NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

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  266

  Where is Tony?

  by Athanasius in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on february 22, 2023, anthony morris iii was officially removed from the governing body of jehovah's witnesses.

  a few months later it was revealed that the watchtower bought him a house in lumberton, north carolina.. however, and correct me if i am wrong, since leaving the gb nobody has reported seeing tony attending jw meetings or participating in field service.

  in fact nobody has reported seeing him anywhere, not even at a local liquor store.

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  NotFormer

  Morris Day sounds like a spring festival where there will be an outbreak of Morris Dancing 😱

  (I really wish that there was a Morris Dancing emoji)
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  13

  70s Cartoons

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there're the obvious ones, like the smurfs.

  although why still escapes me.

  was it because of the magic, that they were "magical creatures", that there were wizards, etc?.

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  NotFormer

  Vidiot, in my old Pentecostal church in the 80s , there was a girl who "went" schizophrenic (the change was dramatic; she went from being a bit odd to being diagnosed with schizophrenia pretty well overnight). A friend of hers was helping her parents purge her bookshelf of all the books that were influencing all her spiritual fears. There were the predictable and well known ones, such as Pigs in the Parlor; A Practical Guide to Deliverance. It basically said that all people are influenced by demons in varying degrees and need to be delivered from them, that demons are in and around everything, harkening back to the similar WT fear of objects bought in garage sales.

  He Came to Set the Captives Free was her main go to tome. It was by the above mentioned "Doctor" Rebecca Brown, about witches and demons infiltrating the Christian church to render it ineffective. It was the main one that probably set her on the path to madness.

  I mentioned to the girl who was doing the library clean up a book I had had the misfortune of reading, Christian Set Yourself Free. It was in the vein of Pigs in the Parlor: a demon behind every bush, fear everything and everyone as a possible source of demonic contamination. She said she'd keep an eye out for it, and sure enough, she found it.

  I sometimes wonder if that girl would have succumbed to the eventual schizophrenia if she hadn't been stimulating herself with all those fear laden and fear inducing inputs.

  On a finishing note, for some reason the 70s and 80s was a very fearful time for parts of Christendom, including, it seems, the WT branch of it.

  Back to the cartoony whimsy: I just remembered Hong Kong Phooey. Surely, with its martial arts background, it was verboten! 😸🥷🥋
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  27

  The Governing Body - Both sides of their coin

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how many can you think of.... they speak for god.. it would seem presumptuous to say they speak for god,.

  they are neither inspired nor infallible.. they are god's only channel for issuing truth here on earth.

  they won't be apologising for any errors/falsehoods they have promoted in the past that fail.. congregation members must be quick and apologise for their errors to avoid harsh discipline/disfellowshipping.. when they change a major belief/doctrine you must not complain or criticise them.

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  NotFormer

  That has a ring to it. The trouble is that DS9 isn't streaming anywhere useful for me, so I can't check. There are short clips available on YouTube; that one is entitled, "Especially the Lies", I think. A bloke does post basically whole episodes, broken up in his playlists. I'll have to see if it is one of his playlists and watch it!

  My other favourite is Garak and Quark comparing root beer to The Federation.
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  28

  JWs And Superstitions

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  prompted by a mention in a different thread.. cracks in the sidewalk, a pinch of salt over the shoulder, black cats🐈‍⬛; do jws have such superstitious beliefs.

  are they allowed to?

  would they be counselled if the elders became aware?.

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  NotFormer

  Prompted by a mention in a different thread.

  Cracks in the sidewalk, a pinch of salt over the shoulder, black cats🐈‍⬛; do JWs have such superstitious beliefs. Are they allowed to? Do they have them anyway? Would they be counselled if the elders became aware?

  Did you know any superstitious JWs? And I don't mean the normal JW superstitions like Smurfs and carrying the holy JW.org logo.
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  38

  The elders came calling. 😹

  by MissDaSilva in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this afternoon just after lunch.

  i spotted 2 of the nicer elders in the congregation walking up the drive.

  i didn’t answer the door.

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  NotFormer

  "When two "want to meet""

  Hmm. If I wanted to meet a lady, it'd probably involve wine and dinner. JW elders are a breed apart.
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  27

  The Governing Body - Both sides of their coin

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how many can you think of.... they speak for god.. it would seem presumptuous to say they speak for god,.

  they are neither inspired nor infallible.. they are god's only channel for issuing truth here on earth.

  they won't be apologising for any errors/falsehoods they have promoted in the past that fail.. congregation members must be quick and apologise for their errors to avoid harsh discipline/disfellowshipping.. when they change a major belief/doctrine you must not complain or criticise them.

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  NotFormer

  I'll repost my favourite Deep Space Nine quote in response

  Garak: Everything I've said is true

  Bashir: Even the lies?

  Garak: Especially the lies!
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  10

  Leaving update

  by MissDaSilva in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just to give you guys an update on mine and my son’s exit from the matrix.

  my son put on his instagram page he was no longer a jw and wished everyone a merry christmas.

  🎄💥😳the blocks/unfollows came thick and fast.

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  NotFormer

  It sounds like you were in a good position to simply lob that grenade, MissDaSilva. Not everybody has that luxury, but I'm glad that you were able to and won't suffer so badly.

  It would be nice to see more do it like that; that would prove that the grip of fear that they have on those questioning is losing it's power. Perhaps Bethel, which never reads boards like this (🙄), will start to see that they're losing the ability to hurt people in the way they used to.

  But everyone has their own reasons and needs and has to work within those boundaries.
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  13

  70s Cartoons

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there're the obvious ones, like the smurfs.

  although why still escapes me.

  was it because of the magic, that they were "magical creatures", that there were wizards, etc?.

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  NotFormer

  Diogenesister: "So they hit the GB naughty list on all three scores....ie being new, popular and for the young"

  Based on the "new, popular and for the young" formula, how did Pokemon fare? 😱

  I personally didn't like Pokemon, it involved making your pets fight. To me it was the moral equivalent of cock-fighting.
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  13

  70s Cartoons

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there're the obvious ones, like the smurfs.

  although why still escapes me.

  was it because of the magic, that they were "magical creatures", that there were wizards, etc?.

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  NotFormer

  TD, what was the name of the French Monsignor? I'd like to read up on him; he may be the founder of all that came after, by the sound of things.

  The satanic panic of the 80s grew out of some phenomena that started in the seventies. You had Mike Warnke, who claimed to have been a satanist high priest who converted to Christ.

  Then you had that great purveyor of Christian comic tracts, arguably the WT's rival, Jack Chick, and his Chick Publications. He had a series of comics about Satanism informed by supposed Satanist and druid, John Todd.

  Later he started publishing stuff by Dr Rebecca Brown, who claimed that churches were being infiltrated and undermined by organised witches. It was a great scapegoat at a time when the popularity and influence of Christianity seemed to be waning. It might have been tempting for the WT to lean into that one, but they already had their JCs and disfellowshipment so, credit where credit is due, they could always claim to be keeping the organisation "clean". The Watchtower was also growing and their finances were fine in the 80s, so they didn't need anything to blame their lack of growth on.

  Michelle Remembers came out in the midst of all this. Her story seems to have been popularised alongside that of Laurel Rose Willson, who claimed to be a victim of satanic ritual abuse, to the point where she was supposedly breeding babies to be sacrificed to Satan.

  Eventually the whole edificxoe came crashing down when Christian magazine Cornerstone began publishing investigative articles about these people and their claims. Whole "ministries" died overnight when their bogus claims were brought to light.

  As for the cartoons and the toy merchandising associated with them, that was definitely being berated in "mainstream" Christianity. There was a book, Turmoil in the Toy Box, about how all that was being used by Satan to usher in the age of the Antichrist. The Smurfs and He-man both got a serve in that one. I'll come back to He-man with the appropriate 80s cartoons topic. 😉

  But back to the seventies cartoons and JW kids' relationship to them. What else do you remember?

  Speaking of remembering, does anyone remember the British children were tv series, Catweazle? It was about a Saxon wizard transported forward through time, from Norman times to the Twentieth century. It often showcased his occult powers. I can't imagine it would have gone down well in JW households, or mainstream Christian ones, for that matter.
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  20

  JW sign is the sacred cow being idolized by the JWs

  by enoughisenough in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this video makes valid points and the last pictures in the video says it all imo...i knew witnesses who wore the logo in their jewelry.

  the sign represents the organization, so the organization is what is really being worshipped instead of god almighty.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktadlxlqee8.

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  NotFormer

  I want to see Landru elected to the GB! 🖖👽🧑‍🚀