NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

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  87

  Lines you would never hear from a Jehovah's Witness

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a slightly tongue in cheek, but also serious roundup of jw speak and why trying to reason with them is like trying to chip through concrete with a plastic spoon.. how many can you think of??.

  elder: 'yes.

  i read through the material you asked me to at your judicial meeting - you're right we're both in a cult!

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  NotFormer

  "The faithful and discreet slave story is a parable, not a prophecy."
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  23

  What has changed since January 2009?

  by KerryKing in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hi, i was df'd in jan 09. have not been in touch much with the jws apart from a few memorials i went to.. what with all the online presence they have nowadays, it just feels like a totally different religion.

  i have seen them with their tablets and phones at the hall, hardly any physical bibles or books at all, makes me think how ai (or the borg) could so easily change words and phrasing in the bible to suit them without making a big deal of it, like 'a new light' talk or wt article.

  doctrinally has much changed since 2009?.

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  NotFormer

  Thanks for that, Earnest. It's helpful to have actual WT confirmation. Otherwise it looks like mere speculation.
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  26

  ARTICLE: Jehovah’s Witnesses investing more than $50M on Woodbury project

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://libn.com/2024/03/04/jehovahs-witnesses-investing-more-than-50m-on-woodbury-project/.

  long island business news.

  march 4, 2024. the christian congregation of jehovah’s witnesses, which bought the former geico property in woodbury for $27 million in dec. 2022, plans to spend at least another $23 million to build an assembly hall and two support buildings on about half of the site.

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  NotFormer

  pontoon, thanks for that clarification. Being on the other side of the world and unlikely to ever be in the area, the geographical aspect of these changes is sometimes a little hard to grasp.
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  23

  What has changed since January 2009?

  by KerryKing in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hi, i was df'd in jan 09. have not been in touch much with the jws apart from a few memorials i went to.. what with all the online presence they have nowadays, it just feels like a totally different religion.

  i have seen them with their tablets and phones at the hall, hardly any physical bibles or books at all, makes me think how ai (or the borg) could so easily change words and phrasing in the bible to suit them without making a big deal of it, like 'a new light' talk or wt article.

  doctrinally has much changed since 2009?.

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  NotFormer

  KerryKing, there was a thread recently on here which linked to a YouTube video that made an assertion something like that. There was a bit of dot connecting to get to that conclusion. Apparently in 2012 there was a CSA court case in Australia where a lawyer mentioned this. The court was trying to establish culpability and liability, i.e. who makes the organisational decisions and gives the orders, and who should we go after financially.

  That was my understanding of what happened. Here is the link to the thread, and the video.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5143429722406912/reason-behind-recent-watchtower-changes

  I don't know if it was ever phrased that way officially in WT publications but that is surmised to be its effect.
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  86

  New light on shunning?

  by Mikejw in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  one theory why tony was booted out was because he was a stickler for not changing the shunning doctrine.

  he actually said the words we will never ever change it.. they are slowly deleting all of tony’s videos and now losing court cases and losing government hand outs in places like norway.. it’s looking very likely they will release new light on shunning policy after losing this latest one in norway.. .

  what are the odds they coincidentally get new light from jehovah and lighten up their shunning policy ?.

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  NotFormer

  AlwaysBusy, that's a depressing story. 😿 You make an interesting point, that shunning is actually part of the WT's DNA, and may be part of its appeal to certain types. I've never quite thought of it that way before. 🤔
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  23

  What has changed since January 2009?

  by KerryKing in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hi, i was df'd in jan 09. have not been in touch much with the jws apart from a few memorials i went to.. what with all the online presence they have nowadays, it just feels like a totally different religion.

  i have seen them with their tablets and phones at the hall, hardly any physical bibles or books at all, makes me think how ai (or the borg) could so easily change words and phrasing in the bible to suit them without making a big deal of it, like 'a new light' talk or wt article.

  doctrinally has much changed since 2009?.

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  NotFormer

  The GB became the sole representatives of the FDS class in 2012, I've been led to believe. Before that, wasn't it pretty well all the 144,000?
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  15

  1970's Russell Pyramid Photo!

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  1970's photo of the russell pyramid.

  the picture was sent to us by a former bethelite who was also the person who took the picture.

  of course, the pyramid is not there anymore.. .

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  NotFormer

  It's possible that "what was the motive of the vandal/were they WT or ex?" may be overthinking it a bit. In my experience, graveyards are subject to vandalism as a normal course of events. They tend to be open and accessible and usually unguarded, especially at night. The pyramid, by virtue of its prominence, could be a target for someone out to make their mark by being destructive. I'm not saying it couldn't be the other two alternatives either, just that there is also this third possibility.

  Not being the vandalising sort, I'm sad that this piece of history is no longer available for viewing. Two decades ago it was on my must see list if I ever got to that part of the USA.

  Just to make it clear, it wasn't the only historical oddity on that list. Grizzly Adams' grave was also one I wanted to see and photograph. That's in Massachusetts, but if I was touring the North Eastern US, both could have been doable.

  I'm still not ruling out the other two possibilities. Slimboyfat's theory of a disgruntled exJW taking things out on a visible monument to the foolishness that encompassed his life at one point isn't a bad one.

  moomanchu, surely that's a waste of good coffee? 😳
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  7

  Former Soviet Country Witnesses who Rebelled Against the GB

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember the story going around the traps (here, perhaps?

  ) a couple of decades ago, about a country formerly behind the iron curtain.

  when the soviet union crumbled, the jws were able to re-establish contact with the underground jw movement.

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  NotFormer

  "...playing loud obnoxious phonographs on front porches..."

  My mother actually remembered the JWs taking da Judge's phonograph recordings door to door in her youth (1930s)!

  BTW, as I just found out, the True Faith lot in Romania don't recognise anything from Bethel after 1962, with the "superior authorities" definition change. So I was a bit mislead about them harking back as far as da Judge's era.
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  7

  Former Soviet Country Witnesses who Rebelled Against the GB

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember the story going around the traps (here, perhaps?

  ) a couple of decades ago, about a country formerly behind the iron curtain.

  when the soviet union crumbled, the jws were able to re-establish contact with the underground jw movement.

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  NotFormer

  Thanks, no-zombie! That sounds like what I was looking for. That's a good observation about earlier Witnesses brought forward in time and how they might react to the changes that they saw now.
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  30

  Internal Watchtower Statistics Re: Disfellowshipping and Shunning

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  does the wt have a person/department/section tasked with compiling data and analysing it statistically.

  or have they started doing something like that now that they are hiring external consultancies?.

  i ask the question because i'm wondering if such studies and statistical analysis would show any link between the harshness of the disfellowshipping policy as it is applied and the dropout rate of people within the organisation who have just had enough.. in previous threads it has been pointed out that the old approach isn't effective any more.

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  NotFormer

  "Just a few examples of what happens when speculation is written as fact. Not trying to be mean."

  I was being sarcastic when I wrote that. I also changed the position as soon as it was apparent that it was wrong. AFAIK, Rutherford and Knorr never did.

  Heck, it wasn't even meant to be a position. It was written as an aside to a question about the WT's use and analysis of their internal data. This whole thread went off on a giant tangent.

  Truth be told, I was hoping that if it did go off on a tangent, that we'd be talking about Logan 5 and Jessica 6.