And just to be clear: I'm not interested in forum drama or assigning blame or making myself look good or anything of that nature. I hadn't even been posting much on JWR lately and even if I helped get it back online I'd probably still not be as active as I once was. I just feel that jw's who are stuck in and want out need as many resources as we can provide.
Posts by fugue
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123Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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123
Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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fugue
I haven't had time to read this entire thread, but if no one has offered already, I would like to offer to buy the jwr database, software license, and domain name. I'm a web developer and know all of the ins and outs of the technical end, plus I've got access to server space that could handle the traffic.
If anyone is in touch with Rifter and he's willing to sell it, please give him my email address (PM me here for it.)
What I would need would be moderating help and monetary help; I couldn't do either on my own. I've already reached out to one of my jwr friends offline and he said that he would be willing to help me.
All of the details could be worked out if the site owner is willing to sell.
My reason for offering this is: JWR was bigger than any individuals. It was a lifeline for countless people to get out of the cult and retain their sanity and dignity, even while losing their family, friends and identity.
I, too, have gotten to a point where I am feeling almost like an ex-ex-jw. But for 5 years and counting, I've felt an attachment to that community and I'd like to keep it alive.
Anyone who can put me in touch with Rifter, pm me please. Thanks.
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JW Grammar is...
by jw07 in*we are all from different cultural and educational backgrounds, we all experience different circumstances in life, and i don't mean to offend anyone on this forum in any way.*.
with that said here are my observations, and i want to know what you have observed.. in my experience i have noticed a trend: zealous witnessestend to exhibit the worst grammar when compared to non-witnesses!.
i want you to think back, or check it out for yourself if you haven't noticed it.. on social networks: compare comments on anything by jws (especially the uber-zealous ones) with those of your atheist or other religiously affiliated friends.
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fugue
but... but... we all know that reading Awake magazine gives one the equivalent of a college education!
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Info on publisher cards???
by OneDayillBeFree inso i moved to another hall to better help me fade.
so far it's been great although it is a very long and annoying process!
so i'm very good friends with the coordinating elder in the new hall since we've known each other for years and so instead of mailing them to the other hall he decided to pass them on to my dad so he could give them to me and for me to give them to the other hall.
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fugue
This is an older one (revised 2/82) but I don't think they've changed in any significant way since then.
http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/experiences/personal-files-privacy-act-1988.php
(Click on the image that says "publisher report card.")
They're double sided; the back is just more blanks. As you can imagine, they fill up pretty quick. So each publisher ® has a small stack of cards, depending on how many years you've been in da troof.
I'd like to hear from any more current elders... I haven't been an elder for about 10 years now... but are they making some progress toward going paperless with this?
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Info on publisher cards???
by OneDayillBeFree inso i moved to another hall to better help me fade.
so far it's been great although it is a very long and annoying process!
so i'm very good friends with the coordinating elder in the new hall since we've known each other for years and so instead of mailing them to the other hall he decided to pass them on to my dad so he could give them to me and for me to give them to the other hall.
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fugue
I was told, ounce I went out in service, then a new pub card would be made. I never went out again.
That's correct. When I was an elder, we had a couple times when someone's publisher cards got lost in transit. We would simply start a new one for them.
Taking your publisher cards isn't a magic bullet for a successful fade. BUT it does help you to eventually be forgotten... especially when you move away. If you leave, even if you're inactive, the congregation will still try to send your card to the new hall. But if the current congregation doesn't notice that you've left, AND they have no card for you anyway, your chances are good that they will just forget about you.
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Info on publisher cards???
by OneDayillBeFree inso i moved to another hall to better help me fade.
so far it's been great although it is a very long and annoying process!
so i'm very good friends with the coordinating elder in the new hall since we've known each other for years and so instead of mailing them to the other hall he decided to pass them on to my dad so he could give them to me and for me to give them to the other hall.
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fugue
Keep them, and when asked, say "Oh, crap, I can't remember what I did with them... let me look for them." Keep stalling in this way until (hopefully) they stop asking.
The elders at the new hall can easily make a new card for you. It's not rocket science... it just has your name, baptism date, birthdate, whether you're an elder/MS/pioneer, etc. You don't want them to make a new card for you... so keep promising to find the misplaced card, and hope they eventually forget about it.
But as others have said... they still know that you're a publisher. So you still have to keep a low profile if you're hoping to fade.
If you ever move from this hall to a new area, DON'T tell any jdubs in this hall where you're moving... and at that point, your fade should be complete. You will be free of their tracking methods.
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Study Edition given out on 'the doors'(TM)
by punkofnice ina good friend of mine who was never a jdub entertains the jws at his door and enjoys a friendly debate with them.. my friend is an atheist/agnostic (let's not get too picky on defenitions here).. the jws see him as fodder for the kingdom hell.
he tells them he knows me and they make no negative comments about me.
obviously they don't want to put him off methinks.. he was given a 'study edition'(tm) to my surprise.. he read it.
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fugue
To my athiest mind, the statement "You are hurting jehovah's feelings" is about as meaningless as "You are hurting Bigfoot's feelings" or "You are hurting The Man in the Moon's feelings." It's comical, but it certainly won't motivate me to do anything.
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Powerful questions to DEBUNK the Jonah and the big fish story
by Black Man injust wanting to link logical, common sense questions that dismantle the jonah/big fish story..
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fugue
Leolaia, I just read your critique of Jonah. You make some very valid points. I'm surprised that I never caught any of the subtle but ridiculous details, such as the cows being dressed in sackcloth and ordered to fast. How the hell do you dress a cow in sackcloth? How do you command a cow to fast? It's so obvious that the entire story is satirical. As a jw, I never looked at any of those details in the story, since the wt treated them as extraneous. I was such a sheep, just baa'ing along with the rest of them, blindly believing everything they said, including the supposition that Jonah was historical.
Thanks for taking the time to post that.
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Billions of dead, possibly killed by divine radiation, all of whom will need to be buried... Gerrit Losch predicts the future!
by cedars ini've finally turned my attentions away from anthony morris iii (just for the time being!
) and done a video about another governing body member... gerrit losch.. in this video, taken from a 2008 talk (given in sydney, australia), gerrit gives us his grim predictions for the future.... .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4bl_hzhjzm.
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fugue
I want to talk about this group of men and women who will spend a long time just burying the dead. Let's think this through. Anyone who is better at math than me, feel free to correct me if needed.
There are more than 7.4 million jw publishers right now. We were always told that not every jw will survive armageddon. But let's be generous in our estimating and say that 7 million jw's survive.
The number of dead bodies that need to be buried: 7 billion.
Now, we can't assume that all 7 million survivors will be on burial duty. According to the 2011 World Population Data Sheet, 27% of the world's population is under the age of 15, and 8% are over the age of 65. Let's assume that those percentages are also representative of the makeup of jehovah's witnesses. That means that 560,000 witnesses are over 65, and 1.89 million are under 15.
Let's assume that j-ho wouldn't ask children and old people to do this horrible, awful work of burying dead bodies. Let's also assume that the mothers of those children under age 15 would be permitted to stay home and take care of their children. Assuming that the average mother has two children, that means that the 1.89 million children will be taken care of by 945,000 mothers.
So we've reduced our pool of eligible gravediggers from 7 million down to 3.6 million. That's the estimated number of men between the ages of 15 and 65, plus women 15 to 65 who don't have children to raise.
We can reduce the gravedigging crew even more... because not every one of those 3.6 million people is physically, mentally or emotionally capable of carrying out this work. It would be VERY physically demanding, and even more than that, many people would find it to be emotionally devastating. And we were all told that armageddon survivors won't attain perfection until some time after armageddon... it won't be instant. In other words, at the very beginning of the 1,000 year reign, survivors will all be just the same people they are right now with very few improvements.
So... I'm just taking liberties here... but I'm going to estimate that 50% of the survivors will be either physically or emotionally incapable of carrying out this task of gravedigging.
So that leaves us with 1.8 million people with their little shovels and picks.
They will need to dig 7 billion graves.
Each grave digger needs to bury 3,888 bodies.
If the gravedigging crew is to complete the job in a month, each digger would need to bury 125 bodies per day. If they each work 12 hour days, 7 days a week... every digger would need to bury at least 10 bodies every hour, non-stop, for 12 hours straight. Seven days a week, for a month.
Will each body get its own grave? Or will mass graves be used?
I know one thing... I'd MUCH rather be one of the bodies getting thrown in a hole, than to be one of the poor unlucky bastards with the job of burying 125 corpses every single day for a month.
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Billions of dead, possibly killed by divine radiation, all of whom will need to be buried... Gerrit Losch predicts the future!
by cedars ini've finally turned my attentions away from anthony morris iii (just for the time being!
) and done a video about another governing body member... gerrit losch.. in this video, taken from a 2008 talk (given in sydney, australia), gerrit gives us his grim predictions for the future.... .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4bl_hzhjzm.
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fugue
"The bible indicates in the prophecy that there will be groups of people, of brothers and sisters, that will for a long time do nothing else than just bury the dead."
Where does the bible indicate this? I don't recall the bible saying this. Someone help me with finding that scripture.