what did for me was a radio programme with the subject of the danger of religious cults,this was the time of the WACO siege, the expert on the show came from The London School of Economics, as the show came to an end the presenter asked if anyone listening would like advice etc to phone the show , I called out of curiosity, Franz' work became available to me a couple of months later, after a few weekends of secretly reading ISoCF the final block had been laid in my departure from the WTS, The only real info I had on Franz ( I'd never even heard his name) was that he was the nephew of the president and was a GB member who "apostatized" My elder father visited Bethel in NY on a business trip in the late 80's someone there had filled him in with some of the issues surrounding him leaving and the 1984 witch-hunt , he'd let a few things slip out to me and this clearly stirred my curiosity.
jookbeard
JoinedPosts by jookbeard
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28
Ray Franz and You.
by John Aquila inif ray franz would have kept his mouth shut and not disfellowshipped, and remained part of the governing body how many of us ex-jw would still be trapped in the cult?.
would we have come this far?.
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Where Are They Now???
by minimus ini was raised as a witness and i remember many of the old timers.
many of the elders are no longer serving.
it seems like almost anyone that wad married and had kids.
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jookbeard
I can think of a fair few from elders to MS' and even CO's that aren't serving from the time I was a kid, many have died, the most interesting story I heard recently was an elder who was very good friends with my parents who was the most hard nosed committed elder you could have ever met is now out, we've exchanged a couple of messages, another couple who were uber Dubs from my childhood and around my parents age has seen the wife leaving , very unexpected, another 2 elders left and had affairs, a couple were involved in shady business practices, I remember a very flamboyant CO leaving -
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Why some smart people believe the JWs/Bible
by jws ini consider myself smart.
go ahead, laugh.
i have a sense of humor too.. but i grew up a jw and also believed in the bible.
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jookbeard
same here TS100, not one single bible study, I couldn't have lived with myself drawing an innocent victim to their strange, dull world, I would prefer not to even go on RV's , any books I placed (not many) were simply forgotten about, I'd never even keep my notes of house number etc. -
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Why some smart people believe the JWs/Bible
by jws ini consider myself smart.
go ahead, laugh.
i have a sense of humor too.. but i grew up a jw and also believed in the bible.
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jookbeard
a born here too, but even without the scandals (UN membership, child abuse) their core doctrines never sat well at all with me and even as a young lad, the destruction of billions of non jw's at the Big A seemed preposterous even from a young age, as did the blood doctrine, as I grew older my life as a jw was just a social club but in those days of pre inerweb and before Ray Franz' publications I just went along going through the motions paying lip service to this odd religious belief system I was born into, again I wouldn't consider myself to be particularly bright, I went through school being "the average kid" in almost every subject except sports and art, my elder father was far more studious and creative and adapted very well in the world of everything jw related, good speaker, young elder etc, but I always had an inquisitive side to me and one of the very few snippets I gleaned from my life as a jw was an ability to debate and research which at the outset of me having deep doubts and looking to find TTATT led me to my local library, the rest is history! -
41
July 19th Watchtower Summary. Insanity
by Lemonp injust got back from the wt study and it overall was just so blindingly biased and leading.. i had to read it from the platform too, i hope they couldn't see the confounded look on my face as i read this craziness out!.
first we consider the faith of abel, enoch, noah, abraham, isaac and jacob, and moses.. all of these people are held up as sterling examples of blind faith, with the article pointedly saying that their imaginations sustained their faith in gods promises for them.
no mention anywhere at all that all of these characters saw and talked to angels, spoke to god himself, saw and performed miracles, or any of the other feats experienced by these characters.
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jookbeard
the usual , they just make it up as they go along -
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Brighton Convention Roll Call
by konceptual99 inanyone here attending the brighton rc this weekend?
hope it's my last....
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jookbeard
seems low for a 30k plus stadium? 2.7 million is impressive, shame he didn't speak about the Earth's population topping 7.25 billion, then its not so impressive -
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Everything You Wanted to Know About Cart Witnessing But Were Afraid to Ask
by OrphanCrow inorange county public witnessing has a website up and running.. http://ocpw.org/.
the pw "reminders" (rules) are simplified on this website:.
http://ocpw.weebly.com/reminders.html.
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jookbeard
oh, thats why they are constantly playing with their cellphones -
116
You Tube Video Ex-Betheliite Ex-Walkill Worker Layed Off!
by cha ching ini am not sure if this guy is really from bethel, or walkill, but if he is....this poor guy really tells it like it is from the heart.
he was surprised.. at the 'oh so fast, pack your bags, get your stuff outta here' layoff !.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk1xh1egjcu
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jookbeard
just tracked him down to FB, and shared a pm with him, seems he's out a fair time and moved on with his life -
116
You Tube Video Ex-Betheliite Ex-Walkill Worker Layed Off!
by cha ching ini am not sure if this guy is really from bethel, or walkill, but if he is....this poor guy really tells it like it is from the heart.
he was surprised.. at the 'oh so fast, pack your bags, get your stuff outta here' layoff !.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk1xh1egjcu
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jookbeard
poor guy, I almost feel sorry for him, I hope he wakes up and can move forward with his life , free from them invading his conscience, possibly a bit more to his story then meets the eye, he clearly must have ruffled some feathers -
49
What are the costs of literature cart witnessing?
by oppostate inin the article on the guardian ( http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/14/jehovahs-witnesses-evangelism-church-god-armageddon ) mentioned in another thread, there's this quote of mark omalley, who is assigned to the public information desk at the jehovahs witness uk centre in north london.
we now have more than 165,000 [literature] carts on the streets in over 50 countries.
it gives us visibility and availability.
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jookbeard
at a guess I reckon the carts must cost about £50-£75 each?