Posts by OnTheWayOut

16

The Watchtowers

by BluesBrother in

edit .. i messed up the title, on this touchscreen tablet and now i can’t edit it !

the title should be “ the watchtower’s (sort of) apology for 1975 ….. sorry.

january 1st 1976, i remember that day when i heard a radio disc jockey gleefully announce that the world had not ended as jehovah’s witnesses had said it would .

We never said what you think we said. We were just very eager. If you are still hung up on this, you need to adjust your attitude. If you insist on an apology, we are sorry that we were so eager to see this glorious day arrive that you messed up and read too much into what we said in our eagerness

25

Annual service report - yet another analysis - big trouble for the WTS

by FFGhost in

jw
friends

there's already been a couple of threads on the 2021 report with insightful comments, but i'm vain enough to want to start my own topic with some additional thoughts..... as others on the other thread noted, it's useful to compare the 2021 numbers not only to 2020 but also 2019 (the last non-pandemic report).. there are some really troubling (if you're a wt headquarters guy) news in the latest report.. 1) baptisms plummet.

2021 - 171,393. baptisms dropped 20% in 2020, and 30% more in 2021. the total drop from 2019 to 2021 is an amazing 44%.. one could argue that without in-person assemblies and conventions you'd expect baptisms to drop.

but....if someone really wants to get baptized, jws will find a way.

OnTheWayOut

May the numbers continue to diminish and maybe even more so when they go back to the Kingdom Hall.

84

Faith-Apostasy-Atheism

by DoubtingThomas in

i have been on m any different forums, and only carm is similar to this.. all the rest have rather hypocritical trust in god.. this and carm are for those who apostate to the wtbs and to god.. turned off by the gb, or hypocritical examples in the congregation, they drop worshiping god and their belief in the bible... for they know too much,.

that's why scripture isn't discussed, and jws like me, are demonized.. i am cool with that!

maybe some of you will come to their senses!.

OnTheWayOut

One man says I "lost" my faith if I stop believing in the Bible and/or God.

Well, I "found my out" of faith. My definition of faith is "belief in what cannot be proven." I won't get all bogged down on what is proof to you compared to me. I will say that I have proven to myself that the Bible is from men and I am satisfied that the gods of men are from men also.

No loss of faith. If you insist on saying it that way, then I could also say believers have lost their logic and reasoning.

40

More cracks in the dam - WTS pleading for elders "in their early 20s"

by FFGhost in

jw
friends

i have another post here about how the wts is reeling from covid, as reflected in their abysmally catastrophic service report:.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6315842470936576/annual-service-report-yet-another-analysis-big-trouble-wts.

here's another rupture showing.. in the latest "announcements and reminders" to elders, there is a paragraph with these sentences:.

OnTheWayOut

Wow, I was 30 when appointed and that seemed kinda too young.

But capturing a 20-something guy with more responsibility just might make him feel handcuffed to the organization.

17

If the Almighty, Powerful, benevolent God had a book written for humans, what would it contain?

by pistolpete in

i know for a fact it would not start off with a talking snake, magical fruit, invisible beings that desire beautiful women to have sex with.. and it wouldn’t end with a flying dragon, a two horned lamb, locusts that resembled horses with men’s faces, but with women’s hair and teeth of lions.

and the book wouldn’t allow for hundreds of millions of religions to spurt from it.

i think the first thing a book written by god would have, is that it would be written in a way that all languages could understand without being translated.. regardless of what language you would speak, we could read it and understand what it said.

OnTheWayOut

It would not overlook genocide, slavery, rape of little girls after you killed their parents in some stupid war.

It would teach that women are not secondary to men. It should give you a way to prove that its author exists.

25

Good news and bad news --- pandemic and Kingdom Halls.

by pistolpete in

u/aposta-fish from exjw reddit.

good news bad news pandemic and kingdom halls.. first the bad news, coming out of israel - one of the first countries to push total vaccination.

the news is the vaccine especially the pfizer one looks like it wears off and hospital rates have gone up for those that have been vaccinated.

OnTheWayOut

Wake up Anony Mous. 50% of 600 people. Millions are not in the hospital. Wake up.

122

1995 generation change

by Gorb in

jw
friends

now, many years later, i remember the 1995 generation change, very well.. since early youth, hearing my father explaining in field service the 2520 years.

it was his main theme in the field.. with the change my doubts started.

with some jw friends we did not trust the organization anymore.

OnTheWayOut

LongHairGal,

Hey, thanks so much for your comments..

While I strived so hard in 1995 to change from a job to a career, I finally got into a great career that I love in 2000 and am looking at retirement in 2027. Further, the career was a huge factor in helping me out of the cult. So when I look back at that Generation Change, it was the first step out the door.

I can say with confidence that had I still been there, the "overlapping generation" teaching would have had me laugh out loud with curses during the Watchtower study and say "I am outta here!" and walked out at that very moment.

122

1995 generation change

by Gorb in

jw
friends

now, many years later, i remember the 1995 generation change, very well.. since early youth, hearing my father explaining in field service the 2520 years.

it was his main theme in the field.. with the change my doubts started.

with some jw friends we did not trust the organization anymore.

OnTheWayOut

I was a fairly brand new elder when the 1995 change came out.

I came into the religion as an adult and up until that major change, there really weren't any serious changes in the time I had been there, because they were trying to get over the huge changes between 1975 and the mid 1980's.

That generation change really caused me to change my outlook on my employment situation. I had "jobs" until then. I figured the end was so close and I didn't sweat about the future. But with the change, I decided I needed to get a career and a way to retire in "this system of things."

So even though I didn't leave the religion yet, it was a real life-changer for me.

11

Norm Macdonald 1959-2021

by neat blue dog in

any other fans of norm macdonald here?

i think this is the only time where i actually felt a celebrity death.

what a loss.

OnTheWayOut

Norm basically lost his SNL Weekend Update gig because he wouldn't let up on insulting/joking about O.J. Simpson. That was about the only thing I liked about Norm MacDonald. The video is pretty much copying Rodney Dangerfield wife jokes. Rodney had better timing.

I like many comics for their dry humor, but to me, Norm was all dry and little humor.

25

Good news and bad news --- pandemic and Kingdom Halls.

by pistolpete in

u/aposta-fish from exjw reddit.

good news bad news pandemic and kingdom halls.. first the bad news, coming out of israel - one of the first countries to push total vaccination.

the news is the vaccine especially the pfizer one looks like it wears off and hospital rates have gone up for those that have been vaccinated.

OnTheWayOut

Israel. About 600 people are in the hospital with COVID and about 300 of them had their vaccinations.
Another 5.7 million people had their vaccinations and are not in the hospital.

Sounds okay to me. Vaccinations are not a guarantee against COVID. They reduce the odds that someone will get COVID somewhat and extremely reduce the odds of a serious case if one does gets it.