Band on the Run

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Posts by Band on the Run

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  6

  World at war: Just 11 countries free of conflict

  by insidetheKH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with the crisis in gaza, the rise of islamist militants in iraq and syria and the international stand-off ongoing in ukraine, it can sometimes feel like the whole world is at war.. but experts believe this is actually almost universally the case, according to a think-tank which produces one of the world's leading measures of "global peacefulness" - and things are only going to get worse.. it may make for bleak reading, but of the 162 countries covered by the institute for economics and peace's (iep's) latest study, just 11 were not involved in conflict of one kind or another.. worse still, the world as a whole has been getting incrementally less peaceful every year since 2007 - sharply bucking a trend that had seen a global move away from conflict since the end of the second world war.. the uk, as an example, is relatively free from internal conflict, making it easy to fall to thinking it exists in a state of peace.. but recent involvement in foreign fighting in the likes of afghanistan, as well as a fairly high state of militarisation, means britain actually scores quite poorly on the 2014 global peace index, coming 47th overall.. .

  http://www.byronnews.com.au/news/world-war-just-11-countries-free-conflict/2352977/.

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  Band on the Run

  This does not make sense to me. Being passive is not a sign of peace. My Quaker years are over. September 11, 2001 was the last straw.
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  19

  How do you think we'll be remembered?

  by rebel8 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some day far in the future, will we be looked upon as suffragettes who abolished cults with tenacity, courage and outspokenness?.

  will future generations shudder at the backwardness of cultures that permitted cults to flourish, and not comprehend how this could have happened?.

  will they be grateful for being spared death and suffering at the hands of cults because of what we are doing to expose them and reduce their growth?.

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  Band on the Run

  Jehovah's Witnesses do nothing memorable. It is a fringe religion. Altho i object to the high control, other cults are sexier. Jim Jones will receive mention. Charles Manson will be remembered. The Witnesses will only be recalled as a dinky religion. Pope Francis will get all the press. There are few history books now concerning the Witnesses.
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  13

  Brother in law thinks I am a pagan Worshipper

  by Yondaime in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  last month i decided to attend the international convention at metlife since my sister's cong was invited so she took me along with my older brother.

  my sister drove and my older brother sat in the front seat of her suv.

  i was in the back seat with the greatest watchtower apologist/loser/eldermole in the universe my bil.. they were all chatting away about how this assembly filed with regurgitated spiritual stool was a sign of the last days since so many people would be in attendance.

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  Band on the Run

  John Lennon was Satan incarnate. My father lectured me, wearing only his undershorts. This was midBeatles. Sgt. Pepper was not released yet. I knew I was going to college the next year. The Beatles were no longer for teenybopper girls. Important musical reviewers who normally write about classical were writing about the immense talent of the Beatles. It surprised me. I kept contrasting my father, mr. nobody, and John Lennon, basking in acclaim from the Establishment now. He kept punctuating in the air. I started to giggle. My mind could just imagine what John Lennon would say if he visited me at home. The sound of his voice in my imagination made me laugh even harder. I kept grabbing my skin and pinching b/c I wanted to live. Sadly, these bozos have power for a short while.
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  229

  Ferguson Shooting (Is my thinking on this all wrong.......)

  by out4good3 in

  1. social
  2. current

  i think everyone here can agree that walking down the street, even in the middle of the street, is not cause for having a clip emptied in your ass......... i can understand how the black community would be outraged by the injustice of seeing another black man dead in the street at the hands of the police under mysterious circumstances....... i hope that i'm not succumbing to the attempts to assinate the already well impuned character of the dead man...... however.

  i can't help but think that this could all have been avoided by exercising the proper discretion with fore-knowledge of the disadvantages people of color have when they are dealing with law enforcement in the united states.

  it is not as if this disadvantage has only since recently came to light.

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  Band on the Run

  No one knows the details. The cops were always my race growing up. If I lived in lynching country in the South, my fear of the police would not be intellectual but very real. The looters should see before and after photos of Newark, Oakland, Detroit, etc. I can't believe that the "civil rights" protesters want the prosecutor to recuse himself. It is clearly racism. Lynching the police officer accomplishes nothing. Eric Holder experienced American racism growing up. Obama did not. It is nice that he went to Ferguson. The police officers described how warm he was to them.
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  9

  Is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society a Secretive Organization?

  by Jeannette in

  1. social
  2. physical

  isn't secrecy the same as occultish when it comes to a religious organization?.

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  Band on the Run

  I don't see the occult angle. Russell era literature seems occult to me. One can be secret and only be secret. I don't know what to compare the secrecy of the WT to since I don't know other secret religions. I like to know what is happening with my religion.
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  32

  Have you ever been called for Jury Duty? before or after registering to vote?

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've never been called for jury duty and i'm not yet registered to vote, although i'm hoping to get that done this month.

  i know someone who within a few months of registering to vote was called for jury duty.

  i've read some articles that said voter records 'used' to be used to call on people but that was a thing of the past.

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  Band on the Run

  They use several databases. It is important to have a diverse jury pool. I have yet to meet a person who was not disappointed.
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  9

  Is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society a Secretive Organization?

  by Jeannette in

  1. social
  2. physical

  isn't secrecy the same as occultish when it comes to a religious organization?.

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  Band on the Run

  I fail to see the occult part. The WBTS is secretive. I don't know how it compares to other religions. Bethelites have some advantage b/c they know who really holds power. I found Russell era literature when I was a child and screeched my head off. There was a cross, a crown, spooky stuff. Pyramids.
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  17

  Serious problems with Gospel of John, and his Revelation

  by Pinku in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  1) john presents a jesus who is totally different from other gospels.

  2) johns claim of jesus being partial to him undermines jesuss own teaching (mathew 5:44-48).

  3) johns claim of first miracle (changing the water into wine) and the last (or most spectacular) miracle of resurrecting lazarus are not known to earlier gospel writers---something impossible for them to miss!.

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  Band on the Run

  I read Elaine Pagels new book on Revelation this past year. She had quite a bit of objective facts that I never realized it. None of these are receent developments. She said the author of Revelation is opposed to Paul. He is a Super Jew who believes keeping the law is paramount. I never knew it but most of the church fathers present for canonization of scriptures found Revelation a serious embarassment and voted to keep it out. They just did not vote. Their fellow bishops were lobbied vigorously to exclude Revelation. Within a few years of writing Revelation, nothing in the prophecy came true. Its opposite came true. Rome endorsed Christianity. The persecuted were now princes of Rome. Bishops went from exile to residence in majestic palaces.

  Egypt was the most influential Christian community at the time. A dispute over theology and obedience involving the great hermit, St. Anthony, and the Bishop of Alexandria, Athansisus, became heated. Anthony and thousands of monks wanted a loose allegiance with the urban bishops. St. Athansius wanted absolute obedience. It was important to crush Anthony. He used Revelation to cast the apostate monks as Rome.

  I just happened to hear her on NPR. Half the audience seemed to be calling and correcting her with their no knowledge of Bible or history. It was interesting to observe what she did. Basically, she kept to her script, refusing to engage them. I always wondered what her personal background was. She was not an active Christian when I knew her. A classmate said she was Buddhist. She started attending church after her husband died in a mountaineering accident.
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  27

  Volunteering.

  by Jeannette in

  1. social
  2. physical

  since i left the watchtower a couple of years ago, i started volunteering 3 hours a week at a wecare center.

  it's like goodwill.

  well, i've been there approximately 9 months, and yesterday i received a lovely thank you card from them.

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  Band on the Run

  I forgot to discuss the Volunteer Appreciation Lunch or Dinner. It was always nice. I made a lot of friends. Also, I found out more info to apply to colleges.
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  25

  The Internet Proves JWs Are a Joke Now

  by jw07 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm a born in, born in the 1980s and old enough to remember studying beefy (albeit full of crap) material like the the evolution book and revelation book (which we studied over and over and over and over).

  books and brochures were wordy and chock full of legalistic language explaining away teachings and policies, some explanations slightly above the iq of the average person.. watchtower studies were longer (30 paragraphs sometimes), talks were longer and thus meetings were longer, pioneering was harder (70 hours if i remember correctly), assemblies and conventions were longer, and there were intricate food provisions to feed thousands of people (for a cost of course).. the average jw could recite watchtower propaganda for hours to indoctrinate others or defend their faith.

  jws were interested in having meaty discussions at the door and challenging even pastors on doctrinal points.. i know this has been said many times, but the organization has gone through a massive dumbing down.. i can't figure out if it's due to the oblivious nature of the current governing body, a premeditated attempt by them at dumbing down the organization, or just the effects of life becoming easier around the globe due to reliance on technology.. i can only speak on my era, and i know that from the early 90s until around 2004 the organization was allot more doctrine savy.. over the past decade or so i'd say the collective iq of the followers has moved from 105 to 85.. indoctrination and blind belief has allot to do with being prone to be emotionally manipulated, but thinking ability has a say in that too.. social media is a decent gauge of how and what the average person within a certain demographic is thinking, and doing a simple hashtag search on twitter, instagram, or facebook reveals allot about how the current generation of young jws (15-28 or thereabout) are thinking.. many have become self obsessed, internet obsessed, hubris filled and passive, i can see an even bigger decline in growth over the next 5 years.. take a look:.

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  Band on the Run

  I disagree. It was always dumbed down. Nothing new is happening. I never heard of any encounter with ministers at the door. We were forbidden to work rectories. I never met any minister in the community who felt defeated by WT. They laugh at JWs and their almost complete lack of Bible knowledge.