Brazil itself grew a lot in that decade, so much of the growth can be attributed to simple population expansion. http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/presidencia/noticias/noticia_visualiza.php?id_noticia=1766&id_pagina=1
The rest of it is surely due to the post-Catholic effect. JWs and other evangelical faiths always mop up after catholicism, who are nearly always the first ones to pave the way for Christianity.
"how to shit in the woods" ... this is actually a book title sold by the thousands, no, by the millions.
yep, over 2.5 million copies of the book have been sold, and the author is a woman (kathleen meyer).. now, if you are a man, do you feel comfortable with a woman telling you "how to shit in the woods"?
this book is in its third edition, in 8 languages to boot.
Aside from proper hygeine, minimum distance from water sources (200 feet), proper cathole depth, etc., the key to successfully shitting in the woods is to be able to squat while balancing with your feet fully planting on the ground, not just the balls of your feet. This reduces fatigue and aides in full evacuation of the bowels.
Why I'm contributing to this thread I have no idea... just thought I would share that.
well this afternoon as i sit here i am calm but my heart is literally aching.
i am sitting here with my young daughter on my shoulder.
i guess you could say i spilled the beans to my wife this afternoon.
BU2B,
My heart is right there with you. The same as hundreds of others here, I suspect. Always remember that. Although now I'm sure you feel very, very alone, you are not. I, too, have gone through the lone-thinking Aposta-transformation at the risk of losing everyone in my life. That was about seven years ago. I'm still married to my wife, who believes but is not active. Whenever she tries to be active it causes trouble in oure marriage. I don't know what the future holds. We have a 2-year-old daughter. If it wasn't for her, I would seriously be considering leaving, because I honestly don't know if it's possible for two people who hold such differeng beliefs to be happy together. The past 7 years have shown that to be true, at least to an extent. Right now, the pain of separation and of fighting over our daughter is the primary thing keeping us together. So just remember that, although there is no doubt that life sucks at the moment, you are not alone.
...sucks.
(warning: this could get lengthy but i have to vent and i could really use some advice).
i know ttatt and have known about it for almost 2 years, yet i'm still stuck inside.
My advice:
Be the good JW child until you get a job and strike out on your own. If you don't, if you let them know you don't believe it, you will be shooting yourself in the foot. They will hamstring you and cut off basic resources like transportation, as you've mentioned.
If you're going to play the game, play to win. Tow the line, lie through your teeth.
This is survival.
It's been done before.
so i was giving my daughter a hug at bed time last night.
she stands up at the foot of her bed and wraps her arms around my neck.
she then asks why i don't serve jehovah anymore.
This kind of thing infuriates me. I have a 2-year old now and I see the very begining of the division I know my family (mother, mostly) will try to bring. She doesn't live near us, but she came to visit for two weeks and in that brief time taught my daughter how to pray before meals, how to look at nature and say "Jehovah made that!" and also started teraching her that behvaing her parents is the same as making Jehovah happy.
My wife isn't nearly as hardcore, and doesn't do that kind of stuff, but she still takes her to the meetings with her and teaches her a few things here and there. As my daughter grows up, I feel myself getting more and more possessive/attentive in how she is raised (natural, right?). And while previously I said "wife, you can take care of her spiritual education and she'll make her own decisions when she grows up," now I am not sure about leaving it up to the JW side of the family (everybody except me).
gore vidal's death tuesday in los angeles got me to thinking about writers.
i am a writer myself and i know there are many other writers on this forum.
i wanted to open a discussion on writing in the twenty-first century and get other thoughts, opinions and experiences on this.
Writing is writing is writing. Some people write slowly, others write quickly. The same thing happened when the typewriter was introduced. Many writers immediately made the change, while others didn't want to have anything to do with it. The important thing is to find what doesn't impede the creative process. For me, I can compose with either a pen or keyboard, but a keyboard helps me to get my thoughts down faster.
dear randall.
good morning!.
here is the daniel of brazil (former bethel).. this week at the forum of former jehovah's witnesses had an interesting news!
The Society has no interest in making doctrinal changes that clarify their beliefs or do any good for witnesses. The only doctrinal changes they are concerned with would be in reducing their financial liability from child abuse cases. Their entire purpose is to ensure survivability of the organization.
I find it hard to believe they would stop the preaching work, since so much of their identity is tied up in door-to-door ministry. And to stop the work would be tantamount to proclaiming the GT has started, which in turn starts an end-game timeline.
there is an article in the latest kingdom ministry about counting time spent in the ministry.
one comment surprised me - it says that counting time wrongly can lead to "pangs of conscience".
a bit of an ott expression , i can't help thinking.. the only pangs the local pioneers are concerned about here are hunger pangs as they head to dunkin donuts for a 40 minute "break".
WHen I was pioneering, I quickly realized that if I was to ever get my "time in," I had to record it in blocks. For instance, service meeting was at 9AM, end at 2PM. Sure we had a half hour lunch break, and several 15 minute to half hour breaks throughout, and plenty of sitting in the car while others were on calls, probably only about 5 minutes of actual knocking on doors... but MY TIME was spent "in the ministry" from 9 to 2. Bam. Five hours.
Basically, you treat it like a white collar job and you are on salary, not a blue collar job where you have to clock in for the man. The former is a trusting situation, the latter an oppressive one. The ones who treated it as an oppressive factory job cleaning chickens were just crazy over-zealous maniacs.
i attended a convention recently but didn't wear a badge i was treated with the utmost suspicion.
particularly when i arrived during the sessions one day.
the attendant didn't want me wandering off to find a seat on my own.
As for these attendants: When your life is spent banging nails into a hot roof in July so you can feed three generations of Hispanic immigrant witnesses, you're grateful for the air-conditioned privelege soooo much that you take it very, very seriously.
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, .
"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.'"
