Thank you for sharing those painful memories. I'm so sorry for what you and your siblings lived through. Sorry about your brother as well.
Look forward to hearing more from you.
Doubting Bro
JoinedPosts by Doubting Bro
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36
My Story
by LearningToFly inhello fellow forum members, i am very new here, and feel it is time to share a little about myself.
this site has gotten me quite riled up again, and even after many years my experience is not memorable and still upsets me when i think of it.
my beginning experience of joining the jw organization at age 6 was not unpleasant at all, and was not for many years.
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181
OKM 09/07 (english)- Just another brick in the wall...
by metaspy inok guys and gals, i (being the assistant to the magazine counter) have acquired the newest okm.. i have uploaded it to imagevenue.com: here.
hopefully that works!.
by the way drew, your translation was very close.
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Doubting Bro
As Blondie and others mentioned, the prohibition on independent study groups is really not new and is related to the Franz era "apostasy". However, the direction to use only WTS publications in research (at least that's what I'm getting from having read the article) is somewhat stricter. I was always given the instruction to use the WTS stuff first, but was encouraged to get backup information from various secular sources and I remember the WTS used to always give dictionary definitions, expound (however incorrectly) on Greek & Hebrew, provide some historical information. Yet, in the last several years, I see a real dumbing down to the study material.
When I was an elder, I was always introducing secular information in my parts to try and validate what the WTS was saying. Actually, in doing research for the Daniel book, I really got into the 607/587 issue and ended up being convienced that the WTS was wrong. So, I can see why they don't want folks doing that sort of research.
But, remember the elders recently got instructions on conducting the WT and how they should NOT bring in any research they've done on their own.
This really is a different religion from the one I grew up with. I always remember there was such an emphasis on doing extra research to supplement the WT study and that the reason given was the brothers only had a limited amount of space so the extra information rounded out the discussion.
Of course, this has always been a high control group, so I'm sure noone is shocked by this. When the brothers ask me why I don't comment anymore, this will be the reason I give. All they want is someone to parrot the information just read and add nothing to the discussion.
Can't wait for the 1/15/08 WT!
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Assembly Hall shakedown - Columbia SC
by sir82 infrom someone who attended:.
there was a big elders meeting in columbia sc on saturday june 9.. around 240 congregations, 2000+ elders.. the society wants to build a brand new assembly hall in columbia, sc, to handle the huge influx of jws moving to the us southeast from up north.. they expect to have it done in 34 months (finished by april 2010).
total cost estimated to be approximately $8 - 9 million.. they want to have the whole thing paid for by the time the building is done - no long term loans.. they "strongly suggested" that each of the 240 congregations commit to supporting "their share" of the expense.
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Doubting Bro
I just spoke with a person I know in that area. He said that his congregation in GA is being assigned to this assembly hall and they just got finished paying for the one in Conyers. Its a pretty large congregation and my friend said that they've collected less than $200 so far! According to him, no land has been purchased yet. He asked, what if we don't collect the needed funds? The response was that it will be built anyway.
In his congregation, people feel like since they just contributed for the new AH in the Atlanta area, they should have to build another one so soon. He also admitted that its cheaper to rent than own and that the assembly halls charge way more than market rate for use.
The more I learn about these projects, the more I realize what a huge scam they are.
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Commentary on the Letter Of James--PDF!--(Searchable)
by Atlantis incommentary on the letter of james--pdf-1979-(searchable--approx-50mb) what does the front cover of this book look like?
click here: http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?162fs759786.jpg click the link below and when the next page appears scroll down to the bottom of the page, a small (red arrow) will point to the download link.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/dyrc1r cheers!
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Doubting Bro
I seem to think Ed Dunlap was involved with the writing of this book. I agree, it is one of the better books published by the WTS
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403
BEER THREAD
by nvrgnbk ini believe the moment's right to discuss a very serious matter............................................................beer.
what do you like?
let's edumicate one another!
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Doubting Bro
Cheers nvrgnbk! I've never had the LionsHead but will give it a try if I can find it.
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403
BEER THREAD
by nvrgnbk ini believe the moment's right to discuss a very serious matter............................................................beer.
what do you like?
let's edumicate one another!
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Doubting Bro
I had a Stoud's Double IPA (ok a couple) to try and relax after the meeting last night! Nectar of the gods!
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62
August KM provides solid evidence of declining JW morale
by sir82 inas you may or may not recall, the february '07 km (for the us) had a huge article, taking up the full 4 page insert, on the "blessings" of auxiliary pioneering.
the part covering that insert took up the entire service meeting (aside form the announcements).
the "encouragement" was that the us branch had set a goal of 160,000 auxiliary pioneers for the month of april ("if only one of every 6 publishers signs up, we can make it!")..
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Doubting Bro
I honestly believe they will stop publishing the figures once it begins to turn negative.
That billion hour mark is something that is bragged about so if they were ever to change the way time was counted, it would gut that number.
Back when I was a gung-ho JW, I would always complain about the amount of time wasted in FS. I never really liked going out, but I figured if I was going to do it, we should be at least trying. Then, as I had doubts, I joined right into the doing RVs from one side of the territory to the other only to find out that most of them weren't home.
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Doubting Bro
Good stuff!
You get a "G" on your use of ellipsis!! You were in the Writing Department, weren't you??
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I had no idea there were people who felt like me
by Orgull ini've recently begun challenging my beliefs.
all my beliefs, including those ingrained in me as one raised "in the truth".. a few years ago i sought therapy for chronic depression and my treatment was remarkably successful.
as a side effect, things that used to "work" for me no longer fit with the new emotional pathways and strengths i was developing.
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Doubting Bro
Welcome Orgull!!
Yes, you are not alone. I can tell you that if not for this place, I truely be a mess right now (ok, maybe I'm a little bit of a mess but it could be so much worse).
Look forward to hearing more from you.
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62
August KM provides solid evidence of declining JW morale
by sir82 inas you may or may not recall, the february '07 km (for the us) had a huge article, taking up the full 4 page insert, on the "blessings" of auxiliary pioneering.
the part covering that insert took up the entire service meeting (aside form the announcements).
the "encouragement" was that the us branch had set a goal of 160,000 auxiliary pioneers for the month of april ("if only one of every 6 publishers signs up, we can make it!")..
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Doubting Bro
Sir82,
Fully 25% or more of the US Witnesses are in Spanish-language congregation, you can probably add a few 10's of thousands more in all the other languages.
I also get the sense that Spanish is making up a pretty large portion of the JW population based on the number of Spanish language DCs I saw listed and the fact that many cities with congregations of say 20 or so in the metro area have at least 4 or 5 Spanish congregations and at least one other language, some with larger numbers than the English congregation they share the hall with.
Has anyone seen any actual statistics that back this up? I find it interesting that the WTS doesn't break out their numbers in local branches by language group, but I think at Bethel, they know exactly what the percentages are. My theory is if they reported the numbers by language, the English speaking publisher numbers would be down by quite a bit, which would cause even more discouragement.
Good business strategy to push the foreign language "avenue of service". Makes sense to deploy resources where the larger profit margin can be had. However, I agree that while the numbers will go up in this segment of the population, the $$$ will not go up correspondingly since that's not the wealthiest segment of the population (on average, especially recent immigrants to the US).