NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

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  27

  Awake 1976 - Should a Pocket Calculator Be in Your Pocket?

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  awake 1976 - should a pocket calculator be in your pocket?.

  somehow this totally zany 'bible based' article passed me by first time around!.

  anyone remember it?.

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  NotFormer

  I wonder if the Awake! article's writer preferred using those booklets they used to issue in high school that contained logarithmic and trigonometric tables. A few years later, I was using a cheap Casio scientific calculator instead. Within a few years of that article, a calculator went from "expensive" and "toy" to useful and cheap.
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  12

  Celebrities Who Hate Jw's?

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  do you recall any?.

  i was told that john denver hated jw's with a vengeance - any truth in that?.

  also, annie lennox - i was told before a concert she asked any jw's present to leave?.

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  NotFormer

  According to this thread, John Denver is one of those credited with demanding that all JWs leave:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5663510718578688/urban-legends-we-heard-jws

  Here's a Snopes article:

  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ordered-away/

  Van Morrison's Kingdom Hall song doesn't sound like any Kingdom Hall that exists in this iteration of reality.
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  25

  New instructions on not using sisters to manage KH computer ?

  by fifth.column in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  since covid in france, especially in the countryside with lack of brothers, it was quite common that some sisters were using the computer at the back of the kingdom hall to manage zoom session.. i heard a rumor that new instructions, maybe a july letter, stated that this was reserved for male only, even unbaptised publishers, but no sister if there is at least a male available.

  that would be a steps back and disappointment for these sisters.

  last week i heard at my mom’s house how they were happy that this service was available for them, a proof that the org was moving forward.

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  NotFormer

  "Women are nothing but a hank of hair and bag of bones". Rutherford couldn't even get the quote right. It's from a Kipling poem. "...a rag and a bone and a hank of hair." Interestingly, that quote turns up in a 1936 Popeye cartoon, Hold the Wire, where Bluto is insulting Olive, while pretending to be Popeye. Did Rutherford use it before 1936? It's tempting to think that he sourced his theology from cartoons.
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  13

  JW Leaders Do Intentionally Torture Their Members

  by FragrantAddendum in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  that's one of the reasons they're being shut down.

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  NotFormer

  Look at how easily they capitulated to government edicts recently. The one that made me reel was when they ceased the door to door work*. You know: that distinctive of theirs, that they are the only ones going door to door with Jehovah's lifesaving message. They dropped a century of dogma at the merest whiff of negative attention from a government.

  * I'm not saying anything one way or the other about whether or not it was prudent to do so. Just that this is a different WT from the one that happily defied governments and sent its members to jail over a perceived point of doctrine.
• 
  27

  Awake 1976 - Should a Pocket Calculator Be in Your Pocket?

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  awake 1976 - should a pocket calculator be in your pocket?.

  somehow this totally zany 'bible based' article passed me by first time around!.

  anyone remember it?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  road to nowhere: "should there be an abacus in your pocket?"

  You won't believe this:

  https://wol.jw.org/wol/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=101979890&q=abacus+&p=doc&srcid=sch&srctype=jwo

  https://wol.jw.org/wol/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=101986887&q=abacus+&p=doc&srcid=sch&srctype=jwo

  https://wol.jw.org/wol/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=101976250&q=abacus+&p=doc&srcid=sch&srctype=jwo

  https://wol.jw.org/wol/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=101971844&q=abacus+&p=doc&srcid=sch&srctype=jwo
• 
  27

  Awake 1976 - Should a Pocket Calculator Be in Your Pocket?

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  awake 1976 - should a pocket calculator be in your pocket?.

  somehow this totally zany 'bible based' article passed me by first time around!.

  anyone remember it?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  NotFormer

  You've got to remember that calculators were very expensive at the time. My brother, an electrician, bought a fairly basic calculator at the time for about fifty dollars. That was a hideous amount in those days.

  And you can bet that the WT would much prefer you to spend your hard-earned on them, rather than on frivolous expenditures like tools for work. 🙄
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  19

  Is There Some Sort of Campaign Going on?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a pair of young blokes came to my door @ 10am (ish) today (wednesday, if that matters).

  i opened the door a crack to : hi!

  just asking a question: do you think that the world is getting better or worse?*".

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  NotFormer

  Fortunately, I've never been one*. I chickened 🐓🐔 out because I wasn't in the mood for a fight.

  As I said above, I thought later that I should have engaged, provided that they promise** not to run away. That's my biggest peeve: after two minutes, and the conversation starts to get interesting, they excuse themselves and leave!

  * When they came earlier this year a lady said I seemed quite knowledgeable about JWs. I told her I've known a few in my time, but I'm not what she would call an apostate***. I'm probably still seen as an opposer, though. Seemingly not enough to have them avoiding my door, though! 😕

  ** Even if they promised, they might still leave abruptly; apparently they're allowed to lie! 🤥 😱

  *** Probably well informed enough that they could conclude that I'm in contact with "apostates", which makes me bad association anyway. Or, of course, I could be lying; I don't imagine that they have a high opinion of outsiders.
• 
  19

  Is There Some Sort of Campaign Going on?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a pair of young blokes came to my door @ 10am (ish) today (wednesday, if that matters).

  i opened the door a crack to : hi!

  just asking a question: do you think that the world is getting better or worse?*".

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• 

  NotFormer

  careful, paradoxically, if they hadn't stopped the door to door work during Covid, they might have been able to have more conversations with people who were stuck at home and bored 🥱.

  Does D2D result in conversions any more? Even twenty years ago it was not looking like a very effective use of time.
• 
  26

  What was covered up in your congregation??

  by karter in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  family move to remote pacific island to serve were the need is great get a mention in the year book.. however one of the (married) boys in the large family has sex with his sister while his wife is in hospital giving birth to their child.

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  all hushed up not even a word said and hes now an elder d.fing people for lesser crimes.. young couple dating leave the jws and move in togather doing drugs partying ect.. his family grandfather,uncles, dad ect are all elders.. after a few years they decide to come back to the jws and are married in the k.h a few months latter.. 1 elder questions them getting married in the k.h and is voted down by his family.. to many drunks and c.s.a to mention.. karter..

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  NotFormer

  Vidiot, that's gotta be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. But it rings entirely true. I've mentioned before about some JW ladies who said: "People say we're brainwashed, but we like to think that our brains have been washed clean!"

  "...if it’s this bad in “God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization”, it’s gotta be an absolute nightmare in “The World"

  I might have taken a beating, but you should have seen the other guy! 🙄
• 
  19

  Is There Some Sort of Campaign Going on?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a pair of young blokes came to my door @ 10am (ish) today (wednesday, if that matters).

  i opened the door a crack to : hi!

  just asking a question: do you think that the world is getting better or worse?*".

  1. 
  2. 
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• 

  NotFormer

  I've been in this Australian country town for a couple of years now, and yesterday was the third visit. The other two were presumably memorial invitations. This is the first visit that actually felt like old fashioned field service (I say that based on my experiences as a recipient of their visits). As mentioned above, there were at least seven people canvassing this street.

  The first visit I received two years ago was basically their first venture out after the Covid lockdowns. They seem to be getting their confidence back, for better or for worse. I see the trolley/cart in town from time to time, manned (or womaned [staffed?]) by different people.