I remember my pre-baptismal studies. Two of the elders had better things to do and we just whipped through the chapters. But there always seems to be one guy who wants to quiz you like some vengeful professor. At one point I was forced to name all of the sex acts which were forbidden. He seemed to be interested in this, because he was adding more and more after I was done. Now that I look back at it, the guy was probably heavily into porn.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
JoinedPosts by Sic Semper Tyrannis
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31
Baptism Questions??
by lepermessiah inthis forum tends to get me thinking about things from the past and then roll my eyes.. i was recalling a particular pharasee in the congregation who used to love showing everyone how "smart" he was.. when i would go over the questions with someone, we would fly through them because it was usually with kids who were raised as jw's and could answer then in their sleep.
(besides the fact it was an "open book" quiz.).
well, mr pharasee used to always make it into a marathon session and take 2-3 hours to go over one section of the questions with someone.. he could take a simple question like "what is god's name?
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32
Christopher Hitchens has died.
by botchtowersociety in.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/in-memoriam-christopher-hitchens-19492011.
it angers me that we still do not have the technology to save these people.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
It's too bad. And to think he probably had about 20 years of more columns to write. His articles would draw you in by the very subject matter, and entertain you by his wit and incredible knowledge of how the world works. Truly a sad day for commentary journalism. He was one of the best, even writing from his deathbed.
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A little example of how severely the contributions for the Society are drying up
by sir82 injust a little tidbit from the congregation i attend..... the congregation has approximately 120 publishers.. well over 1000 magazines per month are picked up, not to mention all the books, brochures, and tracts that are picked up.. there was a "local needs" part on the service meeting recently, asking for more contributions.. it seems our congregation has averaged just about $300 per month contributions to the "worldwide work" over the past year.. .
assuming 1500 magazines / month, that's just 20 cents per magazine - and that completely ignores all other literature that is picked up.. the last price the magazines had, 20+ years ago, was 25 cents per issue.
with inflation that would have been about 50 cents each now.. just another sign of how severely the contriutions to the society are drying up..... .
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Doesn't surprise me. With the struggling economy worldwide, people simply don't have too much expendable cash. I remember that in my Hall in the 80's, deficits were almost unheard of. Then came some sort of BS letter from the GB which "suggested" that every congregation donate something like $300 or $500 to the "Worldwide Work" every month. As you probably know, JW democracy consists of the speaker asking the audience if anyone wants to make a motion. Once this motion is made, a next call is to second the motion. Any opposed? Raise your hand for this would invite a private meeting with the elders in the back after. So with this added burden, our congregation went into serious debt.
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15
Bethel Memories Good and Bad
by joelbear indave inspired me with his story of his week at bethel.
the fish in the pond outside the e building at the watchtower farm would eat out of your hand, very cool.
the fall colors of the mountains with the morning sunshine on them outside the dining hall at the farm were spectacular.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Of the handful of people I have known who have went to Bethel, all of them left as soon as they could. I asked what was wrong with the place, and none of them wanted to talk about it.
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When you were active, did you feel you would survive Armageddon?
by Band on the Run ini am curious about this issue.
personally, i never felt i would be good enough for a split second.
one would think that knowing you can not be good enough to survive would it make it easier to leave the witnesses and live for the present.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Circuit and District Overseers are notorious for spreading doubt among the faithful as to their worthiness. I remember more than one commenting that if you got less than 10 hours in field service in the same month Armageddon came, you might be "spit out" as lukewarm and killed at Armageddon. Nevermind if you had 50 hours or more in the previous 6 months, it all boils down to the particular month this promised day would come. Personally, I never bought too much into it. I felt that if you were a Witness attending meetings, you were probably good to go and the COs were just trying to guilt you into more hours like they always do. I'm just glad that whenever I hear the term "Armageddon" today, I think of a mediocre Bruce Willis movie in the 90's.
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My Wife Told Me What's Going on With the P.O.
by OnTheWayOut ini still cannot call the presiding overseer the cobe.
whatever.. anyway, i really don't follow what all is going on and just pick things up during or after the fact.
like when my wife says her meeting schedule is changed "this week" due to the c.o.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
I've never heard of the term CoBE, but I've been out for nearly 20 years now. I'd venture to guess that it stands for "Chairman of the Body of Elders". Jehovah's Witnesses just love to change their terminology every few years. Remember how Our Kingdom Ministry became Our Kingdom Service, and then back again? They used to just announce that people were disfellowshipped or dissassociated. Now they say "[Name] is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses". I'm sure this was changed for legal puposes when people who were disfellowshipped started suing the Society for telling their members not to associate with them anymore, citing loss of family and business ties. Now they use a more ambiguous term which doesn't exactly tell you not to speak to them anymore, but the implication is strongly made. They also used to say that so and so "has stepped down as an elder". Now they use the term "deleted". "Deleted" makes it sound like you've done something really bad.
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Wiggle room and the deconstruction of the 1975 JW disaster
by Terry inthe watchtower, may 1, 1975, said of a watchtower bible school of gilead graduation held on march 2, 1975: (italics added).
another speaker, f. w. franz, the society's vice- president, forcefully impressed on the audience the urgency of the christian preaching work.
the watchtower (1943 july 1 p. 202) says: "jehovah god is therefore the only supreme court of interpretation of his inspired word.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
I've never really fully understood the whole 1975 debacle. In hindsight, it seems to me that they were being intellectually dishonest from the very beginning. The closest thing I can compare it to would be those sweepstakes junk mail I often receive in the mail. Printed prominently and in bold ink, it goes "[Your Name Here] will win Ten Million Dollars!" That's what it says through the window of the envelope, but should you choose to read the small print above it, it would say "If you have the winning numbers. then...". Really? If I have the winning numbers I will win 10 million dollars? No shit. 1975 seems to me the same type of deception. The focal point on the entire article would say either "1975" or "mid 70's". But when reading the context that it's put in, the Society gets away with never actually saying for certain that Armageddon would come in the Fall of 1975. If anything, they were involved in blasphemy since they were pretty much telling God what he should do come 1975. Then when the date comes and goes, they go into this convoluted reasoning regarding the creation of Eve. Given that Adam lived some 900 years plus according the to Old Testament, it wouldn't be too far off the mark to say that he had to wait 50 or 100 years for Eve to come around. All Genesis says is that his third son Seth came when Adam was 130 years old. All the rest is speculation. But it wouldn't surprise me that if directly confronted with the 1975 prediction, the GB would bring up the whole Eve thing. That would give them roughly until 2075 if Cain and Abel were in their 20's when it happened, and Eve gave birth to Cain only a few years after being created. It just shows how much you can play around with Biblical verses that omit certain details.
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Welfare Queen Asks For Too Much
by Bangalore inwelfare queen asks for too much.. http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/129629/welfare_queen_asks_for_too.
bangalore.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
If they can take away 15 cats from a crowded apartment, they should be able to do the same with neglected children. The woman has mental health issues and should be hospitalized under psyche eval. Put her in anti-depressants and send her to work for a charity.
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End of School for Now ( I should be excited.........but)
by out4good3 init's been a hard fought couple of years, but, finally, with great trepidation, i find myself graduating next weekend with the college degree i should've graduated with 25 years ago.
oh, i've got both two year college degrees under my belt, but this time it is the big kahuna, a bachelors degree.
summa cum laude with a near perfect gpa to boot.. i think back on the time when i first proposed going back to school with my wife......how she and the elders who visited me poo-pooed education and exclaimed that it would be a big waste of time.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Awesome! I finally got my Bachelors a few years ago in my early 30's. Like you, I wished I had started a lot sooner. Graduated Magna Cum Laude and won Outstanding Graduate Award from Engineering and Design. If this economy ever turns around, I'm going for my Masters.
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wife even has a jw lawyer!!!...i cant these people out of my life!!!!!
by oompa inwhat are the odds??
?...how many jw lawyers can there even be?
?....i mean most cant ever even go to frikkin college!!!
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
All I can point to is the fact that the attorney is a JW is not going to matter to the judge. Attorneys are considered "Officers of the Court" and professional behavior is expected of them. Bringing up the fact that he's a JW is going to be objected to as irrelavent. If you haven't got an attorney yet, now would be the time to do so. I was in this situation not so long ago. It had nothing to do with Witnesses, but coming from someone who has been around that merry-go-round already once, it's not going to be pretty.