just curious if anyoner has.. you can download the ajwrb brochure from ajwrb.org, and send in the page that is pre-addressed to the watchtower society, and basically says that you have donated blood and that the blood you donated will likely be transfused int a jw saving their lives.
it then suggests a "thank you" might be in order from ther watchtower since your own life blood was sacrificed so that jws could be saved.. i think this is a powerful action.
i hope the wt gets lots of these cards, and i can't wait until someone posts the "thank you for the thought" (cuz we all know that's how they are going to word it right?
I donated last week and have done so fairly regularly since leaving. I'd recommend it to anyone who is able - not all have the health and it can have the odd adverse affect on some too. It was only a pint but think of all fractions that'll make :-)
mmxiv
i have so many that range from shakespeare, eckhart tolle to wilbur smith and subjects that cover everything from fiction, fantasy, poetry to non fiction.. i started reading a series many years ago but never got around to completing it.
i've come across it again and am thouroughly enjoying it.
the author is terry pratchett and the series is discworld.
Ian McEwan
stupid question i know.. lol.
i'd be a cat because i'm lazy and independent and i love sleeping.
.
tornapart - I'll pray for noo light on that. Seems rough that those kids getting through into the new system and living forever will be burying their pet animals every 50 years or so. Oh maybe they won't have pets or emotional attachments to animals. Then why sell the new system to kids in such an emotional way. Hmmmm - noo light will answer all my questions soon I'm sure
mmxiv
stupid question i know.. lol.
i'd be a cat because i'm lazy and independent and i love sleeping.
.
I'd be a cheetah - clearly with a spiritual outlook awaiting the new system. All this running around chasing meat and getting hot. I can't wait to be troughing on that lush green grass fed to me by those witness kids - yumyum. Oh as part of the earthly animal class do I get to live forever - can't remember if there was a new thought on that?
mmxiv
apologies if this has been discussed before, but i am really very interested in finding out why members here left their congregations for lives away from jw?.
was there a "lightbulb" moment where you just woke up one day and realised that you had been brainwashed?
or a slow realisation over time?
As a born-in I didn't believe most of the doctrine which was illogical to the point that I simply couldn't remember it. Whilst some of the people were genuinely nice and decent, some were very hypercritical and nasty. The environment was very negative, repeating the same old things over and over. It constricted my life hugely so I wanted to leave for a long time. Due to it's teachings of fear and control I couldn't leave and the pressure and guilt tripping from family was intense so I slowly faded over a decade.
I saw a BBC documentary about how the JW's had policies to protect child abusers even though they were actively abusing children in the congregations. I'd spent my whole life being told how bad the other churches were yet how clean JW's were. It was a lie. They have since changed their policies although they are only to comply with law - they still basically protect them. I didn't want to bring up a child in that environment and did want to have children one day.
mmxiv
it's only a couple of years away now and what a headache it must present to the gb - providing they have given it much thought already.
there probably is no elegant way of presenting the hundred year long failure of the end to come; the fact that the "short period of time" of satan being cast down to the earth has now stretched beyond any credibility.
but they have to deal with it one way or another.
No.3
"Sadly some have ignored biblical admonition that 'no man knows the day nor the hour' and suggested that the year 2014 is some pivotal date. Such ones have lacked true faith, shown a disregard to the faithful & discreet slave class' fine direction and demonstrated a brazen attitude. Even eminent medical and scientific experts have recognised their mentally diseased state.
The date has no significance other than as a timely reminder that we are deep into the last days and that the time left is short. Many are showing their appreciation for the direction of the faithful and discreet slave by heeding their call to pioneer while there is still time left in this old system of things. How great their reward will be for putting kingdom interests first by handing over the title deeds of their kingdom hall, thus allowing their flocks to meet without worry of financial difficulty. Indeed many have also chosen to support the world wide work by making a one off donation of $2,014 via bank transfer, debit card or sending a cheque made payable to 'Governing Body Offshore Tax Exempt Account'." Those who donate at this time can add an addition 20 hours to their monthly field service report."
mmxiv
there are 23 species of tsetse flies.
diseases transmitted by tsetse flies kill 250,000300,000 people per year.. why create such a thing?.
Not relevant but in my geography class at school a mate gave an answer about the tsetse fly and accidently called it a testie fly (the very lesson after we'd been doing sex education about male anatomy). The whole class erupted and didn't stop laughing for ages. Just thought I'd share.
mmxiv
there may not be any specific plan to end the "preaching work" but that doesn't mean that things can't evolve into such an outcome.
indeed, i now wonder if such a thing is probable!.
first, if (and it's a very big if) various nations develop case law that includes liability for volunteers, this will put the watchtower in a bind.
If they stopped preaching (and this would not affect their tax exempt status) it would be embraced with open arms by most JW's. It would lift a huge burden as I'm sure many of us felt when we stopping going door to door. Of course there would be some spin on it like we'd be reaching more people using the internet in areas currently unaccessible - masking the real reason that it was saving lots of money / reducing law suits.
Perhaps the dubs would be kept busy by doing more personal study and have to pass exams - more of a scientology education model. The weekly meetings might have an exam and then review format like the old rotten review, but using some software developed by the WBTS (congregations would contribute to this under licence). Thus weekly exams with published scores to show how spiritual people were or humiliate those less able. Of course it would also force regular attendence. Anyone falling below certain figures would require tuition by the better members on the other meeting nights - again all using the carefully controlled publications and source material from WBTS.
mmxiv
are these things happening by where you live?
around here they are becoming popular.
basically it is a congregational effort to get as many people as possible to make a full day of "field service".
We used to have something similar about 20 years ago with early morning street witnessing, back to the KH for the main group and another group in the early afternoon. There wasn't a sniff of tea or food though. I've never seen food distributed at our KH unless during the build. I suspect it would attract more than a few penny pinching JW's to do extra hours for the food alone.
mmxiv
for those of you who had a moment like that from the matrix when you realised what you'd believed was fundamentally flawed or a lie - what caused that defining moment and how long was it before you could share your thoughts?.
mmxiv.
all powerful stuff and again the realisation of flawed doctrines a big moment for people - especially when they were actually searching for the truth.
LongHairGal - on the topic of films I saw the Shawshank Redemption a few days back and that probably best describes my experience in the truth (as I'm sure many can relate) - many years of being trapped, controlled, my life being wasted away and it took a lot of years of planning but finally I broke free. Alas I didn't bring the institution down when I escaped but it does feel great to be free.
mmxiv
