Posts by Quotes

33

witness response to mind control information

by D wiltshire in

jw
friends

that is bad !!

dave, has jehovah's witnesses society proved itself by what it teaches, to love man and god and wife and child and to act for the betterment of all?

which one of these ways mentioned does the society use?

Quotes

Who is our totalist leader? What man? Russell? Knorr? Freund? Hershel? Heck, I'll bet most witnesses don't even know the name of our current president. Maybe this applies to the anointed 'mystic leaders'. Yeah. All 8000 of them.

The mystical leader is the Governing Body. It does not HAVE to be a singel individual. Not knowing the name of the President is irrelevant: the collective is the leader. Sometimes this leader is amorphous, my ex-wife always referred to "The Society" in most hallowed terms e.g. "The Society says we should/shouldn't do this/that." They fill this role nicely.

33

witness response to mind control information

by D wiltshire in

jw
friends

that is bad !!

dave, has jehovah's witnesses society proved itself by what it teaches, to love man and god and wife and child and to act for the betterment of all?

which one of these ways mentioned does the society use?

Quotes

Jehovah God put many different psychological processes into us humans. He designed them in -- that they will operate in a perfect world for our benefit. Now this isn't a perfect world. True CULT leaders CAN take advantage of these psychological mechanisms for their own advantage. That doesn't mean those psych. mechanisms are inherently BAD. It means only that evil people can and do misuse them. God CAN RIGHTEOUSLY use them for our good.

True, but it raises the question: how can you tell the difference? How do we know that JWs are using these techniques for "our good"???

Put another way, ask your friend if any of his defence would make sense defending, say, The Moonies? They could use similar arguments to "prove" they are not a cult, but would your friend believe it when the Moonies say it? Why not? What's the difference?

33

witness response to mind control information

by D wiltshire in

jw
friends

that is bad !!

dave, has jehovah's witnesses society proved itself by what it teaches, to love man and god and wife and child and to act for the betterment of all?

which one of these ways mentioned does the society use?

Quotes

D wiltshire, I've not read the entire letter you copied, but from what I read it does seem like your friend is using various logical fallacies in attempting to dismiss your allegations of cultic activities among the JW organization.

I'm not sure if you saw the "Cult" thread where I attempted to get "BLEEP" to actually answer some questions about CULTs and his knowledge of cults. Things get interesting on page 3: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=34246&page=3&site=3

Spening some time at http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies (Logical Fallacies list) may prove useful to help identify exactly how your friend is using false logic.

The thing I try to keep in mind is that "cult" should not be a yes/know, on/off digital thing. That is a type of false dichotomy that cults are famous for! We shouldn't fall into the same trap. Rather, think of a scale, with "totally non-cult" at one end and "very very cultish and dangerous" at the other. Then think that every group or organization is on the scale. Then, it is a question of "where on the scale do JWs fall". True, they don't spend 18 hours per day listening to David Koresh rant (like the Branch Davidians did) but that does not mean they are not a cult. Other social dynamics are cultish and tend to push the group toward the "cultish" end of the scale.

It may also help to show your friend some of the "fine spiritual food" the WTBTS has "provided at the proper time". I have a collection at my website, free of "apostate" material and ready for "approved" reading by any JW in good standing. Send him over!

~Quotes

http://quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/

Edited by - Quotes on 21 August 2002 22:46:5

16

Is The World On Notice Due to WTBS?

by Dismembered in

what is anyones opinion.

do you think the world has been put on notice with the flymsy pages of the watchtower & awake magazines, and the door to door ministry?

dismembered but not dismemberededited by - dismembered on 18 august 2002 9:1:53.

Quotes

I sometimes thought about this when I was active.

"Shouldn't we be working top-down with our preaching efforts?"

"Is it fair to say that this world has rejected Christ's rule? How do we know the people in power are even aware of our message?"

"Is anyone calling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (i.e. the white house)?"

"Is anyone calling at 10 Downing Street (British PMs residence)?"

"Is anyone calling at 24 Sussex Drive (Canadian PMs residence)?"

If not, is it fair to say that we've put the world on notice but the leaders have rejected JC?????

In answer to your quesiton, I too think that most people have NO IDEA about this "most important message".

21

Jehovah blesses those who shun e-mail

by Mindchild in

jw
friends

have any of you seen this email message going around?

<snip> .

an unemployed brother is desperate to support his family.

Quotes

They didn't even do a very good job of converting this for JW use. The start of the joke refers to working as a janitor for "a large firm" but the end of the joke refers to "sweeping floors for Microsoft".

35

worst JW introductions

by sleepy in

jw
friends

what were the worst introductions you remmeber people using on the ministry?

"hello my friend and i....." .

"hello we've been talking to your neighbours, do you think we can ever see a peaceful world?

Quotes

I almost forgot the ALL TIME WORST door-knocking intro I ever saw.

I was working with Brother Should-Be-On-Anti-Psychotic-Medication (really, he should have been!). His book bag had about 3 years worth of magazines in it. I took the first door. Then it was his turn at the 2nd. He knocked, and when the resident opened the door, he doesn't say anything but just puts down his book-bag on the floor and begins rummaging through it, while mumbling/muttering. That lasted for what seemed like an eterminity, but was probably at least a half minute.

I forget how that one ended, but I'll always remember how silly I felt, smiling politely at the resident, and feeling ssssoooo embarrased, as Brother Should-Be-On-Anti-Psychotic-Medication rummaged.

35

worst JW introductions

by sleepy in

jw
friends

what were the worst introductions you remmeber people using on the ministry?

"hello my friend and i....." .

"hello we've been talking to your neighbours, do you think we can ever see a peaceful world?

Quotes

"Good morning. My name is Quotes and together with my friend Brother Should-Be-On-Anti-Psychotic-Medication we are talking to our neighbours about world conditions. You might have seen on the news this morning about trouble in the midle-East [note how timely that one alway is!] and were asking "Do you think we can ever have True Peace on the Earth?"

On one occasion, the response was:

[Shouting, almost instantly hysterical]: You people are nothing more than a CULT!

As the door was slamming closed, I managed to YELL back "You shouldn't say things like that [door is now fully closed] when you don't know what you are talking about!" My partner was concerned that I didn't simply chill out and turn the other cheek.

Years later I realized that that woman's point was correct, JWs are a cult. Too bad she didn't calmly explain to me why. I could have saved YEARS of aggravation!

6

`SPIRITUAL FOOD'

by badboy in

jw
friends

this expression is of pagan origin,being used in connection with pagan egyptian funeral rites!.

the`spiritual food' was depicted on burial chamber walls in the belief that the pharoahs could eat the food depicted!.

source;patterns in prehistory.

Quotes

badboy,

Interesting post. For the record, please provide the author, and publisher, in addition to the Title of the book. Page number(s) would be great also.

Thanks

~Quotes

http://quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/

25

Should JWS honeymoon?

by badboy in

jw
friends

i understand this custom is of pagan origin.

Quotes

Matty said:

Virtually everything as far as weddings are concerned is of pagan origin, from the ritualistic cutting of the cake to the throwing of rice or confetti. Strangely Witnesses don't seem to worry about these customs, they certainly aren't banned! Typical inconsistency.

I seem to remember that throwing rice/confetti was recognized as *gasp* "Pagan" and prohibited at all JW weddings I attended (including my own).

Anyone else recall this?

72

YOU KNOW says "IT's A CONSCIENCE MATTER"

by minimus in

jw
friends

yesterday i asked you know and yardif why they frequent these apostate sites.i asked this question: "how do you justify coming on these boards?".

you know's answer:"the way i understand it, it is a conscience matter.

" when i asked whether he was serious, he replied:"i am serious".when i asked him for further clarification, he suddenly vanished from the conversation.

Quotes

I agree with the observation, and can (embarrasingly) say that when I was a good JW teenager, I did a similar thing once.

I was entering a local apt. bldg. to go "in field service" (or as I call it now, "door knocking"). A man approached US in the lobby and confronted us with some topic that typically confuses JWs (I forget now what it was, exactly, this was about 15-20 yrs ago).

After trying to "correct" him (using the Reasoning Book, and whatever other WT stuff we had in our book bags) the matter was still unresolved. So this guy invites me back to his apt. the following week but made me promise that I would support my points with non-WT material (since I said that I could).

Well, I spent some time researching (non WT books) and found that it wasn't as clear-cut as I thought. I couldn't prove my point using non-WT sources, not even close.

So, I never went back, even though I promised to this man I would. Tsk tsk tsk, shame on me. I felt really bad about breaking my promise, but I never really questioned the more important issue: why was the WT teachings so unprovable without WT references?

Yup, I too did the "fast disappear and never return" when things got too hot. You Know and Yadirf and I should now be best friends, right guys/girls? Lets hang out together!

~Quotes