"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" - I like it!
Bill.
Bungi Bill
JoinedPosts by Bungi Bill
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48
"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over."
by Mr. Falcon in(numbers 5:23-28) 23 and the priest must write these cursings in the book and must wipe them out into the bitter water.
24 and he must make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings a curse must enter into her as something bitter.
25 and the priest must take the grain offering of jealousy from the womans hand and wave the grain offering to and fro before jehovah, and he must bring it near the altar.
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21
Women and Pants
by Lynnie ini'm still amazed that the wtbts still don't allow women to wear pants to meetings etc.
is this a disfellowshipping offense?.
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Bungi Bill
WontLeave,
I am speaking from personal experience, having been a member of that congregation during those years. As one of the ministerial servants there, I, too, had a full beard.
The crackdown started in 1981, when - for the coming District Convention - brothers volunteering to be attendants were informed "no beards allowed." After that, much must have been said in private to the various Bodies of Eelders by the Circuit Overseers. Certainly, immediately following each CO's visit, the elders seemed to have a lot to say about "when those articles came out about conscience" - and how "publishers thought that they could do what they liked".
This seemed to co-incide with when the WTS started making abig thing about "The Organisation."
Bill.
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21
Women and Pants
by Lynnie ini'm still amazed that the wtbts still don't allow women to wear pants to meetings etc.
is this a disfellowshipping offense?.
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Bungi Bill
This is yet one more example of WTS hypocrisy.
They are always very quick to condemn "Christendom" for imposing man-made rules and regulations, yet seem oblivious to the fact that they are doing exactly the same:
- and no more so than over this matter of dress and grooming.
Nowhere in the Bible does it prohibit women from wearing trousers (no translation that I have ever read, anyway!), likewise no scripture condemns men for wearing beards. This very fact was raised during the mid-1970s, when the emphasis was suddenly placed on the role of ones conscience should play in deciding such matters. At least one Australian congregation (Newmarket, in Brisbane) acknowledged that dress and grooming were quite correctly matters to be decided by an individual's conscience. To that end, brothers were not hasselled for wearing beards, and sisters were permitted to wear trouser suits in field service, at the meetings and even on the platform. At one point, nearly all the congregation's ministerial wore beards.
However, it was as if the WTS then feared it was loosing control of matters, and after a few years they re-imposed the WTS Talmud. In effect, each individual was notified "We will tell you what your conscience is telling you. You, yourself are incapable of knowing."
Bill.
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Jehovah's Witnesses with OBVIOUS drinking problems?
by lovelylil inhi guys, been a while since i've posted.
summer is very busy at my job, lots of ot, which is good because winter is slow and i barely get my f/t hours.
anyway, i had to post this to see if anyone has seen a similiar situation in their congregation.. i drive a lot for work, do home visits for a local visiting nurse association.
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Bungi Bill
Maisha,
The trouble with "modest" consumption of alcohol is that every JW has their own idea of what constitutes "modest consumption."
Early on, I was warned off the JWs a non-JW relative, following her attendance at a Jehovahs Witness wedding reception. She was quite appalled by the heavy drinking that she saw going on at that event.
Later, I knew an elder who was rather concerned when named to attend the next session of the Kingdom Ministry School. He told us that he was going to "have to dry himself out beforehand" - referring to his fondness for apple wine, which he consumed for by the flagon full. For nine months after the 1975 debacle, that same elder never ventured out once in field service, and would regularly demolish a 2 litre flagon of sherry over the course of one night. Throughout all this, he kept his position, and was always quite highly regarded in the JW community. (a lot to do with his being a "closet" drinker, I think - you would never ever see him in any public bar around the place).
I myself was not exactly squeaky clean when it came to the subject of the brown bottle. Raised by parents who were modest drinkers, I was first introduced to drinking when I began associating with the local congregation. There was considerable social pressure to indulge in the stuff, and as others have noted, it was an easy habit to adopt - being one of the few escapes / indulgences / releases (call it what you will!) that a Witness is permitted to have.
The "guidance" that I received from the brother whom I studied with was that it was all-right to have the "occassional" heavy session on the grog, but one should still at all times "have all their faculties" about them. (This is indeed what he - an elder and regular pioneer - did).
The immediate problem here is in precisely defining what constitutes "occassional", and where the boundary line between "still having all ones faculties" and having lost them is located!
In my 28 years "in the Truth", I both witnessed - and participated in - much abuse of alcohol.
Bill.
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Watchtower Pre-Eve Adam was not male!
by Marvin Shilmer inwatchtower pre-eve adam was not male!
today i uploaded a new article to my blog addressing watchtowers teaching of adams sexuality at the time of his creation.
as it turns out, adam was not originally created as a male.
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Bungi Bill
Typhoid caused by tiny worms, vaccines blamed for the "upsurge in sexual immorality", organ transplants = cannabalism, the health benefits of giving yourself a regular reverse flushing - and now this.
Having been an avid reader of WTS literature during my formative years, I am now beginning to understand why I have been so messed up!
Bill.
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Victoria, Australia: Steven Unthank's Press Release: JW's Hierarchy Formally Charged Today With Child Abuse
by AndersonsInfo injehovah's witnesses hierarchy charged.
immediate press release: 26 july 2011. link to this press release: http://wp.me/p1g1hc-4o.
worldwide church hierarchy charged with child abuse.
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Bungi Bill
bandontherun,
Penalty units rather than specific monetary sums are frequently used in Australian legislation - the Electrical Safety Regulations being just one example of many, and one that I am very familiar with!
My understanding of this practice is that it allows adjustment for inflation. Otherwise, a specific sum of money that constituted a severe fine ten years ago may not now amount to such a severe penalty.
Bill.
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..Which has Caused You the Most Grief in Your Life..The Outside World or Watchtower World?..
by OUTLAW inaccording to the wbt$... the outside world is supposed to be a horrible place... .
the outside world hasn't caused me nearly as much grief,as watchtower world... outside world (5% grief).....watchtower world..(95% grief)... .
which has caused you the most grief in your life... the outside world or watchtower world?...
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Bungi Bill
If ever there was such a thing as a "No Brainer", this question would have to be it:
- the Watchtower World by a long shot ....... so much so that I run completely out of unpleasant adjectives with which to describe it!
Bill
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Went to the DC today...
by dontplaceliterature ini caught the entire session today, and strangely, it was the first time i was able to stay completely alert for an entire dc program.
i'm guessing the reason for that is that i was looking at the program with a critical eye for the first time in my life and was not being hypnotised by mind-numbing repitition (see steve hassen's combatting cult mind control).
the program wasn't that bad.
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Bungi Bill
I have heard some whacky explanations as to "what convinced me it was The Truth", but demon attacks? That one stands head and shoulders above the rest!
Bill.
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How Being a Witness made you Lose out on Higher Education and Careers
by flipper inhi, folks.
been thinking of this, because of having been raised in the witnesses.
i reflect back on opportunities i would have encountered and seized, had it not been for being controlled by the witness organization being told higher education was not needed.
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Bungi Bill
I, too, worked in instrumentation, despite having no formal qualifications in that field:
- for several years, I maintained a registered calibration laboratory (car battery manufacturing).
- then later, I was in charge of all instrument maintenance (both fixed and portable) for a power supply company.
Additionally, I have worked extensively with all facets of protection relay testing, with no higher qualifications than a paper in Advanced Trade Studies.
However, there always comes a point where, without the benefit of higher qualifications, you strike the proverbial brick wall. For example, in relay testing, clients were always asking for advice on what settings should be applied to their relays. Without the mathematical skills and theoretical knowledge that is taught at either Diploma level or higher, though, you don't dare provide any such guidance (Such nasties as Earth Rise Potential, Pole Slip or Negative Sequence Currents - all of which, if you get it wrong, can either kill somebody or cause irreversible damage to plant).
In other words, the relay technician can sell the protection system to the client, install it, test it, commission it; do everything except calculate the setting levels to apply. Often, this came as something of a let down to the client - a case of "why did you not tell us this when you submitted your quote for the project?"
As a young JW, I heard every explanation as to why a College Education "was not necessary" - even to the point that, supposedly, "you can get paid more for unskilled work, than skilled work." It did not take me long to figure out that this was nonsense, of course! Where I currently work, a Graduate Engineer's income is roughly double that of a Licensed Electrician (and more than double that of a Mechanical Fitter). A tradesman could get the same remuneration as that by taking on remote site work (as I did for a number of years), but even on remote sites, a Graduate Engineer's rates are correspondingly higher again. During the recession of the early 1990s, in order to get any sort of a decent paying job at all, I had to take on remote site work (without Degree level qualifications, there was just nothing else available during those years).
Unfortunately, this did not just drive another nail into the coffin of our family life - it stitched into it an entire row of nails. (I could write a whole book about that, but not right now!)
So, yes, having learned what I know from the "University of Hard Knocks", I do take an exceedingly dim view on those who are down on Higher Education.
On a positive note, I class myself as lucky as having been able to get into a trade (I was 24 when I began the apprenticeship). One only has to look through the door into the Production Area at the plant where I work to see what the alternative would have been:
- working on the Production Line in a Meat Packing plant is a grim prospect, with an even grimmer future to it; within the next five to ten years, most of that work will be performed by robots.
Bill.
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How Being a Witness made you Lose out on Higher Education and Careers
by flipper inhi, folks.
been thinking of this, because of having been raised in the witnesses.
i reflect back on opportunities i would have encountered and seized, had it not been for being controlled by the witness organization being told higher education was not needed.
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Bungi Bill
I consider myself lucky that I was even able to learn a trade, as the JWs tried to stop that, also. It was only my high grades through high school, plus contacts that my non-JW father had in the industry, that got me an opening there. (During those years leading up to 1975, the WTS was strong about "young people should have the minimum education, and then pioneer").
Later, I made several attempts to do the Diploma course in Electrical Engineering, but either work or family commitments made that a non-starter:
- Very difficult attempting the Diploma course when you are working 16 hour days!
- Even doing the trade course proved to be disastrous for family life (by then I was married with two children).
To those who have later been able to pick up the baton and complete College studies, despite what the WTS did to them, I tip my hat! The fact remains, though, that the best time to study is when you are straight out of high school.
These days, I am resigned to going no further than a busted a$$ electrician can expect to go - and the only letters that I will have after my name are "S.B." (ie. "Silly B*&$")
Bill.