The weakness of the "reason" behind the birthday ban is shown by the fact that celebrating or attending a birthday is not a disfellowshiping ofense.
winstonchurchill
JoinedPosts by winstonchurchill
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47
Can anyone prove that birthday celebrations are forbidden by God?
by FaithfulBrother ini know that there is no mention of any birthday celebrations in the bible besides the two which were celebrated by non-believers.
and it just so happened that on each of these events, someone died (one non-believer and one believer).
but does it mean that just because the bible mentions these two events, that all birthday celebrations are forbidden?
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63
dirty trick at the meeting re facebook
by Aussie Oz inmy daughter told me about last weeks service meeting part on facebook.... the brother doing the parts asked for a show of hands who had a facebook account.. apparently a number of elders did.. (she did not put up her hand...in fact recently deleted all jws off her friends because she doesnt want them to know anything about her life).
i thought that was a dirty trick to pull.. oz.
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winstonchurchill
Aussie Oz: "The Watchtower will always stop just short of forbidding and leave it up to individual CO's and elders to be harder/slacker whatever the case may be. But what the society majors at is making it obvious to the rank and file what a 'mature christian' will do."
Exactly: Internet, College, going to the prom, facial hair... you name it. They won't go "Beyond what's been written", but then leave it to the militants to enforce the "unwritten".
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dirty trick at the meeting re facebook
by Aussie Oz inmy daughter told me about last weeks service meeting part on facebook.... the brother doing the parts asked for a show of hands who had a facebook account.. apparently a number of elders did.. (she did not put up her hand...in fact recently deleted all jws off her friends because she doesnt want them to know anything about her life).
i thought that was a dirty trick to pull.. oz.
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winstonchurchill
I didn't have that part, but was glad to see the elder in charge of it didn't ask for people to raise their hands. He just asked rethoriaclly ("How many of us have..."). While I see TheSheppard's point, I think is better to avoid things that may be construed as 'spying' (as this post shows it might be the case).
With some notable exceptions, I don't think elders are setting up anyone and trying to find out who has a FB account with that kind of questions. It's just an 'easy' way to introduce the subject.
I do know of elders setting up a 'fake' FB account just for spying on others. Sad life!
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37
Do you feel sorry for those that are still in.
by jam inat one time i felt my jw famliy members hated me.
because i turn my back on the cult.. today i feel sorry for them and it,s not hate they.
feel.. they way i see it, first of all it,s frustrating serving a. god that you can never please, serving a god that.
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winstonchurchill
I have a hard time explaining where I am and how I feel, probably because i don't know it too well myself.
MOUTHY, believe me, I really regret hearing the pain that has been caused to you, and to thousands, probably millions. I have read your postings for a long time and have nothing but sympathy and respect for you. It is not my intention to defend other people's actions. BTW I use Winston Churchill as my alias out of respect and admiration for him, a bit tongue-in-cheek, like Chevy Chase would do in "Fletch" taking famous people's names. Far from my intentions to offend him, and much less make me his equal. I have my flaws, just as all other humans.
But I don't think it's fair to call me "a lie". What if I was a Mormon? or a Catholic? Or Muslim? before anyone jumps to compare and point differences, let me explain that to me being a JW i has become to me a circumstance. I have not yet faced any situation that would make me leave. MAybe that happens tomorrow, or in a few years. I don't know.
The day they tell me I can't talk to one of my kids because they are DF'd, I just won't listen. And if they kick me out, so be it. Blood? No, thanks. I firmly believe, for scientific and medical reasons, whole blood transfusions is not something I'd want. I can leave JW's tomorrow and I would still refuse blood, as thousand of non-JWs do.
I could go on and on. I gues what I'm trying to say to answer the question posted at the begining: Many feel trapped and are miserable within the JW's, Many others are happy and joyful doing what they sincerely believe is the truth, and a growing number conform a third group of people that are nominal-JW's and will not pay attention to every little rule, and will happily fade away with time.
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37
Do you feel sorry for those that are still in.
by jam inat one time i felt my jw famliy members hated me.
because i turn my back on the cult.. today i feel sorry for them and it,s not hate they.
feel.. they way i see it, first of all it,s frustrating serving a. god that you can never please, serving a god that.
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winstonchurchill
Flipper,
More than you think. I can't take a guess in terms of percentage, but many old timers are just slowing down, taking it easy. There will always be hard-liners, and BTW, they love seeing other 'slow-down' as this empowers them and feeds their self-righteous nature.
A couple of years ago, WT indicated it was not appropriate tol hold hands or embrace your spouse during prayer. Just go to any KH. everybody does it. When joking about it, some have even said they didn't have that habit, but now they do just to be rebels. I for one, almost make out with my wife during prayers.
We have our meetings Saturday,and over 6 COs have demanded we go go out to preach sunday mornings. Not happening. They just stop trying after their third or fourth visit.
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37
Do you feel sorry for those that are still in.
by jam inat one time i felt my jw famliy members hated me.
because i turn my back on the cult.. today i feel sorry for them and it,s not hate they.
feel.. they way i see it, first of all it,s frustrating serving a. god that you can never please, serving a god that.
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winstonchurchill
I'm in. Don't feel sorry for me. At least not for being a JW. A nominal one if you will. Do you feel sorry for Catholics? I do, for some of the blindly following every directive about birth control, or defending the curch on the child abuse issue. But most of them go to curch once in a while and couldn't care less about what the pope says.
Well the number of JW's doing just that, is growing and growing. Some seem to be expecting the JWs to 'implode', or dissapear overnight. Some expect them to be exposed and denounced on the front page of the Times. It ain't gonna happen. What is going to happen (it is happening in my opinion) is JW going mainstream, becoming just another religion. Elders COs just don't know what to do abou attendance dropping. Field service is a joke. On those two key issues they are lowering standards. Less meetings, less magazines to read. Yes, the GB will remain lashing out and getting tougher.But regular JWs are just not listening, or just don't care.
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45
Elders wife says being upset with pedophiles in the hall being the same as having to eat sauerkraut and wieners.
by life is to short inthis couple in our hall an elder and his wife gave us a anniversary gift.
it is a wall hanging that says "as for me and my household sister life is to short and hubby will worship jehovah forever.".
i felt i should send her a thank you card even though i hate the gift.
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winstonchurchill
A piece of advice: Don't try to use logic to understand this behavior. The whole thing is based on fear and guilt.
No JW (no human, for that matter) of sound mind and good judgment would condone pedophilia or consider it just an 'inconvenience' or think having a pedophile around is a piece of cake (or a wiener). The key is that JW behavior is not governed by logical reasoning, but by fear and guilt.
My point is their main concern is the 'Status Quo'. If to keep it you have to consider a pedophile a 'minor inconvenience', that's what they will do. That leads them to accept liars, cheater, drunks, and all sort of dishonest people, too frequently even in leading positions. Their judgment is twisted by fear and guilt, disguised as love, forgiveness and respect for 'mother'.
In the congregation 'it is what it is'. It's 'Status Quo' no matter what. Reacting in a sound logical manner would disrupt the order of things.
This is the train of thought (or the fear trip, if you will): You don't wanna piss off elders. You don't want to mess with the CO. The pedophiles have families, conexions, ties... you don't want to disturb that. You don't want to be the 'hot-head'. Why bother? Why risk your social life? Look at sister Life is too short! She's a living example of how concentrating on other's faults is damaging to your spirituality.. etc. etc. etc.
Then add some guilt: Almost certainly those elder's wives know dirty little secrets about a lot of people within the congregation. Probably they have their own little dirty secrets. Why stir up things? It could come around and bite you right there!
Years ago visiting a congregation, I tried to dig deeper into certain situations involving some MS and their families (Am talking wrongdoing not juts low averages), and an elder, told me "Don't you know, brother Churchill, that stirring up the old sh** always brings very bad odors?". Years later I realized it was his admission that his congregation was just a big pile of sh**.
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Counting heads at the Watchtower Study
by Sour Grapes ini was sitting in the back of the hall on sunday morning.
and about 30 minutes into the watchtower study two.
brothers get up to take a head count.
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winstonchurchill
Counting is getting easier, as attendance slips down!
It has always amazedme how important attendance is for some. At assemblies some are thrilled expecting the attendance announcement, as if the were announcing the Nobel prize winner. Then everyone writes down the attendance in their programs (are they gonna check it later? o they have a VisiCalc spreadsheet where they keep statistics?). Some are delighted to take a guess and even bet ("Sorry, brother Churchill, but us christians don't bet").
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55
BOE on Disfellowshiped Relatives
by JWFreak inagain...please do not request a pdf scan these are interbranch copies not the same ones sent to the congregations.
jwf.. january 21, 2010 .
to all bodies of elders .
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winstonchurchill
JWF: Post a .PDF and still some might say it's forged.
As of yesterday, the letter had not been posted on the jw.org (I checked). But sometimes they're posted a month or so later than the date of the letter. Also, some letters are not posted but sent only in hardcopy. You also say it's an interbranch memo, which could mean it is in the process of being circulated.
I have no doubts the leter is authetic: It fits perfectly what has been the official position of WT for years on this subject, just a bit more direct and black/white (leaving less room for local elder's autonomy, how convenient!).
Thanks for posting it!
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JWs growing in numbers despite opposition and criticism from apostates and other religious commentators. Why?
by african GB Member ini believe there are now over 7 million jws worldwide(correct me if i am wrong).
what makes this growth possible despite all the exposure on the internet and other media?.
not forgetting court cases and lawsuits.. is this not a sign that perhaps this is the true religion?.
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winstonchurchill
Here's the study I referred to earlier. The correct figure is 37%, meaning that 2 out of every 3 raised as JW won't stay.
You do the math where Two JWs produce, say, three kids, and only one stays 'in the truth'.
There's no need to explain the growth, because there is no growth.