just like the whole jimmy swaggart tax scandal, the wt lawyers are once again way ahead of everyone else... they probably saw this coming way in advance and advised the governing body to spin this into a "family worship night" before anyone can associate the eventual enforcement of this california code with the discontinuation of the book study...
Posts by Alfred
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26You can be fined for holding Bible studies in your home in California
by Terry infaith california city fines couple for holding bible study in their homeposted on september 19, 2011 at 1:36am by madeleine morgensternphoto via flickr user erwin vogelaar.
a southern california couple has been fined $300 dollars for holding christian bible study sessions in their home, and could face another $500 for each additional gathering.. city officials in san juan capistrano, calif. say chuck and stephanie fromm are in violation of municipal code 9-3.301, which prohibits religious, fraternal or non-profit organizations in residential neighborhoods without a permit.
stephanie hosts a wednesday bible study that draws about 20 attendees, and chuck holds a sunday service that gets about 50.. the fromms appealed their citations but were denied and warned future sessions would carry heftier penalties.
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Census / online survey idea - thoughts please...
by cedars ini've been thinking about the recent developments in the uk following the "apostates = mentally diseased" article in the july 15th edition of the watchtower.
to provide a bit more background, a forum member named amelia has recently had a meeting with uk police officers who subsequently took a copy of the article for their records.
they agreed that the content could potentially incite people to hatred against disaffected witnesses, and the copy is now on file with the uk police in case there are any future incidents of hateful acts against "apostates", including violence or even stalking.. i am working on a press release to make the public more aware of the idealogical oppression being meted out by the society on those who oppose them, both inside and outside the organization.
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Alfred
Cedars
EXCELLENT IDEA... and excellent survey questions...
would you consider adding: "are you fully aware of the what is behind the two baptism questions you were asked at the assembly?" If so, "please explain what these questions should mean to anyone considering baptism in this religion"...
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Higher Education and Disqualification for Privileges in the Congregation
by 00DAD inwhen i was still serving as an elder in the late summer of 2006 in a congregation of jws in socal we received a letter from the "christian congregation of jehovah's witnesses" (read: the governing body) directing that anyone pursuing a higher education would be disqualified from privileges of service: elder, servant, pioneer, etc.
i remember this quite distinctly because i had just received by ba in education in june a few months before this.
in 2002, i had decided to pursue a degree under the society's then current "it's a personal decision" policy and was quite shocked at their drastic policy change.
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Alfred
Depends on the CO... if he's an oldtimer, he might refrain from giving an elder an assembly talk if he has kids in college... if it's a new CO, he'll probably just look the other way...
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60
I really want to go JW but..
by fortbethel ini've studied with like 30 diff denominations.
i really feel jw is best for me.
i think it's the 144,000 part & the once a year get together when they pass around the sacrament that bothers me most.
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Alfred
ThomasCovenant... great find... thanks...
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49
New here looking for some help
by angel.face inlong story short, i have been a jw for the pst 7 years.
i am married with 2 kids.
hubby is a die hard jw who is an ms and would like to be elder.
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Alfred
Angel face...
What PalmTree said...
Also, please try to pace yourself... don't appear desperate when presenting evidence... try to let the evidence speak for itself...
for example, I once re-watched the DVD Faith In Action Part I (2010) with another brother who is a hard-core JW... i paused the video on the two occasions where the narrator mentioned the Bible Students looking forward to 1914 as the year when Jesus would take his throne. I then asked him him: "so XXXXX, before 1914, the Bible Students were looking forward to 1914 as the year jesus would finally take his throne right?" he said: "of course, that's Biblical".... I then showed him old WT publications I obtained through a friend (like Thy Kingdom Come, Millenium Dawn, Finished Mystery) where it is clearly stated that Jesus took the throne in 1874 and it wasn't until about 1929 that they finally changed 1874 to 1914... in fact, prior to 1914, about the only thing being expected was Armageddon. He was quick to mention Proverbs 4:18 (the light gets brighter...) but I just knew that I struck a nerve because he began to studder and lost his composure...
Anyway, that's my two...
but please have evidence readily available before saying anything and let it speak for itself... if it has no effect immediately, be patient... this could take a long time...
good luck
Alfred
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I have the will - just wish I had the means and opportunity to be able to convert jws.
by Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice. inyes, i think it would be fine for all jws to be converted.. .
converted into pet food or garden compost.
that way they could achieve something useful by their existence.. cheeses.
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Alfred
whatever you're smoking... don't share it with anyone just yet...
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Inside Australia's chilling new cult, an xJW is the leader
by finallysomepride inin a 10 month investigation, sunday night infiltrates one of the worlds most worrying new cults.
but most chilling, this cult is australian, spreading and described as worse than waco.
we go inside the cults headquarters to meet the leaders and their followers who claim their lives have been changed forever.. http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/article/-/10276027/inside-australias-chilling-new-cult/.
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Alfred
I'm sure the GB became giddy when they saw this report for the 1st time... I can just picture Tony Morris picking up the phone in his office and calling the writing dept with a stupid smile on his face... By February or March, the "study edition" WT will feature an article about what "apostates" engage in after leaving "jehovah's organization"... they'll definitely be using this aussie cult as an example...
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Today's Watchtower Study is SO dumb!!!
by TimothyT ini would like to think of myself as an academic.
im starting my second degree and i enjoy research.
when i see a statement backed up by references and support from a credible source, sometimes i get excited.
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Alfred
greybeard and leonbus... name one thing the idiots in brooklyn got right... in the meantime, i suggest you research the wt's history more thoroughly before making any more ignorant comments on this board...
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Credit Donation Machines in Assembly Halls
by leonbus23 ini just received an email from the ex-jw meetup group coordinator in phoenix.
she stated that the jws are putting credit donation machines at the assembly halls.
is this true?
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Alfred
Their justification will be that this is yet another loving provision from the Governing Body in their efforts to simplify things for Jehovah's people in this difficult time of the end. By lovingly providing these credit donation machines, the brothers in the accounts departments at these assemby halls can now have a lot more time to sit with their families and enjoy the program... They're so predictable...
But what they're really doing here is targeting the JW population that tends to carry little or no cash (due to the abundance of ATMs around the nation)... It's no secret that a lot less people carry significant cash in their pockets than, say, 20 years ago... It just dawned on the WT that they need to tap into the funds of those who have gone cashless because of technology...
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Society tells us to stop asking questions...
by cedars ini was just glancing at the back of the october 15th watchtower and the questions from readers.
the question under discussion is "what should i do when i have a question about something i read in the bible or when i need advice about a personal problem?".
the article goes on to discuss how we should consult the watch tower publications index among the many 'tools' that have been provided by the faithful and discreet slave whenever we have a question that is not directly discussed in the publications.. one statement really caught my eye, because it's the first time i've ever seen the society actually dissuade people from writing in with questions.
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Alfred
Knee-jerk reaction or not... the WT hates questions...
One of the most most frequent questions they get in the mail is about their chronolgy as regards to the whole 607-1914 Adventist teaching they keep re-cycling...
That's quite probably why this article was published around the same time as the two recent articles about Jerusalem's destruction. They were pretty much silent on this subject since 1988 (the year the Insight books were published). But the questions kept piling up. Eventually the GB had to get old Rolf Furuli to dazzle the rank-and-file with his BS so they can all shut the hell up (on the subject of chronology) and get back to work...