Posts by fugue

38

Bullet list of major (recent) changes

by RN in

jw
friends

it is with great interest that i recently read ceders article on the decline of the wts.

his article along with many of the comments really drives home just how many major changes there have been in a fairly short peroid of time.. somewhere in the recent past i could swear that someone had posted a bullet list of major changes with the corresponding year.

when i saw this (or something like it) my first thought was that this simple list made it all the more shocking; and since i have searched and cannot find anything like it.. so i dug around and started one of my own, please feel free to add/corrects events.

fugue

00DAD: The Overlapping Generation change came in 2010, not 2008: In the Watchtower 2010 April 15 issue, the generation doctrine was changed in an attempt to reintroduce urgency.

Actually the "overlapping generations" idea did first surface in 2008.

*** w08 2/15 p. 25 Christ’s Presence—What Does It Mean to You? ***
The word “generation” usually refers to people of various ages whose lives overlap during a particular time period or event. For example, Exodus 1:6 tells us: “Eventually Joseph died, and also all his brothers and all that generation.” Joseph and his brothers varied in age, but they shared a common experience during the same time period. Included in “that generation” were some of Joseph’s brothers who were born before him. Some of these outlived Joseph. (Gen. 50:24) Others of “that generation,” such as Benjamin, were born after Joseph was born and may have lived on after he died.
So when the term “generation” is used with reference to people living at a particular time, the exact length of that time cannot be stated except that it does have an end and would not be excessively long. Therefore, by using the term “this generation,” as recorded at Matthew 24:34, Jesus did not give his disciples a formula to enable them to determine when “the last days” would end. Rather, Jesus went on to emphasize that they would not know “that day and hour.”—2 Tim. 3:1; Matt. 24:36.

10

Eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses - wikipedia

by Band on the Run in

i read this article last night.

it was confusing.

the parade of dates long before i was born 1790, 1876, 1914, a whole profusio of them with backtracking and sorry excuses was mind boggling, even for one raised a witness.

fugue

I just started looking at the Talk section. This jumped out at me:

I added the neutrality tag to this article because I noticed several statements sourced by Crisis of Conscienceand other books by ex-member Raymond Franz. He is not a reliable source, at least not in the way he is being used here, as his books deal entirely with attacks on the religion. Source these statements with official Watchtower information or historical records or remove them. --Iron Chef (talk) 19:18, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

You can almost be assured that Iron Chef has not bothered to read a single word from either of Ray Franz's TWO books (not "other books"... he only wrote Crisis of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom.) Instead, Iron Chef (who I'm guessing is a diligent little jdub) has been told that Ray Franz's books are "entirely attacks on the religion." That's quite a mischaracterization.

Also, if he HAD in fact looked at Crisis of Conscience, he would know that the book is FULL of "official Watchtower information and historical records."

Silly dub.

10

Definitions for JW words

by socstu in

does the watchtower have some sort of dictionary for people to consult for words they use such as publisher, ministry, pioneer.. just wondering as i don't wanna just say what my version of those words mean if they aren't exactly true..

fugue

Farkel's list has a lot of sarcasm and satire. Here's a list that is a more serious attempt to define "jw-ese":

http://cftf.com/dictionary/

That page is a little bit dated. Some terms, like "Presiding Overseer," have changed recently. But for the most part it's a pretty thorough glossary.

22

Blood transfusion DF/DA

by allyouneedislove in

i was reading the following page:.

http://ajwrb.org/currentwtpolicy/callingsociety.htm.

can a jw still be df or da for taking a blood transfusion, if they are not "repentant"?.

fugue

This was at the heart of the wt's deception in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian government didn't like that the witnesses sanctioned members based on their choice of medical treatment. So the wtbts deceptively changed their rules. Unrepentantly receiving a blood transfusion became an indication that the person was "disassociating himself." This allowed the wtbts to tell Bulgaria: No, we do NOT sanction anyone for their choice of medical treatment. (Of course, the end resut is still the same... if a person was found to unrepentantly accept blood, he would be announced as "no longer one of jw's.")

Pre-Bulgaria blood policy:
*** w61 1/15 p. 63 Questions From Readers ***
Questions From Readers
? In view of the seriousness of taking blood into the human system by a transfusion, would violation of the Holy Scriptures in this regard subject the dedicated, baptized receiver of blood transfusion to being disfellowshiped from the Christian congregation?
The inspired Holy Scriptures answer yes.
...
If, however, he refuses to acknowledge his nonconformity to the required Christian standard and makes the matter an issue in the Christian congregation and endeavors to influence others therein to his support; or, if in the future he persists in accepting blood transfusions or in donating blood toward the carrying out of this medical practice upon others, he shows that he has really not repented, but is deliberately opposed to God’s requirements. As a rebellious opposer and unfaithful example to fellow members of the Christian congregation he must be cut off therefrom by disfellowshiping.

Post-Bulgaria blood policy:
(From the 2010 elder's manual):
Willingly and unrepentantly taking blood.
If someone willingly takes blood, perhaps because
of being under extreme pressure, the committee
should obtain the facts and detennine
the indjvidual's attitude. If he is repentant, the
committee would provide spiritual assistance in
the spirit of Galatians 6: 1 and Jude 22, 23. Since
he is spiritually weak, he would not qualify for
special privileges for a period of time, and it may
be necessary to remove certain basic privileges.
Depending on the circumstances, the committee
nlay also need to arrange for an announcement
to the congregation: "'The elders have
handled a matter having to do with [name
of person]. You will be glad to know that
spiritual shepherds are endeavoring to render
assistance." On the other hand, if the elders
on the committee determine that he is
unrepentant, they should announce his disassociation.

It's just a shell game by the wtbts. They will lie and even rewrite their policies to suit their own needs. Cult.

17

desensitization from the Jehovah's witnesses

by Star tiger in

.

this may be a different way of exit from the jehovah's mentality, for me it should work, first i want to try all the things that were verbotent to them, slowly at first a piece of black pudding, then donating blood, you see the progression.. then a little more flagrant in the laws, buying a pack of tarot cards, reading them and so on.. does anyone think that's a reasonable way of beginning to destroy the subconcious methods of programming, also i am very ocd so any way of destroying the jehovahs witnesses mindset is fraught with potential new ways of worrying me!.

star tiger.

fugue

I've done it, too. I was a born-in, so I never experienced anything in the world. Spent time as an elder, pioneer, etc. Finally saw the flaws in the borg and disassociated at age 41. In the year and a half that I've been out, I've done some desensitizing, too. And I've done it for the exact reason you gave. It has been a way of forcibly breaking my subconscious resistance to breaking the wt's rules.

The night my DA letter was read, I planted an American Flag in the front yard. I now smoke, even though I know it's a harmful and stupid habit. I have watched The Exorcist, Paranormal Activity, and several other "demonic" movies. I went to a fortune teller and had my palms read, plus had my tarot cards read. I registered to vote. I've donated blood as frequently as I'm able to. I participated in a Catholic mass (even though I'm atheist now.) I've done all of the holidays. My house had the most Christmas lights of any house on my block. (My neighbors were probably like... wtf?? Since when do we have to compete with THAT guy???)

One thing I haven't done is fuck around, but that's because I love and respect my wife. If I wasn't married to her, I would do whatever the fuck I wanted to do.

Basically, I look at it this way: I gave the first half of my life to the lies of the washtowel under the guise of worshipping j-ho. I am dedicating the second half of my life to disrespecting j-ho in any way I can.

19

Less literature for Field Service means more Bible usage...

by Alfred in

jw
friends

i recently asked my jw elder brother (who thinks i'm just "inactive") what he makes of the reduction in pages of the wt & awake rags.... his response was something like:.

well this was something that has been discussed for a long time.

the society feels that the brothers need to start using the bible more in field service so they are slowly reducing the pages of the literature to encourage the brothers to read the bible more and not depend so much on the literature.

fugue

Householders will appreciate the smaller magazines. They will take up less space in their trash cans.

20

Special Assembly Day 'Let God's Will Take Place'

by mindnumbed in

the entire special assembly day - this is a zipped audio file.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ryisdi.

or piecemeal.

fugue

Thanks for posting this.

I wouldn't have been able to make quality recordings of talks like this. You wouldn't have been able to hear the speaker over the sound of me snoring.

24

Spot the obvious mistake with this JW pamphlet.

by biometrics in

.

that's right it should be "1970s"(without the apostrophe) not "1970's"..

fugue

Everyone here is WRONG. With four Super Bowl wins, the Pittsburgh Steelers clearly conquered the world in the 70s.

89

Examples of Fredrick Franz Horrible personality.

by Witness 007 in

in he's nephews book i could not believe some of the things he mentions.

when his father died fred franz told his mother he could not go to the funeral because he was just too busy at bethel.

she spoke to rutherford who ordered him to go.

fugue

I like the one where he said, in court, that j-ho is the editor of the watchtower.

Question: At any rate, Jehovah God is now the editor of the paper, is that right?
Freddie: He is today the editor of the paper.

As far as I can tell, Fred Franz was an all-out douchebag.

20

"They took no note" - ?

by compound complex in

jw
friends

a friend and i talked on the phone recently, and he read matthew 24:36-38 from 3 different versions of the bible.

the various renderings indicated that the citizenry were not aware of a coming judgment nor did they suspect anything, giving rise to the thought: what did noah preach (if anything)?

likewise, were people in areas far removed from noah's alleged ark building apprised of his monumental feat?

fugue

Included in the list of people who "took no note" were the following well-established cultures and civilizations:

Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Egypt, the Minoans, and the Chinese.

Not only did these cultures "take no note" of Noah's warning, they also "took no note" of the flood itself, since we can see through archaeological records that their civilizations proceeded uninterrupted right through the time when they should have been wiped out by Noah's flood.

The flood myth is one of the funnest bible stories to pick apart because it's probably the most ridiculous story ever, when you take it literally.