want to see bethelites act like greedy scavengers?
just check out the tail end of bethel family breakfast, lunch or dinners.
for those not familar with this phenomenon, gleaning was when bethelites could basically bring their tupperware dishes down and store up on the leftover meals once the family was dismissed (usually by prayer, except for the bethel dinner).
i don't mean to pry or offend, but are you... ah.... er... a Negro brother?
this just reminds of some of the incredibly delicate wording JWs get used to using when they have to acknowledge race. just a couple days ago, an elder was describing a sister to me and said 'she's coloured' - and this is a young guy, like 30 or so. does anybody else still use the expression 'coloured'? and yet it seems perfectly natural in a kindgom hall to hear the word.
mox
millions now living will never have a life that should have been the proclamation in the 1920s.
it certainly turned out to be the case for those who listened.
often you get a real insight into this by considering the wasted-life stories that appear in the magazines.
some of these life stories do seem especially tragic. there was one a few months ago (dont recall the individual - would hafta check) where this brother was in long-term missionary work and he recounts how one day he was enthusiastically preaching to someone he met during a trip home and that as soon as the guy he was talking to had a chance, he up and runs away, scared like. the brother didnt know why. it was a really eery tale. it turns out he's gone right off his rocker and didnt realize it until he scares off this guy. hes mentally unbalanced. who knows what he was actually doing or saying to make this guy take off like that. so then he realizes he has to curtail his missionary work because of his 'problem'. i found the tale sad and a bit disturbing.
mox
i "stormed" out of a meeting for the first time in my life tonight.
well, i really just walked really fast, but inside myself i was storming.
anybody catch some of the insolent comments made in the 6/01km?
this is really interesting. JWD posted about this article before from the Japan KM and i was asking for the text because we dont have this insert in the Canada KM. no doubt the need at the georgetown branch, the type and degree of need, is not the same as brooklyn or ebina. but i would like to see the text of this insert.
lookingnow: i thought exactly the same thing when i read those directives. we may miss that part due to the DC, im not sure. i would find it difficult to get thru too.
mox
why i am an atheist!
and then man made god in his image .
in my case not only did i question what i was being taught but i also more importantly questioned my relationship with god.
there've been some interesting studies linking religious convictions to a certain part of the brain, implying that belief in god/supernatural is sort of hard-wired into us.
http://www.iht.com/articles/23109.htm
excerpts:
"The brain is set up in such a way as to have spiritual experiences and religious experiences," said Andrew Newberg, a Philadelphia scientist who wrote the book "Why God Won't Go Away."
"Unless there is a fundamental change in the brain, religion and spirituality will be here for a very long time," he said.Could the flash of wisdom that came over Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha - have been nothing more than his parietal lobe quieting down? Could the voices that Moses and Mohammed heard on remote mountaintops have been just a bunch of firing neurons - an illusion?
Could Jesus' conversations with God have been a mental delusion? Mr. Newberg will not go that far, but other proponents of the new brain science do. Michael Persinger, a professor of neuroscience at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, has been conducting experiments that fit a set of magnets to a helmet-like device.Mr. Persinger runs what amounts to a weak electromagnetic signal around the skulls of volunteers. Four in five, he said, report a "mystical experience, the feeling that there is a sentient being or entity standing behind or near" them. Some weep, some feel God has touched them, others become frightened and talk of demons and evil spirits.Those who believe the new science disproves the existence of God say they are holding a mirror to society about the destructive power of religion. They say that religious wars, fanaticism and intolerance spring from dogmatic beliefs.
fascinating stuff
mox
bill & joan cetnar, in their book, questions for jehovah's witnesses, relate an interesting case of a young thai missionary, who turned crazy during the course of gilead.
on her way back home she jumped from the boat and was alleged that she was eaten by sharks.
president knorr tried to keep it secret.. when i tried to investigate by writing to brooklyn and the bethel of thiland, none of them answered my registeried letters.
maximus: it wasnt clear from that conversation whether or not the thai sister died or not. can u clarify?
did everyone notice the last (next to last?) bethel grad photo in the WT that had been expertly retouched to remove one couple for whatever reason, presumably they did not graduate. it was an excellent retouching job and you can only see where they were by the assymetry in the remaining members. they actually created images of hands that wouldve been invisble behind the removed individuals. i wasnt around these boards at the time so maybe this was discussed extensively.
mox
had enough asked :.
if you haven't already related to us the experiences at bethel that you told to your mom-in-law, (or even if you already have told us) could you tell us about what you told her.....and...what is "g-jobbing" (sorry for my naivity) .
i didn't want to take away from sl post about his mother but i thought a little insight into the world of the bethelites would be interesting this am.
porn in the bathroom ventshaft?? is this for real?? is this like 'community' porn? take it out if you need it but put it back when you're done. wink-wink nudge-nudge?
mox
a brother just told me about a new assembly procedure.
during the program at his d.c. this past week-end (cornwall, ontario) the chairman asked everyone to pick up their belongings and leave the stadium immediately.
everyone gathered in a nearby park.
i heard of another evacuation due to bomb threat recently, not the cornwall one but i cant remember where. also heard comments about that impressive orderliness. the comment about the city testing is undoubtedly nothing more than a typical JW urban legend in its infancy. the WT did not 'lie' about what happened.
are people here thinking about calling in 'threats' themselves? would you do something like that or is that crossing the line?
mox
"read your bible".. this phrase has been used by the watchtower society for years.. however, it is being widely used in recent years for particular.
reasons.
circuit overseers and governing body members have been.
i find that this is also a matter of shifting the blame. i kind of a well-how-do-you-know-it-wont-work-until-you-try-it tactic. after all, very few r&f actually read the bible daily as recomended. during elder meetings, the CO is fond of reminding us that only about half of the servant body generally appear to be doing so. so, if things are not going well in ones life, and youve got this panacea of '15 minutes a day' held out to you and you dont take it, then who have you got to blame?
mox
there has been some discussion in the past on whether people became legal members of the watchtower society or not when they got baptised and whether this was made clear to them.
the wt argues that you are or are not a legal member as it suits them.. here is a thought.... on their website's privacy statement at http://www.watchtower.org/contact/privacy.htm (linked from the 'request contact' form) they say:.
will the watchtower society disclose the information it collects to outside parties?.
earler up the page they define 'Watchtower' as the PA corp.
that still doesnt answer the main question of what is inside or outside the corp and why tho.
mox
i have been reading a book called the jesus mysteries and it puts forward an idea that jesus never existed but was born out of the ideas of gnostism.
there are many similarities between ancient religions and christianity, which is very worrying for me.
i have not had a lot of time of late to read up on it properly but here are the conclusions that i have come to so far.. did christ exist?
re josephus: id have to check this but arent there TWO references to jesus? one, with a messianic flavor that is roundly considered a christian interpolation and another one, less descriptive, i think the one that just mentions 'james, brother of jesus' that is considered authentic?
mox
