Posts by Giordano

28

How many here believe the WTS really has has 8.5 million followers / 8.5. million members

by Hotpepper in

i think it's closer to 5 million with all the selling of kingdom hells and branch bethel's all over the world.

it's even hard to get a hard copy of the lastest craptower or afake mag now in new york city..

Giordano

How many turn in deceptive or misguided field service reports will always be a question.

Counting numbers is more of a business way of keeping track. Since this religion is more of a corporation then a religion the numbers misdirect.

The Mormons list a membership of 18 plus million Mormons. But they get to that figure by counting every one who was born-in or joined the Mormon religion but turned inactive.

In the past....... JW yearbook surveys included.....Baptisms, Peak Publishers and 'Leavers'. Check the memorial attendance and deduct peak publishers and you have an idea who shows up once a year out of respect or curiosity.

Leavers could be JW's who died, or JW's who left the religion. The numbers I saw indicted that half of those who identified with the religion left it one way or another.

While you can still leave........ as long as you don't mind being shunned in one form or another .........prior to 1980........ a person who left without having committed a major sin simply left. Family and friends could stay in contact. The friendships usually faded, but family ties could be maintained.

12

Name Thelogy explained by real bible scholar

by Steel in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuf_6bp-cke&t=205s.

its only 5 mins and kind of a eureka moment for me.

its actually pretty funny once you think about it.

Giordano

In the New Testament being a witness of Jesus is mentioned over 20 times....... being a witness of Jehovah is not mentioned at all. And only once in the Old Testament.

Besides which their was no J in the Jewish alphabet up to 400 plus years ago.

Sorry guys but Jehovah and Jesus were not their proper names after the Latin alphabet took over. Getting Latinized is a bitch.

The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is YHWH ( י ה ו ה), also known as the Tetragrammaton (Greek for "four-letter [word]"). Hebrew is an abjad, so the word's letters Yōd, Hē, Vav, Hē are usually taken for consonants and expanded to Yahweh in English.

Jesus' name in Hebrew was “Yeshua” which translates to English as Joshua.

To this day we are not even close to understanding God and Jesus's names.
Your prayers or messages aren't answered if you can't call the person you worship by their proper name. They don't pick up the phone.

It was Rutherford ( a drunk) who decided to use the name Jehovah as in Jehovah's Witnesses. By doing that he did not get the singular message out that being a witness for Jesus would have been. People could understand a witness for Jesus.......but Jehovah? To this day.......not really.

11

What is the term for a group that blatantly lies about what is going on but doesn't revise the past?

by HiddenPimo in

2016 yearbook.

Giordano

You can't make this crap up.

"more then 1300 new halls need to be built or renovated."

It should read these days that more then 1300 Halls were closed and sold off. The times do change.

Memo to the Society we JW's can always find a place to rent. They are called Kingdom Halls because that's what the congregation's rented....... that and store fronts. I guess calling it the Kingdom Store Front didn't work.

President Eisenhower and his family, when he was growing up, used their living room as their offical KH.

I've personally served in small store front KH's as well as second floor KH. If you couldn't walk up a flight of stairs you couldn't attend the meetings.

24

Will God resurrect our beloved pets? What do you think?

by Pallbearer in

the watchtower doesn't hold out any hope for us ever seeing our beloved animals again.

i find it very difficult to believe that god -- a god of love -- would refuse to resurrect an animal that we had become so attached to.

over the years i have bonded with no less than four (4) dogs, all of which were/are like family to me.

Giordano

First off in my life there is no god who gives anyone a do over. Lazarus doesn't count he was just one of many of Jesus's parlor tricks.

Hence no resurrection for anyone ...... death is a vacuum. You go in but you can't come back out. R.I.P is all we've got.

As Far as pets go...... I'd vote children first .

As of now I have decided to give up my rights to a resurrection.......... so a worthy child can experience a full life.

42

Providing salvation is not that important

by pixel in

the washtowel has a crazy obsession with diminishing the important of jesus' sacrifice for humankind.

i find this so antichristian.

i mean, how can you ignore scriptures like john 3:16?.

Giordano

Jesus had to prepare the way for Jehovah to accept his sacrifice. In that way, Jesus would prove that doing things Jehovah’s way is the right way to live.

"Doing things Jehovah's way is the right way to live." And what evidence is there that worshiping a made up god is the right way to live? When history shows that the god of the old testament was a pretty evil god.

Are they talking about the same Jehovah that botched that whole inconvenience with Adam and Eve?

The same Jehovah who acted like he was insane having a hissy fit over the so called wickedness of the pre flood world and who demonstrated that he had no real compassion for any adult, mother, father, the little children........ even the unborn and anything else that was alive.

Jehovah the idiot god of Israel who called for the genocide of babies in their wars so that his chosen people could be secure.

'that doing things Jehovah’s way is the right way to live'

Really?

18

racism

by Stealth in

jw
friends

having been raised as a jw, racism was something that was never promoted.

i now have a 9 year old that has been visiting her biological grandmother and my ex-wife.

it is my child because i adopted her.

Giordano

There is a lot of racial bias in any number of ethnic communities. People who are more comfortable staying within the boundaries of old traditions.

Unfortunately that includes white supremacists whose old traditions were slavery, Jim Crow, and opposition against civil rights.

I found it shocking that this temporary step grandfather is telling your daughter that ‘she couldn’t like, date or marry anyone who was black’.

Sounds to me you've got a growing case of ignorant white supremacy in that household. I would also look up the sex offenders list on line, for that area to make sure his problems don't reach out in that direction.

I would hope your ex wife can mitigate his stupidity.

18

racism

by Stealth in

jw
friends

having been raised as a jw, racism was something that was never promoted.

i now have a 9 year old that has been visiting her biological grandmother and my ex-wife.

it is my child because i adopted her.

Giordano

It would help to know what kind of racism she is subjected to. It's one thing to say I hate Mexican food and another thing to say I hate Mexicans.

"showing or feeling discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or believing that a particular race is superior to another."

If she attends a school with a racial mix of students, as we have here in the USA, it is important that she is not overly influenced by her apparently racist grandmother and new husband as well as her mother. Such people use race as a way to shore up their perceived importance.

If these folks were still highly opinionated re the JW religion I would imagine you would limit her contact with them. As the witness beliefs are very dangerous as well as opinionated.

If they are as stupid as they sound, if it was up to me, I would seek to protect my child from crude and rude behavior.

20

Jehovah's Witnesses commission secret report highly critical of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

by jwleaks in

jw
friends

on 14 november 2018, australian-based barristers david bennett ac, qc and james gibson presented to watchtower australia and the jehovah’s witnesses organisation their commissioned review and opinion on the findings and recommendations of the royal commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse as it related to jehovah’s witnesses.. .

the review entitled “review of the commission’s investigation into jehovah’s witnesses and its ensuing reports” was divided into four parts, as follows:.

part one considered the history and powers of royal commissions in general.. .

Giordano

"If you pay people they will tell you what you want to hear." Thank you Slim this is a good point:

What I'd like to hear is that the 1006 cases of Child sexual abuse, on file in the Branch Offices and never handed over to the proper authorities, are not getting a free pass.

I'd also like to hear that the various communities where these pedophiles roamed about knocking on doors in hope that they could offer a free bible study for an innocent family. And there by gain access to the innocent child.

The one thing we and the community at large needs to understand is that this is not a one off crime. It is a reinforced habit........ once a child is groomed it becomes a feeding frenzy.

49

My wife and I have begun our fade

by James Jack in

i haven’t posted in awhile.

my wife asked me after the year 2000 came and went without fanfare(because the wt organization said all the “new world” would be here within this 20th century would end), “ what would it take for you to leave the truth?”.

my reply was “ if i turn 60 in this “system of things”.

Giordano

On this age issue:

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes at the age of 90 ....... upon seeing a pretty girl.......Was heard to say "Oh, to be 70 again! ...

Since no one has ever escaped death........ every one of us live's with that fact.

1

Shifting tides

by lastmanstanding in

sexual abuse never permissible.

assuming that the montana supreme court’s recent opinion in the jehovah’s witnesses case (nunez v. watchtower bible, 2020 mt 3) sets forth the state of the law, then the law needs to be changed.. .

first, no person should be allowed to sexually or physically abuse another person — minor or adult — and be protected from the consequences of that heinous act by a shape-shifting religious rule, protocol or doctrine.

Giordano

I agree with these realistic improvements re the child and adult sexual abuses.

A crime is a crime........ a sin like sexual abuse is both.......but it's still a crime first and foremost.

Many religions shield themselves by claiming these are their religious beliefs like the two witness rule re the JW's. Or the charity tax evasions that a number of religions hide under.

Change is a must when it comes to any institutions, be it a non profit, a university, or a so called religion like the Mormons that have amassed 100 billion dollars for the purpose of funding Charities when the reality is they have collected and grown their holdings and managed not to spend a penny on any charitable programs. The JW Corporation and Scientology join in this same tax evasion crime.

The Catholic Church does spend money on it's charities but what does one do about a criminal record of 1970 plus years permitting sexual child abuse and adult rape. Recent reporting indicates it is still going on.

The first amendment in the US Constitution and many over countries...... provides for freedom of religion... but also police powers to redress any grievances. That's the issue this has come down to.