It does depend on the particular CO. If you had one who was diligently hoarding all of his "green handshakes", he'd have a nice pile of cash every year tax-free. But it is a life which is dependent on you following the org's teachings completely and remaining useful to them. If you had the unfortunate fate of falling ill and not dying soon afterwards, they are going to find ways to dump you off on the congregations. I've had COs who were very decent men who were as humble as you'd expect a full-time servant to be, and also COs who liked nothing more than to stir the pot every single time he passed through. There was one Bro. St. Clair, who had almost a fetish about people filling up the front rows of the audience. He would petulantly refuse to go on until people filled up those rows, and had the annoying catch-phrase "that's OK, just let the organization suffer". I openly wondered how the organization could possibly suffer because people didn't fill up the front rows. It was that kind of pettiness that really turned me off to the JWs.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
JoinedPosts by Sic Semper Tyrannis
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36
Do COs have a cushy life?
by A question indo cos (and dos) have a cushy life in comparison with other jws, or others in fulltime service?.
it could be said that they do, since they have an apartment provided for them, meals out, green handshakes, and invites to social gatherings.
it could also be said that they do not, since they may have to live in a different house every week, accept whatever food they're given, and they have a lot more meetings than the average jw.. .
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89
Emblem stupidity, and the bizarre dance of the confused memorial-taker
by cedars inwell, i went along to the memorial with mrs cedars.
it was my first since my "awakening" just less than a year ago.
apparently i made a lot of people happy by being there (even if it was only building up false hopes), the most important of which were my family.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
What always unnerved me were the two periods of creepy silence for the bread and wine, punctuated by sounds of the attendants shuffling and the errant cry of a baby. Maybe it's better that hardly anyone partakes. Imagine if we had to hear everyone sip and munch for several minutes in almost complete silence? At least put on one of those awful Kingdom Melodies songs on. You just stare in silence and wait for the emblems to pass you. A fitting ceremony for an austere organization.
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What made you leave?
by CuriousUK inapologies if this has been discussed before, but i am really very interested in finding out why members here left their congregations for lives away from jw?.
was there a "lightbulb" moment where you just woke up one day and realised that you had been brainwashed?
or a slow realisation over time?
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
I got simply burnt out by all the requirements they made of everyone. I began to hate book study and KMS/Service Meeting nights because it meant that I had to start on my homework the minute I got in, a quick dinner, preparation for the meeting, and of course, the meeting itself. By the time we got home it was just about bedtime for us kids. To make a bad situation worse, our weekends were consumed by service and the Sunday meeting. When I openly wondered why we couldn't just have Sunday meeting like everyone else, I got labelled as having a bad attitude. Later, when I started working, I found the Society's program even more restricting. I knew I could never marry inside the system because I'd be constantly badgered from another source. That led me to question things more, and found the answers I needed to make a break.
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NEW LAW Starting July 2012 in Qld Australia Preventing Door to Door Sales
by Hopscotch ini just read this in our local newspaper this morning and thought it is very interesting.
this law is aimed at door to door marketing by companies but i am wondering if this may end up including religious 'sales persons'.
the comments below the story are worth reading as jw's and religious callers are definitely who many people want stopped under this new law.. .
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Is that the real James Penton, or is someone using his name as a handle?
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52
Question for Dogpatch (Randy): What will it cost to produce the new 16-page Watchtower & Awake?
by Alfred inwhen literature used to be sold d2d, i remember how the society never missed an opportunity to trash other religions for "peddling god's word for profit" while boasting about how the watchtower only charges for the cost of the paper and ink.. in the book "witnesses of jehovah", the author mentioned that randall watters used to be involved in print cost analysis and determined that, while we were selling wt & awake mags for 20 cents door-to-door, it was really only costing the society 4 cents per copy to produce.
that's a whopping 400% profit!.
obviously, things have changed... the paper is different, as well as the ink and printing methods in general.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
I specifically remember them reading the price recommendation at my Hall. At the time, CD ROMs were fairly new and pricey, but $50 was for something huge in those days. Never $100. Especially for material they formulated, published, and produced themselves. Our Hall was admonished in the same way as the Jersey City congregation. We got a thinly disguised demand letter for the balance on the newly "free" literature, and they even went further by suggesting that some brothers were "abusing" the new system. All that talk about "simplifying" the way they distribute literature and "separating' themselves from those who were making a profit soon became hollow to some.
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My personal thoughts on Ray Franz
by Terry inthe death of ray franz hit me harder than i would have thought.. i had to reflect for awhile....alone......and quietly.. .
after all, fine people die every day and some of them are indispensable, yet, we go on....don't we?.
but, ray franz was something that can only be described in the phrase sui generis (one of a kind).. my task was to ask myself what it was that made ray so singular, potent and admirable without a trace of scandal or ill will attached to his memory.. .
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
I had a chance to write Ray a few months before he passed. In his response, he seemed to be quite satisfied with life. He also pointedly remarked that both him and his wife were in poor health and asked to be put on Do-Not-Resuscitate. He then apologized profusely for not being able to keep up with correspondence as he used to, and took no parting shots at the WT. True to form, he quoted from the Bible.
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12
Today's ABC News - JWs to Sell
by Gayle inhttp://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8609235&rss=rss-wabc-article-8609235.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
The only winners in all this is the Society itself with a freshly liquidated billion dollars to invest, and or course the city, who couldn't collect their property taxes. I'd imagine that the move when it comes will give the Society a more convenient excuse to disperse with the elderly citizens of Bethel, telling them there's either no space for them in the new facilities or that Jehovah has made their jobs redundant with the new equipment and all. It's easier to evict someone when you sell the place and move.
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My 1,914th post: The man I personally blame for the early success of the Watch Tower Society
by cedars init seems fitting to use my 1,914th post to address a doctrine that has shaped the lives of so many of us, and which continues to be a cornerstone belief that is used to keep individual jehovahs witnesses trapped in servitude to a man-made corporation.. .
that said, we might well ask who started it all?
we might say russell, who borrowed heavily from the millerite teachings of the second adventists in advocating a chronology that included the year 1914. as we know, when we research early witness literature we realise that the year 1914 featured in russell's chronology only as the end of a series of events culminating in armageddon, and not the beginning of christ's presence.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
It's sad to think that such a few people had such disastrous effects on many. Bosnia-Herzegovina at the time (and still very much is) was a disputed territory, and certainly another act of terror could have provided the reason for conflict. Austria-Hungary was an ungovernable mess of people who spoke different languages and had different cultures and religions. It was destined to collapse. The historical time period does makes me think of CT Russell and his rise. I'd like to believe that had the war not happened, Russell would have just gone back to an eccentric travelling preacher from Pittsburgh. NH Barbour faded long before his death, and Russell could have very well shared his fate. However, Russell, Rutherford, Knorr, Franz, and Henschel all had their minions. If Rutherford hadn't had the support of McMillan and Van Ambergh with their voting blocs, he would have been shown the door. Knorr could have killed the whole 1975 bit and assigned Freddy to write for Awake. Though I share everyone's disgust for these people who had such a negative effect on my life, I do realize that Hitler had his Himmler, Stalin his Beria, and the WT now has its Governing Body and other entrenched loyalists in Brooklyn. It's a vicious circle.
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Do you know the story about Pink Floyd's first concert?
by compound complex ini'm listening to streaming audio from hearts of space, and pink floyd (new to me after all these years) is featured on the program "when space met rock.".
their playing a concert began amidst beautiful, sunny weather - then came the storm .... were you there?
or have you read the story?.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Roger is the only one touring, and he has hinted that his latest Wall show might be his last ever. David Gilmour is in semi-retirement, and sometimes will make an appearance, but mostly sticks to his solo and post-Waters Pink Floyd work. I saw the Gilmour Floyd in 1994 and Roger Waters in 2000. Roger's show had more passion and there was more of a theatrical element to it. Pink Floyd had three different leaders all at different times, and fans can be found in three different camps. It's an ongoing debate within fan circles regarding which Floyd is the best. You have the Syd Barrett die-hards, but they represent only a fraction of the fan community and tend to be more of an indie stripe. Then you have the Roger Waters faction who feel that Pink Floyd started with Dark Side of the Moon and ended with The Wall (or The Final Cut, for the real Roger loyalists). Finally you have the Gilmour group who think that David was a huge part of the Floyd all along, and saved the Floyd with the last two albums. I find myself firmly in the Waters camp. Momentary Lapse of Reason to me was dreary and lame, and the Division Bell was a fraud. If you just got introduced to Pink Floyd, you'll find out soon which camp you belong to. Enjoy!
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Youtube Video: Romney and Religion: Is America Ready for a Mormon President?
by OnTheWayOut ini am glad some people are saying the things i have thought about a mormon running for president of the usa:.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iemmttjeuo8&list=uunzitcpd7wgvn80trrb8rcq&index=1&feature=plcp.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
I'm so delighted that a candidate's church is all of a sudden back on the table as valid political discussion after a notable four year absence. After all, I'm much more comfortable with a president whose preacher wont speak to him because the Jews wont let him, and because the government he now represents created AIDS in laboratories to kill blacks.