JJ......... and then the elder will say to himself: Ah! but I'll also need another million dollar liability insurance in case I don't interpret GB rules correctly. Thinks........ Nah! I just won't become an elder.
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
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24
New rules for child sexual abuse?
by formerministerial ina european jehovah's witness, who served in an important branch, has sent me the following rumor.. some serious sources are mentioned.
it clearly shake my perspective of what is going to happen in the coming months.. i'm totally shocked !.
the law firm managing all the interests of the wt has studied the problem in europe on data protection and actions on files and protocols of child abuse.
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New rules for child sexual abuse?
by formerministerial ina european jehovah's witness, who served in an important branch, has sent me the following rumor.. some serious sources are mentioned.
it clearly shake my perspective of what is going to happen in the coming months.. i'm totally shocked !.
the law firm managing all the interests of the wt has studied the problem in europe on data protection and actions on files and protocols of child abuse.
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Half banana
The Watchtower has historically never been interested in the welfare and well-being of its members as long as they are fit enough to serve their interests. Genuine care for individuals would long ago have made the JW organisation find proper help for those individuals who suffer psychologically from sexual abuse -- and for that matter they would not practise shunning.
The WT method has always insisted that all you need is obedience to the Bible. This delusion is now being proved to be flawed and harmful but the selling point of JW org is that the Bible has all the answers and that you are in safe hands with governing body interpretation of it. No longer can they sustain this fiction and the two witness rule exemplifies the delusion that Biblical precedents are the course of wisdom.
Back in the 1980s, they made a grab for the ownership of all the KHs worldwide thus becoming an "organised religion" or as the law recognises it, a "hierarchical religion" (after generations of condemning the practice!) This centralised their organisation and gave the GB financial and ideological control, and also prevented individual congregations from taking decisions separately from the governing body.
A consequence of this was the collective responsibility at HQ for all misdemeanours of all elders in every congregation when acting in line with official policy. This has surfaced in cases where the law is holding the GB responsible for their in-house "Bible based" policy of two witnesses and not informing the police at the earliest opportunity when sexual abuse of minors has occurred.
Already there are complaints by the GB for bros not wanting to be elders. To give back autonomy to the congregations for the sake of unloading the legal burden from the GB will backfire because what elder will want to take the financial liability? And tell me which elders are trained in law, psychology and human welfare?
Fewer elders in an already depleted pool of struggling elders will only reinforce the crises of leadership, finance and credibility in the religion.
New rules in the one area of child abuse will not fix the fundamental flaws of the JW system of belief. Genuine, humane, considerate individual care for the abused, which the situation cries out for, is beyond the imagination and also the financial stretch of the JW org.
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Is A Major Restructuring At Warwick In The Works Due To Years Of Governing Body Ignorance & Delusion?
by Brokeback Watchtower inthe possible financial ruin to which faithful & discreet slave/governing body has brought wt corporation, due to all the underhanded/illegal/thoughtless policies as g.o.d(guardians of doctrine) seems to be a very real possibility, as court cases mount against the wt and it's different corporations.. montana just gave a very clear $$$$30million+ shout out to wt, about it's fucked up policies, which lay at the feet of those in charge.
it seems that some type of no confidence should be expressed and a complete over haul should be happening.
they can not keep this information secret any more and they are totally delusional ass holes if they think they can talk their way out of this.. therefore i think we shall see some desperate measures to keep this fraudulent organization financially stable and a removal from power those responsible for the mess..
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Half banana
About five or six years ago it became apparent that the GB were rattled.
The self image as an invincible, ever advancing fundamentalist, bible-based religion was under threat.
The GB had not realised their financial potential and elevated status which they had hoped for in going all out for a confident hierarchical religion like the Roman Catholic Church which does not try to justify or defend its beliefs. They wanted obedience and loyalty but gave no evidence for deserving to be treated in this manner. Had there been miraculous predictions fulfilled, as the followers were led to believe, the faithful may have remained.
Going off the gold standard of printing and selling literature meant a drop in income. This followed another existential crash: the utter failure of the promise of Armageddon before the end of the generation of 1914. The JW organisation had been proved to be a fraud.The laughable response to this fiasco was, "Yes but you see, when Jesus said "generation" he meant an overlapping generation." And bang go another million true believers.
As the hearts of JWs are no longer confident in the words and propaganda from HQ-- so the contributions must have dried up.Then to make matters worse the child abuse scandals and very heavy fines started and increase in number.
It's natural justice; a cult can only last so long manipulating its followers and keeping them deliberately in the dark. To cap it all the universal availability of the internet has now shone light where no light shone before, as in the world of cults-- thank goodness.
Yep! The GB have gone from being rattled to extremely worried, and now I think they must soon be approaching (as you say Vidiot) the nightmare stage. The ship SS Watchtower is sinking. The GB response, whilst stealthily trying to secure seats for themselves in the life boats, will be solemnly telling the faithful that the last days have actually arrived and they must at all cost increase their efforts in the life-saving preaching work. (But don't look in the direction of Warwick 'cos you are on your own now).
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Library now cleared out
by UnshackleTheChains inwell, it looks like the axe has finally fallen on our kh library.
during a deep clean of the local kh, a brother suddenly informed everyone 'whikst cleaning' that all the old books including bound volumes of the watchtower etc was to be chucked in the skip.. from what i heard, some were taken aback by this and quite annoyed that no announcement was made; that no one was given the choice of taking some of these books home to keep.
i mean the entire collection of studies in the scriptures and others that go back an entire century.
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Half banana
Frankly this is the best destination for all and any JW literature--in the waste bin. I honestly can't think of anything printed in such quantity which has proved to be less useful, all of it was worthless tripe.
The next development after this is completed will be to have the broadcasts shut down as well and prevent the JW org leaders from misleading any more people. . .
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11
Partial rough draft
by vienne ini've posted a partial rough draft of my introductory essay for separate identity, volume 2. it is a work in progress and will change.
it has upset some watchtower adherents who read our history blog.
read it please and tell me if i've been unfair to the watchtower.
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Half banana
Very interesting vienne. I like the inclusion of the religious background influences from the reformation onward, your caveat for lack of in-depth scrutiny in this area notwithstanding.
It appears to me that the Watchtower message from Russell's time has always been maintained with a belief that their interpretation of the scripture must be right and therefore delivered in the spirit of certainty. Certainty that it is true because it is based on Biblical doctrine spoken by God's appointees and therefore inevitable. However the writers of the Watchtower have always both supplied the discourse and controlled the thinking on it whilst expecting the flock to believe without question.
People have always responded positively to the concept of "certainty" and when allied to Biblical prophecy it was like flies attracted to carrion. I see this as part of their past success. However it only ever worked in the absence of critical evaluation and to start inviting a scholarly analysis on all JW literature and belief would be shooting itself in the foot. As a social organism they have good reason to be secretive.
From the viewpoint of the governing body the thought of anyone applying a scholarly examination to Watchtower history would appear to be undermining their authority, preventing them from having the last word on the subject. What is at stake is what they think is their right to present the current 'light' on their own re-writable history.
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Prison, a conscientious objector and a Watchtower U-turn
by Diogenesister ini wanted to show you this message a user named newbraunfelstx sent to my inbox regarding a recent change to watchtower policy following the montana csa case, namely; that elders are now considered part of the clergy class.
this was something we were taught would never be the case since it was a babylonish practice of christendom, to have a clergy/laity divide.
the letter hurt me to the core, since ironically i did feel this good man was really a minister, was respected as such, even by the so-called “wicked” worldly prisoners - yet treated with shabby disregard by watchtower.
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Half banana
Really what can you expect from a nutty cult? The saddest thing is that people dignify this religion with respect it does not deserve.
The doctrines are simply ever changing expediencies to serve its interests. It is expedient to be considered clergy when it suits them, how worldly, how cheap!
At least many now are waking up to the futility of being a JW.
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10
Just a peasant...(long post)
by Oracle inforgive my english..its not my first language..... it was a cloudy afternoon as i was on my way to the hall.
as a ms meeting with 2 elders.
it was no training, no encouragement.
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Half banana
Thanks for posting Oracle and letting us know something about you. We know from many posters here how all consuming the Watchtower delusion is but it steals lives. You are complicit in having your freewill stolen by this undeserving cult. By playing along, you are perpetuating their lies and misinformation which they spew out to reinforce their own little crooked kingdom of paradise hope which has a snowball's chance in hell of coming true.
Can you really live an honest life acting as a MS and not believing it?
You sound like a decent person, most JWs are decent aren't they? But what about your right, perhaps you could view it as your divine right to self determination? Will you throw it away for a worthless and wrong-headed cult?
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Jehovah's Witnesses... Who sent the Star of Bethlehem?
by JW Answers injehovah's witnesses... who sent the star of bethlehem?.
the watchtower teach their followers that the star of bethlehem was sent by non other than satan... however as we take a look at the scriptures by comparing spiritual things with spiritual we begin to see that the star of bethlehem was not sent by satan, but used for the glory of god.a seasonal message to end the year.. watch now here :.
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Half banana
It is good to discuss the scriptures"
Sorry friend I disagree. The scriptures are a collection of selected texts for the purpose of enforcing a religious culture on credulous individuals. Try thinking for yourself instead and consider the context in which the Bible was assembled in the fourth century. Deal with real world provable problems for which evidence exists not those magic Biblical events drawn form cultic propaganda.
Belief in the Bible will stunt anyone's development. Admittedly many prefer to remain stunted.
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What Does Secular History Tell Us About the Twelve Apostles? - From National Geographic.
by fulltimestudent inthe national geographic web-site publishes this story:.
these 12 men shaped christianity—but were they real?.
link: : https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160306-bible-apostle-jesus-christian-religion-ngbooktalk/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=social::src=facebook::cmp=editorial::add=fb20181222culture-resurfapostlesbooktalk::rid=&sf204668865=1.
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Half banana
People never get resurrected-- unless you believe in the supernatural.
As a rule gods don't die but absolutely anything, even the impossible, can and does happen in supernatural tales.
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A recent antiwitnessing experience
by john.prestor ini shared one of these before in which my approach left something to be desired, and i got some flack for that, and rightly so.
so if this story doesn't go over well i won't share another... but given how it ended, i just had to share.... a few days ago i took a trip to a nearby city by bus.
in the about 20-30 minute window between my connecting buses i walked over to a mcdonald's and got a cup of coffee, and when i came back to the little bus station i saw a literature cart sitting unmanned near the doors.
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Half banana
I was in a busy rural town on Friday and saw JW posters with a man and a woman standing nearby talking to two other visiting JWs in casual dress. I went past slowly and heard animated but banal conversation. I had some shopping to do and forty minutes later went back to see if they were free to talk to me (I was of course going to drop some metaphorical bombshells) but hell, they were still chin-wagging with the same JWs!
Forget the preaching, they just don't give us apostate's a moment's look in!