just saw this on the ex-jw subreddit.
on opencharity.ca, you can view wtbs canada's financial info and in 2013 they received almost $9 million in donations.
you can even see how much some congregations gave.
united way of greater Toronto gave the branch $14909 last year?
I would also love to know how this can be. I've heard United Way put down by so many people within the org - from CO's to elders to rank & file, either on the basis of supposed religious affiliation or just being a poor example of charity. How on earth did they get $15K from them???
i am deeply upset every time there's someone in the news who has died because of the stupid and immoral blood doctrine.. i would like to make a website documenting every single instance of a news report of someone dying from lack of a blood transfusion, and to keep track of it.
that would give some data on the real and current incidence of deaths due to the blood transfusion doctrine.. is there already a website like that?.
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I applaud the intention completely, but I fear that it can never have any real value.
The % of cases in which the lack of blood treatment is the fully proven cause of death would be close to zero I think.
The listings in the database would have to figure out how much of a part the policy played in the outcome. This would be so subjective if it included an honest representation of all the variables it would be hard to figure out the real impact of JW policy. I think that is the underlying problem that Shilmer, AJWRB and others have consistently faced in trying to represent the facts.
To be meaningful the database would also have to include ALL the outcomes for refusals of treatment - even the positive ones - and I think this data would be impossible to gather. If you disagree with this last statement then bear in mind that if you take the risk to reject any form of blood then there may be an increased chance of reduced complications if you survive. I think this is generally accepted.
Don't get me wrong. I am firmly against the JW blood policy being enforced on its members and I really wish the impact were measurable in some significant way. But it is simply not like that.
This is what allows the GB to keep maintaining the pressure under the radar. If the impact was truly known then it would be much harder for them to hide their convoluted policies.
If someone could show me where I am wrong I would consider donating time to research this and contributing to the project.
FG
to paraphrase a well known saying.
is it true, in a judicial committee, if you can fake repentance, then they are likely to let you off being disfellowshipped, almost regardless of the "severity" of the sin involved?
can former elders and perhaps victims of the process shed light on the matter?
Number of factors since OP.
Elders' school since then has strongly suggested an interpretation of repentance as sometimes being unobtainable if they have wandered too far off the path. This is regardless of the theatrics that they may display at the JC (even if genuine).
It makes the whole "no automatic disfellowshipping" statement in the KS book a mockery, since there sometimes is NO way to avoid DF according to the standard they set.
They also impress the order of how much weight they attach to the following as:
1) Protecting Jehovah's name (67%)
2) Protecting the congregation (32.5%)
3) Helping the individual (0.5%)
Okay, so the % are made up by me, but the order is not, and depending on the commitee the % may not be far off either.
When Jesus gave the parable of leaving the 99 sheep to recover the lost 1 he probably never forsaw the "better" theocratic arrangement to come.
while there are not too many currently defending the watchtower in this discussion forum, it happens from time to time.
and quite often, there may be new people and lurkers reading these discussions.
i just wanted you to ponder these questions.
C'mon. The internet is the internet. The OP is ridiculous. Who's it aimed at? Those who are JWs and are reading this obviously are open minded enough not to be restrained by a stupid man-made directive. And the rest of JWs are not here. So what's left to answer?
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/135m-awarded-to-bible-teacher-gonzalo-campos-alleged-abuse-victim-jose-lopez-281031832.html.
(published thursday, oct 30, 2014).
thursday, oct 30, 2014 updated at 11:58 pm pdt.
I would like to express my thanks to Barbara for making the court documents available. I was interested to read them and before I found this thread I tried to get them from the San Diego court website. It was a pain but I finally found how to do it, but then I couldn't figure out which ones would be best to give attention to. So I added several to my shopping cart that sounded like they might be of interest and found that my bill would have already amounted to over $150 to read just those few.
Then I found Barbara's links. And now I have them all to read. We should recognize how vaulable this information is for those who want to confirm the facts of the matter and not just get soundbites from news reports.
I for one am changing my opinion in a radical way. I have previously rationalized some of the mistakes made by the org, and the elders at a local level, but so far just on reading two of the court documents I feel completely different about what is going on.
I can now see that the determination to protect an organization has completely trumped any basic human decency, never mind about genuine Christian morality.
Whilst I recognize that this is still a moral minefield I do feel the need to recant some of the apologetic things I posted on other websites in the past.
I was wrong. And I am sorry. I wish I could find some of those old threads to post personal apologies, but I can't so I'll just offload here for now.
FG
so what have been your experiences with sleep paralysis?
any connection to astral projection?
this has interested me recently as i used to have sleep paralysis quite often years ago.
I've experienced SP pretty much all my life. I also dream very vividly almost all the time. Sometimes i have lucid dreams in which I act as an explorer of what is possible. I can confirm that I dream in vivid color. I can feel acute pain in dreams that is not present when I awake. I can be free of pain even though going to sleep and waking up I might actually have a particular pain. I can see incredible detail in objects - things can seem more vivid than real life. Examining the veins of leaves of trees seems to be one I do often. I can speak foreign languages fluently in some dreams (although I suspect that it's probably some words I know combined with a fluent form of jibberish). I compose or hear some amazing music in dreams, although I have to really write down a few motifs soon after waking to capture any of it. I can smell things in dreams - smells that are not possible to have been present in the environment in which I was sleeping. People in my dreams can surprise me by things they say - for instance asking me a question to which I do not know the answer - and then they tell me the answer (but how can that be if everything is generated in my own brain?). Of course sometimes I can fly or jump long distances too. Those dreams are awesome when I can get a good measure of control over them.
On the original topic I get regular sleep paralysis and it never ceases to completely freak me out. I often think I might never get out of it. It also happens several levels deep "Inception" style. I get out of my sleep paraysis only to find myself being paralized in another dream. Those are the worst because I have no idea how many levels I might have to go through to get out. 3 is the maximum I can recall, but even after 2 you think it's going to go on forever. I think I see the room around me in perfect detail, but sometimes I might hear a person coming up the stairs and I can do nothing about it in my frozen state. Those are really bad.
Interestingly I have for a very long time had repeating fream about seeing strange phenomina in the sky. Things start off fairly normal, and then spacecraft or unidentified object appear, or distant brilliant galaxies appear to close in on the earth. I think Matt 24:29,30 got deeply lodged in subconscious a long time ago.
For all the scary stuff I wouldn't trade my dreams for anything. It's like a whole other existence at night that I look forward to.
FG
i see there is a special meeting held by the gb at bethel a week before the annual meeting.. .
wonder what that will be about?.
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@Tim Hooper ... priceless!
three months ago i had to stop driving my car.
it wouldn't pass inspection and it would cost about $3k to get it up to par.. well, it's a 98 honda accord with about 179 thousand miles on it, what did i expect?.
.. i decided i would switch to riding a bicycle instead.. it has worked out fairly well.. i put about 10 miles a day on it.
Bummer! Sorry to hear that. I know the feeling as it happened to me but a little differently. I had an expensive bike chained up. Thief stole the saddle only and not wanting to ride home without it I left it chained that evening which was a stupid mistake. (I had had a couple of pints which may have impaired my decision making ability.) They came back and took the whole thing later.
When I replaced it I started to do what jgnat's son does if I had any doubts about the area. But to snatch it right in front of you ... I think I'd have got caught out the same.
no matter what they do, they will be destroyed forever!!!!
i can't believe i used to believe that s**t!!!!.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx28dw9devu.
Obviously all those helping people ARE already JWs. Nobody else on the planet would show such qualities.
hi, i am also a practicing jehovah's witness and very proud of it,to say the very-very least..!
i am a middle-aged man with many decades of being a witness of jehovah god in england.. this important letter is personally to you, just as many of the bible's 88 letters are to be taken personal by you the reader.
i am writing to you to urge you to take stock of your life, think what your future holds for you.
sparks
I'm just wondering how you can write this stuff after posting at one time ...
"but not before I metaphorically shit on the Ciruit Overseers carpet infront of the gang of six arse-lickers around him" (http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/70376/1/oh-my-God-what-have-I-done-Tomb-Raider-Horror-stuff)
You say you are a "middle-aged" man, but the above looks like it would have been written by a vitriolic 15 year old, and that was 10 years ago.
Weird.
Your attempt to now support the org is unbalanced and inaccurate on many counts. It seems you have invested yourself into much propaganda over the past few years.
But I suspect they would be just as happy not to have you playing the apologist for them in view of your prior posts. No doubt any actual JW would consider that you are doing more harm than good.
FG
