Posts by Nathan Natas

35

I Saw An Elder Yesterday Who Told Me 3 Area Kingdom Halls Were Being Dissolved

by minimus in

jw
friends

he said they read the letter to the congregation and were told the kh would be disbanded.

2 other halls in the area were slated for closure.

he said many people in the congregation began crying.

Nathan Natas

BRAV-O! The end of something must be REALLY drawing closer!

It might be just two or three lap-dancing generations away!

WOWee! Huzzah!

Yipee Ki-yay, mothertowers!

30

There is something I don't understand about the selling off of Kingdom Halls

by Tameria2001 in

i have been reading where the watchtower is closing down kingdom halls.

there is something that i don't understand, or maybe i am just misunderstanding it.

can someone clear this up for me?

Years ago former McDonald’s CFO, Harry J. Sonneborn, is quoted as saying, “we are not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell fifteen-cent hamburgers (SEE? This WAS a LONG time ago!) is because they are the greatest producer of revenue, from which our tenants can pay us our rent.”

(see http://blog.wallstreetsurvivor.com/2015/10/08/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/)

McDonalds owns the properties ad the franchisees rent the restaurant from McDonalds.

One difference between religion and burgers is that burgers are not invisible. Otherwise, the business models are similar. But religion has a lower overhead; no inventory, no waste, no salaries. In both cases the idea is to find a way to generate an income stream while you are waiting for your properties to appreciate.

I leave it to you to tell me which leaves a better taste in your mouth.

39

Do You Know Of Anyone Who Left JWs And Then Decided To Return?

by minimus in

jw
friends

quite a few years ago there was a poster here that left the religion because he knew it was simply not true.

however, he returned to jws because he wanted to be with his family.

i don’t know how he is doing but gumby was his name.

Nathan Natas

I also know a few, and I'm no social butterfly, so it must be pretty common.

I'm not one of them.

41

kingdom halls

by pepperheart in

do you think the watchtower will sell off any more kingdom hall after the 3,000 have been sold of and why do you think that.

Nathan Natas

The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society is a Real Estate enterprise.

Next question?

15

Today is a BIG anniversary for me...but--of what?

by TerryWalstrom in

today is a big anniversary day for me!.

october 23, 1967, was a monday.

i stood in front of district judge leo brewster as he sentenced me to six years in federal prison.. .

Nathan Natas

Sir82 pointed out, "The wretched irony of it is, some time in the 90's the WTS reversed course and "alternative service" is now perfectly fine for JWs..."

Also worth noting is that the USA now relies on an ALL VOLUNTEER military; there is no more draft! How convenient!

I'm a member of Brother Terry's "generation" (no overlap, please, we're rational) and like him I faced the draft. I took the same stand he did and I was "lovingly counseled" to EXPECT to spend some time in prison. But I didn't! I pioneered and offered an acceptably articulate defense of my convictions to the draft board. I nearly fell over when my draft board gave me my 4-D ministerial exemption!

Was I better than Brother Terry? HELL NO! To the best of my knowledge neither of us was leading a "double-life." I may even have been closer to being a "doubler" than Brother Terry was - I know my secret transgressions, but not his.

So was this "Jehovah's judgment"? I REJECT that suggestion! There IS NO Jehovah! All there is is unblinking time and uninterested circumstance! Each draft board was unique - it was made of LOCAL men - volunteers - who judged each "draft dodger" against the other juvenile delinquents the draft board had to deal with!

I was in NYC, where my behavior and "godly devotion" may have made me seem saintly next to the punks, thugs, hippies, morphodites and gonzos who lived in my burg.

Bro T, on the other hand, may have been from an area off the country where most kids his age were fairly good citizens, so by contrast his gowns may not have seemed so brilliantly white.

Can you see how 50 years later, I wrestle with a tad of guilt - "survivor's remorse" maybe. If you are not familiar with T's story, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of his book. Like me you may weep by the rivers of Babylon the Greater for the ordeal Terry survived. Then take a moment to think of the THOUSANDS of other 18-year-olds who were convicts of conscience, JW or otherwise. Farkel was one too.

I doubt that anyone who has not faced this can grasp the level of stress this puts on a person. The Watchtower would take a position that they offered ABSOLUTELY NO advice to the 18-year old because they didn't want to find their butts warming Rutherford's cell in the Atlanta Penitentiary, but on the side they would tell you what YOU HAD TO DO to be approved by the Jehovah Sock Puppet. YOU must RESIST! YOU must NOT accept alternate service!

We were the mirror image of Billy Joel's song..

https://youtu.be/R9rG1G-Yr_Q

Hey T, love ya bro, and I'm sorry...

76

Family is now reaping what they sowed and they don't like it.

by Gemmel in

i resigned from the jw's in my 20's over 30 years ago, i was immediately shunned by my entire family and it's remained that way with a few exceptions ever since.

one of those exceptions was being contacted by a cousin a few years back and during that conversation i discovered that my mother had been and still was the prime mover in my complete and continuing shunning.

i then used what contacts i had left to confirm it.

Nathan Natas

I was just reviewing 3rdgen's experience trying to get the WTB&TS to repay a loan. 3rdgen said,

"He wrote 3 letters with NO response so he called the desk asking if the letters had been received. The answer was: Yes, they received them. BUT she had (in her demented state) verbally "forgiven the loan" "Put her on welfare"

I was stunned! the WTB&TS is claiming that they had a VERBAL agreement from a dotard forgiving the loan! That's INCREDIBLE!

If the situation were different - If ordinary Brother Rank-and-File was asked to repay a conditional loan, the WTB&TS would offer the scriptural counsel that the loan SHOULD be repaid because there was NO PROOF it had been forgiven.

And >if< there really WAS a verbal forgiving of the loan, how STUPID is the WTB&TS for not immediately putting one of their attorneys on a plane to get that forgiven loan properly DOCUMENTED!

Wow! The balls on these guys!

76

Family is now reaping what they sowed and they don't like it.

by Gemmel in

i resigned from the jw's in my 20's over 30 years ago, i was immediately shunned by my entire family and it's remained that way with a few exceptions ever since.

one of those exceptions was being contacted by a cousin a few years back and during that conversation i discovered that my mother had been and still was the prime mover in my complete and continuing shunning.

i then used what contacts i had left to confirm it.

Nathan Natas

Ignore the counsel of milquetoasts.

76

Family is now reaping what they sowed and they don't like it.

by Gemmel in

i resigned from the jw's in my 20's over 30 years ago, i was immediately shunned by my entire family and it's remained that way with a few exceptions ever since.

one of those exceptions was being contacted by a cousin a few years back and during that conversation i discovered that my mother had been and still was the prime mover in my complete and continuing shunning.

i then used what contacts i had left to confirm it.

Nathan Natas

For what it is worth, I agree with yourdecision 101.3%! I understand what you've been subjected to and the pain it caused you. Now that their poor planning has paid off so nhandsomly, they expect YOU to fill the GAP. Why? "Well, because we were RIGHT all along, and YOU KNOW IT!" they'd answer.

Let them eat their stale, past-its-pull date coffeecake! It tastes just like all the other Watchtower prophecies -- it tastes like dust!

...and hey! Didn't I see you at the Atheist Church last Thursday?*

* a clever toying with the "Atheism is a religion" and "last Thursday-ism" memes, brought to you by --- me!

77

It's a shame isn't it?

by freddo in

jw
friends

... that this forum, which is such an amazing resource for those needing support for their journey from watchtower's clutches has an increasingly present representation of unreasoning politically charged loudmouths..

Nathan Natas

Freddo said, "...this forum, which is such an amazing resource for those needing support for their journey from Watchtower's clutches has an increasingly present representation of unreasoning politically charged loudmouths."

You need to work on your self-esteem, pal. I don't think you're an unreasoning politically charged loudmouth -- yet.

Why not name names and/or ideologies that you find especially threatening to your delicate world view?

39

Concealed carry Dubs

by scruffmcbuff in

i spent a considerable length of time living and working in america (would love to imigrate one day).. almost everyone i worked with and made friends with carried a concealed firearm of somesort.

i found this pretty interesting and as an avid firearm fan even more so.. so to our american members here... .

as a jw did you or did you know any practising dubs who carried or if not had firearms for home defence?

Nathan Natas

I heard that one of my youthful peer-group worked for a while as a NYC cabbie and carried when he was driving. I don't know if he carried in other places.

I'm now a member of the NRA, so I can't criticize his decision, but back then it would have cause a few eyebrows to arch.

If a person has the right to defend their life, there can't be a limit on the exercise of that right.

If someone says there is a limitation on what is acceptable defense, then it seems to me they're saying I have the right to be at the mercy of a criminal. Who else is gonna save my life? Batman? Jesus?

I'd put my money on Batman.