Cadellin

Joined

• started 24 topics
• posted 922 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Cadellin

• 
  6

  Attendance Figures

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was a jw in the 80’s-2000’s and probably saw the peak of uk attendance.. anecdotally, many here appear to have a view that attendance has reduced significantly.

  our kh would have around 90-110 for a meeting, at worst maybe 75 and the highest was 144 (for memorial lol).. small circuit assembly had about 1000 people and district had about 8-12000. .

  i know kh’s and circuits/districts have variance, however in the uk i attended many of these various gatherings and the numbers above tended to be reasonably average.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  One factor to keep in mind is the consolidation of congregations which, it seems, is going on all over the place. So a cong. might appear to have many more attendees but that may only be because it has swallowed two other congs.
• 
  18

  So I read the the gog of magog chapters from the new restore true worship book...

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  and what a heaping nonsensical freddie franz like bunch of crap.

  as i told my pimi brother.

  it's all based on assumptions and assertions that the ezekiel gog of magog account has a 2nd fulfillment in our day.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  Talk about delusions of grandeur...
• 
  33

  Did anyone put off having children because of wt bs?

  by I Faded Twice in

  1. social
  2. family

  just curious if anyone put off having kids because the end was so close.

  or because of you're "ministry" or lack of suitable mates..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  Even though the publications did not condemn having kids, the unspoken (well, sometimes it WAS spoken) understanding was that if you were spiritually mature/strong as a couple, you would put the kingdom first and that meant holding off having kids until the new order. Several of my peers with whom I grew up refrained from having kids (I can think of four, off the top of my head) so they could "do more" in the ministry. They are all in their early to mid 50's now. I remember, too, sometime in the mid or late 80's, a talk at the district convention entitled "Responsible Childbearing in the Time of the End," that all but came out and said you are irresponsible to have kids now, given how "close" we were to the end. It was pretty adamant.
• 
  57

  WT Study October 2018....spinning ''layoffs'' into ''reassigning'' ex-Bethelites ''to the field''

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  wt study october 2018. maintain inner peace despite changing circumstances.

  lloyd and alexandra learn that they have been reassigned to the field, they at first felt sad.

  after all, they had been serving at bethel for over 25 years.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  It is noteworthy that it is the middle-aged who are being kicked out, right at the time when their health care costs are about to go up-up-up. The WT does not want to have to pay health care costs for all of these couples! So kick them out and let either (1) the middle-aged couple pay exorbitant health insurance premiums out of pocket or, more likely (2) Medicaid which means the poor schmuck taxpayers are stuck with the bill (like me, who actually left the religion, got higher education and now can make a decent wage). This is a completely purposeful and calculated decision on the part of the WT--lurkers, think about that.
• 
  29

  Scary Experience

  by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  something weird and scary happened to us last nihgt.

  we had a few friends over for the weekend.

  we love to go hiking and long walks wherever and whenever we can.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  Just out of curiosity, ZindagiNaMilegiDobarra, what country are you in? This is horrifying.
• 
  37

  My sister passed away this evening

  by smiddy3 in

  1. social
  2. family

  it was only about two months ago she was diagnosed with lung cancer and she was a non smoker .. she was never a jw and she never held it against me that i was for 33 years.. we had a good relationship even though we lived in different states about 2000 miles apart,.. tears are rolling down my cheeks as i type this .

  r.i.p.

  sylvia .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  I am so sorry. Please know you have my deepest sympathy.
• 
  43

  Did Ray Franz Help You To Get Out of “The Truth”?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i sneakily read his books at work.

  it was written in such a way that no one could accuse him of being another bitter old apostate.. once it registered in my brain, especially after reading the second book, i knew i had to get out!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  I was already in motion to leave but it sure helped. I was struck by what a gracious and articulate writer he was and how he refrained from name-calling or other bitter rhetoric. As someone who had seen the inner workings of the WT, everything he said resonated with my own experience or research; CofC has, as they say, the "ring of truth." What a contrast with one of the last RC I attended, where on a 13 min. symposium part, the "brother" managed to use a defamatory or abusive term to describe "apostates" an amazing 60+ times!
• 
  30

  Our daughter was free to make her own choice.

  by StephaneLaliberte in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  when eloise dupuis gave birth to her son in 2016, there were complications where a blood transfusion would have saved her live.

  however, she refused and died; to the horror of the medical staff and the entire province of quebec.. two years later, there was a change in politics and the topic came back up in the media.

  the parents of eloise dupuis, obviously exhausted by the media coverage, wrote a comment to a well known news paper in quebec.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  I think the key difference lies in the effect of two (related) areas: (1) organized behavior; (2) coercion. As another poster said, what the WT does is "organized shunning," a very different thing than someone deciding on their own to avoid someone. Context is key. The WT presents itself as God's organization and, as we all know, uses the name "Jehovah" to indicate where direction is coming from, as in--"We want to do what Jehovah requires," etc. when in actuality, we could substitute WTBTS for "Jehovah" in that previous sentence. This imbues them with the veneer of divine authority and for believers, that is everything. So when publications indicate that parents should not even respond to a text message from a DF'd child, Witnesses understand that as a divine mandate and, what's more, see obedience as part of the "us vs. them" scenario. Consider how different it would be if the Society truly presented it as a conscious matter, offering scenarios where one person might decide to shun a DF'd child but another person continued association, both of which were presented as justifiable based on the individual's conscience. That would change the situation entirely!

  Related to this is coercion. As another poster pointed out, if you do an act because a gun is pointed at you, that is not seen as a voluntary act. Under the law, contracts signed under duress are unenforceable. Similarly, disfellowshipping is a tremendous and significant method of coercion, if your entire support system/family is at risk, and so in no way can it be said that Witnesses can freely choose to have or refuse a transfusion. As long as the threat of organized shunning is a real risk, free choice is not available. Choice may be available but it is a coerced choice made under duress (the pointed gun) and so is not free (and therefore true) choice. It is as simple as that.
• 
  34

  Yesterday's WT slip up

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when the israelites left egypt in 1513 b.c.e., they may have numbered more than three million.

  spanning three or even four generations.

  🤭.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  A crowd of that size would have been impossible for that time frame. Max Roser (whose site is fascinating) estimates the entire world population at around 72 million and notes that growth was very slow, almost nonexistent, for much of human history. If there really WAS such a crowd leaving Egypt, they would have left a significant footprint in the Moab desert. Say, for example, the mortality rate was just 1% (that is a relatively modern mortality rate and likely would have been higher in ancient times but for the sake of argument...). That means 24,000 people died every year, or 2,000 average per month for forty years (not counting the regular mass wipe-outs by the loving God). Evidence of funeral pyres or other burials and remains would be striking, offering undeniable proof of the WT's assertion. Yet, as others have noted, nothing.

  Sorry, UA, you are right, we are off your point, which is a good one! Still, this was one of the facts that woke me up to the Bible's errancy/exaggeration and the Society's naivete.
• 
  23

  Why does WT rarely reference creationist scientist?

  by Sanchy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in watching the latest video in the series "was it designed?

  " at tv-dot-jw-dot-org, i got to wondering why is it that watchtower hardly references scientist that are creationist.

  i know its only a minority from that group, but there are enough out there for them to reference from.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Cadellin

  Just watched this. Sidepoint--a woman narrator! Wow. I have never encountered that before, unless it was a narrator for a woman's life story.