i think we should not make statements about what the watchtower society is secretly doing if we can not substantiate the statements.. we do not know if a "bethelite" is doing whatever he claims to be doing clandestinely.
when we make threads or statements about things we have absolutely no proof of, we are making ourselves look bad.. when impressionable people read these things, it sets our efforts back immensely.. please think about what you're doing.
it's counter-productive!.
I don't recall many (any, actually) topics started here that made outright claims that were later proven to be untrue.
Oh, boy! Do you really want to open that can of worms?
Do you remember when the pioneer-hours reduction was being taken at face value on this forum? Or what about the end-of-circuit-overseer rumor?
Both were taken at face value by many and came from a supposedly reliable source.
There are many more examples, but these two immediately come to mind.
my younger brother was at bethel in london when the 911 took place in america.
he said this is it and the great tribulation had started!!
i was at work in liverpool in the uk on that day and i was shitin it when he rang my mobile.. i then had a call from other my brother who was df 3 years before but some how he was shitin his pants also.
I was publicly reproved at the time, so 9/11 scared me quite a bit. For a few hours I thought it could be the beginning of the great tribulation, but as events unfolded, it became clear that what occurred didn't square up with the scenario the Watchtower had painted.
9/11 did lay bare how many "ex-JWs" still linger under JW mind control. I left the WT 5 years ago, but I have one good friend who still is "in". He rarely goes to meetings, but he still can't get over the mind control. Unless something changes, he will be one of the ones running back to the Kingdom Hall after the next 9/11 event. It's sad because he carries around JW guilt in the meantime.
why can you stand for the pledge of allegiance?.
why is "whole" blood bad but "blood fractions" permissable?.
why is eating a bird on thanksgiving day a sin?.
Why can you stand for the pledge of allegiance?
Has something changed? I was always told we could stand for the pledge; we could not, however, place our hand over our heart. Every JW I knew, including me, stood for the pledge.
the reported death of governing body member bro.
barr marks the end of an era.
many of the original members of the governing body were around during the days of president rutherford.
The original members of the Governing Body have all died
Not to quibble with details, but I don't think this it technically true. Barr, I believe was appointed to the GB in 1977. The GB was established in 1971, despite what faithful JWs believe. Therefore, the last of the "original" members to die was Ray Franz, who passed away a few months ago.
Nevertheless, I get your point. The longest-serving member on the GB was appointed in 1994. The link to the old Rutherford days is gone.
is there any wt publications that endorse pyramidology after 1919 when christ chose the wtb&ts as his congregation?.
Yes. William Van Amburgh wrote a lengthy thesis on this in the Golden Age a few years before Rutherford dropped the teaching.
http://www.lulu.com/product/item/a-bible-for-the-scientist/6256473
FYI: I purchased the e-book, but you can't print it.
i am sure that this question as been asked before.
when i think of my life now,a lovely kind beautiful wife, two happy healthy kids, good job, nice home, real friends.
yes since i left the jws almost twenty years ago i can honestly say i have lived my life.. when i eventually left the death by bordem cult ... i had nothing, a loveless marraige i only stayed in because of the jws, no friends, no home to call my own, in debt, i had a wife who was so depressed she shooped to make herself happy.
In many ways I wish I could have remained in the blissfull ignorance of my early JW days, just prior to my baptism. It was probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. The "truth" was as real as the ground I was walking on. I hadn't been in it long enough to realize how the propaganda didn't match up with what really went on in the Kingdom Hall. Everyone saw me as a potential recruit and put on their best face when I was around. I'd also not been around long enough to learn of various wacky beliefs they generally try to keep under the rug. Most importantly, a flood of mental doubts had not developed in my mind that required extreme discipline to hold back. Sure it was happiness based on a mirage, but haven't we all had dreams we wish we would have never woken up from?
But freezing time is impossible. I eventually got baptized and realized my elder-mentor was a two-faced hyprocrite. I realized the "happy" pioneers were heavily medicated and viewed field service as a social process, an opportunity to get together and gossip about the "friends." Most of them were putting in "phantom hours." I had run-ins with householders who showed me that the name "Jehovah" did not appear in the original manuscripts in the New Testament. I grew tired of being unable to prove my beliefs to householders who actually knew a thing or two about the Bible.
Like OTWO, I would have been miserable. You can't unlearn what you already know. You can't unsee what you've witnessed with your own eyes. You can't reverse the course of logical thinking that led you to understand that there were gaping holes in the WT theology. All of the recent, aimless "adjustments" to doctrine would have made it even harder. A tide was building and it was only a matter of time before the dam burst.
i just got a call from jamie this afternoon, saying she found her husband in the bathroom, not breathing.
i've not had the chance to speak to her, she left me a voice mail.
but i'm very worried.
Jamie, I hope your husband is doing better. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.
the weekly tms bible reading assignment is not read, or not carefully read, by most of the sheeples.
it doesn't really matter, because the consideration of the bible reading material is one of the shortest parts on the meeting with a limited number of comments, and those comments are restricted to less than 30 seconds or you will get counselled.
over and over, the dubs are told to read the bible, yet the organization gives no real encouragement to read the bible by keeping everyone busy in the recruiting work and using relatively few scriptures in their "talks".. why?
This conservative number would be ample to fit the circumstances relating to the tower construction and the dispersal of the peoples
How is assuming that "each post-flood male parent ath the age of 30 were to begin fathering children at the rate of one child every three years, iwth an average of one male child every six years, and continued up until the age of 90" being conservative?
By the way, I've seen Christians defend the 600,000 Jewish men at the time of the Exodus (probably around 2,000,000 total) story with similar arguments. I haven't really given it a whole lot of though, but there's gotta be something they're leaving out.
in the new elder's manuel they said that if you molested someone or been molested than you can't be an elder or a ministerial sevant even if it was before bastism .
i find that to be wrong because i thought when you got basptised than all your sins are forgivin, but thats the case here i guess..
Hi, Jamie. "Unbecoming" is a polite way of putting it...haha.
in the new elder's manuel they said that if you molested someone or been molested than you can't be an elder or a ministerial sevant even if it was before bastism .
i find that to be wrong because i thought when you got basptised than all your sins are forgivin, but thats the case here i guess..
As to your original question, my understanding is that whether or not a man may serve as an MS or elder turns on whether he's a "known" child molester.
Basically, if it happened a long time ago and it's not widely known in the community, and MS or elder can continue serving. However, if it becomes known, then he must be removed. There were secret letters outlining instructions along these lines that are on the board somewhere. The impression you get from reading WT literature is that no molester may serve, but the use of the word "known" opens up a big loop hole, the details of which escape me right now. I'm sure you can find all the info you want by doing a search. Only "known" molesters are banned. Who exactly is an "unknown" molester? That's the key question that's handled at the highest levels of the WT bureaucracy.
