i just watched excerpts from his cnn town hall event and something is seriously wrong with him.
he can’t put together a sentence without getting lost, tripping on his own words, forgetting what he is talking about.……this is embarrassing.
and it’s not because he has a stutter!
Is Biden the real life version of "Chance" the gardener who became President, played by Peter Sellers in the Movie " Being There " ?
Not quite I suppose, the Sellers character could string together what sounded like a profound statement. But is Biden there simply because he can be manipulated ?
so in the latest leaked video, splane goes on this crazy delusional rant about how faithful witnesses should never research their faith.. he criticizes the worldly court system and says they are not fair toward witnesses and the organization.
he says the court system is rigged and witnesses who get convicted, (implied child sex abusers) are innocent.
he is literally trying to justify child molesters and elders who cover them, as good people in "god's eyes" even though "human authorities" may judge them and put them in jail.
This is great news ! it was a similar pronouncement from the Org. that made me determined to leave. I was already half out, having determined for myself that 1914 was hogwash, but was awaiting a Shepherding Visit from an Elder who had promised to return, and build my faith in 1914, and the Org.
He never did return of course, maybe he realised he could not defend 1914 to someone who was not a fool.
Then there was a Box in the Kingdom Ministry answering one of their made up questions about should groups of JW's join together for study and research.
They said no need ,we do it ALL for you ! So, no Research on your own or in groups. It is forbidden.
I loudly said in the K. Hall, " Nobody does my thinking for me !". I left for good a few months later.
This idiot on this stupid Video may well be the catalyst for the few remaining ones with sparking brain cells to leave.
so all the bs and hyperbole aside, to me it really looks like the cult is in trouble.
shrinking member, selling halls.
the move to televangelism is really strange to me.
pale.emperor gives us some exciting news ! I rarely go on exJWReddit, I am not sure why (?). But young people communicate so well and so fast today via the Net on their devices, that it is so different from when I left the org. Then it was so difficult for me to hook up with similar minded people from my circle of acquaintances locally, today it would be so easy !
If the young are waking up wholesale , we may not see many of them actually leave for a good while, but without doubt they will only be marking time until they do, and the support that does not come from them will be difficult for the Org to replace.
Coupled with the general dropping off of meeting Attendance and FS, the demise of the Org may accelerate, I do hope so, I wish to see it down to just a few million, maybe less than 2 million, old timers and nut bags being the only ones left, before I shuffle off this Mortal Coil.
my opinion is if possible fading is the best way to go..
It depends on your situation, like many others, for me it worked well, i was able to talk to older JW relatives before they passed. And am now on reasonable terms with my JW family. That would not be possible should I be DF'd or DA'd.
I know some cannot wait to be totally disassociated, thinking this will give them freedom and peace of mind, which is true to a degree. But often I think people do not realise that once you have faded for long enough you have every freedom, and the peace of mind comes from making the effort to get rid of JW beliefs and thoughts 100%.
I would advise fading, at least until you are really sure any other move is really for you. To DA is very difficult to undo, and can never be undone completely, you will always be looked upon with suspicion and disdain by the JW's. Much more so then if you have merely faded.
so all the bs and hyperbole aside, to me it really looks like the cult is in trouble.
shrinking member, selling halls.
the move to televangelism is really strange to me.
" It will be interesting to see the year end numbers in the next following years."
Yes, although analysis of the figures is always difficult, certainly Publisher numbers will be a pointless figure, what with reporting a mere 15 minutes of "activity" and all the Letter writing etc, it will be no measure at all of how many committed JW's there are, if it ever was a measure. The other figures are doubtful as to veracity too.
The one figure that is of interest, and I don't think they will lie about, or inflate, is the number of Congregations. From that some sort of impression of the true loss of numbers can be extrapolated.
I think, in common with many Businesses, they are struggling now, and will struggle more in a post Covid situation.
red cross is desperate for blood at work.
i considered doing it.
is this a disfellowshipping sin?
The wonderful freedom that I acquired by leaving all those years ago meant I could donate blood, Vote, and smoke.
The latter was a silly thing to do, but I enjoyed cigars, I gave up last year due to Covid, but will take it up again when I am 80 years old, why not ?
I am now too old to donate blood, but am glad I did for those years I was able to do so, I hope it helped a good few people. To be involved in politics, local and national is important, a civic duty.
Yes, they could disfellowship me, but would they bother after all these years ? I doubt it, and really do not care.
I am sorry for those stil trapped by the fear of being DF'd, that did worry me for a while, but not enough to impinge upon my freedom to do what i damn well like, and to do what is right.
If you choose to Donate Blood, which you should, and if you were threatened with being DF'd, then there are ways to spike their guns. I doubt they would go ahead if you said you were going on National T.V and to the National and local Press to expose their illogical, unscriptural and vile position on blood.
most churches are back to in-person worship.
not jehovah's witnesses.
is watchtower still managing to fleece the flocks as the sheeple no longer get literature, no longer go to the kh, no longer walk past the donation box?
As to the financial state of the Org, I should think they are still solvent. They embarked upon a big cost cutting exercise years ago, most Congregations have lower costs at present so will still send the Monthly "Tithe" as I call it at pre-Covid levels.
What huge expenses does the Org have ? They pay NO TAX ever, and if the Contributions only work out from the whole World as $1.00 a week per Publisher, that is still $8,000,000 a week rolling in !
That may be a bit simplistic, Contributions may well be less than that, but not much less I would guess.
The Org. will not go bust anytime soon, but individual Congregations may well struggle to meet their monthly commitment soon, do you think ?
something i've notice with born in jw kids posting on reddit, is that they have no problem telling off the elders.
this generation of born in jw kids just have no fear of who the elders represent because they know from researching on the internet, that jehovah is a created character by ancient people, and no different or real, than thanos.. these kids know exactly what's going on with the child sexual abuse in the organization.
they also have read and memorized the elder's book online.
I was a JW kid long before the Internet, a G.B or Elders ! Born in the early 1950's the Watchtower Org. was headed by a President, with different levels of management under him, down to "Congregation Servants".
We were not afraid of anybody, from the President down, but we did try not to get Disfellowshipped, for obvious reasons.
I grew up always questioning the WT teachings and claims, and when I moved Congregations joined with a bunch of guys similar to me, we took no shit from the Org, C.O's were seen as a nuisance who would move on eventually.
But we were exceptional, the rest of the Congregations around us towed the line, and were in fear of the Org's authority over them, I guess the people in those Congs. in turn spawned kids with that fear ?
The kids I have come in to contact with who have left, or are PIMO, have no fear, apart from the one of being DF'd. I guess most young ones have now "seen behind the curtain".
god’s name disappeared in the christian greek scriptures and its pronunciation got lost in the hebrew-aramaic ones.
the current vowels of the hebrew pronunciation of god’s name are taken from the “adonay” (“lord”) hebrew word which were the vowels chosen by who did not want to pronounce his name.
whereas the current latin pronunciation of god’s name (“jehovah”) was introduced by raymundus martini, a spanish monk of the dominican order, in his book published in 1270 c.e.
Nothing confusing about it when you look at the origins of the names. The name of the Israelite god Yahweh is etymologically difficult to nail down, but the name evolved as the god travelled from probably Egypt, via Midian, and he became a minor god in the Canaanite Pantheon, the name being pronounced differently by these different peoples, no doubt. Eventually he was adopted as an Israelite tribal god, among the others they worshipped, until after the Babylonian Exile when a form of Monotheism began to emerge.
Jesus of Nazareth was no doubt named by his parents in the normal way, choosing a name for him with nice connotations, but shared with many boys born around that time. At the time of choosing a name, his parents were not to know a huge Mythology would grow up around him, after his death.
in job 31 v11 it states that an inappropriate sex act is a crime not a 'sin'.
if this so between adults then it must extend that it is so if children are involved.
but the wt refers to paedophilia as a sin..
The Job story is a very old one, called "Oriental" by many scholars because it probably was around long before the Israelites and their adopted God were in existence.
It was picked up as good yarn and adapted by the Priests who compiled the O.T. as we call it, after the Babylonian Exile.
We have to think of how women were looked upon and treated at the time the story originated, even if Job was referring to an actual sexual liaison that was not between husband and wife, at this time it would have been seen only as a Crime against the Property of another. Coveting what was not yours was seen as wrong at this time, Sexual acts, even in the mind of the beholder, did not become "Sin" until much much later.
