I don't know how you would answer the yes/no question you have posed: "is JW the true religion?" You would have to define what "true religion" is to answer yes or no.
InterestedOne
JoinedPosts by InterestedOne
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73
Is it the only True religion?
by cupcakekourtney88 inlike the question is jehovah witness the true religion?
is all others false, what do yall think?.
i am confuse and just wanting to know others thoughts??
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Have JW's ever been charged with littering? Why do they say place flyer in an inconspicuous place?
by InterestedOne ini walked onto my front porch this morning to see a memorial flyer cleverly placed so it was out of sight from the street but so i would notice it.
i saw my neighbors had one placed that way too.
have jw's ever been charged with littering for their flyering?
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InterestedOne
I walked onto my front porch this morning to see a memorial flyer cleverly placed so it was out of sight from the street but so I would notice it. I saw my neighbors had one placed that way too. Have JW's ever been charged with littering for their flyering? At a couple meetings, I remember the man on the platform telling JW's to place the flyer in an inconspicuous place. Can someone explain the JW approach to flyering?
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Studying JWs?
by bazackward inso i read this board quite often, but i don't post a lot since i'm not a jw or ex-jw.
i recently had an idea that i thought could be a lot of fun, but i wanted to get some opinions on it.. i'm going to school for my mba and in my business ethics & social responsibility class, i am required to do an "out of your comfort zone" project.
i'll paste the rules for the project below.
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InterestedOne
Wow, bazackward, you're right. You tell the salesman, "I'm just looking," and he agrees to talk with you at first, but then gets into the hard sell. If you go to the Memorial, someone might try to start a study with you on the spot. That is the first step because they know that once you are doing the study, they can subtly introduce the assumption that you are interested in becoming a JW. Kind of like the salesman subtly introducing the idea that you are interested in buying his car rather than just seeking information about it. The Memorial was my first visit. Immediately afterward, someone approached me and started asking leading questions like if I enjoyed what I heard from the Bible there - he was working toward starting a study with me, but I got out of the conversation. I almost made it to the door when another JW stopped me and asked, "Are you set up with your Bible study?" See the assumption there? He was making it sound like I had forgotten to take care of something.
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Studying JWs?
by bazackward inso i read this board quite often, but i don't post a lot since i'm not a jw or ex-jw.
i recently had an idea that i thought could be a lot of fun, but i wanted to get some opinions on it.. i'm going to school for my mba and in my business ethics & social responsibility class, i am required to do an "out of your comfort zone" project.
i'll paste the rules for the project below.
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InterestedOne
Scratch that. I just re-read your OP, and I see you're just going once to a KH meeting. Not doing a study. Nevermind.
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Studying JWs?
by bazackward inso i read this board quite often, but i don't post a lot since i'm not a jw or ex-jw.
i recently had an idea that i thought could be a lot of fun, but i wanted to get some opinions on it.. i'm going to school for my mba and in my business ethics & social responsibility class, i am required to do an "out of your comfort zone" project.
i'll paste the rules for the project below.
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InterestedOne
I wonder how they will react if you are up front with them that you are doing it for a school project. When I started my study, they asked me why I was doing it. I simply said I was interested in finding out what JW's believe. That was good enough for them at first, but as we did a few studies, they would subtly indicate that they were assuming I was interested in -becoming- a JW. All I said was that I was interested in learning -about- their beliefs. I never said I was interested in -becoming- a JW. My JW friend asked me the question, "why would someone learn about our beliefs if they were not interested in becoming a JW?" She could not seem to understand the idea of being interested in learning -about- something just out of curiosity. If they realize you are not interested in becoming a JW, which they might slowly find out by the way the questions at the bottom of the pages in the Bible Teach book are worded or by asking you questions like "what do you think of what you have read in this paragraph?" they might see you as a waste of time. My JW friend has used the word "unproductive" when referring to my study. She also told me that the JW studies are designed to be "progressive." By that, she means progressing toward becoming a JW. Are you planning to let them know you have no interest in becoming a JW, or will you just let them assume whatever they want?
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New Believers, Studying.
by cupcakekourtney88 inhey y'all!
my name is kourtney and i am new to this form and jehovah witnesses.
right now i am studying the book "what does the bible really teach".
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InterestedOne
Hi Kourtney,
I have been studying the JW's literature, and I have been doing what they call a "formal bible study" with the "What Does the Bible Really Teach" book for about 8 months because my friend is a JW, and I wanted to look into it. I believe critical thinking/reading is important, and I recommend you check out how to test if someone is using propaganda on you no matter what literature you are reading, WT or otherwise. Here is a good list of things to look out for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques
BTW, the WT will sometimes give a simplified article on what propaganda is and tell you to watch out for it in -other- people's literature, while not acknowledging that they themselves might be doing it in obvious and not-so-obvious forms. In addition to propaganda techniques in religious literature, you will see them in political literature. Also, compare with things like Farrakhan's "Final Call" magazines that the people in his group hand out. The web version of it is:
I don't believe you are stupid. I am not stupid either. However, I am willing to acknowledge that I, as well as many other intelligent people, am vulnerable to persuasion techniques. I've been fooled by salesmen before. I've been fooled by persuasive political & religious literature that framed things a certain way that had me convinced.
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Seeking counsel from active or former Elders / COs / DOs
by Nickolas ina request.
if you are/were not an elder and wish to comment, by all means do so, but please preface your comment accordingly.
if you are posing as an elder, please, please refrain from responding lest you inadvertantly do some damage.. i have been provided hypothetical consequences from the membership at large, now request the answer from a position of authority.. the question.. if the elders in my wife's congregation should decide that i have become a spiritual danger to her, how would they advise her?
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InterestedOne
Nickolas, Thank you for clarifying what you meant by ratcheting up. I've been checking out the WT firsthand (going to their meetings, etc.) for about a year, and I'm convinced that it destroys people. You make a good point that if I'm convinced that it is destructive, I should not struggle with why I should try to communicate with my friend. I sympathize with the dynamic you are experiencing which I agree is like pulling teeth.
FWIW, I am working through the material on websites such as this
http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/itl/graphics/main.html
but you may already be past that sort of thing. It's helping me because I need to learn the basics of what most rational people consider sound argumentation. I'm hoping to get my thoughts more organized in a dispassionate way.
From reading over your posts on this thread, here is what I see:
1. On one hand, you have agreed not to interfere with her WT activities even though you disagree with them.
2. On the other hand, you have named at least one of her WT activities that you find intolerable - namely the straw being shunning.
This is a tough situation because how can you -not- interfere with something you find intolerable? I guess there are two pieces to what you could do. The first piece is that you could exercise your own choice and associate with the people being shunned. If your wife shuns them, that is her choice, but you are not personally going to do it. The second piece is to attempt to have a dispassionate discussion about it using basic logic as illustrated on websites like the one I mentioned above or just google the term "critical thinking."
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looky looky - A 'real' J-dub forum! (are they becoming normal???)
by Reality79 inso did the 'da society' give these dub internet savvies permission to start a forum?
because last i checked, the ole boys in their oversized brooklyn bunker didn't want their members on the internet unless it was to view their own official websites.
i thought maybe it was an apostate forum until i read their long winded, typically condescending jdub style membership guidelines:.
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InterestedOne
EP - Thank you. Is there a word for what they are doing with statements like that? It's like they take everything people usually accuse JW's of and turn the tables by accusing the accuser of doing the same thing.
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wts gb and money
by diamondiiz inwhat is stopping gb member from syphoning some cash to some offshore account and disappearing from brooklyn to live a good life?
i don't believe that all gb members believe all the shit found in their publications but if they could get their hands on some money couldn't they just disappear?
since ray franz has died i can't email him this sort of question.
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InterestedOne
What do you mean by "golden handshake?" Googling that term results in an expression referring to a severance package. I didn't think the GB had a severance package.
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Seeking counsel from active or former Elders / COs / DOs
by Nickolas ina request.
if you are/were not an elder and wish to comment, by all means do so, but please preface your comment accordingly.
if you are posing as an elder, please, please refrain from responding lest you inadvertantly do some damage.. i have been provided hypothetical consequences from the membership at large, now request the answer from a position of authority.. the question.. if the elders in my wife's congregation should decide that i have become a spiritual danger to her, how would they advise her?
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InterestedOne
Nickolas, I am a worldly with a female JW friend that I am/was trying to get to know (truly get to know as a person). I have become very cautious about what I say to her because I am concerned that the elders will tell her I am a spiritual danger. By ratcheting up, you said you meant that you are considering distancing yourself from her JW friends/relatives. At first glance, I'm not sure why that would cause someone to call you a spiritual danger. I would think they would call you a spiritual danger if you were actively trying to show your wife why the WT is wrong. Were you planning on actively engaging your wife on WT matters in addition to just passively distancing yourself from certain individuals? If so, are you able to articulate why you would engage her - what you hope to accomplish? Having battled this for 30 years, I'm sure you've gone over it many times, but I'm just curious - partially for myself because I struggle with how & why I should try to communicate with my JW friend.