's service too much, so we will have to remove you for not making your hours. That we know you are doing everything you can, more than you can, really, means nothing to us. We have our reports to make!"

Ah, the love!!!

26

Saudi Man Sentenced To Death For Atheism

by Bangalore in

saudi man sentenced to death for atheism.. http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-man-sentenced-death-after-declaring-himself-atheist-online-video-591473.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-man-sentenced-death-atheism-ahmad-al-shamri-hafar-al-batin-appeal-denied-a7703161.html.

JWdaughter

I've been to Saudi. It is not the natural state of Islam. Qatar might be. It is very conservative, but in a progressive way. I know the generation that is mid-twenties and they are far different in viewpoint about a lot of things from the next generation. I think MOST of Saudi is probably more like Qatar, but the ruling power is not the same as the people and Qatar while still struggling to move apace is basically a country that barely had paved roads 50 years ago. I worked for the former prime ministers family and they actually raised their elder children in a 2 bedroom apartment before they built their (yeah) palace. The wife is about 50-my age. They have free education and encourage their children, male and female to go to universities at home and abroad (and pay expenses). It is a place that is running to play catch up and the former emir set the tone that hopefully continues, which includes women being treated great, govt. run healthcare that was far superior to the private system (I spent time in both, so I know what I speak of). Not ideal. Not Saudi, either. I met many amazingly kind Saudi people. I hope you don't judge all of Islam and all of Saudi by govt' beaurocrats or literal terrorists. Most are not that.

I do not agree with the sentence and I don't find it in keeping with my belief system or that of most people I know, there or here.

22

HA the good life --Cart witnessing

by wannaexit in

jw
friends

on my way home from work today, i saw the modern day pioneers having a grand old time, relaxing in the sun.

two sprawled on one bench and the other two talking up a storm, with their iced cappuccino, just enjoying the day.

the two carts were a number of feet away.

JWdaughter

My aunt is suffering from cancer and since she is still an active pioneer, I'm glad she can just get a coffee and relax. Nice work if they paid you for it. but they don't. Bummer

101

Site Updates

by Simon in

just a heads-up that i will be testing some updates this evening.. the nature of the changes means it's difficult to test every scenario in advance offline (translation: it's a lot more effort and i just can't be bothered) so i'm going to go with the "wing-it" approach:.

deploy, check for errors, try to fix errors before anyone else notices them.. i can switch between the new and old version pretty quickly so if there are significant issues, i'll rollback and revert the changes while i work on the fixes.

worse case is the pages won't display quite right (dates might be a giveaway) but a full page refresh should fix things.. http://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/home/.

JWdaughter

Simon, you do a great job with keeping this site easily usable and up to date. Thanks.

15

Forbidden Book

by snowbird in

jw
friends

my oldest daughter once worked at a convenience store/gas station for a muslim gentleman.. he had two sons - the older one @ university, and the younger worked with my daughter.. well, my daughter said the younger was blackmailing the older because the older was in possession of a bible!.

she also said the young man confessed to her that he often times went to a soul food joint way out in the country and ordered pork chops.

she said he told her they tasted soooo good.. lol.. sylvia.

JWdaughter

The Bible isn't forbidden to Muslims. A local imam stayed in our library for months, slept and prayed tjere and we own dozens of non Muslim holy books and literature, buddhist, mormon, Jewish, hindu, sda, Catholic. we had jw stuff but now only have one old book an employee gave him.We have had scholars and teachers from all over the world stay with us for a meal or a week or months.No one ever suggested we get rid of any. Aziz loves to share a scripture about jesus prostrating in prayer. However, I can totally see the pork blackmail happening. :) my husband memorized the book of james and is respected so I don't see it getting anyone in trouble, but different strokes. Islam is not a monolithic religion like the JWs

22

the archangel, an archangel

by AmyWatson916 in

i'm reading a book called "what to do when they knock" that goes over the jw book "what does the bible really teach?".

it points out that the "bible really teach" book, on page 218, makes a bit of a point about there being only one archangel.

it says michael is "the archangel" and emphasizes that "the" means only one.

JWdaughter

You know, 14 years ago we actually INTENSIVELY explored these kind of questions on this site. We were so sincerely worried about how critically important it was. After a certain point, it seems whether or not one really believes in God or the Bible at all that all this is pesky fly in importance. The entire literallness of scripture is no longer even a concern of mine (any scripture). I figure that most of the principles that someone was trying to teach by writing holy books had less to do with dogma than any religious person of today would acknowledge and a lot more about character development of various kinds (for better or worse) Some of the bigger ideas get lost when folks are poking around with "THE" archangel and "AN" archangel. Anythng of value that holy writings have to offer gets totally lost in power struggles of self righteous men. (of all faiths)

16

April 19, 2017 TO ALL CONGREGATIONS Re: Branch Relocation Visitor Centre

by wifibandit in

bra april 19, 2017 to all congregations re: branch relocation visitor centre.

visitor information sheet.

JWdaughter

At least Mormons have ritualistic excuses for excluiding some, and they also have occasional open houses where those rules don't apply. I have no interest in seeing it, so no worries. There will be pictures, probably embarassing ones, soon enough!

31

Russian news article re: financial misdeeds of the WT in Russia

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

the way that the wt conducts business in russia, hiding ownership of property and moving money overseas, was a large factor in the jws falling afoul of the russian authorities.

it wasn't just 'extremist' views that came into play, it was also their handling of money that was illegal.. this article is from a russian news source - i had to use google translate to read it, so i have copied and pasted the whole article (i usually don't...apologies to the author of the article).

if someone has russian language skills, please feel welcome to offer a better translation.. .

JWdaughter

Corruption is practically an art form over there; therefore they know it when they see it. Which is good I guess. I am very disturbed at how the WT HQ are using the brothers to further their corruption and dishonesty in this case. Most JWs will only see this in the context that they have been groomed to see it in-but JW's across Russia have now been put in a very difficult position, and it is not about "spreading the kingdom message" it is about protecting the WT assets. Can you imagine how they will frame that little 'story'? Indeed it will be a particularly ripe smelling bit of fiction!

That black brother (missionary) from Africa or ? that was (falsely) a medical student before in Russia is on the JW channe (gilead)l bragging about his dishonest methods of getting into/staying in Russia. . . .. Can he ever go back? Is he there NOW? Does he have family there still? Does the WT know or care? The have "the Inside Story", right? They SHOULD. But this was released at such a time that they should have known better than to gloat about his false ploys to stay there. Furthermore, they are putting NON JWs who are legitimately there, under further scrutiny. Granted, a lot of religious groups play those games here and abroad, but for an organization to put men UP to such things is pretty rotten.

184

Outcome - Banned in Russia - Final

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

i just watched the live feed from the russian court room and followed the updates on the russian exjw forum.. just waiting for confirmation from other sources...but, it looks like the final (and expected) result is:.

banned.

which means that the wts property in russia now belongs to the russian state..

JWdaughter

In years to come there will be a story of a JW 'sister' going door to door and the police seeking her out and she changed her coat to escape them-and repeatedly was put into prison where some of her children were born as every time she was released, she just got caught again. So, tragically, and all because the Russians are so mean, those poor children grew up without a mother in their lives.

Jeez. I don't even want to read the accounts of (not so)secret JWs going door to door doing their thing in defiance of CEASAR just so they can promote their stupid ass religion, get thrown into prison to be martyrs and have their children raised by their long suffering dad who is trying to raise children with no partner.

5

JWs in Russia. This short article from TASS is very interesting. "Everything You Need To Know About JWs"

by NikL in

jw
friends

remember tass is traditionally pretty much a spokesman for the government.

http://tass.com/world/939582.

JWdaughter

"defy government institutions and civic duties, refuse to serve in the army and do not permit blood transfusions. Each adherent is expected to unconditionally obey the will and aims of the organization. Nobody is allowed to leave it of one’s own accord. The movement expects its members to be hostile against all those who do not recognize its teaching. For this reason Jehovah’s Witnesses are often accused of inciting religious enmity". More:http://tass.com/world/939582

True enough.

Most was accurate.