for the record i'm agnostic, never seen any direct evidence of spirits, afterlife, etc.
i've been visiting my mother during this corona ordeal.
a year ago i had a dream i was much older and talking to somebody about how my mom died this year but it was avoidable.
truth_b_known - "...So, what if premonitions are memories being transmitted back to ourselves?"
I say don't close the book on possibilities like that.
Quantum physics does some seriously weird-ass shit...
...why wouldn't it occasionally manifest itself at the macro level?
“jehovah’s witnesses and the secular world: from the 1870s to the present” (histories of the sacred and secular), zoe knox.
palgrave macmillan.
isbn 978-1-137-39604-4. .
Zoe Knox - "...These behavioural guidelines sometimes shift: sexual relations within marriage are now regarded as a matter of individual conscience, for example..."
Bitch, please.
As far as I'm concerned, this one's just another tug on the leash.
The moment there's enough supermajority votes amongst GB members with hang-ups about kinky stuff, they'll waffle back...
...and frustrated sexual dissatisfaction amongst the rank-and-file will go back to normal.
scrolling through the news this morning and i couldn’t help to think we are light years from any leaders crying out peace and security.
jws are going to have to wait another decade or two and see how things develop before they get excited about armageddon coming in their lifetime.
.
My Dad once told me that the world's governments will cry "peace and security" specifically when it couldn't be farther from the truth, and that's why it would be so offensive to Jehovah.
Other JW theories have touched on conspiracy theories about the so-called "New World Order" global government that would be used as the conduit for the "peace and security" declaration, whilst terrorism would actually invalidate it.
the latest watchtower is now out and they make this statement -.
7 during the thousand year rule of christ, all of jehovah’s earthly children will have to make changes to please him.
so all of them will have true fellow feeling as they help the resurrected ones to combat sinful tendencies and to live by jehovah’s standards.
menrov - "...In other words, it is not enough to please God before the 1000 years, now also a long road ahead to please God even more... a never ending struggle..."
LongHairGal - "...that is the one thing that always bothered me when I was active in the JW religion..."
Hmph.
Makes God sound like a bipolar spouse who won't take their meds...
...no matter how well you did yesterday, everything gets reset the next morning, and you have to bust your hump to "please" them...
...plus the rules constantly change with no advance warning.
hey folks, .
it’s been a long time since i’ve posted, good to see the forum well attended & spicy as ever.
this just in from a close & trusted source, names & local places redacted for obvious reasons:.
road to nowhere - "My impression is a lot of stances are taken simply to be controversial. Blood, flag salute, voting, education."
Ditto.
Pick a contrarian stance, and find or concoct a "Biblical"/religious pretext to justify it...
...Rutherford and Fred Franz were fucking experts at that.
Problem with that MO, though, is that more often than not, the stance ends up being demonstrably wrong...
...but out of pride and self-delusion, the architects of said stance double-down, even becoming dogmatic and offensive about the issue if they're called out on it (or worse), to the point where they fall into the habit of crying "persecution" at every turn.
Of course - as I've said before - going around jabbing people in the eye with a stick when you're embarrassed and then whining when you get a beatdown for it doesn't actually make you persecuted...
...it just makes you an asshole.
i can never get my head around this one ?
don`t the powers that be ever really investigate religions that claim exemption from paying taxes because they claim they are a not for profit religion ?.
you would have to be a brain dead imbecile not to see that the religion known as the" watchtower bible and tract society" otherwise known as "jehovah`s witnesses" are nothing more than a religious publishing house that have made x amount of $$$$$ over the years since their inception in the late 1800`s to this day.
joe134cd - "I think there a bigger players that would have to fall first before the IRS came after WT."
Oh, I don't know.
If politicians and the legal system were facing increased pressure from the public (particularly in the woke-slash-hashtag-#metoo era), it might be easier to start out small.
The Org has no "friends in high places" to come to bat for them, they're not especially well-liked, and their offenses are actually genuine...
...ergo, they'd be the ideal candidate for the authorities to "make an example of".
hey folks, .
it’s been a long time since i’ve posted, good to see the forum well attended & spicy as ever.
this just in from a close & trusted source, names & local places redacted for obvious reasons:.
It's funny...
...quite some time back, it looked like the Org was aiming to quietly phase out the blood prohibition (whilst going out of their way to avoid appearing as though they were phasing it out, of course).
The world around them changed considerably from 9-11 onward, though.
Instead, now - especially due, I'm sure, to all the increasing pressures they're currently experiencing - they've chosen to dig in their heels instead.
This is telling, because it's absolutely what True Believers would do if/when they...
a) ...are certain that God's got their back no matter what...
b) ...view the secular world with extreme suspicion, and...
c) ...genuinely believe the End really is Nigh.
what does everyone think will happen next on the back of the coronavirus pandemic?.
these are my suggestions;.
1) coronavirus will have a disproportionate effect on jw ‘growth’ countries like in south america and africa.
I'm no expert, but IMO...
...the absolute best thing that could happen to the WTS at this moment would be their eschatology actually starting to play out they they think.
Because with all the pressures coming at them...
...decline on multiple fronts (i.e. pretty much everything in the Top Ten, in varying degrees) is the only thing I can personally imagine happening.
today, it will be 90 degrees and humid!
this morning i’ll be playing tennis again.
while most people have been holed up in their houses, i have regularly played the sport outside.
No.
Sorry, but my crimefighting vigilante days are long done.
i can never get my head around this one ?
don`t the powers that be ever really investigate religions that claim exemption from paying taxes because they claim they are a not for profit religion ?.
you would have to be a brain dead imbecile not to see that the religion known as the" watchtower bible and tract society" otherwise known as "jehovah`s witnesses" are nothing more than a religious publishing house that have made x amount of $$$$$ over the years since their inception in the late 1800`s to this day.
smiddy3 - "How have Jehovah's Witnesses ever gotten away with being a tax exempt religion?"
Some of us actually discussed this a couple weeks back in this thread:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/162383/watchtower-admits-false-prophesy-court-law
To recap, in Rutherford's day, quite a few things about the WTS were overhauled.
To the best of our understanding, the Federal Government had begun to fine-tune a specific set of criteria that American religious groups had to meet in order to acquire "charity" status, and the leadership adjusted a fair number of aspects of the Society's ideology and structure to meet the (bare) minimum requirements.
If anyone was asked, this was - ostensibly - done to ensure (their own) religious freedoms, and/or enable missionary work in harder-to-reach places (not unlike the Org's short-lived and - ultimately - embarrassing UN-NGO status in the late 90s)...
...but...
...I personally suspect that the sweet siren call of tax exemption was the primary motivating factor.
