Giordano

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Posts by Giordano

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  19

  Publisher numbers versus baptised witnesses.

  by amandm in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i grew up as a witness, and left about 10 years ago, i'm currently researching witness numbers for a project i'm working on, and i can't seem to get an accurate number of baptised witnesses - hardly a surprise!

  from their website it looks like they list the number of publishers instead of the number of baptised witnesses, so it totally works to obscure how many actual witnesses there are, apart from the fact it's morally dubious to class a publisher as a minister of god as they refer to publishers on their uk section of the site.

  i also am trying to work out how many leave every year, even approximate figures would be great, from their own website it just looks like they try to massage figures to make them look as favourable as possible.

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  Giordano

  This might help: https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php
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  69

  Don't count on witnessing Watchtower's demise anytime soon.

  by Roger Kirkpatrick in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the fact that there are pomi ex-jws who have been disfellowshiped or inactive for years who still live in constant fear of armageddon indicates that watchtower will manage to exist in one way or another for years, if not decades, to come.

  watchtower, like all other religious cults, operate on the premise that "you can fool some of the people all of the time...and that's enough!

  ".

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  Giordano

  (1) As communities learn about the pedophile problem and the cover up a JW knocking on your door is going to be as welcome as a Catholic priest knocking on your door.

  (2) It's an aging group of members with few conversions. The newly baptized are children who were born in. Many leave at an older age or lack any real commitment.

  (3) The WTBTS are masters of painting themselves into a corner. It gets messy when they have to offer 'new lite'. And a once cherished belief must be dropped such as the 'This generation....."

  (4) Talk about painting yourself in a corner........ explain the newly growing new anointed showing up at the Memorial.

  (5) The internet: "Thank you for the bible study but I've researched the internet and nothing you claim as the truth is true."

  (6) The Blood doctrine! The only religion that insists on No Blood. If a clear number of deaths, due to the lack of a life saving blood transfusion, were made known it would number well into the thousand's Just 1000 per year world wide since 1945 comes to 73,000 needless deaths.

  (7) Because of needless deaths there's a lot of pissed off people in the world.

  (8) JW.ORG? You've got to be kidding.

  (9) Massive Disfellowships and shunning for nonsense issues can destroy families. Shunning a person who wants to exercise their freedom from a religion indicates how weak and scared this religion really is.
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  3

  Tasmania’s Government agrees to reform sexual abuse gag law by end of year

  by Xjw csaSurvivors in

  1. social
  2. current

  https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/tasmanias-government-agrees-to-reform-sexual-abuse-gag-law-by-end-of-year/news-story/40669f3504f182d1424af892c042cee0.

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  Giordano

  Tasmania? Taking it's child sexual abuse position from the WTBTS, the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts? Only worse......
• 
  25

  Greenland For Sale

  by Poztate in

  1. social
  2. current

  the donald has recently suggested that he would like to look into buying greenland from denmark in the same manner that alaska was purchased from the russians.

  i think the danes would be smart to look into selling it as it is costing them money every year with very little returns for their investments so far.. the alternative might well be that donald declares greenland a national security threat and invades them so that the world remains safe for democracy.

  i would suggest to the danes that as any other real estate transaction that they put it on the open market and see how much russia or china are willing to offer .

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  Giordano

  Greenland is a NATO member.

  Artical 5 presents a very dangerous issue for any county that would attack Greenland.

  "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."

  Donald Trump doesn't really think or can't think through his BS ideas.
  
  

  https://www.britannica.com/topic/North-Atlantic-Treaty-Organization
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  25

  Greenland For Sale

  by Poztate in

  1. social
  2. current

  the donald has recently suggested that he would like to look into buying greenland from denmark in the same manner that alaska was purchased from the russians.

  i think the danes would be smart to look into selling it as it is costing them money every year with very little returns for their investments so far.. the alternative might well be that donald declares greenland a national security threat and invades them so that the world remains safe for democracy.

  i would suggest to the danes that as any other real estate transaction that they put it on the open market and see how much russia or china are willing to offer .

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  Giordano

  Why is everyone seemingly ok with Danish imperialism?

  Ask your country that same question.

  The United Kingdom

  still has 14 territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom.[1][2] They are remnants of the British Empire that have NOT been granted independence or have voted to remain British territories
  

  Now they still have a vested interest in the following territories:

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Territories
  

  English
  Demonym(s)	British, Briton
  Territories	14 territories Akrotiri and Dhekelia Anguilla Bermuda British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Gibraltar Montserrat Pitcairn Islands Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Turks and Caicos Islands

  
  

  
  
  
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  11

  It is on my local news - Silent No More

  by Tameria2001 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i had a pop up on my phone from my local news (40/29 fayetteville, ar) and they are covering the jehovah's witness and the sexual abuse.

  here are the links.. silent no more: the survivors.

  silent no more: the verdicts.

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  Giordano

  I am back because I needed to say........ thank you Tameria2001 for sharing this information.

  The Anderson's, Blondie and others have kept this issue alive on this and other forums.

  I consider child abuse as far more important then Armageddon and the Ban on Blood....it is one of the worst things the WTBTS has done to protect their religion.

  This is going to break the Society's back. One day no door in their community will open to the JW's....... there money will dry up. The Kingdom Halls will go unused . This is what happens to cheap junk religions....but even a billion Catholics are now in a state of flux wondering and keeping a wary eye on their priests and bishops and even their POPE.

  
  

  This is how it will end. Jesus said "don't hinder the little child from coming to me."

  Too bad the Christian religions and other non religious groups didn't take those words seriously.

  
  

  No religion who allows this crime to go unpunished,,,,,,,,,, can fly high enough to escape.
  
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  11

  It is on my local news - Silent No More

  by Tameria2001 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i had a pop up on my phone from my local news (40/29 fayetteville, ar) and they are covering the jehovah's witness and the sexual abuse.

  here are the links.. silent no more: the survivors.

  silent no more: the verdicts.

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  Giordano

  

  Hearst Television

  These states have tougher laws requiring clergy of all faiths to report allegations of child sexual abuse to law enforcement

  
  

  Lawmakers are taking notice, moving bills forward in New York, Pennsylvania, California and other states that would require clergy of all faiths to report allegations of abuse, add training or extend the statute of limitations for victims to come forward.

  For Dan Stinnett, the juror in Montana who helped find the Jehovah's Witnesses negligent for failing to protect Alexis Nunez, justice may be blind – but he says his Creator is not.

  "I believe [the Jehovah’s Witnesses] are going to be judged, and I believe it's going to be harsh. Judgment's coming, and it's coming on people just like the people that violated these girls,” Stinnett warned

  https://www.4029tv.com/article/silent-no-more-part-2-the-verdicts/28660625
  
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  14

  What’s your favourite memory?

  by Theonlyoneleft in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi guys and girlies, .

  since i’ve joined a fortnight ago or so, i have reading all sort of posts, some recent and some really old!

  🙂 i’m really enjoying all of your stories and contributions.

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  Giordano

  I have a number of stories and memories. This is one of my favorites.

  The congregation I joined at the age of 12 along with my mother was half black and half white. This was in the New York city area.

  It was the first time I interacted with Black folks. Contrary to what people thought........ the North was segregated by neighborhoods and schools.

  I liked all the friends in the congregation and I got along with everyone. I was the little runt who would look every one in the eye throw in a smile and remembered their names. At first they were a little confused because Blacks and Whites weren't that close in the Kingdom Halls or at assemblies. Everyone was polite but not overly friendly.

  I never got that division about race. However we are talking about the late 1950's.

  After a couple of years........ I was totally integrated in both segments of the congregation. I would go out in service with any and every group. I was invited to parties, pizza after the meeting. Whatever.

  When I was set to graduate from high school my mom asked me what kind of celebration did I want. I told her that I'd like to invite my JW friends maybe about sixty people.

  Now my Mom was reserved around the black friends..... she was old school Italian and was raised in an Italian neighborhood and she wasn't one to change.

  So the day arrived and so did our guests. Of course half were black.

  This was the first time any black folks were invited to our home. Mom put on a smile and surprised me and our guests when she greeted everyone by name.

  Anyway the party was my thank you to all of the good people, that in their different ways, helped me to grow up.
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  24

  Walked away from bible study after 8 months

  by Biblestudent1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been working through the grey book with a married couple for several months.

  actually after a while what happened was a different brother or sister got invited each week to my study.

  i met lots and lots.

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  Giordano

  The beginning is important for any religion.

  Here is an honest history of the Watchtower which many years later became the Jehovah's Witnesses but they still are a publishing company and a real Estate holding company.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses

  The founder....... Pastor Russell never went to any school that would have permitted him to use that title. He was a proponent of the Great Pyramid as being a link to God. A total nutcase. Divorced.

  Judge Rutherford who followed Russell was not a judge. In his small community, he along with other lawyers served as a one or two day judge if the circuit judge was not available. He liked the title so much he kept it. In a day when information was difficult to find he got away with his lie. As President of the WTBTS he was revealed to be a womanizer and a drunk. he was Divorced and his former wife and son didn't attend his funeral.

  Freddy Franz wrote the core of the more modern day JW beliefs. As one Bethelite called it........ an ideology of bull shit. Which included the End taking place in 1975. Thank you Freddy for more Freddy crap.

  The biggest BS was 'Many living today will not (changed to May not) die'. More BS.

  How did that work out? We all will die after wasting our best days knocking on doors or sweeping up at the KH.

  The things you have to understand about the WTBTS is that by design they are ignorant. Let's count the ways.

  Jehovah is a made up name based on a Catholic Monk's Latin translation of the Jewish name in the 12 or 13th century. You can look this up on the JW.org site. Or Google.

  Jesus didn't get baptized until he was thirty years old...... his ministry lasted for 3 &1/2 years. No life time commitment to witnessing. No real change. It was what it was.

  The early Christians in the NT were to be a witness to Jesus which was referenced some 22 times....... ask that question on Google.

  Jehovah, who is not mentioned by that name in the new translation, was not the one to be a witness of. That phase was referenced once in the Old Testament....... in the book of Isaiah and was directed to the prophet.

  It was Rutherford who pushed for the name of Jehovah Witnesses in violation of the biblical record.

  If someone doesn't call out to you with your proper name do you respond? Hence unanswered prayers.

  God the father...... drowned a world back in Noah's day, This account was clear that every living thing, person, man, women, children and by default, the unborn. Think about that for a minute or to. Was it necessary? Did it wipe our evil? Or just cause needless deaths.

  This murderous god established, according to a simple bible account, a penalty about pouring out blood on the ground and not eating the blood.

  The early Christians continued the idea and made it one of a couple of sins.

  The JW's made it an important doctrine......the Jws are the only religion to do so re transfusions. Eating blood was indeed condemned in the ancient Jewish world. However If you did it the punishment was that you were unclean. If you washed yourself that evening you were no longer unclean.

  In the JW world if you accepted a blood transfusion you are cast out re Disfellowshiped. Which is a death sentence. JW's have given up their children as well as their own lives as well as older ones to this document based on the idiot argument that a transfusion is eating blood..... while in reality it is simply a transfusion of blood cells. No eating required. If blood is scared it is certainly better to save lives then honer a world destroying god who is often out of it's mind.

  The lowest estimate is that 1000 or so JW's die each year for lack of a life saving transfusion. In the USA 3500 JW's need a life saving transfusion every year. Look it up... and also understand how many problems blood solves.

  The ignorance of the WTBTS has needlessly killed or caused undo suffering since 1945. If we use the number of 1000 deaths per year you have 73,000 needless deaths before their time.

  That number is much higher but we will leave it at that for the present time. You see the Society keeps track of every hour in service, every return visit, every bible study, every Assembly attendance and every baptism.....but they have no record of those that died or lived on suffered needlessly....... or those who could not regain their health for lack of that BT and died for want of a transfusion.

  Let's think about this... needless deaths for want of a blood transfusion and their belief that billions will die at Armageddon.

  Does this look like you have been associating and studying with a death cult?
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  18

  IS the bOrg running out of blokes to serve(tm)?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from the silly website today..... thursday, august 15god .

  energizes you, giving you both the desire and the power to act.​—phil.

  2:13.courageous men who are willing to take on more responsibility are a blessing to a congregation.

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  Giordano

  Interesting points Tate.

  Apparently little to no appeal to serve for the more qualified. The whole Society thing is passing the congregations by.

  Most churches in the USA are run by two or three people. That way they manage to keep the jerks out of the mix and give real volunteers regardless of sex some level of responsibility.

  In the JW world the qualified sisters are not used.

  Back in the day when I pioneered where the 'need was great' I served in a very small congregation in NW Pennsylvania of some 20 adults (children didn't count).

  There were at least three sisters that had many years of service who could have been appointed to positions in that small congregation.

  Instead there was the Presiding Minister and me. My role was described this way: I was the Assn't Presiding Minister, the Ministry School Servant, the Bible Study Servant ......when I wasn't giving the weekly one hour public talk somewhere in our large (area) circuit. And the Publishing Servant (handing out the magazines and books) and assigning territories for the door to door activity.

  The three qualified sisters sweep the floor and cleaned the bathrooms.

  Need I say more?

  When I and my wife left the area I realized what a farce the organized WT was and that it was doomed. The door to door service was also a farce. When we knocked on a screen door in the summer what you heard on a weekend was the TV or radio tuned into one of those evangelism shows.

  Back then the Society spent it's time on publishing books and magazines. Then legal problems and selling it's stock of Kingdom Halls after stealing them from the JW's who built and paid for their KH over some fifty plus years.

  It's pretty much over for the JW's. They are now going down the pathway of the Christian Scientists..... who are down to 50,000 or so CS's and a bunch of empty store fronts and churches.

  It's By By time for the WTBTS. See you......... wouldn't want to be you. It's now Court and settlement time for the WTBTS. After that....... nothing.