Juan Viejo2

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Posts by Juan Viejo2

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  9

  Watchtower 1954 = "Jesus had NO Beard and nice short hair?? What?

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  1954 - 1968 jesus appeared in all publication pictures as a clean shaven short haired "witness" man....remember?.

  watchtower 1954 p.511 q.f.r "why do watchtower books now show jesus with short hair and no beard?

  ....because he is shown that way in representations that are older then the traditional effeminate looking pictures...".

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  Juan Viejo2

  Amelia,

  Maybe he does look like Jesus. I doubt JC ever wore eye liner...

  JV
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  30

  Davy Jones dead at 66

  by undercover in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sure, the monkees were a pre-fabricated band, but their influence was still immeasurable.

  especially mike nesmith.. .

  rip davy.... .

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  Juan Viejo2

  I worked for the telephone company in Hollywood between 1966 and 1972. I visited Davy Jones' apartment on two occasions to fix his phone and would also see him from time to time crossing the street at Gower and Hollywood Blvd.

  The very first time I met him was one night when I got off from work at the telephone company building at Gower and Sunset and walked all the way down Sunset Blvd. to Vermont Ave. to have breakfast at Norm's Restaurant. I was very poor in those days and at Norm's you could get a complete breakfast of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and coffee for 99 cents. That was often my main meal for the day. This short kid walks in and sits down next to me and orders the same 99 cent breakfast.

  I didn't pay much attention to him at first. But when he spoke to the waiter I noticed his very pronounced British accent. I turned to him and asked if he was one of the Monkees? "Yea, I am. I'm the short one." I mentioned that I had seen him several times walking on Gower Street. "Yeah, I have a flat over near there," he replied. We both finished our breakfast and were ready to pay. I saw him count out all of the change in his pocket and he was about a nickel short. "Oh, damn!" he said, "I'm going to be washing dishes tonight." I offered to "loan" him a quarter to cover his bill. "Oh, that would be so kind of you. But could you loan me fifty? I want to tip the waiter." I agreed.

  Several months later I was sitting in an ice cream shop at Western and Hollywood Blvd. taking a break. In comes Davy. It had been far too long for him to remember me, but I said "hi!" to him and held out my hand. "We had breakfast one night at Norm's."

  "Oh yes. Of course! You are the telephone man. Don't I owe you some money?" I waved him off, and told him that it was well worth the 50 cents to have been able to chat with him for a while. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a $20 bill (quite a bit of money in those days) and slid it under my ice cream cup. "I hope this covers it for you. Things were tough then and I was barely surviving. But it's better for me now. "

  I tried to refuse his offer, but he insisted. "But I tell you what. I'll have a chocolate shake and you can pick up my tab - OK?" (Shakes were about 75 cents in those days.) "We'll call it even," he said. And out the door he went.

  I'd see him on occasion at Columbia and Paramount studios, but never had a chance to chat with him again. He seemed to be a bit shy, but very normal. He certainly did not seem to be full of himself, in spite of his growing success.

  Davy was a pretty cool guy. I'll miss him...

  JV
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  40

  Elders want to pay a visit

  by varian in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i had a phone call recently.

  two elders want to come round.. now i ve been out for approx.

  8 years.

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  Juan Viejo2

  Varian,

  If you decide you want to meet with them, tell them that you left and do not want to return because:

  1. You never felt any real love within the congregation

  2. You felt that the elders did not care for you as a person, but only as someone to count as a member

  3. You felt that the elders were only interested in gathering power and prestige for themselves - and not the interests of their flock.

  4. You realized that everything was centered around two things: Watchtower's control of everyone's lives and MORE DONATIONS.

  5. The whole concept of door-to-door field service has become a farce and that counting hours has become dishonest and of no value.

  6. The meetings are so boring and structured. The Watchtower studies recycle the same information on a seasonal basis. Books are not worth the paper they are written on.

  7. You've finally realized that the Watchtower is first and foremost a publishing corporation. To maintain its tax free status and to eliminate government oversight, they've wrapped themselves in a bogus religious theology.

  jv
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  53

  Please keep our buddy SD-7 in your thoughts (and prayers)!

  by serenitynow! in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sd-7 texted me today.

  his wife is in labor, has had some complications and is having an emergency c-section.

  he asked me to spread the word to the folks on jwn.

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  Juan Viejo2

  Mrs. "Viejo" and I wish SD-7 the best. Will be publishing a series of articles he wrote a few weeks back on Ex-JW.com as soon as I get back from my trip to SoCalifornia. He is a good guy and deserves a happy and healthy family.

  JV
• 
  64

  California Most Hated State, According To Recent Poll

  by Bangalore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  california most hated state, according to recent poll .. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/california-most-hated-state_n_1297843.html?ref=mostpopular.

  bangalore.

  .

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  Juan Viejo2

  I was born and raised in SoCal. There was, and is, much to like about California. Parts of it are breathtakingly beautiful and certain areas are unmatched by anything else in the world. On clear days, fly-over photography of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego show their magnificent topography and unique settings. There are days when you can be swimming in the warm waters of the Pacific while gazing at snow-capped peaks off to the east. You can literally swim in the ocean in the morning and snow ski in the afternoon.

  From a societal standpoint, California has always been way ahead of the rest of the country in terms of acceptance of ethnic, racial, and sexual minorities. When I was going to public school in Riverside in the 1950s, we had Mexican-American, African-American, and Asian-American students in every classroom and none of us gave it a second thought.

  I now live in Oregon. As I write this, I am sitting in a motel in San Juan Capistrano, California. The weather is nice, except for the chilly ocean breezes at night. But just a few hundred yards from this hotel is the Interstate 5 freeway. It's busy 24 hours a day. For someone like me who has been away from the Los Angeles area for a few months - the traffic can be terrifying. No one drives the speed limit (70 MPH) except me and I feel like I'm being run over most of the time. Everyone drives aggressively in CA - probably for survival. You can be doing 75 MPH and have a 4 wheeler pickup or Hummer riding your rear bumper with its high-beam headlights flooding the interior of your car bullying you to get out of its way.

  In Oregon we don't pay sales taxes. Here in California, most communities have sales taxes approaching 10%. That includes gasoline. So you pay for gas, federal road tax on gas, state road tax on gas, and then sales tax on the whole balance. So as gas prices go up, so do gasoline state and local sales tax of almost 10% on the dollar. So the same gas that would cost $3.75 in Oregon would cost over $4.00 in California - no matter what the gasoline company was charging. So a 20 gallon fill-up would cost you $8 more in CA.

  There is more to like and hate about California. I lived here long enough. I look forward to my quiet and sereen life back in Oregon. I might never return to California if I didn't have so many family members living here. I count it my good fortune that I only have to travel back here two or three times a year.

  JV
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  35

  185 people died in a matter of seconds

  by sizemik in

  1. social
  2. current

  in exactly 1 hours time, we will stop and remember a moment that changed my life forever .

  chrictchurch at 12:58 pm 22/02/2011 .

  7 minutes after a 6.3 quake struck at 5km deep directly beneath the city.. rip to my friends dominic and woodsy .

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  Juan Viejo2

  Last year was a tough year for earthquakes. NZ sits on the same ring of fire line as Japan. Every time the earth yawns, some of us suffer. Sorry about your friends, Sizemik...

  JV
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  16

  Only in America?

  by cedars in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  about 10 years ago i visited the three new york bethels - patterson, brooklyn and wallkill.

  at the time, i was still very much mentally infatuated with the organization, so the trip was filled with wonder and nostalgia.

  i can remember being told by a tour guide at wallkill that they were now so familiar with things constantly changing and being improved that the information they give on tours can quickly become out-of-date.

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  Juan Viejo2

  One thing about the Watchtower Society is its lack of understanding of its own charter to "spread the good news of God's Kingdom throughout the world."

  C. T. Russell realized the power (and the profit) of the printed word. So his first act was not to form a religion, but a magazine and book publishing company.

  C. T. Russell also understood the untapped power and profit of slides and moving pictures. His "Photodrama of Creation" was a landmark advance that matched motion pictures with colored slides and sequenced recordings. Going to see his Photodrama was like going to Technicolor movies in the 1930s and Cinerama in the 1950s.

  Thanks to C. T. Russell's ability to harness the power of those fledgling technologies, his own fame spread far beyond his own ability as a speaker or as an self-proclaimed Bible expert would have taken him. Thousands of converts were gathered into the ranks thanks to his publishing and cinematic efforts - even as crude as they were.

  J. F. Rutherford used the new technology of radio to spread the word. His national and international radio station linkups using telephone lines were among the very first of any note. The Watchtower actually owned, partially owned, or had a monetary interest in several radio stations across the USA and Canada from the 1920s until the 1960s. Rutherford's speeches were on the air for several hours a day, seven days a week. He was every bit as famous as Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson were at the time thanks to the reach of radio.

  J. F. Rutherford also promoted regular door-to-door preaching. His techniques were observed and later modified by companies like Amway, Avon, and Mary Kay Cosmetics. They not only used his door-knocking ideas, but also used conventions and near religious and cult-like fervor to expand and control their sales forces.

  J. F. Rutherford also used portable phonographs and sound cars handled by unpaid volunteers (publishers) to spread his speeches.

  My point is that Russell and Rutherford used the new technologies of their time to spread the word and to generate money and converts. The modern version of the Watchtower has failed to use the two most powerful informational technologies even conceived to spread the word of God to the ends of the earth - which they both can do easily and rather cheaply: Television and the Internet. On the contrary, they have branded both of those communication resources as sinful and distractions of the Devil.

  Nathan Knorr may have been a good corporate organizer and Fred Franz a self-appointed prophet, but neither one had the foresight or intelligence to understand the amazing technologies placed before them.

  I also think that they thought that countries other than the USA, Canada, and Britain would never really have enough people of means to support the Society, so they were considered to be distant and unimportant "missionary territories." As late as 1990, Gilead was still sending missionaries to Europe, even though hundreds of congregations were already in place there.

  Actually I fear the day when the Watchtower Society wakes up and starts using TV and the Internet to spread their cult propaganda. That could make them a far more formidable foe for those of us who oppose them.

  Oh, and don't tell me that they are using the Internet now. Their piss-ant websites are puny and outdated in every way compared to Freeminds.org, JWN, JWfacts, and other ex-JW discussion websites. The quality of WT sites shows they lack the understanding of how to harness the power of the Internet. They still prefer to do their witnessing the hard and expensive way - door-to-door.

  Obviously, they aren't being guided by Almighty God, the creator of science, education and the Internet Machine. Maybe they could have gone that way long ago, but could never get 2/3 of the Governing Body's old farts to understand what they had available to them and actually vote for those changes.

  One well-produced YouTube video could have been seen by 1000 times more people in one weekend than could ever have been preached to door-to-door in five years. But the Governing Body just doesn't understand. They are blinded by their own ignorance. And if there is a Jehovah God, he might be the very one throwing a veil over their blind eyes.

  Thank goodness!

  JV
• 
  71

  Letter to the Writing Department from Barbara Anderson

  by Dogpatch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i thought i knew you.

  an open letter from barbara anderson to watch towers writing department.

  in 1517, martin luther wrote in a letter to archbishop albert of mainz: you must graciously forgive that i, that scum of the earth, am so bold as to dare to address a letter to you.. yes, i know, you think of me as scum, just like mainz believed of luther, wondering how i dare write you a letter, someone jehovahs witnesses disfellowshipped back in 2002. i was accused of being an unrepentant sinner and condemned for causing divisions, then labeled apostate because i spoke out publicly on nbcs dateline tv program aboutthe child sexual abuse policies that protected pedophiles policies that you helped formulate.

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  Juan Viejo2

  Get better acquainted with Barbara by listening to her interview with Mad Sweeney. Sweeney just lets her tell everythng she wants to share. A very enlightening broadcast.

  http://ex-jw.com/web-directory/cult-free-radio-archives-1-6 Show #09 Parts 1 and 2.

  You'll learn more about how the Watchtower really works in that podcast than anywhere else on the net. She was there and holds nothing back.

  JV
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  24

  Your recommendation for an economical, wireless home printer?

  by juni in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it would be used primarily for text printing at home.

  also, what are your thoughts on the advantages of laser vs. inkjet?

  thank you for your help.. juni .

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  Juan Viejo2

  I just bought a refurbished Epson 835 All-in-One from Fry's. This is the previous model (I think the 837 replaced it). A little over $100, plus $30 for two year extended warranty. Fry's typically just exchanges one for one or gives you credit toward an upgrade.

  My LexMark 2350 has served me well, and still works for straight print and copy. However, it tends to suck up 8-10 sheets of paper at a time and has stopped scanning for no discernable reason. I'll keep it as a backup for draft printing (I get the cartridges refilled at Costco for about $8). After a couple of refills, the cartridges die, but new ones are about $25 and go forever if you only do draft quality. I don't print photos on my printers, but upload them to Costco and have 4x6 prints made for 13 cents each - far cheaper than printing them on a home printer - and better quality too.

  I've owned Brother and Canon inkjet printers too, and they all last about 2 years with heavy use and about 5 with low or average usage. My Lexmark lasted nearly 6 and is still partly usable.

  Costco has some good printers priced very well. Avoid Best Buy; they will try to upsell you and their service has degenerated over the past couple of years.

  JV
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  23

  Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses and the irreversible decision

  by Celestial in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some business opportunities unfolded sometime back that required my full attention and excessive work hours that ended up putting a strain on me.

  i started taking the edge off by drinking alcohol, too much alcohol.

  the cycle of working and drinking ended up destroying my spirituality and i eventually completely quit attending meetings and every other aspect of kingdom service.

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  Juan Viejo2

  Troubled Mind and JWfacts have it just right.

  I was out of the JWs from about the time I was 25 until I was 65. For forty years I didn't much give a shit about the JWs. As far as I was concerned they could live their lives and I'd live mine. For the most part it could have been a peaceful breakup. But during that time the Watchtower:

  1. Contributed to the breakup of my marriage.

  2. Established and enforced their shunning policy, severely damaging my relationships with my parents, a sibling, and other relatives.

  3. Destroyed the potential of several friends and co-workers by denying them an education and taking away their desire to succeed in business.

  4. Forced healthy young people to lose their will to grow or expand their lives, eventually finding themselves at a dead-end by the time they were in their thirties.

  5. Created an environment where children are brainwashed and held back, living on biblical fairy tales, denied the joys of childhood, and abused mentally and physically.

  6. Proclaimed that they were the true religion, inspired by holy spirit, doing Jehovah's will, and leading the most loving organization on earth - when none of those things were true.

  By the time I was 65, I felt that I could no longer just ignore what the Watchtower was and what it had done. I had to do my part in some way to expose them for what they are.

  My methods may be crude, unappreciated, and ultimately a waste of my time and effort. But if only one person finds freedom and leaves the Watchtower because of something I have written or published - then for me all of my effort will have been worth it.

  If even one other person reads my material and chooses not to be converted and/or baptized into the Watchtower cult - then from my point of view I've earned some bonus points.

  I'm out and will never go back. But it's no longer just about me - it's really about those few people who I might have educated along the way who won't end up having their lives and families destroyed.

  JV