it seems to me that this is a no-brainer but i have been out since '96.. so based on your personal experiences what do you think?.
lots more - a bit more - just the same as always - less - a lot less?.
if you think more or lots more can you spot a time or event when it started to change?.
King Solomon? I remember, smart guy, but not the type that can make many friends. I think you guys are right, he is back. I am glad. I think I am gonna sit and read. I have high respect for the intelects of both Cofty and Adamah (or King Solomon). Both certainly have much to teach me.
Thomas Covenant,
Those quotes seem unbelievable. I can not find anything in the WT library. Have they been removed? Do they come from reliable sources?
or are they all the same?
?.
They seem much worse, but in essence they are the same. The previous leadership only had to cover its own BS and that of its predecessors while the current "administration' is doing the same, but the list of predecessors is longer. Rutherford only had to deal with his and Chuck's B.S. The "Great Eight' today have a huge load...the B.S. of Russell, Rutherford, Knorr, Freddie and everyone else after Freddie. How the hell do they manage to stay sane? Oh wait...
hi guys.. just found out today that my landlord is selling my apartment.
he says he selling it with me as a sitting tenant, so should be okay.
i'm still a bit apprehensive as i've been here nearly 8 years and my son is in year 9 at the local school.. my mum's words of wisdom, were, of course, "jehovah will provide.".
Jehovah will provide means that you by your own sweat, effort and decisions will overcome this and many other obstacles, but you worthless piece of good-for-nothing-human will give all the credit to GOD, so says the Bible and the Governing Body.
i remember being late for my senior year chemistry class.
as i grabbed the last seat in the back of the room i could tell that a boy in my class was engaged in yet another debate with the teacher.
jim was a bright student but he felt that he knew more than mr. roberts our chemistry teacher.
Easy answer. The teacher did the wrong thing. He is ultimately responsible for seeking his hurt ego to be restored by causing so much damage. Jim was just a young kid with zero years as a mentor or teacher to anyone. The teacher had been there for 40 years. Shameful!
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
I just needed to add my own comment to such a popular thread. Cofty is a very thoughtful, smart and knowledgeable guy... but over 100 pages? I rather read a book than go through every page here. I doubt any opening comment merits 102 pages of comments.
Hey S. R. you go save lives with your other skills. Thanks for your great posts. No offense intended to anyone, but there's a time when all of us have to move on. Many of us sooner or later have to spend less time here and more time befriending the people close to us, people whose face we recognize and whose speech we can hear. This is a great site. possibly the best I have ever visited, but writing and reading here doesn't compare to the human interaction where you can use all your senses.
we get plenty of company men passing through our circuit, often filled with misinformation and lugging around a suitcase of guilt, they bring more guilt to the weak while praising the braggart pioneers and slapping the "righteous over much" elders.
why are the wrong people getting praise in this distorted community?
i know for a fact many of the elders i served with have issues with alcoholism, when "brother guilt" brought his emotional hurricane through our circuit, i had the chance to eat and help pay for his "seven shots of tequila", both him and his wife were not immune to over-indulgences.
Are you guys sure you are not using anectdotal evidence to prove a problem that may not be any greater than it is at the population at large? If we are going to use anecdotal evidence I would say that of the couple of hundreds of JW's that I know only one had a serious problem with alcohol, and that knowledge is actually based on rumor (may or may not be true). Sometimes I feel some people attacking JW's want to ascribe them all kinds of problems that are without basis. I don't see much evidence of alcoholism.
Plenty of the rank and file manage life very well without alcohol. Just yesterday I had a conversation with a relatively recent convert who is now a MS. In order to support his belief in God and trust in the Org. he used all kinds of fallacious and emotional arguments. Example, he said "I believe that we will have eternal life because just everyone one I have known doesn't want to die, God put that reluctance to die in our hearts for a reason" (I am not kidding). The man uses his faulty logic, instead of alcohol, to keep himself happy. He is truly a happy man. I believe that's the case of most JW's. I am sure there's few who need alcohol to cope with cognitive disonance, but I don't think they have a greater problem than other outside the confines of JW's world.
today's watchtower lesson touched on the history of hezekiah's reign, and then made a surprising modern-day application.
having used my time before the meeting to research the underlying material instead of highlighting my magazine, i personally found this to be an upsetting study, and decided to put this warning here in the hopes that some active witnesses read it.. the most important thing i want to say to you is that the actual flow of events in this bible account were severely misrepresented, and that there are some disturbing implications in the distortions that were made.
1. hezekiah's father ahaz makes himself a vassal to assyria out of fear of their overwhelming might (2 kings 16:7, 8).. 2. upon becoming king, hezekiah rebels against assyria (2 kings 18:7).
Jeremiah 10:23 (quoted at the end of the article
I know, O Lord , that the way of human beings is not in their control,
that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps."
So the article starts "do your own thinking" and ends "do not do your own thinking"
So much for English teachers advising students to reaffirm the main premise in the conclusion of their essays.
today's watchtower lesson touched on the history of hezekiah's reign, and then made a surprising modern-day application.
having used my time before the meeting to research the underlying material instead of highlighting my magazine, i personally found this to be an upsetting study, and decided to put this warning here in the hopes that some active witnesses read it.. the most important thing i want to say to you is that the actual flow of events in this bible account were severely misrepresented, and that there are some disturbing implications in the distortions that were made.
1. hezekiah's father ahaz makes himself a vassal to assyria out of fear of their overwhelming might (2 kings 16:7, 8).. 2. upon becoming king, hezekiah rebels against assyria (2 kings 18:7).
The article quoted by John Amos started great and continued with many good points, but ended this way.
“The god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers,” that they might not know the vital truths of our time. What about you? Will you let others think for you, or will you do your own thinking? Do your own, and “thinking ability itself will keep guard over you.” At the same time, it must be admitted that we need good and proper guidance.—2 Cor. 4:4, 6; Prov. 2:11; Ps. 36:9; Jer. 10:23."
The writer ended up writing his own propaganda. Oh, the irony!
a few weeks ago, discoveries were made that show that there is another dna code language that rides on top of the already incredibly complex 4-letter code previously discovered.
this newly discovered code apparently regulates how genes work.
as i noted in a previous thread, the amount of data storage available in the dna storage system just the size of a pin-head would filll a stack of books stacked from your driveway to the moon .... 500 times!
Quite interesting that it is scientists who give us always a better understanding of life and all its related processes. Yet the very scientists who discover new things to reaffirm their strong convictions about an evolutionary process, are denigrated by nincompoops who make zero contributions to the advancement of knowledge but are prompt to claim arrogantly to know better, and use as evidence a paragraph written on an ancient book, quite representative of the mythology of its time, and consequently of very questionable authorship. The irony always amazes me... and frustrates me...and scares me.
fewer new zealand citizens affiliated as jws in 2013 than in 1996: over 15 years of successive decreases.
the first table shows the new zealand census from 1976 to 2013. typically, numbers of citizens affiliated with the witnesses are higher than the number of active publishers because it includes children and those who are affiliated with the witnesses but who may not be active publishers.. of note, more citizens were recorded as affiliated with the witnesses in 1996 (19,527) than in 2013 (17,931).
the decline in numbers affiliating with the witnesses in new zealand started in 2001 and has continued across two further census reports - so this is not just a temporary blip.
Great! Keep pushing the downward trend! This reminds that I got translating work to do for the cause of waking up Hispanics.
