""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'.
in light of the recent attack on indian jws i did some research about christianity in india and found out that india has a long history of christian influence, and not, like many of us probably believed, brought by the british, rather india has had christians for 2000 years.. matter of fact, they may be similar length and claim to the ‘original’ christians only equal by the roman (european), syrian (middle eastern) and ethiopian (african) christians.
the story goes that judas thomas (aka doubting thomas or dydimus) (literally translated: dydimus = twin (greek) and tomas = twin (aramaic)), the twin brother of jesus travelled to india and did some miracles along the way, started the church there, hence deification of thomas is common there.. i found some articles written by eg.
bart ehrman supporting this theory, personally not that much of a fan, but i know many interested in jw exegesis as he supports various fringe theories including wtbts claim to the name jehovah.. the claims of jesus’ twin brother seem to be supported by the original writings, including the gospel as we know it in the west (almost every canonical gospel writer alludes to the twin), but also various other non-canonical writings and at least 3 complete gospels claimed to be by thomas himself (although the oldest writings stem from the first, second and third century respectively).
I have never heard of it. Does sound interesting. If so, it is curious that none of the nativity scene stories mention anything about it. Admittedly, the nativity stories were most likely concocted years later to support the claim of Jesus' divinity, but even so, it seems to be a barrier to the twin theory.
It is shocking and very sad. I will be following the story as it develops.
A few things that seem especially alarming:
- Previous JW-related shootings, etc have mostly been individuals targeting a specific Kingdom Hall, with personal grievances against individuals. This one is apparently aimed at killing anyone they could get. A terrifying escalation.
- You don't hear of many terrorist-type crimes from India. Isn't this very unusual for that country?
-JWs are such a small minority in India (60,000 out of 1.4 billion) that it seems like no one there has probably heard of them. Do they have that many enemies there so as to engender such hatred?
-a person named Dominic Martin has claimed to be responsible. If he is indeed the one, what nationality is he, and what is his backstory?
- There were three nearly simultaneous explosions. Was he really working alone or were there accomplices?
so 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”?
The change from hours-reporting to yes/no-participation-reporting is one of the most significant changes in JW-land for many years. It may take quite a while, decades even, to play out, but what it will do is change the character of the leadership. Generally (borrowing from business management), changing criteria for leadership means a different skill set is needed to be successful, and to ultimately advance within that organization. Up to now, the WT has been modelled on advancing people with the personality and aptitude for being successful sales persons; introverts need not apply. These people define success as enthusiasm and skill in a door-to-door sales environment. Changing the requirments means that the non-sales person who despises door-to-door sales may now have a path towards leadership. I wouldn't call it 'lowering the bar', but 'changing the bar'. The effect over time will be dramatic for the JW world.
so 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”?
I think one of the reasons (there are undoubtedly lots of reasons), is to open up ministerial servant and elder to a larger group of candidates. E-V-E-N-T-U-A-L-L-Y, I predict, it will be opened up to women.
todays nyt.
fascinating read and background of new york state in the 1800s.
this community welcomes mediums, but first you have to prove yourself.
An interesting article, thanks for posting the link.
I wasn't aware of Lily Dale NY. Undoubtedly that area of NY state (collectively called the Burned-Over area because of the frequent revivals in the 1800's) was the source of some of the more fringe-religions based loosely on Christian faiths, but with a twist. Russellism (early ties to Rochester NY area), Mormons (Palmyra NY area), others as well, had early influences in the region. The Erie Canal brought population and wealth to the area, and with it a lot of pseudo-religious ideas. One of Russell's early mentors (later an opponent), from whom he picked up the calculation of time prophecies, was from that area of NY and printed his magazine from Rochester NY.
People back then, without TV, Radio, sound amplification, etc, gathered in smaller groups and venues to listen to lectures, music, things that interested them. The Chatauqua Movement, though more of a social movement rather than religious, originated in the same burned-over district (still in existence). Some of the early Bible Student conventions were held at Chatauqua Lake NY.
Russell was always greatly opposed to Spiritualism, calling it out to be demonism rather than contact with dead spirits. This was a natural conclusion based on his belief in soul sleep.
1975 washing dc, kingdom ministry school that lasted for 2 weeks, with russell cantwell as the instructor.. .
https://imgbox.com/zykcnigq.
were any of you brothers there?.
I expect that not many of those guys are still living. Interesting photo. I knew some elders who attended a similar two week class about the same time (my dad included), but I think it was more in the '77-'78 time period.
max hollweg, in an interview in 1996, was a nazi concentration camp surviving jw and is interviewed for this documentary on himmler:.
the video link here begins discussion of hollweg at about 33:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk68tda_lue.
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Max Hollweg, in an interview in 1996, was a Nazi concentration camp surviving JW and is interviewed for this documentary on Himmler:
The video link here begins discussion of Hollweg at about 33:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk68TDa_LuE
2023-10-13-announcements (reporting field service).
page 1. https://imgbox.com/96lgsfw4 .
page 2. https://imgbox.com/zynoa02m .
Some years ago, pre-Internet, I ordered the transcript of the 1918 trial of Rutherford and his associates. Reading the transcript convinced me that the reporting of time in service, which Rutherford started soon after he was released from prison, was done for a legal reason. Reporting of time was a way for them to document who was a member of the religion/faith. Before that there was no way to really know or document what a member was. Here they were trying to get their 'members' exemption from the draft for being members of a pacifist religion, but didn't have a way to define what a member was. Voila, the reporting of time was invented to keep the leaders of the religion out of jail for violation of the Espionage Act.
I misread it to be 144000 mystery
