Vidiot

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Posts by Vidiot

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  24

  This Discussion Board

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when you look back the last 20 years , what a transformation!

  back then witnesses were putting out poetry and most were singing the praises of the organization.

  slowly and gradually, negative thoughts were allowed to be expressed about doctrines, elders and congregation life.

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  Vidiot

  Come for the facts, stay for the folks.
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  16

  Article in The Australian: Jehovah's Witnesses facing tax turmoil

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/.../64acd93d531eb6b7301d.... .

  sorry, the article is behind a paywall.

  however, here's a copy of it without the photo:.

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  Vidiot

  Okay, so now I'm deducing that the article was reporting on the November threat to yank the Org's "charity" status in response to their failure to join the Aussie redress scheme, and their eleventh-hour reconsideration was the referred-to resolution.

  It wasn't two separate things, it was flawed reporting on one.

  
  

  Still begs the question, though...

  ...just how dependent on its tax-exemption IS the WTS that the actual prospect of losing it brings about such a drastic about-face, after all prior protests to the contrary and the potential problems the decision could cause?
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  13

  Finland: significant (nearly 1/10) reduction in number of Kingdom Halls

  by Corney in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  according to a recent helsingin sanomat article, there are over 200 kingdom halls in finland.

  and over the last three years, 22 khs have been sold and five new halls have been built.

  currently, seven khs are listed for sale and two new ones are under construction.

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  Vidiot

  smiddy3 - "No business that is doing well financially and otherwise makes such drastic cuts."

  This.

  Like I keep saying, in what crazy-ass mirror universe are constant property liquidation, steady decrease of product output, and widespread staff reduction signs of robust financial health?
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  21

  What would happen to the Watchtower Org. if the recent UFO sightings were actually aliens ready to take over Earth

  by pistolpete in

  1. social
  2. current

  the past two weeks several ufo sightings.

  navy and pentagon confirm sightings.

  us military is worried because the technology being used to drive these air vehicles are showing no signs of any sort of jet fuel.

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  Vidiot

  Badfish - "Well then who created those 'other mortal beings'?”

  It's "other mortal beings" all the way up.
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  38

  William Shatner is 90 years old but doesn't look like it-------Why?

  by pistolpete in

  1. social
  2. current

  i can't believe william shatner is 90 years old but doesn't look like other 90 year olds that i've met.

  is it genetic?

  is it lifestyle.

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  Vidiot

  Don't know about nerdy/swole guy, there but the Shat, well... good genes, clean living... eldritch rituals, the usual.

  It works for me, after all.

  Seriously, though, I actually am kinda that way, myself (without the abs, obviously)...

  ...coming down the home stretch towards 50 and I'm told I look about 30... I get it from my dad, who didn't start turning gray until he was about 65.

  My kids laugh at my wedding photos and crack wise that the chess club geek somehow managed to score the prom queen, a hairdresser jokingly asked if I sacrificed children in the forest at night, and I even had a recent encounter with a nice old lady who thought my daughter was my sister.
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  35

  Over population

  by mickbobcat in

  1. social
  2. current

  so i see some very counter intuitive videos on how there is no over population issue.

  that the world will grow to about 11 billion and stop.

  well that would be the first time in human history that population just stopped.

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  Vidiot

  Hm.

  I guess Thanos was right, after all.
• 
  13

  Zoom Social Event With a GB Member (Losche)

  by Jofi_Wofo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  in a recent turn of events, i found myself at a jw social gathering on zoom (supporting my pimi wife, while among mostly jws whom i don't know and a handful of old friends who don't know i'm inactive) that just so happened to also be joined by garrett losche and his wife.

  sorry to disappoint but i had absolutely no interaction with him and have nothing interesting to report about it.

  i'm just sharing this because i can't believe i even got that close to maybe chatting with him, despite being a closeted apostate.. there were about 300 people in the zoom meeting, all having been directly invited.

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  Vidiot

  Justmemorph - "...He was a way out there kinda guy. Always going off the rails"

  Explains why he was invited to join.
  
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  16

  Article in The Australian: Jehovah's Witnesses facing tax turmoil

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/.../64acd93d531eb6b7301d.... .

  sorry, the article is behind a paywall.

  however, here's a copy of it without the photo:.

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  Vidiot

  Hm.

  Article's locked behind a subscription registry.

  Did it happen to elaborate on just how they "resolved" it?
• 
  21

  What would happen to the Watchtower Org. if the recent UFO sightings were actually aliens ready to take over Earth

  by pistolpete in

  1. social
  2. current

  the past two weeks several ufo sightings.

  navy and pentagon confirm sightings.

  us military is worried because the technology being used to drive these air vehicles are showing no signs of any sort of jet fuel.

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• 

  Vidiot

  Even as a very young guy, I'd realized that full-on First Contact (hostile or friendly) would be a crippling blow to the WTS... I didn't really know why, I'd just grasped it intuitively.

  As I got older, I realized that the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial biological life simply isn't compatible with a fundamentalist/evangelical worldview... including the JW version (and this was confirmed for me decades later*).

  It's one of the main reasons the gradual rising tide of UFO sightings in recent decades (that respected public officials are acknowledging, I might add) interests me.

  
  

  *A few years back, there was a university research paper published (please note: I have never been able to find it since, but I swear I read it) regarding Americans' overall potential belief in the supernatural... and had included ghosts, hauntings, angels, demons... and aliens (there was more, but for all intents and purposes, those were the big five).

  The researchers discovered a funny trend in the data; namely, that many of the individuals surveyed accepted the first four, but not the fifth... which they thought was weird, and scratched their heads. After all, paranormal phenomena was paranormal phenomena, right?

  The trend was significant enough to throw off their projections, so they did some further digging... and found that virtually every single one who'd accepted ghosts, hauntings, angels, and demons - but specifically rejected the possibility of ETs - were Evangelical Christians.

  So they dug into the fundamentalist/evangelical belief system to figure out why, and quickly realized that - short version - quite a numbers of particulars inherent in a literalist Biblical worldview just didn't really allow for the possibility of extraterrestrials.

  This was effectively confirmed for me recently as I was reading a book containing UFO-related testimonials, and came across a blink-and-you'd-miss-it moment wherein an Air Force flight controller had tremendous difficulty reporting his own UFO sighting specifically because, as he said, his religion didn't allow him to believe in aliens.

  Seriously.

  EDIT: It makes me really wonder just how many of the government officials who'd specifically derided Project Blue Book back in the day were devout Evangelicals.
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  16

  Article in The Australian: Jehovah's Witnesses facing tax turmoil

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/.../64acd93d531eb6b7301d.... .

  sorry, the article is behind a paywall.

  however, here's a copy of it without the photo:.

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  Vidiot

  Wow.

  Just a month or so back, the Aussie branch of the Org finally blinked and signed up for the voluntary CSA redress scheme (tantamount to admitting the problem was real, I might add)...

  (Australia: Jehovah’s Witnesses to join redress scheme for child sexual abuse survivors (jehovahs-witness.com))

  ...when it became painfully apparent that their charity status was approaching the chopping block.

  And now it's approaching said block again?

  
  

  Why the hell would "God's Earthly Organization" give a shit about something so mundane, even to the point where they'll grudgingly expose themselves to liability, public embarrassment, and worst of all, tacit admission that they were woefully and egregiously wrong?

  Why the hell is the Org fighting so desperately to not have to "pay back Caesar's things to Caesar"?

  Unless...

  ...the Org's business model is actually dependent on said tax-exemption for its very survival.