My take on this is that Russell was a product of his time and place. The late 1800's in the Northeast US, particular New York state, had all kinds of people open to pseudo science and other ideas we now know are complete bunk. Phrenology, Spiritualism, Egyptian Magic, you name it, someone was teaching it and writing books and magazines about it. Russell's hodgepodge of ideas found a ready audience in the time period.
dropoffyourkeylee
JoinedPosts by dropoffyourkeylee
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32
C.T. Russell, Occultist
by metatron inone aspect of the watchtower's history that has never been.
adequately explained is russell's fascination with the occult.. the end of the 19th century saw the prominence of many occult.
were obsessed with egyptian symbols and magick based on the.
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BREAKING NEWS | Highlights of 2023 Worldwide Service Year Report
by Drearyweather inbreaking news | highlights of 2023 worldwide service year report.
on november 15, 2023, the service committee of the governing body shared highlights of the 2023 worldwide service year report with the bethel family.
the following exciting increases were announced: baptisms: during the 2023 service year, 269,517 persons were baptized.
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dropoffyourkeylee
I have never believed the oft-stated claim that the WT fudges their membership numbers. I have never doubted that they report the numbers that are received. The local counts of publishers, attendance at meetings and at conventions, is very diligently done so as to appear OCD. The reports of attendance and publishers that I see in the published reports are consistent with what I observe anecdotally. What they have done in recent years is lowering the bar so as to boost figures. A bible study being a 15 minute door conversation, people writing a letter for 15 minutes counts them as a publisher, etc. Now they just need to check a box; it can't get much lower than that.
Census figures, which tend to show more JWs than the WT does, indicates to me that there are lots of people who self-identify as JWs but do not report being publishers to the WT. The new box-checking may change that.
Money matters (above the Local KH level) are another animal. There is no transparency and I have a high degree of suspicion.
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New meeting format
by ExBethelitenowPIMA injust watched november broadcast very different order to the leaked agm .
be good if someone did a deep dive on the difference and why the changes?
i didn’t time the items but it should be easy to see if edited?.
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dropoffyourkeylee
I've never looked at the app. Does it record monetary donations? If so, I wonder if they are heading towards using the record of donations as an indicator of spirituality.
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The Apostates' Handy JW Glossary
by Vanderhoven7 inperhaps this has been printed here before...but still it gave me a few laughs...so here it is again.. the apostates' handy jw glossary.
by doug checketts.
"anointed" - an experience that, unfortunately, no "anointed" one has ever been able to explain.
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dropoffyourkeylee
kudos
In the spirit of Ambrose Bierce
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New meeting format
by ExBethelitenowPIMA injust watched november broadcast very different order to the leaked agm .
be good if someone did a deep dive on the difference and why the changes?
i didn’t time the items but it should be easy to see if edited?.
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dropoffyourkeylee
OK, I just watched at (1.5 speed) the AGM part 1 as posted at jw.org.
It has undoubtedly been edited, though if significant parts were edited out it is not readily apparent.
My takeaways:
There was lengthy discussion of tithing in Israel, with a buildup to the extent that I almost thought they were going to suggest 10% donation or something like that. But no, they left donations voluntary. I predict they may return to the subject in future years. Loesch just went on and on about it; surely there will be a followup sometime.
They made a distinction of different requirements from regular Israelites (giving the 10% tithe) and Nazirites, who are compared to present pioneers and special servants. This seemed to be their justification for requiring pioneers, etc to continue to report hours, while regular publishers simply check a box.
They released a 32 page brochure, something about starting conversations instead of prepared statements/sermons.
If they talked about the changes to the mid-week meeting structure I missed it. Maybe it will be in Part 2, which will be on jw.org in January sometime.
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Women in JW Ministry
by NotFormer inwomen make up the main population of the kingdom halls, and the pool of young males willing to step up to "serve" is drying up.
what is the likelihood of "new light" on jw women in ministry roles formerly held only by males?.
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dropoffyourkeylee
I maintain that it is almost a certainty. It’s just that it will take a while. 5, 10, even up to 20 years. They’ll start with ministerial servant assignments (deacon/deaconess). -
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Thought on “0 hours” reporting
by FFGhost inso everyone knows the “big news” of this past weekend, no more reporting of hours, placements, return visits, etc.
beginning november 1, jws just tick a box indicating whether they “shared in any form of the ministry during the month”.. so there was a brief comment by a redditor that seems like a brief joke “throwaway comment” but after thinking about it….why not?.
the idea is, what is “any form of the ministry”?
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dropoffyourkeylee
I like how the 'Comments' box is so small you couldn't write more than three or four words. LOL
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BadAss Bethelites, did they really peak in the 1960's?
by was a new boy inin the 70's a bethel elder told me that every morning in the 60's the paint and scaffold crew, (which was located on the 5th floor of building 4) would go up to the roof and walk around the perimeter on top of the ledge, which i doubt was more than 12" wide.
then they'd go render sacred service to jehovah..
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dropoffyourkeylee
Back in the day when I knew Bethelites there, 'BA' was said to be 'Bad Attitude'. To be labelled a BA at Bethel was not a good thing (from the management perspective), but a sort of badge of honor for the rank and file Bethelite. The OP seems to suggest 'BA' stood for something else.
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Indian convention - 3 JWs died
by usualusername1 inhttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-67259078.
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dropoffyourkeylee
There are a number of things being reported that I question. It will take a while to sort out the facts. I wonder if he was truly acting alone as he claims.
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dropoffyourkeylee
""I find it odd that the jw.borg report says "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragedy." ""
Indeed. Let a hurricane go through parts of the US and they are organizing relief and volunteer construction workers within a few hours. Something much worse happens in India and it is more like, meh, thoughts and prayers, 'Keep warm and well fed'.