there is discussion of doomsday cults at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/doomsday_cult, and much of it aligns closely with watchtower predictions and behaviour, so i was wondering why jehovah's witnesses are not mentioned.
here are some quotes from the article:.
doomsday cult is an expression used to describe groups who believe in apocalypticism and millenarianism, and can refer both to groups that prophesy catastrophe and destruction, and to those that attempt to bring it about.
As Luke Skywalker puts it, "Your overconfidence is your weakness."
"Your faith in your friends is yours."
"It is pointless to resist, my son."
But to answer the question, absolutely. It may seem like an extreme label, but clearly it's a cult, and clearly it's centered around the expectation of an imminent doomsday scenario. Ergo, doomsday cult.
--sd-7
i usually can't hear someone knocking on the door of our enclosed porch, so i haven't spoken to a jw in person in the ten years that we've been at this house.
and being that the temperatures are currently very cold in northeast ohio, i suppose the jws are doing telephone witnessing.
so, today i had the opportunity to talk to two real live jws.
I would add something further, but, LOL! at this picture! It says it all!
--sd-7
i just wanna post post this.
to all congregations.
re: thirty-hour quota for auxiliary pioneering.
When I first heard about this, I figured it was a pilot program of sorts to be expanded in the future (which is now the present) if it generated good numbers. So...no surprise there. It's just a new and improved sales drive.
--sd-7
some 800 people in sweden and other parts of europe have developed an incurable case of narcolepsy which is being attributed to pandemrix h1n1 made by glaxosmithkline.
30,000,000 have been vaccinated with the flu shot.
europe drug regulators say those under 20 should not take the drug.
Well, I wouldn't place too much value on Yahoo news, they often have articles of dubious merit there. But the flu shot at most keeps the flu from being really bad for many people; it doesn't prevent you from getting sick, though it provides protection for most of the strains of flu out there, or so I've been told by CDC people in biosuits after signing a waiver and notifying my next of kin [sarcasm]. Can't complain about getting sick, people get sick every day, and as much as we want to avoid it, we can't.
Even the CDC acknowledges some minor risk of side effects from the flu shot. So there is a risk. Don't be like Tarkin. "I think you overestimate their chances!" Get the flu shot. Die anyway from unrelated health problem.
--sd-7
i don't want to be an alarmist or anything... .
but i read this article in the economist today that argued it is only a matter of time until china and japan exchange shots over some small islands in between the two countries, it could escalate to full scale war, and the united states is treaty bound to come to aid of japan.
on top of that the united states is making diplomatic visits to various countries borderning china in a move that is viewed extremely negatively in beijing.
To be honest I'd always assumed another one was inevitable; it was just a matter of exactly who the major players on the board would be. Things are being squeezed too tightly in the world and something big is bound to happen. There are still two sides of a sort in terms of the way nations are divided in the world today. We know, more or less, who would throw their hat in the ring with who when the guns are drawn.
Of course, I was in an apocalyptic cult for 20+ years, so...of course I'd be pessimistic.
--sd-7
what has been your experience with people you knew that were reproved or disfellowshipped for adultery?
.
i always felt that the brother was treated more mercifully and excused for it, but a sister was totally demonized..
But it really depends on the elders on the committee and the person's relatives/position/other stuff. My wife got private reproof for our pre-marital sex, and she'd been...manumitted?...before for the same reason. She was commenting two months later. Since she turned me in for apostasy as well, that was probably the reward, if one can call it that. The elders didn't elaborate on what they thought happened as far as the two of us, but probably they thought I must've been some kind of Casanova who seduced her and had her under my thumb, when it was quite the opposite, I just went along with what she had initiated. It wasn't so much seduction involved on either end, as it was just two consenting adults having sex.
Of course, once I understood how their witch trials go, I really got a sense of how horrible it must be for single women who have to face these three old men and talk about a sexual situation. Dark Ages, man, truly.
--sd-7
what has been your experience with people you knew that were reproved or disfellowshipped for adultery?
.
i always felt that the brother was treated more mercifully and excused for it, but a sister was totally demonized..
An elder's son caught in a lap dancing club (not sure by who or how)
"I just happened to be coming out of the grocery store across the street from the club and...I don't know how to say it..."
Elder [Convention Drama style]: "Please, brother, trust in Jehovah. Go on."
"And...I saw Brother So-and-so coming out of that--that seedy nightclub!"
Elder: "Was he alone?"
"No. What's-his-face and No-Name were with him, too! I couldn't believe it!"
--sd-7
i wrote a new essay regarding the effects that the internet is having on the organization.
.
http://www.anthonymathenia.com/can-jehovahs-witnesses-survive-the-internet/.
They'll survive. As long as people don't ask the question, they have no reason to search the Internet for the answer. Of course, I do think the younger generation will be pretty skeptical of the Society's warnings about the Internet. That may not necessarily lead them to question anything, though. Invisible walls on the prison. Hard to break through, nonetheless.
--sd-7
i realize that such stolen items would have to be in some way portable and this eliminates most large items from the list.
still, i was surprised!.
does anybody have any thoughts as to whether this list is indicative of any special need trends among humanity today?.
I would guess that #1-10 on my list would be "anything in any aisle I shop in", because I can't even get my notepad out of my pocket without a store employee suddenly showing up to "restock the shelf" wherever I am. It would be annoying if I let myself think about it all the time. I guess I'm not allowed to go into my own pockets unless it's to give them money.
--sd-7
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They are thinking about bills, work, stress, gossip, hiding their drinking/porn. Almost none of them think about anything deeper than what outfit to wear when it comes to a District Convention.
Had to chuckle about that one.
--sd-7
