Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  23

  How Jehovah's Witnesses could become a huge mainstream religion without harming people. Any thoughts?

  by JWchange in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if jws did the following, i believe they would grow exponentially and become one of the largest 'religions' on earth : .

  1. no more dfing or shunning......its up to your conscience who you like or don't like.

  in the same way if i was catholic living in ireland, i wouldn't hang out with my neighbor if she was a drunk fornicator, just had an abortion, had a taliban boyfriend and also supported liverpool soccer club.

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  Half banana

  From a financial perspective to go mainstream would make sense. Cut out Jehovah, Armageddon, field service and shunning and make it a Bible club. The GB would have to contritely admit their instigation and complicity in all the blood related deaths and the suicides from personal conflicts with their dogma, and their doctrinal error and false prophecy and the fundamental mistake in believing the Roman Catholic selection of Bible books and the elevation of these texts to become inerrant divine words. The Gb would lastly and publicly have to humbly admit they were never inspired by God or used as his exclusive agency.

  Not much to ask! ...but it would take the nastiness out of the cult.
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  16

  Is Watchtower beginning to buckle

  by Truthexplorer in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  is wt beginning to buckle under the weight of everything that is happening?

  heavy criticism from the media and the plethora of websites and youtube videos popping up; and now the obvious issues with finances clearly evident.

  the pressure for change must be immense and therefore necessary!

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  Half banana

  They may have significant losses of $82 million shortfall over the last three years if Flipper's figures are right, with big investment losses on top from the stock market down turn from 2008. Abuse cases threatening more expenditure compounded with a big downturn in donation enthusiasm among the ranks. Then we have humiliation in front of the Royal Commission, it all adds up to unprecedented pressure on the credibility of the JWorg.

  WTBTS must be at a low ebb... and from Tight Pants Tony's last appearance on the JW TV extravaganza, I think they must feel like they are sitting on a volcano. He made the broadcast looking like he was hiding in the studio whilst the mafia were pacing up and down outside for not receiving the monthly payments. His body language betrayed his lack of belief in the script he was reading! This approach will send subliminal messages to the rank and file that all is not well in HQ. Bethel members will do the same in the congos to which they are assigned and however they spin it, the sensitive ones will recognise a loss of confidence and withdraw support. Within the investment circles they will also lose respect, sic transit gloria mundi.
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  23

  TV.JW.ORG - October 2015: Neighborly love is more than just Field Service

  by Designer Stubble in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the october 2015 jw broadcast, hosted by gerrit losch is quite positive actually.a lot of focus on "field service" needs to be balanced with other good works - supporting those in need around you - either in the congregation (witnesses) or in your classroom or neighbors (non-witnesses).

  visiting and encouraging the sick and elderly is mentioned.

  jesus parable of the merciful samaritan is highlighted.

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  Half banana

  I agree with you OEJ "charity" will be for gaining converts, not from the heart.

  I remember a brute of an elder declaring that charity is to Jehovah like a red rag is to a bull, implying that charitable works annoy Big J because they detract from the kingdom as the only answer.

  Well well! since the kingdom has now failed to turn up, perhaps old fashioned charity is a good alternative.

  This new direction makes the GB look like they are no longer strong arm men dictating what should or should not be believed because now they listen to the superior authorities.

  This might be the end of the road for JW independence and their all round nastiness. How about charity towards those who have left the org?

  They could dissolve into a lame and declining cult within conventional Christianity...
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  21

  Using the internet can destroy your Faith.

  by James Mixon in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  that's the conclusion of a study showing that the dramatic drop in religious affiliation.

  in the u.s since 1990 is closely mirrored by the increase in internet use.

  of the u.s population had no religious preference.

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  Half banana

  Yes but the investigators of science here examined the retractions, not the papers which went forward. Scientific method through peer review no doubt exposes the small percentage of frauds. Religion however uses fantasy and the imagination and never looks to critical thinking to kerb the lofty ideas of paradise and heaven, things for which there can be never be proof.
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  6

  Presumptuous?

  by Tornintwo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know this is old news, but just found this priceless quote on jwfacts from 2001 watchtower (yes 2001 not 1941!!!

  ) looks like geoffrey jackson never read this one:.

  "is it presumptuous of jehovah's witnesses to point out that they alone have god's backing?

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  Half banana

  Smug , arrogant, conceited, deluded...
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  7

  Why cut back on spending if Armageddon is sooooo close?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so if the big a is so very very close, why cut back on expenses??.

  surely you would spend up big....because there is no point saving the funds for use after the big a right??.

  ezekial 7:19 says that "gold and silver will be useless and thrown in the streets".

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  Half banana

  The simple answer is that if you are the bosses of a doomsday-cult, your job is to rake in the money. As for the idea of an actual doomsday event; it is just a fiction.
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  10

  Just dropped the bomb

  by Powermetal4ever in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after a long struggle with myself, i did send a sms to my mother this morning, telling her i didn't want to go to the meeting, and that i no longer believe in the organisation, don't really believe in god any more either but i put that out.

  i wrote about three things that i thought are obvious, the overlapping generation that doesn't make sense, the flood an the animals in australia- how they came there.

  and jw tv that makes them look as any other religion.

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  Half banana

  Well done Powermetal! just remember JW org no authority over you whatsoever...and we are all on your side.
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  11

  Max Larson's archived experience on tv-jw-org includes an AWKWARD statement

  by Gilgamesh in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this isn't about anything sordid (or morbid, or reported that knorr did).. it's just that i found an odd-sounding statement in the archived interview that appeared at about 31m20s in the december 2014 monthly tv.jw.org broadcast (or at 4m35s in the stand-alone larson interview also on tv.jw.org).

  it seems to reveal an attitude that you'd think would be obsolete about the power of the anointed.

  in the attached image, as captioned by tv-jw-org, he said: "every overseer was anointed .

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  Half banana

  The governance of the Watchtower depends on paternalism, conceit and magalomania. Who in their right mind claims that God is only using them? No one does... this is paranoia territory.

  Their temporal power is the result of worldly riches, their pride is in wealth from property and the apparent loyalty of 8 million devotees.

  Without the cash and God's interest in them, it will be interesting to see how they fare in the near future.
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  5

  An apple doesn't fall far from the tree

  by WireRider in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/decisions/ctrdivorce.html - the founder of the wt/jw and a reflection about his views of himself and life and the religion he built.

  his legacy is alive and well, even today.. "while professing at all times to be guided by the word of god the undisputed evidence is that he would sulk for weeks at a time and not speak to his wife, and would resort to the pen to have any communications with her; instead of approaching her personally to try to secure reconciliation of their differences and praying with her as a godly man would have done, he went about among her associates and told them she was under the hypnotic influence of satan in the form of her sister, who was his father's second wife.

  " a little bent.. i remember reading an article that had photo copies of a local area news paper that included the facts, from court, that she filed for divorce due to cruelty, an in part because russell would lock himself self in a bedroom with the 14 year old "house girl" that cleaned.

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  Half banana

  In the interests of accuracy, Russell, however nutty he was and was taken to court a number of times through questionable business practice but never for sexual misconduct. After he and his wife embarked on a celibate marriage which ended about twenty years later; he had no legal evidence found against him in their divorce for dalliance with the opposite sex. The servant mentioned in the rumours was Rose Ball an orphan brought up by the Russells from the age of ten and who was treated as a daughter. She went to Melbourne Australia and had married Australian branch servant and together started their own Russellite splinter group. She died in 1950 at the age of 81. Their group whimpers on I believe in Australia.
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  18

  Basic JW Doctrine

  by crolson in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi, i am not a jw, but i am a student studying the jehovah's witnesses.

  i was wondering if a jw could answer a few questions for me about your doctrine?.

  where does your teaching come from (which writings)?.

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  Half banana

  Welcome Crolson, I think you can see from the replies especially from those who were JWs, that they are indeed are hurt by their experience.Perhaps the 'beliefs' are not the reason for this because they are simply a variation on ordinary evangelist dogma.

  JW teaching is essentially derived from 19th century Adventism and modified by CT Russell in the 1870s who started the Watchtower magazine to proclaim his personal and futile viewpoint on a second coming of Christ.

  Through unsavoury power struggles at the top, the leadership has been trying ever since to give some credence to Russell's adventism (though they never use that word). The second coming ideas have been shuffled forward after each time the expectation of advent arrives and fails. It is only held together by threats of punishment namely death at Armageddon and shunning and by appeal to strict loyalty from the individuals to "God's organisation"... in reality to the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses. The incentive propagandised by them is for the purpose of receiving God's blessing in paradise alongside the unending claim (one hundred and thirty six years of it so far!) that Armageddon is just around the corner.

  What has made the difference to us ex-JWs here is the realisation of having been grossly misled under the oppressive mind control of the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It conforms to every description of what a cult is... which means that it is a cult, a shabby doomsday cult.