In answer to the original post: come join us! We'll tell you what to believe, what to think, what to do, what to wear, how to groom yourself, how to spend your time, how not to entertain yourself, and most importantly — never to talk to anyone who criticizes us!
careful
JoinedPosts by careful
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153
When JW.org drops 607BCE...
by Nathan Natas inprobably everyone else thought of this long ago, but i, being an "independent thunker" thunk of it just a coupla weeks ago.. we all know that since the year zero (on the fredfranzian calendar) the wtb&ts has defied archaeology and insisted that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, even though the physical evidence shows that 587 bce is a more likely date.
in fact, the book "the gentile times reconsidered: have jehovah's witnesses been wrong all along about 607 bce?
" by carl olof jonsson and rud persson made this conversation public.. it is a difference of 20 years.
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careful
It will be interesting to see whether the now in-process agenda will indeed move beyond FS time reporting and dress & grooming into doctrine. When the 2013 rev. NWT came out, there was plenty of hidden rejection of FF's ideas scattered throughout the revision, so in some sense, doctrinal change had already begun a decade plus ago.
Most R&F Witnesses could care less about doctrine and any kind of "in-depth Bible study" especially about prophecy. That's what the 607/1914 Gentiles Times madness is all about. So if the current GB changes that, I suspect there would be little negative reaction from the R&F. In fact, there might very well be relief: "Thank God I don't have to attempt to teach that anymore!"
There would probably be serious opposition to the idea from spacy Splane who still seems enamored by prophecy (evidently the only one on the GB still caught up in that), but with the rest for a change on 607 etc, and doofus Splane witnessing what happened to his erstwhile buddy Tony Morris who stood up against the majority will, he's likely had the fear of Jehovah put into him against fighting what the bulk of the GB want as their agenda.
I repeat, it will be interesting to watch what develops here.
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Will Watchtower and Jehovah's Witnesses suffer the same fate as the Catholic Church?
by Balaamsass2 innorthern california, 4/2/2024.
"sacramento catholic diocese files for bankruptcy reorganization in wake of abuse lawsuits".
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sacramento-catholic-diocese-files-bankruptcy-160421282.html.
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careful
Fascinating. Thanks.
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Beautiful photos
by LoveUniHateExams inso, i thought i'd start a thread about any beautiful photos of places you've been to, or just beautiful photos.. i'll go first .... .
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copyright: daniel burton.. this is bøur, a little village in the faeroe islands, population 74.. i've never been there but i'd love to visit one day.
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careful
Fitting pics for springtime transition.
1. Frozen home on Lake Ontario.
2. Snowdrops, the first flower of spring when such ice is all gone.
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This Week's BS Study. Shylock?
by Slidin Fast inlast night the subject of simony reared its head.
there was a picture (artists impression) of the event resembling a bunch of clean-cut americans in fancy dress busy performing or observing miracles.
in the foreground offering a bribe to join in is simon.
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careful
Is this the same pic? "resembling a bunch of clean-cut Americans in fancy dress busy performing or observing miracles"? Well, one man in the background is "clean cut"-- perhaps picturing a shaved Roman or Egyptian? But the account takes place in Samaria. The "clean cut" rest in the background are females.
The Simon portrait does look like a typical medieval Jew as pictured by some anti-Jewish gentile artist from the past. It's certainly stereotypical of a bygone era.
Some scholars think Simon may have been a Gnostic, so the pic's creator may have that in mind. But Gnostics probably looked like "normal folks."
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Will recent dress-code changes affect the WTS negatively?
by Wonderment inin a span of a few months time, we have had many unexpected changes announced by the jw organization.
some here have expressed the belief that a great number of witnesses will leave the religion.
in fact, there is a great probability the opposite will be true.. yeah, ancient hardliners will have a hard time assimilating these changes, but the younger generation will likely welcome these changes.
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careful
The coded meaning of "conscience matter" is "we are now permitting you to do what we previously forbade."
SBF: whether the org writers fully know it or not, "college" in American English has a wide semantic domain. One meaning = university. Another meaning, a unit within a university (e.g., the College of Medicine, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Arts and Sciences). Another meaning, an institution of higher education that is lower than a university. An example of the last is a community college. But for that first meaning: one of the Ivy League schools is Dartmouth College, a prestigious institution, a highly ranked place to go within higher education, certainly more than on par with many American universities. Ditto with long-respected liberal arts colleges such as Williams College in Mass. or Carleton College in Minn. Then there is the most respected institution of higher education in Reform Judaism (Progressive Judaism in the UK), Hebrew Union College. It's just a graduate school (post-grad in the UK). They only offer graduate degrees. One has to already have a bachelor's degree to apply there. It's still called a college, but academically, like Dartmouth, Williams, Carleton, and others, it's way up there.
I suspect that the semantic domain of this word is greater in the USA than in the UK.
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Will recent dress-code changes affect the WTS negatively?
by Wonderment inin a span of a few months time, we have had many unexpected changes announced by the jw organization.
some here have expressed the belief that a great number of witnesses will leave the religion.
in fact, there is a great probability the opposite will be true.. yeah, ancient hardliners will have a hard time assimilating these changes, but the younger generation will likely welcome these changes.
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careful
For SBF,
I underline how odd it is to hear Sanderson repeatedly refer to “slacks” as if we in the UK are supposed to know what he’s talking about. Personally I’d never heard the word before this.
Off the net: 'The word “slacks” did not just appear out of the blue. It comes from an old Saxon term (‘slak’) used to describe things that were not tight, such as the loose end of a rope or a sail. ‘Slak’ is exactly what menswear ‘slacks’ really are: pants that are not too tight.'
So it's a British term, at least in its etymology. More importantly, likely Sanderson, or better, his speech writer, wanted to stress that tights pants on women are out.
See the point now?
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Former Jehovah's Witness elder committed to stand trial accused of Sunshine Coast rapes, sexual abuse
by yalbmert99 inhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-20/former-jehovahs-witness-elder-to-stand-trial-accused-of-rape/103612422.
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careful
The police sergeant's observations about JW existence is the most valuable thing here. Thanks for the post.
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s-395 Adjustments-to-handling-serious-wrongdoing-in-the-congregation
by gavindlt inthis was posted on jw leaks.. my truth's | dad seeking truth.
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careful
Vidiot,
the Watchtower Governing Body are the collective poster boy for the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Love it!
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s-395 Adjustments-to-handling-serious-wrongdoing-in-the-congregation
by gavindlt inthis was posted on jw leaks.. my truth's | dad seeking truth.
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careful
Biahi hit the nail on the head.
GB II has yet again created their own monster. Years ago they, likely motivated by dropping baptismal numbers and due to their own very limited thinking, decided, "Well, I was baptized at eight and I've done well. We should encourage parents to get their children baptized much earlier now."
Like most temporary fixes, the plan "worked" for some years to help buoy up baptismal statistics, but then when a plethora of underage disfellowshippings naturally occurred as these baptized children moved into adolescence with all its complexities and difficulties, and its desire for discovering one's individual identity—especially in the high tech, interconnected world of today—large numbers of child disfellowshippings occurred. This in turn put significant pressure on Witness parents who now had 12-14-year-old disfellowshipped children. In fact, the GB decision created all sorts of household and congregational problems for the ever-obedient R&F.
Now Caesar has gotten involved and the GB are desperate to make some sort of change—always, of course, without admitting that they made a bad decision in the first place. They just feel they can do no wrong, and even if they might admit among themselves that they erred, they would NEVER do so to the R&F.
How different from the first-century Christians! As we can see from the Gospels, Acts and Galatians the leadership back then openly admitted their faults to the R&F, even portraying the apostles and other leaders as dull (Matt 15:16; Mark 6:49-52), power hungry (Mark 10:35-40), impetuous (Matt. 26:33-35), hot-tempered (Acts 15:37-39; Gal. 5:12), and just plain wrong (Acts 17.10 versus v. 22; John 21.23). They were even ready to criticize one another "before them all" and then send out a report of it (Gal. 2:11-14).
The GB are so interested in their own image and retaining their own authority and perceived holiness that they refuse to openly admit their own humanity in any kind of specific way. The results can be sad, even tragic. If they followed the New Testament example and admitted their errors, it might just warm people's hearts toward them instead of continuing the status quo of viewing them as on an entirely different plateau, as "holier than us."