Thanks for posting this, I've put it on my favorites list.
This really looks like a big failure for the JW's, overall they have only 1% of the population.........they are totaly failing to make a dent. Door to door doesn't work any longer
Giordano
JoinedPosts by Giordano
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9
I got this email
by Iamallcool inusa today map & jehovah's witnesses.........??.
jehovah's witnesses are now large enough to have a separate listing on the breakout of american religions.
no more 'other' category for us!?.
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How I Know The Assembly Parts Are Made Up
by lovelylil inwe had a co looking for a certain experience for an assembly part coming up and the elders in my hall at the time sent him to see me, since i usually had good experiences out in field service.. anyway, after speaking with the co, i was sorry to inform him that i did not have an experience that suited the type he needed.
he told me that was o.k.
because he could use me anyway for another part.
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Giordano
It was real. Glad you enjoyed it.
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How I Know The Assembly Parts Are Made Up
by lovelylil inwe had a co looking for a certain experience for an assembly part coming up and the elders in my hall at the time sent him to see me, since i usually had good experiences out in field service.. anyway, after speaking with the co, i was sorry to inform him that i did not have an experience that suited the type he needed.
he told me that was o.k.
because he could use me anyway for another part.
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Giordano
Here's a true story that I would gladly share at an Assembly! It took place in the 1960's and is truely inspirational.....sort of.
I was serving where the need was great when a good friend of mine joined me and we pioneered together. He wanted to go to Bethel and needed to impress them with some serious field service. We appointed him the Bible Study servant so he was off to a good start.
Mickey had been there for a couple of months when a new Circuit Servant came for his visit. This guy was hard core. He met with the two of us and while my stats were just ok, Mickey's were terrible. The Circuit Servant jumped all over him.
"You’re the Bible Study Servant! BUT YOU DON'T HAVE A SINGLE BIBLE STUDY OF YOUR OWN! AND YOU ONLY AVERAGE ONE BACK CALL A WEEK.…...how do you explain that?" So the CS told him no bible study ...... no Bible Study Servant, maybe no pioneering either.....forget about Bethel.
A month passed and still no bible study, Finally I suggested he take over my one and only study. "Wheel Chair John, you'd give him to me?" Mickey said. He was acting like this was the best gift he'd ever gotten. "Sure", I replied. John was the only study I had but I didn't want to go to Bethel so.......anything for a buddy.
John had muscular dystrophy and he was physically in bad shape. His speech was garbled and he was down to being able to use one arm with a slight assist from the other.
"If John's ok about it you can take over the study, but listen this isn't like a traditional bible study. It's really about a visit, when I tried to have a bible study with him he pretended to go to sleep or he growled at me (which was one of the ways he articulated his displeasure). The way I see it this should be right up your alley, open and close with a brief prayer (Mickey's prayers were the briefest I'd ever heard, I always called on him when I could), and in between visit with him."
Mickey agreed and on the way over to meet John I told him that John was able to gesture with one hand. I didn't tell him about John's favorite gesture though.
Mickey and John seemed to get along pretty well and Mickey emboldened by his welcome got out his bible and started to give him a witness. And John started to fidget and grumble. After a while John started to growl! It wasn't a growl but sort of like one, Mickey had been reading a scripture and he finally looked up when the growling started. John pointed at Mickey then closed his fist and made an up and down gesture. "What's he doing, is he doing what I think he's doing?" asked a confused Mickey, " Yep, he just called you a jerk off!" Mickey looked at me and I could see it in his eyes ..... this was the bible study that was supposed to save his Bethel career?
Well as things turned out they became friends. I continued to visit John from time to time. And Mickey stopped by almost every day to drop off some food or to take out the garbage ....... so his back call numbers shot way up. And best of all Mickey had a bible study ....... of sorts.
When the Circuit Servant returned he insisted on visiting John to see for himself if he really existed. Mickey said when they got to John's the CS was surprised to meet a real live person. One who rolled up to the door in his wheelchair holding a bible and study book at the ready. During the visit the CS was so moved by John's courage and his eagerness to hear about everlasting life in a perfect new world that he began to tear up, taking his handkerchief out he wiped at his eyes. At that moment John pointed at the CS and…….... Mickey told me later that John almost knocked himself out of the wheel chair making his definitive gesture. By the time the CS got his eyes cleared John was sitting normally, at least for him, with a big lopsided grin on his face. After they left, Mickey dropped the CS off at the Kingdom Hall and before he got out of the car the CS, who was still very moved, shook Mickey's hand and thanked him for his good work. Mickey quickly doubled back to pay John the $10 he promised if the CS could come for a visit.
Wheelchair John died about six months later. "They don't make Bible Studies like that anymore", Mickey said to me at the funeral. Mickey got a nice letter from the CS recommending him for Bethel and he got a great letter from our presiding minister and one from me, we really piled it up high.......... and he was accepted to Bethel where he served with distinction for 5 years ........ it's what he wanted, so good for him.
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So I finished reading the Origin of Species last night.....
by Mr. Falcon in...oh my.. i am not trying to start a creation vs. evolution debate, but something else really did stand out in my mind upon reading this "infamous" book.
and that is that the theory of evolution is a very complex and at times, logically interesting theory.
it makes valid points as well as asking fair and legitimate questions of the theory of creation.
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Giordano
This is a quote by Sam Harris:
When scientists don’t know something — like why the universe came into being or how the first self-replicating molecules formed — they admit it. Pretending to know things one doesn’t know is a profound liability in science. And yet it is the life-blood of faith-based religion. One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be found in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while claiming to know facts about cosmology, chemistry and biology that no scientist knows. When considering questions about the nature of the cosmos and our place within it, atheists tend to draw their opinions from science. This isn’t arrogance; it is intellectual honesty.
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FBI 1941 J. Edgar Hoover on Rutherford
by Marvin Shilmer intoday i loaded onto my blog a letter issued by j. edgar hoover making a recommendation about j. f. rutherford, then president of watchtower.
my blog entry is titled fbi 1941 j. edgar hoover on rutherford, and is available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2011/02/fbi-1941-j-edgar-hoover-on-rutherford.html.
marvin shilmer.
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Giordano
what does it say? I could not get it to enlarge and using zoom it was to blury to read
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What is it with all the men waking up but the wives stay in? Why is it the opposite for me?
by Cadellin inthis is something i've thought about for a while now.
it seems like the same story on this board over and over--the husband, who also might be an elder, ms, etc.--starts having doubts and researching, aka miseryloveselders and franklin massey and others.
he starts to smell the coffee and realizes that this organization isn't what it claims to be.
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Giordano
Up to the 1980's way more women tended to be at home when JW'S came calling then men. Home had 2.5 children who needed their momma's attention. JW's came to them, visited them in their home's and gave them a bit of the old love bomb. So they would predominantly be the ones that were introduced to the cult. The husbands might go along or at the least sign off on the religion as women's work. The mothers usually had the most influence with their young children and the father's less so. So before you know it the hooks went in......deep. That generation of children would in turn marry witnesses' and the next generation and the next would as well. Eventually the blood line and commitment weakens since it was only about how you were raised. Since the commitment was not voluntary push back starts up as it does in most dominant type religions.
Because the WTBTS is male dominated the males, as others have commented on, are more often exposed to how the sausage is really made, so to speak, and it's often not a pretty sight. The connective tissue is thin to start with and breaks down frequently. Throw in a lack of education and often menial jobs plus a huge time sacrifice and the total involvement needed if one wants to climb the ladder and you have what is happening to many on this site......... the breakdown of a belief system that can't measure up.
Women are also fighting back more and more because many want an education and want to date to be sure of a potential mate. Why does it seem that there is less coming from the women may simply be because they are still the primary care givers and a healthy proportion don't work outside of the family. They are also spared the sausage making since they can't have positions in the congregation. If they are comfortable in that situation then they are not going to be greatly troubled by doubts until an event triggers it. With more education and working jobs away from home many more sisters ARE experiencing doubts and asking questions.
But this is a tough system to buck. By way of example:
In my small city we have a military school. The top people live on campus and there are name signs near the front door that say General and Mrs. Robert Brown. Colonel and Mrs. Vincent Cob and so on. And so it is with JW's.
Without it's women the JW's would fold. By not respecting their women they are half as effective as they could be.
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Wow, This is Getting Tougher!
by Franklin Massey ini'm having a really hard time giving my meeting parts.
i had a service meeting part this week and i could hardly get through it.
i am no longer convinced of some of the things jws teach and so i try to either eliminate those things from my parts, or reword them so that i'm not speaking about that which i do not personally believe.
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Giordano
SBC Well with your wife out YOUR family is intact. Sorry about Mom and Dad. Having read your posts you sound like a great person, someone I would have on my 'lets do lunch' short list. Hey let's do lunch!
Gio
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Wow, This is Getting Tougher!
by Franklin Massey ini'm having a really hard time giving my meeting parts.
i had a service meeting part this week and i could hardly get through it.
i am no longer convinced of some of the things jws teach and so i try to either eliminate those things from my parts, or reword them so that i'm not speaking about that which i do not personally believe.
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Giordano
Franklin I was in the same position many years ago. I pioneered where the need was great in a very small congo. I was the assn't presiding minister (this was in the 1960's) Ministry School servant and for a while the Bible Study Servent plus other minor responsibilites. In a few years I had faded. No internet in those days and no way to do serious research......... how I got my wife and myself out is in the Search engine under my name.
The first thing that went was my ability to tolerate the assemblies. The next was the watchtower study. I really liked the people in the congregation and the last thing I wanted to do was get them confused. At that time I was rejecting the concept of a loving careing god and of course blood. I didn't know that the society was a total mess scriptually. Finally we simply had to move, I pulled our publisher cards and we never rejoined another congro.
If your wife is ready to join you step down. Or wind it down. Going to another congreation will help weaken or break the chain of responsibity you feel and give you a chance to begin a fade.
Even after leaving the JW'S you will remain the quality person you are. You will still have concerns for family and those who have relied on you. You can still help with practical advice, a scripture or even share a prayer if it gives you and them comfort. If you become a non believer your still going to be the same quality person.
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I sued the local congregation
by chukky 594 inseveral years ago, before my wife and i left, my 5 yr old daughter got up during the watchtower to cross the aisle to sit with someone else.
she tripped on the roving microphone wire and smashed her head on the foot of a metal chair.
the bleeding was profuse and an ambulance was called.
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Giordano
I'll be honest with you, this thread ticked me off. I did pushups off the couch to blow off a little steam.
I was ticked off too and went to the community lap pool to blow off some steam of my own, got to thinking about this thread so hard that I almost drowned myself...........and I was in the shallow end!
I'm done as well but I am man enough to admit that I'll put my hand over my eyes and spread my fingers and take a peek from time to time. With the exception of one poster, not MLE, all of the opinions and facts expressed were and are really interesting. And as far as A Guest go's she been quietly making me a fan even if we have no common ground when it comes to religion.
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Have you ever thought about, what is nothing? If you did, did it make your head hurt?
by miseryloveselders inas a born in jw, i've always believed that jehovah had no beginning per say.
at the same time i've had the house and watch having a creator argument stamped within my brain for use against evolutionists.
some days its difficult rationalising god's existance as having always been, with everything else needing to be created by him.
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Giordano
I wasn't a born in, I came in at the age of 13, first raised as a catholic so I was used to believing that god existed and took a personal interest in me.
During a JW study I remember reading that motion must come from motion and life from life. So of course the question of where did god come from popped into my head. And based on that question, I realized that when it came to the gods religions had made it up as they went along. I was a little disappointed when I realized that.
I don't think about nothing because I've experienced it....before I was born of course then again during open heart surgery, they were rolling me into the operating room, hit me with a shot, had me count backwards, 99 (they won't be able to put me under, I remember thinking) 98, 97.................................the best thing for humans about nothing is that it's an absence of all external and internal stimulation and totally pain free at least when death finally overtakes us.
The only thing disconcerting about reaching nothing is the potential for first experiencing pain and sorrow.
As far as where god came from ............... Out of the imagination of mankind. Why? Probably because we are the only species that are aware of dying. It's a frightening prospect so people have been speculating on whether or not there is something else on the other side since mankind became aware. You know this concept of one god came rather late to the dance. People looked to thousands of different gods in hopes of finding a better life and ultimately a way out long before the single god concept became the norm for Jews and Christians.