since i'm new here (& at other similar websites) and have been largely learning by reading old posts, i hope i'm not being too repetitive.. back around 2000 the gb, likely at the behest of witness lawyers like brumley, removed themselves from all officerships of the legal corporations and installed non-partaking trustworthy bethel heavies to those posts nearly always held previously by gb members/'anointed ones'.
it seems a shielding of themsleves from legal responsibility was their true motive.. http://www.rickross.com/reference/jw/jw49.html .
since it looks like don adams is going to be subpoenaed in the ongoing menlo park case, what if some sharp, informed attorney presses him on the source of his orders/direction, and he has to fess up that it's all the gb?
The Menlo Park case is going to fail on some technicality, most likely. The poor plaintiffs don't even have an attorney. How many people stand a chance in court without a lawyer, especially when going up against a multi-billion dollar corporation?
Couldn't they have strategized this some way to get the ACLU on their side?
a subject that i know a lot of you can relate to.
my wife admits to leading a double life in regards to her spiritual activities.
it comes with the territory, i suppose.
I don't recall it being written anywhere in WT literature that purchasing candy on sale during the holidays is tantamount to celebrating those holidays.
1 Cor. 10:25-30 -- 25 Everything that is sold in a meat market keep eating, making no inquiry on account of YOUR conscience; 26 for “to Jehovah belong the earth and that which fills it.” 27 If anyone of the unbelievers invites YOU and YOU wish to go, proceed to eat everything that is set before YOU, making no inquiry on account of YOUR conscience. 28 But if anyone should say to YOU: “This is something offered in sacrifice,” do not eat on account of the one that disclosed it and on account of conscience. 29 “Conscience,” I say, not your own, but that of the other person. For why should it be that my freedom is judged by another person’s conscience? 30 If I am partaking with thanks, why am I to be spoken of abusively over that for which I give thanks?
WT 10/01/2010 " Paul’s point was that, although Christians would not share in pagan worship, meat that had been sacrificed in a temple was not intrinsically contaminated ."
Thus, purchasing discounted holiday candy after the holiday has passed is not sharing in the holiday either.
However, Gary, it certainly sounds like the Mrs. is trying to straddle the fence -- wanting to keep one foot in "Paradise" and the other in the "world". I would suspect her eyes are opening. Still, I can attest that it is still very hard to just walk completely away from it all. In it are many friends and the guarantee of living forever in Paradise if you don't give out before the END that is very, very close!
alreet everyone!.
i've been watching and learning for a while, nice one on helping me see the real truth!.
long story short -> got interested in christianity, jws first to ask me about it, studied for a few months, realised they were wrong, tried to be a good undercover apostate, got bored, left, joined a local protestant church.. anyway thats not the reason i'm posting.
give up before you begin................sounds gloomy... but take it from me... all hope is futile
I'd tend to agree with Free@Last, unless you want to undertake this challenge for the hell of it (if sparring with words is your idea of fun).
It takes so much evidence, step-by-step, to disprove any major doctrinal point, and they will "tune you out" before you get far enough to prove anything. All the past facts are buried away in those book of "old lite". They only pay attention to "new lite". All the changes are viewed by JWs as "progress" guided by Holy Spirit. Changes in JW doctring are a GOOD THING compared to Christendom who remains stuck in her ancient traditions (of false doctrine) and refuses to make the necessary changes to be pleasing to God.
This is a sample of the reasoning you can expect.
Good luck. (Oops! Did I say luck?)
i only recently found out that there was a new songbook 'released' last year.
i came in under the old pink flexi-cover one.
then in 1984 that oversized 225 song brown one came out.
Much of it is pathetic!
Dirges and lame attempts at music composition. Many sound like a Sesame Street jingle. Very sad.
thought i'd share this as this is a typical example of the kind of letters i get very occasionally from my jw family.
in this instance it was sent as my daughter had spent some time in hospital.
note, very little information in terms of family news.
Oy vey... I think I'd take it as a personal insult if I ever got a letter from a family member that contained a TRACT!
I think you just have to smile and write it off as an older person (she signed it "Gran") who is trying to find a way to witness to you, believing that she is helping you. It's just what they've been told to do for years. At this stage of her life, she needs to continue on believing in it, as it is all she has hope in for anything better. Be kind. Thank her for her letter of concern. Ask all these folks here whose Granny won't even speak to themj!
elder body removed watchtower letter.
an elder body was removed last year in california.
most folks have never seen a watchtower letter breaking this news.
Will be interesting to see if this sets a legal precedent. If an autonomous entity can be disolved by the WTS without the vote of the congregation, that blurs the legal line and may be used as a means to create legal liability.
I too was under the impression that the Society claims no liability in any "local" congregation issues based on their statement that every congregation is autonomous. Thus, if a congregation elder is guilty of molestation, and even if it is ignored by the local elders, the Society cannot be drawn in as a defendant in any legal action.
With the Menlo Park case, it appears they would be losing the basis for claiming congregations are autonomous, and opening themselves up to being added to any litigation that might come against any congregation. After all, attorneys are always interested in going after the deepest pockets.
they came to the rural black belt county of wilcox in alabama, in the year 1970. hailing from exotic places such as new york, new jersey, connecticut, and massachusetts, they were bright, articulate, and persuasive.. they said the end was close, that the year 1975 would probably be the farthest limit for the current "system of things.
" some of us believed them and embraced their theology wholeheartedly.
we wrote letters of resignation to our respective churches and hit the highways and byways, hawking the wt message to stunned families and friends.. 1975 came and went - nothing.
In 1975 there were only about 2 million JWs. Some have obviously died in the past 35 years (1%/year would mean 1/3 or 1/4 of those are already dead.) Thus, at least 5 or 6 million of the current R&F were not anywhere around when the 1975 prophecies were in expectation. Many were not even born yet. Most have never heard anything but a brief blurb about the over-anxious expectations of a few misguided ones in the past. It's only the old ones like you and me, Syl, that have good memories that recall it all.
DOC
this here is a true story, so please don't interrupt me until i'm finished telling it.. way back in the woods in the late of night, a woman died.
her bereaved husband walked 20 miles to get the undertaker.. he and the undertaker returned to the home to remove the body of his wife to the morturary.
too upset to assist with the removal of his wife's body, the husband remained outside in the hearse while neighbors helped the undertaker.. after placing the body in the back of the hearse, the undertaker went back into the house to do the necessary paperwork.
No ma'am, he did not. However the story was related as happening to an African American driver of the hearse. (Unfortunately, in a somewhat pejorative way.)
this here is a true story, so please don't interrupt me until i'm finished telling it.. way back in the woods in the late of night, a woman died.
her bereaved husband walked 20 miles to get the undertaker.. he and the undertaker returned to the home to remove the body of his wife to the morturary.
too upset to assist with the removal of his wife's body, the husband remained outside in the hearse while neighbors helped the undertaker.. after placing the body in the back of the hearse, the undertaker went back into the house to do the necessary paperwork.
I heard this "story" 40 years ago from a friend who worked at a funeral home and relayed it as "fact".
Unless you have NAMES, I'm afraid it's an Urban Legend.
Everyone knows of the story, it's supposed to be true (really), but no one can produce the REAL NAMES.
if you're a witness couple and you choose to have a child together, it means you think armageddon is not going to arrive for at least 9 more months.
and then you'll be nursing it for at least 6 months.. that's almost a year and a half.
if armageddon started within that time: woe to you!.
Having children is a CHOICE??
Wish someone would have told me that 20 years ago........
(Catholic school didn't demonstrate how to put a condom on a banana, let alone suggest the real thing!)
