Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
cattails
JoinedPosts by cattails
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7
SALT documentary
by purplesofa ini watched this documentary on pbs over the weekend, it's pretty awesome if you can watch.. purps.
synopsisin his search for somewhere i could point my camera into pure space, award-winning photographer murray fredericks began making annual solo camping trips to remote lake eyre and its salt flats in south australia.
these trips have yielded remarkable photos of a boundless, desolate yet beautiful environment where sky, water and land merge.
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JW Retirement...
by sabastious in...doesn't exist.. if you are so old or sick that you can't physically go out in the field ministry then they have the 15 minutes a month provision.. but what about people who have been doing it for 50 years?
what if they are just tired and want to retire?
just a though that popped into my brain while reading a post here.. "wicked" worldly organizations have retirement plans because they want to honor the members that gave them decades of service.... -sab.
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cattails
One of the most disheartening things that's ever happened to me as a JW is having people "in the world" make comments about JW's in front of me of how disgraceful it is to force elderly and feeble people to go peddling tracts and magazines for the WTS, usually these people didn't know I was a JW too. It's happened to me several times in different situations, the "world" notices how we treat older ones and what they're made to do. It is a crying shame!
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I Went to the KH on Saturday
by snowbird ini needed to get a picture of my daughter all dressed up in her bridesmaid gown.. she looked lovely - tastefully made up and just radiant.. i stepped across the threshold and felt ... nothing.. i saw some people from back in the day who did not recognize me, or pretended they didn't.. that was just fine.. unless my daughter opts for a kh wedding, i'm done for good.. thanks to y'all for listening.. syl.
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cattails
Any event at the KH is a propaganda opportunity for the WTS.
A wedding, a funeral, any of the meetings... all propaganda opportunities at the cost of lost precious moments in a person's life, like a marriage, or the sad and painful loss of a dear one, if the event happens at a Kingdom Hall, the WTS makes sure the event is hijacked for their purposes and profit. Shame on the WTS!
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Interesting quote on leadership - what do you think re: the Governing Body?
by sir82 intoday i read a newspaper columnist who wrote something that caught my attention:.
"...obedience is a natural response to effective leadership, and this is true regardless of whether the people being led are adults or children.".
now, think about the gb.. virtually every wt "study edition" contains at least one, if not several, reminders about how we should "obey the gb".. dozens of the songs in the new song book extol how worthy of obedience & devotion the gb is.. each assembly & convention features dozens of reminders on how important it is to be obedient & submissive to the gb.. service meeting parts routinely offer "loving reminders" of how jws should obey the gb re: conventions, literature, donations, etc.. .
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cattails
"...obedience is a natural response to effective leadership, and this is true regardless of whether the people being led are adults or children."
I think the quote is a stupid management tool. A "natural response"??? What in nature is natural about obedience and effective leadership? The winners in any war in history make write the history books, don't they? I don't think effective leadership is what made Hitler rise to power. I don't think either of our two Bush presidents were "effective leaders" but people obeyed, and look at the messes left behind.
No, the quote is just a bunch of words that sound good, nature is dirty, nature is organic, nature is "not knowing whether the best will win". You can assume you know nature but the truth is nature isn't bound by what we think, it has it's own laws and they're not ours to use in controlling nature. Human plans fail and there's no perfect leadership, the inefective leadership is exposed because "chance and unforeseen occurrences" befall us all.
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Notes from my Judicial Committee (I was DF'ed at the end)
by notverylikely inthese are the details of my disfellowshipping.
the names and locations have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.
my errors are not hidden in an attempt to make me look better, this simply is a presentation of the facts that led up to the disfellowshipping and a re-telling of the contents of the meeting.. .
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cattails
Notvery,
I did not like reading your post. I did not like what you did. I don't know you but you know you did a morally wrong thing.
And... disagreeing with the WTS isn't an excuse to cheat on your wife. I'm sorry for your situation, but you made your other bed and slept in it.
I feel awkward being judgmental, but I don't think the elders in the JC should have cried and hugged you, you did the nasty and deserved the kicking in the butt for it.
If someone reconnects with a Facebook friend who was an old flame and suddenly the WTS is a liar... well the WTS has always been a liar, and maybe working on a hobby car in the garage may have given one jollies enough to empty out the anger at the cult rather than victimize someone who shared vows of love and caring with. Hypothetically speaking even if this isn't your case I'm just trying to make a point. Please understand that I agree you have a right to make a mess out of your own life, but I think by doing what you did you made a mess of your wife's life too, and this may be real tough for her to forgive or forget.
You were victimized by the WTS and it's control over your life, and you took it out on your wife by making her the victim in your betrayal of her trust and the promise of sharing your lives with one another.
All right, I don't want to go on, I don't care if I get crucified for telling you what I just wrote, I think you agree that it wasn't pretty and I can't find any sympathy for what you did. If the elders hugged you after DF'ing you, shame on the hypocrites, they should have more respect and brotherly love for the wife you left.
I said my peace.
Cats.
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Valley Farms Corp. What do they protect with it?
by MinisterAmos inmost already know that watchtower corp atty phil brumley uses a patterson, ny address as his residence.
using google maps, 131 brimstone road, patterson ny is starting to shape up into a veritable mansion.
maybe they are planning another rutherford (also an atty) style beth sharim but this time close to wallkill?.
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cattails
Since the thread has been revived, I'd like to point out that Google Maps now has a street level view of the property.
Check out the "mansion", or at least quite a nice upscale home.
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RE: can elders encourage DF'd persons...
by elderelite in***13. in recent times there have been cases in which an elder happened to meet a disfellowshipped person.
where appropriate, the shepherd briefly outlined the steps to be taken for reinstatement.
some persons like this repented and were reinstated.
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cattails
Wow! What about Jesus teaching about leaving the 99 sheep to go looking for the lost one.
It's all a matter of control, the directives to elders are probably due to the legal department's suggestions to the GB.
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IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM - Ray Franz
by compound complex indear friends, .
some have expressed interest in the above title and their wish to have it for themselves.
the chapter of particular importance to many of us is "legalism - opponent of christian freedom.
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cattails
I had ordered both books from Amazon at the same time I ordered some other books, I was living at home and was very much afraid anyone in my family would find out I was ordering "apostate" literature.
When the box came in I took out some of the not so interesting educational titles, left Ray Franz's books inside the box though, then put them all back in the box in plain view, and went to my room coming right out with the empty box. Then went to "organize", which turned into several hours of reading CoC.
CoC is a pretty thick book, several hundred pages thick, so I put on a pretty book-sock to disguise it, and read it in plain sight of everyone, avoiding pages with large titles or photos that prying eyes might spot. I had to read some parts of it twice, if I remember because I really wanted to understand what I was reading and what it meant for my faith, rebellious as I was at the time I read it.
Once I finished CoC I just couldn't wait to start into ISoCF. I liked CoC, it helped open my eyes to a lot of facts about the WTS, but "Christian Freedom" gave me confidence and faith. It put down falsehoods but helped me become more of a Christian minded person. But its size proved to be a challenge.
ISoCF is 700 plus pages, how was I going to leave this huge book around, it's almost twice as thick as CoC. Since I couldn't wait to read it and I'd gone for the paperback issue I decided to make a sacrifice.
I ripped the pages, carefully by hand, from its gummy backing, the smell of the new book and the fear I may mess up and rip a page down the middle was just insane. But I managed to get about half the book un-glued into single sheets, I remembered being told by Bethelites that they did this unbinding with WT Yearbooks when the daily text was the last part of the yearbooks, they'd rip the pages and carry the sheet in their pocket through the day. Well, I carried a chapter at a time inside one of the educational books of about the same length and width. I'd take out a chapter at a time making sure to put the pages back by number in the right order with the rest of it that I kept in one of my dresser drawers under some other "stuff".
I'd bring the book with ISoCF everywhere even in my bag to the KH! I even read from it during the meeting when I unfortunately came down with a migraine and "had" to sit in the side school.
I remember well, that the chapter on the use of Jehovah's name by Jesus and first Century Christians un-nerved me a lot. But given some time to think about it and pondering on the phrase like "in the name of the law" or "in the name of the Queen/King" means not by the name itself but by its power, I came to appreciate more and more that in the Bible the name carried not only the meaning of the name but the meaning behind the name, the power and authority it represented. So I was ok with angels appearing to humans and then people saying Jehovah spoke to them, because they came "in the name of God".
Definitely ISoCF was a very faith strengthening book, it tore down false human reasonings and build up my faith in the real meaning of being a disciple of Christ.
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"Poissonous falsehoods" according to 3rd Witness
by cattails inholly berry and heather berry.
v.. watchtower bible and tract society of new york, inc.,.
wilton congregation of jehovah's witnesses,.
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cattails
It 3rd Witness is a WTS Apologist and reads JWD/JWN, isn't that not following WT directives about apostate sites?
Notice the quote from the 3rd Witness website on child abuse and the WT, where he quotes a poster from JWD, Gerard, saying something about one of the sexual abuse cases.
http://thirdwitness.com/childabuse/Deal.html
Gerard, a poster at the site known as JWD, who claims to be a friend and supporter of attorney Kimberlee Norris of Love and Norris, reports that she said she would never settle these cases. Here are his exact words: "... I am extremely disapointed on Kimberly Norris, their attorney. I asked her a couple of years ago in this list and she said she would never settle. I guess everyone has a price...lawyers standing on the sidelines are not an exception. A lawyer needs more abuses in the future to keep settling them out of court. Why kill the hen that lays gold eggs?" Later he reiterated, "For the record: Kim told me she would not settle, so that was disapointing and caused me anger as I felt she lied."
Assuming that he is not lying (why would he since he is a supporter of Norris against the Watchtower Society) and assuming the cases were settled out of court, then we have to wonder why did she settle out of court when she claimed she never would? Indeed why did all 10 persons involved in the 6 cases choose to settle with a confidentiality agreement or gag order as some call it?
Usually an ambulance chaser, like Kim Norris, pursues these cases with no money being fronted by the plaintiffs, meaning they volunteer their time, but collect 40% of the resulting judgment or settlement. If they discover their case is weak, they can put a lot of pressure on the plaintiffs to settle, otherwise the plaintiffs would have to pay out of their own pockets to continue pursuing the case. Most cannot afford to do so, so they must accept the advice of their attorney. Hence you have 10 out of 10 settling their cases and not one holding out to prove their case. It is also most revealing that shortly thereafter, three other cases involving six other alleged victims in Texas, Oregon, and San Diego were likewise settled with the same 'gag order' agreement.
You may have heard that the settlements involved MILLIONS of dollars. Those who make such claims really have no idea of the amount. They are merely guessing and it is a baseless guess. Innocent defendants oftentimes offer settlements to end cases and if we look at history of the Watchtower Society we will see that they almost always do the same. This is no indication of guilt on the part of the defendant.
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How would the diehard witnesses view this ?
by man in black inthis video was sent to me earlier today, and it really hit a nerve with me,,,,, i just couldn't stop applying it to the witness belief of df and da.. i've known quite a few witness parents over the years who just left their kids "on the roadside" because they no longer.
wanted to be a part of this religion.. why is it that genuine human reaction/emotion is dropped when children no longer want to be a jw ?.
this father seems to be quite a guy, notice how he yells at the security/medical person near the end no doubt to leave his son alone !.
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cattails
This video is now making the rounds in JW circles on Facebook.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_566Z1WzTLs