I despise talk radio. It raises my heartrate to almost panic mode. And since I *always* have an opinion about *everything* and contribute to nearly every discussion I listen to, it is really hard to refrain from calling in. But here's my experience:
"Hi, I respectfully disagree with you and would like to stand up for the other side of the issue."
"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!! GOD, people just don't understand right and wrong anymore! What's wrong with America?? Those people should go live somewhere else!"
Either that, or:
"Hi, I have an opinion about this issue."
"Okay, let's hear it."
"My opinion is that I agree with your side and I'd like to say that nobody has mentioned this angle yet. I think this angle is particularly damning and proves what you're saying."
"Thanks for calling. Now, back to what we were saying before that last caller ... "
(so I feel utterly ignored and stupid)
halcyon
JoinedPosts by halcyon
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halcyon
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WT views on Jesus
by cameo-d inis this true?.
the watchtower of february 1, 1978 said on page 18 about jesus that: ... he was the chief son of jehovah, next to him in the universe.. .
to me this implies that wt teaches in opposition to scripture that jesus is the only begotton son..... "the chief son" seems to imply there are others, but he is 'a' favorite.
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halcyon
I have always understood the WT to have taught that Jesus and Satan are actual brothers.
At least, that's what my understanding was when I was "in". -
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WT backtracking fast on Book Study -High Gas Prices
by stillajwexelder inso tonight the congregation discussed the front page of the october km -the new meeting schedule.
straight away it was emphasized it was not because of high gas prices that the meetings were being reduced.
it was pointed out that in parts of the world the brothers do not have cars so it was not high gas prices.
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halcyon
Something just occurred to me.
You have an hour-long study of a book each week. You get through, what, half a chapter a week? How many chapters in the average book? (I forgot) ... sooo, you get through one book every six to nine months? You have to move on to another book.
Used to be, there were like two new books released at every assembly. There was almost always a new book to move on to at the book study.
But, more recently, books have been recycled. Daniel book studied at least twice, Greatest Man book repeated, Revelation book studied several times, etc. Throw a new one in each year, you still have to go back to an old one before the next book is released.
With the costs of publishing no doubt going up, and donations going down, printing new books every year is a hardship. People are getting sick of recycling the old ones. "Not THAT book again....!" they sigh under their breath. Plus, the older the books get, the more the information goes out of date. Can't really study the old blue Creation book anymore, can they?
SO ... how about increasing the time it takes to get through one book? Decrease the length of the meeting! Oh, wait, who's going to want to drive an extra hour round-trip for a half-hour meeting?
SOLUTION: You drop a meeting night, which makes you look loving and gracious. You cut the study time to 20 minutes, which for all practical purposes at the very least DOUBLES the time it takes to get through a book. Voila! You might even be able to skip publishing a new book every year! $$$$$$$ saved!!!! -
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Aren't we as a group smart enough to bring the whole thing down?"
by BonaFide ini realize that i was stuck believing in jw almost all my life.
and that each person has to see the light for themselves.. but it was partly the hypocrisy, partly the internet, partly my brother, ex-jw, and partly thinking on my own that did it.. there are smart enough people on the board, is there anything we can do to bring the whole jw thing down?.
there must me some way, some thing, we can do.
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halcyon
I think that everyone who can "make room for it" should go to law school and become an attorney and represent the opposing view in witness-involved court cases. Who knows better how to trap the slippery tongues into a lie on the witness stand than those who already know the language and the "theocratic warfare"?
It wouldn't be that hard to do. -
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Was there ever a GOOD time to be a JW?
by gaiagirl inconsidering the history of the "organization", and how beliefs, practices and attitudes have changed through time, was there ever any time that a "international bible student" or jw was relatively more enlightened or had more freedoms than members of other religions?
or have they always been enslaved to one set of superstitious beliefs or another, to a greater degree than most other religions?
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halcyon
I was just reading a book called The Story of Christianity; it's written like a textbook and one of those easily found in the front foyer of Borders or B&N. In the chapter called "The Nineteenth Century: A Time of Fervent Faith", this first paragraph caught my eye:
"The 19th century was not an age only of unbelief. As enormous as were the advances of various atheisms and scepticisms towards the centre of Western culture, an equally powerful (and numerically far stronger) tendency towards renewed religious devotion also arose in those years. It was a time of great expansion for many churches, and of consolidation and revival for others. It was, for the greater Christian world, a century of faith. Perhaps the most enormous development in Protestant circles in the 19th century was the rapid growth of a kind of piety that had first appeared in England in the 18th century and that soon migrated to North America: evangelicalism. This was a movement associated with no specific denomination and not bound -- after its first few decades, at least -- to any standard theology. Its emphasis was upon the personal experience of conversion, repentence, redemption by God's grace and sanctification. Its typical expression was a certain type of worship marked by palpable fervour, and its chief emphasis was upon the cultivation of a life of prayer, a personal sense of assurance in Christ as one's saviour and evangelization."
(side note: the term "evangelical" originates in the Greek word evangelion, meaning "the good news," or, more commonly, the "gospel." )
I suppose to live in the days of the "palpable fervour" was exciting ....
What about the years in the earlier part of the 20th century where people could just see someone else out there, witnessing, and they could say, "hey, I want to do that with you!" and they'd join in and be considered a witness as of that day? I imagine the lifestyle restrictions were few at that time. -
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Let's predict the next 10 years of "noolite"
by Awakened at Gilead inthe past 15 years or so have seen incredible "advances" in the new light agenda of the wts.. there have been changes in the generation (twice!
), sheep and goats, celestial phenomena, opening up the way to heaven (closed since 1935), the "composite sign", "blood fractions", along with major organizational changes, such as paperbacks, once monthly awake!
's, cult edition of the wt, along with the reduction of the meeting nights and change to the po nomenclature becoming the coboe (ssdd).... some of these changes have been foreseen by posters here on jwd, or were suggested by information in apostates recomended reading lists (i.e.
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halcyon
Wasn't there some sort of "Witness school" tried somewhere a few decades back? Late seventies, something like that? I think it was a high school. But they ran into difficulty when "worldly people" were required by law to have access, which obviously threatens "cleanliness" inside the school (you can't hold worldly people to the same standards or fear disfellowshipping), so the whole thing crumbled. I think they'd have the same difficulty with any WT-run university.
Besides, they couldn't come up with enough sterilized material to fulfill a sixty-credit degree. Absolutely no outside source material would be allowed, so they'd have to write and print their own. On all the core subjects! JW math? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! (Here's how to calculate numbers/years to get the results you want...) JW English and composition? okay, they've got a start on that. JW history that covers world events OUTSIDE the focus of JW? Nope. Philosophy and critical thinking? NO WAY!!!!
AND, the startup costs would be staggering. Where would they get enough approved witness professors?
Nope, not seein' a WTU ....
That could only happen if the other standards relaxed enough to allow open discussion in the ranks. -
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Holidays-nervous about celebrating them but don't understand why.
by QuestioningEverything ini have came to the conclusion that all i learned while growing up as a witness is not the "truth'.
i believe i have become agnostic in a short period of time.
so, this year i decided that we are going to celebrate some holidays.
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halcyon
I wish I could go, but with no young children left at home, I think it would be silly for a middle-aged bumble bee to go around begging candy from the neighbors ....
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Let's predict the next 10 years of "noolite"
by Awakened at Gilead inthe past 15 years or so have seen incredible "advances" in the new light agenda of the wts.. there have been changes in the generation (twice!
), sheep and goats, celestial phenomena, opening up the way to heaven (closed since 1935), the "composite sign", "blood fractions", along with major organizational changes, such as paperbacks, once monthly awake!
's, cult edition of the wt, along with the reduction of the meeting nights and change to the po nomenclature becoming the coboe (ssdd).... some of these changes have been foreseen by posters here on jwd, or were suggested by information in apostates recomended reading lists (i.e.
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halcyon
I highly disagree with this. The extra evening will "initially" be pressured to be "family study", but the pressure will fade over time. SO MANY people will just fill in that day with other things that it will become just one more day off. As a precedent, let's look at what happened to the "extra day off" (or even "morning for field service") given at the DCs. Thursday before DC is just another day. The "morning field service (was that Friday?) was dropped for non-participation. Nobody hardly even remembers it anymore.
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Were You One Of Those Witnesses Who Lived In Your Own Little World?
by minimus inwere you intolerant of anyone not a witness?
was your whole life consumed by "the truth"?
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halcyon
No. I was one who always believed that Witnesses were presumptuous if they believed (more than just intellectually) that they were the only ones who would "survive". I ALWAYS believed that on the Last Day, JWs would look around and be shocked at all the non-witnesses who made it through to the paradise with them. And they would also be shocked at how many of their own congregation members and friends would fall at their side.
I've always believed in personal responsibility rather than group responsibility, and God's promise of saving those with "good heart conditions" no matter who they were.
Since I've been out, I've realized that Christ died for ALL, not just "good" people. -
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Let's predict the next 10 years of "noolite"
by Awakened at Gilead inthe past 15 years or so have seen incredible "advances" in the new light agenda of the wts.. there have been changes in the generation (twice!
), sheep and goats, celestial phenomena, opening up the way to heaven (closed since 1935), the "composite sign", "blood fractions", along with major organizational changes, such as paperbacks, once monthly awake!
's, cult edition of the wt, along with the reduction of the meeting nights and change to the po nomenclature becoming the coboe (ssdd).... some of these changes have been foreseen by posters here on jwd, or were suggested by information in apostates recomended reading lists (i.e.
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halcyon
I don't know specific "new light", but I think if you look 100 years down the pipeline, one of the following things HAS to happen:
1) JW as a religion completely crumbles under the iron fist and failed prophesy and blows away, or
2) JW as a religion looks VERY MUCH LIKE any other denomination. Personal choice abounds, youth groups have sprung up, holidays embraced, Sunday-only services, door-to-door canvassing optional, etc. The only real differences will be slight differences in doctrine.
I do not see option #3 ever happening:
3) the earth is a paradise and all wicked ones have been swept away, leaving only JWs. (Caveat: If it DOES happen, which I grant is always a possibility, won't people be surprised that very few JWs actually make it! Instead it will be populated by ALL "good people" of ALL religions who are spared through Armageddon because, frankly, they're good people.)
But before that could ever happen, I think #4 would happen:
4) the earth is completely destroyed in some way: a nuclear holocaust, global warming, meteor hit, etc. All humans dead. The end.