Gopher

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Posts by Gopher

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  15

  Thanksgiving?

  by freeflyingfaerie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here in the u.s. of a., come one week from today, families will come together to feast in celebration of the day in 1621 when pilgrims and native americans shared feasting for three days... ...and then the natives were slaughtered and driven out of the lands in the coming years.

  i wondered if native americans themselves celebrate thanksgiving... (interesting findings out there).

  cast your votes as to whether or not i'm a freakazoid for not celebrating it!

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  Gopher

  Here's enough reason to AVOID celebrating Thanksgiving. No it isn't enough, I'm just joshing you.
  
  The WTS uses the old "no part of the world" scripture to try to forbid any activity THEY don't like.

  From the "School" Brochure page 21:

  National Holidays

  Other holidays are somewhat different in nature. These are not so universally celebrated, but may be unique to a particular country. For example, there may be national days of thanksgiving. In some places there may also be a certain day set aside to memorialize a nation’s war dead, or a day to remember the birth of a country or certain prominent presidents, rulers or national heroes.

  Jehovah’s Witnesses also respectfully refrain from participating in such national holidays. Though we respect the authorities in whatever country we may reside, for conscientious reasons we do not give them what we view as worshipful honors. We remain neutral toward all such celebrations. This is in keeping with Jesus’ words regarding his followers: “They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.”—John 17:16.
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  105

  New Article on BEARDS and Attire of Jehovah's Witnesses

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have had requests to add an article about beards and jehovah's witnesses.

  it is interesting that there is virtually no statement that says a witness cannot have a beard, yet universally they do not have beards.

  i have scoured quotes from all the threads on jwn, all references to beard on the cd watchtower library, and copies of elders letters that i have.

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  Gopher

  My impression is that the WT Society's aversion to beards goes back to the days of JF Rutherford, who either had a personal dislike for beards or wanted to make a "clean break" (pardon the pun) from the bearded deceased Watchtower leader CT Russell. The association of beards with rebelliousness in the 1960's only further strengthened the WTS' aversion.
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  23

  Are Most of the Witnesses That You Know Of Die Hard JWs?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think the remaining ones left are kool-aid drinkers and virtually brain dead..

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  Gopher

  In the sense of being really excited about going in the ministry and participating in meetings and looking very theocratic -- most are NOT that way.

  However in the sense of never wanting to leave the religion, most I saw were emotionally stuck to it. Otherwise, why would they put up with the boring meetings and the personality conflicts and having to drag coolers from their car to the assembly site? Maybe "dyed in the wool" would be a way to describe most of the regular meeting attenders.
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  194

  Bethel Rules

  by brotherdan in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this was brought up just in passing on another thread.

  but i wanted to see if there are any bethelites or ex bethelites that remember some of the crazy rules we had to follow when we were there..

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  Gopher

  there is a "story" about a resident who watched the Exorcist on cable and the tv wouldnt shut off even after they unplugged it. A near by couple "felt something was wrong next door and upon investigation heard screaming and called someone higher up and yadda yadda yadda he was out by the end of the week

  I've heard a lot of JW urban legends and fairytales, but never that one! The story is obviously exaggerated but illustrates that the JW's are afraid a movie can harm their faith. A movie.
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  35

  So what if they were wrong?

  by DS211 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this is a reply ireceived from a poster on another forum.

  "actually the vast majority of interpretations of prophecy are absolutely spot on.. .

  people harp on over this and that that was wrong 50 years ago, but today jehovah's witnesses have all the bible's prophecies pretty much figured out in their entirety.. .

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  Gopher

  What SSPO said... the king of the north and the king of the south.

  In their 1958 "Let Your Kingdom Come" book, the Society said that the Communist powers would be in place and opposing Jehovah's people all the way through to Armageddon.

  Then in 1989, the Communist bloc fell. Oops.
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  6

  Statistics - JWs Only See What They Want to See

  by jw07 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a dub posted this link earlier this week.

  this video aired feb 16, 2011 as pointed out by one of the commenters.

  it's amazing though how many witnesses lack the ability to scrutinize the information presented, and go check the data for themselves.. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=206101939577972.

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  Gopher

  JW's have all their bases covered.

  When the organization is growing, they say to themselves it's a good thing because Jehovah is obviously blessing the preaching work.

  When the organization is not growing, they say to themselves it's a good thing because Jehovah is culling the weeds and the troublemakers, leaving the organization stronger.
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  38

  What IS the meaning and purpose of EVIL?

  by Monsieur in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  reading about the massacre of the jw family in mexico brought up all kinds of questions again.. from the standpoint of someone who doesn't in believe in 'god' or a 'conventional' god,.

  what is the meaning and purpose of evil?.

  how does it relate to the overall universe and its balance?

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  Gopher

  The definition I found is "profound immorality, wickedness, and depravity, esp. when regarded as a supernatural force".

  Synonyms include wickedness, badness, wrongdoing, sin, ill, immorality, vice, iniquity, degeneracy, corruption, villainy, nefariousness, malevolence.

  In many cases, the purpose of evil is to gain advantage over or inflict harm on another.
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  105

  New Article on BEARDS and Attire of Jehovah's Witnesses

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have had requests to add an article about beards and jehovah's witnesses.

  it is interesting that there is virtually no statement that says a witness cannot have a beard, yet universally they do not have beards.

  i have scoured quotes from all the threads on jwn, all references to beard on the cd watchtower library, and copies of elders letters that i have.

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  Gopher

  In the mid-1980's I was assigned a talk in the Theocratic Ministry School regarding beards. It quoted from a 1975 or 1977 Watchtower about the impression that beards could give (that one was a rebel or radical), the implication being - it wasn't the way we would want to project ourselves as JW's representing Jehovah.

  It was awkward, because in the audience was a member of a JW family whom I didn't know, at the first meeting I'd ever seen him, sitting right in the middle of the audience wearing his beard. True story!
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  167

  this site sucks! its just a buncha athiest on soap boxes.

  by crossquestions6995 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this site is not a healthy forum for discussion or healing.

  its an arena for jaded athiests to bash anything christian or god related.

  yes, i know the jw's lied to us about god and the truth.

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  Gopher

  "But seriously a major reason for reasonable doubt about any [benevolent] deity's existence is the existence of gross evil and suffering in this world."

  Thanks jgnat, that is a very good way to express what I have been thinking.

  The logic has often been expressed in this set of statements:

  1. If an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent god exists, then evil does not.

  2. Evil exists in the world.

  3. Therefore an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent god does not exist.
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  6

  Were you a meeter and greeter or a background observer?

  by likeabird in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've noticed how on newbie threads everyone jumps in to say hello, even other newbies.. it got me wondering.. when you were in, were you the type to greet all the newcomers and visiting bros and siss, or would you stay in the background and wait a few meetings to manage to go over to say hello?.

  i'm not particularly anti-social, but as a foreigner, meeting new people meant they felt they had the right to interrogate me on my life story in the first five minutes of the acquaintance just because they could see i wasn't one of them.

  being assigned to preach with a newcomer was torturous and i would shut my eyes waiting for the interrogation to start.. so anyway, that's what made me fall into the latter group.

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  Gopher

  I was a mixture of both. It depended on my mood. Normally I'm an introvert.