NotFormer

Joined

• started 94 topics
• posted 1,682 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by NotFormer

• 
  16

  Three Amish bishops who told woman to rescind protective order against husband, guilty of intimidation.

  by was a new boy in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  doubtful a judicial committee would order a sister to rescind a protective order, but might tell her she wouldn't qualify for the privilege of being a auxiliary pioneer while she had it.. .

  https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/amish-men-who-told-woman-to-vacate-protective-order-against-husband-lose-appeal-of-intimidation-convictions.

  'riley rejected the defendant’s citation of cantwell v. connecticut, 310 u.s. 296, 60, s.ct.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  You've had a hard time, EasyPrompt! 😱 You're being very brave sharing things that might identify you. Be careful! Those guys can be vindictive; they remind me of the judge in the parable who "fears neither man nor God". Still ya gotta love it: once upon a time these blokes had a reasonable expectation of being able to hide behind a cloak of secrecy, but now their actions and words are being shouted from the housetops!
• 
  13

  Did The Australian Royal Commission Actually Achieve Anything?

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i've been going through past threads on here during the period i was not very interested in what was going on in jw world.

  the australian royal commission era caused a great deal of excitement and inspired some hope, but did any good come of it?.

  the 2 witness rule in child sexual assault cases still exists, and elders still don't call the police and try to handle things in house.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  I don't really care if a few hangers-on are around in the decades to come. Look at the Mormon breakaway groups that are still loyal to Joe Smith and don't recognise anything that came after him. I'd just love to see the blatant demise of the central WT organisation, that took so much from so many and gave so much to so few (being on the GB is still a good gig, while it lasts).

  I suppose that it is something that they just can't exercise power the way that they used to. Their secret documents and communications are no longer safe from the public the way they used to be. I wonder how that affects the psyche of the GB and others in command? Once their word, both spoken and secret, was law, and now everything they whisper in secret is being shouted from the housetops. It must be quite the comedown. I wonder when the pilgrimages to Bethel will cease, or at least decline to the point that the GB will notice? The implications above are that it is already happening enough to frighten the Bethel horses.

  On a positive note, I used to hate seeing the smug face of Herbert W Armstrong on my tv every Sunday morning (I switched over immediately) and now the organisation that he built is but a shadow of its former self. So maybe there is hope. Selling off the family silver is a short term solution at best, and the diminishing number of Kingdom Halls must be worrying to the R&F, even while they're being assured that everything is fine.
• 
  34

  2023-August-S-147-Announcements And Reminders!

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  page 1. https://imgbox.com/32tnfnel.

  page 2. https://imgbox.com/f8jh7e0m .

  page 3. https://imgbox.com/chjmr4km .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  Could they ever bite the bullet and get "new light" on tithing?

  Some high control religious groups actually check members' payslips to verify that they are tithing correctly. I remember one Pentecostal pastor I knew that was slavering over the fact that Yonggi Cho's church in South Korea was checking church members' payslips at the door before services. He would have loved to have seen some of that action! 🙄

  Would the R&F rebel, or would they just bend over to receive more of the loving arrangement?
• 
  13

  Did The Australian Royal Commission Actually Achieve Anything?

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i've been going through past threads on here during the period i was not very interested in what was going on in jw world.

  the australian royal commission era caused a great deal of excitement and inspired some hope, but did any good come of it?.

  the 2 witness rule in child sexual assault cases still exists, and elders still don't call the police and try to handle things in house.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  And that is my point: they didn't wither. The two witnesses rule in CSA cases is still WT policy, even in Australia. And they still insist on handling everything in house and refuse to call the police. And probably disfellowship witnesses who exhibit common sense and call the police before informing the elders.

  About the only withering I see is that recruitment has become more difficult and that the people still in are losing faith/interest in the whole thing. A slow death by attrition is hardly desirable. This organisation deserves to go down in a bang, not a whimper.

  The CARC shone a brief spotlight on the corrupt practices of the organisation, but the Australian Government took no real action against it, and no other national governments took the opportunity to have a look at the witnesses, to see if they were up to the same shenanigans in their jurisdictions. Norway removing their funding is one of the few bright spots.

  I suppose that doesn't mean that we are stuck with the organisation forever. They once boasted about the funds flowing into their coffers and the real estate investments they were making with those funds. Now they seem to be running on fumes. The once profitable publishing business has dried up. Seriously, how does a business that doesn't have to pay employees not make money?? They were able to get a one off boost by selling off all the real estate that they by good fortune had invested in in New York City. So they made some decent capital gains, but those are windfalls, not reliable income. Even the once mighty sham of building ever more kingdom halls has fallen by the wayside, to be replaced by a renovation, rather than new building, policy. There are threads on here that suggest that the organisation is 🩸 bleeding money 💰 on lawsuits regarding the issues that they refuse to address and change, so there is much hope in that. As has been suggested in this thread, hitting them in the money belt is the way to make them feel pain.

  And what of the lovely GB? Do any of its members lay awake awake at night 🥱 and wonder what happened to the once mighty organisation? Or are they so surrounded by yes men that they have no real idea of how dire the situation is? Do they have any sense that something has gone seriously wrong? Apart from Tony Morris, that is! 😆😺

  So, what do posters think, can the WT last beyond the 120th anniversary of 1914, i.e. 2034? Will it?
• 
  13

  Did The Australian Royal Commission Actually Achieve Anything?

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i've been going through past threads on here during the period i was not very interested in what was going on in jw world.

  the australian royal commission era caused a great deal of excitement and inspired some hope, but did any good come of it?.

  the 2 witness rule in child sexual assault cases still exists, and elders still don't call the police and try to handle things in house.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  I've been going through past threads on here during the period I was not very interested in what was going on in JW world. The Australian Royal Commission era caused a great deal of excitement and inspired some hope, but did any good come of it?

  The 2 witness rule in child sexual assault cases still exists, and elders still don't call the police and try to handle things in house. So was it all just a giant nothing burger?
• 
  32

  Secret Elders Book? Bwahahaha!

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i remember a couple of decades ago when the internet was relatively young and the wt was at war with it, that they were battling to keep the pay attention book secret, commencing legal action against anyone who published it online (and of course, trying to out anyone who leaked it).

  i think it was a norwegian skeptics organisation who had it available for download and dared the wt lawyers to come after them.. so i guess the new shepherd the flock book came out to try and put the genie back in the bottle and reassert some air of mystery and secrecy back into the equation.. so i typed jehovah's witnesses secret elder book into google.

  colour me gobsmacked!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  I remember a couple of decades ago when the internet was relatively young and the WT was at war with it, that they were battling to keep the Pay Attention book secret, commencing legal action against anyone who published it online (and of course, trying to out anyone who leaked it). I think it was a Norwegian skeptics organisation who had it available for download and dared the WT lawyers to come after them.

  So I guess the new Shepherd the Flock book came out to try and put the genie back in the bottle and reassert some air of mystery and secrecy back into the equation.

  So I typed Jehovah's witnesses secret elder book into Google. Colour me gobsmacked! A pdf download of Shepherd the Flock, hosted by the Australian Royal Commission!

  I'd be interested if there was much activity on here when the new book was first published, and also when the Royal Commission decided to help the WT with their efforts to make Da Troof available to everyone?

  How did the R&F react? What was the skuttlebutt from Bethel? The behind closed doors discussions at Bethel must have been heated, and the GB livid! Were there any leaks about that at the time?
• 
  3

  Bethelites' favourite pop song!

  by BoogerMan in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  i'll bet the org's "watchers" on this forum will be humming this for the rest of the day!.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spgvej4ekww .

  (lyrics at 50 seconds).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  Hotb: I like your digression! I'm quite fond of this clip, Jimmy Savile aside. As an Australian, I wasn't familiar with most of the celebrities in it, apart from those I mentioned. And I was only aware of Mr Blobby from a compilation vhs video my kids used to watch, Noel Edmonds was never a thing over here.

  It's a great clip with great energy.
• 
  6

  Got my convention invitation

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how things have changed, apparently they totally forgot i am an "evil apostate" two good looking ladies came to my door, my wife opened the door.. handed my wife the tract and said they are simply inviting people in the area, nothing further, not even a bible or other literature in their hand.. the invitation is small, like the size that a small 3-fold tract used to be.

  i remember the last invitation was at least a proper sheet of paper.

  and thin, you can see right through it.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  The leaflets they're handing out these days are quite pathetic. As mentioned above, small, thin, very little reading matter contained therein.

  At least once upon a time you could look forward to the witnesses turning up monthly with some new reading material that you could browse through for half an hour or so, regardless of whether or not it was crap. The Awakes at least occasionally had interesting articles, as long as you always fact-checked them.

  So I hear now on here that they're not even printing magazines anymore, and only bringing them out a few times a year. Pathetic!
• 
  26

  Jeffrey Jackson: Too much excitement got in the way for the ''false dates''

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  annual meeting 2019—talks and 2020 year textthe governing body members are nothing but a bunch of weasels.

  here is a talk by jeffrey jackson on how the governing body ''the slave class'' has remained spiritually awake over 100 years and alerted its members.. he looks back on the ''faithful and discreet slaves'' false dates over the 100 years: '' but at times, we look back over 100 years, and there were times they got excited about a certain year or time, and the end didn't come at that time.''.

  he makes the comparison between the ''slave class ( who disappointed others when the end didn't come ) to a barking watchdog ( who in his enthusiasm barks at nothing in the middle of the night and wakes up the owner).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  I'd love to see the judicial committee that accepts "they got excited" as an excuse for sin!
• 
  3

  Bethelites' favourite pop song!

  by BoogerMan in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  i'll bet the org's "watchers" on this forum will be humming this for the rest of the day!.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spgvej4ekww .

  (lyrics at 50 seconds).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  The Peter Kay Comic Relief version is both amusing and disturbing. It features a lot of British media celebrities who were current at the time this was made. At the 1:18 mark, on walks the vile Jimmy Savile! Given Bethel's reluctance to protect children from predators, this clip should be much cherished by the Bethelites. It just goes to show that some organisations, in this case the BBC, will cover for you until you're dead.

  https://youtu.be/rFguq39y99E

  On a lighter note, it features Parkinson, Ronnie Corbett and Mr. Blobby