They neglect to mention the letter to the BOE which clarifed the term "known to have been a child molester" to mean "known to the local congregation or community", not just the local BOE. So if a molestor moves into a new congregation where no one knows who he is, he can be re-appointed.
Fencing
JoinedPosts by Fencing
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5
The Bombshell Memo
by Celestial inhttp://wcfcourier.com/news/national/calif-jury-awards-m-in-jehovah-s-sex-abuse-case/article_e0667684-7053-573c-a597-fec48ae78bfd.html.
"conti also claimed in her suit that the religion's national leaders formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the religion's elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret.
congregation elders followed that policy when kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in alameda county, according to simons.".
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Fistfights for seats at DC?
by Blind_Of_Lies in[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng /> </o:officedocumentsettings> </xml><!
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Fencing
Never personally witnessed any fist fights, but I will tell you having spent many a convention opening the doors in the mornings, these supposedly unified, loving, "happiest people on earth" turn into rabid animals the second those doors open.
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20
30-minute Public Talk = More association ???
by Alfred init's been nearly 5 years since the letter was read at the end of the service meeting.
the society would lovingly decrease the public talk to a brief 30 minutes, eliminating the 15-minute doom-and-gloom introduction and thereby resulting in lower heating and air-conditioning costs allowing for more "association" after the meeting.... for those who still go to meetings... do you find that there is any more association with the 30-min public talk when compared to the former 45-min public talk?.
please share your observations.. thanks!.
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Fencing
Public talk length shortening was more about being able to cram more congregations into the same hall, IMO. Same with the elimination of the bookstudy. Opens up more nights for congregations to use the hall during the week, since before then every congregation was supposed to maintain at least one bookstudy at the hall for DFd people. Now, you could theoretically have 4 congregations in one hall pretty easily, and maybe 5 if one was willing to meet on Saturday.
I think you're going to see more hall consolidations in the coming few years, ala Menlo Park, as the Society seeks to increase their cash-on-hand.
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2005 - The year the Society began its decline (without anyone noticing)!
by cedars ini've just finished an article for randy over on freeminds.org, which i've submitted to him for review.
hopefully it should be online soon, so please keep checking!.
the article discusses the fact that the watch tower society is already in decline, and suggests the year 2005 as the turning point.
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Fencing
I somewhat agree with Billy about 2001, though I would argue the mental decline actually started right around '96 with the change to the generation doctrine, and solidified at the turn of the century. It took a few more years for that reality to fully set in, as people realized that the "end" was basically open-ended now, there was no immediate goal to look to on the horizon, and the zeal was all but sapped out of the WTS.
If you look at the growth numbers, it backs that up. Growth in the early 90s was always between 4.5-6%, with the trend line slowly dropping as you approach 1994 (80 years from 1914, i.e., the lifespan of a humany being "80 years in case of special mightiness" that a lot of people were clinging on). Bit of an uptick in '95, but before the generation change comes into play. Then the generation change happens. 1996 growth drops by one whole point which was the biggest single year drop in a while. It goes into freefall after that, with a huge 1.6 point drop between 98 and 99, which happens to correspond to when the internet started getting mainstream.
It finally hits 1.7% in 2001. Another uptick in 2002 to 2.8%, which is most likely because of 9/11 getting some formerly inactive JW's (and the public at large's) fears up. 2005, cedar's year in question, was a new low at 1.3%.
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Is there ANY JW belief/doctrine that has remained the same from start to now?
by journey-on ini was trying to think of one teaching or doctrine that has remained consistent from the society's inception to now, and couldn't.
.
can you give me one?.
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Fencing
And I would argue that 1914 shouldn't really be included on that list. What Russell and the early Bible Students believed about 1914 is completely different from what Witnesses believe today. In fact, the only thing about 1914 that stayed the same was calling it "The End of the Gentile Times", but what that meant to Russell wouldn't even be recognized by a modern JW.
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I've been away, need an Anointed update
by UnConfused inhow have the numbers of the anointed been doing - staying steady or finally declining?
that was always a puzzle to me how that could stay so steady..
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Fencing
The change in the sealing from being in 1935 to being wide open again was in the May 1st, 2007 WT.
Here's a load of info on it: http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/memorial-partakers.php
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I've been away, need an Anointed update
by UnConfused inhow have the numbers of the anointed been doing - staying steady or finally declining?
that was always a puzzle to me how that could stay so steady..
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Fencing
Going up, actually. It was steady for a number of years through the 90s and 2000s, and then they decided that the "sealing" wasn't actually over yet in 2006/2007, and the numbers have been steadily rising ever since. It's up to over 12,000 now.
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20
Scriptural Grounds for divorce.....
by stuckinamovement ini was watching a dumb show with my dear wife.
in the program a wife tried unsuccessfully to kill her husband.
i remarked to my wife "if you ever did that i would divorce you!
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Fencing
If you really want to take Jesus' words in Matthew literally, as the WT seems inclined to do, technically women have no rights to divocrce their husbands at all. Jesus only mentions men leaving their wives. Which would fit with the first century (and earlier) world, where women had no rights of their own and were not much more than property to be accquired.
So how come we never hear about that?
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Reform on blood issue?!?!
by Wishididntknow innot sure of the validity of this but i thought i would put out there.... danny hazard seems like a loose cannon...but...your thoughts?.
associated jehovah's witnesses for reform on blood are announcing the beginning of the end of the jehovah's witness blood doctrine.. since 2000 the watchtower society was forced to change their semantics on how they handle punishing its members for taking blood transfusions to save their lives.the european court of human rights negotiated this change when the country of bulgaria refused to acknowledge the watchtower society as a religion, due to the fact that the watchtower punished its members for accepting needed medical procedures to save their own, or their children's lives with blood transfusions.. but ajwrb has been tracking the development of these changes, and we have searched for any actual occurrences of a jw (who wants to stay a jw) getting disassociated for taking a blood transfusion.we have not found a one.
in the past we have not been able to get watchtower service dept.
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Fencing
The change from Disfellowshipping to Disassociation was nothing more than a CYA for the Society. As Elderelite states above, they started getting seriously looked at in Bulgaria for the disfellowshipping of people who elected to take transfusions. So, they changed it to disassociation so that they can look at the courts with a straight face and claim that they don't "punish" people who take a blood transfusion, the person themselves chooses to voluntarily leave by their decision.
Of course, the end result is exactly the same. And it's a total lie to claim that the Society doesn't take punitive action against members who elect for a blood transfusion. But their semantic game got them off the hook with the European Human Rights court, as I recall. And that's all it was ever about.
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"Get out of the bleachers and into the game"... Memorial 2012 demonstration.
by koolaid-man innow is a good time to start making preparations for the memorial night demonstration at your kingdom hall thursday, april 5, 2012, after sundown.. close to 20 million people will attend this annual global witness event including active witnesses, relatives and friends of witnesses, bible studies,return visits and still attached former witnesses.
the evils of the watchtower org.have to be exposed and this is an ideal time to do it.. many around the world have been adversely affected by their association with jehovah's witnesses and you can be an instrumental force by standing tall and courageously exposing the watchtower organization.. there is no better way to let the watchtower know your revulsion than to broadcast and present your view by standing fearlessly, demonstrating in front of a kingdom hall.. i am fully aware that a handful of the internet therapists who post on this forum will not agree with this method of unmasking the watchtower.. those intolerant, contemptuous critics who will comment on this thread making harsh judgements and finding fault with those who protest are perhaps deep-down wishing they had the backbone to stop hiding in cyber-space, step away from their computer and "get out of the bleachers and into the game" .
lets make this a global event!......
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Fencing
All this does is serve to reenforce the stereotypes that the WB&TS presents to the R&F that "apostates" are all lunatics who have lost their minds without their direction.
By doing things like this, you do FAR more to set things back than you do to help people out.