"don't be dismayed by good-byes.
a farewell is necessary before you can meet again.
and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.
I'm sorry to see you go but I understand why. I doubt you'll be the last. Personally I just skip threads where Viviane pours her toxic, hateful lies all over people, it only ever serves to derail the threads and upset people. I have no such need to engage with vicious and hostile posters either.
Yours were posts I always read, you are always interesting and moderate.
I hope you find a better tomorrow EdenOne.
Take care buddy.
well, my sister-in-law and her husband, special pioneers for only a couple of years, just got their letter.. her comment was along the lines of, "they're having to do this because they forgave all those kingdom hall loans a few years ago and the brothers aren't donating anymore.".
when my wife told me, i laughed so hard i farted.
;).
Hopefully the bethelites that have been retained will learn from this and realise that they are likely to be the next group to go.
They will know more than anyone what effect this layoff is having to the individuals involved. I wonder if any of them have survivor guilt.
Bethel can't be a nice place to be right now.
a tragic story of how the watchtower unduly influenced or brain washed a 14 year old jehovah's witness into martyrdom.
the real irony here is the synthetic blood that failed was a hemoglobin solution, and red blood cells are nothing but tiny doughnut shaped bags of hemoglobin.
any thinking person will conclude that if red cells are blood, then so is hemoglobin.
*** w98 12/1 p. 14 par. 4 Defending Our Faith ***
"The accusation that numerous children of Jehovah’s Witnesses die each year as a result of refusing blood transfusions is totally unfounded."
last night our congregation read a letter for the global assistance arrangement combined with the traveling overseer assistance arrangement.
the "recommended" amount was $15 per publisher, which was well over $1000 for our hall.. it seemed steep.
our congregation does not have this type of money.
Marvin Shilmer The one-time congregation bank account raid was nothing short of theft by consent.
It wasn't a one-time bank raid, it is an ongoing bank raid.
Whenever a congregation has more than enough for the coming three months, the surplus has to be sent to the WT. This is verified by the CO when he visits each time, to make sure those pesky congregations don't start saving their own money again.
i saw the coordinator heading for the stage and hit record on my ipad.
i was shocked but here it is.
here's my typed transcript of the letter he read:.
So 12 months ago the DO's were either removed or demoted to CO's, now the CO's are going a similar way.
It's like a game of snakes and ladders where most of the ladders are being removed.
When someone feels compelled to say "We are all confident of Jehovah's direction by way of the governing body and by way of the branch", it often means the opposite. They have to verbalise this to convince themselves as much as everyone else.
This CO and his wife are doubting the GB's actions.
so i decided yesterday to give my wife's full disclosure.
not sure it was the best decision considering she holds very firmly to the resurrection hope so we can see our babies again.. anyways she is agreeable to begin a study to find a better truth.
where is a good place to go to get some good reliable biblical info on the web that we can consider together?.
Don't jump from the frying pan into the fire.
Take some time out and just be kind Christian people while you take stock of things.
Jesus said to love your neighbour. There's your starting point.
a older sister in miami florida has told me that the special pioneer couple who got their walking papers last week said they are also voting members of the watchtower society.
also his stock share is valued at $800,000!.
i did some research and spoke to some longtime witnesses and found out that there are 500 voting members of the society and they are also called shareholders.. has anyone ever of someone selling his share?.
Could they sell their shares to anyone?
That could prove interesting!
as many of you know, my ex-husband was removed as an elder for child abuse.
i was told at the time he would never be reappointed in any capacity.
yet i heard today he was appointed as an account servant.
There's also a capability gap in the congregations.
There may be a dozen or so appointed men, but if none of them can count past 10 (or past 12 if the hall is in a remote location) without taking their socks off, you're going to need someone else to do accounts.
so, when people post about being shunned by their friends, i've heard several posters say things like, "their friendship is conditional.
real friendships aren't conditional.".
i'm sorry, but that just isn't really true.. if you and i were friends, there are conditions.
Friends normally decide for themselves what constitutes violating a friendship.
With JW's that decision is made for them, and even when those conditions are NOT met, the friendship can end 'just to be safe'.
When someone is having a difficult experience, normally their friends help out, not rat them out.
They're a suspicious bunch, them there JW's.
I think most JW's don't have real friends, only a facade of friendship that from day 1 is mutually understood to be with limits and conditions.
some fascinating results in the latest pew research.
(how did i miss this before?
) including that jws rely on their religion the most of any group to tell right from wrong and rely on common sense the least.
According to the trends, JW's are getting older, use less common sense and are getting poorer compared to 7 years ago. Specifically, 18-49 year olds are declining and 50+ are increasing.
As the group ages, the number of parents who have children under 18 is also reducing. This indicates the young families are drying up.
Men are on the decline, with women growing as a %ge.
As a group, the number of whites is dropping, being replaced largely by latinos.
Interestingly there continues to be an equal split between JW's who believe the Bible should be taken literally, and JW's who believe that not everything in the Bible should be taken literally. If JW's can't even agree on this basic thing then the GB have failed entirely in their role of 'steward'.
There is a slight growth in those who think homosexuality should be accepted, from 12% to 16%.
