Posts by Moxy

10

My Story, Finally..... Feels so "Good"

by Casper in

jw
friends

i am a survivor:.

i was born in one of the largest cities in the us, lived there for the first few years of my life, during that time i was molested twice, once atthe age of 3 and again at the age of 4, the second .

time being a group thing.

Moxy

welcome and wow casper. thats quite a story. i hope your husband really truly understands you and whats made you the person you are. i would imagine there would be very few people you could...

mox

20

Why some stays inside the JW

by beroea in

jw
friends

i was posting a little on the old h2o but have taking a break before going to this new room only watching for a while.

im still an active jw and elder here in europe - a long way from you in the usa and also another culture even inside the jw.

i think we in europe as jws are thinking a little different from the jws in the u.s. we dont put religious authorities as high as i think you do.

Moxy

welcome beroea. look forward to more interesting observations from europe.

can you tell us more about how you think the JWs in your country have a different outlook than north america?

mox

2

for those interested the los angeles times ran a story about recent archaelogical finds supporting the notion that the story of exodus is, for the most part, a legend, and how a rabbi shared this information with his congregation for the first time, even though religious scholars have known this for 10-15 years or so.

of course, there is no consensus.. the story can be found here: .

http://www.latimes.com/news/columns/colone/20010412/t000031433.html.

Moxy

its getting harder and harder to read _anything_ about archeology and not require oneself to ignore the bulk of scientific opinon if one wishes to hold onto their JW faith. in particular i get the impression that archeology as a whole has come a long way in just the past 15 years or so. i havent studied the subject extensively (i think i will try and find that 'bible unearthed' book) so im not sure if thats true or if it is, why. any comments? it seems like anything the WT has written within that time period (since the creation book) has more or less just ignored archeology rather than trying to take it on and refute scientific claims.

mox

185

Long Intro From A Long Timer

by hillary_step in

jw
friends

i am a new to posting on this board though i have been actively reading your posts the past while and i thank some of you for the interesting viewpoints that you have verbalized and that i have enjoyed thinking on.

i am still an active jw, in fact an elder of 20 years standing hence my need to limit information about my personal circumstances.

i have served in a number of countries in europe as a pioneer and elder over the past three decades.

Moxy

i cannot for the _life_ of me figure out why people seem to react so strongly to hillary's posts!! comf, you are being way to presumptuous about his motives. ill just say that.

and mommie, i was just about to correct your wild take on HS's comments about his wife but i see he beat me to it.

hs, you are responding to this quite well. keep it up. i think that people here have just gotten used to people showing up with totally false persona's that theyve invented, either to troll (make inflamatory remarks solely to get reponses) or to try and 'catch' someone in an argument. but i think maybe people are bit too cynical of newcomers if theyre hoping to encourage entrants to add to the pleasant mixture of posters in here. well, you say youve been reading posts here for a while - im sure you know what its all about it

mox

54

JW Decline

by larc in

jw
friends

i found some interesting statistics, some of which you may know, that indicate that the wtbts is in decline.. 1. in the twenty years from 1970 to 1990, the rate of yearly increase dropped from 10% to 6%.

in the last 10 years it has dropped from 6% to about 2%.

since the world population growth is about 1.5% they are only growing at about 1/2 of 1% faster than the population.. 2. in 1999, there were 21 large countries that showed a decline.

Moxy

just for the hell of it, ive composed a spreadsheet with stats for the world and USA back to 1969. i actually possess yearbooks back to 1950 and you cant get these stats from the CD so if you love stats, im your man :)

spreadsheet is available here for download
http://members-http-4.rwc1.sfba.home.net/aghull/stats/stats.xls

heres a chart of growth. note that the decrease in the laste 70s was a 'blip' as opposed to the current one which is definitely a 'trend'

another stat that i always wanted to be able to compile was the drop (amount of increase after you subtract the baptisms and death rate) you can see it here, these are the number of publishers that seem to have 'disappeared' in the last 12 years.

2000: 103351
1999: 158070
1998: 71580
1997: 138430
1996: 100162
1995: 36307
1994: 58768
1993: 58944
1992: 42499
1991: 36839
1990: 43732
1989: 35699
1988: 13715
1987: 25748

185

Long Intro From A Long Timer

by hillary_step in

jw
friends

i am a new to posting on this board though i have been actively reading your posts the past while and i thank some of you for the interesting viewpoints that you have verbalized and that i have enjoyed thinking on.

i am still an active jw, in fact an elder of 20 years standing hence my need to limit information about my personal circumstances.

i have served in a number of countries in europe as a pioneer and elder over the past three decades.

Moxy

welcome hillary. you seem to have a very fair and honest approach to things and that is a quality i respect. you also write very well, im sure that i would enjoy your talks. look forward to hearing more from you.

mox

12

to JT and other ex- (current) Bethelites

by teejay in

jw
friends

hey, james,.

if you would, and you have the time, give us.

a run-down on your views of the governing.

Moxy

something that makes me a bit uneasy is the younger members, losch and on. i mean what kind of personality comes to the conclusion that they have been chosen to replace a fallen anointed in an atmosphere where they have been told that this is very unlikely? the original GB members lived during a time when their decisions that they were anointed were status quo. and if today someone suddenly decided that they were anointed, what does everyone think? wacko? proud? well, these people are different, very different from the original GBs i would presume. and as they gradually comprise a larger proportion of the body, i will expect to see some wierdness.

ps, not to be kinky but could you elaborate on this, nothingman

> He also liked to expound on the females response to sex

not sure what u mean...

mox

20

what brought you out?

by uncle_onion in

jw
friends

i was intersted in what brought "you" out.. with me it was the 607 bce thing.

i always followed the org and would have died for it but when i saw the fallacy of the 607 date that blew it for me.

i am now on a quest to try and find something to feel comfortable with.

Moxy

i think mine was unique tho i dont know why it should be only me that seems to have approached it this way

the 607 and 455 problems i figured out on my own with no help from outside sources other than neutral reference works and the publications. however i let that go, figuring that it wasnt really that important. it bugged me a lot to have to keep hearing these wrong dates over and over with almost no acknowledgement of the contradiction with historians' dates (ie the new daniel book, amazingly, refers to the neo-babylonian chronology that gives us 607 several times in each chapter, without _once_ providing an explanation as to how they get that chronolgy) but i could live with it for a while

when i really decided to sit down and take stock of things tho, i decided to pick something that should be the easiest, most tangible thing to prove as possible or not. i decided this was the flood. the flood should be either definitely possible or definitely not. i spent hours every day researching, among other branches of science, dendrochronolgy (tree-rings), egyptology, radiocarbon dating, anthropology, and genetics. once i had it all laid out i could see clearly that there was no salvaging the flood and a literal genesis. that pretty much knocked the feet out from under the whole belief system and everything else fell into place (or out of place, depending on your point of view)

i realize that this may seem like a rather cold way of coming to grips with matters of faith and i suppose that if the day comes when i am forced to try and explain this to my friends or family, i will seem to them to be fixated with technicalities and trivialities and ignoring the larger picture. i do not wish for this day to come soon.

mox

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