Posts by JeffT

i don't know if i'm submitting this under the proper subject area, but i had a question i was wondering if anyone had any expertise on.. i'm writing a ya novel inspired by my experiences growing up and being a teenager as a jehovah's witness.

it is a fictional story though.

however, my critiquing beta readers are torn between whether i should make it the actual jw religion in the book, or if i should make a fictional religion based on the jws.

JeffT

I've written (but not yet published) a novel based loosely on my experience as a JW. I invented my own religion for it, for several reasons. For me the most important factor was that I didn't have to worry about the details of life as a witness, I can put words in the mouths of my characters without having to worry about whether or not a JW would say that.

I'm currently working on another project by I hope to get back to this one soon. Basic plot line: Armageddon hasn't arrived so the religion decides to take matters in their own hands.

109

Proportional Representation vs Electoral Collages

by Simon in

jw
friends

the craziness of first-past-the-post elections .... we'll no doubt have to now live through the scotts demanding another referendum, because we may take their lands, but we will never take their freedom!

and so they want to be free of the uk, where they have a disproportionate influence in parliament, and be a little dot that's part of the eu.

yup, freedom.. but anyway, as it stands right now they have 48 seats after getting 1.2m votes.

JeffT

A referendum for things like leaving the EU and the union or joining a different one should be a once-in-20-year type decision. It can't be endless flip-flopping.

As I said, it took a war for the US to figure this out. The problem is you can't run a country when people think they can decide to pick up their marbles and go play somewhere else every time somebody does something they don't like. Being a good citizen in a democracy sometimes means you live with decisions you don't like because you got outvoted. Twenty years is way too close together, if you're going to allow it at all.

109

Proportional Representation vs Electoral Collages

by Simon in

jw
friends

the craziness of first-past-the-post elections .... we'll no doubt have to now live through the scotts demanding another referendum, because we may take their lands, but we will never take their freedom!

and so they want to be free of the uk, where they have a disproportionate influence in parliament, and be a little dot that's part of the eu.

yup, freedom.. but anyway, as it stands right now they have 48 seats after getting 1.2m votes.

JeffT

Interesting to watch all this from a historical perspective. The Confederate States of America made similar arguments in the run up to the Civil War. Did the states retain a right to withdraw from a Union that they felt was changing the rules of the game? Did they have a right to ignore supreme court rulings they disagreed with? Did the Federal Government have a right to tell the states what to do within their borders? Six hundred thousand dead Americans later, we had the answers. I hope our friends in the UK are not going down that road.

7

The Watchtower & Herald of Christs presence / The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah`s Kingdom- Why the change & when ?

by smiddy3 in

jw
friends

i`m wondering just when and why the g.b.of jw`s made the change as they did to their official magazine.?.

at first they were advertising his presence long before they claim he actually arrived .. 1879 was the first wt wasn`t it ?

and their advertising his presence ,when according to their beliefs he din`t actually arrive with his presence until 1914.?.

JeffT

The magazine started out as "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence." It changed its name several times between 1909 and 1939 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watchtower). There was no governing body at that time. Most of the changes would have been Rutherford's doing.

29

Lack of zeal

by road to nowhere in

i hear rumbling about the rank and file not having the same zeal they had when new.. lets see: door to door at the time least likely to find someone.

waste of a whole morning.

isolated.

JeffT

It's hard to be zealous over the religious equivalent of digging holes and filling them up again.

26

Wausau Wisconsin Bans Throwing Of Any SNOWBALL!

by minimus in

jw
friends

you can’t throw a snowball at a person as kids often do.

you can’t throw it in a park, at a building, anywhere.

comments please.

JeffT

Two snowball stories.

In the fall of 1969 I was involved in a massive snowball fight at Washington State University, fought between fraternity members and non-fraternity members. Several hundred people were involved, five went to the hospital (I believe all recovered OK) and two or three thousand dollars worth of windows were broken.

I'm not sure of the date, probably in 1940 it snowed on the University of Texas, and of course a snowball fight broke out. A young woman threw a snowball at a guy that had attracted her attention. Unfortunately she missed him and hit the guy next to him. That man fired back and one thing led to another, they married two years later. I owe my existence to my mother's inability to throw a snowball and hit her intended target.

27

Make Shunning A Hate Crime

by Lost in the fog in

the humanist organisation in the uk wants to protect non-religious people who leave their church/religion from being punished for doing so.

they want the religious hate crime legislation in the uk to be extended to people who are not religious.

i hope they will succeed.

JeffT

Consider this: if the law makes it illegal for them to shun you, it also makes it illegal for you to shun them. If your crazy JW relatives crash your birthday party to tell you Jehovah is going to kill you, throwing them out of your house might be a criminal act.

33

Unpopular Opinion on Convention Protests

by Jehalapeno in

i think it's really sad that people that wasted countless hours preaching for a cult are deciding to waste more hours on that same cult after leaving it.. get a hobby.

enjoy life.. "the best revenge is a life well-lived.

" - some person said this..

JeffT

For years, at the conventions in the Seattle area, there was a guy with a large banner that said "call 244-FREE" for information about the watchtower. He was never mean, he just there with his banner. At the last convention we went to, my wife jotted down the number, but later forgot about it. A few months passed and one night, as were discussing our situation, she remembered it.

We called and I found myself talking to a minister who ran a support group for ejw's. This was in 1988, long before the internet. That man (Ralph Parsons) and his group were instrumental in our exit. Make of that what you will. I was part of the group of protestors for a few years, then moved on to other things.