daniel-p

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Posts by daniel-p

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  51

  Alert: Witch hunt begins Watchtower 15 july 2011

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  reading the posts about the 2011-7-15 watchtower about mentally retarded apostates i foresee the following scenario:.

  1. congregational elders trying to get grip on non regular publishers and inactive witnesses.. 2. the good ones read in the watchtower that apostates are to find in the local congregation.

  3. inactives like me (i hate this name, but i use their language), and liberal witness like me, will be hunted, .

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  daniel-p

  "If a plumber told you that you needed to stop taking huge dumps in your toilet or your septic tank would explode, would you listen to him? Well, Jehovah, the Great Plumber, see's our leaking 'spiritual septic tanks' and wants us to stop taking huge 'spiritual dumps.'"
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  11

  Belief is Irrelevant to Watchtower Leadership

  by daniel-p in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the more i see what watchtower leadership does, the more i think doctrine matters less and less.

  it used to be you had all these people in leadership positions constantly pondering the big questions.

  watchtower articles routinely delved into complicated explanations of doctrine.

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  daniel-p

  SAYING you believe something is more important than not actually believing it, even if both you and, say, an elder know you don't really believe it. In that way, the ACT of obedience is more important than the belief itself.

  I know belief is supposedly very important to the FDS and the R&F, but more and more, just falling in line is what's important and placed as a JWs #1 priority.
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  8

  Lessons in retaining your true self in the face of relentless psychological onslaught

  by designs in

  1. social
  2. current

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  daniel-p

  So I see they're letting anyone post these days....
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  11

  Belief is Irrelevant to Watchtower Leadership

  by daniel-p in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the more i see what watchtower leadership does, the more i think doctrine matters less and less.

  it used to be you had all these people in leadership positions constantly pondering the big questions.

  watchtower articles routinely delved into complicated explanations of doctrine.

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  daniel-p

  I should be more specific: belief is becoming irrelevant to the Watchtower Leadership, not the R&F. To the GB, and especially the elders, it matters less that you might disagree about some teachings; what really matters is whether you fall in line and know your place in the congregation, doing what the elders say.
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  77

  The J Dub Culture of Skirt-Wearing

  by mummatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is something that has always bothered me.

  as a born-in jw i was raised as a little girl wearing skirts and dresses which is clearly quite normal in terms of gender-appropriate clothing.

  however, the older i grew, the more i realised that all jw women and girls wore skirts to meetings and when out in fs, but would wear trousers in their everyday life.

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  daniel-p

  Skirts are mandatory solely to subtly remind the flock that it is a patriarchal organization. "Who wears the pants" in this case, is a literal reference to "any swinging dick."
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  11

  Belief is Irrelevant to Watchtower Leadership

  by daniel-p in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the more i see what watchtower leadership does, the more i think doctrine matters less and less.

  it used to be you had all these people in leadership positions constantly pondering the big questions.

  watchtower articles routinely delved into complicated explanations of doctrine.

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  2. 
  3. 
• 

  daniel-p

  The more I see what Watchtower leadership does, the more I think doctrine matters less and less. It used to be you had all these people in leadership positions constantly pondering the big questions. Watchtower articles routinely delved into complicated explanations of doctrine. The average member could explain the significance of all important dates and what it meant for worship in the 20th century. But now, as organizational trust evaporates and social media proliferates throughout members' lives, all emphasis from leadership is on behavior control.

  I don't think faith matters much anymore. As repeatedly drilled into the flock, the GB just want obedience. If you disagree, that's okay, as long as you still do what they say. As in a child-parent relationship, this would seem to be a healthier arrangement, but it undermines the locus of control that the Watchtower has historically exercised: belief. By relenquishing control over the beliefs of the rank and file, they shoot themselves in the foot. Rebellion is only one step away.
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  54

  i just came back from the memorial

  by J. Hofer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it wasn't all that bad.

  met a few friends who also don't give too much about it and had some great laughs afterwards.

  we talked about how we still remember when only about 7000 took from the emblems and now its more than 11000. we also laughed about how it would look like having jesus and his disciples pass around wine and bread on a plate like that.. all in all it was the same procedure as every year.

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  daniel-p

  I'll be going tonight too, at 7:30 EST. The wife asked me to go so I said yes. First time I'll be going to a meeting with our one-year old baby. Don't know anyone at the Hall, so that's good. Also kind of sad in a way... but I'm not sure if I'd rather have people there I know or don't know. It's been about 5 years that I've been fully inactive, so I've had a chance to play the "unbelieving husband" part, although it's always a little awkward. Usually I prefer JWs to think I've never been babtized, been a Bethelite, MS, etc., and just act pleasantly clueless.
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  19

  Dear Governing Body - Why Have you abandoned Preaching Methods That Work?

  by LostGeneration in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  below are two paragraphs from the upcoming wt study (dec 15th study edition, pages 13 and 14) here the watchtower writer praises the methods used in the past for their effectiveness in bringing many into the organization.

  i have bolded phrases that emphasize these points.. 11 for example, as noted in the book .

  jehovahs witnessesproclaimers of gods kingdom, at the turn of the 20th century, c. t. russell and his associates strongly believed that they were in a time of harvest and that people needed to hear liberating truth.

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  daniel-p

  I think it comes down to the fact that they know they can't grow beyond a certain point and maintain the same level of control over their followers. For cults, it's better to have complete control over a thousand than partial control over a million.
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  35

  Bethel Entrants' School Lecture 2-D

  by Marvin Shilmer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  bethel entrants' school lecture 2-d. .

  the watchtower organization requires that all new full-time workers at its world headquarters or other facilities attend an entrant school.

  attendees are provided worksheets that are outlines for lectures at these events.

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  daniel-p

  I still have my Entrant's School notes and outlines... I believe I uploaded them here a while back...
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  39

  SCAN - 2010 Worldwide Service Report Via 2011 Yearbook

  by Gayle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  pm me for scan reference.. .

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  daniel-p

  I'd like to see those growth rates as a function of those countries' GDPs, or normalized household income. This would give interesting insight into the Effort vs. Reward of preaching in those countries and how much money the Watchtower can expect to be donated.

  Of course, I'm sure they've already done this analysis, and realize that that growth is unsustainable in terms of donations supporting the work.