It wasn’t the JWs who invented the idea of a “spiritual paradise” (if not it’s actual wording). Some of the more austere of the “mainstream” churches are quick to cite the “spiritual” benefits - particularly when the material (and other) “blessings” become rather scarce!(This matter is well described by the New Zealand author John A Lee, in his autobiography Children of the Poor. In the southern city of Dunedin, which was established by puritanical Scottish settlers, the Presbyterian Church provided at best miserly material aid to the poor. However, they were always quick to emphasise the “spiritual” benefits that their church provided.)
Rivergang
JoinedPosts by Rivergang
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32
Life in a spiritual (UN)-paradise
by Reasonfirst ina long, long time ago, when i was young, i became a 'special' pioneer.
it meant that i had to spend 150 hours a month, and i received a small allowance.
i was then assigned to a small country congregation, in western nsw (australia).
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Life in a spiritual (UN)-paradise
by Reasonfirst ina long, long time ago, when i was young, i became a 'special' pioneer.
it meant that i had to spend 150 hours a month, and i received a small allowance.
i was then assigned to a small country congregation, in western nsw (australia).
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Rivergang
Hey! J, is your mate M. still %&#king the XXXX girl???
And back in the day, I used to actually believe that "Our church don't do that sort of thing" - and that it was only hypocrites such as Catholic priests who got up to those sorts of capers.
(Bloody hell, little did I know!)
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How Do Jehovah's Witnesses View Education?
by southyukon ini have a question about this article.. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jw-education-school/.
higher education can lead to moral and spiritual dangers.
a bible proverb says: "the shrewd one sees the danger and conceals himself.
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Rivergang
Notformer:
Yeah - nothing like expecting to be able to have it both ways!
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How Do Jehovah's Witnesses View Education?
by southyukon ini have a question about this article.. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jw-education-school/.
higher education can lead to moral and spiritual dangers.
a bible proverb says: "the shrewd one sees the danger and conceals himself.
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Rivergang
Jehovah's Witnesses feel that the environment in some universities or similar centers of higher learning can pose moral and spiritual dangers.
While remaining oblivious to the fact that - in this manner, at least - the workplace can be just as hazardous!
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JW Restrictions on Children
by NotFormer inissues raised in this thread:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6496820625145856/non-jw-parent-dating-jw-who-wants-children.
i'm trying to list all the things jw children are not allowed to do, or are discouraged from doing.
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Rivergang
It would be perhaps easier to list the things which JW kids are permitted to - a list which would be very brief in size.
- Meetings, meetings and more bloody meetings.
- Preparation for the same said meetings
- "Bible Study"
- Field
circusservice. - The very minimum amount of education which is required by law.
- AND...... as highlight of the year, attend the assemblies!
Little wonder the JWs manage to retain only one third of their young people!
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JWLITE
by Teddnzo ineven elders can be part of the new jw lite brigade these days.
they don’t need to go on door to door anymore and there is no requirement for anything really.. taking meeting parts is all dead easy you could turn up on the day with zero preparation because it’s all in the meeting workbook.. quarterly elders meetings are just old men having a good old natter just like old men do down the pub.. congregations could be likened to pubs or bars these days just without the drinks, those come at other times.. no need for territory maps, these almost went away with covid letter writing now they are extremely slow getting finished as those who still go door to door only do ten mins.. you could even voice your questions these days about things the gb say and then just say “we can’t be dogmatic we just don’t know”.
i predict they will say this about 1914 soon..
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Rivergang
Maybe a little off-topic, but it is noticeable that those who have kept with the JW religion seem to share a common characteristic:
i.e. They pay lip-service to every utterance issued by the GB (and prior to that, “The Society”), but in practice, quietly ignore the more extreme demands of their religion. In that way, they are little different from the so-called “Mainstream Churches”. (This certainly applies to the members of my family who have remained with the JWs).
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Blasts at assembly in India
by InquiryMan inhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/29/explosion-hits-jehovahs-witnesses-prayer-meeting-in-indias-kerala.
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Rivergang
From an Indian work colleague (of the Christian pursuasion), India is rapidly becoming a Hindu state.
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TODAY is my 56th anniversary of GOING TO PRISON as a Jehovah's Witness Conscientious Objector
by Terry inwhat happened to jehovah’s witness young men and why did it happen?______in the 1960s men of draft age were called upon to either serve in the military (during the vietnam war) or to comply with the alternate service option: serving in a hospital or community in need.. non-jehovah’s witnesses were faced with only one refusal: military service.jw boys and young men were instructed (in private) to refuse the alternate civilian service as well.
the superior authorities had made this exemption for people of conscience.the law was clear on this.
if we worked in a hospital community we would be free to go about our witnessing ministry - if we double-refused: we would languish in prison.a no-brainer to them.
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Rivergang
The only thing he got from Ali was an old clock.
Very considerate of the boxer, Muhammad Ali. I would have thought an empty whiskey bottle more appropriate!
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TODAY is my 56th anniversary of GOING TO PRISON as a Jehovah's Witness Conscientious Objector
by Terry inwhat happened to jehovah’s witness young men and why did it happen?______in the 1960s men of draft age were called upon to either serve in the military (during the vietnam war) or to comply with the alternate service option: serving in a hospital or community in need.. non-jehovah’s witnesses were faced with only one refusal: military service.jw boys and young men were instructed (in private) to refuse the alternate civilian service as well.
the superior authorities had made this exemption for people of conscience.the law was clear on this.
if we worked in a hospital community we would be free to go about our witnessing ministry - if we double-refused: we would languish in prison.a no-brainer to them.
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Rivergang
Talk about being man-made and arbitrary!
While young JW men in the USA were being held to these rules, across the line in Mexico, they were permitted to bribe their way out of military service. They were told in writing that this was a conscience matter .i.e. if it didn’t bother either they or the relevant government official, they were free to offer a bribe to obtain the “cartilla”, which exempted them from being drafted.
Most Mexican officials were happy enough to issue the “cartilla”, if a brother made a suitable donation to that official’s favourite charity!
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'They knew and let it happen!' What's your propaganda meter showing?
by was a new boy inremember the spotlight movie?.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/ae250e9e-8f1a-45bb-b757-47c0149cafb3.
as a kid mum told me usa was warned about the coming pearl harbor attack.. 9/11 and covid-19, history repeating.
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Rivergang
so the decision was made (by Churchill, so the story goes) not to warn the population at all.
That urban legend has long since been dispelled, from as early as 1976.
An informative read is RV Jones's Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939 - 1945. (Reginald Victor Jones was Britain's Director of Scientific Intelligence during WWII).
In this publication, Jones devotes an entire chapter about the English industrial city of Coventry - which alone of all inland cities of the UK, was levelled during a nighttime bombing raid by German aircraft. The raid on Coventry succeeded simply because, for once, British radio countermeasures failed. In every other case, these measures were successful in neutralising the radio navigation system used by the Luftwaffe's bomber fleet. However, on the night of that raid on Coventry, somebody made a very simple error.
As Jones goes on to conclude on page 150 of Most Secret War:
"It is one of those instances, of which I have since found many, where enormous trouble is taken to get difficult parts right and then a slip up occurs because of lack of attention to a seemingly trivial detail."
Never underestimate the role that a simple, old time £µ€₭ -Up can play in a military disaster!
Straight out arrogance, too, has often played a significant part during failures of intelligence. Pearl Harbor is one example of that. As early as 29th November 1941, the US Secretary of the Navy circulated a general warning that hostilities were imminent. However, Pearl Harbor was not listed as a probable target. Thailand, Borneo and the Kra Isthmus were (correctly) identified as such - but prevailing opinion maintained that Japan was simply incapable of launching an attack on Pearl Harbor. Even after the attack, there were military and naval personnel who were "certain" that those aircraft had been piloted by Europeans.
Three days later, Britain's naval supremacy in the Far East was ended forever by the destruction of "Force Z". This was an event not believed possible - the sinking by aircraft of a battleship flotilla which was under way in the open sea. After these two disasters, both the USA and Great Britain had to come to terms with the fact that they had been bested by a supposedly "inferior" enemy. It is therefore hardly surprising that some wild ideas got circulated, trying to avoid facing up to the fact that they had underestimated their enemy.
Similarly, Israel, too, got taken by surprise in the 1973 Middle East War, simply because it badly underestimated its enemies. Despite all the intelligence reports that came in, which almost screamed out that the Arabs were about to attack, Israel's leadership - both civil and military - refused to believe that the Arab countries were at all capable of doing so. (A series of easy victories during the two previous Middle East wars had lulled them into a dangerously false sense of security).
As was observed afterwards, despite so much information at their disposal, Israel "made the worst possible estimate" of it.
In other words, it is not just a matter of having intelligence data available. Much can then go wrong during the analysis of this information, and wrong conclusions can be drawn when it is coloured by an imagined superiority of the enemy. Also, during the whole process, somebody can slip up during the execution of even a simple detail.
There are plenty of other alternatives to conspiracy when it comes to explaining military disasters. The good old fashioned £µ€₭ -Up has certainly played its role in more than a few!