The key words from the article:
"We can only imagine..."
That says it all!
the october 2019 study edition, speaking of the last days after the governments destroy all religion except jws:.
at some point, the people whose re-ligions were destroyed may resent thefact that jehovah’s witnesses keep prac-ticing their religion.
we can only imag-ine the uproar that this might create, in-cluding on social media.
The key words from the article:
"We can only imagine..."
That says it all!
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27078092/collison-retires-nba-31-focus-faith .
As DNCall and sparky1 said, Dave Meyers became a Witness. Note that he was preceded by Elmore Smith. That makes at least 3 ex-NBA players who converted. In 1985 Meyers' story appeared in the Awake! magazine:
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/101985368
Meyers' death in 2015:
https://exnba.com/articles-news/ex-nba-star-who-shocked-world-in-1980-dead/
Update on Elmore Smith (2017):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJRaZ7GcTUc
It's interesting that, at least in this short YouTube blurb, he never mentions being a Witness. Perhaps he just didn't bring it up, or did and that didn't make it into the video. He still lives in Cleveland since his speech has Cavalier logos in the background. More on his life in wiki, but no mention of JWs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmore_Smith
And he runs a Bar-B-Q sauce business and restaurant in Cleveland:
https://www.elmoresmithbbqsauce.com/
https://restaurantguru.com/Elmore-Smiths-Smokehouse-Cleveland
Does anyone know if he is still a Witness?
There was also the case of NFL player Jason Worilds, a defensive outside linebacker with the Pittsburgh Steelers who packed it up in 2015 in order to devote more time to JWs, giving up at least $15 million.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/181700002/nfl-player-quits-career-become-idiot
i called a jehovah's witness friend of mine a couple weeks ago, yes i still consider him a friend though he would not say the same of me.
i've known him for almost 40 years.
our families went on many vacations together including my only trip back to bethel in 1996. this trip was made with 40 other "brothers and sisters.
If I remember correctly, prominent Witness Hayden Covington was DFed for drunkenness. I think he came back and died in, though disgraced.
some hot news:.
last weekend was a convention in frankfurt, germany and 11 other locations.
all were connected to the international convention in berlin.. in sum about 94.000 attended.
If we have been coming to this forum regularly, we've seen various Witnesses making these grass-roots music vids on their own outside of the convention program proper. It was just a matter of time until this enthusiasm spilled over into the official program. The inept eight at Warwick will clamp down, but probably at least somewhat gently. In a way, they are partially responsible for this, by their letting the informal stuff take root and grow, and by their lowering the quality of the official music as they have—thank David Splane!
"Must have been the best convention ever...." tiki, love it!
wbts rewrites/carefully edits their own history.
since 2005, i have been through a lot with with wbts.
recently i came across a suggestions that they will start denying that they ever said satan was hurled out of heaven in 1914.. in my experience, it is one doctrine many ordinary members are clear about - you ask them what supposedly took place in 1914 and they'll say, "satan was hurled out of heaven, therefore world war i started.".
The "about" thing is an interesting find. The publications so rarely discuss doctrine any more. I get the impression that the rest of the GB let Splane go on with his conjectures and ravings privately, but they seem reluctant to okay his ideas in print. Whatever the case there, doctrine just isn't important any more. It's all about electronic glitz and presentation, not content. The assemblies/conventions/meetings focus on videos and the dramas, not teachings and the interpretation of the Bible. It's all part of that new look that is so foreign to many at this forum.
in the org did anyone ever tell you that its not about the numbers...yet the reality was that it was all about the numbers?.
i ran into a pimi who asked why my family and i were awol.
i told him that it was private and personal and i wasn't at liberty to discuss it.
SBF,
Yes, but the real issue is motive here. The numbers have all been down for years now. If they were like they used to be, overall increasing, do you think they'd be playing them down or stressing them?
Of course, they would be highlighting them. So then, it's not because of any good motive—like imitating the first Christians—that they've cut back on the stats. They have to or it will cause them embarrassment and a multitude of problems. You can be sure that behind closed doors with the CO, it is just like Solzhenitsyn put it.
this is the first time i have posted on here in many years..... i seldom visit now although this forum was instrumental to me in gaining my sanity in the early 2000's and recovering from the watchtower religion.. by chance tonight i was on youtube and caught a jw.org video which out of curiosity prompted me to look at the official website and amongst other things i looked up the music section.. why that i hear you ask?
music is my passion and nothing reminds me more or evokes more memories than the kingdom songs i grew up listening to.. i am 49 years old and my mother was baptised in 1974. i grew up in the era of pink songbooks and green bibles.
of the theology of fred franz and types and anti-types.
What a marvelous thread. Loved the OP's words "Presentation and media dominate. Teachings take second place to appearance."
Also liked BluesBrother's and others' comments about how the old ones feel so out-of-place and just want the current JW world to end.
this subject has been brought up before.
the governing body and watchtower have repeatedly encouraged jws to show loyalty to the organization to "keep the congregation clean" by reporting wrongdoing to the elders.. i know directly of two cases.
two jws working in the records department of our local hospital "outed" 3rd gens 1st husband to the local elders when he and his mistress sought medical treatment together for stds.
This is an interesting topic. It makes me wonder if medical employers will soon begin asking specific questions during interviews with prospective hires like, "Are the are any reasons you might feel the need to break patient confidentiality?" and/or make all employees sign statements that would make them personally liable for damage done for such breaches. It might also make lawmakers stiffen the penalties for violating such laws, say, from making them civil to criminal.
i happened to be picking up the family from the kingdom hall today, and it struck me how the outside appearance has changed a little.
i know it's not new, but perhaps being away from it all for so long made a difference.. of course i noticed the blue jw.org box on the side labeled "kingdom hall of jehovah's witnesses", but it was two things that stood out to me.
the first thing was the meeting times.
Why "Midweek Meeting" and "Weekend Meeting"? This way they can change the meeting names, like they did from TMS and SM to CLAM and so on with some regularity and they won't have to change the sign outside.
Changing meeting names can be a big deal in Witnessland. It makes the R&F feel like they're aboard Jah's chariot, that "new light" is beaming down, etc. So a switch in meeting names is easier now with such generic titles available to passers-by, you know, the poor uninitiated.
... or is that one of our memes?
thanks..
From the WT article pictured above. "A generation is not overly long." What does that mean?