Posts by JWdaughter

74

Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

i 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.

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.

24

What is the monthly stipend that the bethelites receive every month?

by StephaneLaliberte in

what is the monthly stipend that the bethelites receive every month?

does any one has an actual number?

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.

15

Just read "Zealot - The Life And Times Of Jesus Of Nazareth"

by EdenOne in

so, 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".

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.

74

Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

i 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.

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.

49

Who would you vote for Today?

by James Mixon in

jw
friends

d. trump or h. clinton and why.. i would vote for gun slinging trump..

JWdaughter

I'd emigrate.Ok, not. I'm hoping someone looks good before Nov next.

12

Proof that Watchtower Invested $40M into Hedge funds...

by Newly Enlightened in

back in 2007. and now the hedge funds are reporting losses.

could this be why watchtower is crying how broke they are?.

https://www.watchtowerlies.com/linked/investments_of_watchtower_in_the_hedge_funds_in_cayman_islands_a_tax_haven_40000000_2007_en.pdf.

JWdaughter

I'm still not "getting" what is the big deal about hedge funds vs other investments. I found out Is that non-profits and trusts and other kinds of charities or scholarships invest in this way. Seems risky and stupid, perhaps (Dave Ramsey would have a thing to say about financial stewardship, but is seems accepted among worldly circles).

Is this actually a smoking gun or even a red flag of any kind?

10

Is this possible?

by WasOnceBlind in

first of all my parents don't know that i no longer consider my self a jw of believe in the stuff they say (after 10+ years of dissociation it shouldn't be rocket science) and there is no way my dad would ever listen to me if i were to talk to him about tatt and all the contradictions and false prophecies.

however, he is always reading, and he spends a lot of time in the computer using the wt library (the cd one).

i was wondering, if there would be a way to maybe "hack" the program, maybe replace some wt books with copies of something like crisis of conscience.

JWdaughter

Yeah, I don't think there is a lot of hope for anyone unless they get a niggle of question on their own . . . or maybe use the WT broadcasting against the borg.Just encourage him to go back and see all the GB talks before they water them down with non-GB brothers. The GB is enough to get anyone questioning.Bring beer and doritos. Sit there with him, discuss some noncritical things in a desultory fashion and let him comment on the idiocy of the entire programs. Let it happen naturally.

That's my best idea. The WT seems to be poisoning their own well, so let them all drink from it and taste that it is not good!

46

Correlation decline JW numbers and JW broadcasting?

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

i read some impressive figures here about the decline of the jw numbers in 2015.. could there be a correlation between this decline and the start of jw broadcasting?.

hence, that there would be an negative impact because the gb is standing so nearby, you can experience the idiot reasoning of their doctrines sitting in your own living room?.

the lett effect?

JWdaughter

Yesterday I was supposed to go with my mom to a family event that would cause her to miss a meeting. The event was called off because of the freezing/winds/flooding. So, we started talking about doing something else instead and I interrupted saying-well, its your meeting night, we could just do something together tomorrow (because I wanted points for offering when I knew she wanted to do something else. She KNEW it was her meeting night). She told me that she had planned on missing the meeting anyway so we might as well do something together. So, I made her my famous enchiladas and we watched "The Middle" which is her favorite tv show (not one of the funnier episodes).

During the course of re-teaching her how to use "on demand", she mentioned her roku with JW.org and how she watched the broadcast the day before. She didn't say anything, but I am wondering if to her, that was enough meeting for the week and that keeping up with the broadcasts is enough spiritual food to keep her going nowadays. . .

Anyway, I helped her miss a meeting, fed her, taught her how to watch tv and we had an ok time together.

I do think that the decline will be fed by the JW.org broadcasts. People will justify missing meetings and gradually, the actual pull will lose strength.

37

Why does Antoine Leiris' powerful tribute to his wife, killed by ISIS in the Paris attacks, bother me so much?

by nicolaou in

here is the translation of monsieur leiris' words;.

friday night, you took an exceptional life - the love of my life, the mother of my son - but you will not have my hatred.

i don't know who you are and i don't want to know, you are dead souls.

JWdaughter

I think that the issue with Mr. Lieris is that by opening himself up to that hate, he opens himself up to that kind of act. Becoming them starts with opening himself to unfettered hate. I don't want to become them, and neither do you. Hating an act will keep me from it. Hating a person might make me capable of that kind of ugliness and terror in response to that hate. I don't want to open myself to that.

10

Is this possible?

by WasOnceBlind in

first of all my parents don't know that i no longer consider my self a jw of believe in the stuff they say (after 10+ years of dissociation it shouldn't be rocket science) and there is no way my dad would ever listen to me if i were to talk to him about tatt and all the contradictions and false prophecies.

however, he is always reading, and he spends a lot of time in the computer using the wt library (the cd one).

i was wondering, if there would be a way to maybe "hack" the program, maybe replace some wt books with copies of something like crisis of conscience.

JWdaughter

I don't think he would be fooled. You could send him material anonymously in snail mail, maybe. You could ask questions that will make him think (without stating the ttatt, let him figure it out himself) You could just get into his google and get a lot of stuff popping up at him from various sites that don't support the WT, like this one, JW Facts, silent lambs, etc.