Posts by hillary

67

Favourite Live Performer:

by Englishman in

jw
friends

i've seen loads of live acts, back when i was a "young person asking" i watched the crystals, heinz, johnny kid and the pirates, brenda lee, joe brown and others all on one show.

so very innocent!.

come my eventual departure from dubdom, i resolved to see all these bad people playing their music live.

hillary_step

Thanks EMan - good post,

So many I have enjoyed -

Arthur Lee & Love - San Fran '68 - Arthur Lee - one crazy hazy.

Curtis Mayfield - New York '68 (available on CD - recorded during the Civil rights strife in a tiny night club in NY, electric atmosphere, I was one of the only two whites there! Only an Englishman could be that stupid!

Tim Buckley - London - '68 ( father of Jeff Buckley ) died too young.

Jackson Browne - London '70 something

Joni Mitchell - a few times with back stage passes - a lovely lady.

Laura Nyro - dead but never forgotten. Enormous talent and the biggest heart in the business.

PFM - Italian Band - most exciting guitarist I know of ( Franco Mussida )

'IF' the best jazz/rock combo ever by far - band split in '75. Guitarist Terry Smith only has two hands apparently. Anyone from Georgia can catch him on the 29th with his quintet. I can give details.

JAZZ

Mike Westbrook Big band, Don Rendell ( a JW and one of the best tenors alive } Stan Tracey, Alan Skidmore, the extraordinary John Taylor.

God, am I that old?

HS

Peace In Northern Ireland - At Last?

by hillary_step in

jw
friends

perhaps some of our irish posters might inform of of the popular opinion on the ground of this cheerful development.

disarmament at last?

the ira have enough weapons buried around ireland to even take control of this board if they had to!

hillary_step

Hello,

Perhaps some of our Irish posters might inform of of the popular opinion on the ground of this cheerful development. Disarmament at last?

The IRA have enough weapons buried around Ireland to even take control of this Board if they had to! Are these to be given up? Will peace last? Will the Basques follow suite? Any Spanish posters?

Questions. Questions.

Thanks - HS

56

On STUMBLING BLOCKS

by You Know in

jw
friends

just a few loose ends and random thoughts for a select group of readers who have not been completely defrauded of your faith.. on the topic of stumbling: stumbling typically involves the mistakes of others whether real or perceived.

the reason jehovah does not consider any stumbling block as a valid reason for abandoning ones faith is because a persons faith should be in jehovah and christ in the first place.

and since god most assuredly did not let his worshipper down, what a fellow believer does or does not do should have no bearing upon our personal relationship with our heavenly father.

hillary_step

Jdubla,

As you may have gathered from your first engagement with YK, he has little interest in discussing but great interest in proclaiming.

I actually know who YK is and what congregation he attends due to friendships that I have in the Big House. He is truthful when he says he has made his views known to the GB. Unfortunately his pages of research did not get beyond low level Writing. He is taken far less seriously by his masters than he is by his 'apostate' targets on this Board.

Still, trading viewpoints with him is worth the sport when you have a little time to doodle with. I suspect that under the eye patch there lies a heart of cold.

HS

56

On STUMBLING BLOCKS

by You Know in

jw
friends

just a few loose ends and random thoughts for a select group of readers who have not been completely defrauded of your faith.. on the topic of stumbling: stumbling typically involves the mistakes of others whether real or perceived.

the reason jehovah does not consider any stumbling block as a valid reason for abandoning ones faith is because a persons faith should be in jehovah and christ in the first place.

and since god most assuredly did not let his worshipper down, what a fellow believer does or does not do should have no bearing upon our personal relationship with our heavenly father.

hillary_step

Hi Mr Cuddles,

As it stands I am bound by the spirit from publishing what I know is true simply because it hasn't appeared in the Watchtower yet. In other words, I have food that you don't have that makes me immune to the very doubts that destroyed your faith.

Bound by the spirit! Bound by not enough fibre if you ask me. The only 'stumbling bloke' on this thread is your good-self.

Destroyed faith? What are you talking about? My faith is so strong that I do not need to bluster and utter do-it-yourself prophecies on an anonymous board while under the spirit of medication as some do.

My faith in you is non-existent, as to the WTS, though I have no doubt that it contains as much wheat as it does weeds, my faith in its leaders are non-existent. Your prophetic interpretations, well they are just plain sad. I can assure you that I mix with theological minds that would eat your offerings as anti-pasta.

I do not waste time discussing theological issues with you YK, because you sidestep the uncomfortable in preference to unhealthy personal attacks on others. This evidences that you are not open to discussion only proclamations, rather like the loser in the crumpled raincoat who sits outside Kings Cross Station proclaiming the end of the world while allowing pigeons to defecate on his head. I have better things to do with my time and efforts.

You Know, you know you are an apostate by the definition of the WTS itself. You can run but you cannot hide from that fact.

Now calm down and finish your breakfast if you want to be an elder you are going to have to do a little better than you have in the past.

HS

PS - Incidentally Cuddles, you might try looking at the Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek root meanings for the various applicatons made for the word 'stumbling' and 'stumbling block'. They seldom have a common application, even in common passages. The 'spirit' that rest with you obviously has little knowledge of linguistic tradition. My feeling is that it is only semi-educated

56

On STUMBLING BLOCKS

by You Know in

jw
friends

just a few loose ends and random thoughts for a select group of readers who have not been completely defrauded of your faith.. on the topic of stumbling: stumbling typically involves the mistakes of others whether real or perceived.

the reason jehovah does not consider any stumbling block as a valid reason for abandoning ones faith is because a persons faith should be in jehovah and christ in the first place.

and since god most assuredly did not let his worshipper down, what a fellow believer does or does not do should have no bearing upon our personal relationship with our heavenly father.

hillary_step

Hi You Know,

Hope that you are well. You present an interesting argument.

I have to admit that in the late 70's when I began to notice sinister developments in the theology and modus operandi of the WTS my first inclination, in an attempt to defend its exclusivity, was to develop a pattern of reasoning such as your own.

Over the years as I realized the prophecies in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel etc. could only be linked beyond the C1st by personal interpretation I developed a partial-preterist view of the apocalyptic sections on Matthew, Luke and Revelation, ( which I am convinced was written prior to the fall of Jerusalem ) to which I still hold.

You see, YK, the problem is that yet again we are being assailed by a personal interpretation of these prophecies. Your guess is a good as another persons. You may be correct in your interpretation and so may they, or you both may be wrong, and this is where the fundamental flaw lies.

It would be wonderful to believe in the WTS prophetic package, many of us have basked triumphantly in it in the past and the package is second to none in its concept, but as you have noted it is fatally flawed. Who should be asked to drive along a bridge with compromised foundations?

As to your own position, there is no doubt about it YK, every post you make seems to move you further in your thinking from the WTS theology and into the no-mans land than many of us have traveled before.

As I noted before, if you wish to take the scenic route to Apostate City rather than the direct route that is your choice, the fact is though, that you are half-way there whether the battles of cognitive-dissonance allow you such conclusions or not.

When you arrive, try the Preterist Hotel, I will book you a room if you so wish!

Kind regards - HS

132

100 Good Samaritans needed

by Trilobite in

jw
friends

two of this board's, and h2o's before it,long time and well known participants have fallen on desperately hard times.

if they could set up pay pal accounts and enough of us could contribute say $20 - $50 per month it would help them though their hardship.. these two people have helped many escape from the wts and i know for sure have given money and other material help to those in need, even when they could not afford it.. if you can help, send an email to: [email protected].

you need not include any particulars of who you are etc, just an indication that you could support this and how much you could send.

hillary_step

Hello Jukief,

You don't know anything at all about what Alan has done, but I can tell you that not only does he devote almost every minute of his spare time to this work (and his family suffers for it), but he also helped MANY people financially. And I have the checkbook to prove it. Just because people don't run around blowing their own horns doesn't mean they aren't doing things in private.

I am sincerely sorry that emotions have run riot here today Jukief and I am sorry if Alan has been hurt by thoughtless comments.

Unfortunately what started as a simple act of kindness, helping friends through a hard patch has become a sullied and morose argument over the rights and wrongs of who deserves help and who does not.

Last year by arranging benefit concerts for ecological groups I was able to galvanise my contacts in the music world and help raise $350,000 for these groups who live on a shoe-string. It felt worthy, it felt clean and honorable, I worked hard with no pay for three months. Even if we raise $350,000 for the needy on this Board I would feel that I have failed.

Both yourself and Alan have I know, for many years given in time and money for a cause that would have been easier to walk away from than attach yourselves too and I would like to thank you, as I personally know how deep your commitments run.

My very best to you both -- HS

37

Media Dept London HQ - UN Letter

by Celtic in

jw
friends

hawk was most helpful in supplying letter to the board here a day or so ago re: wtbts membership of dpi un.. i rang the media department in london today who said that they were well aware of the letter and its contents.. asked why the organisation seems to be in contradiction to its litureture the wt and awake, concerning the beast of revelation, i was told by the department that the society has never been affiliated to the un.

the only reason why they belonged to the dpi was to access their, (the un), library resources.. i asked if the comments (non-affiliation) could be sent to me via email.

i was told that that was not nessarsary as the un had already supplied information.

hillary_step

Hi Hawk,

I hate to tell you but the Guardian and Bates never published nor will they publish Gillies letter

I appreciated this, the inclusion of my comments regarding Bates was to underline the feeling I had that his response to Gillies seemed more personal than theological. The WTS/NGO fiasco is but a speck of sand in a world of issues - except to a few thousand XJW's - the WTS PR departments well know this and trim the PR to suit.

Best regards - HS

37

Media Dept London HQ - UN Letter

by Celtic in

jw
friends

hawk was most helpful in supplying letter to the board here a day or so ago re: wtbts membership of dpi un.. i rang the media department in london today who said that they were well aware of the letter and its contents.. asked why the organisation seems to be in contradiction to its litureture the wt and awake, concerning the beast of revelation, i was told by the department that the society has never been affiliated to the un.

the only reason why they belonged to the dpi was to access their, (the un), library resources.. i asked if the comments (non-affiliation) could be sent to me via email.

i was told that that was not nessarsary as the un had already supplied information.

hillary_step

Hawk,

Gillies brief would have been to confuse the issue in the minds of the public and damage limitation with the R&F.

The WTS is not interested in winning battles with the 'apostates', their PR cannons are always trained towards confusing the public first and the rank and file JW next.

Gillies has succesfully clouded this issue enough to have the public and the average JW walk on by. Most people on this planet care very little about JW's, apostates, the WTS and its comical villification of the UN, or any other such issues and WTS PR knows this well.

Steve Bates seemed in his reply to the WTS imho, to be more upset that the WTS questioned his reportage style than the issue at hand.

I agree with E'man - cunning to burn, do not underestimate your enemy - HS

37

Media Dept London HQ - UN Letter

by Celtic in

jw
friends

hawk was most helpful in supplying letter to the board here a day or so ago re: wtbts membership of dpi un.. i rang the media department in london today who said that they were well aware of the letter and its contents.. asked why the organisation seems to be in contradiction to its litureture the wt and awake, concerning the beast of revelation, i was told by the department that the society has never been affiliated to the un.

the only reason why they belonged to the dpi was to access their, (the un), library resources.. i asked if the comments (non-affiliation) could be sent to me via email.

i was told that that was not nessarsary as the un had already supplied information.

hillary_step

Path,

I also think this Paul Gillis is completely incompetent as a Public Affairs spokesman.

Gillies is a slick politically cunning man, and very competent at what he does.

The problem is you can't build a paradise on flat champagne if you catch my drift.

HS

21

Reasons for Leaving JWs/Fatal Flaw

by patio34 in

jw
friends

i ran across this in "river out of eden" by richard dawkins (pgs 131-132) yesterday and it accurately sums up why i left jws 9 months ago and, essentially, belief in a creator:.

re dna survivial: 'when the utility function-that which is being maximized--is dna survival, this is not a recipe for happiness.

so long as dna is passed on, it does not matter who or what gets hurt in the process.

hillary_step

Patio34,

One reason that people have been unable to accept the concept of a 'hunter predator' instinct in religious terms is due to the repugnance that we all feel at seeing animals eating other animals alive.

So when the WTS comes along and produces a picture of universal harmony, with little Billy fondling a lion it all sits so nicely with our own desires. It is a matter of illusion, literally.

To illustrate, while the lion and child are cuddling, what is the praying mantis eating? Imagine a praying mantis, eating its prey head-first as is their wont, but six feet in size. This issue cannot be reconciled until you make all creation the same size and then sort out who will be eating what in the New world.

In the mid 70's, I bought along into the WTS a naturalist and zoologist who worked for the BBC, producing their nature program’s. We discussed this issue at great length, eventually producing between us an irrefutable thesis evidencing the impossibility of the natural processes of the earth being able to survive under the theology that the WTS dictated. We sent this 80pp. document to the Local Branch in London.

Three months later I received back a curse note from them, encouraging me to continue in the Pioneer service and suggesting that we leave the research to the professionals as these questions would distract us from the 'all important work of Witnessing'. Lol.

These days the WTS says very little about the subject, realizing their inadequacy in attempting to rationalize their own theology with reality.

Thank you for an interesting thread - HS

hillary_step

Posts by hillary_step