Posts by neverendingjourney

13

What was the "suggested contribution" for the NNWT?

by Momma-Tossed-Me in

jw
friends

...?....

neverendingjourney

I can tell you what a recent trip to Barnes and Noble bookstore revealed as to the retail costs of Bibles."

This reminds me of the situation in my hall back in the mid 90s. The WT library on CD were being distributed and it was a big deal among the locals. The PO gave a talk discussing how valuable these CDs were and how brothers shouldn't order them without a real need. He asked the audience how much "CDs" went for, and several folks answered, each trying to out-do the other in how ridiculous their answer was. Finally, it was agreed that "CD's" sold for hundreds of dollars in the stores and the friends should keep that in mind when pikcing up their WT library CD.

I was a teenager at the time, and I didn't own a computer until many years later, but the only thing I could think of is that they had seen a copy of Windows retailing for a few hundred bucks and simply assumed the cost was in the hardware and not the intellectual property contained therein. All CDs were created equal or something. The full absurdity of this didn't begin to set in until a few years later when CD-R's became popular and you could pick one up for roughly 25 cents. How many Witnesses donated a hundred bucks or more of their hard earned money for something that probably cost a nickel? I'll never know.

28

So Jw's are allowed to celebrate baby showers, but not birthdays?? huh??

by nolongerconfused in

jw
friends

perhaps, one of the most arrogant and contradicting behaviors of jdubs.... what is the difference between celebrating a baby shower and a birthday?...they both have ancient origins, from pagan people, including egyptians and the greek.... have you guys noticed any other hypocrite celebrations/behaviors jdubs engage in?.

neverendingjourney

I believe the big picture here is as follows:

Rutherford was a rabble-rouser and blowhard, a Prohibition era politician who found his calling in religion. Given his background, he set out to get as much attention as possible for his movement. Thus, he sent his followers out to announce the message door to door much like politicians of the time would go out in search of votes. This wasn't the witnessing we're accustomed to, but a much more aggressive form of preaching designed to insight passions. Witnesses of the era would set up a car with a loud speaker and blast the "Judge's" sermons outside of churches.

His view of the world and past experiences led him try to separate his religious movement as much as possible from mainstream, orthodox Christianity in an effort to garner even more attention. Thus, he instituted a strict pacifist policy, which led to many arrests and imprisonment for its members. He also poked the hornet's nest by having his followers refuse to say the pledge of allegiance during a time of heightened nationalism. Pagan origins were sought and discovered in a variety of celebrations and traditions and were accordingly outlawed. Anything that helped call attention to the movement was viewed in a favorable light.

Fast forward a few decades and Knorr takes over in the post-WWII era. Knorr was an administrator interested in growing the movement. He realized that there was no end to what could be outlawed based on the Pagan-origins excuse, but going further in that direction would hinder not aid in the growth of the movement. He also could not simply reverse Rutherford's positions without risking a schism. He decided to split the baby. The proscriptions put in place by Rutherford largely remained in place and became cemented as a part of the JW fabric, but he put an end to further restrictions. He wanted his movement to be more appealing to the masses. Therefore, when people began to notice the inherent contradiction between, for instance, wearing a wedding band but prohibiting Christmas, instead of maintaining a consistent approach, the society found a way to distinguish the two and leave wedding bands up to personal conscience but leave undisturbed their views on issues that had been banned during Rutherford's day.

There’s an inconsistent mess in place because to continue burrowing down the hole Rutherford dug would almost prevent witnesses from functioning in modern day society and Knorr wasn’t going to let that happen.

42

July 2013 WT Sunday ? Who is now the FDS ?

by Legacy in

continue on wt july 2013...a question to all...so, the congregation gets fed spiritual food by the fds (past & now), right?

the great tribulation and beyond.. but the article says, the fds will not come until after the un will attack christendom, jehovah will cut short the attack on false religion; god's people will be saved, then...jesus will judge people of all nations as sheep or goats, then.....jesus will appoint the faithful slave over "all his belongings ....so, have the fds been appointed as of yet & if not who has been given the congregation the spiritual food upto now...i'm confused...no i'm not..i do understand...i think a bunch of guys been feeding us.... i spoke to one of the sisters & she said, that jesus will appoint the slaves & give them additional duties...uh ?

the floor is open...will welcome all thoughts..... legacy.

neverendingjourney

it's not quite sawing off the same branch you're sitting on to the same degree

I hear what you're saying. On paper, this is a coup, an epic power play. In reality, though, the coup exists on paper only. The bulk of the "anointed" never had any real power. The privileges they enjoyed were having witnesses at the local level view them with a special reverence.

It's not as if non-GB anointed are going to form their own splinter groups and take rank-and-file witnesses with them.

65

Gay MS??

by andysmiles in

about me, i am being raised in a jw family.

all of my family expect for one aunt, who had left but not disfellowedshiped thankly, are in jw.

my father is an elder and so is my grandfather.

neverendingjourney

I will give you a region: Northeastern US

How interesting. I grew up in a Spanish congregation in the South, an environment that is more socially conservative than the Northeast, where gay marriage was born.

Rumors of homosexuality were used as a weapon in my area. Certain gossipy sisters would spread rumors about young unmarried men if they weren't sufficiently deferntial to their cliques. Just about every young man who was disfellowshipped was later rumored to be gay.

Hopefully the attitude you experience in your area will begin to catch on elsewhere.

42

July 2013 WT Sunday ? Who is now the FDS ?

by Legacy in

continue on wt july 2013...a question to all...so, the congregation gets fed spiritual food by the fds (past & now), right?

the great tribulation and beyond.. but the article says, the fds will not come until after the un will attack christendom, jehovah will cut short the attack on false religion; god's people will be saved, then...jesus will judge people of all nations as sheep or goats, then.....jesus will appoint the faithful slave over "all his belongings ....so, have the fds been appointed as of yet & if not who has been given the congregation the spiritual food upto now...i'm confused...no i'm not..i do understand...i think a bunch of guys been feeding us.... i spoke to one of the sisters & she said, that jesus will appoint the slaves & give them additional duties...uh ?

the floor is open...will welcome all thoughts..... legacy.

neverendingjourney

I still want to know how 8 members of the FDS can suddenly start teaching something new (i.e. That they alone are the FDS) without it being apostasy.

One can argue that all doctrinal changes have been apostasy since all of them have been decided exclusively by the governing body (at least since that body came into existence in more or less its current form).

42

July 2013 WT Sunday ? Who is now the FDS ?

by Legacy in

continue on wt july 2013...a question to all...so, the congregation gets fed spiritual food by the fds (past & now), right?

the great tribulation and beyond.. but the article says, the fds will not come until after the un will attack christendom, jehovah will cut short the attack on false religion; god's people will be saved, then...jesus will judge people of all nations as sheep or goats, then.....jesus will appoint the faithful slave over "all his belongings ....so, have the fds been appointed as of yet & if not who has been given the congregation the spiritual food upto now...i'm confused...no i'm not..i do understand...i think a bunch of guys been feeding us.... i spoke to one of the sisters & she said, that jesus will appoint the slaves & give them additional duties...uh ?

the floor is open...will welcome all thoughts..... legacy.

neverendingjourney

Makes me wonder whether we'll end up with 2 phases of Christ's return in the near future. One date for the beginning of his invisible reign in 1914 and some later date for the official beginning of the end times.

Russell originally taught something along these lines. If memory serves, Russell had different dates for Satan being cast from heaven, Christ's invisible return and the start of the end times, which Rutherford later consolidated into one sole date: 1914.

42

July 2013 WT Sunday ? Who is now the FDS ?

by Legacy in

continue on wt july 2013...a question to all...so, the congregation gets fed spiritual food by the fds (past & now), right?

the great tribulation and beyond.. but the article says, the fds will not come until after the un will attack christendom, jehovah will cut short the attack on false religion; god's people will be saved, then...jesus will judge people of all nations as sheep or goats, then.....jesus will appoint the faithful slave over "all his belongings ....so, have the fds been appointed as of yet & if not who has been given the congregation the spiritual food upto now...i'm confused...no i'm not..i do understand...i think a bunch of guys been feeding us.... i spoke to one of the sisters & she said, that jesus will appoint the slaves & give them additional duties...uh ?

the floor is open...will welcome all thoughts..... legacy.

neverendingjourney

2 FDS appointments

2 overlapping generations

This stuff gives me a headache.

65

Gay MS??

by andysmiles in

about me, i am being raised in a jw family.

all of my family expect for one aunt, who had left but not disfellowedshiped thankly, are in jw.

my father is an elder and so is my grandfather.

neverendingjourney

Most of the time, the congregation at large rallies around them to offer support and to keep them busy and free from temptation.

Seriously? Where, may I ask, do you live? Granted, I've been inactive going on 10 years now, but as far back as the early aughts, even rumors of homosexual tendencies were enough to ostracize named servants. At a kingdom hall build an elder prayed that we see the day when all homosexuals are destroyed and nobody batted an eyelash. Never once did I hear of any JW who'd come out as a NPG.

I suppose it's possible things have progressed quite a bit in the past 10 years, but it's difficult for me to phathom. A gay person, even an NPG, was slightly above an apostate in the view of most of the JWs I knew.

38

JW upbringing - the gift that keeps on taking

by Simon in

the things they take from you:.

first they take your childhoodthen they take your familyfinally they take your memorieswe all know that you limit your social interactions so you have few school friends who are not jws.

they openly promote this in their magazines and it's repeated at meetings throughout your formative years.

neverendingjourney

I was raised a JW but my parents were inactive. Unfortunately, I became heavily involved when i was 15. My complete disillusionment began when I was 23, but I wasn't completely out of it until I was 26.

As a result, I feel like I've been, and continue to be, 10 years behind in my emotional development. Even though I'm in my mid 30s I feel like I'm in my mid 20s emotionally. When I first left I thought female coworkers wanted to have sex with me if they invited me to lunch. I had no idea what dating was like in the real world.

I will forever be stunted in my development as a human being since I spent my youth living in a fantasy world that did nothing to prepare me for the real world. There's no fixing that. There are permanent effects to having been a part of this religion.

24

New Light related to Watchtower Society Isolation closing the shop? A scenario

by Gorbatchov in

i was thinking about the next scenario:.

the united states (and western world) are losing influence compared to china, india and other new economy's.. with this decline of influence, the watchtower society, a true american religion and it's subsidiary's corporations are losing profits and losing it's base in much country's under china / india / indonesia / brazil influence.

what i see is that the watchtower society is selling it's main assets: landmark buildings in optimal condition.

neverendingjourney

their CEO Marsha Evans made just under $652,000 .

The GB could certainly draw a salary, and a rather comfortable one at that, and not run afoul of the law. I didn’t mean to imply that they can’t reap financial reward from their position. Some non-profit CEO salaries can rival private-sector CEO salaries. Money is a fantastic motivator. Power is even a greater one. Personally, I don't think the GB is motivated by money. The kind of power they enjoy in their world is rare, almost unique.

The point I was trying to make is that the GB cannot simply liquidate the religion's assets and convert it to their own personal use. Not without becoming some of the most highly sought after criminals in the world. The religion's wealth has been accumulating tax-free for over a century. Uncle Sam is not going to be okay with them simply absconding with the corporation's assets. Also, non-profits can be wound up, but there are very complicated rules that would require that any remaining assets be put to public use. The type of "GB will run off with the money" scenarios need to factor in the incredible crime it would be for them to do so.