Posts by NeonMadman

21

How many JW's would get FIRED if the WT would be paying them to preach?

by fedup in

2011 preaching results:.

hours preached: 1.7b.

new baptized: 263k.

NeonMadman

Don't forget that the 6464 hours per baptism is actually understated. Many, if not most baptisms result from sources other than the door to door preaching. Lots of baptisms are of kids who were raised as JWs. Therefore, it takes much more than 6464 hours of field service to actually generate a baptism from door to door preaching. In my experience, the majority of new Witnesses were either raised as such, or contacted through other methods, such as "informal witnessing." I think it very likely that those actually brought in through the door to door work are a minority.

2

TERRY: OMG - you were jailed over alternative service? TELL

by hamsterbait in

i remember an old guy in my kingdumb hell when i was little, saying one night after the book study how he had to do the two years jail.

the elders told him he couldnt do alternative service.

he was sharing his experiences of that time.

NeonMadman

I was never drafted, but some of my JW friends were, and a few went to jail over it during the Vietnam era. From most of the stories I heard, they were sent to "country club" style minimum security prisons, usually with sizeable JW populations, and I never heard any tales of abuse or anal rape. However, that was in New England; I can't know what conditions were like everywhere, and I'd imagine there was certainly potential for such abuses in some prisons. Typically, though, draft dodgers were not sent to maximum security prisons with hardened criminals.

14

Dear Friends...

by NeonMadman in

is it going to be alll right?

NeonMadman

Wow, I just realized I never completed this thread by giving the reference (yes, I'm fighting boredom today by reading ancient threads).

The line I quoted was the opening line of "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" by the Firesign Theater.

Just in case anyone has been waiting 9 years for the answer.

5

Dionysus/Jesus myths - Which came first?????

by everchangingworld in

for those of you who have already done research on this, have you been able to find information that proves jesus was based on dionysus?

do we have proof that any of the following was written prior to 1st century: dionysus turning water into wine, born of a virgin mortal, sent by zeus to save mankind, dead and resurrected (or any of the other parallels).. note: i'm agnostic/atheist, but i'm still curious about the historical details.

was dionysus based on jesus, or is it the other way around????

NeonMadman

http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/dionysus.html

4

Baptismal Authority

by Cold Steel in

some questions about baptism:.

do the jehovah's witnesses accept any baptisms outside of their own authorized baptisms?as i understand it, any male member in the church can baptize.

if a father wanted to baptize his son or daughter, does that happen a lot?

NeonMadman

Do the Jehovah's Witnesses accept any baptisms outside of their own authorized baptisms?

No. Anyone who was baptized into another faith was part of "Babylon the Great" and needs to be baptized correctly into God's organization. Also, baptism must be by immersion, so all those other modes of baptism wouldn't count anyway.

As I understand it, any male member in the church can baptize. But do they? If a father wanted to baptize his son or daughter, does that happen a lot? Or what if they snag a convert? Can one of the teachers do the baptism? Does this happen a lot?

It happens occasionally that someone is allowed to baptize his own child or a 'Bible study,' but I've never seen it as being common. Theoretically any male can baptize, but usually it's only done by elders or maybe ministerial servants who have been specifically appointed to do so.

Where are people baptized? Can they be baptized in swimming pools? Or are there fonts in the various Kingdom Halls?

Generally baptisms are carried out only at assemblies and conventions. Most Assembly Halls have baptism pools, and swimming pools are set up in the arenas where the large summer conventions are held.

If you're a current or former member, what do you remember about the day you were baptized? How did you feel? Were there any doubts or did you feel exhilerated? (Some people feel a little cocky...they had the truth and everyone else didn't.)

I was pretty happy about it, though it was a miserable experience. It was 1969 at the Yankee Stadium convention, and they herded us into overcrowded, standing-room-only buses to ship us across the Cross-Bronx Expressway to Orchard Beach. Almost 3000 were baptized that day, so there were a lot of buses and it was pretty much a cattle run at the beach. It was a hot July day, and the buses were not air conditioned, and the trip took about 90 minutes each way due to traffic (it would actually be about a 15 minute drive if you were the only car on the road, but the Cross-Bronx is a busy highway). So the 2 minutes you got into the water felt pretty good, but was followed by another 90 minute sweltering return trip. The afternoon session was already well under way by the time we got back, so we missed lunch, too. Nonetheless, I was exhilerated to finally be part of 'God's true organization'.

If you're a current or former member, did you ever baptize anyone? If you're a current member, do you want to?

I never baptized anyone, never felt any special desire to.

If you left the church, did you feel a need to be rebaptized into another faith? If so, which church did you join? Or did you become an atheist?

I'm an evangelical Christian. I was not rebaptized after leaving the JWs; two different churches (one Baptist and one C&MA) have accepted me as a member without requiring rebaptism, because I had made a profession of Christian faith prior to becoming a JW.

50

list of apostates published on the net--are you on it?

by bigmac in

jw
friends

https://sites.google.com/site/silence1492/facebook-youtube.

.

NeonMadman

Ben Parker

Mary Jane Watson

Gwen Stacy

Norman Osborn

Reed Richards

Susan Storm

Johnny Storm

Ben Grimm

Tony Stark

Donald Blake

Bruce Banner

Steve Rogers

I wonder if Spider-Man knows that so many of his friends and relatives are apostates?

50

list of apostates published on the net--are you on it?

by bigmac in

jw
friends

https://sites.google.com/site/silence1492/facebook-youtube.

.

NeonMadman

I guess no matter how bad an apostate you really are, you don't make the list unless you get suckered in by their fake website. Oh, and isn't maintaining a fake website to identify apostates a form of deception? Does Jehovah really approve of such dishonesty? I think that the guys who maintain the website are actually apostates themselves, since they rebel against the FDS' instruction not to maintain independent websites.

5

are they already working on the new buildings at warwick, ny?

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

i noticed on the news part of jw.org, they mentioned this comment:.

"there were power outages at the branch office facilities in patterson and wallkill, new york, and these facilities ran temporarily on generator power; however, the warwick facility is still operating on generator power.

the storm also disrupted telecommunications services at these facilities.".

NeonMadman

I live in the area, and I see Kingdom Support Services trucks in the vicinity of the Warwick property from time to time. So something is going on there, though I believe they are supposed to be in the permit process for new construction. I believe there are already some existing buildings on the property, so maybe they are doing renovations on those, or perhaps it's mainly surveying and other pre-construction activities going on at this time. I have friends who live within a mile or so of the property, as the crow flies, and they were out of electricity for almost 2 weeks after Hurricane Sandy (at my house, about 15 minutes away, we were without power for only 5 days, but we live very near a high school), so I'd imagine the situation might have been the same at the Watchtower property.

1

Vatican: Priests, bishops should wear cassocks

by Sol Reform in

instead of requesting bishops, priests and religious to wear the formal long robes of a cassock when visiting rome, would not the vatican be better served by requesting all of the above to just go meat free the next year or so?.

vatican: priests, bishops should wear cassocks.

by joshua j. mcelwee | nov. 19, 2012 ncr today.