respectful_observer

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Posts by respectful_observer

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  18

  New Light needs batteries

  by Roberta804 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  well i think the borg crossed the line with many of the r&f.

  met a young woman at a class i take come to find out she and her husband are recent ex-jws.

  they were both born-ins and they felt the printing company is taking too many liberties and that many in the khs are not talking about it... just leaving.

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  respectful_observer

  Roberta804, as a caveat, college isn't explicitly forbidden for those with "privileges". The policy leaves just enough wiggle room to allow congregations to interpret it on a case-by-case basis. There's a branch letter out there somewhere I think, but the gist of it is:

  - Are they encouraging others to pursue the same course?

  - What is their motive-- money and prestige, or gaining a specific skill?

  - Has it/will it impact their theocratic activity (service time/meeting attendance)?

  If they trigger any of the above, it's likely you lose your privileges. That being said, I do know several elders/MS/Pioneers whose children (or they themselves are currently in 4-year or master's programs of some type. All depends on your congregation, your CO, and who you know.
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  14

  protestors at assemblies

  by Hillary in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  is there any protesting done outside the assemblies?

  or is it only done at conventions?

  i believe some of my relatives have an assembly coming up soon.

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  respectful_observer

  There were protesters every once in a while at the DC in my years growing up, but not at the CA/SAD. Anytime protesters/picketers were there, everyone just avoided them, then laughed at them once safely inside. It definitely reinforced the Org's message that "apostates are mentally diseased."

  Someone more qualified than myself can probably give you some explanations around cult/high-control-group reflex reactions, even among those who have doubts about doctrine/rules.

  I'm not sure if members' reactions would be different if it was something as simple as a banner hanging nearby that read: www.jehovahs-witness.net (Maybe with a "'The Truth' is Out There..." Hahaha....) That way there's no person that can been seen as "crazy", no clear message that defines an issue you could be "bitter" about, just a website whose URL can be easily remembered.

  If I saw that, I'd think "Hmmm...obviously 'apostate', but I wonder what that website is?" As much as humans are naturally defensive when their [faith] community is under attack, they're equally imbued with a natural sense of curiousity.
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  20

  Today's watchtower study... Ugh.

  by OneDayillBeFree in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  watchtower studies like today's really make me feel anger for this cult.

  i mean almost all of them do but this one is one of those articles that takes things too far.. i mean they are condemning the people who are trying to help/save the earth because it's "satan's" world and instead are saying that religious salesmen with magazines are doing way more than the others!like are you f**king kidding me?another reason why i hated this study article is for what some of the young ones did in response to the study.

  as one was unwrapping a piece of candy, he decided to throw the wrapper on the ground.

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  respectful_observer

  "it doesn't matter because we're only temporary here and god's gonna fix it anyway." And then the other kid just nodded away in agreement.

  Hey, that's the same conversation I hear between all the baby boomer J-dubs that are just now realizing they haven't saved enough (any?) money for retirement!

  "Well it's a good thing Armaggedon will be here soon before it becomes an issue for me!" (Righttt....I'm sure Jehovah's planning the date of death of billions of men, women, and children based on how small your 401(k) balance is.)

  R_O
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  37

  Notes from "Safeguard Your Conscience" Special Assembly Day

  by WinstonSmith in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  recently we had the 'privilege' of attending our local special assembly day.

  the theme for this year was safeguard your conscience, and you guessed it, they looked up every reference to the word 'conscience' in the bible and then wrote a talk about each one.

  it was most definitely a case of "pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip.".

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  respectful_observer

  Weddings. We do all things for God's glory...[t]hey would of course want to use a Kingdom Hall, because they love and are thankful to Jehovah as the originator of mariage.

  Is there anything in print that suggests this strongly that the wedding should be at the KH vs. other locations? Maybe couples would be more likely to use the KH if they were even halfway attractive on the inside. You spend tens of thousands of dollars on dresses, tuxedos, flowers, etc., but you want to hold the event in a boring auditorium with a suspended ceiling, fluorescent lights, tacky chairs, and a mauve-based color scheme that was only slightly fashionable back in 1991. How romantic!

  I was once told by someone that you should choose to get married at the KH because it served as an outward sign to everyone in attendance that your courtship remained clean and honorable. Rightttt.....I'm sure that's always the case.
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  77

  Former Elder Michael Johnson Norris WANTED

  by Tylinbrando in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

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  respectful_observer

  http://costaricaneedgreaters.blogspot.com/2010/04/week-nine.html

  Photos pulled from Quepos Congregation Blog above. Perp in orange dress shirt.

  

  Blog has been removed

  Sorry, the blog at costaricaneedgreaters.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.
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  77

  Former Elder Michael Johnson Norris WANTED

  by Tylinbrando in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

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  respectful_observer
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  6

  Hope I planted a seed to my kid why it's not the Truth..

  by marriedtoajw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife took my kids to a special talk last night and i had no clue.

  i came home from work at 9pm and no one was home.

  i misplaced my house key so luckily they pulled in the drive way only minutes after me.

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  respectful_observer

  If you encourage him to go to college, he'll learn/sharpen valuable critical thinking skills that will serve him well in ALL of life's important decisions...including which faith he should follow.

  Sorry, I don't know your background. Are/Were you ever a J-dub? The only other observation I would make is that if he gets baptised BEFORE going to college, any future decision not to follow the J-dub faith will have a much bigger impact on his life and the relationship with his J-dub family.
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  76

  Whacky comments! What the craziest comment you've ever heard?

  by toweragent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  last week a sister in my new hall made the following comment,.

  "a brother once told me that it is better to be wrong with the organization, than to be right and be on your own without the organization.".

  wow.

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  respectful_observer

  There was a brother who, during his #4 talk, outright blamed the suicide of a young man in the hall on the elders. His arguement was that the elders didn't pay close enough attention to his needs. You could hear a pin drop as he walked off the stage. They didn't even wait until the end of the meeting before dragging him back to the library.

  There's a District Overseer that brings up "Higher Education" at every opportunity. To illustrate the "dangers" of it, he always relates the same story of two young sisters from the same hall who decided to go to college together and be roommates in the dorm. What happened? They became LESBIANS!
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  77

  Distrust and paranoia among faders

  by cedars in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi guys.

  i'm interested in knowing whether any other faders out there ever find themselves feeling a little paranoid about establishing contact with other faders or former jws, just in case the unthinkable happens and things turn sour.. personally, i'm now fairly comfortable with the idea that i will be disfellowshipped or disassociated within the next year or so.

  i see it as inevitable, and an essential transition in order to do what i want to do with my life.

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  respectful_observer

  I'm not technically a fader, so I'm especially wary of disclosing my real name or even details in my life/events/meetings that might let someone put the pieces together.

  I've seen others make these recommendations, which I may or may not follow:

  - Change the "names". Was it your brother-in-low who brought up seeming inconsistancies with the blood issue, or could it have been a pioneer sister you were going door-to-door with? Whose to say. Or do you remember that bizarre comment made from the stage last night? That brother sister always says such crazy stuff when he she has a talk.

  - Change the place. Were you talking with someone about the latest "Generation" change at the hall, while watching a football game, at a Quick Build TM ? Hard to tell, my memory isn't quite what it was.

  - Change the date. So you just got back from the CA/SAD/DC and are all riled up over that symposium bashing higher education. You want to post your thoughts right away, but then realize that everyone will know your congregation had the CA/SAD/DC that weekend, and that may give someone one more piece to your real identity. Good thing it still qualifies as a "recent" assembly that may or may not have happened "a few months/weeks ago.

  Lastly, before I click "Submit" on any post, I think "If someone did manage to figure out R_O might be me, printed out all my posts and handed them to the elders, is there anything I've written that actually qualifies as 'apostate thinking?'" I tend to qualify a lot of my statements. (e.g. "Some might think", not "I think.)
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  27

  Stay Alive Til 2020

  by FrankWTower in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been playing around with wt statistics recently, helped by the great data available on jwfacts.com.

  i wanted to share somehting with the community, maybe you've seen something like this before.. continuing the trend of decline seen during the last 30 years, i was able to extrapolate the year when wt growth might finally end.

  if trends continue, we may only have to wait about 8 more years, 9 years to see it reported if the wt decides to report it at all, to see publisher growth end and possibly reverse.. the graph shows the annual growth rate of average publishers during the last 31 years.

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  respectful_observer

  The historic growth numbers have often been propped up by concentrated rates of high growth (e.g. Eastern Bloc countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union).

  What we can't predict is how these numbers will be affected by "the preaching work opening up" in countries where it is under ban today. If China were to lift the ban in, let's say 5 years, the growth numbers will jump up (and stay up) for a while. Putting arguements of China being a non-Christian culture aside, there's the potential of another 1 million new J-dubs over in China.