This is directed at no one in particular, so please don't mistake me. I understand the schadenfreude we all must feel regarding the WT's eventual decline. I admit to getting pleasure from it, and it's one of the many reasons I visit this forum. I enjoy getting news out of the Society I wouldn't get unless I asked my family members still in a specific question. I would have never known about the branch closures or the abbreviated magazines if it weren't for this place. The Society's decline from the Awake! being cut to one a month, and now for the two public magazines to shrink to 16 pages has been well documented here and the theories are sound. Should there be a collapse, while it would certainly be noteworthy, in the end you'll still have a rump and mountebank organization running out of upstate New York issuing dictates with that familiar letterhead along with what remains of their publications all in digital format. What is worse is that many people will still follow its direction. The cover story will be that the Great Tribulation is so close that they are centralizing everything in order to prepare for the harsh measures to come. Where we gain our satisfaction from is the fact that the publishing empire in itself would have collapsed, and the fire sale will be on. Smaller and more rural congregations will be dissolved, with the property sold off. Many will start meeting in private homes, and the KHs that still remain will be in larger populated areas. In fact, it might even be cheaper in many cases to sell off the Hall and rent space from grange halls, veterans hall, or (gasp!) churches. My point is that the movement will continue on, though in a much more penurious and hastily organized manner. The immediate future is going to be very revealing, and I will be always looking for news of anything related. What we shouldn't do is let this organization consume us like it did in the past. It'll be fun to watch, but it's important to move on with our lives. Again, not directed at anyone in particular. I enjoy the ex-JW community, and would love to do activities with them that have scarcely a mention of JWs.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
JoinedPosts by Sic Semper Tyrannis
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Is the WTS and the JW's going to collapse in 2014?
by braincleaned intwo years to go, and an embarrassing whole century will have gone by after 1914 -- the date of armageddon.
in no world is that a "short period of time".... .
let's put things in perspective, since the wts claims to be the channel god has choosen.
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I don't always study my watchtower but when I do it's during the public talk
by Iamallcool ini got a text message from a jw, she just send me a picture of a white bearded man with xx beer on the table.
the title of the picture is "i don't always study my watchtower but when i do it's during the public talk.
" i just do not know how to forward the image from the text message.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
It's fair to say that I never fully understood the logic behind studying for the WT Study. Isn't that what the WT Study is for? It's like your coach telling you to practice for practice.
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Michael Jackson's "son" Blanket might be out of the Watchtower pretty soon!
by Iamallcool inhttp://news.yahoo.com/michael-jackson-former-bodyguard-claims-blanket-son-191608753.html.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
This would be beyond creepy if it were anyone else, but since it's Michael Jackson, it's just another Thursday. It was painfully obvious that MJ paid people to hatch them once Lisa Marie refused to be Michael's receptacle. Poor kids. You know they're going to hear all about their 'father' being a child molester and a drug addict for the rest of their lives. Blanket is going to have to find a new nickname if he doesn't want to become a laughingstock. It did bother me when I heard that Katherine Jackson was taking them to the Hall and out in service. Haven't these kids been through enough? Even if they survive Armageddon and into the New Order, they certainly wont find their 'dad' waiting on the other side.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
I nominate George Lucas. My inner geek can't take it anymore. He should hang for The Phantom Menace alone. The Phantom Menace in 3D gets him a place in hell. There, I said it.
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Wednesday 25/04/12 Anzac Day march in Australia with no 1914 soldiers left!!!!
by Witness 007 ini remember afew years ago in the around 1990-95 there were only afew w.w. 1 vets left marching on anzac day....we pioneers spoke about how due to this, "the end" has to come at least before 2001. afew years ago we had the one surviving anzac who falsely enlisted at 16 years of age still alive.....now excuse the term...."this generation" has passed away.. my mum still beileves the 1914 gen lives on!!
!.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
This just illustrates the sadness and melancholy nature of it all. Really, three generations have come and gone. If you followed CT Russell's babble in the late 1800's, you were gone by the mid-20th century. If you started following around 1914 (like Fred Franz), your generation died out in the 90's. If you were gullible enough to go for the "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" campaign, you were gone by the last decade like the remaining members of the GB. Three generations of wasted lives and false promises of never growing old. The end still has not come. Instead the WT is closing up shop and taking off with the loot.
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An old post from James-Woods on Freddy's LUST FOR POWER - a shocker
by Dogpatch ini was just going through some old files to delete and i ran across this one from our own beloved james_woods: .
there is another negative character aspect about freddy that ed dunlap once related to me.
freddy was practically crazed with the desire to be president of the wt society.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Ed Dunlap died in the late 90's. Ray mentioned it in his In Search of Christian Freedom book.
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What Are Some Of The Critical Items (Clues, Free Thinking) Ray Frantz Left Behind In Articles?
by Bubblegum Apotheosis inone of you mentioned ray frantz had left behind clues, bold information within plain site.
a "mine field" of data is suppose to be on the wt cd-rom, what information where you talking about?
my favorite book before i knew ray was an apostate, was the "james book", it still is and i love the insights ray wrote, that remain timeless about the letter of james..
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Everyone certainly has differences of opinion and their right to them. I think you might have hit it right on the head when you say that Ray had some of the old GB still in him. In his books, and especially in COC, he was quite careful not to step on some toes even though he had nothing to lose. Not a word about the Chitty resignation for being gay. Nothing about Greenlees either in his second book, though it would have made it quite a selling point. Knorr, Swingle, Sydlik, Barry and a few others are portrayed as benign men who were captives to a concept, but he had a few scores to settle with Fred Franz, Klein, Henschel, Jaracz, and Schroeder. You get the distinct sense that from Ray's point of view, the Witnesses could have been reformed from within had the reform wing of the GB of which he were a member had prevailed. I doubt any meaningful reform could have taken place even if this were so. 1914 was a house a cards, and to truly reform the movement you'd have to scrap the entire history and start over. You can't build a religious movement on a lie. It must be admitted as such, with all corresponding and relating claims also dumped. It is interesting though, that the GB pleaded with Dunlap to be quiet and stay, while they seemed to have already wanted Ray out even before the final meeting. Maybe they viewed Ray as more of a threat, given his GB membership, and were uncomfortable with the associates he was keeping down in Alabama. To have been a fly on the wall during those discussions!
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
When I die I want to go to heaven, whatever the hell that is. -Ayn Rand
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Cedar's 'Why The Watch Tower Society Is Already In Decline"
by Dogpatch inwhy the watch tower society is already in decline.
good article, cedars.. http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3236:why-the-watch-tower-society-is-already-in-decline&catid=31:governing-body&itemid=346.
it's also on the front page of freeminds.org.
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Thanks for sharing, Randy. Between you and Barbara, it's nice to get the actual inside scoop from people who were there in the thick of things than from those of us on the peripheries or otherwise disconnected from the "source". I enjoyed reading Ray's books, especially COC, though I do realize that everyone has to tell the story as they saw and experienced it themselves. Though men like Russell, Rutherford, Knorr, Franz, and finally, Henschel and Jaracz are now gone, I don't think you can even get into the workings of the upper echelons of Jehovah's Witnesses without analyzing most, if not all of these men who have made such an indelible imprint on Witness doctrine, thinking, and organizational procedures. When I visited Bethel, I was simply amazed at why everyone wolfed down their food like they hadn't eaten at all during a day of hard labor. The text reading was distracting and I thought people ought to have been given the entire measly 15 minutes allotted for the simple pleasure of eating and some brief conversation. It had the feeling of a prison camp cafeteria. The idea of wearing shirts, ties, and suits to the cafeteria was even more over the top, and I laughed out loud at the thought of Fred Franz wearing that t-shirt as a protest. He was just probably miffed by Sydlik not running it by him first. It's a petty way of doing things, but I guess many of these men just loved the power their offices gave them.
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The four presidents of the watchtower society (Jehovah's witnesses) by edmond c.gruss
by Kojack57 in -
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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Conley was only a philanthopist. He supported many Adventist preachers and causes, of which CT Russell was but one among many. His "presidency" of the WTS lasted only three years (1881-1884), all of which were previous to the Society becoming incorporated in late 1884 with Russell as president. The Russells were the true power behind the Society. Conley evidently stayed associated with them. As late as 1894, the WT printed a letter from Conley and introduced him as simply a member of the Allegheny congregation. Conley died three years later, but the WT did not mention it. He served as the Pennsylvania head of the Christian and Missionary Alliance from 1894 to his death, and personally funded the CMA's Jerusalem mission.
There is much circumstantial evidence that Maria Russell was a huge contributor to the articles of the WT magazine. Unfortunately we'll never know the full extent because of CT Russell's attempts to disinherit her, and of the relatively powerless position of women back in that day. The best Maria Russell could do was sue for divorce and get some sort of court-ordered support from CT Russell. The magazine and empire could never be hers.
I have a copy of Ed Gruss' book. Though it was written in a largely negative tone, it revealed much regarding early WT history. I particularly enjoyed the focus on Clayton J. Woodworth and his war on the medical profession.