my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.
the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.
but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?
Looking at that first armageddon picture from the new book....
Is that Andrew Dice Clay on the left? Hell, I'd rather have my kids learn his nursery rhymes than read this book.
And what is that? An XXX theater? I didn't think those existed anymore, what with video and the internet. Do the people who produce this stuff ever get out to the real world?
And is that a pair of phallic symbols above the crumbling building? See any other hidden faces or items that are secretly painted in?
i was never baptized, but boy did i feel the pressure ....... what are you waiting for ???
don't you love jehovah ???
(i was in my late teens and brought up in the borg)
I put it off for a while. Some kids got baptised at 13 and maybe younger. We got some pressure, but my brother and I argued that we should be closer to adults so that it would be an adult decision. It worked. We managed to put it off until we were both about 18, but then the pressure was sure on. We both lived at home during the time and would keep getting asked about it.
When I finally did it, I can't really remember what was going through my mind. On the one hand, I felt I had to. I believed in the JWs, so it was something I had to do eventually. On the other hand, the more people tried to pressure me into it, the more it made me not want to - just to show them. I didn't feel right being pressured. But, the longer I waited, the more I felt I stuck out. Here were kids baptised at 13 and here I am all the way at 17 or 18. What was keeping me? Then there was the status and how people viewed you. At dating age, with that non-baptised thing hung over your head, some parents and even some girls wouldn't have anything to do with you. It was a red flag.
In the end, I think the pressure from parents (and I'm not saying I was forced, just pressure here and there), I gave in. I felt OK with it at the time. It was something I had to get past and I was doing it and getting it over with.
The wierdest thing was once I was baptised, it was a turning point. And it all started that very night. I was a pretty good JW up until that point, generally behaving, except for a little wine or beer now and then. That night we had booked a hotel with another friend from our old hall. He brought a 6-pack and some whiskey. We got a little drunk, met these four worldly girls and my brother and I went to their room and ended up making out with 3 of the 4. We even had this hilarious situation with hiding in the bathroom shower when one of their fathers came in. We held our breath and tried not to breath or make a sound when he came in to use the bathroom. Nothing x-rated happened, but probably could have. When one girl I was making out with got sick from too much alcohol, another volunteered to take her place. Up until this night, neither of us had ever made out before.
So, here I was. Somehow I thought baptism would protect me. I wound up with this odd feeling that because I was now a JW, Satan was trying to tempt me away. Before he didn't care, but now I was on his hit list and I had just failed a test. But damn if it wasn't fun! Nothing ever came from it. Never saw these girls again. Nobody ever spoke to the elders about it. Actually, at that time, if that's what baptism got you, I wanted to be baptised at every assembly!!!
quote: originally posted by t' pau .
interesting how the theorists of evolution still try to fight the laws of reason while trying to keep alive this dying ideology.
you were thaying?
I don't do the JWZone thing, but this statement looks pro-religion, not pro-evolution. It is a bit controversial by saying there's a lot to support evolution.
The thing though is that JWZone people probably peruse this board or even search for topics like "JWZone" to see what we're saying about them. By first posting this here, you could be exposing your alter-ego and they'd know you post here too. That might get you kicked off of some fanatical pro-JW site.
going door to door is an obligation in the jw's.
giving a bible study isn't.
you can ask people if they want to study the bible with you, but few are those who will accept.. there is lots of work and research to be made in order to answer all kinds of questions when a person is interested in a bible study.
I'm pretty sure I wanted to. First off, the whole goal of our preaching work was to convert somebody. To go year after year and never come close to fulfilling that goal was a bit frustrating. Those that had studies had them coming to the KH and some of them joined. A Bible study was the first step towards converting somebody. They also made it out to be something great and it was a bit of a symbol of maturity that you could hold one. A status symbol. I also enjoy teaching and it's very rewarding to see somebody learn. So there were very good reasons to want that within the JW culture.
On the flipside, I was always nervous that I wasn't good enough to teach. That somebody was going to ask me something that I couldn't answer and I'd stumble them. So it was very intimidating.
And even on the more subversive side, a study could be counted as time, right? I figured an hour talking to somebody in a house was far better than going door to door in cold, rain, heat, meeting people who told you to get lost.
does anybody have any wbts literature references that criticize, condemn or warn against harry potter books and films?.
you see, my wife and family (jw) "love" harry potter, and so it would be great to be able to show them how absurd the watchtower society is for condemning harry potter, if indeed it does.
i am assuming the wbts would disapprove of such demonic witchcraft and the like that is contained in the harry potter publications!.
Maybe they like ET more now that they replaced the rifles with radios and took out the word terrorist...
I remember that article, but now it makes my blood boil all over again. Somebody's really got to be straining to find moral problems with a kid's movie like ET.
my mother who has been a jw for 38 years told me last night that the society had said they don't have the funds like they used to for the kingdom halls.
their congregation just sold theirs last month and another in their area just sold (michigan).
they say they are building double khs instead.
Could be shrinkage affecting them. Selling two or three halls and combining them to share a double-hall probably works well. One property with more space is probably cheaper than to maintain than 2 or 3. And with shrinking congregations, combining means more total JWs to support one building.
The Society has gone to extremes for cost-cutting. My dad says they combined 2 circuits because it's more economical to have one less weekend that the assembly hall is fired up with all the lights and heating/air conditioning. Then the books being changed from hardcover to soft. Cutting out subscriptions, etc. Every penny that can be pinched is being pinched.
Is that because of pending lawsuits? Maybe. Are the new rulers of the org just better businessmen and have come up with cost saving measures? Then again, since Sept 11 and with the downturn in the economy people are spending less money on charity and donations. Maybe this has hit them hard as well.
How exactly does the money flow in contributions? I know they used to read it all off in the financial reports, but I forget. If the KH gets say $3000 in donations a month, they have utilities and maybe a mortgage to pay. Sometimes they have a carryover, sometimes they have to draw on their savings. What goes back to the Watchtower Society? How is the Society funded? I know they make money off selling the publications to the local KHs. And what about the congregation? In some rich areas, they might get $10K/month in donations and spend $2K/month for expenses. Does the extra money just accumulate until the local hall has hundreds of thousands of dollars at its disposal? Or when it gets to a certain amount does the Socety demand all the excess? Or do they let the halls accumulate the money, but require a certain percentage of donations every month? And what about halls getting fewer donations than their expenses?
alligator grabs, drowns boy in marina
tavares, florida (ap) -- a 10-foot alligator attacked and killed a 12-year-old boy who was swimming near a marina in central florida, police said.
brian griffin was pulled under the dark water wednesday, minutes after two friends spotted alligators and screamed for him to get out of the dead river where they had been swimming, witnesses said.. deputies and witnesses saw the alligator surface at least once with the boy in his jaws, but the animal quickly disappeared across the river, the orlando sentinel reported in a story for thursday editions.. the boy was under for at least 25 minutes before a sheriff's helicopter spotted him and dropped a buoy to guide deputies, who pulled him up.
There's even alligators showing up in North Texas. One was found in a small lake in McKinney and another in somebody's back-yard pond in Plano (both just north of Dallas). And Dallas isn't especially known for it's waterways and swamps like Florida. But, the news says they're protected and people can't just shoot them. Don't know why. Seems they've been increasing in numbers and they looked pretty dangerous, even on land.
My great-aunt lived in Florida and there was a waterway near her house that fed into a lake. They'd sometimes have alligators in their yard and neighborhood dogs would go missing if people left them out at night.
so many do quote a scripture to make a point against an idea, yet i see that a number do not seem to believe in the bible's inspiration, anyway.
so, do you believe that the bible is god's inspired word??
?
I want to say I'm a Christian believer. But when it comes down to it, the Bible is a collection of writings, and we do not have the originals for ANY of them. While what we know as the Bible is the accepted version, there were other books that were left out at the decision of a council. And even the books that were accepted are sometimes a hodge-podge of multiple versions of the same books. Who knows what the original text was? And what is missing? The Bible refers to other books that we do not have.
Yet I believe. And I believe that it's possible that our Creator guided the assemblance of these books into a Bible. And if not complete or original, at least he may have guided them into a "good-enough" form.
But I'm also open-minded. Keeping in mind that a council picked and chose what it wanted to call the Bible. It decided among several writings which were and were not to be included and which versions were correct when differences occurred. With the history of man-made decisions made in the name of God, there's a plausible argument that could be made that they did not get it right. After all, what makes them any different from the Governing Body in picking and choosing what JWs are presented with?
out of the blue, an elder from a distant congregation called wondering if i could make it to a kingdom all build/remodel!
i was on the drywall team and not been to a build for about 2-3 years.i was at the time on my way out "da troof".
i was taken back by his request!
It seems that they either a) lose track of who's active and who's not or b) are so desperate for help that they even ask inactives.
My dad went to hall builds over a hundred miles away, out of our circuit and maybe even out of our district. If somebody is DA or DF, it usually doesn't get announced outside your own hall (at least in our area). If you drift away, there's no real announcements either. There's probably still some JWs I've run into that don't know I've left and it's been over a dozen years. I think it's extremely possible that all this guy had was a list of numbers of people who helped in the past and no clue as to their status. And I don't think that would be out of the ordinary. Kinda like my list of business cards. I'm expecting most of my older cards are for people who left for other jobs.
What I found kinda interesting is the "OK, NEXT..." attitude. No encouragement or invitation to come anyway. I would think most other religious people (with true love) wouldn't just drop it. They might say they'd like to see you again anyway. Maybe even ask for your help with the construction project anyway. Maybe they feel that if you come and participate in a group activity, you might find it fun and have a desire to go back to church. Or at least that it would be helpful to you to show love and show they care.
do you wish that you were of a different race or heritage than you are ?
I'm happy to be a white American male. But don't confuse that to mean I'm prejudiced. At least here in the US, non-whites often suffer from the hate or prejudice of others. I wouldn't want that for myself or my family. If everybody were treated the same, I don't think I'd care what shade I was.
