Posts by fodeja

I was already wondering that not one mention is made of _any_ feeling remotely comparable to sadness about the mass-extinction of billions of humans (obviously including even small children). Any sort of emotion like empathy.

But, silly me!, the story does tell us that a few survivors were "somewhat disappointed that some of their loved ones hadn't made it".

Brother, where are your wife and children? - Oh, I guess they didn't make it. I'm somewhat disappointed. Such a nice day, isn't it?

f.

28

Farkel Hits the Bread Line

by Farkel in

jw
friends

i had a very positive experience today which maybe not-so-coincidentally coincided with my recent comments on matthew 25.. it was only my second personal experience with babylon the grape in my entire life.

my first was when one of my daughters got married in a catholic church over three years ago.

i actually sat inside the catholic chapel and watched her priest perform the ceremony.

fodeja

Farkel,

you're obviously going through rough times at the moment. I'm not very good at saying the right words at the right time, and since we're just on the Net here, you'll have to _imagine_ getting just a straight look in your eyes, a nod, a slap on the back, and one of my famous omelettes.

As regards your experience with the Catholic church, I agree completely. I'm living in a mostly Catholic country and have to read and listen to the idiotic, arrogant, stupid utterances of Catholic bishops quite frequently on the media. The Catholic Church has a lot of genuine, excuse my language, assholes in their leadership.

But then, I know of not one organization that spends so much effort on "loving their neighbour" as the church. Especially their charity branch, the Caritas. Many, many people are investing an admirable lot of time, money, effort on genuine help for people who need it. Unconditionally. Even with the quite fine social system we have here, without the church, there'd be not just a few homeless and starving people on the streets. I know one JW woman personally who left her violent husband with a child in tow, fearful, with just a handbag and her clothes on, not knowing where to go.

Guess where she found shelter? She got a room in a womens' house run by the Caritas, with warm food, medical assistance and people looking after her kid. Psychological assistance from a free psychosocial service offered by the city. Free legal assistance from a state-sponsored program.
Nothing, not one single thing makes me more upset about the hypocritical WTS-style "Christianity" than their refusal to help unconditionally. Just for the sake of helping people because they're fellow human beings, sharing the same damn planet.

f.

Georgia and persecution of minority religions

by fodeja in

jw
friends

there's a reference to a news story on the main page [1] concerning attacks against various religious groups in georgia.

an excerpt, emphasis mine:.

more than 40 attacks have taken place this year; more than 80 violent incidents have been reported since 1999. the memorandum, based on first hand interviews with victims, documents ten of the attacks that have taken place in 2001. the assailants, civilian militants who are sometimes led by orthodox priests, have meted out beatings, ransacked homes, and destroyed religious literature.

fodeja

There's a reference to a news story on the main page [1] concerning attacks against various religious groups in Georgia. An excerpt, emphasis mine:

More than 40 attacks have taken place this year; more than 80 violent incidents have been reported since 1999. The memorandum, based on first hand interviews with victims, documents ten of the attacks that have taken place in 2001. The assailants, civilian militants who are sometimes led by Orthodox priests, have meted out beatings, ransacked homes, and destroyed religious literature. The mobs target Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentacostalists, Baptists, and followers of other Christian faiths non-native to Georgia, attempting to intimidate them into abandoning their faith. Encouraged by government and police inaction, the frequency of attacks is on the rise.

As you probably know, the Watchtower has been trying to gain more publicity of this problem for quite a while. They also set up a special Web site dedicated to the JWs' situation in Georgia [2]. Now, what's interesting about this article is that it's the first time I see _other_ groups than the JWs being mentioned. In all press releases and articles published by the Watchtower that I've seen so far, those attacks are said to be directed _against Jehovah's Witnesses_. Period. "Pentecostalists, Baptists, and followers of other Christian faiths" are never directly mentioned - only rare, obscure references to a "persecution of minority religious", usually in quotes from non-Witnesses, which were generally put in a way to suggest that the Witnesses are actually the only, or at least by far the most affected group.

To the casual observer and the faithful Witnesses, it may seem as if the JWs really are the only group that's being persecuted over there. And we all know that Jehovah's true followers will be hated by everyone.....

Now, if the Watchtower would really care about human rights and religious freedom in general, why should they be silent about those other religious? Wouldn't it give much more weight to their message to show the full extent of violence?

Is the Watchtower really trying to bring relief to these people, or are all those press releases just a matter of "preaching to the choir", fostering the notion of world-wide persecution against "the truth"? Are they afraid to say straight out that even "false" religions are facing violent opposition?

Questions over questions. But it seems to me that this is yet another example of one of the Watchtower's favourite tricks of rhetoric: if there's something you don't want to exist, or don't want your followers to know, just don't mention it. Don't _deny_ it (hey, true Christians don't lie!). Just be completely silent about it, even when people ask you directly.

f., who can't shake off the thought that those self-righteous, hypocritical bastards don't give a damn about anyone except themselves

[1] Georgia: Mobs Terrorize Non-Orthodox Christians
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/08/georgia-0829.htm

[2] http://www.jw-georgia.org

12

Toronto Branch Sizing Down!

by Kent in

jw
friends

the toronto branch is downsizing by 80 people, some of them paralegals.

this is, according to my source, definite fact.

they are being sent home.. i have heard that this is an across the board downsizing to take place at all branches around the world, and i've heard of branches other places which is sizing down as well.. maybe others have heard of a downsizing their own land?

fodeja

My sister met some members of the Costa Rican branch a few months ago. She came bragging to our "worldly" family how much the Costa Rican congregations are growing. In fact, she said they encouraged her to apply for branch service there since she is a college graduate, etc. and teaches ESL, they felt she could be useful in interpreting. She also said they were building 100 new kingdumb hells.

I've learned not to believe such claims of "growth" anymore. First of all, building new KHs is not a sign of growth at all. They're building Halls in countries with steadily dropping publisher and baptism counts as well.

Second, some JWs seem to have a completely distorted view of their membership numbers: just 2-3 years ago I was told by JWs in Denmark about the tremendous growth they have, and of course all the "very promising new bible studies" and the Halls which couldn't accomodate all the people at the memorial, and so on.
It all sounded very, very convincing. They seemed very, very confident of their organization's recruiting success. Of course, they were very, very wrong, as Denmark has seen a significant drop in baptism and publishers over the past years. Actually, Denmark has been one of the worst-performing countries in terms of JW statistics for the past 5-10 years.

f.

38

Irate email

by D wiltshire in

jw
friends

below is a email i received today.

the person doen't know me except from i think randy watter web site where i post my appeal letter to the body of elders on which i left my email address.

i never told her i wasn't df but she gets facts confussed alot.. anyway i sent the post on barbra anderson from our site to her you might find it interesting so i'm posting it below.. .

fodeja

I HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THINGS ARE DONE TOO.
HOWEVER, I SIT AND WAIT FOR JEHOVAH TO GIVE A FURTHER
CLARIFICATION ON MATTERS

Like, Jehovah is going to tell you how to fix your Caps Lock key?

PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MY TIME BY WRITING
TO ME WITH YOUR NONSENSE. GOOD CONDUCT SPEAKS FOR
ITSELF!!!!!

True JW thinking: "I do all the talking, you do all the listening". This person sounds not just very angry, but also terribly insecure. Sad.

I know it's black-and-white thinking, but it just seems to me that many rank-and-file JWs are toggling between two states of mind: arrogance (when they have at least one "mature brother" or "zealous sister" nearby) and fear (when there's no "brother" or "sister" around).

f.

3

WTBS - USA and EUROPE

by MacHislopp in

jw
friends

following the link given, again by kent (thanks a lot).

http://www.house.gov/international_relations/full/relminor/brumley.htm.

i have taken some quite interesting comments, from the:.

fodeja

?. We are pleased to report that on March 13, 2000, the government registered Jehovah?s Witnesses as a religious community.
However, Sweden?s labor and tax laws evidently make no exceptions for members of religious orders or other religious workers.?

Yes, yes, YES. Some people obviously understand that "being religious" alone is absolutely no reason to be exempt from taxes.

?Unhappily, this situation is not limited to Sweden, but is becoming more frequent throughout Western Europe.?

Fortunately! If the WTS would do any kind of real charitable work, they wouldn't have much trouble getting tax reductions. Since they staunchly refuse to do so ("Jesus didn't command it", "we don't have the resources for it" and similar BS), let them pay taxes just like everyone else. I'm absolutely not willing to indirectly sponsor every freaky religion out there with _my_ taxes. What do those Watchtower lunatics expect? Should the evil, satanic, soon-to-be-destroyed worldly governments give them all benefits for free just because they claim to be the follower of some deity?

Whatever happened to "render unto Caesar what is Caear's"? And "he who does not work shall not eat" (or something in that vein)?

f.

28

Favourite Bands...............

by JW72 in

jw
friends

hi everyone, i'm a musician so this poll is quite interesting to me(not that the others aren't.....).. 1. wishbone ash.

2. genesis.

3. extreme.

fodeja

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (most of their studio albums suck, but if you can get your hands on a bootleg of some early 1970s live performances, you'll understand that this band used to be just incredibly fantastic, especially with Crosby's and Young's songs)

Pearl Jam

Radiohead (yes, I do like most of their "obscure" stuff)

f.

42

Dear Fellow Witnesses

by Carlo in

jw
friends

dear fellow witnesses of the true god jehovah,.

with all the anti-watchtower information that has been spreading all over the world via the internet, it becomes all the.

more important to stay close to jehovah and his organization.

fodeja

Hi Carlo,

love your site - especially the "secret" correspondence section :-) No wonder JW statistics in Carlsberg country look like NASDAQ charts these days:

f.

21

Microsoft Donation and WTS

by MacHislopp in

jw
friends

maybe it will interest some.... "microsoft corporation supports its employees philanthropy by matching employee donations up to $12,000 per employee per year to eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.

through its matching gifts program, microsoft donated at least $5,000 in cash and/or $25,000 in software (retail value) to the following organizations.

(donations to religious organizations are restricted to secular community service programs.

fodeja

a corporation as large as microsoft probbaly dosent have time to make sure all these charities are actually charity. SO likley one of the employees who is a drone gave his $100 to the only charity the borg allow him to give to.

Yes, that is the point of this entire thread. If you read the quoted text, Microsoft has a program to match employee's donations to charities (up to a maximum amount per year). This is what the list posted by Mac is about. Obviously some JWs are employed by Microsoft and sure enough they'd like to support the worlwide cult recruiting and propaganda offensi...I mean, the world-wide bible teaching work.

This list of "charities" isn't that long, and since MS is apparently running a department just for this stuff, I don't really buy the explanation that they don't have time to check. Even more so when they _specifically_ exclude donations to religious organisations unless certain criteria are met. Employees have to explicitly apply for it, they don't simply get a fixed amount to spend. It's all explained on the Web pages.

So, those of you who always wanted to get into investigative journalism, call up M$ and the WT$ and ask them how it is possible to send them dollars for doing something else than the _only_ thing they do: printing religious propaganda.

f.