Posts by Anony Mous

8

Unnoticed 2018 merger in Qubec

by Corney in

three years ago, on september 1 - 4, 2018, watch tower society of quebec (la tour de garde, société de bibles et de traités du québec), finalised its merger ("voluntary amlgamation") with "123 incorporated congregations of jehovah's witnesses in quebec," with kingdom halls owned by these incorporated congregations (total book value - ca$114,390,856, or 92 million usd) becoming assets of the society.

quebec congregations continue to exist as unincorporated associations and registered charities, while wt quebec only "manages, maintains and constructs" khs ("in cooperation with" wt canada and jw congregation support (formerly regional building committee)) and appoints certain elders to officiate marriages in the province.. sources: .

https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplybscsrch .

Anony Mous

@stephane: they only merged the legal entities of the physical properties, the actual congregations are still individual “independent” entities, except now they don’t have property to seize.

They did this a while back in the US as well, with the FDS being its own legal entity responsible for the dissemination of spiritual food and then the WTBTS having its own legal structure that owns the buildings and the printing presses. They did the same trick for Kingdom Halls, splitting the legal structure between the “KH building committee” often with its own chairman/secretary/treasury structure and the individual congregations that meet there having their own legal entity.

They have used this structure to defend them (successful) from legal suits, as the WTBTS claims no control over the FDS and the FDS being untouchable without any assets under 1st amendment religious freedom doctrine.

9

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

by joey jojo in

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-19/sa-church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster-proposal-rejected/100228038.

so this religion is a hoax?.

it seems just as legit as another religion i can think of..

Anony Mous

@joey: the interpretation of those justices is very narrow, wouldn’t even pass muster in the US Supreme Court.

Looking further into this particular case: the decision was made because the reviewer found the viewpoints of the church to be ... rrrrrrrrrrr ... yes... rrrrrrrrrrr.... racist and sexist. Thus if it is a religion that does not conform to critical race and gender theory, it is not a valid religion in Australia.

9

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

by joey jojo in

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-19/sa-church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster-proposal-rejected/100228038.

so this religion is a hoax?.

it seems just as legit as another religion i can think of..

Anony Mous

The question is how/why can the Australian government decide that the tenets of a religion are a hoax or not. By the purest of interpretations, any religion can be considered a hoax.

The First Amendment in the US prevents the government from interpreting or interfering with religious texts. I guess Australia doesn't have free speech or freedom of religion.

44

Poll: Atheists overwhelmingly oppose the death penalty, but most Christians favor it

by Disillusioned JW in

see https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2021/06/16/poll-atheists-overwhelmingly-oppose-the-death-penalty-most-christians-favor-it/ .

i am an atheist and i disapprove of the death penalty.

i remember michael dukakis, when he was a usa presidential candidate, saying i he was opposed to the death penalty - even for rapists and murderers.

Anony Mous

I used to be against it, because I thought most people can be redeemed. Then I got older and wiser. Some people are just evil and their only goal in life is to destroy others too, I think it has to be carefully considered, but if the evidence is overwhelming and it wasn't a mistake or accident and the person is considered a threat to society, the death penalty is cheaper than keeping them alive. Think of people like Osama Bin Laden, Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy, there is nothing you can do to redeem them, the death penalty also shouldn't be so humane, a firing squad is sufficient in those cases.

I'm an atheist libertarian, but I don't think that matters, I think most people change their views as they get older. Similar why many older people are religious, the current spate of old people were hippies and atheists and communists in the 70s, yet now the majority of the elderly are conservative christians, it's not like all the hippies died, they got older, a real job and had their own children forcing them to become wiser.

I see why too, I believed all religion was bad, but there are definitely long term benefits to having a religious community and even religious rituals.

12

The Governing Body like todays Democraps

by mickbobcat in

the governing body is a lot like today's dems.

they want to keep the rank and file in a permanent dependent state.

keep them stupid and dependent and they can rule them forever.

Anony Mous

I think in Korea it's more obvious, they don't even try to hide it, so NK would be more like Scientology. I think the JW is more on par with China or Soviet Russia, which is very similar to the woke cults in the US today.

38

Juneteenth

by minimus in

jw
friends

are you ready to celebrate??

it’s such a big holiday that the local electric company will be closed in order to celebrate.

only emergencies will be dealt with on that day.. what are you doing for the holiday?.

Anony Mous

@minimus: the liberation of the slaves happened in April, not June and we already have Memorial Day for the end of the civil war.

38

Juneteenth

by minimus in

jw
friends

are you ready to celebrate??

it’s such a big holiday that the local electric company will be closed in order to celebrate.

only emergencies will be dealt with on that day.. what are you doing for the holiday?.

Anony Mous

WTF is Juneteenth?

49

What Were You or Someone You Knew Counseled For That Was Ridiculous?

by minimus in

jw
friends

back in the day, tons of witnesses were brought in the “back room “ to be counseled by elders because of their dress and grooming.

some elders frowned on mustaches or hair that went past a certain point on a male.

women were regularly harassed because their skirt was too long or too short or had a slit on the side.

Anony Mous

@minimus: No, this somehow got out because we were quite open with some friends and some of this information somehow travelled. So we were eventually counseled on 'using our body parts for proper things' or some such non-sense.

Quite interesting, I'm in no way uneasy about talking about stuff like that, even back then to the elders, so we had a broad discussion about things that were and weren't allowed in the bedroom. The elders were quite embarrassed about the 'breadth' of my knowledge, some things that the Watchtower just doesn't cover for some reason.

After I quit the JW's I eventually joined some member-only clubs (eg. The Crucible in Washington, DC) to explore that area a bit further .

8

Funny Tee shirt

by mickbobcat in

https://t-shirtat.com/shop/fuck-joe-and-the-hoe-shirt/.

Anony Mous

@Stan: Hoe is an Ebonics word for whore or prostitute.

It is well known that Kamala Harris 'slept' her way to the top, notoriously being the mistress of various powerful Democrats when she was an up-and-coming politician. Some several decades older than her.

One of those was Willie Brown, mayor of San Francisco, he was a married 60-year old mayor and she was 29. Willie Brown and other activists in her circle have subsequently said "she slept her way to the top" and that those relationships had neither "love nor physical attraction". Some allegations in tweets have since been deleted.

49

What Were You or Someone You Knew Counseled For That Was Ridiculous?

by minimus in

jw
friends

back in the day, tons of witnesses were brought in the “back room “ to be counseled by elders because of their dress and grooming.

some elders frowned on mustaches or hair that went past a certain point on a male.

women were regularly harassed because their skirt was too long or too short or had a slit on the side.

Anony Mous

Mine was generally:

- Beards/letting my hair grow out

- Driving too fast

- Blowjobs while married