Posts by Half banana

8

Do Jehovah`s Witnesses still Advertise Public talks for their Sunday Meetings ? For the General Public ?

by smiddy in

i have been out for 23 years , so i`m not up to date with current practices.. however i was "in" for 33 years and belonged to 7 congregations in two states of australia in that time 1960-1993 , and not once could i say the general public ever attended a public talk.. in our witnessing back then we would distribute invitations to a public talk on a bible subject given before the wt study.every week.. some of the congregations i attended had between 80 to 100 active publishers , and most would give at least 10 hours service pw.,so that means hundreds of invitations would go out , week after week , for the public to attend talks, and nobody and i mean nobody shows up , year in and year out.. sure , now and again maybe ,one or two bible studies would have attended , but that does not constitute the public attending .. what are your thoughts on this ?

was it the same in congregations you attended ?

smiddy.

Half banana

I guess that one odd curious individual must have turned up at some point over the years somewhere...surely? Ahh! that must have been Mr Ron Scratchings of Wilmslow, myopic and a bit deaf who in April 1953 thought he was attending a Baptist meeting.

The reality of the public talk is that it is a JW ritual. Rituals give the believer the chance to demonstrate fidelity to the cult. In turn this creates a sense of belonging and consequently an identity. The secondary function is the talk script supplies a means of hammering home and battening down the JW doctrine into the hearts of true believers.

It is the opportunity to take on board the standard false arguments of why the JW org is always right and every other religion is from Satan.

Who else would willingly want to listen to dull Watchtower rhetoric apart from the already committed? Same with the WT study; dull recycled garbage lacking in truth or having any content value at all. Ideal stuff for the die-hard, lobotomised JW zombies.

Btw, well done to all those public speakers who with compassion tried to invigorate the propaganda with a semblance of warmth and humanity. Total waste of time though!

87

The last video in the 2016 convention...

by problemaddict 2 in

...is an epic triumph is emotional manipulation.

bringing together all of the stories they told thus far and placing them int he "new world" complete with the little boy who was killed in a car accident coming back from the dead.. i have a good friend who is stuck in with family and plays the role.

he said everyone was crying, and the people next to him rated the videos by how many tissues they needed to dry their eyes.

Half banana

The word which springs to my mind is 'schmalz'. It is an extraordinary glob of sentimentality with a total absence of fact. Compelling for for people who are driven by the lure of fantasy.

I recall Tony Morris's put-down that critical thinking is manipulative!

And this isn't?!

26

why would God and Jesus hate the united nations?

by nowwhat? in

shouldn't they say thanks for" holding down the fort" until we take over?.

Half banana

Because the United Nation's aim is to maintain peace by secular cooperation and if they were to prove to be successful the Watchtower claims and status would be diminished since it tells the world (rather feebly) that it alone has a magical solution.

In a religious cult it is a good thing to have 'goodies' and 'baddies' then the tiny minds of the believers know who to cheer and who to boo. Visible enemies make your spritual cause seem more real.

God and Jesus are constructs of the human imagination and therefore cannot hate or love.

47

here i am

by notalone in

i was a 4th gen born in.my adult children were the 5th.

my mother was one of the newly'anointed' we have all left.

i have been lurking since october.i was really too terrified someone would find out who i was and what would happen.well we are out now so here is a part of my story.

Half banana

You are very welcome here notalone. I do hope that your daughter recovers from her trauma and with your genuine care becomes a confident adult.

Glad you all woke up...that is wonderful! You are now all on the road to recovery and back to the sane world of normal people. Take the leisurely path, it takes a while to normalise and get your individuality back.

60

New Here ... Just woke up

by Sevan in

jw
friends

hey all, .

this is my first post.

i haven't been out in service or to a meeting in over a month.. i realize now that i've been having serious questions for years and many articles and talks have greatly disturbed me over the years.

Half banana

You're welcome here Sevan! Glad you have been able to wake up to TTATT. (The Truth About The Truth) Hope you can talk with your husband sensibly about this, he seems already to be considerate of your need to fade rather than be disfellowshipped. Do keep us informed.

33

Jesus Knows the Day & Hour Now?

by KillerJones in

i was skimming the july 2016 wt study article and came across a paragraph indicating that, despite scriptural evidence, the governing body indeed feels that god's son now knows the exact day and hour of armageddon.

is this 'new light'?

from the second study article, page 14, pgh 4:.

Half banana

Agreed Finky baby, and what is at the bottom of it all? A belief in the Doctrine of Biblical inerrancy .

Is not the problem with the whole of Christianity that it is based on imagining that the Bible can only say something truthful? When what it says has a thousand interpreters and not two of them agree on everything!

Most of the content of the Bible is plagiarised nonsense; spin, bluster, astrology, folk tales, myth, false promises and lies.

Simply put, there is no reliable message or morality from the Bible which cannot be thought up inside our own heads.

It is not sacred at all, shake it off! It's worse than useless.........it's very misleading.

It does not predict anything which is likely to happen!... to listen to prophecy is the work of idiots!

The Bible was all made up and drawn together by powerful men to bamboozle the ignorant and poor for the sake of controlling them. Therefore believing in a divine origin of the Bible is a very stupid and addictive habit, which if you want to wake up to a fulfilling life, you should discard the idea at the earliest opportunity.

For those so inclined, it makes interesting reading and is a literary mine for a myriad of quotes...but I despair of using the Bible as if it had any prophetic relevance..............................

End of rant, must take my anti-apoplexy tablets now.

49

Contempt of court, case in San Diego county really disgusts me!

by Crazyguy in

this case has to be talked about by ever awake jw every apostate everyone.

this case because they refuse to hand over documents the court already knows they have because they handed them over before but heavily redacted, is the icing on the cake!

this case shows thier evil plain and simple.

Half banana

Yes exjwsrock, why are the GB not doing the "obey and be blessed" routine with Caesar's demands?

Oh silly me! that's just for the rank and file drones.

33

Jesus Knows the Day & Hour Now?

by KillerJones in

i was skimming the july 2016 wt study article and came across a paragraph indicating that, despite scriptural evidence, the governing body indeed feels that god's son now knows the exact day and hour of armageddon.

is this 'new light'?

from the second study article, page 14, pgh 4:.

Half banana

JC got it wrong in the first century why should he be right another time?

Mark 13, 24-31. "I tell you this: the present generation will live to see it all" NEB

(I chucked my NWT away!)

28

What is the current suicide and mental illness rate among JWs and previous members

by 060702015 in

jw
friends

there seems to be no current data on this information and there is questions concerning the validation of past data.

apparently there is high rate of mental illness and suicide.

jehovahs witnesses suicide rate 5 to 10 times above average.

Half banana

It would be good to find someone who has had the patience, interest qualifications and financial backing to investigate the state of mental health of JWs and ex-JWs. Unfortunately I don't think there is anyone likely to do this for the time being. The last one was an Australian study about fifty or sixty years ago I believe. I had a paediatrician tell me that in his experience that Jehovah's Witnesses exhibit a far higher rate of delusional disorders (psychosis) than found in the general population.

There is probably a correspondency of people with mental problems looking towards religious belief generally as a solution to their difficulties because religion is a socially acceptable practice which deals with existential hope.

The JW belief exaggerates the certainty of its teachings and dissolve the grey areas by a black and white definition of the world and its workings. By using only the governing body of JWs as the last word in everything a paternalistic agenda is asserted. For a confused or mentally fragile individual, this concept can make for a clearly defined path to follow.

Unfortunately for all JWs; it leads nowhere in the end except a mental slavery and the GB have never got anything right.

13

Is wife beginning to turn around?

by StarTrekAngel in

so some may have read the long and boring post about our last vacation and some of the things that my wife came to tell me during our time away.

i am adding the link here but i can summarize it for time's sake.. https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5768475763015680/vacation-time-reality-closing-up-on-my-wife.

in a nutshell, right before we left, we found out of a jw couple we know well.

Half banana

Looks very hopeful STA. Doubts can be worked upon but blind loyalty to the Borg is a dead end. You are dealing with doubts here. Best wishes.