NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

• 
  42

  New meeting format

  by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just watched november broadcast very different order to the leaked agm .

  be good if someone did a deep dive on the difference and why the changes?

  i didn’t time the items but it should be easy to see if edited?.

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  NotFormer

  I want to see long-haired JW Nazirites going door to door! 👍🙀
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  49

  Will the GB Eventually "observe" Tithing?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  found this on fb from the recent losch talk.

  time for a new business model?.

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  NotFormer

  They could just sell appointments. They've published enough articles about Simony to prove that it is rife in the organisation; it's not like the WT to not take advantage of any money making opportunity.

  Actually, I take that back. They are too stupid and stubborn to recognise which way the wind is blowing. They had a nice little publishing company going, with free labour selling their product door to door. At the first whiff of them having to follow their own rhetoric to "pay to Caesar what is Caesar's" (sales tax), they scuttled the whole profitable enterprise.
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  1

  Judgemental Much?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  da loving organisation strikes again (11:56):.

  https://youtu.be/pcvlhshkjau?si=p8w9x6xrpr59ecf6.

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  NotFormer

  Da loving organisation strikes again (11:56):

  https://youtu.be/PCvlhshkjAU?si=P8w9x6XRpR59eCF6
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  6

  Tracy Chapman & John Mellencamp

  by BoogerMan in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  did tracy chapman "sample" john mellencamp's song for her big hit, "fast car"?.

  @ 47 secs.

  - 55 secs.

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  NotFormer

  I just remembered a striking similarity from the early 70s. Compare Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky with Alvin Stardust's My Coo Ca Choo. I'm surprised no ambulance chasing lawyers went after that one.
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  42

  New meeting format

  by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just watched november broadcast very different order to the leaked agm .

  be good if someone did a deep dive on the difference and why the changes?

  i didn’t time the items but it should be easy to see if edited?.

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  NotFormer

  When hours worked in field service translated into sales of WT and Awake!, counting hours could be roughly translated into spirituality, WT style, that is, dollars earned for the organisation. Perhaps they will have to become more direct in equating dollars with spirituality. Maybe different tiers of donation. Everyone at the Kingdom Hall gets to wear a badge (purchased from the WT, of course!) displaying what level of "generosity" they demonstrated that month through their giving.

  They could, of course, resort to outright Simony and just sell appointments.
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  17

  The Apostates' Handy JW Glossary

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. social
  2. current

  perhaps this has been printed here before...but still it gave me a few laughs...so here it is again.. the apostates' handy jw glossary.

  by doug checketts.

  "anointed" - an experience that, unfortunately, no "anointed" one has ever been able to explain.

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  NotFormer

  "Class" - a "greater fullfullment" word which applies to virtually every character ever mentioned in the Bible. In the "greater fullfillment", the "class" which represents each Bible character is somehow applied to JWs. How do ya fit "Onan" in there, anyway?"

  I must ask about "the Onan class", next time a JW comes to my door (if they ever do again).

  But seriously, do they still talk about the various classes, Jonadab, John, etc? Or is that one of those things that is fading, like the whole types and antitypes thing? And 1914...
• 
  17

  The Apostates' Handy JW Glossary

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. social
  2. current

  perhaps this has been printed here before...but still it gave me a few laughs...so here it is again.. the apostates' handy jw glossary.

  by doug checketts.

  "anointed" - an experience that, unfortunately, no "anointed" one has ever been able to explain.

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  NotFormer

  I miss Farkel.

  ...and Minimus.

  I doubt they would miss each other, though!
• 
  17

  Punishment and control: the secret handbook that rules a religion

  by Tahoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this article is behind a paywall: https://www.smh.com.au/national/punishment-and-control-the-secret-handbook-that-rules-a-religion-20231026-p5ef9z.html.

  a herald investigation has uncovered disturbing practices within the jehovah’s witness church, including the systems for discipline, punishment and control in a secret rule book for church “elders”.. australian children in the jehovah’s witnesses religion are being trained to avoid life-saving blood transfusions and parents are being coached to thwart court processes that may prevent their children from dying, internal church documents reveal.. an investigation following an inquest into the death of jehovah’s witness heather winchester, who died in newcastle after refusing a blood transfusion, has uncovered disturbing practices within the australian church, including the systems for discipline, punishment and control contained in the secret rule book for church “elders”.. the church’s blood transfusion ban forces people to choose between risking death by refusing treatment or being “shunned” – cut off from family and friends under the church’s strict rules – according to 16 former and current members of the church interviewed and the testimony of many others.. .

  some of them believe it has cost hundreds of lives in australia.. “i think it’s truly dangerous for children, who are not old enough to vote or drive, to be coached about how to convince a judge or doctors about a decision that is potentially life-threatening,” said fleur hawes, 32, a solicitor who escaped the religion and is speaking out for the first time.. in public, the jehovah’s witnesses’ leadership downplays the impacts of its ban on blood transfusions, which are based on interpretations of bible passages that say christians should not eat blood.. .

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  NotFormer

  Diogenesister, I suppose it all comes down to the legal responsibility thing. If they tell JWs to keep going door to door in the face of government mandates, it's pretty easy to prove the WT's guilt, and they can have the book thrown at them by the legal system. In the case of the blood doctrine, they can weasel their way out of direct responsibility by claiming that individual JWs choose to exercise their consciences according to Biblical principles. Saving the lives of a few loyal-unto-the-death JWs isn't worth overturning the blood doctrine. I wonder if it makes GB members happy to know that they can order their loyal followers to die?
• 
  17

  Punishment and control: the secret handbook that rules a religion

  by Tahoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this article is behind a paywall: https://www.smh.com.au/national/punishment-and-control-the-secret-handbook-that-rules-a-religion-20231026-p5ef9z.html.

  a herald investigation has uncovered disturbing practices within the jehovah’s witness church, including the systems for discipline, punishment and control in a secret rule book for church “elders”.. australian children in the jehovah’s witnesses religion are being trained to avoid life-saving blood transfusions and parents are being coached to thwart court processes that may prevent their children from dying, internal church documents reveal.. an investigation following an inquest into the death of jehovah’s witness heather winchester, who died in newcastle after refusing a blood transfusion, has uncovered disturbing practices within the australian church, including the systems for discipline, punishment and control contained in the secret rule book for church “elders”.. the church’s blood transfusion ban forces people to choose between risking death by refusing treatment or being “shunned” – cut off from family and friends under the church’s strict rules – according to 16 former and current members of the church interviewed and the testimony of many others.. .

  some of them believe it has cost hundreds of lives in australia.. “i think it’s truly dangerous for children, who are not old enough to vote or drive, to be coached about how to convince a judge or doctors about a decision that is potentially life-threatening,” said fleur hawes, 32, a solicitor who escaped the religion and is speaking out for the first time.. in public, the jehovah’s witnesses’ leadership downplays the impacts of its ban on blood transfusions, which are based on interpretations of bible passages that say christians should not eat blood.. .

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  NotFormer

  Kerry, as someone who has always been an outsider to JWs (I never joined), I was flabbergasted to find that, two decades after I had lost interest in all things WT, they had abandoned the door to door work, merely to comply with a Govt requirement. The door to door work was sacrosanct, back in the day! It was their go-to distinction that proved that they were "Jehovah's people". And they dropped it like a hot potato at the first sign of government pressure!

  I said that to the first JW who came to our door after the WT lifted their lockdown procedures, that their "cowardly governing body" had folded in the face of government pressure. The lady said "But it was a government directive!"

  I said "You've defied government directives before!" (We all know how proud they are of Rutherford's jail time and how they sent loyal JWs to prison during the Vietnam war) She couldn't disagree with that, so she and her husband left.
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  31

  Has the Watchtower Faithful Slave become the Evil Slave?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what evidence suggests to you that the wt f&ds is actually more like the es of matthew 24?.

  45¶who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?.

  46blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.. .

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  NotFormer

  Who forced the WT to forgive the Kingdom Hall loans?