Posts by Half banana

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

JW requesting food assistance to Babylon the Great.

by sp74bb in

jw
friends

barcelona (spain), jan 8, 2017 at 1.30 pm.

two publishers of the tagalog group in barcelona (public meeting at 4.30 pm) do visit an evangelical church barcelona downtown to receive free food bags.... i can confirm that the queue was long.

the pastor in charge of this church has not allowed me to take picture of some older jw living barcelona downtown, but i was able to catch these young publishers.

Half banana

In topsy-turvy Watchtower land, giving charity to unbelievers is a punishable sin but it is compulsory (if not “thrilling”) to give all your money to the JW organisation. . .

However because the cult demands you remain a low paid ignorant good-for-nothing person you have to go to Babylon's own Christian charities to make ends meet.

Gawd 'elp us!

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

I am looking forward to an inverted bell jar curve, it’s going that way already with such a steep rise in partakers last year. Another half a dozen years and it will demolish the credibility of the idea that some individuals are super special. What a holy mess this is playing with fragile minds demanding divine attention for the sake of personal affirmation and holy status in an uncaring world.

Stuff the governing body is what they are saying!

The more cracker crunchers and wine bibbers the nuttier the religion looks even to insiders. The more removed it is from the WT Society’s predictions the more stupid the leaders appear and the less authority they have to bully the flock.

Long may partakers confound the JW organisation’s cherished beliefs.

7

Th e Elders collect money from the dead.

by punkofnice in

can't say too much but i here is something i'd like to share.. a relative of mine was an elder and pledged a lot of money to help buy a new kingdom hell in the area.

he died 10 years ago.

only 3 years ago the elders went to his old aged, pensioner widow and asked for the money.

Half banana

There is something, grasping, unconscionable, corrupt, hypocritical, contemptuous, immoral and sick in the heartless Watchtower cult.

Excuse me JW organisation, did you not read somewhere that the idea for the Christian congregation is to support widows and orphans. . . not to suck the lifeblood out of them.

26

Feb. 2017 "Who is Leading God's People Today?"

by Saethydd in

i know that i am not by any means the first person to take note of this article, but today i finally got around to reading it.

i quickly found the now infamous line "the governing body is neither inspired nor infallible.

" in the interest of fairness, however, i decided to finish the paragraph, which led me to finish the lesson.

Half banana

Saethydd, thank you for your measured analysis. The matter in hand is the role and inspiration of Watchtower governance. Here it is typically presented to the faithful in terms which ambivalently provide one argument for the faithful and another one for outsiders.

For the critics a new apologia or defence was needed to explain away the laughable inability of the WT to get dates right as well as their need for doctrinal flip-flops. The new stratagem is that “they are not inspired” yet at the same time their modesty is cast to the wind when they claim that they are exclusively appointed by God, enabling only them among all religions to have correct insights from 1919 onwards.

To an outsider this is unprovable and irrelevant but for JWs it attempts to get them off the hook for their succession of errors and reassure believers that they are stuck with the right bunch of Bible bashers.

This weasel talk in the Watchtower is the bread and butter for JWs, it has absolutely nothing to do with truth, it is purely of the nature of propaganda. For example the WT article you quote from uses the favourite GB expression “God’s people” so frequently, that it acts like a riveter’s hammer. If repeated enough: it must be a reality?

Watchtower material has two functions, primarily to condition the membership to continue uncritically believing that the GB are from God even if they publicly say they are not inspired, and secondly it remains by virtue of its repetition; the mechanism they use for reinforcement and loyalty to the organisation.

The purpose of propaganda is to enslave minds and hearts.

Who is leading? It is not any creator God or even a Canaanite idol called Yahweh. It’s not a “who”, it’s a “what” is leading? I suggest that it is nothing more mysterious than a commercial business drive which leads the JW organisation.

15

The JWs who don't believe JW doctrine

by evilApostate in

to me it seems that there are a growing number of jws who reject a few to most doctrines of jws and yet still believe that they are in "jehovah's organisation.

" i have come across quite a few who for example, reject the 1914 doctrine entirely and yet remain psuedo-jws.. take a look at this page: http://e-jw.org/index.php?threads/the-ultimate-generational-leap-rebuttal.2521/#post-21793.

those are jws who reject 1914 and even the gb.

Half banana

It’s an interesting situation and yes it can apply to any church but there’s a difference.

I listened with interest to two Roman Catholic friends of mine speaking to each other about taking their doctrines seriously and they both agreed that they didn’t believe in a literal approach but were happy to remain churchgoers.

In JW land however, the cultural norm is to take everything rather more seriously. The slightest hint of disbelief is treated with horror! It would be symptomatic of disloyalty to the GB that you are becoming an unbeliever and that would mean being destined to become bird food at big A. It is the worst thing ever to express religious doubt in JW company. Doubt after all is far more contagious than belief!

I think what is happening is that the JW org it's becoming like a large wooden building held together by frequent glossy paintwork! This covers decaying clapboarding still nailed to an insect eaten frame. It looks bright on the outside but remains on the verge of collapse. (Come on, the Watchtower loves awful illustrations!)

As more and more only remain for family’s sake; it will reach the critical level when non-believing attendants will equal the number of “true believers” or when sufficient individuals feel confident enough to disclose their unbelief publicly in the kh.

I do suggest by the way that all unbelieving attenders should seed doubt in the most cunning ways you can contrive. I wish I had done that more skillfully. A still-in friend of mine has honed this to an art form. With a straight face he takes the GB's line to its logical extreme, to the point of absurdity but disconcertingly to his listener, claims to believe it must be true.

19

What would happen to the assets of the JW organisation if the cult went into meltdown?

by Half banana in

what if the jw org became publicly exposed as a repressive and harmful cult working to the detriment of society, the membership dropped away and the gb woke up to reality and quit .

what would happen to the worldwide property and investments of the wtbts and allied companies?

where would the money go then?

Half banana

The JW religion will exist only as long as it succeeds as a business.

For a business to flourish it must have an income larger than its outgoings and it must grow.

Both of these criteria are under threat. The numerical growth is in the third world but the decline is significantly in the first world.

The initial defensive measure would be to sell off assets to meet immediate cash flow issues; clearly that is being done by selling off property but the matter of growth means spending money in poor countries yielding a much reduced income in the future.

The JW org financial outlook is not rosy, not a good long term investment but any business with such a large customer base which deals in billions on a yearly basis, looks like it still has plenty of fat to live off before it dies.

32

Irregular to meetings, can I partake in memorial?

by Squekylive in

hi friends .

i don't believe in jw doctrines anymore but because of family i have to be a jw for now.. i am not regular to meetings, and don't answer in meeting, but i report some hours so i remain as active jw now.. .

congregation knows that i am not spiritual and i don't talk to people and i don't care what they think about me.. now, i believe it's important to observe lord's supper as a christian as per john 6:53, so in the coming memorial if i attend i want to partake in the communion,.. i believe it is a sin to pass the bread and wine inspite of knowing it's flesh and blood of jesus.. it's like rejecting jesus.. so i want to partake.. but i dont consider i am anointed etc.

Half banana

Of course its ok to partake, the more the merrier!

But do be sure you spray out it between your teeth, belch loudly and complain that its corked.

117

2017 Yearbook released

by bohm in

jw
friends

i saw this on reddit:.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

Half banana

It’s mainly good news isn’t it?

The Congo is in a shambles with the threat of another civil war. President Kabila has finished his term of office but won’t leave power. He has his own army to defend him and clearly the population live in trepidation of the dire consequences of war. It is the ideal situation for JW propaganda to proliferate and without the internet to mediate and give the other side to Watchtower coin.

Brazil is a land where families are large and start young, hence poor education and consequent poverty on to which JW hopes are foisted but the country has a growing economy. Have the new ones got the internet yet?

The figures indicate overall that the influence of the JW religion has peaked. They are still at the crest of membership numbers, mainly sustained by baptisms of JW children. This is tenable so long as the young ones are kept deaf and blind to information.

The field service no longer works in man-hour terms the West. (Commercially it would be costing $225,000 at $15 per hour to make a new worldly convert in d2d preaching). It has been reduced to a mere obligatory ritual.

Secular, post–religious reality is making ground in the Western ethos where middle class wealth or social welfare act as a safety net denying the need for organised religion of the paranoid JW brand.

201

I am glad to have found the true religion

by A Believer in

jw
friends

it really is great.

i remember browsing this forum the day after i had joined it, and their was a knock on the door.

i thought it was one of my package from ups but instead it was two sisters.

Half banana

@Believer, thanks for staying the course. Your loyalty to the Watchtower however will never be rewarded and neither has any one of the millions of JWs who have existed over time ever been rewarded with the false hope given them by the JW organisation.

The world is much richer and warmer place than is preached by the paranoid rants of Jehovah's Witnesses. May you at least enjoy the comfort of the straight jacket they supply for you.

@Infomouship, it just happens to be a meeting place here on the internet for extra- terrestrials.