Posts by Fencing

37

Did I imagine a brief thaw in the Watchtower injunction against going to university?

by slimboyfat in

okay i was talking to an elder and he said me going to university was a bad idea and i should have listened to the society and not gone.

but i said that when i went to university the watchtower was saying it might not be a bad idea to go to, as long as you do it for the "right reasons", don't associate with worldly people, and keep clear of "damaging ideas".

but basically they said it was okay, in this "changing world" and job market to go to university.

Fencing

There was definitely a brief "thaw" in the anti-college stance. I, unfortunately, was right on the cusp of the generation that grew up with all the demonizing of college and the softening didn't start until I was already exiting high school. So even though it was suddenly "allowed", I had no money for it, no college prep work behind me, and didn't have the right mindset to go to college since it had always been out of the question for most of my life.

The generation after me, who graduated in the late 90s/early 00s, had more time to prepare and I know of quite a few who went to college, including the kids of elders, and it wasn't even questioned. Of course, that all changed again several years ago.

14

BOE 2015-10-24 TO PUBLISHERS LEARNING ANOTHER LANGUAGE TO ADVANCE THE GOOD NEWS

by wifibandit in

pdf.

.

Fencing

I would estimate that 90% of dubs who learn another language, end up burning out within three years. This is based on the stories of friends who have learned another language.

That's been my experience as well. I know people who have learned French, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic, all to "assist" in foreign language groups. The vast majority quit within a couple years and come back to their original hall.

63

Why does the Watchtower leadership slap its own defenders in the face?

by slimboyfat in

take the case of rolf furuli.

i don't think there has been a specific thread on the hebrew verbs u-turn in the nwt, and how the society has responded to the work of perhaps their brightest and ablest defender in their history.

so here goes.. rolf furuli has defended jws on multiple fronts in many different settings, on issues ranging from chronology, mental health, doctrines, bible translation and the blood issue.

Fencing

Somewhat off-topic, but on the subject of Furuli: I still would love to know how much involvement he had in the (really poorly argued) two-part 607 defense article in the WT a few years ago. It's obvious that the bulk of the article came directly from his typical arguments (particularly the stuff trying desperately to shove that solar eclipse into the wrong year), but I wonder if he had more of a "hands on" role in the writing of it. Either advising the writing department, or perhaps even writing parts of it himself.

80

ANNOUNCEMENT CLIP ...2015 Annual meeting Sam Herd confirming what we knew a month ago about slow down and halt of worldwide construction

by Watchtower-Free in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.

Fencing

If you pay attention, you'll notice he never actually said that the Society wasn't experiencing a lack of funds. What he said was that these actions were not because of the rank and file. "These adjustments are not being made because of a lack of financial support on your part." Very carefully worded to give the impression that they're doing just fine financially, without actually ever making that claim.

43

Witnesses - Ever Wondered Why You're So Tired After Assemblies/Meetings?

by The Searcher in

recently shared this with me.. they compared the tiredness they felt after attending an assembly and meetings, and noted how much worse it was than actually working and studying hard for hours for their secular employment!

why were they so exhausted after an assembly/meeting?

no, it wasn't satan.

Fencing

I'm convinced this is also why every convention is the "Best Convention Ever!" The pure boredom and desire to be anywhere but there combined with the elation of it being finally over, and the cognitive dissonance that creates (you're not supposed to be happy the convention is over!), gets transposed into positive memories about how "amazing" the convention was.

95

Template to dump Special Pioneers

by avaddohn94 in

"downsizing" has reached special pioneers.. this is the template mexico is using to get rid of many of its special pioneers.

see how cold and unloving is the language they use.

a translation attempt is as follows:.

Fencing

Note that this likely includes some Gilead Graduates.
Gilead Grads can be assigned as Special Pioneers, Circuit Overseers or they can be assigned to work at a Branch.

This also likely includes many of the last round of Bethel layoffs about 9 years ago, as many of them were allowed to become Special Pioneers instead. I was in a congregation that had one of them.

324

VA shooting suspect was raised a JW! He mentions it on his Twitter account

by WingCommander in

jw
friends

anyone in the usa following this morning's shooting "on-air" live tv will know what i'm talking about.

bryce williams (not real name, but on-air name) shot and killed 2 people on live television this morning in roanoke, va. he was wearing a go-pro camera, and uploaded his first-person video onto his social media accounts.

i've seen his twitter feed (before it was taken down), and not very far down he mentions being raised a jw.

Fencing

Yeah, dem damn dirty foreigners.

324

VA shooting suspect was raised a JW! He mentions it on his Twitter account

by WingCommander in

jw
friends

anyone in the usa following this morning's shooting "on-air" live tv will know what i'm talking about.

bryce williams (not real name, but on-air name) shot and killed 2 people on live television this morning in roanoke, va. he was wearing a go-pro camera, and uploaded his first-person video onto his social media accounts.

i've seen his twitter feed (before it was taken down), and not very far down he mentions being raised a jw.

Fencing

83

What woke you up?

by Israel Ricky Gonzales in

in march of 2014, i was a very active jw, a ministerial servant, gave a public talk, was an attendant for the memorial, and one of 4 cleaning captains for an international convention of 40,000+ attendees.

so what woke me up?

an innocent comment from a co-worker about the candice conti court case rang a bell that could not be unrung.

Fencing

I think I subconsciously knew something was off for years. But I always avoided any "apostate" sites like the plague. The turning point for me was an article posted on Fark.com several years ago. It was article in a paper about an upcoming District Convention in Florida, and in the comments I happened across someone posting how the entire JW theology was based on the year of 607 BCE, and how not a single historian, scholar, or expert agrees that Jerusalem was destroyed then. That they were literally the only people in the world who thought 607 was the correct year, and how everything else falls apart after that. I had never heard that before, and it really jarred me. Then someone posted a picture of the pyramid grave and talked about the pyramid measurements Russell was fond of. That lead me to immediately find and start reading Studies in the Scriptures. That's when I started discovering that so much of what the modern Society claimed about the original Bible Students' teachings was demonstrably wrong. And not just wrong, but intentionally misleading.

And I couldn't stop reading after that.

41

The elders of the 1980s are now in their 60s and 70s

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

having just come back from the uk and spoke with some witnesses to find out how my old congregation is doing, i realized i am now the age that my elders were when i was a kid.

and i wonder what the elders who are now in their 60s and 70s are thinking when they look in the mirror and an old face looks back at them.

many of the elders in my old hall are now retired.

Fencing

I know my parents used to recoil in horror when I mentioned I was saving for retirement because The End was coming Real Soon Now, so saving for the future was a sign of a lack of faith. Now within the last few years they seem to think it's a good idea I have a 401k. So their outlook on the future has definitely changed now that they are dealing with retirement relying almost solely on social security.