Good point Pete. Next thing, it's movies. Christian movies are regularly appearing and they must think they can get their cut. With their version of stupid movies like "God is not Dead". And somehow, as if it's possible, their movies will be even more poorly written and more poorly thought out.
On the good side for them, I'm sure there are plenty of great actors in their ranks. Think of all of those JWs secretly living double lives and acting like good JWs.
Posts by jws
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31Jehovah's Witnesses Announce Plans to Build Giant Media Center
by iwantoutnow inomg!
this has to be more of "keeping the flock busy and excited" so as not to notice whats going on.. how did i miss this?????
the jehovah's witnesses announced plans to build a 1.5 million-square-foot audio-visual production center in upstate new york, two miles away from the witnesses' headquarters in warwick.
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jws
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9
JOKER
by peacefulpete ini don’t think that the world needs that many brooding psychopathic avengers.
i don’t know that we need any........they’ve lost a lot of their original innocence, and they can’t get that back.
and, they’re stuck, it seems, in this kind of depressive ghetto of grimness and psychosis.
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jws
Great performance (I brought my 16 year old son). But neither of us came back with a feeling of that was so awesome! I want to see it again.
There were good performances that might receive a lot of awards. But it was just upsetting and depressing. Like the feeling of watching a paraplegic at a run down nursing home for an hour. I suppose that's what a lot of good art can do. And to evoke those feelings means the director did his job.
But you just leave the theater kind of quiet and disturbed. On the other hand, my son and I saw Zombieland Double Tap and came out with smiles, talking about cool things and things we liked.
I HATE what modern cinema has done to the super heroes (and villains). I grew up with reruns of Adam West as Batman and George Reeves as Superman. The good guys were always selfless and good. The bad guys were always bad. Speaking of Jokers, I will compare every Joker to Cesar Romero, BTW. And the good guys always won. And lived.
Absolutely HATED Superman vs. Batman. Where Batman was basically a bad guy. Nowadays the good guys fight against each other. The bad guys have their own movies. I know. Life is complex and life is a scale. Nobody's going to be all good and nobody's all bad. But this is the f'ing comics, not real life, nor need it be like real life.
Plus the fact that each new reboot has to retell it their own way. Different from the way it's always been. Or that the writers can't seem to find any better villains than a bad version of the good guy. Like General Zod vs Superman. Or Black Panther vs. another guy in a Black Panther suit. And lots of other examples I could name. -
31
Jehovah's Witnesses Announce Plans to Build Giant Media Center
by iwantoutnow inomg!
this has to be more of "keeping the flock busy and excited" so as not to notice whats going on.. how did i miss this?????
the jehovah's witnesses announced plans to build a 1.5 million-square-foot audio-visual production center in upstate new york, two miles away from the witnesses' headquarters in warwick.
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jws
Media center? KInda like televangelists?
Just watched the Fabulous Gemstones. They're headed that way.
Religious variety shows, coming up. -
24
Do You Think That Belonging To Certain Political Parties Suggests You Are Uneducated or Poor?
by minimus ini hear some people say that if you are a republican or democrat that you must not be very educated, intelligent or monetarily stable.
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do you think it’s proper to paint any person as less than favorable because of their political opinions?
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jws
I remember my move to the south 25+ years ago, where I joined a medieval re-creation group that mainly did a lot of campouts. Mostly adults. Though not the majority, some parents brought kids who ranged from toddlers to late teens.
At one point, there was a heated online debate. Some camps started putting out baskets of condoms, free to those who needed them. What a wonderful idea I thought. Protect from pregnancies. Protect from STDs. At the time, HIV was still very much a death sentence. How clever and thoughtful. What kind people.
But a bunch of idiots thought it was just horrible. Kids might take them.
Yeah? And? If kids (and I'm assuming teens) are going to have sex, they're going to do it anyway. Better to use protection. But these idiots just didn't understand reasoning and logic. What was wrong with them?
One parent even said if his child disobeyed him and had sex, they deserved whatever happened. Pregnancy, AIDS, whatever. WTF? Who are these morons? You'd rather your child die or suffer just because they didn't obey you???? Such authoritarians. What kind of parent would risk their children's safety due to not following their rules? A little like a certain father figure who doomed all of humanity to suffer for not doing what he said and eating a certain fruit.
I was not political at the time. I just thought it was southerners. Or stupid people. Or religious.Later I began to realize this particular brand of stupid as a certain type of conservative. So concerned about rules and everybody following their rules, they missed the logical.
It was the same type of idiot who thought that gay marriage was going to ruin marriage. Guess what? Straight people still get married. Nothing was ruined. -
22
Murmurs from the locals
by Moster ini was ministered to by several different people at a jw funeral i attended today.
one older lady said to me, "you know the end is right around the corner, just look at the state of the world today".
i said, "well yes but that has been the mantra for decades, remember 'stay alive till '75'".
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jws
Carl Olaf Jonson's book "Last Days, When?" really analyzes whether things are getting worse.
Steven Pinker's book Better Angels of our Nature (despite the title, non-religious) uses statistics to show that as a whole, society has been improving and getting better. Nothing moves in a smooth line, and society has it's occasional issues. But overall, statistically things are getting better.
The numbers are astounding. If I recall the right numbers, it's estimated that early man had a 1 in 3 chance of dying by violence. I forget the numbers, but the wealthy didn't fare so well a few hundred years ago. Between duels and political coups, lots of aristocrats met violent ends. Whereas today, these people stay safe behind various forms of protection. Obviously disease and such is not claiming as many lives as a percentage. Heart attacks with clogged arteries can be fixed with minor surgery as opposed to the chest-cracking some relatives have endured.
Just think of the plague. I think it was one of three in Europe died. The WTBS likes to quote figures for disease after WW1, proving things got worse. A few million was NOT 1 in 3. Think of 3 people. One of them would have been dead from plague.
Things have improved. Despite television news trying to scare you into thinking otherwise. More can still be done, but things are way better than a few hundred years ago. Or even a few decades ago.
I HATE the claim by religions that things are getting so bad, Jesus will have to step in. -
24
The "figurative" heart
by Sour Grapes inabout 25 years ago i gave a talk about how when the bible talks about the heart that it is the literal heart and how the heart and the brain are connected by nerve tissue.
the watchtower even stated that some people who received a heart transplant would take on some of the personality of the donor.then all of a sudden the borg changed and said that when the bible refers to the heart that it is figurative.
then when ever the watchtower referred to the heart it always put the word figurative in front of it.. does anyone know why there was a change in the use of the word heart?
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jws
25 years ago? I'm in my 50's now and I remember this change happening when I was in my teens. 35-40 years ago maybe.
The WBTS insisted that the heart was where things like emotions come from, not the brain. Even as a teen, I assumed it was figurative, though one day I was assured the Society did in fact not take it figuratively. They thought it literal.
My brother and I, who had middle school and high school science thought this was utter BS. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood. It has no control over higher functions like emotions. And my brother and I kind of laughed that anybody would be stupid enough to take that literally.
Upon which, our parents got real serious quick. We were to shut up about what we thought and NOT to ever speak to anybody at the hall about it. As I recall, and I might be wrong, I think it was kind of to the effect of "you can think that if you want, but don't ever let anybody know you think that".
As I recall it, the first artificial heart was used in 1982. And shortly afterwards, the society changed it's mind and published that the heart was a figurative seed of emotions, not literal. I figured the society realized after the first person with an artificial heart still had emotions, they didn't originate in the heart, so they HAD TO change.
Though we still followed the religion, that was eye-opening. WE (my brother and I) were right all along. BEFORE the society. What's up with that? Shouldn't the holy spirit have guided them to the correct understanding in the first place? Obviously the GB was not ALWAYS right. And people could have the correct understanding when they did not. Kids in their early teens knew more about biology than they did.AND, that the bible is not always correct. Now, that's probably an example that's open to interpretation. Obviously you could say the bible was figurative all along. But that whole thing probably planted seeds that were to grow later about both JWs and the bible itself.
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32
District convention to be held in assembly hall instead of stadium
by NikL inlast night they announced that this summers district convention will be held at an assembly hall.. this is the first time i've seen this happen.
there are a couple of congregations in the same hall here and they aren't going to the same ones.
they are having multiple dates.. the hall they are going to use can only hold 1500 people max.. just wondering if maybe they just couldnt get anything bigger this year or if the falling numbers are playing a part in this decision.
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jws
I agree with many posters. Way cheaper. They have the buildings, they're paying taxes on them already and no doubt utilities as well. It would seem more efficient to use them rather than pay somebody else, plus all of the work to put it on.
Have not been to one lately, but if they are showing pre-recorded (or live telecasts), there's no reason they can't consolidate speakers or show videos over and over.
How long until your district convention is an online event held at your local kingdom hall? And eventually on the JW.org channel on your Roku at home? On demand so you won't have to miss a minute.
But there is something to be said for the big conventions. I remember when they were in town and we'd host families. It was cool to have people stay in our house and get to know them. I still have a desk the congregation bought for a make shift operations center to help organize one in the early 80's. When it was on the road, it was like a little vacation, going to a different city, staying in the hotels, swimming in their pools, eating out with friends we knew. My dad often got to see people he hadn't seen in years.
And yes, there was something different in looking for a girlfriend. There weren't that many girls around my age in the circuit that were single. District conventions gave you a whole new opportunity.
I also liked seeing different convention sites. As a kid, with my dad on stage the stage construction crew and during setup, my brother and I went there with dad. We were able to get out on the field of an MLB stadium and run the bases (the base pads were gone, but still...). That's the same field I saw Hank Aaron play on. We didn't always get to go to these places due to JW life filling most of my parent's free moments. So it was exciting to be in an MLB stadium, even if it wasn't for a game. Going to the same venue all the time gets really boring.
This may sound weird, but I remember the smell of the garbage at the MLB stadium back when conventions had food service. That particular smell of concession garbage takes me back with a sense of nostalgia. I almost enjoy it.
Although there is something to be said about the familiarity of a circuit assembly hall. You already know the best hotels and places to eat. You know how to get there. But from the rank-and-file, that's about it for benefits.
Just more downsizing they will no doubt be told is some sort or blessing and welcome it. -
29
The "Good Old Days" - what made em' good?
by Terry inhave you ever heard the phrase:.
well, since i can't sleep tonight - you're gonna hear my version of what it means.. .
so, just suck it up and deal.. .
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jws
It's just a psychological thing that we remember the good and tend to ignore the bad, thus thinking the old days were always better.
And then the tendency to resist change and new things. You don't catch on as quickly and tend to let the world pass you by and you tend to ignore the new.
Those good old radio days? Your great-great grandparents probably thought that it was horrible that you weren't reading books, because that's where it was at for the mind.
Then when TV became popular, people reminisced about radio. Nowadays, I'm sure there's people reminiscing about the days when there were only 3 channels and your home had only one TV and you all gathered in one room to watch the big show of the evening. And we probably remember that fondly.
Instead of blaming the next generation, ask what we did to create that generation. We've created a society where greed and corporations run our lives. We're bombarded by ads and logos on everything. There's a million entertainment choices so that we can constantly be fed advertising no matter what our personal tastes. Don't like the G-rated family fare, watch the sexier shows with different ads. Like sports? Watch that with ads? Sci-fi, there's a channel for that loaded with ads. Whatever you're into, there's an outlet for that where you can get fed with advertising prompting you to buy, buy, buy.
Where big corporations don't allow us to earn a descent wage anymore either. Car prices are outrageous. Home prices too. Meanwhile, corporations plot as to how they can game the system so as to not give you benefits or to keep your wages to a minimum. While their owners make millions and billions in bonuses off the backs of the already poor.
And we wonder why the next generation doesn't have the same values? -
15
Shall I disassociate myself too? I’m the only one left now.
by Theonlyoneleft inplease bear with me as this might be a long one,.
the question above has been circulating my mind for a while and i’ve been wondering if there’s anyone that thought the same or done it.. we normally associate shunning and disassociation with jehovah’s witnesses that are normally baptised, but my situation is a reversed one.. i was a bible student that left a long time ago on my own free will, never shunned never ostracised by my jw’s siblings and their families.
the years have passed and situations have arisen that has made me uncomfortable of the knowledge of particular outcomes within my siblings and families.. i’ve been thinking to stay away from my family( living in a different country ), as i don’t want to be preached on or feel out of touch and segregated by their opinions of me and my family.
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jws
I used to live that life. My mother died while I was still a JW and 18. My father died over 24 years later. And I still have 2 older sisters in.
I left with my father and his second wife very much in, very gung ho. And two sisters also involved, though one less so.
I didn't see them all the time. I knew I was mostly a different person from them too. But they were still my family. They knew I didn't go to JW things, but I wasn't disassociated or disfellowshipped either. So we could hang out, do things together. I personally liked that. I know all of the talk of assemblies and hall talk annoyed me. But the talks with my dad and sisters on other things made me happy. Dad's gone now and I called and talked with him almost every Sunday for years before he died. I really appreciate that I had that. And I know if I disassociated myself, I wouldn't as he wouldn't have talked to me. We came to an agreement to not talk religion and had a relationship for nearly 20 years after me leaving until he died.
For what it's worth, I thought it was worth it to tow the line and "behave" when I saw them. I didn't have to rub their faces in me celebrating birthdays or holidays. I could avoid controversial things for the few times I saw them. It's not like they made me go to meetings or anything. Some of the conversation was even a little nostalgic. Hearing about their friends that I knew and/or liked. Their talk about the religion could safely go in one ear and out the other. Didn't like it, but so what? They were family and it wasn't ALL JW stuff.
When they're all gone, I still don't think I'll disassociate or disfellowship myself. Why bother? That's the JW rules, their laws. I stopped playing by their rules years ago. If they think I'm still an inactive member, so what? If they consider my baptism valid, so what? I don't care. It means as much to me as the Rock and Roll Air Force membership I used to have for a local radio station. I don't feel I have to track them down and officially quit. Who cares?
Wait it out. In your lifetime, the JWs may be gone. -
39
Why Did You Stay In The JW Religion As Long As You Did?
by minimus inwere you so indoctrinated that you just couldn’t leave?
was it due to family pressure?
was it your friendships that you didn’t want to lose?
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jws
Family. I was born in. Stayed basically until I moved out of my parents. Still a few more years before I gave up on believing it. Even then, faded to stay in good standing. Nearly 30 years later, I still have 2 sisters in it.