Posts by dropoffyourkeylee

18

What happened to Catholic church bashing.

by Hellothere in

i remember back in the 80s almost every awake and watchtower magazine, think all, hade an article about how bad and evil catholic church was.

what happened to all the bashing?

was it because people in catholic countries got offended?

dropoffyourkeylee

My take:

The religious ground from which the WT took root and initially grew was the US Protestant base, the same base from which the Adventists arose in the 1800's. There was a strong anti-Catholic rhetoric which was part of the culture. The hatred of Catholicism continued through the Rutherford years; Rutherford's bashing of Catholics and his public jabs with Father Coughlin were well known in the '30's. The anti-Catholicism diminished as they started to expand more outside the US, especially to the historically Catholic countries of the rest of the Americas. Nowadays they have to craft their message more carefully to appeal to other cultures, especially as the majority of JWs are not in the US anymore.

1

JW Data Protection Policy

by dropoffyourkeylee in

just discovered something that is worth a comment or two:.

go to jw.org and type in the search box 'data protection'.

i had a conversation with an elder who told me that they are directed to purge some files pertaining to people who are ex-jws and have been disfellowshipped over a prescribed number of years.

dropoffyourkeylee

Just discovered something that is worth a comment or two:

go to JW.org and type in the search box 'data protection'. I had a conversation with an elder who told me that they are directed to purge some files pertaining to people who are ex-JWs and have been disfellowshipped over a prescribed number of years

. This was news to me and he mentioned the data protection policy online.

edited to add the following link

https://www.jw.org/en/privacy-policy/global-policy-personal-data/

Which contains information which seems to contradict the elder's statement.

27

So where oh where did Judge Rutherford come up with JW theology?

by Terry in

jw
friends

bits of unreported history that may be of casual interest… as to doctrinal origins.

sykes was one-of-a-kind in the pentecostal movement, but he was considered quite a maverick who went his own way with heretical teachings repugnant to the pentecostal faith.. joshua sykes’ congregation was integrated, unlike pastor russell’s public speeches/sermons where blacks and whites both could attend, but only in separate sections--sykes's members were sitting side by side in the pentecostal church.

this was considered dangerous and inflammatory at the time.. pentecostal preacher joshua sykes practiced racial and gender "integration" as early as 1908 -- having both african-american and female assistant preachers, staffers, and members.

dropoffyourkeylee

All good comments.

Concerning the choice of the name Jehovah's witness, I was a bit surprised when reading the Studies in the Scriptures during my wakeup period when I saw the name there - probably the first place in WT literature which specifically used the term. I don't have any copies of the Studies anymore to check, but it was in the third of the series I think. In that volume it said that the Great Pyramid was Jehovah's witness.

27

So where oh where did Judge Rutherford come up with JW theology?

by Terry in

jw
friends

bits of unreported history that may be of casual interest… as to doctrinal origins.

sykes was one-of-a-kind in the pentecostal movement, but he was considered quite a maverick who went his own way with heretical teachings repugnant to the pentecostal faith.. joshua sykes’ congregation was integrated, unlike pastor russell’s public speeches/sermons where blacks and whites both could attend, but only in separate sections--sykes's members were sitting side by side in the pentecostal church.

this was considered dangerous and inflammatory at the time.. pentecostal preacher joshua sykes practiced racial and gender "integration" as early as 1908 -- having both african-american and female assistant preachers, staffers, and members.

dropoffyourkeylee

The referenced Wikipedia article from a previous post in this thread, the referenced Wikipedia article at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Name_Movement

contains quite a number of highly debatable and unverified statements.

15

2022 Service Report is Out

by Bartolomeo in

warning: this post doesn't belong to me, i took it from reddit and posted it here.

news.

+0.4% growth in publishers globally.

dropoffyourkeylee

When was the last time there was negative growth in the US? Last time I can remember was in the late '70s.

58

Did the ransom sacrifice even work?

by Sharpie in

shower thought entered my mind the other day... jesus christ.

as per doctrine.

is still alive in heaven right now correct?

dropoffyourkeylee

The ransom never did make sense to me. Later in life, after JW indoctrination, I came to believe that the ransom reasoning was concocted by Paul as a way to convince the people of the time that sacrifices were not necessary to worship. The non-Jews, gentiles, who he was preaching to were accustomed to going to a temple somewhere, presenting some sacrifice, and this was their worship. He was trying to convince them to become Christians and they didn't have to sacrifice anything anymore. Maybe that is over simplifying, but that is what I get out of it

16

Church buys GEICO Woodbury property for $27M

by Rattigan350 in

https://libn.com/2023/01/09/church-buys-geico-woodbury-property-for-27m/.

after a previous sale fell through, geico has sold its sprawling woodbury property for $27 million.

the buyer for the 236,365-square-foot office building on 20 acres at 750 woodbury road is the christian congregation of jehovah’s witnesses.

dropoffyourkeylee

20 acres on Long Island? I wouldn't have expected that

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

dropoffyourkeylee

Publishers down in nearly all the developed countries, Publishers up in poorer countries (Congo up 8% !)

Meanwhile the number of special fulltime servants is up 5% and the cost to support them is up 5.7%.

Overall, this is the worst annual report in recent memory.

edited to add: Total Memorial Attendance down 7.7%. wow

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

dropoffyourkeylee

BINGO

The statistics have been posted.

go to

https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/

and enter

Service Year

15

bringing up the 1954 Walsh Trial

by enoughisenough in

i went back into this forum a little ways and found quite a bit of discussion on the walsh (1954) for those newly out or those who don't know of what i write, you should really check it out.

anyone who is a jw or studying with jw should see material from this trial.

my take away...the printed materials of the wtbts were to believed over the bible and if you didn't believe the wt teachings over the bible, ( even though they admit to false prophesy )you would be disfellowshipped and deserving of death.

dropoffyourkeylee

My take on Walsh:

In the Walsh trial, they were trying to get a draft classification as minister for Walsh, who was young (about 20), a company servant, and a pioneer. They had decades of statements in the Watchtower going back to the Russell days that they were not an established religion, they didn't have a clergy, they didn't have a creed which their ministers had to adhere to. These things had been the barrier to getting any of the JWs recognized as a minister of a religion worthy of the minister classification and thus exempt from the draft. So reading the Walsh transcript they hit those topics again and again. They asserted they did indeed have a 'creed', a set of beliefs, which their ministers (which includes all witnesses, since 'all JWs are ministers') had to adhere to or else they would be removed. I don't think it is a coincidence that the disfellowshipping practice includes non-belief and started in '52. Their legal posturing resulted in some really outrageous statements in the transcript.