I had a beard back in the 1970's. Nobody ever made any comment on it, I was still used in the congregation and gave talks. Probably a regional thing as well.
George
i read a comment somewhere that having a beard ( before such was allowed) was never a disfellowshippable offence.
but does that mean that no-one who grew a beard was ever eventually disfellowshipped?.
growing a beard when such was frowned upon would surely attract the attention of those with nothing better to do, and possibly lead to sniffing around to try and find things that the "disobedient" one was up to.
I had a beard back in the 1970's. Nobody ever made any comment on it, I was still used in the congregation and gave talks. Probably a regional thing as well.
George
holy nativity batman!
on jw broadcasting.
final song for this year's convention.
I barely managed the first verse, it is so dire.
Personally, I prefer "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"!
George
just a moment ago irán started to attack israel, guess they're gonna end in ruins because israel has a way better army than other country in the region and the support of the us....hope the gas prices don't increase too much.... wonder how the borg gonna spin it..
58% in Britain want to end arms sales to Israel compared with only 18% who want to continue.
Hardly surprising considering the millions of Muslims that are moving into our country each year. I see outrage at what Israel has supposedly done in Gaza, I don't see much outrage at the at the 1200 + people murdered by Hamas plus the rape and torture and murder of hostages.
Personally I would prefer money to go to Israel rather than Ukraine.
George
probably everyone else thought of this long ago, but i, being an "independent thunker" thunk of it just a coupla weeks ago.. we all know that since the year zero (on the fredfranzian calendar) the wtb&ts has defied archaeology and insisted that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, even though the physical evidence shows that 587 bce is a more likely date.
in fact, the book "the gentile times reconsidered: have jehovah's witnesses been wrong all along about 607 bce?
" by carl olof jonsson and rud persson made this conversation public.. it is a difference of 20 years.
Isn't it the consensus of historians (the people who would know this stuff) that the actual date is either 587BC or 586BC?
These historians and archaeologists don't really care when Jerusalem was destroyed. They just report the facts as they are. They have no axe to grind. The ONLY people who care about the date are JW's because the entire religion is based on this erroneous date. Without 607, there is no 1914. Without 1914 there is no 1919 when the FDS/GB etc were chosen. The fact that JFR and his companions were released from jail in that year is of no significance.
Of course the average "Jonny come lately" JW doesn't understand any of this anyway.
George
we had the meeting with the branch representative this weekend.. the air was different than usual.. bearded ushers at the parking lots welcomed the brothers warmly.. lots of sisters with dress pants or not, nothing scandalous.. the representative of the italian branch made his debut on stage with his full beard.. location: roseto degli abruzzi (italy-europe).
some interesting statistical data can give a little food for thought after the numerous changes that have occurred in recent months (the ten-year or five-year plan, if you prefer, seems to be producing some small results).. attendance has increased since the last meeting.. our constituency includes 1725 publishers and those present in the morning were 1553, a little better than the november 2023 convention.
perhaps the new changes have brought some back to attendance?.
i’d like to start out by saying this is my opinion.. i believe that the organisation is about to make blood transfusions in any form a conscience matter.. they will still ban the eating of blood.. they will gaslight everyone by talking about how it is so much safer now.
and will say something along the lines of how our stance protected us from the aids crisis etc.. and i believe this change is going to happen before the annual meeting 2024.. i think the annual meeting will announce they are scrapping the midweek meeting and instead we get to watch a streamed talk at home through a revamped website similar to the way netflix works.. obviously take my opinion with a hefty pinch of salt..
Probably the first move will be to disband the HLC. Having unqualified persons advising on medical matters is a law suit waiting to happen.
After that it's a simple matter to move to "on your conscience be it".
George
so the wt society is going to contest the recent norway ruling.. jehovah’s witnesses to appeal unconstitutional ruling in norway (jw.org).
their true colours are shown in the statement: "the decision to deregister jehovah’s witnesses denies us the financial aid and other benefits that the government provides to over 700 registered religious communities in the country.
additional consequences include losing the right to appoint and authorize ministers of jehovah’s witnesses as officiants for weddings.".
I remember seeing a clip of a GB member whinging about the Norway decision.
That was AM III of course on the 2022 GB update #8.
2022 Governing Body Update #8 (jw.org)
He clearly said they would not change their beliefs because of government pressure.
What happened? Within 3 months AM III had gone and change is taking place.
Money changes everything!
George
so the wt society is going to contest the recent norway ruling.. jehovah’s witnesses to appeal unconstitutional ruling in norway (jw.org).
their true colours are shown in the statement: "the decision to deregister jehovah’s witnesses denies us the financial aid and other benefits that the government provides to over 700 registered religious communities in the country.
additional consequences include losing the right to appoint and authorize ministers of jehovah’s witnesses as officiants for weddings.".
So the WT Society is going to contest the recent Norway ruling.
Jehovah’s Witnesses to Appeal Unconstitutional Ruling in Norway (jw.org)
Their true colours are shown in the statement: "The decision to deregister Jehovah’s Witnesses denies us the financial aid and other benefits that the government provides to over 700 registered religious communities in the country. Additional consequences include losing the right to appoint and authorize ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses as officiants for weddings."
George
regarding the poster from jw headquarters, who claimed that the gb would eventually loosen the rules regarding sex.
the question is, is there really a bible rule explicitly prohibiting sex without marriage?
because this would be the only possible reason why loosening those rules would even come up in a discussion.
I vaguely remember a situation many years ago in a country where divorce was not allowed. A JW couple split up and one of them went and lived with someone else and was disfellowshipped. The innocent party could not get a divorce in order to remarry according to the law but was free to marry according to WT dogma.
The outcome was that the innocent party was told they could live with the new love without being disfellowshipped but would need to accept any negative feedback from people in the area.
Someone may remember this case and fill in some more details and the country involved.
George
I'm sure it's an age thing but I cannot understand why a guy would want to wear earrings or other piercings nor have his body tattooed other than maybe an anchor on his forearms if ex-navy!
George