freddo

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Posts by freddo

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  9

  Special talk yesterday?

  by TweetieBird in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i got a call from my mother-in-law the other day begging me to go to the hall this past sunday for a special talk.

  i didn't go but was wondering what the deal is?

  details please..

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  freddo

  Oh yah! WT Study - Your Deliverance is Getting near! (again!)
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  44

  I'm not so sure a bigger awakening is going to happen anymore

  by bradford in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i left in march officially i started reading the forums here.

  i had this excitement that more people would be leaving soon because of the crazy broadcasts, the crazy "new light" that the gb was dishing out, and more recently the australian royal commission lighting up geoffrey.

  this past saturday i had an elder stop by to chat for the first time since i left.

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  freddo

  Round "our way" - south U.K. - over the last ten years I have noted:

  1) Dropping average meeting attendance from about 90% of publisher number to 75% of publisher number (despite being two meetings instead of three). More vacations.

  2) Very few coming in from outside. Those that are are low hanging fruit. Not mentally or emotionally "right."

  3) More ex-elders. One congregation nearby has six serving elders with five ex elders sat in the audience. Another has eight elders with four exes. 2 elders resigned or removed in one cong. in 2014.

  4) In one hall in the last two years 1 older single/divorced brother in his 70's has conspicuously and deliberately "gone inactive" - I don't know why. I older sister in her 60's has definitely disassociated (announce as no longer a jw but the rumour mill says she felt not enough emphasis on jesus and "being made to feel guilty for not doing enough" every CO visit). Another one in her 40's posted her pictures of herself in an Xmas party hat on facebook and she was called up by elders and she disassociated or was DF'd - not sure which)
  

  None of these were ever zealous types but nevertheless three in two years and not for the traditional "immorality".

  Slow steady decline. And this during the 2013/2014 let's all get new bibles and celebrate 100 years razzmatazz.
  

  This was before the ARC and the overlapping generation! Let's hope it gets worse.
  
  
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  52

  After Death Communications in the JW community

  by jack2312 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my name is jack and i'm looking for after death communications from the jehovah witness community.

  an after death communication (or adc) is when a loved one sends a kind of message to this side of life after their death.

  it can be a dream or smell (like perfume or roses that would be attached to them in memory) or a feeling of their presence.

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  freddo

  Hello Jack.

  I'm sorry to hear your daughter died at age 35. It must be so distressing to lose a child I don't know how folk cope but I guess they have to.
  

  I hope you find solace.
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  10

  Trolley Cart effectiveness

  by freddo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone here who goes to meetings know of anyone who comes to their meetings after being contacted on the trolleys?

  anyone hear of a real bible study from these carts?.

  exaggerations from the assembly platform or jw urban myths do not count!.

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  freddo

  @Mad Irishman

  Did the studies "progress"?
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  75

  Lurker trying to gain clarity

  by questioningmyfaith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

  i am not negative towards the wt at all.

  so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

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  freddo

  Hello qmf,

  You say they do nothing worse than waking folk up on Saturday mornings.

  What about "protecting their image"? By doing this they have instructed their branch legal departments to stop elders bringing accused pedophiles to the relevant authorities (1 Peter 2 v 13 - 18) and this has backfired enormously.

  What about their persistent claiming they can interpret "the generation" and encouraging their followers to give up higher education and career prospects or having a family so as to preach their doctrine of Armageddon "soon, very soon" to others?

  And now they are after the mighty dollar in a way they weren't previously. "Bigger storehouses" "counting the cost" and even "ananias and sapphira" come to mind.

  And Blood? The scriptures say "marry only in the Lord" and they do not disfellowship for that. Why do they count taking blood (or at least the fraction they deem as disallowed) as if you have disassociated yourself? When the context of Act 15 seems to be talking about blood in worship or in eating it? Can blood being sacred because it represents life be more sacred than life it itself?
  
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  10

  Trolley Cart effectiveness

  by freddo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone here who goes to meetings know of anyone who comes to their meetings after being contacted on the trolleys?

  anyone hear of a real bible study from these carts?.

  exaggerations from the assembly platform or jw urban myths do not count!.

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  freddo

  Does anyone here who goes to meetings know of anyone who comes to their meetings after being contacted on the trolleys? Anyone hear of a real bible study from these carts?

  Exaggerations from the assembly platform or jw urban myths do not count!

  Personally I know of none.
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  53

  Are the J.W's reaching a "Tipping point"?

  by karter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i haven't been to a meeting in 15 years but my mother and sister are hard as j.w's.

  the brothers they are appointing elders are at best suspect like one guy from my old hall made elder,big time drug used before becoming a j.w his talks are all over the place and would have struggled to make m,s years ago but with at least 60 to 70 % of young ones leaving the pool to pick from is at best reduced.. 2 other recent elders both young and zero life experience both on benefits one not well at all falls asleep all the time.. the decent,kind elders mostly older and are decent people with alot of life experience are burning out fast as there are so few of them left like 3 per congro of 100 publishers.. then you have the rich elders who wouldn't ever think of inviting some poor older or mis-fit person out to the expensive placers they go to as they couldn't afford to go so they are above the r&f and the r&f get pissed off with them.

  then we have the ones who have "put the kingdom 1st" who are now old worn out and barely getting by from welfare cheque to welfare cheque that are saying "the system should have been over many years ago" it's still here and they are struggling everyday.. then there are the pioneers who have a low payed reduced hour job that seem to think anyone who has anything is totally materialistic and looks down on anyone getting a new car buying a house ect.. along with the child abuse issues,the generation change,access to information the the g.b don't want anyone to know ,not to mention the issues around blood.. is there a tipping point coming????

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  freddo

  Bearing in mind that it is only seven or eight years since the book study dropped the attendances are pathetic compared with then.

  Attendances that were 90% + of congregation publisher numbers three times a week are now 75% twice a week.
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  6

  This generation.

  by @ROOT in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i came across this video on youtube.

  now i know robert king has defended the wts in the past, but this video is worth sharing, especially for lurkers.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srwr2j8vlga&index=46&list=pl67909870ff6d8b01.

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  freddo

  He sounds as whacky as they come. Frying pan. Fire.
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  41

  When you read this Richard Glossip will probably be dead.

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how do i feel about this?.

  too much doubt.. shame on you people who are responsible for putting richard to death.. richard is scheduled to be put to death in oklahoma at 3pm on september 16th by lethal injection.

  i have followed this case and feel like so many people very bad about this.

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  freddo

  I used to be all for the death penalty for certain crimes. Still am. Except for the possibility of executing the wrong person. Or a mentally defective one.

  Google Timothy John Evans and see how this case went a long way towards abolishing the death penalty in the U.K. Or 19 year old Derek Bentley whose 16 year old friend pulled the trigger killing a policeman. What did did Bentley mean when he said "Let him have it, Chris?" Did he mean hand over the gun or to shoot him?

  I'm happy with life imprisonment meaning life imprisonment. (not 10/15/20 years)

  Just maybe if the murderer is aged 18-21 then start looking at parole after 20/25 years or if older after 30 years. With life imprisonment, if forensics or other things prove innocence then there is a chance of putting the matter right.
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  27

  Instructions from the Old Elder's Book

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  last night i was looking over the notes on my old elders book and one of the instructors told us to write this down.

  "when you want to get the friends to believe and obey anything, just keep saying it over and over and over and eventually they will believe it and follow whatever they are being told.

  when i went back to school, i learned this quote in one of my world history classes..

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  freddo

  I don't remember being instructed to write that in my elders book either cantleave.