i vaguely knew that the pinata had some kind of pagan origin and i assumed that having a pinata at a jw party was frowned on by the b0rg.
however, despite its blatant pagan origins, apparently i was wrong.. the 22 september, 2003 awake states that the aztecs would smash a clay pot full of 'treasures' in honour of the god huitzilopochtli's birthday.
spanish missionaries simply switched the pot for the pinata during the christian conversion of the aztecs.
Birthdays were never about avoiding pagan practices. Go back far enough in history, and pretty much everything has “pagan” origins (not that Rutherford and his cronies would have known that).
Forbidding birthdays was about appearing to stand out as more pious and holy than “The World”, making sure the rank-and-file never felt too special, and most importantly, socially isolating them from non-members.
so trump has signed an executive order to withdraw from the united nations human rights council, a refugee organization, some others parts as well and calls for a review of american involvement in funding of the united nations.
he said the united nations has not been living to its potential and they need to get their act together or just dissolve the organization completely.
he said america will continue to be a part of the un but it's tiring that the united states is the country that funds most of the monies and that can't continue.
“What will happen to the Watchtower Religion now that Trump has withdrawn from certain aspects of the United Nations?”
that aged well lol.
since then 4 younger gb members appointed.
Journeyman - “…I suspect that's because they're making decisions on the fly, depending on how the ‘world’ reacts (governments, court cases, etc)…”
Someone over on the exjw subreddit once suggested they might be following a flow chart… if X happens, go right, if Y, go left…
Journeyman - “…A foolish way to proceed, but inevitable when you lack your own deep-seated convictions…”
Or when you’re still convinced you’re in the Last Days, but current events aren’t playing out at all the way they were supposed to.
😏
feb broadcast they have a drama about someone who works with a colleague who is gay.. they actually make it sound like the jws are the only ones who support him and is tolerant of him and everyone else is against him🤣.
after all these years they try gaslighting and saying we are the ones who are tolerant and everyone else is not!!!.
you couldn’t make this up.. after this monumental u turn now, what about all the gay people who were born in’s who have been shunned by their own family?.
That’s it, Watchtower…
…keep neutering all the things you’ve held up for decades as hard proof you alone had “The Truth”.
Who needs incentive to stay, anyway?
from barbara:.
my dear husband, joe anderson, has had very real problems with his short-term memory for at least a year which really worried me.
as his mental health deteriorated, i decided to have our local longtime physician talk alone with joe during an office visit last september.
🥀
the entire internal religious culture of the watchtower organization is harmful for its current members.
the culture seems to traverse ethnic and national barriers.
however, the worst of each culture all around the world appears to have a symbiotic relationship with the religion in an attempt to make the org fanciful in every nation and locality.
no-zombie - “…the fear of losing control…”
Trust me, it was much more than that.
It was the fear of not really being “God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization”.
There isn’t much they won’t do to keep up that premise.
the entire internal religious culture of the watchtower organization is harmful for its current members.
the culture seems to traverse ethnic and national barriers.
however, the worst of each culture all around the world appears to have a symbiotic relationship with the religion in an attempt to make the org fanciful in every nation and locality.
ukpimo - “…how long do they expect to carry on in the next 50 years?”
They don’t.
The changes are all stopgap measures to stay in the black and continue to exist until God bails them out with Armageddon (any day now).
True believers, all the way up.
i was thinking that since russell started the movement in 1879 which became jehovah's witnesses in 1931 never has there been a period in time when all their activities just - stopped.
especially the preaching work.. do you think they will find some obscure verse in daniel that talks about this period of time and try to make a greater fulfillment?
like the 70 weeks of years or the 42 months?
“Everything is part of Bible prophecy!
Even the stuff that isn’t!”
menacing mistral writes:.
for those who may be interested, jimmy bell has, with the help of others, created a letter to be sent to president trump regarding watchtower and their harmful practices and danger to children.
below is the link where you can download the letter.
Trump is - first and foremost - a businessman…
…so I would recommend approaching something like this from more of a financial angle.
Maybe a laundry list of ways that the Org is essentially abusing its “charity status”.
Not that I think it would really work…
…as nowwhat says, the JWs are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.
there are no real numbers for jws but they are a relatively small group.
compared to the number of catholics at least.. the australian commission gathered more than 5000 cases with over 1000 perpetrators that went completely unreported for the jws.
likewise they did the same for catholics and collected just under 4800 cases with 1880 perpetrators.
At least one per congregation, I’m sure.
