Posts by JakeM2012

99

Thought Reform and the Psychology of the 'Safeguard Your Heart!' 2012 Convention

by breakfast of champions in

to make attendance at my second district convention "mentally out" both a little more bearable and meaningful, i decided to take some notes of key points as if i were an outsider studying the thought reform methods of jehovah's witnesses.

at first, i was only going to share these notes with my therapist, but inspired by the "parsing the watchtower double-speak" thread, i figured i would share my amateur analysis with everyone.

here are some of the highlights:.

JakeM2012

Breakfast of Champions. You obviously ate your Wheaties Saturday morning. An excellent summation of the day, and comment. A few weeks ago my wife, who is out but just does not want to talk about it, said after reading a wt article, that wt doesn't want you to exercise or use any of your God given defense mechanisms, like the conscience, free will, or personal sense of right and wrong.

So yesterday I read the notes you had taken and your comments so that I could continue the conversation from a few weeks ago. I was thankful in the way that you presented you commentary because it made the conversation easier. We both came to the conclusion that the "everyone is evil that is not a JW" and "if your not for us you are against us" propaganda will eventually lead her family to dissing us.

Thanks again

19

Magic Mountain and Disney Land soon to be off limits to all JW's!

by Greybeard in

jw
friends

why isn't it off limits if wizards and magic are what god hates???

the truth is almost every jw has been to magic mountain or disney land/world.

we went in large groups when i was young.

JakeM2012

I guess I'll have to stop using Miracle Grow on my plants. It's very evil.

23

The GB is Being Careless With People's Lives

by What Now? in

i haven't had much opportunity to be on here lately, except from my phone, which i can't post from.

but i have actually had chance to sit down at the computer and i wanted to share something.. .

so my sister has joined a foreign language group.

JakeM2012

For years, Jehovah's Witnesses have been using the "Tourist Visa" to get their work done without having to go through the proper governmental and embassary protocol. I "volunteered" to go to several Central and South American countries and we were always on tourist visa's because it cost "too" much to get a residency visa or other type of visa. "Tourist" built the branches in central and south america, many times bringing in materials, parts, etc to circumvent customs and tariffs. They would have a local brother take you down to get an extension on the tourist visa and they would lie about what you were doing. If you were caught you were on your own. But they would use you as a mule to carry stuff in and out of the country on your personally paid for air travel ticket. So it didn't cost them anything. Sometimes, you could get 1-3 months on a tourist visa depending on the country. If your time ran out the local branch was reluctant to pay for the cost of leaving the country and returning. The local branch even wanted you to do it on your days off, so you wouldn't miss any work.

It is all this monopoly shell game and money that was indirectly donated for the cost of travel to build all these branches that they are closing down now. I know that the airfare paid for by brothers providing their own transportation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for each branch. Now WT is cashing in on those buildings that were built to survive Harmegedon and serve as the center of worship in each of these areas. I assume that with the merging of the central american branches that El Salvador, and Costa Rica are being sold. Does anyone know?

You might mention that if your sister is a "chosen" delegate, IRS standards indicate that she can deduct alot of the trip. Check the latest tax code.

9

Has the WTB&TS broken copyright/Trade-mark laws with their use of sparlock ?

by smiddy in

jw
friends

when i googled sparlock,i was directed to some companies that traded under that name , so i`m just curious if they have infringed on some laws here.. any legal eagles here that can to shed some light on this ?.

i`m just curious.. smiddy.

JakeM2012

Maybe Disney needs to claim copyright laws for WT's copying Kaa the python in Jungle Book written by Rudyard Kipling.

11

Signs of shunning

by NY23brown in

guess my first post won't show up due to ie, so trying again.... .

wondering what signs to look for if i suspect in-laws are planning to shun my husband.

he has not been to kh since his teen (20+) years and i am not a jw.

JakeM2012

I have a very disfunctional family and am being shunned/isolated. Was your husband informed of the work on the family members home? If your husband was able to assist in the process this could be an excellent way to diffuse or interrupt opportunities for conversation that the elder could have with the rest of the family. If your husband was not informed of the work on the families home then the shunning may have already begun. But believe me, when it comes to working on a needy family members home you won't loose any points by working on it or supporting it in some way.. (I am assuming it is the work done is on a member of his family, like a mother or father). I have witness family in-law members and the many of the witness C.O. substitute elders and regular elders will not participate in the maintenance of the mother's home. It has caused problems and resentments even ruining some "friendships". I would think that whatever poison this elder could deliver to your in-laws could be diminished by your families support, even if it is bringing food over for their sustanance. The chain of love can be temporarily interrupted between the borg and redirected to the family loyalties in some of these situations.

12

October 1, 1926 WT on the Prophetic Seven Times of the Gentiles

by JakeM2012 in

jw
friends

i know that this has been discussed previously about the 607 b.c.e and the 586 b.c.e.

debate.

but i found it interesting in the october 1, 1926 wt the quotes under the subheading:.

JakeM2012

I must apologize, this information came from "The Herald of Christ's Kingdom" Vol IX October 1, 1926 no 19 which was written by a splinter group that left the Bible Students when Rutherford took over WTBTS called the Pastoral Bible Institute. I was incorrect to attribute this to Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Sorry about the confusion.

12

October 1, 1926 WT on the Prophetic Seven Times of the Gentiles

by JakeM2012 in

jw
friends

i know that this has been discussed previously about the 607 b.c.e and the 586 b.c.e.

debate.

but i found it interesting in the october 1, 1926 wt the quotes under the subheading:.

JakeM2012

I bought the PDF's of the Watchtower several years ago and was skimming through the years in my quest for the truth about the truth. I have not verified these quotes with a hard copy of the 1926 WT. Perhaps someone here has access.

12

October 1, 1926 WT on the Prophetic Seven Times of the Gentiles

by JakeM2012 in

jw
friends

i know that this has been discussed previously about the 607 b.c.e and the 586 b.c.e.

debate.

but i found it interesting in the october 1, 1926 wt the quotes under the subheading:.

JakeM2012

I know that this has been discussed previously about the 607 B.C.E and the 586 B.C.E. debate. But I found it interesting in the October 1, 1926 WT the quotes under the subheading:

"The Prophetic Seven Times of the Gentiles"

Paragraph 3

"As has already been acknowledged by many Bible students, the lease of Gentile power, commencing in Nebuchadnezzars's first year, 606 B.C.,reaches unto approximately 1914 A.D., at which time the lease was due to run out.* But as it was about 19 years after the commencement of the universal kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar before the complete downfall of the Jewish kingdom and before the crown was removed from Judah's last king, so it has been found interesting as well as logical to calculate the "seven times" of 2520 years from 588 B.C. when the Jews were completly subjugated and this brings us to approximately 1934 A.D.

"Thus from all the facts we are able to gather it would seem that the times of the Gentiles in the last and final sense are due to run their full course by the last date named above, when there might be reasonably expected, events and developments of the very great moment in evidence. We are making no predictions, nor hastily arriving at any visionary or fanatical conclusions. We are patiently biding the time and waiting for the days to disclose what may be the program of events. The most we are doing is exercising our privilege of soberly looking at the facts of prophecy and history in the light of present day developments, and therby recognizing that there is a remarkable synchronizing of circumstances and events in these days with the prophetic times."

25

Would Witnesses drink "the cool-aid" if instructed to by the Governing body?

by Witness 007 in

my anionted mum always said she's "willing to die for the truth like the brothers in the concentration camps".....how many witnesses would do this, like the "heavens gate" suicide group or the tokyo cult that tried to start armagedon with subway gas attacks or even the 9/11 terrorists?.

the brothers in the camps in world war 2 were told by rutherford this is armagedon.

so they thought a quick death and then "poof"...i'm in paradise.. .

JakeM2012

So is it the idea that the WT lawyers get all the property and cash personally available to themselves and then get everyone to drink the coolaid and retire in France next the Angolina and Brad? Perhaps they would change the idea on memorial partakers so that everyone partakes and then send the congregations a "special" bottle of unfermented wine. Oh, so evil.

I don't see the mass suicide any benefit to WT financially, it's hard to get money from a dead person unless they have life insurance, property, or cash and WTS is named as beneficiary. Some life insurance won't pay if it is suicide, the results would be held up in court. Then you have the class action suits when everyone dies from the surviving unbelieving families. Too much trouble.

It seems more effective to liquidate the branches, get rid of the overhead of feeding the bethel families, taking care of the elderly bethelites, minimize the printing cost by having the pubs do their own, then guilt trip everyone into donating everything for one last march around the walls of Jericho before the finale (we really mean the final end this time) when the trumpets are blown and the walls fall down. Oh, they have already done most of this. Duh?

WTBTS already has everyone drinking the coolaid, and providing them a "living sacrifice" why mess up something good? You can shear a sheep's wool once a year maybe twice, but you can only slaughter it once. I'm still curious who owns the original stock and what kind of cut they are getting? When you have a worldwide business and money and product are moved and exchanged their are plenty of opportunities to skim, especially with the latest monopoly branch trades. Ok, I'll trade the Brooklyn Boardwalk and Parkplace for Pennsylvania Avenue properties and 1 Billion dollars.

23

Adam and Jesus in the scales.... Bull crap.

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

one of the hardest questions to answer if you believe in an all loving god, is why 'he' permits so much pain and suffering?

of course as imperfect, sinful humans we all know we could not bare to watch a day of human suffering without helping out, how could a god cope and not intervene for thousands of years....?.

the answer most of us all accepted was a pair of scales.

JakeM2012

What kind of reasoning do you think an organization will base their view of the scriptures on when you have lawyers (Rutherford) writing the WT publications? The whole idea of the balanced scales of justice and santification of God's name just doesn't fit. If it doesn't fit you must acquit.