http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-25/quantum-physicist-named-2018-australian-of-the-year/9363206.
It is good to see academics receiving due recognition for their achievements, thus proving Australia is not just about "Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars".
A proper bugger, though, that Geoffrey missed out. I would have thought him to be a dead cert. for the award. Chin up, fella; there is always next year!
kingdom ministry school.
2018 service year.
programme for congregation elders: file:///c:/users/michael/downloads/kms-tk18-e_no8.pdf.
I can recall a prominent elder in the late 1970s who permitted his son to attend university. Somehow he got away with it, too. This person remained, and still is, a prominent elder in S.E. Queensland (Australia).
His son subsequently graduated from the School of Engineering at the University of Queensland (St Lucia), and is today a highly respected Electrical Engineer, running his own consultancy firm.
After seeing directives from the GB - such as this one - which bash "Higher Education", I often wonder how those two fare when applying these rules to others (As far as I am aware, both father and son remain elders in their respective JW congregations). Do they, in effect, say to everybody else "I have got mine, but you are not allowed to have yours"? Or are they amongst those long term JWs who do lip service to everything the GB says, but privately ignore the more extreme directives of their religion?
Sometimes I really would like to be a fly on the wall!
i don't usually like the confrontational approach to those on the carts, however this video is a great example of how jws do not really care about child abuse issues!.
the arrogance of this brother is disturbing..... bear with the video.
it gets really interesting around the 6 min mark, where the brother loses his cool.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5chulnnyqs.
Well-intentioned but long-winded.
The JW raised an important question when he got a word in but the ex-JW deflected it.
He was something of a "motormouth", wasn't he!
i don't usually like the confrontational approach to those on the carts, however this video is a great example of how jws do not really care about child abuse issues!.
the arrogance of this brother is disturbing..... bear with the video.
it gets really interesting around the 6 min mark, where the brother loses his cool.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5chulnnyqs.
cofty,
Correct on both counts!
The guy doing most of the talking didn't exactly come over as the sharpest tool in the shed. In fact, he carried the impression of being somebody who had perhaps a fact or two at his disposal, while the rest just sort of dribbled out:
- e.g. "Andrew" Jackson - I thought he was the seventh president of the USA!
One can say all sorts of things, but unless documented evidence is presented to back it up, it is unlikely to make much of an impression (much like W.Schnell's 30 Years a Watchtower Slave).
Good entertainment for the peanut gallery, though; and if he intended to embarrass the JW guy, then he certainly succeeded!
greetings, friends across the two ponds:.
of course, as per other posters' recommendations, i could google this; i have and remain, not totally confused, but wanting the straight dope as well as nuanced meaning.
i'm both curious and needing to know for purposes of editing works of american and british writers.
The term "Commonwealth" has very little relevance.
It ceased even being called the "British Commonwealth" as long ago as 1949, and some of its members (e.g. Rwanda, Mozambique and Cameroon) were never British territories prior to independence. "Commonwealth" is definitely not a term of national identity; not even close, in fact!
greetings, former children:.
i really miss my childhood home, which we left in 1960. dad sold it for some 12,000 dollars; it recently sold for somewhere under 1.5 million.
it's only a tiny bungalow but in a prosperous bay area town, not too far from san francisco, california.. the art and literature that are so important to me -- and for many others of us -- got their start in my heart and mind here in the california mountains.
The place where I grew up has long since become a ghost town (direct result of a phenomenon called "Rogernomics"), and the house I grew up in was sold off for removal. I have no idea where the relocated building now sits. However, I still frequently have dreams of the old place - particularly as my fortunes have declined somewhat over these last few years!
i’ve been here for many years.
the tone seems to be different in this place.
not so many pissed off exjws .
I like to think that I got past the "angry" stage quite a number of years ago now.
i was talking to someone a few years ago and he said in his congregation they have a rail of white shirts prepared in the cloakroom for if a speaker doesn't have a white shirt on.
it was a rule in their hall that all brothers in the platform must wear white shirts when going talks and if the speaker won't comply when asked to change into the shirt they provide an elder in the congregation will do the talk instead.
i have never known any other halls do it so it must be a rule the elders have made up without gb input.
I was in one congregation in which the elders decided to "lift the tone" of things by insisting that men wear jackets at all times while engaging in field service. This in a location in which summertime temperatures frequently exceed 30 degrees Celsius; and in which the community in general would regard you as being barking mad if you did not remove your coat!
In another circuit during the late 1980s, all those desiring to get "get appointed" were required to not just make the "national average", but to exceed it. Would-be Ministerial Servants had to report at least 12 hours a month, while servants who hoped appointment as Elder had to report at least 15 hours a month. All congregations in that circuit were spilling over with publishers, and we were covering the territory in less than a month. In fact, during the Circuit Overseer's visit, coverage was more like once a week. People were (not surprisingly) heartily sick of us always being at their doors. By the time I left, the list of "Do Not Calls" almost exceeded the number of homes it was okay to call at! Also, the official stance of the WTS that you "worked a territory to life, NOT to death" proved to be quite untrue. Nontheless, the iron-clad rule remained, "Thou shalt report 12 hours a month". Not written anywhere in the Bible, though. (Certainly nowhere that I could see, anyway!)
going to be completely honest here, no feelings spared for me.
when i was a jw, one of my biggest motivations for "reaching out" was to become a "somebody".
i loved the idea of being a leader, teaching/training others.
However I do think that unless you are made fully aware of the human desire to be prominent, and until you have been almost at rock bottom, you won't serve any community very well (or at least not get to your potential).
Very true. As my late father was wont to say " Before you can give orders, you have to learn to take them."
That truth is something you really appreciate if you have ever worked under Managers / Supervisors etc who had never first learned "to take orders".
of course the religion condemns homosexuality but did you know any gay witnesses?
i knew some bethelites that were very effeminate and i remember 4 women who were suspected of being lesbians by many in the congregation.
they eventually moved away and were very vocal against males, especially elders..
I have, both practising and latent.
The practising one was the recipient of much action by Judical Committee.
The other two were a former lesbian couple, probably no longer practising, but who still lived together and exhibited much of the signs of their "former way of life." Those, however, would almost fill a book all on their own, and I don't intend to start now!
