i've come across stuff on the web that states that russell claimed to be both a knight templar and a mason.
and also stuff on here that quotes various such organisations saying that russell didn't display enough knowledge about them to have ever been a member.. why do people act like such a revelation about russell is some sort of smoking gun?
rutherford purged russell from the organisation as soon as he could.. the people who would be more worried about the accusation would more likely to be members of the various surviving bible students groups.
"Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses can read the writings of Baptists, Methodists, Catholics & etc., however, some have been excommunicated and ostracized for reading, studying and agreeing with the writings of Charles Taze Russell."
Methinks that the Bible Students are claiming to be "special" in JWs eyes. Can JWs be disfellowshipped for reading the writings of Baptists, Methodists, Catholics & etc.?
Is reading old Russell material a disfellowshipable offence?
i've come across stuff on the web that states that russell claimed to be both a knight templar and a mason.
and also stuff on here that quotes various such organisations saying that russell didn't display enough knowledge about them to have ever been a member.. why do people act like such a revelation about russell is some sort of smoking gun?
rutherford purged russell from the organisation as soon as he could.. the people who would be more worried about the accusation would more likely to be members of the various surviving bible students groups.
I've come across stuff on the web that states that Russell claimed to be both a Knight Templar and a Mason. And also stuff on here that quotes various such organisations saying that Russell didn't display enough knowledge about them to have ever been a member.
Why do people act like such a revelation about Russell is some sort of smoking gun? Rutherford purged Russell from the organisation as soon as he could.
The people who would be more worried about the accusation would more likely to be members of the various surviving Bible Students groups. What do they say about it all?
And how are they doing, these days?
has anyone got any good 'jws and alcohol' stories?
i always found it amazing that so many jws got blind drunk at parties and got away with it!
i suppose alcohol was the only fun thing we were allowed to partake in....
"no--this was about 7 years before the elders idea was copied from the mormons."
That's interesting. I knew that the elders' "arrangement" was new in the early seventies. Was it really pinched from the Mormons?
Interesting that they don't refer to "members". Especially since they are a corporation. In the Australian Corporations Act, "member" is another word for shareholder. And shareholders have a say and a stake. And most organisations with members allow those members to have a say in how they are run. So not surprised if they are not members.
So what are members called now? Obviously not parishioners. Congregants? What is the word used by the WT for R&F witnesses?
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!
It's not that far from "body corporate".
Interesting that he's calling it a membership fee. I wonder if they can figure out a way to make that official. 🤔
has anyone got any good 'jws and alcohol' stories?
i always found it amazing that so many jws got blind drunk at parties and got away with it!
i suppose alcohol was the only fun thing we were allowed to partake in....
I always read the Andy Capp comic strip when I was a kid. I don't think I understood half of it at the time, but it is a childhood memory.
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!
I seem to remember them being very excited about the word "government" and may have translated various Greek and Hebrew words that way as a preference. Can anyone look it up in a NWT concordance? I tried looking at the NWT online, but it doesn't seem to be searchable in that manner.
i was sitting down to lunch yesterday when i heard the man at the table behind me say into his phone "yeah, it's going to be hard since they want us to pioneer in april.".
of course, i was all ears at this point.
next thing i could pick up over the din of a crowded restaurant was "he has to go to the meetings for a year before he can come back.
I came across this thread searching for "You might be a Jehovah's Witness if..." jokes.
Unshackled: "If all your friends are janitors and window washers...you might be a Jehovah's Witness."
How about "If all the people you have theological discussions with are janitors and window washers...you might be a Jehovah's Witness."? 😺😆
my understanding was that this was the magazine regularly published for insiders only, unlike the watchtower and the awake!
looking online, it seems that the wt ceased publication of this in 2016. is it due to a name change (it seems to have changed its name several times over the years) or has it been succeeded by a new publication?
or has it ceased to be?.
These are big changes. The WT leadership has always clung to the old way of doing things whenever they could. Things must have changed a lot for them to approve the kinds of changes that they are making. Do they feel that the changes that they are making are improving things?
