Posts by Resistance is Futile

44

Disfellowshiping: Why the Terror?

by Cold Steel in

the more i read about ritual shunning and disfellowshiping in the society, the more i wonder how the governing body and elders have pulled the proverbial wool over the eyes of the congregation.

first, the society doesnt consider itself a church (unlike the ancient christians, who did consider themselves to be part of a church).

yet, like other sectarians, they have their hands out for contributions and exercise immense power over their members.

Resistance is Futile

Joseph Smith was married to one teenage girl

I wasn't asking specifically about who he married. I was asking about the claims that he had sex with teenage girls in his community while he was married to his first wife Emma. Do you feel that the claims that he had sex with Fanny Alger (age 16), and Marinda Johnson (age 16) are credible? According to the Mormon Church how many official wives did Joseph Smith take? You said there is no evidence he had sex with his 15 year old bride Helen Kimball, was this true of his other wives? What I'm asking is, were all his other marriages asexual? Did he publicly deny the practice of polygamy will secretly taking multiple wives? Why would he feel the need to cover-up what he was doing?

And even if it comes down to the congregation, again, why would members be so terrified of being disfellowshiped?

First off the indoctrinated follower thinks that they have to be a part of the organization since it's the one "true" religion. Members also risk losing their entire family and friends when disfellowshipped or even if they walk away peacefully on their own accord. You can't understand how that prospect would be terrifying?

44

Disfellowshiping: Why the Terror?

by Cold Steel in

the more i read about ritual shunning and disfellowshiping in the society, the more i wonder how the governing body and elders have pulled the proverbial wool over the eyes of the congregation.

first, the society doesnt consider itself a church (unlike the ancient christians, who did consider themselves to be part of a church).

yet, like other sectarians, they have their hands out for contributions and exercise immense power over their members.

Resistance is Futile

Cold Steel, you mentioned that there is a lot of misinformation spread by former members of the Mormon Church. As a current member I'd therefore appreciate your input. Is it true that while Joseph Smith was already married to his first wife he had sex with several teenage women? Do you think he may have used his position of authority in his community to take advantage of young impressionable women in order to satisfy his own sexual impulses?

7

Why the narrow layout?

by darthfader in

this site used to have the option of two layouts, one narrow and the other wide.

thse selection is no longer available (used to be just under the username/envelope/logout).

.

Resistance is Futile

I've got the same problem in Google Chrome. The screen "expander" option is gone. While viewing the site, the page runs off to the right and scrolling is necessary to view all of a post. To view the whole page I have to zoom way out, at that point the text is much too small to read comfortably.

43

JW Mission = Find all checker floors in WT publications

by bytheirworks in

your mission... should you choose to accept it, will be to find all checker floors in the watchtower publications, especially those involving worship.. .

if you can upload them here, great.

i don't know to upload a pic from my computer on this site.

Resistance is Futile

I'm sorry, this is the sort of bollox that makes ExJW's look nuts.

I agree. There are many legitimate criticisms that can be made of the Watchtower Corporation, a few checkered floors out of hundreds of pictures is not one of them in my opinion.

bytheirworks, if you find this topic interesting, may I recommend a more scientific approach and less of a superstitious one? Try and take a random sample of images found in Watchtower publications. The bigger the sample size the better. Then calculate the percentage of those pictures that contain checkered floors. If there is a significant amount, we can than have a more critical discussion of a possible Freemason connection.

47

My Jimi Hendrix experience

by confusedandalone in

as a 13 year old a friend of mine had a jimi hendrix record and told me if we play it backwards that they said words.

he bought the record from a shop not far from where we lived and we were the only family that still had a record player.

so we played the record and i spun it backwards andnothing happened.

Resistance is Futile

BUSTADOLLA: Jimmy Hendrix was a brainwasher. Using subliminal messages and stolen vocals, he brainwashed under the film and music industry control as the industry sought and got power. Blaspemy, tricks with fingers and signs with feet were all performed by Jimi Hendrix and the rest.

Wow, that is shocking. I've never heard that before. In what specific way was he brainwashing people? Brainwashing to buy his records? What kind of feet signs did he use? Where did you hear this, do you have a source for this information that I can look at? That sounds really interesting.

By the way, welcome to the forum.

47

My Jimi Hendrix experience

by confusedandalone in

as a 13 year old a friend of mine had a jimi hendrix record and told me if we play it backwards that they said words.

he bought the record from a shop not far from where we lived and we were the only family that still had a record player.

so we played the record and i spun it backwards andnothing happened.

Resistance is Futile

Those silly fundamentalists. Didn't they know that Hendrix's musical genius was supposed to be appreciated by playing his music forwards not backwards? Gypsy Eyes is not one of my favorites. The guitar solo on "Bold as Love" makes my speakers weep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwalj_BhkbQ

66

If you were to protest an Assembly what would you put on your placard ?

by Finkelstein in

since this topic of protesting assemblies recently came up, i was wondering .

what would be the some of the most proficient and perhaps strongest message.

to place on a placard to show as the people arrived at the venue.

Resistance is Futile

Matthew 7:15

Is Christ Jesus your Mediator?

Don't drink the Kool-Aid!

95

Please Share one of your Favourite Quotations

by cofty in

jw
friends

have you ever come across words that resonate with you?

it doesn't have to be a great gem of wisdom, just something that is meaningful to you.. please share, and if you want to, tell us why it's meaningful to you.. here is something that made me nod when i first read it.... .

"fortunate are those who have learned to see, in the wild things of nature, something to be loved, something to be wondered at, something to be reverenced, for they have found the key to a never-failing source of recreation and refreshment".

Resistance is Futile

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."

Marcus Aurelius

2

Fascinating interview with Lawrence Wilkerson- The USA's new 'endless war.'

by fulltimestudent in

(a chinese newspaper).. wilkerson was colin powell's chief of staff, and in case you never ever heard of him, here's a potted bio taken from wikipedia.. .

lawrence b.

"larry" wilkerson (born 15 june 1945) is a retired united states army colonel and former chief of staff to united states secretary of state colin powell.

Resistance is Futile

Fantastic interview, thanks for sharing it.

93

Scary Stuff

by Farkel in

jw
friends

today's high school students in the usa:.

less than 1/2 of them cannot identify the century when our civil war happened.. one in four thought columbus discovered america sometime after 1750.. one in three cannot name one right enumerated in the bill of rights.. three out of four cannot name the first us president.. two out of three do not know the length of term of a member of the house of representatives.. half cannot find britain on a map.. one out of four cannot find america on a map.. when my oldest daughter, who is now a physician was in 9th grade in this once-great state of california, i asked her about the three branches of our federal government.

she was clueless and told me she would take civics in her junior year in high school.

Resistance is Futile

It's pretty apparent that the average American today is more educated than in the past few decades, as demonstrated by the increase in the percentage of citizens with high school diplomas and college degrees. If you want to stick to your guns, and maintain the belief that education has gone to hell since the "glory days" of your high school years, that's fine. And if you can find any actual scientific evidence to support that belief, I'd be more than happy to look at it.

and anecdotal or not

Just so there's no confusion, your experiences with the graduates that worked for you is most definitely anecdotal. And while I do find your experiences entertaining and amusing, it would be misguided to draw some sort of conclusion about the general population based on your reports. Especially in light of the fact that we have verifiable scientific data that allows us to compare education levels throughout US history.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/11/05/record-shares-of-young-adults-have-finished-both-high-school-and-college/2/