Posts by Frogleg

28

New Releases.. losing pzazz??

by Inquisitor in

has anyone else noticed that in recent years the new releases have less 'chunky' content?

a book of maps, a children's book about jesus (?

), and this year's book which summarises main witness teachings (from what i gathered anyway, i haven't seen it yet).. the language is simpler, the message trimmed up nicely.. i wonder why.

Frogleg

Sometimes, the more I read on this site the more worried I get. Finally-Free, you are probably closest to the truth; however...

I'm not sure that we really appreciate how dumb this world has become. Don't forget, folks, we live in the world of sound-bites and USA Today, where hours upon hours of air time is given to stories about missing white women in Aruba, while such trivialities as the Anarctic Ice Shelf melting, or the US Government has continually used trumped up intelligence (translate: lies) to cause the deaths of thousands of human beings (Iraq makes what, the third time in 40 years) gets barely mentioned. Of course the Borg is dumbing down the pubs, I mean, how do you reasonably discuss something as complex, as subjective, as deep as God and spirituality with someone whos greatest desire in life is to have his pants hanging farther down his ass than everybody else, someone whos greatest accomplishment in reading is the drive-thru menu at Taco Bell, and/or who is truely and absolutely confused as to why that "muffuck Moses used flaming shrubbery to talk to God? Why dint the niggah just call him on his cell phone? Be-ATCH." I suspect that soon, the pubs will be replaced with hand puppets and crayons. The Borg may be many things, but ignorant isn't one of them. Doubtlessly, being the ever vigilant salesmen they are, they are simply trying to match their product to the market.

Now, justifiably (and maybe, Inquisitor, this is what you question) it could be asked that if what the Borg has is the truth they claim it to be, why do they need to water it down? After all, the sheep will hear his voice and follow, yes?

17

Re: Witness Youth and Education

by Inquisitor in

the wts would prefer to believe they possess a balanced view of education.

"no hard-and-fast rules should be made either for or against extra education" w92 11/1 p.15

it has even acknowledged that college education may be necessary in certain job markets today.

Frogleg

Inquisitor,

You are absolutely correct. However, to the person considering higher education yet fearing the WTS reaction, ask them to show you FROM THE BIBLE where it says that you shouldn't educate yourself. No fair quoting the GB, elder Dickwad, or some magazine or book. They claim all authority is from the Bible, okay, then if it don't specifically say 'no', then it must mean 'yes'.

Or is that too simple?

11

The Persecuted Has Become The Persecutor!

by ozziepost in

i was thinking about one of jesus' parables today; the one about "the unmerciful servant" in which jesus tells of a servant who implored his master, the king, for patience in settling a debt.

the master took pity and forgave the debt, whereupon the servant went to a fellow servant who owed him money.

as with the first servant, the other servant pleaded for time to pay, but instead of being merciful, as the king had been to him, he exacted the full penalty for a bad debt, having him thrown into prison.

Frogleg

The WTS has never been "persecuted", at least, in the strict definition of the word. Persecuted connotes being continually castigated or harrassed for false, unjust, or unearned reasons. The history of the WTS reveals a very vociferous and antagonistic group of people in active and unceasing aggression against other groups and individual people, with a natural reaction to the WTS activities being forthcomming. Now, when the natural reaction is returned from those they attacked, the WTS claim that they are being persecuted. This is a very basic tactic of the guerrilla warrior, in that the self-defensive reactions of the big against the small is labeled as "persecution, unjust, evil", which (by theory) results in the big's strength being turned against itself. The more he defends, the more he loses. However, as the small becomes bigger (as with every guerrilla group ever), it begins to fear itself, as it sees itself becomming what it originally clammored against, and, at that point, it begins to eat its own children. The "genius" of V.I. Lenin was said to lie in his deep grasp of this principle.

The paranoia of the WTS is a classic case of the successful entrepenuer struggling with the paranoia of trying to understand and survive in a mainstream, corporate world. It has begun to see dragons under the bed.

24

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 11-6-05 WT Study (Judgment)

by blondie in

keep on the watch!

this warning: "keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day.

true christians--only jws.

Frogleg

Blondie,

Thank you. I really believe that the WT attendance would skyrocket if comments like yours could be bandied about in the meeting. Sometimes, I think that what the congos really need is for someone to spend a WT study just v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y re-reading the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

2

Christian (and human) responsibility....or what?

by Sunspot in

matt 5:34-40 is where jesus gives the account of "doing good to others".

in verse 41 he goes on to say that he will tell those who don't follow this admonition that he will then consider them as accursed.

those who ignore this (verses 42-44) will be under extreme judgement as he says, "to the extent that you did not do it to one of these least ones, you did not do it to me", which results in the everlasting cutting off.. the wts does not instruct their followers to help the needy, by clothing or feeding anyone in the communities they live in.

Frogleg

Sunspot,

You have hit upon one of the most common mentioned proofs of the Borg's self delusion. To see the suffering and pain in this world is to be overwhelmed and to become a very very small sand castle before the tide. Unfortunately, there are no slots on a publisher card for hours spent feeding a starving family, or drying the tears of a poverty child, or soothing the broken heart of a human being who has just lost a loved one to death. You have reached the basis by which this board and the apostates like me have sprung from: according to the Borg, as a human being, you are worthless in the eyes of Jehovah, and any suffering of any kind is of no consequence to Him, it, or this universe. If you don't like it, then leave, He'll just make more.

92

How Did Watching Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" Make You Feel?

by Ianone in

although i am not a catholic i found this movie to be the most powerful and uplifting thing i have ever watched.

for those of you who watched it, how did it make you feel?

Frogleg

I guess it would be nearly impossible to accurately or truthfully tell such a story in 90 minutes. The movie came across like an impressionistic painting, rather than a photograph.

Avishai, I read the link you had in your reply and it was exceptionally interesting. It is unfortunate, but you are correct in your assessment of JC's suffering and death. Can it really be called a sacrifice?

An interesting point is how the WTS views the whole thing. The Bible says that God so loved the world (world? I thought he hated this world and all the things in it? Oh, well, I digress.) that he gave His only blah, blah, blah.... Yet the WTS says that JC died to vindicate God's name, and that we humans receive benefit in only a coincidental way. ("Jesus Christ", I exclaimed, "What's the bloody problem? Can this diety not just DO something in a direct and incisive way? It must take this guy forever just to mow the f*ing lawn!")

But my question is: if JCs whacking settled the "legal" question brought up int the GOE, and the "Sacred Secret" was fulfilled, then what the f**k have we been doing for the past 2000 years?

47

The Given Ones, Jehovahs Provision? by Barbara Anderson

by Dogpatch in

the watchtower april 15, 1992, p. 31, par.

1, 5, 6; p. 13, par.

the watchtower april 15, 1992, p. 15, par.

Frogleg

Quite interesting. This information carries much more than is just written. As far as "news" or "insight", this really generates a big yawn. Take the Washington Post and use whatever scandal de jour is on the front page, and simply substitute names. Currently, we have the "Scooter" Libby charade going on, but you could just as easily use Tricky Dicky, LBJ, or pretty much any administration of human endeavor to generate the silliness and absurdities that this article brings out. For those who were never part of the Borg, this whole episode must seem rather bland and petty, because at its core is just people. Thats it, people being people.

But for those of us who gave their lives to a belief, to a way, to a diety, this is a breath taker. These people claim to be directly led by God, and all that they do, and say, and think are for our benefit, and other than an appraent limitless supply of hubris, these guys and their "organization" are ever proven to be no more than a pack of Cub Scouts in grown-ups bodies. If God exists, I hope He is suitably embarrassed by his representatives, and when He finally gets pissed off enough to kick this planet out of His universe, the place where foot will meet Earth will be Brooklyn.

24

CS Lewis Quotations

by LittleToe in

.

what resonates with you?every war, every famine or plague, almost every deathbed, is the monument to a petition that was not granted.. .

c. s. lewis, letters to malcolm: chiefly on prayer, a harvest/hbj book, 1963, 1964, p. 58..

Frogleg

I've been told that this is a CS Lewis quote, but I've not had it verified:

"Feed a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man religion and he'll starve to death praying for a fish."

24

Are some Ex-JW better then others?

by Kaylen in

jw
friends

i was raised a witness but never baptised and left when i was 17 causing my father (among other reasons) to be "demoted"?

from being a ministerial servant.

for a very very long time i didn't talk about it and only recently started getting involved in the local ex-jw meet ups.

Frogleg

"Better" is such a relative term. Like good/bad/right/wrong. One of the aspects of the solitude and separation that has come with leaving a group like the Borg is a feeling of some sort of insight. Like being on a runaway train and being the only one who knows the bridge is out. Do I tell anybody about their certain doom? What's the point in that? And besides, maybe, just maybe, its all in error, and then I'll look even more like an idiot. Soldiers who have been thru combat find it almost impossible to give what they feel is a "faithful" discussion about their experience unless it is with another comabt vet (curiously, they don't even have to have been in the same war). Cops tend to have the same sort of difficulties with their experiences as well. Which makes me wonder about the prophets in the Bible. Off hand, I don't recall any that would pass for a Mr. Average today. You know, insurance salesman, father of three, mortgage and job, goes to meetings 5 times a week, just sits and waits for something. Prophets always seemed to be struggling with something, like themselves, or some pesky aspect of truth and/or justice that keeps burning a hole in their brain, or why God is doing this or that. Mr. Average never seems completely acceptable because he never seems to have a clear idea about what is really going on. But at the same time, the mindless roboticism of the religious zealot is equally apalling. Maybe, in the process of "learning" the truth, it is actually just given to us, infused into genome #378, you know, like the Bible says: a free gift. And it's not that we see the people around us as being "wrong", just shortsighted, narrow-minded, uninformed, and not quite affected to the degree that we have been affected? How would you accept the advice of a man who had been laying naked in the street for a couple of years? What would you say to the penniless, homeless man who is dressed in old clothes and who tells you that if you want to be really, really happy, you need to give away all of your possessions and money?

35

too stupid for words

by peacefulpete in

ok this is one for the books, my wife's great grandmother who is a miraculous 94 year old cervical and ovarian cancer survivor and a 87 year old man from the hall were just counselled on the need for a chaperon!

it seems someone was disturbed that the two were alone in her appartment!

she is practically housebound and his visits to shoot the breeze and talk about the old times were the highlight of her week.

Frogleg

The "elders" weren't trying to be stupid, they had finally run across something that they could handle. Face it, a 94 year old great gandmother probably won't put up much of a fight. They wouldn't tell the dumbass who whined about it to mind his/her own business (those kind of people are why humans evolved a middle finger) because that person obviously knows how to complain. Plus, it's the only way they can keep their feet tethered to the planet and make themselves feel like they are actually accomplishing something. I'm curious, what do you think, is it that all "elders" have no sense of shame, or is it just that only people without any concept of shame are made "elders"? Maybe they didn't want to be outdone by the Florida cops who arrested a couple of 10 year olds for drawing violent stick figures.