Posts by quietlyleaving

23

My husband and I delivered our DA letter last night. . .

by Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit in

jw
friends

that is, letter of disassociation and denunciation, i like that word.

.in person in the door of one of our ex-elders and via email to him and a few others.

there was an added level of peace in doing that, which neither of us expected.

Time to make my thoughts known......

by R.F. in

i have lurked around here for a little while and i've finally seen the need to post.

i'm 22 years old and a ministerial servant and pioneer in my congregation.

i'm not really here to knock the organization, but i must admit that there are some things(ex.

quietlyleaving

R.F

I can't believe that I went from being a full-fleged Borg supporter to not believing a thing they say in what seems like a few weeks, and it's defintely that way with you as well as others here. It's a good thing that the JW mind control isn't so strong after all.

I think you are going to be an excellent teacher when you qualify cos you'll know from experience that people can change - youngsters who are fully fledged bad asses, those who are junkies already or addicted to alcohol and come from unimaginablely negative backrounds with everything stacked against them.

The jw mind control is very strong but humans do have it in them to dig deep and withstand pressure in the right climate and conditions.

best wishes to you.

19

Qumran, meet Brooklyn

by Doug Mason in

loyal jws are required to obey the edicts of the gb because of whom it claims to be.. to interpret scripture, particularly eschatological passages, the gb does not use literal interpretation, since it promotes secondary applications, employs its own allegories, and so on.. by analyzing another apocalyptic, eschatological group that also anticipated the imminent appearance of the messiah, we gain an insight into the gbs approach.

this other group is the jews who lived at qumran during the 1st and 2nd centuries bce.. the following is a synopsis of the way those jews used scripture.

the gb does not consciously imitate the jews at qumran, since its approach is a legacy from rutherford in the 1930s.. the approach taken by the people at qumran:.

quietlyleaving

thanks Leo

66

What do I do with these breasts?

by IP_SEC in

jw
friends

yall were so helpful with my dumplings.

maybe you have ideas for this.. i got these because they were buy one get one free... but i dont know what to do with em.. .

any idears?.

quietlyleaving

lmaso at IP-SEC - bad for sure

19

Qumran, meet Brooklyn

by Doug Mason in

loyal jws are required to obey the edicts of the gb because of whom it claims to be.. to interpret scripture, particularly eschatological passages, the gb does not use literal interpretation, since it promotes secondary applications, employs its own allegories, and so on.. by analyzing another apocalyptic, eschatological group that also anticipated the imminent appearance of the messiah, we gain an insight into the gbs approach.

this other group is the jews who lived at qumran during the 1st and 2nd centuries bce.. the following is a synopsis of the way those jews used scripture.

the gb does not consciously imitate the jews at qumran, since its approach is a legacy from rutherford in the 1930s.. the approach taken by the people at qumran:.

quietlyleaving

The article I mentioned above is quite long. Here is an interesting section

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/why/appeal.html

So why do they succeed? Why do people become Christians? I think there are some important historical observations to make here. One is that we have to realize that the Roman Empire itself was going through some massive demographic changes at this time. Now let's think about it this way... cities are growing but the population itself, at least within cities, was probably not growing easily. There's more people dying than are being born in most major cities. In other words, the old pagan aristocracy is shrinking, not growing. Where are they coming from, these new people in the cities? Probably they're immigrating from the countryside or moving from other countries, but then again that's exactly what we hear about the Christians. They're on the move. They travel to the cities. They're the new population along with a lot of other people, so I think from a kind of social perspective we have to see the growth of Christianity as a product of the changing face of the city life in the Roman world....
On top of all that there are plagues and famine, and it's been suggested by demographers now that if you've got a survival rate of only one tenth more among one part of the population than another segment of population when you have a massive die off... the result will be that at the end of this process [there will be] far more members of that one group relative to the total population. In other words, in a very short period of time you can have a group that was at one point a very small minority seemingly become miraculously now the majority, and I think in part that's what happens to the Christians. That through this period of very turbulent times in the second and third century, the Christians now become a significant proportion of the leading citizens of some of the major cities of the Roman world.
Now what are they offering? It's very simple. With new immigrant groups, all of them trying to find their way into Roman society -- to make it in the Roman world, to be a part of the mainstream, to march up the ladder of success -- belonging is one of the key issues, and what I think the Christians offer probably as well or better than anybody else in the Roman world is a sense of belonging. To be part of the Christian community... to be part of the church, is to belong to a society of closely knit friends, brothers and sisters and Christ, and it may be something as simple as that that spells the [basis] of the success of Christianity in the Roman world....
Christianity was beginning to grow in substantial ways by the late second and early third century precisely because it was responding to some basic, deeply felt human needs. It really was probably beginning to answer the questions that people were asking, and we can see that growth in a variety of ways. For one thing, there really is no empire wide persecution of Christianity throughout the entire second century and into the first half of the third century. It was always sporadic; it was always local concerns. The first time the empire as a whole says "We have to eradicate Christianity," is not until the year 249, 50, the persecution of Decius, ... but by that time, the Christians are so numerous that they can't possibly be eradicated; they've already grown that much.
So, in the sense, the persecution really doesn't catch up until it's already too late. We have some indication of the basic growth of Christianity at this time, especially in the cities, in terms of the records of the city of Rome. In the year 251, right at the time of the persecution of Decius, we have a register of the church at Rome, which says that they had 46 presbyters and 56 exorcists and doorkeepers and a number of other people that they catalogued; seven of this and seven of that; quite a lot of people are in this catalog. And at the end, it says over 1,500 widows [and needy persons] on the roster of the church at Rome; that is, people, women who are being taken care of by the church. The church becomes, in a lot of ways, a new kind of social welfare agency in the Roman Empire. The leaders of the church are the patrons of society. By the end of the third century, Christian bishops in many places will have taken over the role of the old civic patrons that had led the processions at Ephesus and Corinth and Rome. They've made it into society.

19

Qumran, meet Brooklyn

by Doug Mason in

loyal jws are required to obey the edicts of the gb because of whom it claims to be.. to interpret scripture, particularly eschatological passages, the gb does not use literal interpretation, since it promotes secondary applications, employs its own allegories, and so on.. by analyzing another apocalyptic, eschatological group that also anticipated the imminent appearance of the messiah, we gain an insight into the gbs approach.

this other group is the jews who lived at qumran during the 1st and 2nd centuries bce.. the following is a synopsis of the way those jews used scripture.

the gb does not consciously imitate the jews at qumran, since its approach is a legacy from rutherford in the 1930s.. the approach taken by the people at qumran:.

quietlyleaving

Doug here is something I found interesting - however it doesn't have anything to do with peshers (excuse me for digressing from your topic) but it does throw light on the relationship between the growth of christianity, the Romans and society's needs.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/why/appeal.html

Narkissos thanks for the enlightening link - you saved me some time and money there.

30

Aren't we really the pioneers?

by purplesofa in

we are blazing through the time we live in, seeking freedom from the oppression around is, in us, through us.

we are opening our minds to new ways of thinking, feeling, living, sharing.. it's not easy, we pay a price, for some of its much higher than others.

we suffer alone, endure hardships, bear the truth and it's consequences.. there is no new land to conquer, no nations to be born, no places to run to any longer.

quietlyleaving

Amen purps

19

Qumran, meet Brooklyn

by Doug Mason in

loyal jws are required to obey the edicts of the gb because of whom it claims to be.. to interpret scripture, particularly eschatological passages, the gb does not use literal interpretation, since it promotes secondary applications, employs its own allegories, and so on.. by analyzing another apocalyptic, eschatological group that also anticipated the imminent appearance of the messiah, we gain an insight into the gbs approach.

this other group is the jews who lived at qumran during the 1st and 2nd centuries bce.. the following is a synopsis of the way those jews used scripture.

the gb does not consciously imitate the jews at qumran, since its approach is a legacy from rutherford in the 1930s.. the approach taken by the people at qumran:.

quietlyleaving

Hey Doug - your links were interesting but I got a bit carried away and ended up with Barbara Thierling and her take on the Qumran Peshurs. I understand that she is Australian and is very respected in her field.

Her books sound intriguing but before I buy any I'd like to hear what you and Leolaia have to say about her writings.

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