as some of you may know london bethel is very close .
to buying new land to house a new complex (45 acre site).
it is not often that ibsa has kept a secret this long before.. any info appreciated.
IBSA has increased it's "employees" from 380 to 479 in about 14 months. And it is crying out for more
I was under the impression that this is a result of the WTBTS' tax troubles in France. If I understand this correctly, the French printing operations have been moved to Britain.
Makes you think about the German issue!!
Please elaborate.
f.
it's a nasty circle, if you beleive in god, how can you say evolution is impossible since the argument goes "humans and life and the universe are so complicated they could not possibly arrise by mere chance" yet god is by definition infinitly more complicated than mere carbon-based life forms.
and where did god come from?
he was always there, or has no beginning or end, mystical answers like that.
If humans, a sentient self-aware species could arise by chance, why not God?
...why not a giant pink flying unicorn, singing Frank Sinatra's greatest hits in reverse?
The not-so-small difference is that humans obviously _do_ exist (at least I'm fairly certain that _I_ exist). God may exist or not. He's there with all the other things that may exist or not, and if I had to choose one of those things to firmly believe in, I'd rather pick something else. As a matter of fact, the evidence for the Loch Ness monster's existence seems to be more compelling than the evidence for God's existence. Strangely, people who believe in God are called "faithful", while people who believe in Nessie are called "looneys".
f.
please read and pass on to a loved one.
please take the time to read:.
this is very disturbing, please forward to warn others... everyone is.
Man, I wonder if that would have helped me place more mags - if I showed my boobs? Talk about some pretty fruitful return calls! Haha!
Well...around here, mostly elderly people are doing door-to-door nowadays. All I can say is that the very thought of seeing their boobs scares the heck out of me.
Mature sisters, therefore, may want to ask elders for approval before trying out this witnessing technique. Young sisters are advised to seek the loving counsel of Brother fodeja. Anytime.
f.
it appears msn has completely taken over hotmail accounts.
in the past hotmail was said to provide the most thorough anonymity while msn email left more readily detectable tracks to originator.
so is the anonymity of the msn-hotmail accounts now greatly, or partly or even fully cut out?
book_friend,
Slayer is right, Hotmail has been part of the MS(N) empire for something like two years now. AFAIK, they have always added the sender's IP address to every message header. IP addresses aren't like SSNs, but they can at least give hints about the general area where you are living. In some cases, an IP addresse (or more precisely, the associated hostname) is enough to track down your workplace, company, department and so on.
If you want maximum anonymity, I would recommend Hushmail ( http://www.hushmail.com).
f.
oh, this is gonna be fun!.
the august 22, 1967 awake has an article entitled.
"i do not permit a woman to exercise authority.
The August 22, 1967 Awake has an article entitled "I Do Not Permit a Woman to Exercise Authority over a Man -- Why?" (pg. 27).
Pleeaase! I need a scanned image of that one!!
Great stuff, meta. Reminds me of that "young persons ask" article on bovine mating habits.
f.
i flat out asked the jw i'm studying with what she would do if someone was disfellowshipped and she was honest and said she wouldn't talk to them since they wouldn't be good examples of jehovah witness.
then we started talking about appearances and tattoos, and about my pink hair :) and she said it didn't matter.
i am enjoying reading and visiting this web site but i am just not seeing the same things you guys have.
Lisa,
My favorite page is called "Become a JW and you can't.." I've pasted it here for you
I'd like to add for tattoogirl that some of those rules are not enforced strictly in every cong (for instance, celebrating New Year seems to be a completely normal thing in one cong I know, discussing politics is also OK, dating without supervision is accepted to some extent for those in very good standing). However, things like shunning and reporting wrongdoing to elders seem to be fundamental laws.
f.
i flat out asked the jw i'm studying with what she would do if someone was disfellowshipped and she was honest and said she wouldn't talk to them since they wouldn't be good examples of jehovah witness.
then we started talking about appearances and tattoos, and about my pink hair :) and she said it didn't matter.
i am enjoying reading and visiting this web site but i am just not seeing the same things you guys have.
If you were a part of a vegetarian club and you decided to eat meat, would you expect others to talk to you.
Would you shun your lifelong best friend for choosing an alternative way of nutrition?
Would you refuse to speak to your mother/father/best friend because one of them has chosen to change their religion?
Would you simply accept it if your best friend, or your relatives, shun from the very moment you become a JW? Simply for that reason alone?
Think about it. From your postings so far it seems to me you are attracted to the JWs mostly for social reasons: nice people, close community and that.
Judging from my personal experience, that's the reason why most people join. Doctrine is less important - but remember that you _must_ accept that doctrine from A to Z (and if you don't, you should at least be silent about such issues).
And still, many people leave and feel good about it. They come from the most diverse backgrounds, they live in different parts of the world, they have a very wide range of personalities and living habits. Some of them have been in more tolerant congregations, others in more orthodox ones. They leave for different reasons, but their stories _still_ have a lot in common.
Ask yourself, why? Please take your time - you may also want to take a break from JWs and ex-JWs alike, for a while. Just let the case rest for a while. There is no need to hurry, or is there?
f.
edited for clarity
i went to my first jw meeting, there were actually two but i only stayed for the first one.
it was actually kind of fun.
there was role play and that was funny, everyone was laughing and people were soooooo nice in fact most new who i was already.
Hi tattoogirl,
One thing is hard, the lady I study with is really nice and I would feel bad if I decided to just stop studying. Has anyone else experienced this? How do you handle it, I work with her and have met her family and they have all been so great.
Been there, done that.
First of all, I believe that the lady is a genuinely nice person. But, as others here have pointed out: you aren't just meeting new friends. You are in the process of being converted. As you should know by now, recruiting new members is pivotal for the faith of the JWs. It's what keeps them going, it's why they spend hours and hours of trotting along the streets and knocking doors. Success is very rare, and even if bible studies are started, many do not result in baptism. These people _want_ you to join their religion, very much so. They are supposed to "save you", but on the other hand they are also trying to save themselves, because every single converted person reaffirms their way of life. They need you - not as a person, but as a Witness.
In a sense, they're trying to "score", just like a guy who's trying to impress a girl, showing all his best sides, dressing nicely, wining and dining her...if you excuse the analogy, but it's basically the same thing. It may be flattering and very exciting at first. It may look like you've found Mr. Right.
However, if you read the experiences of many people here, you'll notice a certain pattern: when courtship, wedding night and honeymoon are over, Prince Watchtower Charming tends to turn into a fat, unshaved couch potato who's spending most of his days in dirty underwear, slouching in front the TV, yelling at you to drive to the supermarket for another crate of beer and a couple of family-size bags of those cheese-flavoured taco chips and, goddammit, while you're at it, make the darn kids shut up, and take out the trash - now! And don't you ever think of talking back, or even leaving!
If that doesn't sound like the kind of life you've been dreaming of: take it slow. Watch your step. Not all that glitters is gold. Don't let these people make you feel guilty, ever - because that is the god-given, exclusive privilege of your parents
f.
after all the deserved congratulations, lately heaped upon america and americans in tr's thread, i've been wondering about a few things, which i couldn't figure from the discussion.. 1.why do some feel the need to talk up the greatness of the us, when this fact seems so self-evident?
is it just the jingoism which comes along with a world empire?.
2. do any american's here feel embarrassed about their government's foreign policies regarding: the new international criminal court (presently trying miloshovic), the reneging on the kyoto carbon-reduction treaty, or the high hand taken on sdi?.
Nationalism is merely the adult version of kindergarten kids fighting over the sandbox.
Absolutely.
Englishman: Marmite is probably the most evil thing known in our corner of the universe. If it wasn't for your excellent beer, Marmite would be reason enough to ban all Englishmen to a secluded island with mostly horrible weather, lots of counter-clockwise roundabouts and sewage pipes running on the outside of houses, so that your neighbours know exactly when you're getting pregnant or developing prostrate trouble, respectively.
f. :-)
p.s.: Those of you who don't know Marmite, just be happy. All others will understand why death penalty isn't needed in Britain:
Talk about cognitive dissonance, huh?
at the dc this weekend, they released memorial attendance figures for the us.
funny thing.
2001 2, 163, 602 (announced at dc, if i wrote tham down correctly).
Does anyone see a problem with these figures except me.
Not particularly. I've noticed that memorial attendance and publishers/baptisms are mostly uncorrelated, at least in Europe in the last 10-15 years. Memorial attendance went down a little and up a little, while publishers and baptims decreased steadily at the same time.
Some people have suggested that memorial attendance is defined as "the number of primates, dogs and larger cats within a radius of 100 meters around the KH that might possibly attend the memorial". If the KH is next to a graveyard, skeletons are counted, too. If it's adjacent to the shopping mall's parking lot, each car is counted as five persons.
f.
edited for grammar
