NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

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  101

  The Next Big Thing In WT World

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  things got a bit lively after the agm leaks in october.

  there was a lot of discussion going on on this board for a few months.

  now that all the leaks have been more or less confirmed as policy, and we've had lively discussions at length concerning the changes, things seem to have slowed down here.. a few suggestions have been raised as to what might be the next changes, such as women being allowed to wear slacks (in the usa, anyway), decoupling from 1914 as an anchoring date and others.. so, what changes do you think will be announced this year?.

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  NotFormer

  Women more visibly in positions of trust is a popular speculation. How likely is that? Is the male population dire enough in some congregations that it may be contemplated?
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  46

  What you think consequences gonna be for watchtower if they lose the court appeal in Norway?

  by Hellothere in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  personally i think they gonna realise god's not backing org.

  that idea gonna get even more established in their minds.

  i think the real selling of kingdom hall gonna start then.

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  NotFormer

  Europe may eventually lose patience with them. Their antisocial behaviour, particularly over CSA cases, won't be tolerated forever. The protection of being "a religion" only lasts up until the point where a government defines them out of that category.

  Given that they are mainly a business and a political lobbying organisation that happens to use religious terminology, it may be only a matter of time.
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  21

  Is a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses marries a disfellowshipped person, what is the outcome?

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hello all.. i need a quick answer, and also a solid reference in the literature, please.. if a jw marries an unbeliever, there is reproof, it's frowned upon, it's disloyal, there will be loss of privileges, etc, but there's no other more serious consequences.

  but, in a scenario where two people are free to marry, but one is a baptized jw and the other is disfellowshipped / disassociated, what are the consequences?.

  thanks for your help.. r..

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  NotFormer

  "I would like to find one example in the WTBTS literature (or vídeo, or public addressing) where this is expressed blatantly in the same article, or, better yet, in the same paragraph or even in the same sentence. Something like: "We treat worldly people THIS way, but, on the other hand, we treat disfellowshipped people THAT way"."

  You make the point yourself, that would be too blatant. For hypocrisy to work, it must be subtle. It may be noticeable, but it still has to have an air of intangibility about it.
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  4

  Any JW's been “debaptised” in Belgium?

  by was a new boy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  'the belgian church, facing rising protests after a television film on sexual abuse and cover-ups in its ranks, has appealed against a government data protection agency ruling that the diocese of ghent must let a person be “debaptised”.

  the church considers baptism a permanent act that cannot be done away with, but the agency ruled in december that the plaintiff’s personal data record overrides the church’s interest in preserving its records.. .

  the number of “debaptism” requests had been falling since a peak of 5,237 in 2021, when the vatican said it could not bless same-sex unions, but they have reportedly spiked again after the television series gotvergeten (“forgotten by god”) last september depicted the scandals in belgium.

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  NotFormer

  How very interesting. Knowing the WT's love of record keeping, is it likely to comply with such government mandates?

  They already are known to show little regard for privacy legislation.

  This is a nice precedent in waiting. Belgian exJWs could ask to be "debaptised" and have their records expunged by the WT. How do you think that would work out?
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  3

  Article: Jehovah’s Witnesses Release Digital Brochure to Mark World Holocaust Day

  by Tahoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as the world com- memorated the 97th international holocaust remembrance day (also known as world holocaust day or ihrd) yesterday, one of the groups targeted by the nazi regime, jehovah’s witnesses, has said it should not be lost on the world that they were among the first to be sent to the death camp.. accordingly, as conferences and exhibitions related to the 79th anniversary of the auschwitz liberation take place around the world, jehovah’s witnesses have released a 32-page digital brochure titled: “purple triangles – “forgotten victims” of the nazi regime”.

  in a statement, the national spokesman of the witnesses in nigeria, mr. olusegun eroyemi said the group then referred to as bible students, suffered inhumane treatment at the auschwitz- birkenau concentration camp by the nazi regime “solely on the basis of their religious convictions.. “during its nearly five years of operation, auschwitz expanded to include a concentration camp, a forced-labor camp, and an extermination camp, as well as over 40 subcamps.

  here, the nazi regime carried out some of the most agonizing human rights abuses against millions of jews, as well as poles, slavs, roman and sinti, homosexuals, and people with disabilities, among others.

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  NotFormer

  And then Erich Frost, head of the JWs in Germany, handed JWs over to the Gestapo (it's recorded in government records of the time). Yet he shared the stage with Nathan Knorr at international conventions in the 1950s

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6781/traitors-heroes
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  3

  this may be a useful dream

  by enoughisenough in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i had a dream this morning: i had moved and saw an old jw friend at as dreams go, i think a library.

  we were chatting it up as old friends would.

  says the spouse," keith?

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  NotFormer

  P.S. It must be weighing heavily on your subconscious if you're still having dreams like this.

  From what I've seen on here, it takes many years to get the WT out of a person's system, if ever.
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  3

  this may be a useful dream

  by enoughisenough in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i had a dream this morning: i had moved and saw an old jw friend at as dreams go, i think a library.

  we were chatting it up as old friends would.

  says the spouse," keith?

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  NotFormer

  It's kind of academic, really. Yes, you are not disfellowshipped, but disassociation has exactly the same weight and effect in WT eyes*. If they respond to your bluff and don't further find out about the disassociation, then I guess it is a strategy of some sort?

  *This is my understanding as an outsider
• 
  78

  How can Babylon the Great be the WORLD of false religion?

  by BoogerMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  (revelation 17:5) “babylon the great, the mother of the prostitutes (plural!

  ) and of the disgusting things of the earth.”.

  btg is spotlighted as being the principal "disgusting thing" which affects christians & christianity, with other lesser "prostitutes" in the background... (revelation 18:4) “get out of her, my people, (christians) if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.".

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  NotFormer

  blondie, the change from "not a religion" to "a religion" is interesting. It was obviously a holdover from Rutherford's "a snare and a racket" that they didn't use the term for themselves. So why, a bit after Rutherford was safely off the scene, did they suddenly allow themselves to be labelled as such?

  A guess would be that the perpetually smoking gun of their charitable status (thanks to Vidiot for constantly pointing that out) is involved. That for registration as a 501c charity, (or to register with some other government body) they needed to use particular wording, religion being one such word. The word was going to show up on searchable documents, so they wisely announced their change of tack.

  They did something similar in the 90s with the whole UN thing, but interestingly, weren't as forthcoming, and got caught.

  Why did they make an honest change in the 50s, but didn't do so in the 90s? In the 80s or early 90s they could have had new light that the UN was not the beast after all, and then them writing positive articles about the UN wouldn't have been so jarring.
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  8

  How Stef Woke Up!

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  four of her relatives committed suicide because of the cult.. https://youtu.be/a63ry8ol7wc?si=-n4amwe0iguutk0f.

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  NotFormer

  A family that lost four members to suicide continues to shun other family members? Talk about obtuse! It's a great example of doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
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  46

  What you think consequences gonna be for watchtower if they lose the court appeal in Norway?

  by Hellothere in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  personally i think they gonna realise god's not backing org.

  that idea gonna get even more established in their minds.

  i think the real selling of kingdom hall gonna start then.

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  NotFormer

  Hellothere: Now their opinion about biblical matters is "we just don't know".

  Perhaps "we just don't know" is clearing a path for them to jettison some troublesome doctrines that are drawing unwanted attention from governments.

  However, they may just double down. The non-reporting of FS hours by publishers looked like a kinder, gentler attitude at face value, but it may be an attempt to say that such people are volunteers who choose to follow what the WT says; it doesn't demand anything of them! 🙄😳