i'm a bit of a horror fan - i love horror movies and the novel dracula by bram stoker is a pretty good read - especially the first four chapters, with jonathan harker being in dracula's castle.. i've heard before that stoker based count dracula on a 15th century voivod (prince) of wallachia who went down in history as vlad the impaler - apparently, he was extremely barbaric and cruel, as his name suggests.. vlad's father was also called vlad.
daddy vlad was apparently part of an order of crusader knights, the order of the dragon.
this order was formed to protect christian europe against muslim ottomans/turks.
The Dracula/blood connections have come up a few times on this site, and I contributed one thread about it a few years ago, in which some of the literature on the subject equates the use of blood with repressed sexual imagery of the Victorian Era:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/124690001/connections-between-blood-transfusion-sexual-repression-victorian-age
I took a literature class in college about the Dracula imagery that sparked my interest in the subject.
here is the updated chart based on jw.org provided statistics found here: link to 2019 statistics.
anything that stands out to you ?.
.
I have two family members who are in a Bethel overseas, and when they come back to the States, they are given health insurance cards for their stay. They go to all the doctor visits they need to, completely paid for. The cost runs into several thousand each year, and they are relatively young without major health issues. Health care is a major expense.
here is the updated chart based on jw.org provided statistics found here: link to 2019 statistics.
anything that stands out to you ?.
.
first off, this is a book you want to read.
avoid the movie franchise at all costs.
horrible movies.. here's why i recommend this book: its prime focus is using rational reasoning to form your life philosophy - whether that be relationships, career or faith.. it also gives insight into the mind of someone who survived the geopolitical equivalent of the jws - the communist regime of stalin.. the antagonists of the book are referred to as "collectivists".
I have read it, along with The Fountainhead. Both are thought provoking. I don’t agree with the premises of Atlas Shrugged, but I did find the book interesting and worth reading.
i remember going door to door in the late 60's with my mother as a 5 or 6 year old.
one time she caught me looking at the wind chimes on a porch.
she told me they had pagan origins, were evil, and were somehow connected to demons.
hi guys...well watchtower gets wackier and wackier!.
so watchtower has hired the author of several books on satanism & self proclaimed 'vampire' society member(!
) vlad...i mean massimo introvigne to defend them against a report by two academics recommending the dutch govt investigate jws.
Maybe this is the guy who designed the seeing-eye Bethel!
meeting part comment on how the flood covered everest.
that is even more ignorant than mountains being pushed up and eroding in a few thousand years.
and it wasnt cold either.. i should have commented on the bristlecone in the awake that survived the flood.
for many years the government of mexico did not allow religious organizations to own property.
any property used by a religious organization was confiscated by the government.
this law changed in the mid 1990's.
Ray Franz discussed this situation at length in his books, but I think both his books preceded the legal change referred to which happened in the '90's.
currently reading : 30 years a watchtower slave.
cannot put it down.. this book pre-dates ray franz book "crisis of conscience", written from early 20th century, shortly after the jehovah's witnesses were formed.
the author describes the original true background of the watchtower society as a multi-million dollar publishing company.
I read Schnell's book about 30 years ago and wasn't impressed. He comes across as bitter and mean. However, he did have a unique perspective being involved in the '30's and '40s, so I would probably read it again if I came across it.
the co got on his hind legs for the public talk and repeated twice "tolerance promotes division".
then backed it up by saying that if one group march for some right, another group will march for the opposite.. so jws are intolerant and proud of it.
f@@@k me sideways.. may explain that the baptism tally was 0..
If tolerance promotes division, then it follows that intolerance promotes unity. Maybe that’s true, but it’s not a world I want to live in.
