Many of the JW doctrines and practices that make me want to scream came from the Rutherford era. I have always maintained that much of his doctrinal and organizational changes were made as a knee-jerk reaction to his opposers. In particular he wanted to distance himself from his critics who broke away and formed their own Bible Student groups, what he called the 'evil slave' . I used to have some of the LHHM Bible Student books of the time period, and it was clear that the thinly disguised statements were directed at Rutherford. Likewise much of the vitriolic anti-Catholic retoric came out of the rivaly with Father Coughlin.
dropoffyourkeylee
JoinedPosts by dropoffyourkeylee
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So where oh where did Judge Rutherford come up with JW theology?
by Terry inbits 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.
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Have you ever been on a congregation picnic?
by LostintheFog1999 inwere you ever on a congregation picnic?
i was on several occasions.. the arrangements were often announced from the platform after the closing song and prayer by the last elder up on the platform.. sometimes it was included in the service meeting announcements as "on saturday we're meeting at 10.00am at the kingdom hall for field service, and after field service for anyone who wishes, especially for the younger ones, we will be having a congregation picnic meeting at the beach carpark on seaview road.".
well, according to the new elders manual you won't be hearing those words again.
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dropoffyourkeylee
The congregation picnics and ballgames (the JW equivalent to the church social) disappeared about 2000 or so. I think it was mostly driven by liability fears, and the WT practice of self-insuring. Church socials have a substantial degree of risk for the sponsoring organization, with quite a number of lawsuits out of food poisoning and sports-related injuries.
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Viruses Killed The Woolly Mammoths.
by LostintheFog1999 ini can remember the original turquoise coloured evolution book produced by the organisation and the numerous public talks around it.
mind-blowing to a gullible youngster growing up in a jw family.. the flood of noah's day when thousands of tons of suspended water fell from the atmosphere and on hitting the cold poles instantly plunged the woolly mammoths into a deep freeze, to the extent that the last mouthful of grass was still there in the mouth in mid-chomp.
you can quickly see why a kid with a fertile imagination was transfixed by those apparently up-to-date scientific discoveries as presented by the wt org!.
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dropoffyourkeylee
I am curious enough to look up the Wikipedia article on mammoths, which discusses several of the prevailing theories on their extinction. In short, there are three major theories:
Hunted to extinction by humans
Virus
post Glacial change of habitat
A combination of these reasons.
Funny, it doesn't mention Noah's flood as being a possible cause of extinction :)
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Can I block someone who messages me.
by LostintheFog1999 ini keep getting this person who wants me to email them with information already freely available on this website.. i have told him that i have no intention of emailing a total stranger from my personal email address, but they keep sending me this demand.. from bola to lostinthefog1999.
can you tell me how to block this persistent messager?.
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dropoffyourkeylee
LITF are you referring to email, or to the message service within this site? If the latter, Simon would have to weigh in. I don't use the JW Discussion messaging much, but I don't see a way to block users.
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Are the statistics out yet?
by slimboyfat inisn’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?
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dropoffyourkeylee
I think when the Service Year Report is released, it would be accessible from the Library >> Books and Brochures section of jw.org.
I just checked and the 2022 report is not there yet.
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New poll shows public knows Jehovah's Witnesses and dislike them....almost as much as the Church of Satan
by Balaamsass2 inwow.
while not a pew survey, i found these to be surprising results.
" a recent yougov poll explores americans' attitudes toward 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems.
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dropoffyourkeylee
Worth a screenshot.
A couple of observations.
JWs are polarizing. The gray area of 'not sure' being only 11% shows JWs are well known enough so that most people have a strong opinion one way or another. 23% view JWs Very unfavorable (one of the worst, only beat out by Satanism, Scientology, and Athiesm).
Overall it's pretty damning, though not surprising to me.
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A though on the shooting tragedy
by enoughisenough ini am thinking about how i read in the reports that the shooter had contacted another person expressing desire to go back .....and was told to contact an elder.
the man seemed to me to be reaching out for help and got put off...and since he had called this person, he was put off by someone he felt could make a difference.
i would hate to be in the shoes of the person the shooter called...for i would feel so guilty, thinking i could have said something else and none the tragedy would have happened.
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dropoffyourkeylee
It indeed sounds like the man was mental, and had been for some time. I'm more concerned about his wife, who may have been coerced or intimidated into participating, only to be shot in the back by the man.
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Police confirm homicide at Jehovah’s witness center in Colorado after shooter 'threw Molotov cocktail into building'
by TakeOffTheCrown inhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11573103/active-shooter-throws-molotov-cocktail-jehovahs-witness-center-colorado.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top.
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dropoffyourkeylee
Here is one followup news report:
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Police confirm homicide at Jehovah’s witness center in Colorado after shooter 'threw Molotov cocktail into building'
by TakeOffTheCrown inhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11573103/active-shooter-throws-molotov-cocktail-jehovahs-witness-center-colorado.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top.
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dropoffyourkeylee
News report on youtube says he set off an explosion at his former employer before going to the KH.
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Are the statistics out yet?
by slimboyfat inisn’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?
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dropoffyourkeylee
For the US, I predict an increase in publishers and increase in pioneers, decrease in congregations and decrease in number baptized.