anybody want to guess?
for some years the office for national statistics tried to hide the answer by counting different spellings as different names.
it no longer matters.
I think things are not black or white.
I've been assigned for years to a foreign language congregation where most of the territory was composed by people from the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria), Lebanese...
Although it's true some of them are Muslim radicals, others are moderate who could be considered "cultural Muslims" and there are others who have migrated to Europe because they don't like the religious environment where they grow up.
I'm not so pessimistic about European future.
within the organization, jehovah's witnesses know that they must be dutiful and set an example for "worldly ones" as well as for their own brotherhood.
if a witness fails in setting the proper example, they may lose some 'privileges"..... what privileges did you look to have and what privileges did you lose?
?.
What I've realised is that "privilege" is an euphemism for "free work".
You get the privilege of being a MS but that only means working free for the organisation without reward. And what is worst: spending your time in paperwork and bureaucracy.
If you get the privilege of being an elder, then you have more tasks to do. You are payed by portraying the title but you are giving your time, a precious time normal people would use to spend with their families, having hobbies or relaxing after a hard working day.
I can't see a difference between how you're treated by COs or elders and a secular manager. In fact, considered you are not paid the treatment is sometimes even worst.
That's the reason why those privileges are nowadays imposed on brothers even if they don't really want to be appointed. It's completely different than some years ago: now brothers don't reach to become elders or MS but they're pressured by existing elders as they cannot do all the work they already have and want to share work with others.
article
1.the organization itself denies access to reality and substitutes its own version, interpretations, and meanings.
a.only watchtower approved publications are allowed.
Witnesses live in a parallel world, most of them because they are born-ins and couldn't choose for themselves.
They always listen to the same old song: The end is near, endure until the end... Since 7 to 77 years old. But the end never comes... Except the end of their own lives. OUR own lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go3arnnsfkk&feature=youtu.be.
no mention whatsoever that it was watchtower themselves that strongly hinted towards this date.
instead they blame those who "put their trust in a date, not jehovah".. let's recap... .
Yesterday I rejected booking a hotel for the Convention this summer my congregation is assigned and told the elder I'm staying in my own area and would MAYBE go here.
But I think I will not attend this time. It'll be my first time not attending a Convention but all this nonsensical propaganda is too much for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go3arnnsfkk&feature=youtu.be.
no mention whatsoever that it was watchtower themselves that strongly hinted towards this date.
instead they blame those who "put their trust in a date, not jehovah".. let's recap... .
If they are mentioning, it means they are into something. Maybe dropping 1914 or another important date?
I know a brother that lived during those time, one of the few in my area, a die-hard elder who is always pushing the young ones to pioneer and not attending higher education. I think the witness from that era that are still inside have invested so much in the religion that they will never quit.
But probably it could raise some questions to the young ones. They're planning something I guess.
i haven't been on an exjw site for months and months.
i frankly am way past the point where i define myself as an exjw, i am who i am and it doesn't have really anything to do with the way i was raised or spent a considerable portion of my life, i also refuse to be bound by witness requirements as to leaving, contact with witnesses, or some kind of responsibility to whack people who seem perfectly happy as witnesses over the head with 'the truth about the truth'.
i have recently run in to a few people that seems to simply obsess with their lives as witnesses and why they left and in some cases the way they were treated or mistreated, or the need to "do" something.
I suppose that would the dream of the GB and the high hierarchy of the WT, better know today as JW.ORG: that everyone quitting the religion stop talking about all the issues involved in the religion.
If no one spoke openly in sites like this one, some people like me would probably have last much longer until realising completely what kind of organisition it is.
Plus, there are many that even after abandoning physically and mentally the WT, they have to face with still in family.
In the long term, I agree it's mentally healthy to forget a past chapter in you life but circumstances may differ between each of us.
says it all really.
total hypocrisy once again..
GB members are worshipped in this religion. Yesterday you saw something was black and if today they publish a WT article saying it is white, you'll say 'It's evidently white and I have always seen it white'.
Catholics have a Pope and witnesses have seven.
ok, so i've just put myself through another months broadcast so i can see what bull they're feeding my still in relatives.
all was going fine... well, i say fine, i mean the usual cheesy videos, rehearsed reactions from jeffrey jackson (you remember him, the one who told half truths and lies at the royal commission) and propaganda from jw land.. the last feature brings up 9/11 and the paris 2015 attack at the bataclan.
just as im thinking "how are they gonna spin this in their direction" i hear these words:.
From my experience, at least in my area, very few witnesses watch these programmes. Only die-hard pioneers or elders although not all of them.
They started opening KHs in the area one Friday per month with the purpose that all those older members without internet could assist. In fact, all were invited to watch it together as another spiritual activity as a congregation.
After four months, the arrangement was suspended for low attendance. Most brothers aren't watching it and I reckon it's the American televangelist approach it has the main reason.
However, I heard it's having more success in other countries but don't think it has a massive success.
http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/sociedad/cerco-internacional-a-la-ocultacion-de-abusos-a-menores-de-los-testigos-de-jehova-6009083.
international siege to conceal child abuse in jehovah's witnesses.
a meeting in london weaves alliances to denounce the parallel justice of the religious organization.
Here in Spain some brothers are worried by this coverage. In fact, it was mentioned in a Whatsapp group of brothers today.
i just recently stopped attending.
i keep getting messages, emails, texts and voice mails asking if i'm ok. they all say the exact same thing.
it's creepy and a bit scary.
What I do when I miss some meetings or when I'm asked to do something like the carts or help in the maintenance work of the Hall is simply to say that I'm busy at the moment and not available because of a personal situation/my job/a course required to attend by my employer or something similar. Don't give more details.
If they ask how are you doing or if you have some problem, let them know you're fine but busy.
I prefer text messaging than phone calls as they (especially elders) always want to get some information about you. Giving out details is quite dangerous especially with friends or people you may feel comfortable with.
