I think that going to a Horse race and betting would be frowned upon at least, and I would not have done it as a J.W in my day for that reason, whether the Elders in most Congregations would actually view it as serious I don't know these days, I know my Elders back in the day would just have laughed, they were a laid back lot, not typical at all.
Posts by Phizzy
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11Bucket List for the years A.C.
by Phizzy inwhat things, modest and attainable, will be on your bucket list to do after covid ?
preferably post things you would not be allowed to do if you were still a jw!.
i will start, i want to go to an actual horse race, and have a small flutter on each race..
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60
Is it me or is John Cedars channel becoming a self important circle fest
by phoenixrising ini still like the commentary on the jw.org monthly’s, i can skip through some parts.
but it seems like he is pushing too hard to put out videos and the quality is getting very low on the content..
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Phizzy
I think Lloyd's motives are O.K. I also think he is a bit of an attention seeking narcissist, maybe. He certainly left this Site in a Hissy Fit one day, over what was , yes, a personal attack, an Ad Hominem, but it didn't seem to me that distancing himself from here was very productive for his main work of waking up JW's, at the time.
His work is valuable, as many have testified, he helped them wake up, and to successfully follow the Road to Freedom.
Keep up that good work Lloyd !
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11
Bucket List for the years A.C.
by Phizzy inwhat things, modest and attainable, will be on your bucket list to do after covid ?
preferably post things you would not be allowed to do if you were still a jw!.
i will start, i want to go to an actual horse race, and have a small flutter on each race..
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Phizzy
What things, modest and attainable, will be on your Bucket List to do After Covid ? preferably Post things you would NOT be allowed to do if you were still a JW!
I will start, I want to go to an actual Horse Race, and have a small flutter on each Race.
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32
Witnessing Work to Stop?
by Sea Breeze inmy 87 year old dad called me for the first time in 16 years the other day .... just to chat.
i was floored to say the least since he didn't even bother to call me when my mom died several years ago.
he called again today to inquire how i felt about jehovah's witnesses.
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Phizzy
JW's and active preaching are synonymous, it is deeply embedded in their Culture, in their DNA probably. But most do not like actual Cold Calling on Homes, which is why the Cart Work was a perceptive move.
I can see that doing the actual " Knock Knocks" as we used to call them will die out, not just because of the preference of most JW's, but because the GB will see they are happy with alternatives, and the Org will save money by producing not one shred of printed matter.
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Do you think you will ever see News like this ?
by Phizzy inthis sort of thing ?
"jehovah's witnesses state that black lives matter, as all lives matter".
" jehovah's witnesses join black lives matter rally".
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Phizzy
Yes alanv, and as a born in, I was brought up with the attitude we were all humans and equal before god. Because my parents were unusual in their attitude to people from other ethnic groups and cultures, even before they became J.W's, our Home was " Open House" to all sorts of people, from different backgrounds, and different politics even.
Because of benefiting from these aspects of my upbringing, I could never have become a Racist ! As you rightly say this is one thing we can praise JW's for.
It became clear to me thinking on this matter, that until I was about 10 I was not even aware of Racism, growing up in a White Rural Community. Then one day I was standing in a Field with a friend, and two farm workers were passing, standing up in the back of a pick-up truck, and they remarked " Yea, West African", they were wrong about her ethnicity, but I became aware they thought of her as a mere specimen, like an animal in a Zoo, to gawp at, and show no respect. I was hurt and shocked.
So Racism was there in my little Community, but I had not experienced it in action in my life before. I have always hated Racism in any form ever since.
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13
Do you think you will ever see News like this ?
by Phizzy inthis sort of thing ?
"jehovah's witnesses state that black lives matter, as all lives matter".
" jehovah's witnesses join black lives matter rally".
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Phizzy
This sort of thing ? :
"JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES STATE THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER, AS ALL LIVES MATTER"
" JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES JOIN BLACK LIVES MATTER RALLY"
" JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES JOIN WITH OTHERS IN "TAKING THE KNEE" FOR BLACK LIVES MATTER"
No, neither do I. Because ?? " Oh no, we cannot get involved in Politics", etc. (This is not a political issue, true Politicians must make the changes that matter, but it is an issue with Society as a whole, Racist people need to "put on the new personality". )
It has truly been stated that it is simply not enough to claim not to be racist, we have to fight against Racism with all our might, and in any way we can.
Therefore if there is nothing from J W Org, not even a statement on this, they are a racist Organisation.
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11
JW imprisonment
by BourneIdentity inthis is on the jw news site.
news alert | crimean supreme court sentenced brother artem gerasimov to six years in prison.
on june 4, 2020, the crimean supreme court sentenced brother artem gerasimov to six years in prison for his peaceful christian worship.
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Phizzy
" According to the investigation, together with others he conducted divine services, which is interpreted as "organization of the activities of an extremist organization" (with reference to the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to liquidate all 396 registered Jehovah's Witnesses organizations). "
So, he went against "Caesars Law", whatever we may think about the Law, and got a heavy sentence for ignoring the law, and ignoring the Scripture.
The Russian Law that defines the J.W. Org as extremist, I cannot really disagree with, as to it's definition of Extremist, and JW Org as fitting the definition. Yes, the Russian Orthodox Church may well be behind all this, the sentence was unnecessarily heavy, but he took a silly, foolhardy chance.
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38
Breaking: Beards in The Watchtower
by neat blue dog inthe latest issue of the watchtower shows a man with a beard praying.. .
i fully expected to see him 'progress' to clean-shaven in the following pictures, but instead he is still bearded when 'applying bible principles'.. .
i then realized that he was already featured on the cover itself.. .
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Phizzy
I have a Letter from the early '70's, somewhere in my Files, from Bethel on the matter, it is the usual mealy mouthed stuff, but even back then they said that in certain parts of the World and Cultures it was acceptable.
But they said it would be up to the Elders to decide if they appointed someone with a Beard, to a "position of responsibility". Of course you were as usual subject to the prejudices of local Elders.
I grew a beard shortly after receiving that letter, I was an M.S. at the time, nothing was said by the Elders, which was strange because a few month earlier I had been "counselled" about the length of my sideburns ! yet, let that develop in to a full beard and they say nothing ??
I served for nearly 20 years with a beard, and used to give "Away" Public talks at the time, it was made plain to me that I would never be used on the Platform at a Convention, even for something like a F.S "experience", and yet in later years, after my beard was shaved off actually, they used a lovely old boy in an experience at our Circuit Convention, wearing his rather scruffy beard, so were obviously more relaxed then.
When I was told you could not go on the Platform with one, I asked to see it in writing, and the bro I was talking to whipped out the Instructions for Handling Assembly Parts or whatever it was called, and there it was, by the Org, with very doubtful Scriptures to back it up, and faulty reasoning too, "People may think you are an Anarchist" or similar. In my Culture at the time, in the U.K, the only people wearing beards were generally Professional guys, and Academics, so that being in those Instructions went against the letter that I had on File, but, I didn't care, I didn't want to go on a Convention Part anyway.
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17
Thunderous Applause Around The Stadium
by Number 6 ingrowing up in the 70's and 80's in the jw religion who remembers the massive stadium gigs the watchtower used to hold?.
we used to denounce false religion in the starkest of terms.
we were right and by god we were letting anyone who listened know it.
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Phizzy
BluesBrother pointed out that JW's got an attendance at one or two Twickenham Rugby Ground Conventions of 50,000 or so, near capacity I would have thought.
And at the time, I think I am right, there were less than 100,000 JW's in the whole of the U.K and Ireland combined !
Think of the effort many had to put in to attend ! but that "Great Crowd" LOL, applauding, was a very emotionally charged thing.
Yet another thing they have lost by smaller and smaller Conventions
After one of those really big ones, a JW I knew, an old Country boy who did not like crowds, said, " Well, I'm never going to one of those again". He never did, not even the smaller Regional ones, though remained a JW until his death.
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21
How Would You React if a Snake Started Talking to You?
by RubaDub injust an odd thought i guess.
i saw a large snake in the back of my house the other day and it went on its merry way.
i just asked myself, what if the snake turned around and wanted to have a philosophical discussion on life, the universe or the origin of creation and then began to ask me questions?
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Phizzy
Vid, you a Harry Plopper fan ! never would have guessed.
The JW's desperate attempts to take the Bible as literally as possible make their view of the Bible really very, very silly. Of course the Adam and Eve story is allegorical, and yet, the motive for writing it, or including it in Genesis was also somewhat a way for the writers to explain the parlous state of humanity.
I cannot stand snakes, so would have been off like a rocket before it could have "spoken". " Spoken" in quotes because I don't think a snake has a Larynx does it ? Hence the J.W explanation that "Satan" used it like a ventriloquist would. Of course, the Genesis account does not say it was Satan, he was a much later concept. More wonderful JW exegesis, or rather eisegesis.