Posts by Arthur

38

Service meeting part about My Space

by seek2find in

jw
friends

this week an article about the internet will be discussed on the service meeting.

at one meeting it was announced that the elders would be contacting parents about kids who have my space accounts.

anbody else hear it at their meeting?

Arthur

I heard from an active Witness last year that Governing Body member Anthony Morris gave a talk at their assembly (I can't remember if it was a circuit or district) in which he specifically mentioned myspace.com. This was a particular concern of the Governing Body; and the GB was quite aware of many teenage Witnesses posting on the site, as well as several Witness groups that had been set up on the site.

According to this active Witness, Morris was very emphatic and blunt in telling the youths (as well as anyone else) to immediately stop using myspace. It wasn't even considered a conscience matter.

This is a very tenuous postion to take given the fact that so many people use the internet to network for jobs and business. Are they now going to tell Witnesses not even to join any kind of online trade groups or networks? Where do you draw the line?

I guess the prohibition of myspace.com is just one more entry into the Watchtower's great Talmud of legalistic do's and dont's. Personal, Bible-trained conscience be damned.

20

Secret elders website?!?

by icyestrm in

i was chatting with an elder a few months ago and he spoke of a secret elders website that only privileged elders knew of.

it is used to submit the monthly field service reports and other letters in.

that is the 3rd time i heard about this and want to verify if any of you know about this..

Arthur

VM44 wrote:

Lett also implied it is better to be a plumber than a computer science programmer.
Perhaps they used a Bethel plumber to write the web page code for the Watchtower sites?

LOL - This is similar to the Watchtower speaking out against university educations and advanced degrees. A very interesting stance to take, given the fact that they have no problem puting JW lawyers and doctors to use at headquarters. What if every single JW had actually obeyed the "Slave" and not gotten a university education? Perhaps they would have had to hire someone like Alan Dershowitz to fight their pedophile lawsuits for them.

15

Met Auld Soul( AKA LiveLife)!

by nvrgnbk in

he's a good man.. he sends greetings to all his old jwd friends..

Arthur

Hey nvrgnbk:

Please give Auld Sould my regards if you see or talk to him soon. I really came to enjoy his input on the forum. Him and I corresponded several times via PM. I hold him in high regard. He helped me out a lot when I was new to the forum. I would also like to meet him some day. I wish him and his wife the very best.

7

What crimes have elders kids got away with?

by mtsgrad in

jw
friends

i knew a son of an elder who used to love drinking and driving.

he has just been made an elder!

praise the lord!

Arthur

I was in a congregation where there were two baptized teenagers in particular who's father was the Service Overseer, and their grandfather was the Presiding Overseer. It was almost comical how much they got away with. The girl was caught using a fake I.D. to get into clubs and get alcohol. This was known among many of us in the congregation, yet no public reproof was made - only a slap on the wrist.

Her younger teenage brother (who didn't have a license) was caught hot-wiring her car at night to go over to his girlfriend's house. This became known to many of us, yet no public reproof was made. Then, he and a couple of the other guys in the hall egged a family's house in our congregation; with many people in the congregation knowing about it. Yes, you guessed it; no public reproof.

Many of us were really amazed at all of this. I guess you could say that blood is thicker than holy water.

21

Should I apologize for anything???

by What-A-Coincidence in

jw
friends

let me know now or forever hold your piece ... pipe.

edit: if so, for what?.

Arthur

Did you ever apologize to your mother for the night that she found you passed out from drinking too much coffee liqueur? (hehe)

10

Quotes lawsuit

by John Doe in

jw
friends

do you think the wtbts made a mistake in suing the quotes site owner?

i think doing such was a huge mistake on their part, and here's why:.

1) they were not able to bury the information.

Arthur

It seems that the WTS's constant drum beat about the "dangers of the internet" and "internet apostates" are only having a reverse-psychology effect.

When an organization is constantly telling people to "avoid independent thinking", and is continuously using psychological manipulation methods, some begin to intuitively sense that something is very wrong, but they can't quite put their finger on it.

When the same organization constantly tells people to avoid any internet information that is unflattering about itself, it is only going to move these ones to want to investigate further.

It's like a husband who is acting strange while telling his wife over and over never to look in the garage. Yeah, that's going to work.

It is their own lack of transparency, secrecy, authoritarianism, and use of mind control that has come back to bite them in the rear. Their attempts to shut down websites are incredibly stupid. It just reinforces to people that they have something to hide.

In regards to your last comment, I do believe they are just trying to keep the membership here in the industrialized nations intact. The parts of the world that have free and open access to information (public libraries, internet) are showing very little growth. The parts of the world that are experiencing more growth are the areas where people cannot gain this information.

20

The 144,000...How do JWs get that only 144K are going to Heaven?

by A-Team in

...using bible scripture (i knwo they can quote whatever the wts says about it, but im trying to understand how do they come to that conclusng using bible verses.

also, in doing a little research, there is something very interesting that came up, and i never ever hear this from the jw.

they always claim that the 12 tribes in rev.

Arthur

Trying to assert that the 144,000 applies only to faithful first-century Christians as well as the few faithful Christians living thereafter (including the current remnant in the WT organization) is very shakey at best.

Remember that the Scritptures show that there were some 3,000 who were baptized at Pentacost alone. After that, the historical evidence shows that there were hundreds of thousands that became believers. Historical evidence shows that hundreds of thousands of Christians were martyred for their beliefs (some by the Roman empire, many others by the inquisitions).

Watchtower publications do state that there were indeed faithful Christians living throughout the centuries leading up to the nineteenth century, but they seem to underestimate the numbers of those that they term "true Christians".

The sheer number of faithful Christians (many hundreds of thousands) that existed in the first century, and in subsequent centuries is very hard to reconcile with the teaching that there are only 144,000 "annointed" Christians.

All of this coupled with the fact that the "cut off" for the annointed selection was 1935, now it isn't; that Jehovah now has to fine "replacements" makes this doctrine even more dubious. I say that this doctrine is just another lemon that was a "hand-me-down" doctrine from Russell and Rutheford.

With all of the rediculous and fanciful silliness that these two men taught, and had to be discarded; we are supposed to believe this 144,000 business is still valid? I say that it's barrel of rotten apples.

18

Updates to my WT Organization Chart

by Doug Mason in

following recent communications, i have updated my wt organization chart.. http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/org_chart.pdf.

apart from making minor changes to the layout, i have amended the section dealing with the local congregation.. i will appreciate any help and advice, but when you make them please remember that i do have space limitations.. doug.

Arthur

Nice work Doug Mason

A nice glimpse at the lofty "theocratic arrangement". As I look at this mind-numbing, labyrinthine organizational structure, I certainly don't see anything that resembles first-century Christianity. I instead see something that resembles a large government agency; like FEMA. But, maybe that is just my "fault-finding attitude" doing the talking.

23

More FEARmongering.....

by R.F. in

i've missed meetings consistently for about 2 months now.

my ex-fiancee just left a energy-filled voicemail.

she said........... "please come back to the meetings!

Arthur

So it's becoming more and more clearer to me lately that to JWs, excellent meeting attendance will result in salvation. I don't hear Jesus being mentioned anywhere.

For all intents and purposes, the Watchtower organization has become a modern day golden calf to many of it's followers. They have been so effectively indoctrinated with the idea that an organization will provide salvation despite the fact that such a concept is completely absent in the Scriptures. I too, feel your frustration. I am under intense pressure to return to the organization, and have heard similar comments. There simply is no reasoning with most Witnesses. They are so emotionally invested in the ideology of the organization with it's saving powers that no amount of reasoning will ever make any difference.

9

JW's vs Catholics

by Wordly Andre in

one thing ive noticed with a lot of people on this website is hatred towards the catholic church, more so than any other religion, is this a by product of years of indoctrination from the jws?

i am not trying to change or challenge anyones beliefs, but i started thinking about this after watching last nights episode of big love, one of the wives on that show allows her son to attend a catholic school, but then starts talking about how crucifixes are demonic and how the church is full of evil, it reminded me of the way jws talk about the catholic church.

a while back i dated a girl who used to be a member of the world wide church of god or international church of christ, i forget the name exactly but they hated the catholic church too, a lot of the way they kept track of their members was very much like jws.

Arthur

I think that a lot of the JW aversion toward the Catholic Church stems from the targeted verbal assaults it received from Judge Rutherford; which became an organizationally entrenched tradition. The Catholic Church is the largest and most visible of the Christian churches. This provided a nice big target for Rutherford's "Religion is a snare and a racket" diatribes; as well as good recipients for the Watchtower's sound car campaigns. This organizational mindset just seemed to get passed down from one generation to another; similar to the hatred that the Hatfields had for the McCoys.

I must admit though, that even for me personally, the Catholic Church is somewhat of a fun target for jokes. Here in Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony has provided no shortage of comedy material.