Posts by neverendingjourney

13

jw logo vs people who wear a cross. IDOL WORSHIP IS STILL IDOL WORSHIP

by goingthruthemotions in

last week out in service i saw an elder wearing a jw.org pin.

and thought.....hmmm isn't this idol worship?

what a double standard.....it's ok to promote the borg with a pin...but not ok to promote jesus by wearing a. cross?.

neverendingjourney

I made this point many years ago in the context of Watchtower lapel pins. It was a fad some 15 years ago in my area. One of those Witness field service supply companies was selling them.

One long-time MS took it upon himself to buy a pile and distribute them only amonng elders and COs. There was a crowd gathered at the hall patting themselves on the back about it and I bluntly asked them what he difference was between those lapel pins and a wearing a necklace with a cross. One of them got red in the face he was so angry at me, but he held it back.

46

You should meet Brother Smart Engineer

by garyneal in

jw
friends

my wife, who now thinks i am not competent enough to discuss spiritual matters with the kids, thinks that i could really benefit from discussing matters of the bible with this nasa engineer who attends meetings at her kingdom hall.

apparently, he is quite knowledgeable in the bible and has a good grasp of their doctrines.

at least according to her as i never actually spoken with the man at length but i do know that he is an elder.

neverendingjourney

What is with so many NASA engineers joined up with this cult?

Not to get too off topic here, but a NASA engineer once tried to get my brother to join Amway, which is something of a business/financial cult. The young man was convinced he'd be a millionaire "soon." My brother was eventually put off by the similarities between Amway and the JWs and decided to cut his involvement in Amway short.

It could be a coincidence, but maybe you're onto something.

36

Sadly inevitable...JWs glad that Robin Williams died on "this side" of Armageddon

by sir82 in

jw
friends

thread is here:.

http://jwtalk.net/forums/topic/16494-robin-williams-found-dead/.

a few quotes:.

neverendingjourney

What's the official stance on this, by the way? When I was in it was hard to figure out. It seemed to change with whether the Sodomites (the biblical ones) would be resurrected or not. I tried, but I don't beleive I ever found a definitive statement on whether dying before the Big A gets one an automatic resurrection. If so, suicide would seem like a great option.

46

You should meet Brother Smart Engineer

by garyneal in

jw
friends

my wife, who now thinks i am not competent enough to discuss spiritual matters with the kids, thinks that i could really benefit from discussing matters of the bible with this nasa engineer who attends meetings at her kingdom hall.

apparently, he is quite knowledgeable in the bible and has a good grasp of their doctrines.

at least according to her as i never actually spoken with the man at length but i do know that he is an elder.

neverendingjourney

Are you in the Houston area? I know a NASA engineer who's a JW. In fact, he married my ex-girlfriend.

106

If you thought Tony Moris the Third was extreme, wait till you hear this other GB member!

by Island Man in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqzc2m8_mba&list=uus0vqkpnsxult0gsz6ahpta.

neverendingjourney

I don't know how high up in the religion he was back in '71, but he may have suffered from a condition I began to notice as I was waking up. Men in positions of authority, usually the CO level or higher, were given great deference by the rank and file such that if a CO said this or that it was taken as truth with no need for independent verification.

The CO assigned to our congregation when I stopped going to meetings would occasionally quote bogus stats or incorrectly say that science had proven something or another. I was incredulous yet I would look around and all I'd see where nodding heads.

The fact that Herd says "scientists have proven" that women have smaller brains suggest he had fallen into that mold. Since the rank and file doesn’t ask questions he lazily resorted to making shit up. I hope he got wiser as the years passed but I wouldn't count on it.

10

The boiling frog

by wolfman85 in

the boiling frog story is a widespread anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive.

the premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.

the story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.

neverendingjourney

True story: There was an elder in our hall who used the boiling frog metaphor as an illustration during a public talk.

To his credit, the elder clarified that it wasn't an original illustration he had come up with. Rather, a CO had come up with it and the elder simply borrowed it from the CO's talk.

In hindsight, the ignorance of the average JW is startling.

29

WTS one step closer to "1984" - JW literature rewritten in online versions

by sir82 in

jw
friends

likely everyone here is familar with the novel "1984" - "he who controls the past, controls the future.

he who controls the present, controls the past".. take a look at wol.jw.org, insight book, topic "faithful and discreet slave".. current online wording: http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001485.

jesus trained the apostles for the role they would have after pentecost 33 c.e.

neverendingjourney

When I was a zealous new JW I remember reading that unbaptized publishers who had been removed via judicial action should be treated the same as those who were disfellowshipped. Whenever I brought this up, I got a bunch of blank stares in return.

Years later I figured it out. I had an old copy of the OM book. A subsequent version had since come out and scrubbed that part.

Sadly, there are many other examples similar to this. Faithful JWs rarely notice.

61

Pixar the production company is jealous of Caleb and Sophia video's

by life is to short in

so said the co last night.. apparently a jw was on a flight and just happend to sit next to some big wig from pixar and when the man from pixar heard that he was a jw the pixar man just gushed over what great work that the watchtower has done in producing the caleb video's.

he siad he only wished pixar could do such great work.

the co said we are able to do it because we have free labor and jehovah behind us.. my husband stayed home from the meeting but wanted to tie in by phone and that is what the co said in his talk.. the co also talked about all the changes that have happened in the last ten years and how if some of the friends did not like it they needed and to quote him "they just needed to get over it" these changes are going to happned period.

neverendingjourney

I have found many JW stories from the platform that were stolen from stories originally found in other religions. It never ceases to amaze me how I just accepted that Watchtower was just so wonderful.

There was a quite popular illustration in my area used to explain why it was difficult keeping your children "in the truth." A brother once mentioned it had originated from a CO's talk. Anyhow, the illustration was that a rock could be in a river for thousands of years, but if you cracked it open it was dry. Similarly, a child may have been raised in "the truth" but he/she may not have absorbed it.

Years after I had stopped going to meetings I watched Godfather III for the first time and lo and behold there was a scene featuring the future Pope conveying that same illustration to Michael Corleone almost word for word. Instead of "the truth" he used "christianity." Somehow an illustration from a rated-R movie made it's way onto the platforms of many a kingdom hall.

45

Testimony card returns

by sir82 in

jw
friends

old timers, or careful readers of the proclaimers book, are familiar with the "testimony card" used in the early days of rutherford-era door to door witnessing.

the jw would traipse up to a house, knock, hand the card over to the householder, and wait while he read it.. well, it seems that "everything old is new again".

here is an excerpt from a recent boe letter:.

neverendingjourney

Ah, so you've seen Lett giving a talk, then?

lol...you read my mind. I posted the following on that thread roughly an hour ago:

I don't understand how anyone could take him seriously.

What would Lett be doing if he weren't a Witness? Who would hire someone like that? He would never make it past a screening interview.

45

Testimony card returns

by sir82 in

jw
friends

old timers, or careful readers of the proclaimers book, are familiar with the "testimony card" used in the early days of rutherford-era door to door witnessing.

the jw would traipse up to a house, knock, hand the card over to the householder, and wait while he read it.. well, it seems that "everything old is new again".

here is an excerpt from a recent boe letter:.

neverendingjourney

Do they really want the average Joe-in-the-street to connect the dots between "Jehovah's Witnesses" and "the internet"?

I don't think this reflects a lack of thought on their part. Up to now they've eschewed the internet precisely for the reasons you mention. The more likely explanation is that their management-by-committee structure breeds schizophrenic decision making.

At some point a GB member or two changed their views or a particularly intractable GB member or two died and the scales were tipped in favor of this new approach. Given that leadership consists of a bunch of geriatric buffoons, it's no wonder the rollout has been less than stellar.