i remember knowing that jcs would ask very personal questions about sex activities.
this article addresses this: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15074595 .
"I read that one elder, on his way to a JC, would tell his wife to “be ready” when he got home, because he was all charged up after hearing all the dirty details. 🤮"
I hope that's one of those JW urban legends. 😱🙀 Like the one about the guy on mike duty, who forgets to mute the mike when he goes to the toilet 🚽.
did rutherford have any "prophetic" justification for 1919 as the date that jesus declared him (ahem, the wt organisation) the fds?
such as some calculation attached to 1914?
that in 1919, jesus would come looking for his true organisation?.
Jesus wandering around, looking for the practicioners of the true religion, makes me think of Diogenes. Was da Judge "having a lend"?
what if the truly unthinkable happened and the tower went down?
perhaps the irs swooped in and claimed fraud and padlocked the headquarters and kingdom hall doors?
or the gb took the money and ran to a nice non-extradition country to live out their years?
Big Dog, nice original Trek reference 😎
I personally always think of the Landru episode, when thinking of Trek parallels. The Borg have their relevance, but I always thought Landru's world was the one most like that of the JWs.
can't find any references, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.
i remember, probably at least two decades ago, a small news snippet about someone was going around brooklyn heights and setting fire to christmas wreaths on people's doors.
i've always personally suspected* that it was a bored/semi-insane bethelite.
As I said, it was only a little news snippet I read. It was probably 20-25 years ago. I've got it in my head that it was actually on the Reason magazine website. Why a Libertarian magazine would cover such a thing is beyond me; I don't remember very much about the article. But I do remember being able to email the author and ask him what he thought about me jokingly putting two and two together that it might be a Bethelite. IIRC, he said something about it being distantly plausible, but he wasn't holding his breath that I might be right.
here is the org's problem with zoom, attending this way does not fit with their "scriptural definition" of a christian gathering.
at least not anymore, one thing my pimi wife is fine with is attending on zoom occasionally, even 2-3 times a month or so.. if some of you recall, during covid there were break out rooms setup for people to stay on and associate.
many would also stay in the main meeting and talk over each other trying to say hello, etc.
"Elders & MS are getting "orders" to show up in person. They in turn, "encourage" anyone wanting to make points to get appointed to show up in person."
They need to implement a policy whereby everyone who attends gets an appointment of some sort. Sort of like that famous Oprah episode where everyone in the audience got a car.
here is the org's problem with zoom, attending this way does not fit with their "scriptural definition" of a christian gathering.
at least not anymore, one thing my pimi wife is fine with is attending on zoom occasionally, even 2-3 times a month or so.. if some of you recall, during covid there were break out rooms setup for people to stay on and associate.
many would also stay in the main meeting and talk over each other trying to say hello, etc.
I was driving past the local Kingdom Hall a couple of Tuesday evenings ago, on my way to a bible study in someone's home (different denomination). A lot of cars were pulling into the carpark; physical meetings are not dead, at least in this country town. I'd be curious to see what attendance is like on Sunday, but I've got my own service to attend.
has this ever really happened?
it's in the bee, so you never know!.
"Arnold later admits he briefly panicked because no one alive even understands the 1914 prophecy"
Hence the drift away from it. Well spotted by the Bee! 👏🎁🎄🎀
apparently in response to the probe of jw's in japan, the wt is seeking positive stories of jw's child-rearing practices:.
from reditt: .
re: urgent: request for assistance.
The sleaze is palpable! 😡
jehovah's witnesses believe it is unfair that the state only investigated their handling of abuse cases, and not other religious organizations.jehovah's witnesses have sued the dutch state for discrimination, the national government told trouw.
the reason: only their handling of sexual abuse has been scrutinized by the government, while other religious groups remained unaffected.
they find the fact that only they were the 'target' unfounded and therefore discriminatory.. the fact that a religious organization is suing the state is 'fairly unique', says special professor of law and religion paul van sasse van ijsselt.
"Sander Dekker ordered this investigation because Jehovah's Witnesses themselves refused to have their dealings with abuse investigated, as the Catholic Church did at the time with the Deetman Commission"
So they're not being singled out; they singled themselves out!
https://nltimes.nl/2023/12/11/jehovahs-witnesses-suing-dutch-state-discrimination .
the jehovah’s witnesses have sued the dutch state for discrimination, the religious organization informed trouw.
they consider it discriminatory that the government investigated them, but no other religious organization, for their handling of sexual abuse cases.. utrecht university conducted the investigation involved, following publications in trouw in which sexual abuse victims within the jehovah’s witnesses described what happened to them, and published the results in january 2020. utrecht university concluded that 60 percent of sexual abuse victims were very critical of how the jehovah’s witnesses handled their cases, scoring the handling a 1 out of 10. many victims were traumatized by how things were handled, the researchers said.. sander dekker, then the minster for legal protection, ordered the investigation at parliament’s insistence because the jehovah’s witnesses failed to arrange an investigation themselves, as the catholic church did at the time with the deetman commission.. the jehovah’s witnesses cooperated in the utrecht university investigation but unsuccessfully tried to stop the publication of its results.
I love the logic: "All those other religions, that we maintain our moral superiority to, were doing it too!"
