Posts by Band on the Run

4

If University/College is not recommended

by Sharpie in

hey jwn.

article after article the wts demonizes post secondary education.

but why is it the people that have that university and college degrees that want to be in bethel get picked first over others?

Band on the Run

Yes. So many elements of the Witnesses are hypocritical. For instance, my father threatened to pull me out of high school so he could control wicked me. His death saved me from a foster family. A court battle was looming. He was very disturbed so I doubt a court order would change his mind. With the freedom purchased from his death, I attended an elite college and law school. I was researching my writing sample on the Establishment Clause and was shocked to find an article about the Society and Japan before and during WWII. The author extolled the courage of the WTBTS but could not even mention a single, individual Witness in a footnote. The truly faithful were forgotten. Imagine my surprise to see a female name as counsel for the WTBTS.

I wrote her a note asking why she merited a law degree and I was consiigned to factory work. There are several female lawyers. This is not in accordance with their education policy or their notorious female hating views. I am still furious.

Random selection might have some merit. What possible basis can they use? Some women are disfellowshipped, others are sent to law school. Probably fly by night law schools. NY runs the gamut from tops to the pits.

39

Dumbing down of WT literature can be measured mathematically.

by hamsterbait in

jw
friends

every magazine on the news stand is very carefully aimed at a target market.. .

it has long been known that how information is presented makes a big difference to who will read it.

you will agree that the ny times or scientific american are more erudite than the national enquirer or the toronto star.. .

Band on the Run

I am curious about the methodology. Did people scan the text into Word? A skill I do not know. Word has at least two different readability scales.

I'm torn apart. My parents were working poor. They were bright but very limited b/c of their Witness affiliation. I learned a lot about writing from the Watchtower and Awake. English and American lit classics would have been better but my classmates had no reading material at home. Aside from readability, the style is stilted which leads to great parody. My brother and I can still have hard laughs about how certain concepts were portrayed.

What strikes me about Witness literature is its magic. Authors are not acknolwedged. Jehovah does it all himself. Voila. They have an obsession against the Roman Catholic Church yet the church never claims the complete authority they do. My father was a bodyguard to Knorr and Rutherford. The istories I heard did not evoke paradise or even any concept of God.

12

What Is A Cult? Recognizing And Avoiding Unhealthy Groups

by 3Mozzies in

jw
friends

jayanti tamm author, 'cartwheels in a sari: a memoir of growing up cult'.

what is a cult?

recognizing and avoiding unhealthy groups.

Band on the Run

A stunning summary. All the bulleted points apply to JW in extreme measure. No matter what I did was never all right. The criticisms were endless and I was a child/teenager. The short length is good. Part of me still wants them to be respectable and healthy b/c I was born in. JWs are responsible for so much anguish in my life. It has been decades and I still feel the impact.

129

YHWH a minor pagan god: Ugaritic Texts and the Sons of El

by DoomVoyager in

interesting.. here is the first thing i've found on the subject, though i haven't read much of it yet.. http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/05-deuteronomy/text/articles/heiser-deut32-bs.htm.

pseudo.

Band on the Run

PBS ran a NOVA production called something close to Ancient Secrets of the Bible. It might have been a re-run. I already knew the material but I love the PBS voice and style. It showed how YHWH was a puny, local God who later morphed into a national God. Excavations have found a slew of many fertility Goddesses on YHWH altars. YHWH may have been married. The fertility goddess is almost omnipresent. It is clearly at odds with the Bible.

The New York Times reported that when Israel was founded archaeologists were determined to unearth Biblical sites. They found them with a zeal. Later study revealed almost all were spurious. Now they excavate everything and do computer applications. The new version while not as miraculous still is believable.

It seems to me that PBS has used the same narrator's voice since PBS went live. I love the familiarity and comfort of it.

10

did freddy practice auto writing

by jeckle in

i wonder who he was divining?

if i walked up to the average nonjw and said hi i'm anointed and i'm going to heaven and your not and got reveal biblical understanding to me and me alone or me and my select few .

wouldn't they throw a straight jacket on me straight away?

Band on the Run

An excellent point. How did Freddie Franz get legitmacy for his theories called truth? Why would anyone listen? My father was a bodyguard to Russell and Knorr. Although Franz was not a Bethel hit list of slavedrivers like Knorr, there was respect for him. I was too young to have a real feel for Knorr and Franz. I was always told Knorr was organizational but the real brains was Franz. No one ever said why. Much was made of his seminary degree or time in seminary but zillions attend seminary every semster. Strange.

We all know it wasn't successful seeing into the future. I recall his pre-1975 talk at Yankee Stadium. We were told it was closely held concerning the date (don't tell outsiders) and he veered off into a discussion of Eve's menstrual cycle to conduct his caluclations as I sank into my seat with embarassment. They were always embarassing me sexually. My father was a true prude with many inhibitions but a force. It is all a messy glob.

Why would Knorr defer to Franz? Why did not Franz become president? Who decided the issues in the middle where it wasn't clearly organizational or theology?

It is truly embarassing to recall how I revered Franz's wisdom. Knorr was a much better public speaker by oddles and oddles.

20

Reason for new study editions and the topics within.

by hotiwitabody234 in

i might be rambling on.... i attended the meeting tonight.

i'm not sure how it is in other halls.

there are about 120 publishers in our hall, in the midwest.

Band on the Run

Illiterate brothers was my crisis of faith. We attended a ghetto KH. I thought only ghettos had KHs for a long time. We were the only whites. I always read many grades above grade level. I did not do as well with math but reading was like breathing. I grew up with some vague knowledge that Peter murdered a nice couple who did not turn over their money. The Witnesses taught the only unforgiveable sin was sinning against the Holy Spirit. This made no sense to me. Peter's actions in Acts doesn't seem to have anything to do with the triumph of the Ressurection and a God who gave his only begotten Son. It turned around in my head. I figure the WT was written on a fifth grade level.

One Sunday the WT study proceeded. I was bored out of my mind so I paid great attention to reading comprehension. HOw I hated KH. WT study was better than some idiot brother jawing away, though. I was able to read. The brothers, while trying hard, did not understand the question or the answer. They gave the wrong answer. It was the very opposite of the WT. I sat there and was stunned that the Holy Spirit let them do it. I read it many times and reached the same answer every time.

I knew if I mentioned it or corrected them I would be murdered or beat severely so I held my peace. My father was more brutal than Jehovah. I bided my time. I worked myself into a panic about the Holy Spirit sin. Jesus is loving but Jehovah has a blood lust. It went on for years. Finally, I matured to the point where it did not matter. I did not want to live on earth with these people. Armageddon death was the way to go.

Now I'm Episcopalian. We all chip in money to get a priest who has a B.A. or B.S. and a seminary degree. Priests know Greek and know how to read on a fifth grade level. The apostles were prob. illiterate so I guess the moral is not an educated clergy. I asked the priest last week during Stations of the Cross how he kept the Synoptic Gospels straight and could also include John. It is complex. The Witnesses demand a lot from people they purposefully rob of a basic education. The dummy JW jokes will increase as the gap between a standard Western education and Witness wides b/c of technology. A college degree is a basic degree now. It had status when I was young. No more. Too many idiot schools.

We know too well the reason the Witnesses ban education.

22

My daughter asked me why we don't go to meetings

by JWinprotest in

jw
friends

last night, completely out of the blue, my 6 year old daughter, asked my wife and i why we don't go to meetings anymore.

she actually said that she misses them.

i know, where have i failed!!!.

Band on the Run

It can be something very innocuous. Such a sad situation. It is great that your respect the role and respect of the JW grandparents. You have custody. You are the parent. They are not. Some other people have raised this issue. We don't have naming thread rules but maybe some key words in a search might find those discussions. Thank goodness you are united and Solomon's wisdom need not be employed.

8

The "Verboten" Principle: Ignored By Watchtower Leaders

by metatron in

jw
friends

i once read an observation as a teenager that i never forgot.

i called it the "verboten" principle.. in nazi germany, as with other totalitarian systems, there is a tendency to vastly multiply signs that read "verboten!

" (forbidden!).

Band on the Run

I am reminded of the monkey story from elementary school. An African little boy visits another village. He tells people they can earn great money if they stir a pot of stew without thinking about a monkey. They have to put money in which he will get if they think about a monkey. villager after villager tries but all they can think about is monkey.

Many laws are unenforced, not repealed.

There is an attraction to distraction and to quiet.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity that God's existence can be reasoned by universal moral laws. It is against every culture to commit murder; to rape; to burglar; to rob; to embezzle,etc. Cultures with no contact with each other still follow these rules.

The issue is not Witness doctrine for me but the authoritarian nature of the organization. 98% of what it preaches is not in the Bible. I am a great proponent of reading the Bible consecutively. They jump around all over the place. A vodoo priestess can do the same with the same result. Any moron can make "sense" out of a compilation of books so large, contradictory and over a vast time period.

Before I could analyze the Bible, though, I had a gut revulsion to the Bible. Let me remind you HItler taught these same virtues. Murder was illegal in Germany. Pornography was prob. officially banned. I am a lawyer. When I started law school, I was eager to learn the substance of the law. Somehow during my first year we were diverted by due process. Now I know from much experience that the process of something can be more important the substance. Justice cannot exist without due process.

I am now a Christian. It is actually fun.

55

I was freaked out on the six screens of the wt confrence call tonight

by JunkYardDog in

jw
friends

Band on the Run

I am new to this garbage. When I visited the site, I found a lot of Bible Student literature. It sounds every bit as wacky as the Witnesses. Having your hq in Brooklyn is not a distinction. I see no distinction. Upon reflection, Mormonism and Bible Students and JWs and Scientolgoists just appear off the wall. Presbyterians, Lutherans and Catholics all hold wacky teachings, too. I do judge by my gut.

I'd prefer Sarah Palin to Mitt Romney, the more I learn about Mormons the more I am alarmed. Who would escape the Witnesses and care about numerology in some minor prophet? I can't believe the Witness spin-off stuff I see. It looks like there was no theoretical disagreement concerning doctrine but rather a difference in personalities. We all can't lead the largest group. It does seem about leading and preaching rather than serving.

20

Survival of the Great Tribulation Depends on Observing Family Worship.

by compound complex in

greetings fellow jwners:.

it was stated at sunday meeting that, according to the governing body, a jehovah's witness' survival of the gt hinges upon his participating in family worship night.

have you read or heard this?

Band on the Run

My mother was born in for generations. She always had a special commentary on the Society. Before her time, she refused to call it The Truth. She kept commenting on how many times Jehovah tries us and we lack devotion. For instance, the Bible tells a very fantastic tale of the Exodus. All the plagues, forty years in the wilderness, all the miracles, manna, water from rocks, etc. Yet no sooner are they liberated and see all this fairy dust stuff then they resume worshipping bulls and calfs. Over and over again, this same thing happens. Not a very Chosen people. One could call them the Unchosen People.

The Witnesses do the same, first 1914, then the other dates, 1975, book studies, now this family bs. Are we ever safe from God's wrath? When will Jehovah grow up and act like a mature God, like Allah, Christ, or ideas such as Buddhism and Confucianism. I don't understand why humans don't reject this crazed, immoral God.

It all boils down to obedience. This Jehovah favors obediences over everything else, including justice and fairness. I often say Jehovah is the Devil and I've promoted Christ where he always belonged. It is deeply embarassing that I had anything to do with this sick cult.