RunningMan

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Posts by RunningMan

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  17

  3 Great Reasons to visit Toronto (pix)

  by Pierced Angel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  3 reasons to go to the next apostofest in toronto are:.

  you can get a kiss from peter's plump lips.

  you can get a hug from commie chris (with all those muscles, mmm).

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  RunningMan

  I'll be in Toronto next week, on the 13th and 14th. Can I have a gesture?
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  10

  Part 12: October Surprise II - The Sequel!

  by Amazing in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  part 12: october surprise ii the sequel!

  october 1 a new day: looking back on the first parts to this series, one who is an ex-jw can perhaps appreciate these events as no other person.

  what may be a little different is how an exit can, for some, such as in my own situation, drag on and on with new difficulties, bizarre twists, and unexpected players on the field.

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  RunningMan

  "instead they point to drawings in the Watchtower magazines (before the WTS used much in the way of photographs) depicting men that are clean shaven, meaning no beards or mustaches. These were cited as our “Cue” in how we as Jehovah’s representatives, his Ministers, must appear to the public."

  The Watchtower that was used at the Sunday meeting about a month ago had a picture on the front. There were four scenes from this old world, and in the center was a picture of Jesus - sporting a nicely trimmed beard. Shouldn't we be taking our "cue" from him?

  By the way, I started to grow a beard about six weeks ago, and I rather like it. The first time I showed up at a meeting, I got the impression that I had tattood a "666" on my forehead. Although no one commented on it (except a couple young Ministerial Servants, who expressed the wish that they could grow one), it seemed to send a message to the cong - especially the older ones.
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  6

  Hours it Takes to Get One Baptized Publisher

  by Smoldering Wick in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  marlon.

  location: wales uk.

  just a thought a quick calculation in 2001 it took around 4,438 hours to get one baptised publisher.

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  RunningMan

  I posted this calculation a couple of weeks ago:

  Last year (2001), there were 107,218 Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada. They reported 18,544,473 hours of field service. This activity resulted in 2,030 new baptisms. Now, let's calculate their efficiency.

  Each Witness averaged 173 hours in field service during the year. Every baptism came as a result of 9,135 hours of reported activity. Another way of stating this is that it took 53 JW person-years of activity to generate one baptism. This does not seem terribly efficient, but it is really just the tip of the iceberg.

  If you attend a Jehovah's Witness convention, you will find that the majority of their newly baptized members are not converts from outside the organization. Approximately 90% of them are children of their own members. It is not necessary to canvass from door to door in order to contact your own children. So, of those 2,030 baptisms last year, only about 200 of them represent actual converts.

  Now let's rerun the calculation, using more realistic numbers. Each convert came as a result of 91,352 hours of field service activity, or 529 person-years. This seems to be a grossly inefficient use of labor.

  How many doors must JW's knock on, in order to make a convert? Well, that depends on the type of activity. If a Witness is conducting a Bible study, then one call could take a full hour, or possibly even more. If that same person is canvassing new territory, then 20 or 30 calls could be made in an hour. If we make the assumption that each hour of field service generates five house calls, then 456,760 doors must be approached to find one convert. Since the average Canadian household contains 2.6 persons, then a total population of almost 1.2 million must be contacted in order to make one Jehovah's Witness convert.

  But, it gets even worse than this. I have given them the benefit of the doubt and assumed that all 203 of these converts came as a result of the door to door work. Really, many of them came into contact with Jehovah's Witnesses through informal methods, such as friends, relatives, and coworkers.
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  28

  service meeting event

  by nytelecom1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it was truly a joy to see br.

  and sister "--------".

  last night, after 5 years of not attending meetings.. it was the loving sheparding our elder body provided .

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  RunningMan

  Been there, done that. In 1994, I was inactive and moved to a new congregation. After being "love bombed", my wife and I reactivated and I rose to the rank of Ministerial Servant within a couple years.

  And hey, just look at me now - I wouldn't read too much into a couple reactivations.
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  7

  American Religious Identification Study

  by mikepence in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  see http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/key_findings.htm.

  some highlights.... jw's famous for their apostates ;-) almost 1/3rd leave!...

  "some groups such as mormons and jehovah's witnesses appear to attract a large number of converts ("in-switchers"), but also nearly as large a number of apostates ("out-switchers").

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  RunningMan

  Wow, fascinating study. I pulled up the details and found a few more interesting tidbits, particularly from the 10 year comparatives.

  The total adult population increased from 175M to 208M between 1990 and 2001. Yet, self professed JW's decreased from 1.4M to 1.331M.

  JW's are aging faster than the general population. The percentage of persons 18-29 years old increased by 3% to 26% in the general population. JW's in this age group decreased by 5% to 24%.

  As I suspected, they are dropping in numbers and getting older. The future will be grim if they can't make more young converts and begin to retain their young people.
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  7

  American Religious Identification Study

  by mikepence in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  see http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/key_findings.htm.

  some highlights.... jw's famous for their apostates ;-) almost 1/3rd leave!...

  "some groups such as mormons and jehovah's witnesses appear to attract a large number of converts ("in-switchers"), but also nearly as large a number of apostates ("out-switchers").

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  RunningMan

  So, 54% of JW's are non-white. How many members of the governing body are non-white?

  Can you spell token?
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  16

  Part 11: The Amalgamated Wedding

  by Amazing in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  part 11: the amalgamated wedding .

  by now, tensions between the elders and me had subsided.

  we were gearing up for the wedding.

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  RunningMan

  Father of the Bride - Apostate style.

  I remember well the Director of the Feast crap from my own wedding in 1985.

  As well, we had a number of problems, since my wife was only baptized about nine months prior to the wedding. Although she was raised a Witness, there was a lot of gossip going around that she only got baptized so that we could get married.

  As a result, we only invited about half of the elders from the congregation, causing quite a stir.
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  40

  Why God cannot have existed forever.

  by sleepy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  why god cannot have existed forever.. this is something a friend of mine brought up a number of years ago.at the time i just thought that to understand how a god existed forever was just beyond our little brains.. well now after reading a lot more physics books i think its evidence a god couldn't have existed forever and therefore would had a begining (if there was a god).. basically if god had lived from infinity in the past we wouldn't have been created yet as there would always be forever untill we were created.. do you get that?.

  at any point in time we could take, if time went back forever then you could never get to that point in time.

  you would always have infinity infront of you.. sorry if this doesn't make much sense as it is not easy to describe.

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  RunningMan

  Actually, it makes perfect sense.

  The argument from design basically says that since life, the universe, and everything is so complex, it must have had a designer. Then it stops. What is doesn't consider, is that if the universe must have a designer, then how much more so must the designer have had a designer... and on and on.

  The the argument from design doesn't answer anything at all. It merely pushes the problem back further. So, if something had to come from nothing, it might as well have been the universe.

  Steven Hawking made the observation that, in his observation of the universe, there is nothing for God to do.
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  67

  WARNING - THE WTBS CAN LOCATE YOU

  by Jim Dee in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  guys and girls.

  the society have now instituted carnivore - their data tracking system installed into the uk bethel to track all apostate email and activity.

  the reason is the amount of "leaks" of confidential mail and facts.. they have tried and failed with legal blocking, so now they are plugging the leaks, these guys were brought into mill hill late last year after the leak of the june 1 letter.. their method is to use message boards and chat rooms for the "disaffected" and get them to go to other "society monitored" web sites.

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  RunningMan

  Still, I don't see how this can help them. All they will find out is who is visiting this board.

  The only way this can help them is: If an insider posts info on this board himself, then clicks through to one of their phony sites. This would allow them to track the original post to the person's identity.

  Almost all of the insider posts on this board are first sent to known apostates who then post them.

  I can't imagine the society spending this kind of time and money to find out Kent's or Alan's e-mail address.
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  22

  My article was published

  by RunningMan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  much to my surprize, i received an e-mail from a webzine this morning, telling me that one of my articles was published.

  they must be very hard up for material.. it is on the subject of "the women of the bible".

  it outlines some of the gender discrimination of the bible, and highlights a few inconsistancies in some of the bible stories that mention women.. if anyone is interested, it can be found at: http://www.liberator.net/.

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  RunningMan

  Yes. It is possible that, if Kish is being referred to, Mordecai's age would be fine. I will grant that this item may be in error - but, it may not be. My article was written for fun rather than serious Bible scholarship.

  However, if you are looking for Bible errors, there are literally hundreds of them. As far as I'm concerned, the existance of even a single error in "God's inspired word", makes it an object of humour, rather than reverance.