stapler99

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Posts by stapler99

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  13

  Remnant in Great Britain. Dead or Alive.

  by ThomasCovenant in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember reading probably in some old kingom ministries where the number of memorial partakers in great britain was reported.

  i'll see if i can retrieve them.

  from memory it was in the hundreds.

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  stapler99

  I think there may have been two or three in the surrounding area when I was growing up. I remember my father and some of the elders taking the memorial emblems to a person too infirm to attend the KH (the cut-off point was sunset next day, so as to still be on Nisan 14), but I think they died. There was another anointed funeral I attended (why should we be sad, when this dead person has become a King! is what the talk was. A bit silly really.) The last one dying that I was aware of was a relative of a member of the GB who lived in the area nearby.

  I was asking my parents about this and as far as they're aware there are basically none left that they know of, in the north of Scotland at least). But then again if someone claims to be an anointed one for long enough eventually, in a few decades, they, too, will be thought of as an 'old-time anointed'.

  Anyway the dwindling number of anointed seems to have become less relevant to Witness eschatology now that the Watchtower seemed to change the view on whether there would still be some alive at Armageddon (in the last paragraph of the Watchtower study, of all places! That's really sneaky, not the place you expect to see a major doctrinal change. Was it in the first WT of 2007?)
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  43

  The Dreaded youth book!!!

  by avishai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  who else dreaded studying this horrid piece of crap?.

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  stapler99

  Heh, yes I remember the YPA book. In fact it was the last book that I studied with my pops (we'd studied countless books before that, the Live Forever book, the Is the Bible the Word of God book, the Education book, the Creation book, in fact I can't remember them all). I knew that eventually we would reach the masturbation chapter so at a certain point I managed to delay the study each week so that it never happened, (this arrangement was possibly mutual) and we never got onto that chapter. (This is relevant since (at that time) I was wanking like there was no to-morrow.)
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  27

  there is apparently rampant apostacy in my ex kh

  by unbeliever in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my friend called and told me there were 3 announcements last night at the kh saying x, x, & x are no longer jw's.

  they all da'd themselves.

  all 3 sent letters out to a select group of friends and family before they gave their letters to the elders.

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  stapler99

  I heard recently that about 5 people in a nearby congregation DA'd themselves for apostacy (if that makes sense), and there was a local needs talk on the authority of the GB afterwards. I can't be specific either but it was in the British Isles, north of London.
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  50

  Holocaust denial, do you think it's serious?

  by avishai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  or relatively harmless?

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  stapler99

  I didn't say that all Holocaust deniers were not motivated by hate. I accept that a few of them may be, but I think not that many.

  But why would you put so much effort into arguing a position, risking being hated by society and being prosecuted in the courts, just out of hate?

  A slightly related example to show this is a similar argument that is associated with anti-semitism that I am sure that you will reject. Some conspiracy theorists like to point out the historical Jewish involvement in Communism. The usual argument goes that Communism was created and propagated by Jews (such as Marx and Trotsky) in order to gain revenge for anti-Jewish actions of the Russian people and the Czar, by inflicting this destructive ideology on Russia.

  I can accept that Communism had a Jewish nature, but I seriously doubt that it was motivated by hatred of Russians. I imagine Karl Marx sitting writing his books, thinking about his ideas. He, as I'm sure you'd agree, wouldn't put all this effort in if he didn't believe in what he was writing. This would be his intellectual legacy.

  LIKEWISE, I don't belive Holocaust deniers secretly think that what they are saying is wrong but come out with their arguments anyway, just because they hate Jews.
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  50

  Holocaust denial, do you think it's serious?

  by avishai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  or relatively harmless?

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  stapler99

  I don't care that much whether the 'Holocaust' happened, it has about as much relevance to me as Herod's slaugher of the innocents.

  Nevertheless I do care that people are sent to gaol just for expressing an opinion about it. I believe that Holocaust Negationists do honestly believe what they say, and are not motivated by hate. I think you have to look at their arguments seriously. It's hard to be objective about someone's views when I see the amount of ad hominem attacks being made on these people.
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  3

  Suppose you're a JW and you want your children to stay in...

  by stapler99 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what would the best strategy be?

  i ask this because thinking about my upbringing, i don't believe what the watchtower seems to suggest, that the more spiritual you are, the more bible study you do, the more field service you do, the completer your meeting attendence is, the less worldly association your children have, etc., then the more likely it will be that they will "stay loyal to jehovah" !hurls!

  i don't have that many cases to consider, but i have seen youngsters getting baptized whose famailies don't seem to do that much field ministry and miss a lot of meetings.

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  stapler99

  What would the best strategy be?

  I ask this because thinking about my upbringing, I don't believe what the Watchtower seems to suggest, that the MORE spiritual you are, the MORE bible study you do, the MORE field service you do, the COMPLETER your meeting attendence is, the LESS worldly association your children have, etc., then the more likely it will be that they will "stay loyal to Jehovah" !hurls!

  I don't have that many cases to consider, but I have seen youngsters getting baptized whose famailies don't seem to do that much field ministry and miss a lot of meetings.
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  9

  JW Numbers

  by JWdaughter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i want to look more fully into this if someone else hasn't already.. how many pieces of literature were taken by jws at the hall to 'place', versus how many actually were placed?

  we all know there must be a significant difference-it is the only way to explain the piles in the backs of closet, in basements and lining birdcags of jws.

  how much of the money given to the 'world wide work goes to building halls, giving to jws who cannot affort literature?

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  stapler99

  I do remember a couple of local needs talks at my former congregation about the 'literature hole', I can't of course remember the exact numbers but it seemed that, comparing the reported magazine placements and the magazines that people were ordering there was a suprisingly huge gap, and this was an ongoing phenomenon.
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  28

  Who still fears the big 'A'?

  by lfcviking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been left for about 18 months now and am trying to get 'unindoctrinated' or 'unbrainwashed' or whatever is the correct term is.

  but there still exists in me a considerable fear of 'armaggeddon'.

  whether the jw teaching of 'armaggeddon' is true or not i am not sure, but such was their very powerful strong mental indoctrination of this event it has left me with what i think will be a permenant fear for the rest of my days.

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  stapler99

  I used to, even after I left there was still a remnant of the old thinking there. 'Oh I must go back to meetings and read the Watchtower and get baptized and everything will be hanky-dory, and then I won't die at the big A'. But it's faded away. I still sometimes remember the way I used to think, but now it really doesn't bother me any more.

  I think the main thing is to stay busy, after time has passed the new experiences crowd out the old, and one's general outlook on the world changes for the better.
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  55

  Will Lack of Leadership Sink the JW Ship?

  by Seeker4 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i see serious problems with the leadership of the witnesses on two important levels: locally, in smaller bodies of elders with marginally qualified men carrying heavier workloads, and internationally in a lackluster and unimaginative governing body.

  there are no nathan knorrs, or fred or ray franz's in this pathetic group!

  first, the local elders: .

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  stapler99

  Thinking about some of the young "brothers" in the congregations I know about I can't imagine what the bodies of elders will look like in thirty years' time. I can't see a lot of zeal there, and many will probably leave sooner or later. There's just no way for the WTS not to collapse pathetically.
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  54

  JWs funerals.......forget about the dead person lets preach!

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  god forbid you would talk about the person at his funeral............what do most people get after living 70-80 years..........a 5-10 minutes eulogy....................the transition statment is "let me tell you about what fred really believed in".............................45 minutes later.....that way the specker can count his time.. as we know people in the organization are unimportant living or dead.

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  stapler99

  I've been to a few JW funerals, not for people I knew very well though. One thing that happened once that I thought was inconsiderate was that the "Kingdom Melodies" were sung and they didn't think to provide song-sheets for the non-witness attenders (that is, everyone in the person's family, and there were quite a few) so when it came to sing the song, the speaker suddenly realised that we needed to pass the song-books around.