Posts by shepherdless

21

Australians deadlest animals just for our American friends

by MightyV8 in

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australians deadlest animals.

https://youtu.be/mrrao_vg_k4.

shepherdless

Yes, Smiddy, it always pays to keep a careful look out above you, whenever you walk through a wooded area.

21

Australians deadlest animals just for our American friends

by MightyV8 in

.

australians deadlest animals.

https://youtu.be/mrrao_vg_k4.

just wanted to pose the question to the group and see what the general opinion is vs what the wt may have claimed in other cases.. we all know that they have argued over clergy privilege when elder learn of a crime but keep quiet about it.

regardless of what one may feel about this, lets assume for a minute that they are correct.. all elders are directed to contact the branch when they learn of a case of child abuse.

would the conversation between the elder and the branch be considered under the "clergy privilege"?

shepherdless

Historically, penitent clergy privilege arose because of the following:

1. Catholics in particular were/are taught that if they don’t confess their sins at the Sacrement of Confession, they risk hell. For example, when I was a kid, if my dad found out that I had not been to confession for a few months, he would treat it like a medical emergency; he would look up which church was holding confession on that day, and drive me there.

2. It occurred to some law enforcement people, or litigants, that one way to dig up dirt on an accused or opposing litigant, was to subpoena their parish priest, and cross-examine the priest about all the bad things that individual had done.

This is clearly unfair. So the penitent was protected at law. Spousal privilege, legal professional privilege, and privilege in aid of settlement are other types of privilege designed to stop such unfairness.

The main point to note is that the privilege evolved to protect the PENITENT. It did NOT originate to protect the priest (or Elder).

Of course, the law on penitent clergy privilege in various countries and states has been codified, and because of the words of the statute (particularly in some US states) may be broader than that. However, I think it is outrageous that Watchtower is trying to use a type of privilege originally devised to protect a penitent, to instead protect itself and its elders.

37

Canada Branch Financials are Posted (The Bleeding Appears Very Real)

by berrygerry in

posted here:.

https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid=740aq85115d1a04174c4d867e056351ad6836.

biggest changes:.

shepherdless

Looks to me like all the cash is all being siphoned off at lines 4891 and 5050, but I can’t read the full description of those.

If that is not a siphoning off, then the Canada branch is in a lot of trouble. In any event, there is not much more that can be siphoned off; the tank is near empty.

63

Did You Care About The Royal Wedding?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i don’t get it.

who really cares?

in the usa, it’s such a huge newsworthy event.

shepherdless

Diogenesister, my guess is that they didn’t expect the crowd to shriek like it did, or give the horses enough practice in that environment (if you can create that environment in practice). I was watching it on YouTube with no commentary, and the crowd shrieking sounded bizarrely high pitched. I thought the horse on the right nearest the carriage looked a little freaked by it all, as well.

63

Did You Care About The Royal Wedding?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i don’t get it.

who really cares?

in the usa, it’s such a huge newsworthy event.

shepherdless

I was watching it only because I felt I had to, to be culturally aware, and then only because someone else reminded me.

The American bishop was an embarrassment who went on & on & on & on .
Watching the guests faces as he raved on was classic

Oh it was hilarious! The Brits do the dignified decorum extremely well, even if it is a bit stuffy and boring. And then that preacher! Hilarious watching everyone in the crowd trying to maintain a straight face, knowing they were being filmed. My favourite line was when he said:

I did not cross the Atlantic by walking on water.

I loved the way that near the end, the preacher seemed to go quiet, like he was about to finish, a few times, only to go into another crescendo. I think that just freaked out the audience more.

The other thing that was interesting was the open carriage trip. There was a white horse out the front to the left, that was clearly playing up and on the verge of bolting due to crowd noise. It was stressful watching it, because I thought it was going to break at any moment, doing who knows what. Superb work by the horseman to keep it in control. It seemed to me the cavalry in front and the whole procession sped up to try and get through it all. You could see one of them regularly looking back, probably to monitor the situation.

38

How far will they go?

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

imagine: you have inside information that could destroy the watchtower corporations.. how far would they go to protect the assets?.

would they kill?

no strange question in blackwater etc days.. g..

shepherdless

I thought I would check in, given I get a mention above.

I have done a few threads on the Aust census statistics. The following is the last one I did. (Look at the graphs on page 2, as some of those in the opening post contain an error.)

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5260866569109504/jw-decline-additional-data-from-aust-2016-census?page=2

Essentially, decline in Australia is "locked-in" and inevitable, now. Because their median age has risen over the last 10 years, they are entering a stage where deaths will outnumber births, particularly as the baby boomers die off. It will be a slow process, however.

Also, someone on a separate thread about 5 months ago showed that adding up all publishers across Europe, showed a small decline. I noticed that adding in the major wealthy countries (USA, Japan etc) showed a slightly greater decline.

So decline is real, at least in the West. And this decline is unrelated to whatever financial issues Watchtower is currently suffering.

Btw, I also agree that the number of congregations is a reliable measure of growth/decline, as it is a hard one to fudge.

Back to the O.P. I don't think the Borg could stoop to murder. They are quite likely to stoop to Scientology style tactics, though.

31

A non-Witnes who accepts 607 BC?

by careful in

an eyebrow raiser to be sure.

i can understand the clergyman being so baptist that he'd still use the name jehovah since it was popular in english and german churches for a long time during and after the reformation, but 607?.

see ¶ 6 under the heading "the historicity of the book of daniel".

shepherdless

Yes, John Aquila Brown had the correct date for when Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne. I don't think he says where he gets that date, but it was probably either from Ptolomy's Canon, or indirectly from Bishop Ussher. I think I read somewhere that 19th century protestant bibles often had Bishop Ussher's timelines of biblical events listed in them.

John Aquila Brown stated that the end of the 2520 years was 1 January 1917. So he was another clown who didn't know there was no zero AD.

27

Weird, weird. Newest internet debate, Laurel or yanny?

by James Mixon in

jw
friends

i heard laurel and the wife heard yanny.

maybe someone can post the spoken word..

shepherdless

To me it sounds clearly like "Yanny". I gather it all depends on how well you hear high frequencies.

17

How does mankind know what happen before we were created??

by James Mixon in

for example, "and god said, let there be light: and there was light.

"a personal and vocal god said, "let there be light.

"so god saw the light, and thought it good, but how did the priestly scribe know that he did?

shepherdless

For example, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

Well, what language did He use to say that, if language had not been invented. And why was God talking to himself like a weirdo, anyway?