At the 2009 DC I was pleasantly surprised at the number of bearded men - probably 1 in 20 I reckoned on one walkabout through the stadium. Mind you this is the UK...
Posts by freddo
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7Fat Men with Beards are Unclean
by ozziepost inhave you noticed how illustrations in the watchtower magazine reinforce witness stereotypes?.
the april 15 issue of the watchtower, on the back page, shows a man viewing pornographic material on his computer screen.
the appearance is not of a cleancut man with business shirt and tie in this case; no, this unclean man is portly and has a black beard.
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Mr. Flipper Talks with Bethel Legal Service Desk Rep About JW Child Abuse
by flipper inwell - i had been wanting to do this for a long time , to question a legal department representative at bethel about the child abuse settlements and jw child abuse, since last year when the news came out about it.
especially since my dad , an elder for years was never aware of it and has on his own taken steps to see that families with children are informed if a former pedophile is in their congregation.
i was curious as to what the current views and policies in place are .
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freddo
Excellent job Flipper.
I missed this thread first time around and it's worth keeping at the forefront. I've been a JW all my life (48 yrs) and can endorse that branches and HQ are all about CYA! CYA is the most important thing to a Bethel heavy.
And of course the vast majority of them haven't got kids!
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A little advice needed on disassociating myself
by MisfitMeL inyes i know i tend to post here only when i need advice or have something to rant about .
so i'm living in the uk but leaving very shortly to go back to my home country of india and try my career luck there (what with the recession and all that).
i'll be living with my mum for a while and i am soooo not looking forward to it.
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freddo
About Snakes "bribe the elders advice" ... and "UK elders can't be bothered with the card sending etc"
Be careful on this one - in India JW's are often near the "ex colonial" enclaves like Goa or/and sometimes there is a relatively rich British, American or Portuguese ex-pat. on the body of elders who will go running to Brooklyn over the heads of the locals.
On the card sending - brilliant advice. I had experience of this between the UK and another EU country and a girl successfully faded, the cards I sent to the address she gave me for the Secretary in the congo she was going to were returned as "not known at this address" (or what ever that nation's equivalent is) and she is now back in our City, with a child, un-married and untouched (JW discipline wise) by her old congo who if they could be assed could df her easily. And mummy is a pioneer and stepdad is an elder LOL!
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A little advice needed on disassociating myself
by MisfitMeL inyes i know i tend to post here only when i need advice or have something to rant about .
so i'm living in the uk but leaving very shortly to go back to my home country of india and try my career luck there (what with the recession and all that).
i'll be living with my mum for a while and i am soooo not looking forward to it.
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freddo
Frankly I cannot for the life of me understand why you A) Want to go and live with your mother after the way you describe her. B) Think that DA'ing will help the situation, and C) Think that you have the prospect of a better economic future in India as a woman aged 26 than in Edinburgh.
Either you have not thought this through or I am missing something? Think it through very very carefully.... please!
Freddo
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Sending Out a Letter to My JW Daughter - Give Me Your Thoughts Please
by flipper insome of you probably read my jw daughter's letter to mrs. flipper and me a few weeks ago where she tried explaining to mrs. flipper why she doesn't have anything to do with me ( says i talk negative towards the organization ) .
in that letter though she showed some flashes of her authentic, kind personality and told us she loves us.
but much of the letter was proselytizing to us about how bad the system is and how jeovah will bring a paradise, etc.
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freddo
Flipper's good and so's Vinny.
I'm like Flipper in that I am waiting to "choose my moment" when family conditions are at their best (in my case death of my ageing jw father and possible moving away from the area - my three to five year plan!) (Present plan is building up non jw friendships). My wife knows pretty much how I feel, though I don't ram it down her throat and she has enough to "shop me" if she wanted to which she has shown by her actions she doesn't.
I think the problem is that if you've not been caught out for some years on an ex-jw board then you feel "safe" and it isn't until someone who knows you chances upon your photos that you get "blown out of the water". I wouldn't post any for the reasons Vinny highlights but can understand the urge to say/show something by way of asserting your natural self which is repressed out of fear, cowardice or pragmatic reasons or a mixture of all three.
The chances of discovery are remote - but real if someone is "hunting you down". If someone sees them who is fading and wanting out themselves then it is unlikely they will blow your cover because they need to explain how they found the pictures anyway.
I love Flipper's posts and Vinny's too. When the time is right (for selfish me) I want a heart to heart with my family and while I hope to remain un- d/f'd then it will be verbally on a one to one basis. Perhaps Flipper could meet his daughter alone at some point? If the DF comes then it will be letters to all and sundry!
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Regional Identities in the UK - A short guide for Americans
by besty inso the uk is divided into 4 separate countries - the big bit called england that has wales on the side and scotland at the top with northern ireland off on its own island.. each country has multiple cultural identities.
broadly speaking (and i generalize) the wealth of england (and the uk generally) is concentrated in london, the 'rust belt' is in the middle namely birmingham and manchester and the north of england tends to be poorer.. scotland - where i'm from - is culturally rich but economically poor.
there is a long-standing argument about how wealthy scotland could have been if it had been able to keep all the north sea oil revenue instead of sending it to london.
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freddo
A short background to Wales (the bit to the left of England!)
South/South East Wales - along the M4 Motorway live about more than half the population and they are mainly "English" only speakers.
Cities and large towns here are Cardiff (capital pop 300K plus) Newport, Port Talbot and Swansea. Up until the mid/late 20th century the economy was based on coal and steel. There is some (but declining rapidly) left and a large petrol/gas terminal on the junction of the Bristol Channel/Atlantic Ocean at Milford Haven. Lovely beaches on the Gower peninsula and west of that.
For the last thirty years the District convention (which is for mid and south Wales and some of the west of England has been at Cardiff with a short gap while the Millenium Stadium was built and it was moved just over the English border to Bristol. (an English city rather larger than Cardiff)
Mid Wales
Market towns and mountains in the Brecon Beacons at the southern end, the Plynlimon range and lower Snowdonia in the North. University town on the West coast Aberystwyth - a large port at Fishguard for Southern Ireland. A lot of Welsh speakers and a bit of an anti-English attitude increasing the further North and West you go. Lovely beaches on the West coast.
North Wales
Towns and a few run down seaside resorts with Llandudno on the North coast being the most genteel and Victorian. Fantastic and stark Snowdonia mountains in the North West. More Welsh speakers here and in the 70's a lot of anti English feeling with "the sons of Glyndwr" painting anti English slogans and extremists committing arson on vacation cottages (often English owned). The problem they have here is they need the tourist's money - which is mainly English as the slate mines are all but defunct.
Most folk are pretty welcoming tho'.
JW's here go to Manchester for their DC's.
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More are waking up to the false prophecies as well as the hyocrisy
by Amazing injehovah will do none of the things you suggest ... jehovah, as he is defined by watchtower styled teachings, or the teaching fantasies of a number of ex-jws, is a false god, and simply does not exist.
that is what watchtower false prophecy proves to me ... that their weak little pathetic god, that they market under the name jehovah, has less substance than a roman statue of jupiter.. if you accept the bible ... then as st. luke states, in acts 4:12, "neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
" as the scripture says, the father transferred name recognition to the son.
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freddo
Bible Student ... it is Michael Porter not Eric Porter. But I understand what you are saying.
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Dissension spooking the Watchtower Leadership?
by freddo inapparently the current round of co visits (in the uk) includes (from an outline in the co meeting with elders and possibly also mss) much talk of tightening up the rules on associating with df/da, apostates and that they are to take the lead in clamping down on this.. they also focus on the view that apostates have nothing else to offer jw's.. sounds like anti-wt tactics are having an effect!
but it looks like it's going to get tougher before it gets easier .... anyone else confirm?
my sources are elders/ms's in two seperate nearby congo's..
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freddo
Apparently the current round of CO visits (in the UK) includes (from an outline in the CO meeting with Elders and possibly also MSs) much talk of tightening up the rules on associating with DF/DA, apostates and that they are to take the lead in clamping down on this.
They also focus on the view that apostates have nothing else to offer jw's.
Sounds like anti-WT tactics are having an effect! But it looks like it's going to get tougher before it gets easier ...
Anyone else confirm? My sources are elders/ms's in two seperate nearby congo's.
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The JW library CD - Are the articles in their original version?
by bohm inhey!
i stumbled on something on jwfacts.com.
on this page (http://jwfacts.com/index_files/1800s.htm) it says: (my emphasis).
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freddo
It is extremely rare to find a difference - and that is the only one I have ever found. I treasure my single paper copy of that WT which I keep safe for future reference. And the bound volume matches the CD. So they did change it before the CD came out.
Interestingly on the latest 2008 CD-ROM if you look up "books" you will still find (KJ) Know Jehovah 1971 and on page 216 (Chapter 12) para. 9. you will see - "Shortly, within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will begin..."
Type "shortly within" into the CD-ROM search box - you'll find it under books soon enough!
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Are these the "cop out" clause in the Mill Hill/Porter child molestation case?
by hamsterbait inthe mill hill london, england, congregation was set up as a charitable trust in 1997.. www.charity-commission.gov.uk/library/investigations/pdfs/lonmill.pdf.
having read through the above link, i found a couple of disturbing statements that seemed to be a loophole that "theocratic stategists" may well use to give themselves wiggle room to evade the spirit of the recommendations that incidents be reported.. first:.
clause 4: the total [income of the trust] for 2007/8 was 6, 006, expenditure was 9, 205.. now see what is in clause 34:.
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freddo
WTS will always go by the letter of the law and not the spirit of it when it suits them.
Unless there is a bequest or major refurbish going on then British congregations rarely have income or expenditure exceeding £10K let alone £25K.