cobweb

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Posts by cobweb

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  14

  Guardian interview with Apostasy director

  by cobweb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is a really long article about the film apostasy and interview with the director about his story and how he came to make the film.

  apostasy director: ‘it was liberating to leave the jehovah’s witnesses’.

  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/15/apostasy-director-daniel-kokotajlo-liberating-to-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-interview?cmp=share_androidapp_copy_to_clipboard.

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  cobweb

  This is a really long article about the film Apostasy and interview with the director about his story and how he came to make the film

  Apostasy director: ‘It was liberating to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses’

  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/15/apostasy-director-daniel-kokotajlo-liberating-to-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-interview?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
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  31

  Do You Think The Mayor of London Is Doing a Good Job?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  his city seems pretty dangerous especially since he has taken over and of course he just loves trump.

  lol .

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  cobweb

  Sharp jump in homicides and violent crime in London

  Politicians and police chiefs left scrambling to respond to public anger

  

  Forensic officers search a murder scene in Tottenham, north London, earlier this month © PA

  April 26, 2018 4:45 pm by David Bond in London

  There was a 44 per cent rise in the number of homicides in London last year as violent crime rose across the UK, putting more pressure on the government to rethink cuts that critics say have hollowed out the police.

  There were 157 homicides in the UK capital in the 12 months to March, up from 109 in the previous year. The increase can be partly explained by last year’s terror attacks at Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and Finsbury Park, which resulted in eight deaths.

  The Metropolitan Police also recorded a 21 per cent increase in knife crime and a near 36 per cent rise in robberies.

  Nationwide, knife crime rose 22 per cent in the calendar year to December 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics, and homicides rose 9 per cent. Sexual offences were up 11 per cent and rape cases increased by more than 18 per cent.

  

  There was no change in the number of fraud cases, however, at 3.2m, and there was a 28 per cent decrease in crime committed through the misuse of computers.

  The spate of violent crime in London, which has seen a series of stabbingsand murders since the start of 2018, has left politicians and police chiefs scrambling to respond to public outrage.

  In February, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, announced an extra £59m of annual funding for the Met, some of which will be used to fund a 120-strong violent crime task force.

  On Thursday, Mr Khan sought to frame the sharp jump in violent crime in London as part of a wider trend. “This is a national problem that urgently needs national solutions from the government,” he said.

  Martin Hewitt, the Met’s assistant commissioner, said London’s police force “continues to experience a very busy and challenging time against the backdrop of significant reductions in resources”.

  

  Flowers and tributes left for 18-year-old Israel Ogunsola in Hackney, east London, this month © EPA

  Despite the concerns, the Home Office said overall crime levels across the country were “stable”.

  Crime has been falling since its peak in the mid 1990s and even in London, the 157 homicides in 2017/18 were some way below the 205 recorded in 2003/04.

  But officials acknowledged that there has been a shift in the past two years, particularly in London and other large cities.

  Both Mr Khan and Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour party, have portrayed the recent increase in knife crime and murders as a consequence of the Conservative government’s austerity programme. Mr Khan has said that the Met has had to find £600m of savings in recent years and faces further cutbacks.

  Recommended

  • London’s violent crime wave can be beaten back

  According to the latest Home Office statistics, there were 121,929 police officers in the 43 police forces in England and Wales at the end of last September — the lowest number of officers since comparable records began in 1996.

  The increased focus on counter terror policing in a year when London and Manchester were hit by five separate attacks which resulted in 36 innocent deaths is also likely to have placed resources under pressure.

  Tom Gash, from University College London, said: “Counter terrorism is the only area where budgets have been protected. At the same time neighbourhood policing has been cut and it’s likely that has had an impact.”

  Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said the recent loss of 2,000 police officers from his own force was having a real impact on the public.

  “Quite simply we are having to prioritise those incidents where the greatest harm is caused more than ever before,” he said
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  31

  Do You Think The Mayor of London Is Doing a Good Job?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  his city seems pretty dangerous especially since he has taken over and of course he just loves trump.

  lol .

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  cobweb

  can u cut & paste it. i can't get behind the paywall
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  31

  Do You Think The Mayor of London Is Doing a Good Job?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  his city seems pretty dangerous especially since he has taken over and of course he just loves trump.

  lol .

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  cobweb

  Violent crime seems to have increased in a number of metropolitan cities recently. Both Manchester and Newcastle for example. I think police cuts are definitely having an impact.
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  31

  Do You Think The Mayor of London Is Doing a Good Job?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  his city seems pretty dangerous especially since he has taken over and of course he just loves trump.

  lol .

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  cobweb

  I don't live in London but I like Sadiq Khan.

  Looking at this chart, there does seem to have been an uptick of homicide in London from its low in 2014. It was headed in a higher direction from then while B Johnson was still mayor. Its nothing exceptional though from a historical perspective. It has been much higher for multiple years this century.

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_London#/media/File%3ALondon_Homicide_1990-2017.png
  

  When you say his city looks pretty dangerous, what city are u comparing it to? London tends to get compared to New York as its a similar size. On that basis, its much safer with only 116 homicides in 2017 against 290 in New York based on figures i just looked at.
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  35

  new JW Online Bible Study Lessons

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  has anybody seen the new online bible study yet, just posted yesterday i believe?

  it's the first thing you see now when going to the home page.

  the online bible study lessons on jw.org are free, have no obligation, and are easy to use.

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  cobweb

  Its a smart move. Its becoming less important to methodically call on everyone's door now. They can develop this recourse to be the first step to a one on one study. Get people interested with some basic taster bible courses and then say: "Do you want to know more? Enter your name and email address to arrange a more comprehensive bible course" The mountain comes to Mohammed. Less time wasting required talking to people who aren't interested.

  They could also create bible quizzes on the site and then say at the end, post your score on Facebook. Then Facebook friends would get a message saying, 'your friend scored this much on a bible quiz - see if you can beat them'.

  They could count all of this activity statistically and think of it as an aspect of the preaching work.

  With the internet the bible prophecy can be said to be fulfilled that all the inhabited earth is preached to, without having to knock on the individual doors. It might not happen like this right away but in time I think it could be where it is headed.
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  9

  Two Sad an Interesting Stories From When I Hosted the Ex-Jehovah's Witness Meetup Group in Portland

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for many years i hosted the ex-jehovah’s witness meet up group in portland oregon.

  i heard a lot of sad stories about what people had lost trying to get away from the jehovah’s witnesses.

  there were whole families that were wiped out.

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  cobweb

  Those are both crushing experiences. It shows you don't have to be a witness yourself to have your life destroyed by them.

  Could you say a little more about your book? Is this going to be a physical version or an ebook or both? Is it going on Amazon? Does it cover your Bethel experiences as well as those after you left?
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  35

  Jehovah's Witnesses worship a pagan god derived from the ancient Canaanite civilization

  by Finkelstein in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  historians of ancient history along with bible scholars have found from where the ancient hebrews acquired their god yhwh .. el was the all powerful god of the canaanites which the hebrews converted mostly to a monotheist style of worship for themselves.. apparently their were ancient civilizations that predated the canaanites as well .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpaoappiqm.

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  cobweb

  Those books you've borrowed are good.

  From what i have read, I agree with you that Yahweh did not originate with the Canaanites. There is no evidence for a God called Yahweh is Canaanite religion.

  But lets say, if Yahweh starts off as a very regionally located secondary warrior god and then over time takes on the attributes of El and Baal so that by the time the majority of the bible is written or finalised in post exilic times, he has become an all powerful monotheistic amalgam of Canaanite Gods, called Yahweh, surely we can then say that Yahweh has been derived from Canaanite Gods?
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  15

  pre 1981 Disassociation rules.

  by Aussie Oz in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  can anybody point me to actual written society instruction pre 1981, regarding not shunning da ones?.

  i know they included shunning as of the wt sept 15 1981, but was before that time purely an unwritten practice or what?.

  oz.

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  cobweb

  Thanks Earnest. I forgot Ray was so clear on that point. So their earlier policy was written down in the Aid to Answering Branch Office Correspondence manual. I don't think anyone has ever leaked that one, so Ray's words seem to be the first & last word on how how disassociation was applied with regard to shunning back then.
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  15

  pre 1981 Disassociation rules.

  by Aussie Oz in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  can anybody point me to actual written society instruction pre 1981, regarding not shunning da ones?.

  i know they included shunning as of the wt sept 15 1981, but was before that time purely an unwritten practice or what?.

  oz.

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  cobweb

  What would happen though pre1981 if a person DA'ed and then started bad mouthing the organisation to family and friends? Would someone be DF for apostasy after DA'ing?