Not sure if this has been posted before, but it made me smile.....
Posts by HB
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82
incident going on in central london
by Ruby456 inunfolding now - could be terrorist.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/22/man-shot-police-outside-parliament-officer-reportedly-shoots/.
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HB
There are usually a couple of JW carts right opposite the Houses of Parliament on the corner of Westminster Bridge by the tube station entrance. I have spoken to some of them in the past.
If the JWs were there today, I hope they are safe, but they would be literal 'witnesses' to a real event and in this case, their witnessing could be of actual use.
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78
Did you know that J.F. Rutherford was part of the Knights of Pythias? There's PROOF for this!
by ILoveTTATT2 inwow.
wow.
wow.someone just sent me a scan of the boonville advertiser newspaper in which it mentions j.f.
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HB
My years of genealogy research have taught me never to make assumptions or go by guesswork about the identity of individuals from the past, the only sure way is to use official public records such as birth, marriage and death records or the Federal, State or City censuses.
A little digging has been interesting if frustrating, because as mentioned previously, I don't have access to US records. But I found a few details by luck.
There were several other Joseph F Rutherfords in the US during the lifetime of the Watchtower leader. One was born in the same year but died age 6. The list includes Joseph F Rutherfords who were born or lived in the following places: Des Moines, Iowa; Wyandotte, Kansas; Alabama; Texas; Illinois; Utah, Georgia and Missouri.
There are 12 pages of John F Rutherfords, including one born in 1866 in Green, Hickory, Missouri, a 2 hour drive from Boonville.
It's also necessary to be careful when searching official documents, as for example in the 1920 Federal census, Joseph Franklin Rutherford is listed as RUTHERFORD F. JOSEPH. Could be confusing.
See below copy of sheet 11a of the 1920 US census for the Borough of Brooklyn in Kings County, New York. (If you save the image to your PC, you can enlarge it).
On line 1 is RUTHERFORD F. JOSEPH - born in Missouri, mother from Tennessee, father from Missouri.
Other details are that 'the residence' was owned freehold, he was the Head of the 'household', age 50, white, married, able to read and write, profession - Minister, Bible Society. He worked on his own account (i.e. not an employer or salary/wage worker). The rest of the 'household' are listed as boarders, from various countries but all white, working as ministers, clerks, stenographers, cooks, printers, an editor, a janitor, a typist, a writer and a few individuals with no job. There's a 12 year old schoolboy living there (poor thing!) with his parents. I presume there are further pages, but I only had access to this one. There were 92 dwellings and 252 families.
This establishes proof that the Watch Tower Rutherford was born around 1869 in Missouri. If someone with the right Ancestry subscription could look up other censuses to establish whether or not there was another J Rutherford with different parents, different date of birth, different occupation, who lived in Boonville, Missouri, it would help to determine the current question one way or another.
The WT Joseph Franklin's parents were James Calvin Rutherford and Lenora Strickland. They died in Pilot Grove, Cooper, Missouri, about a 20 minute drive from Boonville.
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Did you know that J.F. Rutherford was part of the Knights of Pythias? There's PROOF for this!
by ILoveTTATT2 inwow.
wow.
wow.someone just sent me a scan of the boonville advertiser newspaper in which it mentions j.f.
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HB
I just had a very quick search for Joseph, John and J F Rutherford on the Ancestry website.
I only pay for access to UK records, so unfortunately not able to check US censuses, but to give an idea, listed in the 1871 UK census, there are 17 different Joseph Rutherfords born around 1869 and 64 John Rutherfords . If anyone has access to the US Ancestry website, you will very likely find similar results, including the Joseph and John in question.
The free Latter Day Saints website lists 71 Joseph Rutherfords alive in the 1880 census, including 5 in Missouri.
It's to be expected that several related people who shared the same surname and initials would have lived in even the tiniest of towns or villages. Even a few who also shared the same forename and surname.
Generally people tended to stay in the area where their family was based, so it is not uncommon to find two cousins born the same year with the same name, because two married brothers chose to name their respective baby boys after their own father, (the babies' grandfather). Include the extended family with uncles, second cousins etc, especially with popular names like Joseph and John and you have a high likelihood of finding a namesake even in a one horse town.
(Incidentally, I came across the distribution map of the surname Rutherford and it apparently originated in the borders of Scotland.)
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Jediism not a religion, UK Charity Commission rules
by HB inthought this might be of interest....... .
from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38368526.
jediism not a religion, charity commission rules.
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HB
7th most popular religion--where--in the UK ? where does the watchtower society come then ?
JWs are such a miniscule religion in the UK that they don't seem to appear in any 'popularity of religion' lists I can find, but are lumped in with "other" or at best 'non Trinitarian' religions.
The below list which didn't include JWs, was from 2009 taken from the British Social Attitudes Survey :~
No religion - 50.7%
C of E - 19.9%
Christian (no denomination) - 9.3%
Catholic - 8.6%
Muslim 2.4%
Presbyterian/Church of Scotland - 2.2%
Methodist - 1.3%
Other protestant - 1.2%
Hindu 0.9%
Sikh - 0.8%
refused / N/A - 0.4%
Other Christian - 0.4%
Judaism - 0.4%
Other religions - 0.3%
I'd be interested to see more up to date figures if anyone can find them.
JWs had 137,631 "publishers" in the UK in 2015 according to Wikipedia.
It's not a direct comparison by any means as the statistics are 5 years apart, but it appears that in 2011 there were more adherents to the Jedi faith in the UK than there were JWs in the UK in 2015.
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Jediism not a religion, UK Charity Commission rules
by HB inthought this might be of interest....... .
from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38368526.
jediism not a religion, charity commission rules.
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HB
Thought this might be of interest......
from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38368526
Jediism not a religion, Charity Commission rules
Jediism, the worship of the mythology of Star Wars, is not a religion, the Charity Commission has ruled.
The commission rejected an application to grant charitable status to The Temple of the Jedi Order.
It said Jediism did not "promote moral or ethical improvement" for charity law purposes in England and Wales.
In the 2011 census, 177,000 people declared themselves Jedi under the religion section, making it the seventh most popular religion.
In its ruling the Charity Commission said there was insufficient evidence that "moral improvement" was central to the beliefs and practices of Jediism.
It also noted the Jedi Doctrine can be accepted, rejected and interpreted by individuals as they see fit.
The commission said to be classed as a religion it must have a positive beneficial impact on society in general and raised concerns that Jediism may, in part, have an "inward focus" on its members.
What is Jediism?
Jediism is based on the observance of the Force, described as "the ubiquitous and metaphysical power" that a Jedi believes to be the underlying, fundamental nature of the universe
- Jedi do not believe in a god, having faith instead "in the Force, and in the inherent worth of all life within it"
- They believe in eternal life through the Force and do not become "obsessed in mourning those who pass".
- Jedi may grieve but are content, knowing they will "forever be a part of the Force"
- The definition of Jediism states the religion is an "inspiration and a way of life" for people who take on "the mantle of Jedi"
- The Jedi Doctrine acknowledges there is some "scope for followers to simply view Jediism as a philosophy or way of life" and some Jedi prefer to avoid the word religion
Daniel Jones, leader of the Church of Jediism, said Jedi would continue to do charity work without any legal status and was convinced "Jediism's status will change in the next five years".
"It's not what anyone in the Jediism community wants to hear, when you have churches like Satan and Scientology with charitable religious statuses," he told the BBC.
Jediism has more adherents than Rastafarians and Jains, according to the census.
But the number of Jedi fell sharply from 2001, when 390,000 people said they were followers of The Force.
Kenneth Dibble, the chief legal adviser at the Charity Commission, said: "The law relating to what is and is not a charity evolves continuously and, as in this case, can be influenced by decisions in other areas. Our role is critical in interpreting and explaining the extent of what the law considers charitable
Read more:
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I Found Something Better Than "The Truth"!
by Divergent ini often come across jw's using the "worldwide brotherhood" as one of the reasons to justify that jw's have "the truth.
" such a brotherhood, they claim, would not exist outside the organisation because there is no way that people of different religions, nationalities, races, cultures, backgrounds, languages etc.
can be united and associate together freely without "the truth!".
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HB
I've never been a JW, but I agree, there are many other organisations that offer a far better worldwide 'brotherhood' of like minded people.
I'm a member of Girl Guiding which has 10 million members in 146 countries. Scouting has even more members, possibly about 28 million.
These organisations are inclusive of all and unite people of different races, cultures and beliefs. I went on a Guiding trip to Switzerland this year and met Guides and Scouts from many other countries there. A couple of years ago I took part as a leader in an international camp, with 3000 young people from 19 countries, as diverse as Egypt, New Zealand, Kenya, Norway, Japan and Fiji. It was an amazing experience.
Guiding and Scouting provide opportunities for meeting others with shared interests, often leading to life-long friendships. Everyone has the chance to travel and explore, to gain skills, try new experiences and do something worthwhile for others .
These organisations, unlike the Watchtower, have a positive life-enhancing ethos and encourage young people to be their best and fulfil their potential. All whilst having loads of fun.
No wonder young JWs are not allowed to join Guiding and Scouting; given a free choice with no outside pressure or coercion, I'm pretty sure most would not choose the Watchtower.
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Cryonics
by HB inon the bbc news at present is a story about a 14 year old girl from the uk who has sadly died of cancer, but has chosen to be cryogenically preserved in the us in the hope that in the distant future, science will find a way to cure the cancer and resuscitate her frozen body.. see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38012267.
the chances of this technique ever becoming a practical reality are very remote at present and it would take major breakthroughs in technology.
however, the professor in charge of tissue banking at the university of bristol, says that although there is little chance of it happening based on current knowledge, he believes "you can never say never in science".
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HB
On the BBC news at present is a story about a 14 year old girl from the UK who has sadly died of cancer, but has chosen to be cryogenically preserved in the US in the hope that in the distant future, science will find a way to cure the cancer and resuscitate her frozen body.
See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38012267
The chances of this technique ever becoming a practical reality are very remote at present and it would take major breakthroughs in technology. However, the professor in charge of tissue banking at the University of Bristol, says that although there is little chance of it happening based on current knowledge, he believes "you can never say never in science".
Hypothetically, if in the future, science does manage to 'resurrect' bodies from a frozen state, without brain damage or other physical problems, so the person could live again with the same personality and memories as before, how would religious believers deal with the issue?
Christians who believe the soul goes to Heaven (or hell?) after death would presumably have some complex theological questions to tackle, but I'm not sure how JWs would react?
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Learn To Speak Like A Jehovah's Witness
by pale.emperor infor those who were never a jw, here's a fun guide to passing yourself as one:.
privilege [priv-lij] - a duty nobody would volunteer to do which is assigned to you without your say so.
such as cleaning the toilets, picking up other brats candy wrappers in the back row and being stuck on locking up duty for the 7th time in a row.. df'd [dee-eff'd] - disfellowshipped.
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HB
When I joined this forum in 2008, I did not know any of this special JW language, having never been involved in the cult, and it took some time to learn the vocabulary and phraseology. I'm now quite fluent in 'JW-isms' thanks to reading this website.
During my first few weeks of reading the forum, as well as learning the meaning of words like 'field service', 'Bethel', 'judicial committee', 'being marked' etc, I also had to learn lots of abbreviations like WTS, MS, COBE, DF'd, KH, GB, and others.
Unfortunately, it made it even more confusing when posters used slang apostate terms like 'boasting session'. I had no clue what that meant.
Three of the words/phrases that I recall finding very odd at first were:
- 'ones' eg as in 'interested ones' written in the society's literature. It just sounded awkward, no one else uses that..
- 'faithful and discrete slave' - I couldn't get my head around the idea of the leadership being pleased to be compared to a slave; that word has such negative connotations in modern society.
- 'Sheep-like' - I was astounded to learn that acting like a sheep was supposed to be a good thing. Outside of the bible, the word has strongly undesirable implications, relating to slow-witted dumb animals who don't think for themselves but just blindly follow others even if the 'mob-mentality' direction is to jump over the edge of the cliff. Ironically, I found out it's very apt when referring to JWs, although its not intended to be thought of in that way.
- 'ones' eg as in 'interested ones' written in the society's literature. It just sounded awkward, no one else uses that..
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BIG news Trump...His lewd conversation leaks.
by James Mixon inif he get pass this, america deserve him...... conversation 10 years ago..
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HB
A US Pastor (John Torell) is preaching that Donald Trump should not be judged for his lewd remarks because they were made in the past before he became a 'born again' Christian early in 2016.
Quote: "This event took place with a well-known pastor, who met privately with Trump and was able to lead him to Christ. Trump did not publicly announce his conversion since he didn’t want people thinking he was just pandering to the evangelicals. Two reliable sources have confirmed that Donald Trump came to Christ and this story was published in the Pentecostal magazine, Charisma."
John Torell claims that because God forgives sins and they are wiped away, Trump should not be judged on his past errors and quotes the case of Saul of Tarsus/Paul.
See http://eaec.org/desk/10-09-2016.htmhttp://eaec.org/desk/10-09-2016.htm
Video: https://vimeo.com/187036198
Being from the UK, I'm not fully au fait with all the facts about US politics, and I hadn't heard of Trump 'finding Jesus', but the whole idea is beyond ludicrous.
John Torell is a deluded and senseless idiot, (a few years ago he warned that Obama may be the anti-Christ), but I would be interested to know how widely Trump's religious status (or otherwise) has been discussed and how much of an issue it has been in the US media?