Posts by Socrateswannabe

63

Being a JW Used to Be Fun :-)

by snowbird in

jw
friends

we found some people who were happy to welcome us into their homes, even offering us food and drink.. sometimes, they would flag us down and ask for the magazines, walk miles to the kh meetings, come to our defense if someone got ugly or rude.. now, jw's are either routinely ignored or outright vilified.. no one respects them anymore.. sad.. .

Socrateswannabe

I am a born in and I have to say that there has never a moment when I thought being a JW was fun. I have hated every minute of it.

42

Is the Pioneer School being eliminated?

by wannaexit in

jw
friends

i heard from the semi reliable source that the pioneer schools will go the way of the dodo bird next year.. i could see this happening.

it used to be that you went to the the pioneer school once.

then they allowed dubs to go every 5 years.

Socrateswannabe

I can see both the pioneer school and the school for elders going online with the GB, GB helpers, or Gilead school instructors providing the content. They can provide passwords to individuals to watch at home or they can screen it in local kingdom halls to small groups but there would be no need to have a CO present. It frees up the CO for a week but the big draw for the GB is that it also eliminates any interpretation and personal opinions from being inserted into the curricula by the local instructors. Every one of these things that I've attended was mostly personal opinions and pet peeves of the instructors. Most of these guys have been going pretty far afield from the outline from HQ, and this is a simple way to stop it and homogenize the message.

24

Do our loved pets come back when we do?

by Nichole in

i have recently started studying and im really enjoying learning all about the truth!

i am a huge animal lover and have my dog trixie for 11 years now, i got her when i was 12 years old and she has been the best friend and companion, i am so lucky and grateful to have her at my side every single day!

i get worried a lot about what will happen when the time comes that she has to leave me, anytime i even think about it i start to cry because it would break my heart not to have her with me anymore!

Socrateswannabe

Nichole, you sound like a really nice person and I hope things work out well for you. You may be confused about this forum. Most of us here have not had the good experience with JWs that you seem to have had, for the most part we are very anti-Jehovah's Witness here. You'd be better off putting your question to people who actually believe the Watchtower doctrine instead of us. You have my best wishes!

12

Questions for Serena Williams

by Esse quam videri in

being as serena williams shows outstanding abilities and skills at that which she exerts herself in, such as tennis, it would seems reasonable that serena williams has the same high level of abilities in all of her worthwhile endeavors.

perhaps she has this level of abilities in her journey as one of jehovah's witnesses.

would it not be reasonable that those who need greater clarification and understanding of certain bible subjects, to make contact with serena and ask her such questions?.

Socrateswannabe

What Sparky1 said! If she's tired of being "called out" she can stop thanking her god jehovah every time she wins a match. Like god gives a rat's behind about tennis anyway...or wait...maybe he would...

12

WTS Throws Hail Mary Pass with Major Paradigm Shift

by Socrateswannabe in

let me begin by stating that i have no insider information, this is merely my observation.

i believe that some time ago in watchtower land, somebody at hq posed these questions (probably an outside consultant because i don't think the gb is this hip): .

what would happen if we cut in half the average age of the responsible brothers in the organization?

Socrateswannabe

Let me begin by stating that I have no insider information, this is merely my observation. I believe that some time ago in Watchtower Land, somebody at HQ posed these questions (probably an outside consultant because I don't think the GB is this hip):

What would happen if we cut in half the average age of the responsible brothers in the organization? What if the average age of an elder was under 30 instead of 60 and real standouts would be appointed in their early 20's? What if circuit overseers were in their early 30's instead of 70's? What if the RBC was no longer a good ole boy's club but instead composed of a bunch of hardworking young singles and couples (now the LDC)?

And I think the answer was:

1. It would help them to win back the young people because young people would be running the show

2. Their costs (for Bethelites and anyone else in special full time service) would go down because of lower medical expense

3. They would have more control (you can't teach an old dog new tricks but a young puppy will do anything you tell him to)

I don't know how much resistance this met when it was first hashed out but to my thinking the idea won out. Has anyone else noticed the shift toward youth in the organization in the past two or three years? It has been pronounced and is no accident but a well thought out, albeit last ditch effort, toward long term survival of the organization.

71

Battle over contamination at Watchtower site in Warwick

by OrphanCrow in

http://www.recordonline.com/article/20151214/news/151219671.

battle over contamination at watchtower site in warwick.

by hema easley .

Socrateswannabe

How many opportunities did they have to pull out? Before they bought? After they bought but before they began building? In the real world, everybody involved in these decisions would be fired.

19

Noah's ark

by dothemath in

for those that believe in the flood story as genesis says, then they also are forced to accept a huge amount of evolution, way faster than any evolutionist would propose.. from a basic selection of "kinds", to the several millions of land species there are now, and in only about 4000 years.. not to mention the many types of birds that made it to remote islands, and then somehow lost their ability to fly... not even possessing wings( ex- dodo bird, moa).

scientists agree this was a process that took eons of time.. i was thinking of this because we just had a public talk on noah.

i sure couldn't make a fool of myself on that subject, going on how "factual" it all is..

Socrateswannabe

The flood myth is the easiest means for anyone to wake up to TTATT or TT about the bible. If that story is true and written by holy spirit I'll eat my lawnmower. No one who gives the story any thought can believe it. That's a pretty dogmatic statement and there are probably some smart people who believe the story, but it is only because they haven't really thought about it.

37

Elders who dislike other congregation elders

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

my congregation had four elders who had different personalities.you would see a little friction among themselves.. #1 self-righteous and the 800 pound gorilla.he would push everyone around in the congregation and even some fellow elders.. # 2 elder was around 80 years old and looked like he stuck around a little too long.it looked like he was around because he never decided to give up the position.his duty became very light as he aged.. # 3 elder was in his early 30's and newly elected.he made no waves and whatever was asked of him in the congregation he would do.easy to push around like a little puppy dog.. #4 elder (who everyone liked ) was easy to get along with and had a family who everyone loved.

he didn't like elder # 1. they had a power struggle amongst each other which everyone observed while the meetings were in session.. here are 2 small verbal fights that i observed while the congregation meetings were in session:.

while elder # 1 was giving a talk ( heavy rain storms are brewing outside with loud thunder and lightning ) the microphones and lights are knocked out.we lost all power and could barely see.

Socrateswannabe

I agree with all of the comments so far. I've experienced an incredible amount of infighting among every BOE that I've been associated with along with tons of fighting between BOEs that share a Hall. In every instance, the R&F and the elders themselves say, "Jehovah will take care of it in his own time." If you consider that there are over 100,000 congregations worldwide, the big J has one hell of a backlog to clear out if he is going to do anything about this stuff. In the meantime his precious organization is crumbling from the inside out.

32

Finally heard a Dub defend overlapping generations

by Socrateswannabe in

since the overlapping generations doctrine was introduced, i have found the jws i know to be uncharacteristically silent on the subject.

i can't remember hearing a single dub try to defend this idiocy.

but that all ended recently.

Socrateswannabe

Interesting observations, everyone!

32

Finally heard a Dub defend overlapping generations

by Socrateswannabe in

since the overlapping generations doctrine was introduced, i have found the jws i know to be uncharacteristically silent on the subject.

i can't remember hearing a single dub try to defend this idiocy.

but that all ended recently.

Socrateswannabe

Since the overlapping generations doctrine was introduced, I have found the JWs I know to be uncharacteristically silent on the subject. I can't remember hearing a single Dub try to defend this idiocy. But that all ended recently. I was at a party (get together in JW speak) and an uber dub sister pipes up about how grateful she is of Brother Splane's recent explanation of the overlapping generations. She said that she had been foggy on how this doctrine works but that the graphs and charts really pulled it all together for her, and that the example of Freddy Franz being overlapped was just what she needed to clear up her understanding. In her words, it now "all makes perfect sense". Of course the rest of the dubs in the room had no choice but agree, albeit with little enthusiasm.

I never cease to be amazed at how people can gobble up garbage and call it filet mignon. I'm starting to think that maybe the GB is not as clueless as I once thought. They obviously know their audience and realize that sooner or later, this insane doctrine will be accepted. Shame on them, though.