well memorial season is upon us again.
(the witnesses like to think of one day as a season).
the jehovahs witnesses have by and large bypassed crazy ceremonies, but something that started off as almost sane has turned to the bizarre.. on the 28 march around the world groups of witnesses will be passing a glass of red wine , and a plate of unlevened bread amongst each and every person in attendance .if you are lucky, you may spot a witness nervously sip the wine and nibble the bread, but most likely the wine and bread will be left untouched.. what a crazy thing to do.. does the bead and wine really need to be passed between all people present (sometimes numbering into the hundreds) when the witness belief is that only 1444,00 have ever been able to partake?.
Well memorial season is upon us again.(the witnesses like to think of one day as a season)
I always thought this term "Memorial Season" was rather weird. I tried to avoid it. Season, season, season!
'Tis the Season! Christmas Season. Memorial Season. Baseball Season. Get my drift?
well they are scabbling around to find as many people to attend the memorial again this year.. i walked out 3.5 years ago and have not heard anything since from the elders.
i have one that lives about 50 metres away and he is one that has not even telephoned me in all that time.
.. just the other night he turns up on my door step and hands me the usual invite!
we need to invite EVERYONE to the Memorial.
Workmates. Classmates. People we see in the supermarket. On the bus. On the train. EVERYONE!
Hmmm, sounds like they're getting desperate, because as little as 10 or 15 years ago, they specifically said that JW's should take some time to explain the Memorial & emblems to the poor dupe so they would know not to partake. I guess that's out the window, since they're supposed to invite every Tom, Dick, and Harry they find.
New light on the Memorial maybe??
in this forum, we often wonder what we can do to make the society look bad.
we come up with ideas like picketing assemblies, mail campaigns, legal action, and many others.
although these ideas are laudable and i would not want to discourage anyone, they sometimes create sympathy for the witnesses, and make us look bitter and fanatical.
Running Man,
These points are very good and very true. In other words, just give the Society about six feet of rope, and they'll hang themselves.
And, of course, a little publicity never hurt, either.
anyone have any pet peeves they'd like to air?
here's one that just happened at work that is an annoyance for me: when you are speaking and the person interrupts the conversation with a corny play on words or the like.
for example, "i had to sit on the phone on hold for about 5 minutes, waiting .
My pet peeves:
*Wrong numbers who call me on the phone then hang up. If you don't have the decency to at least say something, then get rid of your damn phone!!
*Dumb people who can't seem to stay in their lane on a two-lane road. Don't drive on my side of the double line!! Aarrrgh!!
kingdom ministry school for congregational elders.
for the 2002 service year .
hi folks!.
Good job, Kent.
I'd like to consider making CD's of this meeting available to those who are interested when I get it all downloaded.
i have read a couple of threads the last couple of days that dealt with what you have to give up when becoming a jw.. most posts that i read said they have to give up getting a higher education.
my question is this: is that still a trend today?
that elders frown or discourage young jws from going to college or university by telling them to put kingdom's interest first?
Although the WT publications meant for the public (Asleep! and Watchtower) have lightened up on higher education in the last 10 years, very rarely have they actually used the words 'university' or 'college'. Instead, they use the term 'supplementary education'. I tend to think they use this term to encourage some type of limited vocational course, as opposed to a traditional university education.
The Society has never ENCOURAGED university learning though, as INTERNAL publications (Kingdom Ministry & talk outlines) strongly discourage, even condemning it. Therefore, the Society gives the public the impression they are pro-education, where the facts speak otherwise.
In addition, as I know from personal experience, most who are a full-time college students will have a VERY HARD time in the congregation, and will most likely be alienated or left out of the social scene. (At least this is my experience.)
i was having quite an intense disscussion (ok, argument )with some of my family last weekend.. my brother said in answer to some points that i raised , that the society has scholars who do research and will have the answer to my questions.. i said i know of no sholars in the society, he said thats because the world does not recognise them as such.what i ment (but did not continue saying as the conversation changed direction , again) was that the people who do research and study for the society arent really scholars as they are not free to look for the real truth only to confirm what the society says.their skills are really knowledge of the societies beliefs.. well it is true that a scholar is just someone who has a great knowledge of a particular subject.so you could argue that the society does have scholars as they are people with great knowledge of the organistaions rules .but what must people would mean my scholars are people who put a great deal of time and effort into research and study of an issue as to whether it is true or false, real or make believe.. can the society have scholars in that sense?.
well a recent watchtower article stated that we could not even have private opinions on bibles matters.. in order to research whether a certain witness view point was valid or not you would have to entertain the idea that a certain viewpoint could be wrong.
but this would put you at odds with the society , as you cannot think differently even privately your own opinions on bible matters.
Are there any scholars in the WT organization? I'm sure you mean BIBLE or RELIGIOUS scholars. Of course, if there are any at all, there are not many, and they do not have the scholarly freedom to research or discuss doctrine that REAL religious scholars have.
On the other hand, there are many scholars in other field in the WT, or at least those who nominally claim to be JW's. For example, I am working on a Ph.D. in chemistry and perform research in my desired field. I consider myself a scholar (but not a Bible scholar).
But again, are there any Bible scholars in the society? Not really.
yes - i have found a new way to use them.. .
i let the kids tear them up, dump the peices into a blender - add water - and presto pulp - that we then screen and make scrap paper out of!!
- the dyes they use are great - and the colors you can get are fabulous - .
I find they are very good for lining bird cages...
Not to mention those embarrassing occasions when your run out of toilet paper...
Or how about kindling for the fireplace?
this was posted on alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, just thought i'd share it with you:.
the following figures from an article in newsweek represent the number of college graduates within each religious group in america.
can this be used to relate the intelligence of the membership of each religion?
I totally agree! Just to add, though, in this area many JW's are obsessed with 'home-school', which, at least for JW's, is just another word for 'no school'. I guess they feel they're too good to be in a real school (and no, the Ministry School is NOT a 'real' school.) It's too bad the adults are too dumb to even help their middle school children with basic homework.
NotBlind
"Still in, but very aware..."
did you have a favourite publication?
what was your least liked publication?
creation book for the shady wt take on science.. unseen spirits, do they help us or do they harm us?
My favorites: The Greatest Man book and Commentary on the Letter of James. Those books seemed to be the most 'normal' that the Society put out.
My least favorites: The 2 Isaiah books. More specifically, the thought of spending 2 1/2 years (from now until November 2003) studying those poorly-written, boring, misapplied book at the book study on Tuesday night is VERY bad.
