cobweb

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Posts by cobweb

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  20

  BBC: Victims 'told not to report' Jehovah's Witness child abuse

  by Lostandfound in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  today on bbc news site http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42025255 sorry about typo in heading big story on bbc news in uk.

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  cobweb

  This story has really been picked up by a lot of media in the UK - its even gone to the New York Post now - it surprises me if all this secondary coverage is sparked from just one BBC report which has no real new information.
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  6

  BBC radio 4 Now

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  major story on main 6pm program now on jw non-reporting of child abuse.

  expert reckons there are thousands of unreported cases still to be revealed.

  mp planning to raise it in parliament!

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  cobweb

  Just noticed u have to register which is a bit annoying.
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  6

  BBC radio 4 Now

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  major story on main 6pm program now on jw non-reporting of child abuse.

  expert reckons there are thousands of unreported cases still to be revealed.

  mp planning to raise it in parliament!

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  cobweb

  Its 4 mins long from 10 minute mark.

  PM - 20/11/2017 - @bbcradio4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09fj9c3
  
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  22

  Crises of Conscience latest, plus : a solution for reading it legally, courtesy of u/ziddina

  by Diogenesister in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  recently, someone who knows deborah drexler, the current copyright holder of cofc, asked her if she will consider having it published again.

  her response was:.

  " i will have to ask jesus"!!!!!.

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  cobweb

  Its hard to know what to make of that comment. Maybe it was just a flip remark but it doesn't bode well. Last I read there was going to be an updated version with some new material from Ray that he'd been working on before he died. Now I don't know what to think. Its all so much hearsay and noone seems to know anything solid. I suppose its not a major issue as the pdf's are readily available online - even in audiobook form and its hard to justify not making use of them at this point.
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  15

  Where to go for the 'Deep Things'?

  by cobweb in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  as someone who has been out a while, i wondered what publications a jw would turn to now if they want to do serious bible research.

  are there any meaty jw publications left?

  i haven't heard of the insight books being revised.

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  cobweb

  As the orgs ability to give a satisfactory accounting of their beliefs has reduced, their level of control has had to increase to compensate.

  If you ask 'why' now you don't get a full and comprehensive explanation, you get a simple answer you are required to accept or else you get threatened with a proverbial baseball bat.
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  15

  Where to go for the 'Deep Things'?

  by cobweb in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  as someone who has been out a while, i wondered what publications a jw would turn to now if they want to do serious bible research.

  are there any meaty jw publications left?

  i haven't heard of the insight books being revised.

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  cobweb

  As someone who has been out a while, I wondered what publications a JW would turn to now if they want to do serious bible research. Are there any meaty JW publications left?

  I haven't heard of the Insight books being revised. These used to be the only bible encyclopedic resources, yet parts of them must be very out of date now.

  I know books like the Revelation book are no longer published - do people still access these using the DVD's - there hasn't been anything to supersede the Revelation book, so are these kind of meatier books still used and referred to?

  As I understand, the Christian Life and Ministry meeting has the appropriate watchtower references available to print out so so need for additional study seems to be expected.

  Almost everything is getting 'simplified'. Now, from next year The Watchtower study articles are becoming 'simplified'. I do not know how different the current Watchtower study articles are from the simplified editions - they are pretty simplified as it is - if they simplify them more surely these can no longer serve as research tools.

  I imagine at the moment older publications are required to bolster up the flimsiness of new publications but if these more substantial works are not replaced with something of similar quality, as they are designated old light and pulled, it doesn't seem like there will be anywhere to go for 'deep things' anymore.

  It is very hard not to see similarities with 1984 and the refinement of 'Newspeak':

  'How is the Dictionary getting on?' said Winston, raising his voice to overcome the noise.
  
  'Slowly,' said Syme. 'I'm on the adjectives. It's fascinating.'
  
  He had brightened up immediately at the mention of Newspeak. He pushed his pannikin aside, took up his hunk of bread in one delicate hand and his cheese in the other, and leaned across the table so as to be able to speak without shouting.
  
  'The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,' he said. 'We're getting the language into its final shape -- the shape it's going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we've finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We're destroying words -- scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We're cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won't contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.'
  
  He bit hungrily into his bread and swallowed a couple of mouthfuls, then continued speaking, with a sort of pedant's passion. His thin dark face had become animated, his eyes had lost their mocking expression and grown almost dreamy.
  
  'It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn't only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take "good", for instance. If you have a word like "good", what need is there for a word like "bad"? "Ungood" will do just as well -- better, because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of "good", what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like "excellent" and "splendid" and all the rest of them? "Plusgood" covers the meaning, or "doubleplusgood" if you want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already. but in the final version of Newspeak there'll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words -- in reality, only one word. Don't you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.'s idea originally, of course,' he added as an afterthought.
  
  A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston's face at the mention of Big Brother. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain lack of enthusiasm.
  
  'You haven't a real appreciation of Newspeak, Winston,' he said almost sadly. 'Even when you write it you're still thinking in Oldspeak. I've read some of those pieces that you write in The Times occasionally. They're good enough, but they're translations. In your heart you'd prefer to stick to Oldspeak, with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don't grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?'
  
  Winston did know that, of course. He smiled, sympathetically he hoped, not trusting himself to speak. Syme bit off another fragment of the dark-coloured bread, chewed it briefly, and went on:
  
  'Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak,' he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction. 'Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?'
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  7

  "Hello" from the other side...(of the door). Mormon parody of Adele

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jud2bdmd1wk.

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  cobweb

  Don't be silly, i was just messing. I knew it'd be something like that. And if you hadn't posted it again SBF would have missed it
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  7

  "Hello" from the other side...(of the door). Mormon parody of Adele

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jud2bdmd1wk.

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  cobweb

  Yeah its good. But this is the third time you've posted it today.
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  33

  Using history as a means to pinpoint possible future events.

  by HealthySkeptic in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the purpose of this thread is to share some history with the community.

  i am an active jw.

  the reason i picked this forum is due to the openness and ease with which information can be accessed.

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  cobweb

  Wow, that last post was a doozy. What are you basing your claims upon? I imagine you are reading some pretty 'out there' internet sites to come up with that stuff. Have you also been reading about the Illuminati? There is no point discussing your ideas as there there must be some mutual agreement on what constitutes evidence and that's clearly not going to happen here. I don't want to be mean though. Good luck to you.
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  5

  ARC—What's Next?

  by Saename in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  so as we know, the wt changed very little with regards to how they respond to child sexual abuse allegations.

  they basically ignored the australian royal commission's report on how they could improve their policies.

  the watchtower is left alone in australia to do as they please, or will there be some kind of follow-up?

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  cobweb

  Its had an impact on them enforcing the working with children act certificates that ministerial servants and elders must get. In Victoria at least, they will be getting fined if they don't get one.

  See:

  http://jwsurvey.org/child-abuse-2/news-bulletin-australia-amends-working-children-act-jehovahs-witnesses-forced-comply-face-severe-penalties

  I think it will be interesting to see when kingdom halls around Australia suddenly start announcing elder so and so has to step down.