so what were your biggest jw accomplishments as a rank & file?
curious as to what level you climbed the r&f ladder while in the org, or if you still are in.. did you regular pioneer, or auxiliary pioneer?
bethel?
I was a Regular Pioneer for a time, also a Ministerial Servant; then I was Ministerial Servant for a second stint.
That second time was a long while in coming, though:
- it is significant, even critical, what the content of that column in the Monthly Report marked "Hours" can achieve (or not achieve!).
Bill.
if, as evolutionists claim, all of mankind evolved from the same primitive life-source, then how did we end up with 7,000 different languages?
did one gorilla get angry at another gorilla and decide to start a new language?
i'm intrigued to know.. .
Even "StopTheTears" would have to agree with the strong evidence available that at least some people descended from monkeys!
Bill.
one of the greatest chess players who ever lived was jose raul capablanca.. .
his was a natural talent from age 4. he became world chess champion and had an undefeated record for 9 years before high blood pressure began affecting his game.. capablanca's great technique in the end game was his greatest asset.
he only needed the smallest advantage to win by force.. consequently, the great cuban chessmaster would play simple temporizing moves provoking his opponent into over-reaching himself.. eventually, his opponent made an error.
TERRY:
Some interesting observations about what would fall under the overall heading of "Manipulation."
We have all seen these techniques at work in the family, at school, and in the workplace. Growing up with two sisters - as well as a mother determined to keep control once I grew too big to beat into submission - I have many a time been victim of these same methods that you are describing.
As to winning a "religious argument", though, I would have to say this;
- When you hear two people arguing about religion, you know BOTH of them are wrong!
Bill.
i dont usualy do this, but does anyone have and gossip or dirt on the now deceased gb member, theodore jaracz?.
ive heard rumours that he wasnt a very nice man and after reading crisis of conscience, i can believe it!.
anyone got any articles or links i can read up on?.
He was yet another example of how first appearances can often be deceiving.
At the time of the 1978 International Assemblies, I remember being very impressed with the way in which he handled himself in a rather hostile televisioin interview:
- although, admittedly, much of my satisfaction came from watching that supercilious TV commentator get well and truly put in his place! (By contrast, Lloyd Barry, also present at that interview, came over as a bumbling incompetent).
However, that interview - along with all his other media contacts - did not show the side of Ted Jaracz known to those who had the misfortune of dealing with him on a day-to-day basis. Rather than the tactful, articulate and dignified gentleman that appeared to the media, he was in fact nothing more than a 24-carat b#%*&^d!
In other words, Jaracz was a worthy successor to the likes of J.F. Rutherford and Co.
Bill
was sing the national anthem out loud......alone......in my house.
what did you do?.
I got together a box of matches and several litres of kerosene, then commenced to obliterate all the WT literature that I had left in the house.
In retrospect, this may have been a bit hasty:
- it may have been useful to have kept those items to refer to for counter-cult purposes:
But of one thing I am sure - burning all that cult propoganda felt bloody good at the time (almost therapuetic, in fact!).
Bill.
and if so, would that prove an existence of evil-spirits (demons)?.
i have heard of a couple of stories of possession, or of jw's talking to spiritists and the spiritists having seen 2 men following the jw, either dressed all in black, or all in white, and very strong looking.
yet, i have never experienced any of it.. another experience that i heard is about a brother whose mom had super-natural strength, and tossed something really heavy.
Regarding the "Ten Year Rule", all the events that I am describing occured over ten years ago. While I keep an open mind on these matters, I am still waiting to hear a scientific / rational explanation for the things I saw happening almost all the time.
Bill
and if so, would that prove an existence of evil-spirits (demons)?.
i have heard of a couple of stories of possession, or of jw's talking to spiritists and the spiritists having seen 2 men following the jw, either dressed all in black, or all in white, and very strong looking.
yet, i have never experienced any of it.. another experience that i heard is about a brother whose mom had super-natural strength, and tossed something really heavy.
DagothUr,
Were I given to sarcasm, I would put it to you somewhere along the lines of "I know you think that I am mad, but I am not quite that hopeless!"
However, sarcasm has never been my scene - and I don't intend to begin now! Of course the first place you look for a lost keyring is the floor of the vehicle, its seats, and underneath its seats:
- that was precisely my first response that particular day, and I drew a complete blank in the process.
What had in fact happened was something else again:
- the vigorous shaking of the Toyota Hilux truck, as it bounced its way uphill over that goat track which passed for a "road," shook the fallen keyring backwards as far as it could go - then upwards, so that the keyring finished up being literally wedged both behind and under the vehicle's rear seat.
- A place in which you would not have imagined it possible for any object to become lodged in. (although that road was so rough, it all but shook ones teeth loose!)
Had the security officer seen this happen before?
Perhaps "security officer" is too flattering a term to describe the staff who manned the gates at this remote power station on the edge of the jungle - covered Kupa Range in Papua New Guinea. This person would have had no more than a Grade 3 education, and very unlikely to have ever travelled far from his village, which was just outside the power station's perimeter fence. The only other motor vehicles that came into the plant were the line gang's tip truck truck, and the power station superintendent's Toyota Landcruiser pickup truck - both with totally different seating arrangements to my double-cab Hilux. (i.e. no rear seat - let alone any hidden nooks and crannys that a keyring or other object could lose itself in).
It is almost certain that he had never even been up close to a double cab Toyota Hilux pickup before, let alone seen this same thing happen previously. YET: immediately upon hearing the V.H.F. radio call that I was returning to search for a lost keyring, he knew exactly where to find it.
In addition to this incident, I witnessed first hand many other occurrences in which a lost object - with an almost infinite number of places in which it could have been misplaced - found almost immediately by somebody who seemed to go directly to where it was located.
"Uncanny" is the only word that I can think of to describe this ability that many Papua New Guineans seemd to have in being able to quickly locate missing objects.
Perhaps there is a scientific explanation for this - but I am yet to hear it!
Bill
and if so, would that prove an existence of evil-spirits (demons)?.
i have heard of a couple of stories of possession, or of jw's talking to spiritists and the spiritists having seen 2 men following the jw, either dressed all in black, or all in white, and very strong looking.
yet, i have never experienced any of it.. another experience that i heard is about a brother whose mom had super-natural strength, and tossed something really heavy.
After living and working for a number of years in Papua New Guinea, I have seen things happen that could not be explained in any other way:
- In particular, the uncanny way in which many (even most) Papua New Guineans seemed to be able to easily locate lost objects.
One of the most striking of these such experiences was when I one day lost a set of keys. Unbeknown to me, this set of keys had in fact broken off my keyring, fallen to the floor of the double-cab .truck, and wedged themselves up under the rear seat.
As soon as the duty security officer heard on the radio telephone that I was returning to look for a set of keys, he straightaway knew where I had lost them:
- as soon as I arrived, he went straight to the cab of the truck, lifted the rear seat, and picked up the keys (certainly the last place that I would have thought to look!)
I am still open to suggestions - but so far, I can think of no other way to explain this, or other, similar experiences that I have had.
Bill.
this has probably been discussed here before, but i'm new so sue me.. i think the religion of jehovah's witnesses has been an amazing but tragic social experiment proving that the mind is most vulnerable to brainwashing when it's in an unhealthy state.
it seems to attract the bipolar, schizophrenic, depressive, and the paranoid.
it preys on negative emotions like sorrow and fear.
the max:
Your comments ref. Magazine Sales = Spirituality are all too true.
I would, though, take it one step further:
- as far as the JWs are concerned, THE Barometer of Spirituality is that "Total Hours" column on the Monthly Report Card.
Hardly an atmosphere that engenders love - but then what can you expect from an outfit that places numerical increase ahead of the welfare of its rank and file members?
Bill
PS: Blondie - politically correct answer, but I still don't believe ya!
this has probably been discussed here before, but i'm new so sue me.. i think the religion of jehovah's witnesses has been an amazing but tragic social experiment proving that the mind is most vulnerable to brainwashing when it's in an unhealthy state.
it seems to attract the bipolar, schizophrenic, depressive, and the paranoid.
it preys on negative emotions like sorrow and fear.
It is extremely hard to love such a creature as "Jehovah", as portrayed by the JWs.
It is, though, very easy to fear such a being!
Bill.
