Palimpsest

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Posts by Palimpsest

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  16

  Did Phillip fart? (or, was it the Queen?)

  by Lion Cask in

  1. social
  2. humour

  the facial expressions tell it all.. (thank you, babayaga, for the tutorial).

  .

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  Palimpsest

  That meme's been circulating for a few years now, and it still makes me giggle like a child every time. :)
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  21

  I am new,,just need to ask? Overcharging at Special One Day Assembly

  by dreamgolfer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  re; overcharging at special assembly daysmessage hey, .

  having a wee bit of trouble but may have stumbled across a couple of things.

  can you confirm or look into this- .

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  Palimpsest

  I did some digging and found the cost we JW's get "Public" place for is $2,650.

  Let's be careful with that. There is no flat rate nationwide for these events. That might be one particular venue's charge, but it's not an industry standard. In fact, one of the big scandals in my area in the past few years has been that many public high school graduations are now being held in mega-churches because school districts can't find large public facilities for under $5,000, and that's for a type of event that usually only runs a couple hours.

  So a flat rate doesn't exist, and figuring out an average charge would require someone FOI-ing the contracts on every single public facility rental by JWs for these events. Since I doubt anyone has done that legwork, let's assume that $2,650 figure is invalid.
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  54

  Sticky Situation - What to do?

  by I<3MYGod in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i have posted about my experience with the cult....so now i find myself in a difficult position.

  i have left it alone for many years but i wonder what you guys think.. i faded away from the cult and stopped going for quite a while.

  my older sister took it upon herself to meet with my family and discuss all my sins and actions (they were active).

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  Palimpsest

  Playing armchair psychologist really isn't my goal here, but the thought I have is, are you envious deep down that she has their favor and you don't? Is that why you're making comparisons between you and her? I know you don't want to be a JW, so you don't necessarily want their respect in that sense, but maybe there's a part of you that's feeling it's unfair that she gets to "sin" and be loved by them while you're also "bad" in their eyes but don't get that love? Maybe that's the real source of frustration you're feeling -- you're not so much mad at her for her lifestyle as you are at them for not approving yours, so you're projecting it all onto her.

  I know that was one of the reasons I used to have similar thoughts in regards to one of my sisters. Once I got over that by remembering that nothing about her life was better than mine, I stopped caring about her status with the JWs and moved on. Letting go of the weight of that grudge was wonderful. So maybe instead of asking what you can do to her, ask why you're having those feelings and what you can do to resolve them on your end.
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  28

  my JW brother's reply on facebook? what should I say next

  by Found Sheep in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this was my poststrong conviction does not make your belief true, people die for lies every daythis is his-you're spot on.

  truth really matters:.

  john 17:17 - god's word is truth.

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  Palimpsest

  Well...what are you trying to achieve by engaging with him? I tend to think that would influence what you should say next.
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  19

  No JW's w/ post-graduate degree in Biblical Greek/Hebrew?

  by InterestedOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  does anyone here have info regarding the validity/invalidity of the following statement i read while browsing:.

  "as far as we have been able to determine, no baptized jehovahs witness has ever been awarded a post-graduate academic degree by an accredited institution in the field of biblical greek or hebrew.

  this is rather startling in a religious sect of approximately six million people who pride themselves on being zealous students of the bible.

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  Palimpsest

  I foolishly thought someone might be out there updating & waiting for the name of just one JW with a post-graduate degree in Biblical languages.

  How would you cross-check, though? There's no widely available full list of every JW in the world. It's impossible to do unless you have a list of every single person ever baptized. Anyone making that claim is full of it. I'd say to be very skeptical of this guy and anyone parroting him. Remember, he's a charlatan trying to recruit followers just like the GB.

  I think the point he was trying to make was that the orignal translators of the NWT didn't actually have graduate degrees in hebrew/greek (let alone a working knowledge of hebrew and greek) and therefore the translation was suspect to doctrinal changes.

  I think so, too, but again, that's another statement that's never been proven. We like to accept it because it fits our narrative, but if we're going to be truly objective, we can't say that it's absolute fact. Sure seems likely, mind you, but unless someone has a verifiable list of every translator combined with a full history of their academic lives, we can't say it as fact, as many ex-JW websites do. At least, I'm personally not willing to do that.
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  19

  No JW's w/ post-graduate degree in Biblical Greek/Hebrew?

  by InterestedOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  does anyone here have info regarding the validity/invalidity of the following statement i read while browsing:.

  "as far as we have been able to determine, no baptized jehovahs witness has ever been awarded a post-graduate academic degree by an accredited institution in the field of biblical greek or hebrew.

  this is rather startling in a religious sect of approximately six million people who pride themselves on being zealous students of the bible.

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  Palimpsest

  As far as we have been able to determine, no baptized Jehovah’s Witness has ever been awarded a post-graduate academic degree by an accredited institution in the field of Biblical Greek or Hebrew.

  And how in the hell would they even prove that? That's a BS statement. There's no possible way to research that. Degree conferral data isn't accompanied by religious demographic information. And if there were, I'm pretty sure that good ol' Rev. Rafael Martinez, whose former church tossed him out due to his "ministry," wouldn't have gone over it in detail.

  What he's probably clumsily grappling for is the belief that none of the NWT translation team had formal university training in either language. That is widely believed but has never been proven, since the official list of translators has never been released and the only "insider accounts" come from people who would, understandably, be biased against the JWs since they were ex-JW informants. So independent scholars have held off on saying who the translators were and what their credentials were, which is fair and appropriate.
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  3

  KH set on fire in Russia

  by behemot in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  bottles with molotov cocktail were thrown into the building for liturgical sermons of jehovah's witnesses, located in the city of labinsk, krasnodar territory.

  the building caught fire; the door and some window frames were knocked out by the blast.

  fortunately, there were no human casualties.. the news item about the arson of the building, committed at night on november 25, was released today by the press service of jehovah's witnesses in russia.

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  Palimpsest

  That's very sad and troubling. No people deserve to have their place of worship destroyed like that.
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  12

  Did this talk ever happen?

  by bottleofwater in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i heard that in a certain congregation an elder was giving a talk about profanity and the need to avoid it.. he started then counting on his fingers different obscenities and saying them out loud.. those in the audience were shocked.

  he was taken off the stage and had his elder book taken from him.. .

  did anyone ever hear of this happening?

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  Palimpsest

  What made it especially sad was that Bro. Carlin had been such a role model up until that point.

  (For what it's worth, I also call bull.)
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  32

  Favorite Xmas Tunes?

  by undercover in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  someone started a thread asking everyone's favorite xmas movies.. how about favorite xmas music/songs?

  even when i was an active jw i had a soft spot for certain xmas music.

  the standards, the jazzy ones, the rocknroll ones.. while i like a lot of different ones...i even collected my favs onto a playlist that i keep for this time of year...there are a few that really stand out as my favs.

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  Palimpsest

  Technically not a Christmas-specific song, but I adore Fiona Apple's version of "Frosty the Snowman." I also really like Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone's version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside." And Judy Garland's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a beautiful performance.
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  58

  WT Society wants Elders to Conceal Information to Psychiatrists- Elders Bk.

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife and i have read carefully through chapter 5 of the new elders manual when we do our " personal study " in bed on saturday mornings !

  so without further delay , notice this quote from the new elders manual, " there are times when an emotionally distressed christian may seek professional help.

  whether a christian or his family pursues treatment from psychiatrists , psychologists, or therapists is a personal decision.

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  Palimpsest

  I am really, really, REALLY happy to see them banning elders from recommending therapists. There was a pretty legendary JW psychologist in my area who became the go-to guy for elders who wanted to make suggestions. Elders were basically funneling patients to that guy, giving him a nice steady income. Making matters worse, since this guy was a JW himself, he only gave "Scripturally-based" therapy, AND he would rat people out to their elders if they admitted to any wrongdoing. He broke pretty much every ethical standard in the book, but no one dared go up against him -- after all, you can't get your fellow JW in trouble with the state licensing board. So as far as I'm concerned, this is terrific news. That may very well be the only situation like this that's ever happened with JWs, since they discourage psychology so much, but if it happened once, it's good to know it's banned from happening again.

  If anyone is from Connecticut, by the way, you might remember him...I won't give his full name, since he died a few years ago and I don't want to drag his name through that, but he was based in New Britain and people used to drive from all over the state to go see him. I remember going to appointments at his office with my mother when she was going through his half-assed "grief counseling," and it was the weirdest place ever...it was located in a converted home, across from a roller skating rink (if I remember correctly), and the waiting room had WT magazines instead of regular ones. And his office didn't have windows. I remember it always creeping me out for some reason.