Posts by careful

16

Rear cover of: “Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World: from the 1870s to the Present”

by Doug Mason in

“jehovah’s witnesses and the secular world: from the 1870s to the present” (histories of the sacred and secular), zoe knox.

palgrave macmillan.

isbn 978-1-137-39604-4. .

careful

Thanks DM for the post, and thanks SBF for the podcast link. It seems to me that the interviewer was well prepared rather than having a Witness past. At the end Zoe Knox thanks him for his careful reading of her book. To me his questions all seem to come from that, not any other background.

Three things I wonder about Knox: 1. she said that JWs have been quick to jump on technology and she used the sound cars of Rutherford's time as an example, then the carts of today (she could have used Russell's Photodrama but did not in the interview). Does she realize how they condemned the internet for years, then suddenly did an about face, in other words, what latecomers they have been to this technology?

2. I wonder if she is at all aware of the lack of legal action the org took during the 1970s and 80s. When I was in, the org was afraid to take cases to court. They were afraid they might lose the legal rights they had established under Rutherford and Covington. The Legal Dept. was a shadow of what it has become today. I know of cases where they failed to support individual bros who took personal legal stands based on the org's dictates, and of individual Witness lawyers, and others, who did not like this.

3. Is she aware of the work of people like Jerome and Vienne? When she says that very little work has been done on CT Russell, is she speaking about peer-reviewed academic material only?

16

Why do the Elders stress the importance of meeting attendance....

by Davros in

jw
friends

why do the elders always stress to the rank and file members of the congregation how important meeting attendance is, as well as the importance of always paying attention to every word that's being presented from the slave?

but then, during the meeting, they rarely sit and pay attention themselves to the wonderful spiritual banquet being presented?

they always seem so busy, don't they?

careful

fadeaway is right: CONTROL.

5

Reassessing the Size of Mormons, Adventists and Witnesses (2019 academic paper)

by Corney in

this is one of the most recent academic papers on jw demographics.

it analyzes official membership statistics of the three churches, compares them with census data and provides estimated global figures (9-10 million mormons, 17 million witnesses, and 28 million adventists - all are self-identified adherents, not necessarily active ones).

i think this is a good research though some aspects of the subject remain unexplored.. this article compares the growth of three religious groups, the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, seventh-day adventists, and jehovah’s witnesses.

careful

Welcome back, SBF! Thanks for the share Corney.

22

WTB&TS And The Lawyers They Employ.

by smiddy3 in

jw
friends

i have been thinking about the legal departments that look after the wts interests around the world.i can`t believe these legal eagles offer their services on a voluntary basis like the r&f do.and i don`t believe their services would come cheap.. as an organization the size of jw.org and its offshoots of companys and interests around the world ,the cost of keeping them gainfully employed must amount to a considerable sum of money.. especially the law suits against them with child abuse court cases that arise on a regular basis ,and the government inquiry`s into the jw religion that is happening in different countries now.. all paid for by the voluntary contributions that come from the r&f for the worldwide preaching work .. contributions to pay for the wt organization`s legal department to defend themselves in court ?.

did jesus and the apostles pay lawyers to defend them in a court of law with funds donated by their supporters ?.

careful

Phizzy, please provide the info and sources for the Sweden case! It sounds hot and like something that the org will doubtlessly try to hide...

8

Anyone know of someone doing this or maybe you have done it

by phoenixrising in

anyone ever hear of someone getting dfed in a congregation then moving cross country and joining another jw congregation and not telling them you were dfed.

?.

careful

I knew one well-known elder who used to speak about such a case, where one DFed bro. tried this out. The guy moved a couple thousand miles, faked a second conversion, and got baptized as a worldly convert. Eventually he was busted, most likely because someone who knew him from his old cong spotted him in his long-distance transplanted one. It's good to remember how closed the JW world is, even in large countries. Such a thing is risky given conventions, assemblies, the extended connections many JWs have, traveling overseers, etc.

17

How service is being conducted with the zoom meetings

by newsheep in

a friend of ours who is married to a jw said that this morning for service everyone who was on zoom got to do a call while the rest listened in on the call.

there were thirty-one this morning listening in on one who would call someone to preach to.

shouldn't the person they are calling on be warned first that there will be so many listening in on their phone call from the zoom meeting.

careful

The whole point of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation is to keep people informed of who is doing what about them, and to respect their privacy. If such phone calls are being shared electronically, then a record is being made somewhere, eh? The point about all 30+ of them counting their FS time is laughable because it is so believable!

If the experience is true, the WTS Legal Department had better look into this one!

34

Reel to reel tapes and old Watchtower literature

by lastmanstanding in

it's been an emotional few weeks going through old watchtower literature, i mean old.

i have saved many things, some you have never seen.

particularly related to 1975, i have wts literature, even a big newspaper article about the 1975 prediction.. today, i started going through the reel to reel tapes.

careful

Yeah, I can relate to the emotion. Some years ago when a nice local elder, truly a fine guy but completely deluded since he buys into the package hook, line, and sinker, came over to try and reactivate me, the many deep memories just flooded back—truly emotional, hard to control my thoughts and feelings. I'm glad I purged most of my WT library years ago, but it sounds like you might have some valuable things, stuff worth saving.

5

Australian Pollies seem driven to call out failure of signing up to redress scheme

by jonahstourguide in

noticed this on abc news again re the redress scheme here in australia.. i thought it notable that jws were specifically mentioned and that the government is aware of jw tactics.. bolding is mine.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-08/states-territories-urged-beef-up-name-and-shame-abuse-scheme/12226250.

states and territories urged to go far beyond name and shame threat against 'recalcitrant' institutions in abuse redress schemeby political reporter matthew doranposted 7hhours agodean smith stands at his desk in the senate, gesturing while speaking into a microphoneliberal senator dean smith said victims of child abuse deserved more than just a threat to name and shame institutions.

(abc news: jed cooper)sharestates and territories are being urged to not only shame institutions which refuse to sign up to the national redress scheme for victims of child abuse, but also name senior officials and the levels of public funding the organisations receive.key points:a federal parliamentary committee has recommended institutions which fail to sign up to the national redress scheme for abuse victims be named, their officials identified, and public funding outlinedcommittee chair dean smith has written to the states and territories urging them to adopt the proposalsocial services minister anne ruston said all jurisdictions would need to agree if such a proposal were adoptedlast week, a federal parliamentary committee made up of liberal, national, labor and greens members unanimously recommended identifying "recalcitrant" organisations ahead of the june 30 deadline.this week, the committee chair, liberal senator dean smith, wrote to state and territory attorneys-general escalating that demand and encouraging them to adopt the proposal.institutions have until the end of june to sign up to the multi-billion-dollar scheme, aimed at compensating victims of child sexual abuse, before the federal government publicly names them for holding out.so far, 545 applications for redress have been delayed because 284 non-government organisations are yet to join the scheme.senator smith suggested it was not enough to simply name the holdouts, and argued the committee wanted explanations on why they were not signing up, names of office holders in the institutions, what date they expected to join the scheme and the financial benefits received through public funding or their charitable status.

careful

Thanks for the update.

39

Has Anything Positive Come Out Of This Coronavirus Isolation For You?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i guess you could make a case of more families being together although that might not be the best situation.

less cars and pollutants mean we can breathe better.

if you were ever uncomfortable in crowds, this could be good news.

careful

I'm with rubadub: traffic is gone in my big city. Driving any where, any time is fast.

Air pollution is W-A-Y down too.

Somebody here posted those pics of homemade face masks—hilarious. I sent the pics to friends and family. They split a gut laughing too.

No Witnesses out preaching—well, I don't know if that is good or bad since you can strike up a conversation and ask questions that are embarrassing to them at their silly carts, so that option is gone. Therefore, maybe them not being out isn't so good. I'm divided on that one. At least they don't come to my door.

Gas prices are way down and there's no waiting at all for gas.

When I go out waking in the neighborhood, people coming the opposite direction get out of the way or pull their dogs aside. That never occurred to me before the coronavirus.

There are good classic athletic games/contests on TV now since live ones are gone. They're fun to watch.

A relative had to travel by car and spend overnight at a fancy hotel. Their room was dirt cheap and they got the best suite for next to no upgrade fee.

Those are some benefits off the top of my head.

37

Jehovah’s Witnesses Sue Owners of FaithLeaks for Posting 74 Convention Movies

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/jehovahs-witnesses-sue-faithleaks-owners-over-convention-videos .

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/05/01/jehovahs-witnesses-sue-owners-of-faithleaks-for-posting-74-convention-movies/.

the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania, which oversees the jehovah’s witnesses, is suing the truth and transparency foundation and its founders ryan c. mcknight and ethan g. dodge alleging copyright infringement..

careful

Vidiot, "the Org doesn't even derive income from the videos"—maybe that's exactly the point. Now by suing someone else, could they be turning a money loser (it takes resources to make these) into a money winner (getting a monetary judgment)? They may be viewing this as their only opportunity to get some money for these assembly/convention videos, eh?