Thanks for the "mug" shots, bats in the belfry. We now know what these criminals look like. The next step is to place them in post offices around the United States with the caption "FBI's Most Wanted".
Quendi
Posts by Quendi
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66Thoughts on the current Governing Body
by JRK inhere is a list of the current governing body members:.
gerrit losch: born 1942, appointed july 1, 1994 .
guy h. pierce: born 1935, appointed oct. 1, 1999 .
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WT lashes out on Apostates
by mankkeli inthis is taken fro wt 1983 4/1.
"some who once served as jehovahs witnesses have rejected various scriptural views based on the teachings of jesus christ and his apostles.
for instance, they insist that we are not living in the last days, despite overwhelming evidence that we are.
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Quendi
It is interesting to me that this piece appeared nearly ten years after the Great Disappointment of 1975 and three years after Ray Franz and Ed Dunlop were exiled from Bethel. The organization has always taken a hard line on dissidents going all the way back to Joseph Rutherford's day. But it was easy to denounce them in the pre-Internet days because the Society could use the catch-all term "apostates" without naming either them or their writings/teachings. So rank and file Witnesses like me fully believed what was printed in the literature because we had nowhere else to turn for alternative versions of events.
Matters are otherwise now. The Society has discovered to its dismay that printed denunciations and fulminations from speakers' platforms have not been enough to prevent Witnesses from coming in contact with its "opposers". They have lost control of the debate and find themselves in the unenviable position of scrambling reactionaries instead of proactive leaders. Let's keep them on the run until they run out of gas!
Quendi
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Are the governing body more secure than Gaddafi?
by Mickey mouse inhow about saddam hussein?.
dictators seem undefeatable, until they're not..
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Quendi
I've already drawn the parallel between the Governing Body and Gaddafi on another thread. But to me, the historical example I most like to point to is the fate of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Thirty years ago, it stood secure and in a seemingly unassailable position. Who would have predicted that a failed coup would lead to its implosion four months later? I find myself hoping the Governing Body and the religion it controls will suffer a similar fate.
Quendi
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20
James Beverley's book on Penton's expulsion now on Abebooks
by MrMonroe in"crisis of allegiance" is a slim, but excellent book written by a professor of religion on the events in lethbridge, alberta, around 1981, that led to the expulsion of jim penton, a jw who believed he was anointed but also happened to think the wts had some doctrines wrong.. it's a great read that ties in quite closely with the campaign to get rid of ray franz, showing the dirty tricks used by the society to rid themselves of someone who dared to question them.
penton was an academic who the society loved when he wrote a book on their human rights legal challenges ... but when he expanded his research and decided to do a book on their history, pow!
they began regarding him with great suspicion.
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Quendi
I'll put this book on my reading list for sure. Thanks for the heads-up, MrMonroe.
Quendi
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16
Taking Back the Holidays
by Quendi inwith canada having observed its own thanksgiving day, i am reminded that the holidays are approaching beginning with halloween and terminating with twelfth night on 5 january.
this will be an interesting holiday season for me.
when i became one of jehovah's witnesses, i gave them all up of course.
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Quendi
With Canada having observed its own Thanksgiving Day, I am reminded that the holidays are approaching beginning with Halloween and terminating with Twelfth Night on 5 January. This will be an interesting holiday season for me. When I became one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I gave them all up of course. The two hardest to leave behind were the American Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. What I loved about both were the gathering with family and all the good food there was to eat. As a child, I also loved getting presents at Christmas. The cold weather, even occasional snow, made those particular holidays special for me.
Now I'm on my own two feet, and the approaching holiday season has made me think about them again. Some holidays I still won't have anything to do with, but I have gone back to celebrating birthdays as well as Mother's and Father's Day. As a Witness, I did take part in the Thanksgiving Day meal with my family, and to my great surprise the elders in my Birmingham, Alabama congregation completely approved my doing so, saying it was in obedience to God's command to 'honor your father and mother' as well as promoting peaceful family relations. And while I left the house on Christmas morning to allow my younger siblings to enjoy their presents, I was always present for Christmas dinner, somthing that was very important to both of my parents.
I have decided that I am going to observe Thanksgiving this year. As for Christmas, I think I will have a solstice observation, including a nice dinner with friends. I won't get into the gift-exchanging, but I will give and respond to holiday greetings. Marking solstices and equinoxes is important to me, and that is why I will do so this year with a clear conscience. As for Easter and the patriotic holidays, those are still on my black list; but I feel good about celebrating the others, especially since they add so much joy to my life and those whom I love. What plans do the rest of you have for this year and the ones to follow? I'd be interested to know them.
Quendi
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"Will The New System Be A Paradise" - The Thread That Got Me Banned From JwTalk.net
by Philadelphia Ponos ini joined jwtalk.net posing as an unbaptized publisher.
there was a lot of talk on the forum about how there will be death in the new system so i decided to ask some questions concerning that logic.
here is what i wrote:.
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Quendi
I've never visited the JwTalk.net website, and reading the remarks here has helped me decide there is no reason for me to do so. The comments that sizemik and Juan Viejo2 made are great examples of the cognitive dissonance that is the heart of Witness culture. The JwTalk.net website talks about open and free discussion, and then says there is no room for debate. That kind of thinking is a constant in Witness literature and public talks, so it should come as no surprise to see it rearing its ugly head in a Witness-sponsored Internet forum.
What I find interesting is how the WTS presents cyberspace as a demon-haunted environment where the unworldly and unwary can lose his prospects for eternal life. But in recognizing that people will venture online for many reasons, this site is presented as some kind of "safe zone", free from apostates and malicious worldlings whose only raison d'etre is to ensnare innocent Witnesses and abuse them for their own nefarious purposes. I wonder how many Witnesses use this website as a "virtual Kingdom Hall"? After all, if a person can go there and learn all he needs to know about Witness teaching and practice, why go to the Kingdom Hall at all? I wonder if the website's creators have considered that as a possible effect on other Witnesses.
Quendi
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66
Thoughts on the current Governing Body
by JRK inhere is a list of the current governing body members:.
gerrit losch: born 1942, appointed july 1, 1994 .
guy h. pierce: born 1935, appointed oct. 1, 1999 .
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Quendi
I would like to know the education level of the sitting members of the Governing Body. While I doubt any of them have college degrees, it comes to my mind that they rely very much on men who do for guidance. That is certainly true for legal and medical issues, and may even be so for religious ones. If most of them are only high school graduates, then they must feel bewildered when it comes to handling issues pertaining to the twenty-first century.
To me, the most reprehensible member of this clique, now that Ted Jaraccz is dead, is Gerrit Lösch. The attack he launched against higher education at a European district convention revealed a pathological hatred of colleges and universities. He all but said that those who sought such learning were mentally ill and certainly weren't relying on Jehovah. I don't know what made me angrier, Lösch's hate-filled remarks or the wild enthusiasm and applause his audience showed and gave when he made them.
Quendi
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Do the brothers have to follow an outline when they give talks?
by Joliette insince i was a sister at the kingdom hall, i was a little confused when the brothers give talks as a kid.
do the brother work around an outline, or do they write around the outline.
how does this work?.
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Quendi
I can remember the time when the Public Talk was 55 minutes long. I never had the "privilege" of giving a public talk during all of my nearly thirty years of being a baptized Witness, but I knew the mechanics of writing and delivering one. The speaker was given an outline back then, but he had considerably more leeway in writing the talk and presenting the information in his own words. With the time for the Public Talk now half of what it was back in the 1970s, there is far less freedom and discretion given to the speakers. Also, given the climate of paranoia that today's Governing Body operates in, it doesn't surprise me that they have moved to "standardize" the information that will be presented with tighter outlines and other controls.
Quendi
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Who's Bringing Reproach on Jehovah's Name NOW?
by headisspinning inthis thought isn't fully formed, but maybe someone can expand on it.... i've been keeping an eye on the situation developing with steven unthank's case against the wt in australia - how they have completely disregarded the law about child abuse registry checks for elders - and it seems to be that they've done the very thing we all lived in fear of doing: bringing reproach on jehovah's name.. they talk about how if jw's engage in wrong conduct they are bringing reproach on god's name, or how satan has heaped reproach on jehovah's name... well, it seems to me they are doing an awfully good job of it themselves.... in addition look at the qualifications for an elder as laid out in 1 timothy... with these words in mind, it seems to me the gb have since disqualified themselves.... 1 timothy 3:1-7 .
1 it is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
2 an overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,.
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Quendi
Australia is thousands of miles away and on the opposite side of the planet from New York. Furthermore, its population is less than that of several American states. So that means very few American Witnesses know about the Victoria court cases and the rest of the world is equally ignorant. The international news media have not discussed the story either. It wouldn't surprise me if it never gets any mention in the mainstream media.
That being the case, the WTS figures it is safe. When pedophilia and child sexual abuse scandals erupted in the Roman Catholic Church, the news media gave the stories extensive coverage. But the RCC has some one billion communicants, one-seventh of Earth's population. The WTS and its seven million publishers, by contrast number only one-tenth of one percent of the planet's population. As such, it isn't a big enough organization to attract the adverse publicity the world media could cast upon it. Since Witnesses are taught to regard any other news source outside WTS control with deep suspicion, the vast majority will never learn of the Australian outrages and so won't question the authority and legitimacy of the Governing Body. It will take a determined group of reporters and equally dedicated news editors to give this story the attention it deserves.
Quendi
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Some pretty blatant stuff coming up in bookstudy
by agent zero inso i was reading ahead in the bookstudy book "bearing thorough witness" about god's kingdom, and i came upon some shockingly direct damage control on behalf of the gb in the material for the upcoming weeks.. on page 104: what a privilege it is to be instructed and molded by our patient and kind heavenly father!
the results are always good and always to our advantage.
so let us never proudly push ahead with our own ideas or react negatively to organizational changes or to adjusted explanations of certain scriptures.
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Quendi
Thanks, Knowsnothing. Had I been a little more alert, I would have seen that agent zero named the book in his first sentence.
Quendi