Gopher

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Posts by Gopher

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  30

  Awake and Watchtower - Top 10 Most Popular Magazines of 2013

  by jw07 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the washtowel and asleep magazines made the list.

  an over-zealous dub just posted this link to my facebook wall.

  http://www.clicktop10.com/2013/07/top-10-most-popular-magazines-of-2013/.

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  Gopher

  Great comment - Satinka!
  
  When possible, cults like to inflate their publishing numbers to generate positive publicity. For years, the Scientologists inflated their numbers of founder L. Ron Hubbard's books like Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth. His followers purchased large numbers of these books to manipulate the best-seller charts.
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  23

  Jehovah's Witness whose wife died after refusing blood transfusion is jailed for 13 years over child sex abuse covered up by religion's elders

  by ThomasCovenant in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2400938/jehovahs-witness-wife-died-refusing-blood-transfusion-jailed-13-years-child-sex-abuse-covered-religions-elders.html .

  a jehovah's witness who sexually abused a child and then had his wrongdoing covered up by the church has been jailed for 13 years.. gordon leighton, 53, admitted sexually abusing a child when he was confronted with the allegations by church elders at washington, tyne and wear.. the elders knew about the 53-year-old's admissions for three years but refused to co-operate with the criminal investigation, and said what they had heard was confidential.. leighton hit the headlines in the 1990s when his wife yvonne, 28, died after refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth on religious grounds.judge penny moreland said that he had subjected his victim to 'untold damage' as she sentenced him at newcastle crown court today.. the judge said: 'you manipulated her with a combination of affection and attention and violence and threats.

  'the defendant was found guilty of two charges of indecency with a child and six of indecent assault after a trial.

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  Gopher

  Gordon Leighton is a poster child [yes an immature insecure adult] of the symptoms of everything wrong with the Watchtower. I'm assuming his complicitness in the earlier death of his 28-year-old JW wife who died for refusing a blood transfusion. Additionally, the complicitness of the congregation elders in covering up his sexual criminality reveals a deep moral sickness at the heart of the Watchtower organization, which is still idolized as clean and holy by many or most of its followers.
  
  In my estimation, Leighton was disfellowshipped only because his molestation got out in the open. The organization would have continued to shelter him had his actions somehow remained hidden from the public view.
  
  Some Witnesses will say "no true JW behaves like he does, that is why he was disfellowshipped". However I say too many true JW's behave exactly like he does and are sheltered by their elders, and only if the shame is too great do they cut loose the criminal offender.
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  9

  The Governing Body at Supper Time

  by JWOP in

  1. social
  2. humour

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  Gopher

  I think this site contains the wanted picture:

  http://watchtowerleaks.com/post/58619348611/last-supper-photo-with-governing-body-members
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  10

  What would it take....

  by Separation of Powers in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was speaking to my sister the other day.

  she has faded much quicker than i. she moved on with her life along with her husband and family.

  we still talk every day and share our little ditties about life.

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  Gopher

  Maybe - to get a semblance of normalcy, you have to steer clear of people related to you but really are fonts of abnormality. I don't know if there is a way to "keep peace" with the family and simultaneously keep peace with your own inner self, whom you know doesn't belong in the cultlike religion.
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  24

  Chemical warfare in Syria-can man be saved?

  by Monsieur in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the images on the news after the town in damascus was attached with a chemical weapon was incredibly disturbing.

  babies dying, people suffocating, it was man at his worst.. can man be saved?

  it seems the entire world is implicated in this conflict.

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  Gopher

  Oh I'm no Obama yes-man. I just realize that he doesn't have to jump every time the warhawks yell "jump".
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  32

  Need Advice On Shunning My Dying Dad, Please Advise!

  by AuntConnie in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  dear jwn,.

  when i was out in field service yesterday i was approached by some sisters asking me how my dying dad was doing.

  i said "i try not to visit him, you will have to ask him yourself.

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  Gopher

  Maybe.... Aunt Connie is to the Jehovah's Witnesses as Stephen Colbert is to conservative Republicans!
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  24

  Chemical warfare in Syria-can man be saved?

  by Monsieur in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the images on the news after the town in damascus was attached with a chemical weapon was incredibly disturbing.

  babies dying, people suffocating, it was man at his worst.. can man be saved?

  it seems the entire world is implicated in this conflict.

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  Gopher

  Obama made America weak? Ask Osama Bin-Laden. Oh never mind, you can't.
  
  Is everything that happens in the mideast the result of Obama messing up? The mideast has been roiling with religious and political conflict for ages. Why must America always expend its resources (people and/or armaments, and always tax dollars) on every uprising that hits the news?
  
  This isn't to say Syria is unimportant. It's just that there are very few if any good options for America in this instance (and this has nothing to do with the political stripe of the current man in the White House). Time has shown we cannot bomb or drone entire nations into reasonableness.
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  23

  has shunning been downplayed?

  by chickpea in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  several times over the course of a year or so, jws from the kh i attended have been downright chatty during happenstance crossing of paths... .

  wth is up with that?

  i have no grudges against any of them, but it is confusing as all get out to have left the cult as an ardent supporter of my out, open, front page headlining transgender son, becoming vocally and decidely apostate knowing i was dead to them... now after at least a half decade out, to have them chummy-ing up to me in a check-out line.... frankly, i would rather they look the other way, you know, if none of them would ever genuinely want to know how my son is doing.

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  Gopher

  @HowtheBiblewasinvented:

  I just now read your introductory post - and welcome here. I can't imagine what it's like being married to a loyal JW while knowing that it's all a scam.
  
  It seems like you probably had to go to the convention. I haven't been to any since 2000, so I don't know with certainty the tone of what was expressed on Saturday morning. I can only judge by the title of the talk and some of the things that were said (as this talk is available to hear on YouTube).
  
  I do know that former members and especially so-called "apostates" have become the #1 enemy of Watchtowerism, even more hated than Satan himself. That's because the WT Society realizes that former members can expose the "truth" about "the truth" and influence current members whereas Satan is mainly just a concept / boogeyman.
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  23

  has shunning been downplayed?

  by chickpea in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  several times over the course of a year or so, jws from the kh i attended have been downright chatty during happenstance crossing of paths... .

  wth is up with that?

  i have no grudges against any of them, but it is confusing as all get out to have left the cult as an ardent supporter of my out, open, front page headlining transgender son, becoming vocally and decidely apostate knowing i was dead to them... now after at least a half decade out, to have them chummy-ing up to me in a check-out line.... frankly, i would rather they look the other way, you know, if none of them would ever genuinely want to know how my son is doing.

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  Gopher

  @HowtheBiblewasinvented:

  I don't know how close you are to the organization now, or where you got the idea that they didn't raise a hostile tone at the convention.
  
  However from the posts I read about their Saturday morning session, they had an entire talk devoted to the danger of "Human Apostates", and the language was quite hostile & nasty from what I read.
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  23

  has shunning been downplayed?

  by chickpea in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  several times over the course of a year or so, jws from the kh i attended have been downright chatty during happenstance crossing of paths... .

  wth is up with that?

  i have no grudges against any of them, but it is confusing as all get out to have left the cult as an ardent supporter of my out, open, front page headlining transgender son, becoming vocally and decidely apostate knowing i was dead to them... now after at least a half decade out, to have them chummy-ing up to me in a check-out line.... frankly, i would rather they look the other way, you know, if none of them would ever genuinely want to know how my son is doing.

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  Gopher

  There is no loosening of the Watchtower rules. They are at war with apostates, as was shown by the hostile tone they raised at the district conventions this summer.