"the non-christian cross" by john denham parsons, is a work that is still used by the watchtower society as a "proof" that the greek word stauros does not mean cross.
here a portion of this work:.
now the greek word which in latin versions of the new testament is translated as crux, and in english versions is rendered as cross, i.e., the word stauros, seems to have, at the beginning of our era, no more meant a cross than the english word stick means a crutch.
Fred Franz and those who have followed him have long gobbled up eccentric views held by pseudo-scholars like Parsons, W. E. Vine, E. Bullinger, and others who have never delved into the matter of the Greek meaning of stauros. If you're interested in pursuing the issue look at Leolaia's posts at this forum on the subject. They are likely the best ever written anywhere on it.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/97358/cross-stake-which?size=10&page=2
the rule was (is) that you go to your assigned congregation.. growing up, i think our family was in our assigned congregation only one of three times.
the family made two major moves when i was a kid and each time my folks would visit the various congregations in the area and pick the one with the most kids.
given our association restrictions with the world, they wanted to make sure we had plenty of friends.. i have to give them credit where due.
OK, I can't pass this one up. Is this for real?
ttdtt stated that among the lack of freedoms JWs "enjoy" is this one:
if you can get a boob job or not
Does anyone know of such a thing really happening???
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/27/are-people-ever-converted-by-street-or-doorstep-evangelists.
has anyone ever actually been converted to a different religion by people who knock on the door, hand out leaflets or proselytise in public places?.
kate percival, london e15.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29 realestate/jehovahs-witnesses-brooklyn-headquarters-for-sale.html?_r=0.
another new york times article again,,.
hope jws can see this and acknowledge that the org.
so i *finally* upgraded my old, heavy, tube tv to a new flatscreen, smart tv.
the install was much easier than i expected and i was very happy with my progress.
then i get to the set-up part of the installation.
just signed up and wanted to introduce myself.
i had 1 x-mas and 1 birthday before both my parents joined the jw's around 1966 or 67 being 1 year old i don't remember them (the holidays), to this day holidays are nothing to me (thanks jw's).
i never really believed the bible or jw literature.
An airdale—so were you shore stationed or aboard a ship? I was in naval comm. & intelligence, moved around a lot, and visited Subic-Cubi once and also got over to Clark once. My first night in Olongapo was my first exposure to real third world poverty. I was pretty shocked to see how desperate those poor folks were. A poor person in the USA could live like a king in PI. I remember groups of local Filipino road workers putting tar down on roads in the tropics within the naval base––for $1 a day, and they felt they were making great money. Then there were all those young teen girls working the bars. For a young guy it was both exhilarating and depressing at the same time. That was a long time ago and the world has changed so much. Even just relating these words is bringing back a lot mixed memories that I haven't spoken about in years. Anyway, I doubt there are many people at this forum who have been where you are!
Even with inflation I imagine $1500 a month can still go a long way in Olongapo. Does the navy give you any medical care? To your dependents? Did they ever fix that river between the base and Po City?
Don't worry about always making sense in your posts. Nobody's that fussy here.
As for your parents, I can picture, from his perspective, how your dad must have felt frustrated, feeling you were making the same mistakes he had, how he probably felt he had failed both God and you. That can drive a man to tears. The Witness world certainly does not prepare anyone for life on the outside. You would have had to have had exceptional JW parents for that!
Sorry, I meant E-7, not O-7. I'm rusty on all that old military jargon. First-class isn't that bad to retire at, though chief would have been better.
just signed up and wanted to introduce myself.
i had 1 x-mas and 1 birthday before both my parents joined the jw's around 1966 or 67 being 1 year old i don't remember them (the holidays), to this day holidays are nothing to me (thanks jw's).
i never really believed the bible or jw literature.
O-Joe, thanks for the reply. You'll find this forum, well, quite diverse, though a core of atheists/agnostics run the show. Those not of their persuasion are tolerated. I hope you're glad you never got baptized. If you had, your parents would likely have cut you off. Now you can still deal with them. They must have been bummed out when you joined the military. Now you would indeed have been pressured to get baptized in 5th grade, have been disassociated by the org for having gone in the navy (= being DFed), and your parents would have shunned/ignored you.
So I figure you're enlisted, not officer. What was your rate? Did you make chief (O-7) or go beyond that? I can picture a group of lifers in Po City now. I think the same sort of thing happened at the Panama Canal Zone, for I knew a guy who did the same kind of thing you've done, and he joined a group of retirees there. A buck probably still goes far in PI. Are the Jeepneys still running? Have you learned any Tagalog?
Did you ever marry and have a Westpac widow and kids?
Keep posting please. Love to hear more of your story.
(that is, doubts).
in margaret atwood's "the handmaid's tale", a futuristic story of life inside a repressive, abusive big brother-style society tightly controlled by religious fundamentalists, there's a passage in which the protagonist is alone with another woman at a state-controlled centre where prayers are generated -- then printed out and read out -- by a machine.
the other woman asks, in barely more than a whisper, "do you think god listens to these machines?
When I pressed those few people to whom I could open up about the org's corruption (less than 1% of Witnesses I knew), I found two basic reactions. 1. They agreed and eventually left themselves or were DFed for apostasy. 2. They admitted there were problems or even were aware to some degree of the real corruption that those who are enlightened can see, but at a certain point they cut me off in one way or another. I've come to conclude since that in the latter case, such behavior on their part was necessary for them because of the threat posed by the cognitive dissonance that facing the truth posed to them. Their minds just were not strong enough to fully face the facts.
At the end of Ray Franz's CofC book, he relates the case of some sister who learned of the org's corruption, became lost, didn't know what to do, and so wrote him. Although Franz never came out and said this, the implication seems to be that it may have been better in the case of this woman to have never learned the truth (that is, TTATT, The Truth About "The Truth," or the facts of the org's corruption), for he said he couldn't really offer her anything other than "just go ahead and live your life as best you can." In other words, water down the Christian life to the social gospel, like so many of the liberal churches have done. For this woman that did not seem to meet her personal needs, the point of Ray's relating the story.
If you want to have personal discussions with those still in about the org's corruption, it is good to always try and figure out the mental strength of each person to whom you want to open up about the matter. Few can really handle it themselves, and you may unintentionally frighten them, and THAT can come back to harm YOU.
My two cents' worth of advice.
just signed up and wanted to introduce myself.
i had 1 x-mas and 1 birthday before both my parents joined the jw's around 1966 or 67 being 1 year old i don't remember them (the holidays), to this day holidays are nothing to me (thanks jw's).
i never really believed the bible or jw literature.
A lifer in the navy—is Olongapo as crazy as it was in the 70s? Didn't the navy pull out of there in 1992 after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption?
I went to Piqua once. It was brief but there was nice park there.
speaking with inlaws i another congregation today who said exactly what is being said in our own hall.
the trolly work is long and boring and no one even notices they are there anymore but walk right on by.
jehovah really is speeding up the work lol.
