so proclaimed the brother that read the wt letter tonight that explained the new kingdom hall funding arrangement.. everyone in the hall claps .... well, like it was the last talk on the district convention.. he says 'what bank would wipe out a debt of $200,000 ???
only jehovah's organization!
isn't this wonderful !!!".
redvip2000, they're greedy because as a business, that's simply what they do. The religion is a cult. The Watchtower is a business. The Watchtower's business is to manage a religious cult in which the members sacrifice ALL to the business.
Booze Joe Rutherford would be SO PROUD.
is this where i can introduce myself?.
nice to meet everyone.
thanks for your patience while i learn how to post on this new site.. <3 beth shan.
Welcome! :)
i know this has been rehashed, time and again, but i saw this interesting blip on jw.org last night, and did a little thinking about it.... jw.
org answers the important question that so many have... are jehovah's witnesses a cult?.
jehovah's witnesses do not look to any human as their leader.
itsacult
or are they all the same?
?.
I think this group is perhaps the most dangerous yet.
apostacitis is a term denoting a condition with which the watchtower society has become thoroughly infected, particularly since the year 1981 when sincere christians who merely resigned from the organization over principled differences in belief became viewed the same as unrepentant wrongdoers (1 cor.
5:11) and as those rejecting the good news about the christ (2 john 9-11).
there was a time when news of one becoming an apostate was so rare among witnesses that it sent shockwaves throughout the organization.
Welcome! The more the merrier here in Apostaland! :)
only rational thoughts are accessible to rational arguments.
once the category of "god" is established in your mind (usually at an early, impressionable age) you can't ever close the file.. it is unassailable.. why?because it becomes rooted before you develop rational thinking skills.. categories of ghosts, devils, superstitions hold true as well.. what you can do (since they cannot be removed) is modify your emotional reactions connected to these concepts.. what are emotions?
they are signals (like beacons) informing you of the importance of your values.. the most deeply-rooted values signal the strongest emotional responses.. what you perceive to be a threat signals fear.
I am posting here cuz I want to come back and read this more carefully when I have time. :)
several footnotes in the nwt correctly define apostasy as "unfaithfulness".. that is spiritual unfaithfulness/adultery/fornication/prostitution/harlotry.. in scripture the jews were called (spiritual) prostitutes (37 times in ezekiel chapters 16 and 23).. they claimed a relationship with the god of abraham.. yet they lusted after other gods.. and they had frequent wanton spiritual intercourse with these gods.. to cover-up their own lewd apostasy the watctower lyingly redefines the word to mean a dissenter (against the watchtower).. anyone who dissents is labelled an apostate.. ray franz discovered their apostasy.. he dissented.. he exposed their spiritual harlotry in detail (isocf and coc).. they lyingly labelled him an apostate.. and many if not most exjws say this is all fine.. even worse, many exjws proudly wear the label.. to show their proud support of watchtower lies and cover-ups.. how sad....
In it's most simple form, any time one changes a belief he's an apostate to his former belief.
Although a noun, it is a descriptive noun that functions more like an adjective to me than a label.
these are snippets from a thread on change to circuit boundaries in the us please don't assume a single narrative here.. well, we just had a letter tonight saying that the branch has decided to dissolve 2 of the ohio circuits, one being ohio circuit #3 which i am in.
ohio circuit #3 will continue to exist until the new service year in september, at which point the congregations making up our circuit will be redistributed to other current circuits.
we'll be moving to ohio circuit #8.. interestingly, our sister congregation with whom we share the same hall was assigned to a completely different circuit, along with a lot of others we are used to seeing at our assemblies.
Addressing how growth outpaces the birth rate...much of the growth IS the birth rate. MANY of the new publishers every year are JW kids who finally become old enough to count their time. I'd love to see numbers that differentiate between actual NEW JW publishers and JW kids who join the publisher ranks. The Borg doesn't count those numbers but I bet we could do estimates based on birth rates and get a good guess at just how many are actually joining the religion from the field.
years ago, the society's speakers used to give many off the cuff statements.
a lot of personal opinions and questionable remarks.. anything ever stand out for you in this area?.
When a CO and the PO of the congregation told me they were the "stars in Christ's right hand" as spoken of in Revelation, I knew that I couldn't trust anything any Borg rep said ever again. It was the kick in the ass I needed to research online and get out of there.
a young, progressive, kind elder wants to have a chat with me on sunday after the meeting.
we've talked before and been quite open about the judgemental attitudes 'we' have as witnesses, and he was completely in agreement, stating that he's never understood the beard thing among other issues, and wants to see the society moving forward by change..
i've no doubt he just wants to encourage me to up my hours or reach out again, but it's nerve wracking, as i know i'll say something i'll regret.
All cult members have a genuine personality. Problem is, they also have a cult personality that can be manipulated and brought to the surface at any moment. Don't trust that anything you say will be kept in confidence perpetually.
