This might actually happen - that's all I'm prepared to say at this stage - so please keep those thoughts and ideas coming in!
Posts by cedars
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64Crisis of Conscience - The Movie
by cedars ini know... how cool would that be??!.
having just commented on the post by trailerfitter about the situation with his wife, and how i have personally found the book crisis of conscience by ray franz to be the perfect antidote to the society's perception of itself as being god's earthly organisation, the thought occurred to me: what if there was a movie about ray franz and his life?
obviously the society would be in uproar, and letters would be read out to all congregations all over the world not to go and see it, but just imagine!
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62
WT: "Don't watch news items featuring witnesses!"
by cedars inhi everyone, yet another analysis of a recent watchtower i'm afraid.
this one's a little closer to home, as it concerns apostates.
yes - i'm referring to the forthcoming article "will you heed jehovah's clear warnings?
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cedars
That is an impressive Dragon pantsuit - apologies for mistaking it for some sort of bird, it was the wings that threw me!
It's a shame that Will Farrel's character from Starsky and Hutch isn't real, because I'm sure he would appreciate this picture.
Maybe you could wear elements of the dragon suit UNDERNEATH the pantsuit when you're on the governing body? Just an idea.
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62
WT: "Don't watch news items featuring witnesses!"
by cedars inhi everyone, yet another analysis of a recent watchtower i'm afraid.
this one's a little closer to home, as it concerns apostates.
yes - i'm referring to the forthcoming article "will you heed jehovah's clear warnings?
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cedars
That's true, you might even end up with multiple spin-off societies, each holding to previously cherished concepts that have been abandoned by the newly-morphed, brand new incarnation of the Society.
Ouch, that makes my head hurt!
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64
Crisis of Conscience - The Movie
by cedars ini know... how cool would that be??!.
having just commented on the post by trailerfitter about the situation with his wife, and how i have personally found the book crisis of conscience by ray franz to be the perfect antidote to the society's perception of itself as being god's earthly organisation, the thought occurred to me: what if there was a movie about ray franz and his life?
obviously the society would be in uproar, and letters would be read out to all congregations all over the world not to go and see it, but just imagine!
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cedars
Thanks Nabeena - glad you like the idea. I also think there is more mileage in this idea than some people are giving it credit for.
I was leafing through the first couple of paragraphs of Crisis earlier today trying to review the material with my 'movie' head on, and it's surprising how much material you have if you look closely enough. Ray went through a heck of a lot BEFORE even being accepted onto the Governing Body, which would really serve as a fascinating and character-defining backdrop against the events he would get caught up in later years. He was baptised at the start of the second world war and grew up on Rutherford's rantings, he took it all really seriously and was persecuted along with other witnesses, doing time behind bars for the preaching work. After getting married he was in the Dominican Republic having audiences with a tyrant, dodging bullets among political upheaval, and struggling with his wife's illness. When reading/watching all of that, nobody can be truly sceptical as to his loyalty and zeal to do what is right and stand up for the little guy. This gives his actions in later years, where he made the ultimate stand, even more weight.
I really hope this becomes a film, whether I am involved in making it happen or not!
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62
WT: "Don't watch news items featuring witnesses!"
by cedars inhi everyone, yet another analysis of a recent watchtower i'm afraid.
this one's a little closer to home, as it concerns apostates.
yes - i'm referring to the forthcoming article "will you heed jehovah's clear warnings?
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cedars
thetrueone - I appreciate your optimism, however I really can't see the Society ever shutting down at this rate. It would take something truly monumental to come close to achieving that - an event in which their authority was seriously undermined in the eyes of their loyal followers. When I say "monumental" I mean something HUGE like life being found on other planets, or first contact with an alien species. Even then they would probably find a way of making such events fit into their interpretation of the bible.
I think hoping that any "religion" will close down is as pointless as thinking that you can wage a war on terrorism. Sure you can "wage a war" on terrorists, you might even kill a few of them, but you'll never kill EVERY SINGLE terrorist, or every single person with radical fundamentalist militant views. It's not like defeating a country on the map where the battle lines are clearly drawn, because they're dotted around everywhere, and you have no reliable way of finding each and every one of them. Religious euphoria is more powerful than political agenda. The same is true of the witnesses. They will always exist in some way, shape or form so long as humans have the capacity to embrace crazy ideas and shape their whole lives around them. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and I wish I could be more optimistic, but I can't see it any other way.
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45
Am I on thin ice with my friend?
by cedars ini'm a former mts graduate, and it's a long story but i recently became inactive after realising it was all nonsense.
the problem is, i've noticed that my mts background makes it almost impossible for people to accept my new status as an "inactive" one.
people think that, given the amount of knowledge i have, there is surely no excuse for me to reach this preposterous decision.. a friend from my mts recently began emailing me to find out my reasons.
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cedars
An update to an update!
Those of you who gave me advice initially will be pleased to know that my friend has finally replied and has agreed to my request to delete my emails and forget about our debate. He seems satisfied with my explanation that depression has been a factor and may have caused me to be overly critical. He says he was shocked by some of the things I brought to his attention (I assume he means Mexico v Malawi / NGOs) but he is happy in himself that this is Jehovah's organization, albeit being run by imperfect men, and any future refinements will come through them and nobody else. Obviously the last thing I'm going to try to do now (having taken onboard the excellent advice on here) is try to persuade him otherwise. I personally think you can only persuade a person when they have already sown seeds of doubts themselves and want to know more. My friend was obviously nowhere near that stage, so any protracted discussion would only have served to increase the likelihood of my being disfellowshipped.
Phew! A close shave. Thanks guys! I'll be more careful next time...!!!
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WT: "Disfellowshipped teenagers = Nadab and Abihu"
by cedars incontinuing on my objective sojourn through the latest watchtower study editions, i thought i would write a few words about the article "god's rest - have you entered into it?
" taken from the july 15th watchtower.
incidentally, this watchtower is the same one that i discussed on my previous post concerning the society's latest bout of apostate-bashing.
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cedars
blondie - thanks for the extra insight into Nadab and Abihu. The closer you look at the analogy, the more flawed it is. It's just a shame that ordinary publishers won't be scrutinizing it whatsoever, and will just lap it up like everything else. Hopefully if any of us have family members who are attending in 2 weeks' time we can try to go through the scripture with them if they are receptive enough. Forewarned is forearmed, and it might lessen the impact.
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WT: "Disfellowshipped teenagers = Nadab and Abihu"
by cedars incontinuing on my objective sojourn through the latest watchtower study editions, i thought i would write a few words about the article "god's rest - have you entered into it?
" taken from the july 15th watchtower.
incidentally, this watchtower is the same one that i discussed on my previous post concerning the society's latest bout of apostate-bashing.
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cedars
Thanks Ding, although I'm not sure where you're going with this. Can I assume you're an exponent of zionism? If so, what has zionism got to do with disfellowshipping and the needless heartache it brings on families?
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62
WT: "Don't watch news items featuring witnesses!"
by cedars inhi everyone, yet another analysis of a recent watchtower i'm afraid.
this one's a little closer to home, as it concerns apostates.
yes - i'm referring to the forthcoming article "will you heed jehovah's clear warnings?
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cedars
Thanks thetrueone. It's interesting that, through this article, the Society almost admit that nothing good will be said about them by outsiders on the internet etc.
Whenever I think back to conventions, it seemed part of the program in the final talk on the last day was to list all the "outsiders" in and around the convention venue who had good comments about the behaviour of the witnesses etc. It's noteworthy that they are happy to accept comments from outsiders under those rare circumstances, but they actively discourage people from seeking outside opinions themselves for the rest of the year, and by any conceivable means.
It's been commented on this post that the Nazis could have learned from this level of control over people's minds. I think that's certainly true from a propaganda perspective. If it weren't that the Society relies so heavily on the internet and email to run its branch operations, I think they would ban the internet altogether in a heartbeat. Maybe that scenario isn't too far off from becoming a reality. After all, if they can find a reason to ban birthdays, surely the internet is fair game.
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WT: "Disfellowshipped teenagers = Nadab and Abihu"
by cedars incontinuing on my objective sojourn through the latest watchtower study editions, i thought i would write a few words about the article "god's rest - have you entered into it?
" taken from the july 15th watchtower.
incidentally, this watchtower is the same one that i discussed on my previous post concerning the society's latest bout of apostate-bashing.
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cedars
discreetslave - you have a point, the pictures ARE bigger in the simplified version, and the society even list young ones among the intended readership of the English simplified version.