freddo

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Posts by freddo

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  26

  "In a human moment before Jehovah grabbed her"

  by truthseeker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i often wondered how far back the witnesses had been involved with my family.

  my grandmother died at the end of 2013 and while going through her photos we found some of my great-grandmother, dora, who was born in 1901 and died in 1994. there is a photo of dora dated 1946 standing outside her house in east riding, yorkshire.

  on the back of the photo her husband had written "in a human moment before jehovah grabbed her".. my great grandfather, who died before i was born, did not like the witnesses.

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  freddo

  Wow! 1946. That is so poignant.

  It could be written by any UBM down the decades, couldn't it? (Or by anyone that desperately wants his or her spouse to wake up like they did.)
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  136

  List of UK Travelling Overseers in 2013

  by soiledumpling in

  1. social
  2. current

  hi pepeep am attempting to get a current list of uk travelling overseers.

  left 4 years ago and have heard rumours of many new ones.

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  freddo

  Anthony Manning came off in 2015. Public Reproof I heard. Don't know why.

  David Hudson off due to age 70 rule; elder in Swansea South Wales neck of the woods I believe. Alive and well and gave a talk at the Cardiff Regional in 2017.

  Don Holley (who took himself off in 2013 in his seventies - did he see the redundancies coming the year after?) was alive and well and gave a talk at Cardiff Regional in 2017.
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  16

  Gradualism for the blood doctrine?

  by no-zombie in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  here in australia, during the service meeting this week, the local needs part was taken up to quickly discuss a letter from the organization stating that there will no longer be a annual meeting part to discuss or remind the congregations about their blood cards.. i found this quite odd.. its not like that there is a shortage of meeting time to discuss this issue, as the society has recently been hijacking more and more local needs parts for its own messages.

  and for a supposedly important doctrine, you would think that it should be mentioned more often rather than less, to keep everyone in line.. could this be a beginning of the movement away from the blood doctrine, through the process of gradualism?.

  no-zombie .

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  freddo

  Very interesting indeed.

  My guess it is more about distancing themselves from being seen to tell the congregations what to do by the secular authorities in court so that if their sorry asses are sued they will lie in court and say "its not us telling them, they do it of their own free will."

  Follow the money ...
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  15

  How do JWs pronounce COBE?

  by Wild_Thing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just wondering.

  when i was a witness, we had presiding overseer, and would say p-o for short.

  do they spell it out when they say cobe or do they say it with as a word?

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  freddo

  I think before Congregation Servant it was Company Servant as in Company of men (military term not corporate term).

  COBE is pronounced CO-BEE.
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  52

  Are Beards becoming more acceptable due to decline in membership?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i noticed a young brother with a beard being given more privelages within our hall.

  when he first grew his beard, he lost his privelages.

  but more and more recently he has been helping out a lot more.. the cobe is old school and a stickler for rules, but with the hall becoming more empty these days, and the need for young brothers, he seems to have relaxed on this particular watchtower/man made rule.

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  freddo

  Bit softer round our way.

  Our circuit has always had congregations which allow beards on MS's and elders and on the platform for public talks. Others in the circuit don't. I don't think any wouldn't let a brother do the microphones because of a beard.

  There was a recent WT in usual WT doublespeak which gave permission for beards but also permission for elders to enforce otherwise if they deemed it fit for the area they were in. I know this resulted in a nearby congregation BoE relaxing their rules.

  Still not seen any on the circuit assemblies mind!
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  29

  1975... the year that keeps on giving.

  by silentbuddha in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i recently moved back to my really really really small hometown in the south.

  it was the place that my parents moved to from a major city up north in the early 1970's.

  when we lived here times were very tough financially and i was always told that the reason we did not attend meetings was due to the fact that we had no car / no gas for the car / could not afford repairs for the years we were there.

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  freddo

  You sound a touch jaded Fisherman. Chin up!
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  12

  So, is it the publicity, or act itself that "brings reproach on Jehovah's name"?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  as we all sadly know, a common expression used by the society and elders in cases of abuse, or scandals, is "if you talk about this, you will bring reproach on jehovah's name!".

  this is uttered in order to deter making something known.. but really, if it is a case of abuse, is not the act itself the thing that brings "reproach on jehovah"?.

  making it known is not the problem.. rather hiding it, or not disclosing it to authorities is the thing that brings reproach!.

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  freddo

  Yup.

  Satan's seen the abuse happen and then the cover up so he's nudges his demon mates and says "See Jehovah's followers trying to hide it to cover their asses? I thought I was supposed to be the bad guy round here. We could take lessons from these guys in Brooklyn."
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  44

  A WTF Moment While In the WTS

  by Searching in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  has anyone else had a moment, while still within the organization (and before learning ttatt) that caused them to stop and go, "this is kind of messed up.".

  for instance, back i believe in the early 2000's, i was attending a dc with my family.

  it was announced at the beginning of the convention that there was going to be a special announcement at the end, so for everyone to please try to remain until the very end of the meeting.

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  freddo

  "Skin" said ...

  "Here in NZ, the price of fuel was included among the first reasons (read out from a letter at the KH) for the home book study to finish. They then spent the next 6 + months reading more letters out at the KH telling us that the price of fuel had nothing to do with book study ending."
  

  Funny that. Exactly the same statement and follow up denial happened here in the UK.

  Maybe Satan put the words into the two brothers mouths (11,500 miles apart) who read the letter just to mess with our heads into thinking that the direction came from Brooklyn.

  
  
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  20

  BBC: Victims 'told not to report' Jehovah's Witness child abuse

  by Lostandfound in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  today on bbc news site http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42025255 sorry about typo in heading big story on bbc news in uk.

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  freddo

  Thank you DS. Much appreciated.
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  20

  BBC: Victims 'told not to report' Jehovah's Witness child abuse

  by Lostandfound in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  today on bbc news site http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42025255 sorry about typo in heading big story on bbc news in uk.

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  freddo

  It's not so much the "two witness rule" - they can play what games they like in lala land for all I care - it's the NOT REPORTING TO POLICE/SOCIAL SERVICES and TRYING TO STOP OTHERS GOING TO THE AUTHORITIES - TO PROTECT JEHOVAH'S NAME that makes my blood boil.

  It is insidious. Even in the mid-2000's after Panorama/Dateline forced the bastards in Bethel to put in writing that congregation members could go to the authorities without sanction, the verbal "strong suggestions" were to avoid it like the plague and woe betide any elder who told them he was going anyway.

  I remember with another elder phoning the UK branch about a case where we believed that the children were being very badly neglected and we wanted to go to the social services. The Toady little shit on the end of the phone line - who of course is anonymous - really didn't want elders to go even when we explained that the parents or relatives wouldn't go because they knew they might "lose" their kids into care.

  We went anyway and didn't tell anyone else about it. Funnily enough the other brother is now an ex-elder too even though he seems to be a true believer.

  I believe - but cannot prove - there is a reported case in Ireland only this year where elders were removed (soundness of mind was the charge can you believe?) because they went to the authorities and what they knew came from either elders "investigations" or judicial records.