shepherd

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Posts by shepherd

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  41

  What percentage of assmbly experiences are total fabrication?

  by NoRegrets in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  when i was in 4th grade, i ended up in a situation involving minor school politics.

  they had developed a "student council" which did little more than sell pencils at lunch time for fundraisers.

  anyway, i was appointed by the teacher and didn't think much of it as an 8-9 year old.

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  shepherd

  "I believe most of them are loosely based on true experiences."

  This is how I see it. I was interviewed a few times over the years, and two of my sons too. Maybe 10% of what is said is pure truth, the rest 'adapted'. The talk outlines specify what 'experience' to find, so then they go look for someone that can relate something faintly similar, then adjust it by 'highlighting' an aspect of the tale.

  My sons were made to look like little angels who were destined to be perfect elders and pioneers. They were nothing of the sort.

  I remember how experiences more often than not depressed people rather than encouraged them.

  One experience was a family man with 3 or 4 teenage children who managed to go part time working to just 2 days a week and pioneer. It was inferred if he can do it, everyone can!

  However, what they left out was that he was a specialist tree surgeon and 2 days work/pay was as much as most people earned in a month. So, people got depressed they could not make the sacrifices he did, when in reality he had a perfectly comfortable life.
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  28

  I just had JWs come to my door

  by Scarred for life in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i had not seen them in my neighborhood in at least 4 years.

  i ddn't go to the door.

  i avoid them when at all possible.

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  shepherd

  I like them to come to my door, but it is rare. I always wanted to ask something that would get them thinking, but unfortunately the 2 or 3 that have come to my door this past few years were unable to discuss anything!! It seems to me the average JW is no longer able to discuss the bible at all, just offer magazines.
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  13

  You're not supposed to contact Ex-JWs children at all?

  by Hairyhegoat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the society has been cracking down hard on parents having contact with children who have left.

  for a long time, it was kind of a "wink-wink" thing with the "necessary family business" loophole, and a lot of families found some relief with that.. but in the latest magazines and assembly parts, they're making it crystal-clear that pretty much nothing except a death in the family counts as "necessary family business".

  and even then, you probably wouldn't be invited to the funeral.. the key is, they don't actually define what "necessary family business" is in the article.

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  shepherd

  "The biggest offenders of this "rule" are elders"

  I totally agree. I saw that happen time after time. If they were clever/popular elders, the erring relative was not even DF'd or DA'd at all but just allowed to fade - especially if they lived in another town.

  But if you did not have the 'protection' of a pet family elder it was a very different matter...
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  15

  When were the annointed resurrected to heaven?

  by drewcoul in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have heard that there has been some changes as to what the witnesses teach regarding the resurrection of annointed to spirit life.. what is the current teaching?

  is it still that an annointed is resurrected "in the twinkling of an eye" as i was always taught?

  i was also taught that this resurrection began in 1918. .

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  shepherd

  "Enoch, Moses, and Elijah did not see death; rather, these were changed... rather than being resurrected..."

  Apparently they were changed/transformed from dead mythological characters to living ones without the need to be fictionally resurrected. Jesus was different. He may have been a real person but he apparently did receive a fictional resurrection and is now living in fictional heaven...

  I do agree with AGuest if I take part of the comments out of context, GB style:

  "no one has been resurrected to the spirit realm" :)

  As Band on the Run says, "The whole thing unravels completely the second you no longer take their word for it."

  I hope this helps and peace to you!

  A slave of Reality.
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  117

  Is homosexuality ever justifiable? I say YES!!!

  by TimothyT in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in the january 2012 awake, pages 28-29 there is another article about homosexuality.. .

  the writers argue that genetics, the environment, and sexual abuse do not justify homosexuality.

  the bible clearly states that homosexuality is wrong and is an abhorrent sin.

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  shepherd

  "Well, a person can follow the bible, or a person can follow Christ..."

  Hehe that is SOOOOO funny! All of Christ's supposed words are in the very bible you say is optional....

  A la carte Christianity - an interesting way of getting around the homophobia in the rest of the bible.
• 
  117

  Is homosexuality ever justifiable? I say YES!!!

  by TimothyT in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in the january 2012 awake, pages 28-29 there is another article about homosexuality.. .

  the writers argue that genetics, the environment, and sexual abuse do not justify homosexuality.

  the bible clearly states that homosexuality is wrong and is an abhorrent sin.

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  shepherd

  "Perhaps the bible does condemn homosexuality, but the bottom line is that the creator understands what is in our hearts and he understands us"

  Herin lies your problem. The Bible does condemn homosexuality. I have seen attempts to get around it, but in the end the bible does condemn it. The bible also is likely to be the basis for your belief in a creator who understands you and loves you. But you cannot have it both ways - the god of the bible is against homosexuality and he does not understand homosexuals at all.

  The good news is the bible was written by men, it is only their opinions and not one word of it is really from any god. You can be homosexual, relaxed in the knowledge that no god has condemned it really, just some men a couple thousand years ago with their own sexual issues (haven't you noticed how much of the bible is about sex?).
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  18

  October 1, 2011 Annual Meeting of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania at the Jersey City Assembly Hall

  by Dogpatch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  october 1, 2011 annual meeting of watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania at the jersey city assembly hall .

  (observations made by xxxx and xxxx of xxxx of california) (highlites by dogpatch).

  the meeting began with the singing of song #28 the new song followed by the opening prayer.. .

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  shepherd

  "Lions kill without mercy. A male lion taking over a pride of females will often kill their cubs so that all cubs they produce are his. Shows no mercy on lion cubs or the animals he kills to eat."

  --- Hmm, don't they remember who they believe created that lion? Jehovah! It was he who programmed that lion with the instinct to kill without mercy. The more the speaker shows how bad the lion is, the more it reflects badly on this creator god, yet they cannot see it, because of course their god is love...yeah right.
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  7

  No more JW window cleaners!

  by shepherd in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a window-cleaning robot that won a gold medal at the 2010 iena nuremberg international trade fair was launched in taiwan today.. the robot, named winbot, was invented by local inventor chao chih-mo and uses magnets that allow the device to be attached to both sides of windows up to 10 millimeters thick to clean both surfaces at the same time.

  the invention is able to detect the cleaning area on its own using automatic navigation technology and infrared sensors, said the company.. .

  the robot, which is priced at under nt$10,000 (us$330), can operate at least five times more quickly that human window cleaners.. that could put hundreds of thousands of jw's out of a job :d. .

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  shepherd

  A window-cleaning robot that won a gold medal at the 2010 iENA Nuremberg International Trade Fair was launched in Taiwan today.

  The robot, named Winbot, was invented by local inventor Chao Chih-mo and uses magnets that allow the device to be attached to both sides of windows up to 10 millimeters thick to clean both surfaces at the same time.
  
  The invention is able to detect the cleaning area on its own using automatic navigation technology and infrared sensors, said the company.
  
  The robot, which is priced at under NT$10,000 (US$330), can operate at least five times more quickly that human window cleaners.

  That could put hundreds of thousands of JW's out of a job :D

  http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=201110130040
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  26

  Got my reply from the UK charities commission...

  by oldlightnewshite in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  got my reply from the uk charities commission.

  i'm not a happy bunny.

  basically, they're saying that any crackpot organization can get charitable status as long as they're a religion.

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  shepherd

  No surprise there at all.
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  25

  Is the IBSA's charitable status in the UK vulnerable?

  by cedars in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  one thing that has occurred to me recently is how much money the society makes from being registered as a charity in certain countries.

  in the uk, the government contributes 28 pence for every pound that is donated (referred to as "gift aid"), effectively increasing the value of each contribution from 1 to 1.28. not surprisingly, the society in the uk are doing very well out of this arrangement, and last year according to the charity commission's website they made a turnover of 25.7 million, with profits of 7.8 million.

  i calculate that approximately 5 million of this must have been generated by gift aid.. the thing is, to my knowledge recent laws that have been passed by parliament stipulating that a charity must be in the "public benefit".

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  shepherd

  "This is obviously why the official line from Mill Hill is that blood transfusions are a decision for each individual. If a JW was to get DFd for giving consent for their child to have a transfusion it could make an intresting test case."

  Unfortunately this will never happen. No JW is DF'd any more for accepting a transfusion. Instead it is decided that the person has disassociated themselves by their actions. Of course, the announcement is identical and they will be shunned in just the same way, but the ORG can continue to claim they did not DF the ex-member.

  The way it works these days in the Org., everyone makes their own personal choices and is responsible for the results. Of course, if you make a choice the Org. does not approve of you will be DF'd or disassociated so there is not really a choice at all. It's the same way they teach their God works. Everyone has the freedom of choice to worship Jehovah or not - but of course they will die if they choose not to.