"If anyone does not want to work, neither let him eat"
--sd-7
Posts by sd-7
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32They read off the names of those auxilliary pioneering; 75% of them don't work &
by Theocratic Sedition inhalf of that 75% get disability and ssi checks.
it was kinda funny sitting there listening to them go down the line, name by name, of the ones auxilliary pioneering since the numbers are dropped to 30 hours for march & april.
as they were doing the names i was saying to myself, "she don't work", "she supposedly can't work", "he hasn't worked in years", "she gets a check", "she's probably gonna lie about the amount of hours she did" etc.. gotta love it.. i don't know if this happens in your congregation or not, but have you ever heard someone remark about someone else behind their back, "she can show up at every gathering, but she can't show up for field service!
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3rd Annual Memorial of Freedom--Will You Attend? Also, 'When Prophecy Fails' by Leon Festinger
by sd-7 insd-7's 3rd memorial of freedom falls on sunday, march 10th, 2013, at sundown.
check your local news for when sundown happens in your area, so that you may pass the emblems--chocolate milk and pop tarts--in observance of liberation from the watchtower.
for review, the pop tarts represent one's body, which will no longer sit in a kingdom hall.
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sd-7
Ah, of course. The chocolate milk is the 'milk of freedom', representing freedom from the Watchtower. Keep drinking this, whenever you feel like it, in remembrance of me...
--sd-7
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Emotional Abuse - 10 signs to watch out for in a relationship
by sd-7 inhttp://shrink4men.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/10-signs-your-girlfriend-or-wife-is-an-emotional-bully/.
the above link explains it well.
i've probably encountered it before, but i think it warrants a mention once more.
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sd-7
Rejection. She ignores you, won’t look at you when you’re in the same room, gives you the cold shoulder, withholds affection, withholds sex, declines or puts down your ideas, invitations, suggestions, and pushes you away when you try to be close. After she pushes you as hard and as far away as she can, she’ll try to be affectionate with you. You’re still hurting from her previous rebuff or attack and don’t respond. Then she accuses you of being cold and rejecting, which she’ll use as an excuse to push you away again in the future.
Result: You feel undesirable, unwanted, and unlovable. You believe no one else would want you and cling to this abusive woman, grateful for whatever scraps of infrequent affection she shows you.
--Yup, that's me!
--sd-7
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Emotional Abuse - 10 signs to watch out for in a relationship
by sd-7 inhttp://shrink4men.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/10-signs-your-girlfriend-or-wife-is-an-emotional-bully/.
the above link explains it well.
i've probably encountered it before, but i think it warrants a mention once more.
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sd-7
One of my favorites:
"Unreasonable expectations. No matter how hard you try and how much you give, it’s never enough. She expects you to drop whatever you’re doing and attend to her needs. No matter the inconvenience, she comes first. She has an endless list of demands that no one mere mortal could ever fulfill.
Common complaints include: You’re not romantic enough, you don’t spend enough time with me, you’re not sensitive enough, you’re not smart enough to figure out my needs, you’re not making enough money, you’re not FILL IN THE BLANK enough. Basically, you’re not enough, because there’s no pleasing this woman. No one will ever be enough for her, so don’t take it to heart.
Result: You’re constantly criticized because you’re not able to meet her needs and experience a sense of learned helplessness. You feel powerless and defeated because she puts you in no-win situations."
Marriage has been like one gigantic Kobayashi Maru test. "Isn't the test itself a cheat? I mean, you programmed it to be unwinnable."
--sd-7
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130
How many former Jehovah's Witnesses bury their head in the sand when it comes to reasoning about the NGO "conspiracy"?
by Change Name inhi all - sure sure, you can call me a troll or brainwashed cult member.
i am totally interested in how your answers to these questions.. .
do you find yourself ignoring anything that jehovah's witnesses bring out in regards to their former status as an ngo?.
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sd-7
I don't see this NGO issue as some 'conspiracy', per se. It's mainly that it looks suspicious, questionable, and could stumble JWs if they knew about it. The big problem to me is that the Society knew quite well or should have known how any kind of affiliation with the UN would look to their 'brothers', but they did it anyway. If it was perfectly fine and dandy, they could easily have maintained their NGO status and released a public statement to the entire organization explaining their reasons and justifying it scripturally if necessary. Instead, they terminated their status and never mentioned it to anyone who didn't ask. That contributes further to suspicion.
And again, any JW who did the same thing, or who got a job as a UN librarian for instance, I wonder what would happen to them? Either way, Awake! very clearly backs up the DPI's letter about what the Society had to do to keep NGO status--inform the public of UN activities and accomplishments. This is what the Society did, and they used JWs to do it by having them place Awake! articles about the UN's activities and accomplishments...around the same time they applied for NGO status. Hey, I'll even give the benefit of the doubt--maybe not all of the 'top men' knew this was happening. But enough knew that it happened and involved every JW in the process.
The distinction between DPI and ECOSOC would be relevant as a counterargument if the Society hadn't published certain Awake! articles around 1991 that clearly fulfill the NGO requirement as listed in DPI's letter in response to the public inquiries on this issue. So...this isn't as complicated as you're makin' it out to be. Even if they were perfectly on the up and up about this one issue, there really is so much other questionable and outright wrong stuff that this seems like chump change by comparison. I mean, at least nobody died over this issue. People have died over other stuff the Society has done.
--sd-7
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The Apostate Boogeyman--a figment of JW imagination
by Londo111 inapostates are a figment of the jw imagination.
not necessarily the dictionary definition of the word apostate, which simply means a person who leaves their religion, for by that definition everyone who leaves a religion to become a jw is an apostate--but the jw conception of the apostate, both as an individual and as a 'group' is imaginary.. .
for starters, the watchtower goes beyond the definition of merely leaving the religion, if a person disagrees with a doctrine or practice of the organization, even if they dont voice it, that is a thoughtcrime called apostasy.
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sd-7
One person mentioned that perhaps it could transmit outside the Kingdom Hall and apostates could be listening in.
Hate to break it to you, but...come closer....YOUR MEETINGS ARE PUBLIC! YOUR WEBSITE IS ON THE INTERNET! That kinda means everyone could be listening in if they wanted to. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN!!
Yeah, I think the way this term is used, if anything it sparked curiosity within me--what threat could such 'apostates' possibly pose to people who had 'the truth'? Why was the Society so afraid of them? Why did they never really debunk apostate ideas in the literature in detail, so as to protect the flock?
Because those labeled Apostates must be shunned and there is no venue to express dissenting views or for those to air legitimate questions and
concerns publicly—is it no wonder an “apostate” has to be careful or “subtle” in how they express themselves? If they legitimately believe the
Watchtower is not teaching the truth and wants to reach family and friends with this message, what recourse do they have?
Therein lies what is integral to making people dissatisfied with the organization--the dialogue is always one-way, top-down, and there's really only a set of pre-programmed responses to every situation. At a certain point, human beings start to want something other than pre-packaged nourishment, know what I mean?
There's no good reason to be angry and bitter all the time about it all. But when you see the reality, research it all for yourself, and see the very clear deception, yeah, you get angry, especially when you see how vigorously a lie can be defended by people who haven't figured it out yet. It's tough.
The other thing is...JWs are used to something being 'offered'. Thus they reason that, because of course there must be an organization that is 'the truth', logically apostates should have started their own gig.
First, if it's about Christianity, why reinvent the wheel? The religion's already been started, no need to start it over because nobody has it all right.
Second, to say the least, disproving a lie or several lies or exposing a false shepherd/false prophet--that is 'something'. As in any matter of merit where there could be some uncertainty, figuring out what's not true is at least as important as figuring out what is true. Sometimes you have to get past 7 lies to get to one truth. If you just relax and think you've already got all the truth, that's usually when you're in the most danger as far as spiritual things or any sort of pursuit. If you stop thinking, it's much easier for 7 new lies to sprout up and hide amongst the truths you've already found--complacency can be more dangerous than the lies themselves.
Good post.
--sd-7
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Emotional Abuse - 10 signs to watch out for in a relationship
by sd-7 inhttp://shrink4men.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/10-signs-your-girlfriend-or-wife-is-an-emotional-bully/.
the above link explains it well.
i've probably encountered it before, but i think it warrants a mention once more.
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sd-7
http://shrink4men.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/10-signs-your-girlfriend-or-wife-is-an-emotional-bully/
The above link explains it well. I've probably encountered it before, but I think it warrants a mention once more. In reading that list, I feel like it was recounting the last 3+ years of my life...
Especially for born-in JWs who maybe can't as readily identify emotional abuse, I think it's vital to be aware of the signs and be careful about forming new relationships too quickly once you're free of the Borg. It's important to understand that in its own way, an abusive relationship takes on the dynamic of a cult, with the abuser taking on the role of cult leader. This happens to men and women, sadly, and the effects can be pretty heavy.
Well, we're all so very busy, so...time to go.
--sd-7
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3rd Annual Memorial of Freedom--Will You Attend? Also, 'When Prophecy Fails' by Leon Festinger
by sd-7 insd-7's 3rd memorial of freedom falls on sunday, march 10th, 2013, at sundown.
check your local news for when sundown happens in your area, so that you may pass the emblems--chocolate milk and pop tarts--in observance of liberation from the watchtower.
for review, the pop tarts represent one's body, which will no longer sit in a kingdom hall.
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sd-7
sd-7's 3rd Memorial of Freedom falls on Sunday, March 10th, 2013, at sundown. Check your local news for when sundown happens in your area, so that you may pass the emblems--chocolate milk and Pop Tarts--in observance of liberation from the Watchtower. For review, the Pop Tarts represent one's body, which will no longer sit in a Kingdom Hall. The milk represents...hmm. Blood you can now donate to the Red Cross if you want? I forget. Guess I better research it. Don't feel like it right now. Been under the weather lately. Picked up a cold from the pediatrician's office, I think. Or maybe my stepdaughter, I can't be sure which.
Anyway, that said, I wanted to recommend, as Steve Hassan recommended not too long ago during his video with our dear Dogpatch, Randy Watters, the book 'When Prophecy Fails' by Leon Festinger. I've been reading it and I'm about a third of the way through and it's really fascinating. Very technical as far as details, but still an interesting study.
I'm reading now about Stacy Keech, I believe the name is, and the UFO cult she led. What was interesting was her prediction, based on being told by 'Guardians' or 'Sananda' or whoever, that flying saucers would appear on a specific date in specific locations visible to everyone. However, when it didn't happen, rather than seeming to realize her prediction had failed and perhaps calling into question the legitimacy of her beliefs, she latched onto a totally different set of events that seemed to strengthen her belief that the alien communications were real--that of encountering a man she believed to be a sort of Jesus/Messiah/alien person?
The other thing was the mention in the book of another book written in 1949 that directly mentions JWs and (apparently unrelated, uh, ha ha) UFO cults, called 'These Also Believe' by Charles Braden. Anyone ever seen or read that one? I'm going to see if I can find it. Very interesting that a book about JWs, which Festinger described as being 'objective', was written that far back. Not surprising given the 1914 and 1925 and all the other dates put out around that era.
Rather than seeing the failure of the proclamations, the early Bible Students just turned their attention to a new message or a new preaching campaign or both. Looking forward to the next date, and the next, and the next, until...what, exactly? They recognize that they were wrong, though generally the literature can't seem to be clear about who exactly was wrong, just naming the entire entity as having wrong expectations, not so much the people who printed the expectations. But the point is that the lack of fulfillment of all these clearly-foretold-in-scripture dates doesn't make them question it all, they as a whole just turn their attention to either making more recruits or looking forward to the next date (or next generation or next iteration of the next generation, in this case).
Well, I just thought it was a good read, especially relaxing because it's not about JWs so I get to be a bit more objective about the issues.
So...winter storm passed over my area with nothing but a cold rain. Guess I shouldn't have stayed up so late tonight. Going to have to go to work...
Well, take care.
--sd-7
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I am totally confoused who is the Faithful and Discreet Slave Class?
by booker-t ini have been hearing and reading on websites about some "new light" jws are saying concerning the faithful and discreet slave class.
it sounds like the same information they have been saying for years.
i was always taught the faithful and discreet slave class is the annoited governing body members dispensing food at the proper time for the non annoited jws.
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sd-7
This reminds me of a song, the Society's teachings are "just like a maze, where all of the walls all continually change."--John Mayer, 'Daughters'.
The reason the original poster might have been confused is, well, probably most JWs thought this was already the case anyway, that the Governing Body was the 'faithful slave' in its entirety. This seems to overlook the technical details of it and the problems it causes.
I especially like how the 'evidence' and 'facts' are pointed to in such clear, reasonable, scriptural detail! It seems that facts and evidence are pretty much like a magic crystal ball that shows you whatever you want to see. You just speak it and it becomes factual and supported by evidence. I wonder who spoke into the 'speakwrite' to make that article, anyway?
What's particularly odd is something that creates another conundrum. If the 'faithful and discreet slave' is preparing the spiritual food, why is the 'slave' always referred to in the third person? Clearly, the writer of the articles in the literature is not a member of this 'slave', or else they'd be saying 'wisely, you should submit to our authority' instead of 'wisely, we should submit to the slave's authority'. Or perhaps the real truth is that it would be much more obvious that something is up if they said 'you should submit to our authority'. 'We should submit to the slave's authority' makes it sound like they're on your side, and we're all obeying this entity over there, rather than just you and the rest of the drones obeying them.
The other thing is, why even do this? Their authority has been absolute for a long time. Nobody's made a Reformed JW org, dissenters and deserters are hunted down and shot. Is there some invisible power struggle between the other 12,000 anointed and the Governing Body so that they felt a need to make themselves exclusively the 'slave'? It makes no sense.
Particularly bizarre was reading a GB member saying that "we love this teaching". As if their feelings about it should matter; if it's true, your feelings one way or the other are irrelevant. And a person who's just changed a doctrine to make sure he's in a position of absolute power over 7,000,000 people is hardly going to hate the teaching, is he? It'd be like a football player hating his $100 million contract...yeah, he'll hate it all the way to the bank, he will.
As I think about it, it's confusing even to me. It addresses some problems in the original teaching, but just ends up creating others. Given how high they are on themselves, one would think they would relish the chance to explain how awesome they are and how great it is that Jesus appointed them despite his not having done any kind of check-in to see if they were providing food at the proper time. You know, the kind of food that doesn't leave masses of people vomiting, foaming at the mouth, and collapsing backwards out of their chairs dead and all.
But really, the 144,000 are left in the same boat they were in before this change in terms of the big reward--you see, all but maybe 40 or 50 of them has never been supplying any kind of spiritual food to anyone, since they weren't working at HQ writing the articles. So they basically get the same reward for doing none of the work that the 'slave' was supposed to do. I guess that's why the Governing Body gave the lazy bums the boot!
And since governing is another word for ruling, a certain 8 men have already begun their rule, really. I don't really recall any Bible verses about Christians governing each other. Here I thought it was just the rulers of the nations that did governing, but we were supposed to strive to be the lowest among brothers, to serve, not demand obedience to rules we just made up.
But this is kind of stupid in the end. Jesus asked one effin' question. A QUESTION! Read it again. This is not about 8 men in upstate New York in the year 2013! Read the context of this verse. Jesus already started making illustrations by the time he got to this verse. I mean, by this logic, the Governing Body could just as easily have been the 'discreet virgin class' (oh, wait, that's my title as Editor of The Beast-Tower) or the 'one man taken out of the bed class' or something.
Well, here's one thing I'm not confused about. There is no faithful and discreet slave class. The word 'class' is not in the verse at all. It's an add-on. Because there is no faithful and discreet slave. No man can declare themselves as such because you have to prove yourself faithful in the eyes of the Master, not just claim you are in the eyes of fellow slaves and then do whatever you want because the Master hasn't done anything to stop you. It's a goal that every Christian aspires to, to be faithful and discreet in carrying out what Jesus wants done--not the knocking on doors or placing of non-Bible literature, but the helping of those in need and the teaching people about Jesus and what he did for mankind.
If this one verse didn't exist in the Bible, C.T. Russell would've just picked another one, and Rutherford would've taken advantage of whatever verse it was, and this would be a totally different discussion about the same ultimate subject: men abusing power and abusing people.
--sd-7
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A conversation about universal sovereignty
by outsmartthesystem in"well osts, satan, through adam challenged god's right to rule......so god had to let it play out to show that he really should be the one ruling mankind.
both the angels and humans needed to see this.
me - why couldn't god have allowed adam's children to remain perfect?
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sd-7
Meanwhile...
ANCIENT JERUSALEM 587 B.C.
Nebuchadnezzar's army approaches the already-destroyed Jerusalem.
"May the king live to time indefinite! To our surprise, it was found that upon our arrival, Jerusalem had already been destroyed!"
"What? When did this happen?"
"Precisely twenty years ago, my lord the king."
"Burn all the evidence. In fact, burn every record for the last twenty years! Go to Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon, and burn every record, everywhere, for twenty years! Let there be no proof left remaining, or it will mean your soul! Go forth!"
...And so that, friends, is how Jerusalem was destroyed...
--sd-7