LisaRose
JoinedPosts by LisaRose
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35
83,000 theocratic facilites?
by average joe ina bethelite was telling me that there are 83,000 theocratic facilities world wide.
he compared that to 35,000 mcdonalds and 21,000 starbucks roughly to show the size of the theocratic organization.
i am not sure where the 83,000 comes from what would he be counting?
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LisaRose
Every generation thinks things are worse than they have ever been, that it couldn't get much worse, so we must be living in the last days and the end of the world must be soon. Various groups have thought the same at various points in history. Charlie Russel thought the same, he believed he was living in the last days and Christ was surely to return soon, bringing the end of the world in 1914. It was only when that didn't happen they decided that Christ had returned invisibly and they determined the end times had just started.
I was around when they believed Armageddon was going to come in 1975, that the generation alive in 1914 would not pass away before the end. People then also thought every negative news event signaled the end, the Vietnam war, the cold war, earthquakes. Everything confirmed their belief that it couldn't go on much longer. 1975 came and went and the Watchtower tried to pretend they hadn't led everyone to think it was going to be end of the world. Forty years later and they are still beating the same drum, they have redefined the meaning of the word generation, as if it means something different now. They learned nothing from their failed prophecies and still claim special knowledge of the end, despite the bible clearly stating that no man knows the day or the hour.
So what makes you think a terrorist attack that killed 127 people means the end? As horrific as it is, hardly compares to things that have happened in the past, the crusades, the bubonic plague, WWI and WWII, the Spanish influenza, the mass killing of six million Jews, the mass killing of people in Cambodia.
Don't get me wrong, mankind faces many challenges, but since God hasn't seen fit to step in before now, why would he at this point? What is so special and different about things right now that it means the end of the world?
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39
JAMES WOODS is in the hospital (heart related)
by Terry injames woods has been a long time regular on this discussion group in all of its incarnations.. he had some kind of "heart-attack" and has been in dallas' emergency ward for several days.
he also has a blood clot doctors are working to break up.. 972-261-4412 is his cell number.. he was in a talking mood yesterday afternoon.. i bet it wouldn't kill him to get some well-wishes.. james goes back a long way as an ex-jw.
he knows where the bodies are buried :).
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LisaRose
I remember him very well, please let him know we are thinking about him and hoping for the best. -
24
Watch: Comedian Lewis Black Reads 18 Year Old's Awesome Resignation Letter To The Mormon Church
by Captain Schmideo2 inhttp://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/watch_comedian_lewis_black_reads_18_year_old_s_resignation_letter_to_the_mormon_church(warning!
language!
).
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LisaRose
This was hilarious. My DIL was raised Mormon, she was on a mission and suddenly realized that she didn't believe the hogwash she was trying to teach people. I guess she also found the difference between eating McDonald and selling it. -
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Why do most Christians churches have masonic and/or pagan symbols?
by kabwell inhas anyone looked at the local churches in their area and seen pagan and freemason symbols both inside and outside.
i am not a jw but at least they don't seem to follow this trend.
why do "christians" wear a symbol of torture and death ?
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LisaRose
Just about any image or symbol you can think of had some pre-christian use, there were people around for a long time before Christ and we are talking about very common shapes. What is important is what the person wearing the cross feels it represents, not what you feel it represents. The Watchtower tries to pick and choose what images and symbols are good and which are bad, wedding rings, which had pagan meaning are OK, the cross is bad. It's arbitrary on their part and hypocritical.
Stop judging other Christians.
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Humans are not wired to want the truth
by rebel8 inthat's what i suspect.. perhaps some of us retrained our brains to not surrender to a natural urge to believe the simplest, most drama-laden spins on facts.. examples (at least i think this is the truth!):.
the clock.
the son of muslim activists makes a device that, on purpose, looks like a bomb.
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LisaRose
I agree, we seem to only accept information that fits in with our beliefs or our concept of ourselves.
If you want to see cognitive dissonance in action, read this blog by a mother who did not believe in vaccines. Her children got whooping cough, and were so sick they were vomiting from coughing, but she just kept giving them more homeopathic medicine, chiropractic visits and herbs, despite no improvement.she believed immunity from having contracted the illness was better than immunity from vaccines, despite any evidence, other than her faith in homeopathy.
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Hi noobie here.
by Grags inhi my name is graham (but i much prefer to be called grags), i'm a 38 year old married man from the uk and have been studying with the witnesses for about 3 months.
i do a study every saturday and love every minute.
in john 6: 16-24 jesus's disciples get onto a boat without jesus and set off.
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LisaRose
Welcome. There are many inconsistencies in the bible, to believe that it is some perfect and cohesive narrative is simply wishful thinking, don't fall for it.
The Watchtower likes to selectively quote scriptures, even parts of scriptures, followed by a lot of conjecture, it can get confusing, so be sure to read everything in context. Most of their beliefs don't really hold up once you start to question things, so take nothing at face value, look for the logical inconsistencies. When it comes to the history and beliefs of the Watchtower, verify everything using neutral third party references, like Wikipedia. They lie about their history, and they don't tell people some of their more disturbing beliefs until they have studied for quite a while, so be wary.
They also use cult mind control techniques, like controlling your time (hours of meetings everyweek, obligatory door to door work, etc., controlling who you can talk to (ex members are shunned, friendships with non JWs are discouraged), and they claim to be the only path to salvation, all others will be destroyed by God at Armageddon, which they believe is eminent.
But since you are already questioning things, I am sure you will figure all that out for yourself.
Lisa 🌹
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Samuel Herd's statement about donations and Cialdini's social proof
by slimboyfat insamuel herd made a statement a few weeks ago about halting construction work, laying off bethel workers and reducing printing output: severe cutbacks all round.
he said, like the head of a household, the gb has to make sure the organisation is living within its means.
but he added a very careful phrase, something like: "be assured brothers these measures have not been taken as a result of any lack of financial support on your part.
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LisaRose
Good point, I agree , people always want to be with the "winning team". And it's not just social proof, we are also dealing with the fact that they claim to be led by God. They simply cannot afford to have people think they miscalculated or made a mistake, as it proves they are not specially appointed and being directed by God.
It's also ridiculous, they started projects they now cannot finish, wasting money on half built buildings. They are trying to put a good face on it, but that is not good financial management, they just screwed up, only a deluded cult member wouldn't know that. Unfortunately there are a lot of deluded cult members.
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50
Pranks to play in the hall...
by purrpurr inwhat pranks could you/would you/ have you played in the kingdom hall?.
i have never but here's two i've thought of, 1) replace the liquid soap with glue 2) smear nutella everywhere in the bathroom!.
what's yours?.
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LisaRose
. If EVERYBODY started dropping fake monopoly money in contribution boxes all over the world, the GB would take "note".
It would be even better if everyone wrote on the money:
"Pedophile defence fund"
"Governing body Fancy watch fund"
"Contribution for the worldwide misinformation program"
"Hush up money for child rape victims"
"Governing Body luxury apartment fund"
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My fade might well start today.
by StarTrekAngel inmany here whom have read my previous posts know more or less my situation.
wife is not hardcore but we still bump heads from time to time.
if it wasn't for this cult, and while it was not an issue, we had an almost perfect marriage.
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LisaRose
If you had a good marriage for many years the odds are good that you can salvage this. Yes, it will be hard, and it's not ideal, but divorce will also be very hard on you, your girls and your wife.It won't solve your issues of how to bring up the girls, in fact you will have even less influence. Of course your wife will present her side of things, be prepared for that to make sure things stay on tract with the therapist. Your therapist is not going to jump in and criticize your wife's religion right off the bat, he/she will probably just seek to take in information at this point and built up trust, but it doesn't mean he/she will believe everything your wife says, so be patient.
Make sure you are calm and neutral, but don't let your wife get away with pretending that this is just a normal religion, because it is not. Most JWs present one side to people outside the group, but we know what they really believe and teach. Explain to the therapist that if your children become JWs it will result in them eventually shunning you. Show the therapist the Caleb and Sofia videos and the bible stories book. Talk about their baptism of young children, and the repercussions if they later chose to not be JWs, the shunning. Talk about their low retention rate and high suicide rate. Have quotes from the Watchtower showing how warped their teachings are. Have the evidence that they are a cult.
This is actually a good opportunity for you, your wife can see first hand how other people react to what Jehovah's Witnesses actually believe as compared to the whitewashed version they sell to the public.