Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  5

  A slice of heaven or whatever turns you on.

  by Half banana in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  in piccadilly in the west end of london there sits a church called st james and most mondays they hold free lunchtime concerts.

  i went yesterday and marveled at the coming together of so many cultural wonders.

  the church itself was built under the direction of one of england’s most celebrated architects sir christopher wren, who also built st paul’s cathedral.

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  Half banana

  Arrive a bit early say at ten minutes to one so as to get a front seat for full immersion in the performance.The programme of the day is found on the internet under St James, Piccadilly.

  Oy vey Phizzy! little of this cultural glory would have arisen if not fuelled by the Church.

  The reason being that the church had accumulated wealth beyond the dreams of avarice.Take Bach for example most of his work was for church music. The greatest patrons of the best artists were the Church.

  After the Middle Ages the churches were often given as gifts to the community by the land owning aristocracy as was St James.The truth is that society was highly and unfairly stratified in the past, and the Baroque architecture exemplifies it. If you had power then you also had wealth, and with your wealth you had to show just how grand you were. It was a power display but executed in the most refined taste from the best artists and architects of the day. Religious teachings were just a small part of the background noise, their themes of ultimate "salvation from sin" unified the communities of all ranks by common appreciation of "holy" things. Never mind-- we can still benefit from these extravagances of the past.
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  7

  "Romans" added to NWT Study Bible, and one omission.

  by Wonderment in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  rom.

  14:1 says: "welcome the man having weaknesses in his faith, but do not pass judgment on differing opinions.

  " (italics added.).

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  Half banana

  We have decided that we are God's anointed, so you've got to think like we tell you to........otherwise we'll punish you!

  I guess it is the same unquestioned sanctity given to the Bible which is then transferred to the GB, and this is how JW cult leaders empower themselves.

  Your point Wonderment is very good, to read the Bible in its social-historical context is very illuminating and not like the stereotype supplied by the Watchtower. The JW org has carefully honed the conjuror's ability to select only on what they want you to see and avoid all contrary information.
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  3

  The Pope's Surprising Admission - Priests and Bishops Have Kept Nun's as Sex Slaves

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  channel 9 news (a nation wide australian tv channel, plus the recently purchased fairfax newspapers) carried this story on the web news.it says in part:.

  pope admits priests kept nuns in sexual slavery.

  "pope francis has for the first time publicly acknowledged the scandal of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns and says he is committed to doing more to fight the problem.

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  Half banana

  What Pope Francis is forgetting is the unspeakable example set by former Popes. My favourite being the first Pope John XXIII in the early fifteenth century. Ok he was one of the Avignon Popes but a pope nevertheless. He started off as a pirate and went on to rape, incest and murder. And no one seems to notice that religious governance is all about power-- and remember-- absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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  28

  "No more than 40 years"

  by dynamiterose77 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in another corner of the internet someone stated that witnesses are proclaiming that this system will be no more than 40 years now... that "gog of magog" will start the great tribulation.

  can anyone confirm this latest "prediction"?.

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  Half banana

  The JW cult leaders have cried "wolf" so many times, how can anyone trust anything they say?
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  5

  A slice of heaven or whatever turns you on.

  by Half banana in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  in piccadilly in the west end of london there sits a church called st james and most mondays they hold free lunchtime concerts.

  i went yesterday and marveled at the coming together of so many cultural wonders.

  the church itself was built under the direction of one of england’s most celebrated architects sir christopher wren, who also built st paul’s cathedral.

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  Half banana

  In Piccadilly in the West end of London there sits a church called St James and most Mondays they hold free lunchtime concerts. I went yesterday and marveled at the coming together of so many cultural wonders.
  
  The church itself was built under the direction of one of England’s most celebrated architects Sir Christopher Wren, who also built St Paul’s Cathedral. It was built in 1684 in the Renaissance Baroque style, using classical proportions and motifs, the interior unlike the older gothic is open and uncluttered anticipating the style of the enlightenment. Adorning the altar is the most wonderful, exuberant carving of fruit and flowers by the greatest name in woodcarving Grinling Gibbons.

  There was a grand piano in the transept, in front of the pews, a beautiful, no expense spared piano, a black piano with a burr walnut interior. The pianist, a man at the height of the mastery of his instrument, having played at the Albert Hall publicly at the tender age of ten. He communicated his art with unerring confidence and feeling, playing the music composed by perhaps the greatest of all European musical talents, JS Bach and then followed by preludes and fugues written by Clara Schuman and then Robert Schuman’s Fantasy in C.

  How sublime this amalgam! It was not made by decree of any god nor chance but by pulling together these pinnacles of artistic achievement of architecture, woodcarving, piano making, musical composition and the artistry of the performer. This little slice of heaven was made by human endeavour and will outlast those grubby dreams of religious cults and their false promises.

  It is only experiences like this which could give substance to the dreamer’s lies of a perfect heaven. I’ll settle for the reality now and forego the dream.
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  30

  Legal concerns about: "picnics"

  by Darth FayDehr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "congregation picnic"2.

  "congregation gathering"3.

  "spontaneous gathering of jws”.

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  Half banana

  It is a good example of how the cult wants to reinforce a kind of robotic conformity and total dependence on the GB.

  This method of control is at great odds with conventional religious practice where the believer tries to imitate Christ, Buddha or some prophet, and uses their own conscience and common sense. But in JW land it's all rules and regulations, you are not allowed to think for yourself.

  Being a JW is becoming like living in an open prison-- imagine the JW 'paradise' run on the same lines!
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  7

  "Straining the gnat, and gulping the camel"

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while watching the annual meeting videos on the official jw channel, i was struck with this scriptural expression:.

  "they strain out the gnat, while gulping the camel" matt 23:24. this section was full of condemnation for the wicked religious leaders who were focusing on minor silly things rather than deep important topics.. the amount of silly things the gb focuses on is amazing!

  they pedantically focus on things like proper pronunciation of words, (such as s lett joking about how isiah is best said), while missing major issues and topics like the proper handling of child abuse issues, or the court cases being lost worldwide!.

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  Half banana

  If ever there was an organisation devoted to camel gulping and gnat straining it is the JW org!
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  10

  Not One JW Ever Actually Dies "In the Truth"

  by Solzhenitsyn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just a thought and perhaps this has been discussed before but no jehovah's witness ever actually dies in the truth.

  pick a year, any year.

  if a jw died in say 1920 or 2020 or whatever...the doctrines change so much and so fast that what is "truth" today is "untruth" the next within this religion.

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  Half banana

  A valid thought Sol, how can a thing be true one year and not earlier or later.

  JWs live the paradise dream which works fine as long as you don't start to question how true it really is.
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  11

  Sell your home and pioneer already!

  by wannabefree in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few weeks ago i took the jw channel off of our roku.

  i was just cleaning off unused channels and wondered if my wife was actually watching this.

  yep.

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  Half banana

  After an alarm bell has been ringing for one hundred and forty years, it kind of loses its urgency.
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  14

  PIMO GB members?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the gb individuals are chosen not by holy spirit as we well know but by being selected for one quality only, that of implaccable loyalty to the watchtower organisation.. to be up there requires the fixation that the org is being used by god -- even though now in the small print they claim they are not divinely guided -- what a laugh, what a puzzle?.

  the more i watch their antics the more implausible they seem.

  their function: to persuade as many people as possible to conform to their own whacky beliefs.. most jws eventually leave the fold, only one third remain as we understand, so will any of the gb become pimo?.

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  Half banana

  Diogsis, yes isn't Losche Austrian? I think you have it, he misses the heady days of struggle when "the time left still made it possible WT theology could be true". I think sentiment for the good old days will surface soon.

  But really the GB must be perfectly aware they have been flogging the dead donkey of the imminence of the end for one hundred and forty years. Are they just role playing-- but not truly believing?