i remember around 2005, there was an announcement made from the platform that in a few weeks time we would have to remain at the end of the sunday meeting for a big announcement, directly from the society.. i remember all the murmuring, people thought maybe this was going to be related to armageddon.
everyone was excited, people were speculating.
only the po in each congregation had any idea what was going on, and they were frequently pestered for information, but sworn to secrecy, which only hyped things up even more.. then the meeting came, anticipation was in the air, the announcement started, you could hear a pin drop.
Wasn't this around the time when the WTS switched from shunning the internet as being deplorable, to telling all to start using jw.org? And gradually promoted their web site only.
That came a little later. I remember the internet, and particularly social media, being openly advised against well into 2007 or so. It was around the time I had pretty much stopped going, but there was a KM article decrying the evils of MySpace and the like.
i believe the gb's takeover of the fds was an illegal coup - not illegal relative to the laws of land, but illegal according to jw "laws" or doctrine.. according to jw doctrine, the fds is god's channel of communication between heaven and earth.
before the coup, the fds was defined to be all the anointed on earth, and the gb was part of that group and merely the spokesman for the group - individual gb members having no more authority than non-gb members of the fds.. however, a few years ago, the gb, independently of the other members of the fds, decided that it alone was the fds.
that, to me, was an illegal overthrow of the body (fds); it was a coup.. suppose the u.s. president decided that he has all power, and that he removed the powers of the u.s. congress.
If we're being honest, all this change did was codify what every witness deep down already knew to be true anyway: The real ones in charge are the GB, and that's it. The whole "all anointed remnant are part of the F&DS" thing was just a nice mental salve to soothe the minds of the R&F, giving them something to point to so they could say, "See! We're not a cult, we don't follow any single leader, or even a small group of leaders!"
In reality, everyone knew that there was no way in hell the GB was ever going to accept a call from Joe Crazy, who just happens to drink the wine every year in some middle-of-nowhere congregation, claiming to have some new insight from the Holy Spirit on Ephesians 1:10.
I do think the GB sensed a potential threat to their leadership in leaving the definition of the F&DS so broad, and preemptively changed it to prevent some future uprising.
i know most of you don't know what anonymous is or what the real 4chan is, but both are saying that their global meta data is pointing that now with south korean elections going to a pro war candidate (moon, who is a psycho) and china saying there may be no other solution, north korea will strike first before the end of this year.
japan has called up reserves.
take it with a grain of salt.
It's interesting. Being a born-in, I often wonder how so many people from the outside could be so easily conned into going all the way to baptism. Us born-ins didn't have much of a choice, but worldly people should be able to EASILY see through all the crazy doctrines, hand-waving and dangerous beliefs. It just takes a little critical thinking, so how could so many people get swept along in it?
Then I come here, read threads like this, and it makes more sense.
i know most of you don't know what anonymous is or what the real 4chan is, but both are saying that their global meta data is pointing that now with south korean elections going to a pro war candidate (moon, who is a psycho) and china saying there may be no other solution, north korea will strike first before the end of this year.
japan has called up reserves.
take it with a grain of salt.
Guys, an anonymous person on the most notorious troll-infested place on the internet said it. It HAS to be true. I mean, people wouldn't just go and lie on the internet.
i have little doubt articles of impeachment will be drawn up on trump within the next year or so.
my only question at this point is what are they going to get him for?.
collusion with a foreign government to subvert an election?.
When did this place turn into /r/the_donald?
it appears that the governing body members today are part of the great crowd and are not of the anointed.. to those with some knowledge of the subject, is it possible that the christian congregation would eventually be lead by those who are not anointed?
.
Does anyone else remember that weird out of nowhere WT article about 15 or 20 years ago, talking about the "Nethinim Class"? It was postulating that eventually the WTBS could be led by non-anointed. I remember it caused a lot of tongue wagging at the time, and then never seemed to be mentioned again.
This was around the time of the 1995 generation change, so everything felt up in the air like they were just grasping at straws.
how many in your age group are still jehovahs witnesses?
from where we are at, there aren't many left.
each year it gets smaller and smaller haha .
Was thinking about this the other day, and counting up all the witness kids from when I was growing up. And when I did the math, including those who were raised but never baptized, it was right on track with the Pew Research poll's number of only around a third still self-identifying as JWs in their mid 30s.
i was wondering if the gb has forbidden vaping yet, so i did a search.
there was a thread from a year ago, the comments covered all the bases i suspected the wt would come up with.
i'm out, so it doesn't really matter to me.
weed has been brought before. If you have a medical marijuana card, prescription, whatever, it's ok. Apparently the demons check your wallet for it first. If you have it, they leave you alone. If don't, well buddy, you're in for a wild evening.
edit: I remember the anti-rap stuff starting in the late 80's. I wish I could remember the article, but there was an Awake that condemned rap because (and I think I have the quote) 'they lyrics are spoken, not sung.'
It's such an insane thing to harp on.
I remember that article. I think it was the same one that called out 2 Live Crew without actually naming them by name.
hi guys.
a fellow ex jw shared this with me.
haven't time to read them yet (i'm using my phone to go on internet).
I can remember we'd have a special needs talk and then they'd immediately announce someone had been df'd ... real subtle.
The worst was when they would do that when it was public reproof, because then those people still had to look everyone in the eye and try and fit in. Had a friend who got reproved one week, and a girl in the hall was reproved the week after. That already got tongues wagging enough. But the week after that? Needlessly detailed Local Needs part on every single act that constitutes "porneia".
It wasn't a "local need". It was a petty attempt to try and embarrass the hell out of them.
here we are on the cusp of the new year, and the 2017 yearbook of jws has still not been released.
jw.org continues to feature the 2016 yearbook in its list of main publications.
in previous years, the upcoming yearbook's annual report on jws was released in november for the january 1st then the feb 1st watchtower, then earlier in december when it was only featured in the yearbook, then more recently with a couple of days of december 25th.
From 2010-2015, here are the partaker numbers and the YoY growth percentage:
2010 11202 +3.1%
2011 11824 +5.5%
2012 12604 +6.5%
2013 13204 +4.7%
2014 14121 +6.9%
2015 15177 +7.4%
