sociologically speaking as a religion, the jw's are at a threshold of continued cultishness and obscurity, or re-oriontation to a more 'mainline' christian religion with its own unique distinctiveness.
i say the wt will take the middle ground....
I was just remembering the state highway maintenance department of South Carolina (I think it was, or some southern state) that accidentally (I hope) painted a yellow stirp across of the body of a dead cat.
That's what we need to do to the governing body and ESPECIALLY J. R. BROWN.
Paint a yellow stipe down their bodies and then drive over them.
http://oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/front_page/101671540232151251.xml.
shunning in spotlight .
wendy y. lawton .
"Do not criticize the organization. If Jehovah permits it,( EVEN IT IT IS A LIE I GUESS) who are we to insist it should be different? (WT 5/1/1957 p.284)"
BUT JEHOVAH DOESN'T PERMIT IT!!!!!!
In country after country, members are falling away, or refusing to come in to begin with (better yet)
In country after country, the GOVERNMENTS THEMSELVES are stepping in to PROTECT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FROM THEIR OWN ORGANIZATION (Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, United States)
In country after country, other religious organizations ARE OPENING UP THEIR HEARTS, WALLETS AND ARMS TO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FLEEING THEIR OWN RELIGION. Including here in the U.S.
Watchtower...GET A CLUE!!!!!
hi simon, firstly i would like to say thank you for allowing us to post on here, its been a real eye opener for me to see that there are other people out in the world like me, that we are not the freaks after all, when i first got disfellowshipped i thought it was a terrible thing, that i was leaving the truth, now, after spending around a month on here i can see i never was in the truth, so thank you for letting me see that.. also can i say its refreshing to see someone admit when they make a mistake, like you did in the thread by sf, thank you for not being too proud to listen.
There is no telling, and I suppose we may never know, how many Christian Longos and Robert Bryants have averted becasue of sites like Simon's....becasue we don't know how low we might have fallen.
((((((((((((((((((Simon and mrs. Simon))))))))))))))))
UADNA-US (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America-United States)
joelbear said:.
the news report posted in the news section indicates about 1% of americans identify as jehovah's witnesses, that is about 3 million just in the us.
so even though they are inactive, 2 million people still adhere to the beliefs enough to identify it as their religious affiliation.. in australia we just had a consensus and the number of people in this country that say they're jw's is 95,000 (can't remember the number exactly).....the only trouble is that there is only about 58,000 active jw's according to the wt..... anyone know their countries story??.
(((((((((((((((TheApostleAK ))))))))))
over a 100 years ago there lived a poor mexican pedro.
one day his son left the the barn door open, his only horse {his chief sourse of income} got out.
everyone said "poor pedro you are in big trouble now!
((((((((((((( new boy ))))))))))))
there was this old dude at bethel who once privately.
commented on how much persecution was self inflicted.
in watchtower history.
What other choice do they have Metatron, since the 'wordly' people refuse to hate them!!!!
that's right....recommend a book...any book that would be a good read....... mine's is:.
invisible man by ralph ellison
The Lord of the Rings..OF COURSE!!!! All of J.R.R. Tolkien's works; and I'm just finishing up The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time, very interesting.
But for more serious reading: "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" by Erich Fromme. It was the first 'worldy' 'critical thinking' book I read in defiance of Watchtower protocol....and I'm still going strong. Erich Fromme has faith that humans WILL work out their problems...and he's been more right on in this prediction than the Watchtower, hey?
UADNA-US (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America-United States)
intresting qestion, one thing as chockhed mee when im first come to this site, was that it was so much peopel as say they was former bethelits, sound littel wird too mee, who think this was the paradise on earth, some explanation, and forgive my bad spelling, no time too look in the lexicon.
hhhhhmmmmmmmmm
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=22184&site=3#278074
If you think that something like 20-30 ex-bethelites out of 4500 registered users is suspicious, you need to get out more.
UADNA-US (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America-United States)
dear post reader.... i was that young and pretty sister you may have seen...the one with "all those kids".
the one who stuggled to raise her children alone.
the one who was rarely considered as "wife material" because she was "damaged goods".
(((((((((((AM)))))))))))
My sister in the faith...
Below is another post from this board, only one of a few...
_____________________________________________________________________
A quick note first to say thank you to everyone on this board for the months of support and friendship, and for putting up with all of my ranting/raving postings. I am in your debt always.
I apologize in advance for the length of this post, and for the depressing subject.
Situation I was raped in ****, and because I did not resist my attacker (and lived) I was df'd in view of the WT position at the time.
This is the History of the WT view toward rape as far as I could find it.
WT 1-15-64 scream
WT 6-1-68 scream
Aid to Bible Understanding, 1969, 1971 don't scream
Awake! 3-8-74 scream
Awake! 7-8-80 don't scream
WT 10-15-80 scream
WT 3-15-83 don't scream
Awake! 2-22-84 scream
Awake! 6-8-84 don't scream and scream
Awake! 5-22-86 scream
Insight on the Scriptures, 1988 don't scream
Awake! 3-8-93 don't scream
As you can see, my assault in **** placed me right in between 'screaming' in 1986 and 'not screaming' in 1993. (I guess the Insight book was ignored by my elders, oh WELL that's so NEW) I thought by 1999 things had settled once and for all, for crying out loud. Because I have one child still 'in' the org, I sought reinstatement, and the elders said "fine, just come to meetings and all will be forgotten."
Last night I did research, and found this;
WT 12/15/98: This exemplifies that when it comes to money and material things, victims of robbery who do not resist may reduce the likelihood of injury.
And a footnote; There are, of course, limits to cooperation. Jehovah's servants do not cooperate in any way that violates God's law. For example, a Christian would not willingly submit to rape.
translation: scream!
the tragedy in oregon could be concieved by some as "pushing a man beyond all human limits" and therefore the "pusher" (ie the wtbs) is guilty.. clearly mr bryant was not in a stable state of mind - so what caused the inbalance?
clearly the action of the society.
the wtbs would counter and say it was mr bryant that caused the problem by his "black heart and rebel attitude".. so who was responsible?
>I'm sure they will be quite embarrassed using the words "spiritual paradise" in field service until the memory of this tragedy fades from their future conversion prospects.<
That's won't be for a long long time, Farkel, if I have anything to say about it.
