careful

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Posts by careful

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  19

  WTS Rich or Hurting for $$$

  by Zeds Dead in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  seen a few discussions asking if the wts are hurting for $$ or still sitting on a mountain of gold.. regardless of their child abuse legal fees and ongoing broadcasting for more dough, i believe they have piles and piles of cash.. talked with a diff'd accountant who sat in the accounting dept.

  at the conventions for years.. a football stadium (or the like) costs them about $70 - 90,000 to rent for a 3 day dub show.

  they take in $400,000 in donations from the r&f.

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  careful

  Z-E, thanks for the link. It indeed looks like they are focusing on just one or two bethels on each continent. Two in Europe and N. America, one in Asia (?--Japan?), one in Africa (S. Africa?). If someone could correct these numbers and locations, I'd appreciate it.
  
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  7

  New type study for inactive ones now?

  by careful in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  of course, conducting a "bible" study (actually a wts publication study) with an inactive person who comes back is nothing new.

  i did so on occasion when i was in, or the boe would assign someone else to do so, especially if it was a sister.. however, i recently heard of this: during the course of the study the elders would go through a loyalty check of the person wanted to rejoin up by going through the baptismal questions again, just like they were a complete newbie.

  has anyone else heard of this?

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  careful

  Thank you, darkspilver!

  
  
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  7

  New type study for inactive ones now?

  by careful in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  of course, conducting a "bible" study (actually a wts publication study) with an inactive person who comes back is nothing new.

  i did so on occasion when i was in, or the boe would assign someone else to do so, especially if it was a sister.. however, i recently heard of this: during the course of the study the elders would go through a loyalty check of the person wanted to rejoin up by going through the baptismal questions again, just like they were a complete newbie.

  has anyone else heard of this?

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  careful

  Of course, conducting a "bible" study (actually a WTS publication study) with an inactive person who comes back is nothing new. I did so on occasion when i was in, or the BOE would assign someone else to do so, especially if it was a sister.

  However, i recently heard of this: during the course of the study the elders would go through a loyalty check of the person wanted to rejoin up by going through the baptismal questions again, just like they were a complete newbie. Has anyone else heard of this? I'm wondering if its official or just some local BOE fantasy.
  
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  33

  "You Can Do Just Enough Ministry To Dislike It"

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  when you were "in" did you ever actually enjoy the ministry?

  and i made no secret about it.

  instead i would joke about me feather knocking, and made sure i had my bible in hand so as they come to the door they know what im about so they can shut me down before i even start.. i always wondered how or why there were people who enjoyed it.

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  careful

  sir82 said

  I think there are a lot who do enjoy it.
  Our sample here on this forum is a bit skewed since, if you really liked the ministry, you'd probably still be a JW and not within a country mile of this forum.
  

  I enjoyed it a lot. I hope that doesn't draw negative comments from the "skewed sample" here, but I think it might! When I left, I had a hard time not going out d-t-d. I still enjoy talking to people, including strangers, about God, the Bible, etc. One ex-JW friend I still see does too and tells me about her current witnessing experiences. Neither of us, of course, still report the time. THAT always bothered me. Can you imagine Peter or Paul making out field service reports?

  I knew one past missionary who really loved the field service. He hated doing elder duties and would always tell me how much he'd rather be out in the ministry. He'd served at various Bethels and didn't like that either compared to the field service. He and I always had plenty of RVs and Bible studies. We both got 30+ hours a month in just on Bible studies (yes, I did turn in my FS time to keep the peace).
  

  But I suspect that the majority of Witnesses do/did not like doing it, and certainly the majority of people here didn't.
  
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  29

  Who is attending the 2016 Annual Meeting this Saturday?

  by Londo111 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm curious if we will have eyewitness reporters at the stanley theater like we do every year....

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  careful

  Restore honesty in congregations
  

  I believe the word "restore" means that there was once honesty present. When was that???
  
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  13

  Judical committee flaws

  by Chook in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if an elder sitting in a jc has a secret sin of a serious nature, his rulings that took place while this sin was unknown are still binding.

  in a court of law of most countries that would be a grounds for appeal.

  regardless i know they are kangaroo courts ,where anyone who has any biblical knowledge knows they can't back up a scriptural reference for a three man tribunal.

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  careful

  In one cong I was in there was an elder who was looked up to by all. He had served a prison sentence early in the Viet Nam era for conscientiously objecting to military service (today he'd have the option of alternative service). He served on numerous JCs. Then one day he walked away from his wife, kids, and cong. He submitted a letter to BOE saying that he'd been carrying on an adulterous relationship for a long time with a worldly woman. He never returned to the org or his wife and kids. Yep, all his JCs decisions were still binding.

  The WT org is not set up to do anything else. It would create a real mess for them to do otherwise.

  Your statement "In a court of law of most countries that would be a grounds for appeal" calls to mind one of the reasons that the GB years ago shut down the Theocratic Attorneys and Doctors, an in-house JW org, once outside the purview of the GB. This group was mentioned twice in RF's CofC book. One of the things that was being discussed among them was the notion that certain important, basic aspects of Western jurisprudence and governance did not exist within the judicial system of the WTS. What a threat that was to the GB! Naturally they felt they had to shut the whole thing down.
  
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  16

  JWs and Field Service Attire

  by laverite in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this morning the jws are working my neighborhood.

  i have a birds eye view from my upstairs office.

  on my side of the street is three men with a baby in a stroller.

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  careful

  Did you take a pic of the men and send it in to Tony Morris for being out of uniform? They will doubtlessly have their "privileges" restricted for a time for being so disobedient and irreverent.
  
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  25

  RC 2017 Rumors

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  source: http://www.extj.com/showthread.php?28321-asamblea-regional-2017 (for a more literal translation) here is the gist, edited for formatting/chronological order/correct minor errors:.

  regional convention 2017 rumors.

  theme: the bible and the divine name.. 3 dramas and 2 dramatic bible readings.. .

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  careful

  This a pretty detailed "leak"—whether this "reported to me in private" is true or not will be seen in time. If it's accurate, it would have to be some source from deep within the inner organization. That it was posted in Spanish might indicate that the leak came via sending out plans of the RC to the branches.

  Was it some careless high-powered Bethelite who accidently left a paper detailing the plans laying around and a gossipy sister saw it and and put in into the in-house grapevine, or is someone hacking into the WT database?

  More and more dramas/visual material and less and less printed material. The dumbing-down trend continues.
  
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  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  careful

  Your observation that in WT publications this question was usually directed to young people rings true. Likely that's for two reasons, at least from the official JW perspective: 1. younger children don't wonder such issues until around puberty, so the WT publication writers were/are attempting to address what young born-in teens are thinking about ("Does God exist? If so/if not, what should I do?"). 2. the WT power structure is aware of the constant drainage of the youth, so they are attempting, however feebly, to stem the tide.
  

  If I may play their advocate here (obviously NOT because I agree with them on multiple issues), wouldn't they say that an adult 's purpose in life is to recognize the principle at Rev. 4:11, that all creatures should recognize their created status and their creator, and respond to that by willingly, even eagerly, serving that creator, doing whatever the creator wants?

  Please recognize that I am only playing their advocate in response to SBF's OP, not because I am defending the WTS. The WTS position here is one that has been long held by various Christian theologians, many of whom existed well before Charles Taze Russell lived.

  Now, SBF, your version of the correct answer is no doubt awaited by far more of us than nicolaou and me. One request: please try to keep it moderately brief and to the point!
  
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  7

  Australian freelance writer on The Everyday Life of a Jehovah`s Witness.

  by smiddy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  lewis edwards is an australian freelance journalist / writer who has written a series of articles about jehovah`s witnesses in "the news hub" , the latest on the 9/15/ 2016. very well written on " the everyday life of a jehovahs witness".

  i reccomend you read it.. jarrod booth also has an extremely interesting article in this publication .

  "the news hub".

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  careful

  Link?