Posts by Anders Andersen

58

Developments in the India Branch

by MaxPayne in

the following letter was read in the congregation today.

it's for all the congregations in india.

i have pasted it as it was.

Anders Andersen

Use more literature? I wonder what money making scheme is behind that? Could it be their way of moving money abroad? 'Buy' literature from a JW printing facility outside India?
Small Bethel family = less apostasy or fraud, as recently most Indian Bethel leaders were replaced by foreigners?
Bethelites in apartments = they'll have to take care of themselves after they done slaving for the day.
Selling Bethel but still need money = begging scheme. Either they're lying about coming up with enough money, or they could probably use Bethel as collateral for a bank loan. But they don't want that...begging the flock for money means they don't need to pay anything back (and then export the money through the increased literature flow?)

Same old same old: work harder, give us your money.

68

District Assemblies now being held at Circuit Assembly locations?

by ShirleyW in

jw
friends

i haven't been to a kh in decades, so i get the google alerts for jws and i got one featuring a local news channel in brooklyn covering the assembly being held in flatbush, brooklyn.

i'm sure that venue is where the circuit assemblies are usually held, keeping in mind it's summer and that's when the district assemblies are being held.

why are they acting like they're so strapped for cash and now holding district assemblies in circuit assemblies locations ?.

Anders Andersen

They have been doing this in Europe too.

Use or repurpose the own CA halls for conventions too. This means no more money out of pocket to rent large venues, and the cost per day for the own halls goes down (= higher gross margin).

Added bonus: it's easier to hide decreasing visitor numbers...

25

Who wrote the Bible?

by Ireneus in

the wordings suggest much of the bible is written by false friends of god.

to mention a few:.

1) god planted a special tree to pay the way for suffering and death into the lives of his children.. 2) god protected cain who murdered his innocent brother out of sheer jealousy.

And that is exactly what already happened when people (evil apostate Catholic cardinals according to JW) decided which letters and books should be in the Bible canon, and which ones should not be in there.

And even on this matter people disagree, as there are (and have been) quite a few different Bible canons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_biblical_canons

Built on this shaky foundation, believers then decide which parts to adhere to or ignore.

20

Do KHs lock their doors when meeting starts now?

by NikL in

jw
friends

my still in wife informed me this morning that she must be on time to the meeting as they are locking the door when it starts now.. i said that's crazy.

she said it's because of the times we are living in.. we live in a rural area and crime isn't terrible though it's worse than it used to be.. i told her if that's the way it is then why bother leaving the house at all?.

she said they are just trying to be safe.. is this a thing now?

Anders Andersen

Yes it's a thing. No it's not new. In my very, very safe country kh have been locked during meetings for decades.

Most kh have a small LED door bell here.

The fairy tale in Acts about Jesus entering the locked room is cited as scriptural precedent to lock the doors during meetings.

25

Who wrote the Bible?

by Ireneus in

the wordings suggest much of the bible is written by false friends of god.

to mention a few:.

1) god planted a special tree to pay the way for suffering and death into the lives of his children.. 2) god protected cain who murdered his innocent brother out of sheer jealousy.

Anders Andersen

Well, given that Matthew violated your #8 (Matt. 4:1) shouldn't you distrust the writer as a false friend of God?

So how do you know whatever he wrote is true?

Do you just pick verses that match with your own ideas of what God should be, and reject the verses that don't match with your preconceived ideas?

Aren't you in reality creating your own image of God, according to what you want him to be?

What if God is in reality an asshole? What if God would actually want us to not 'do unto others' as that enables the weak to thrive, and God actually favors the strong and selfish?

How would you know?

The way you pick and choose what suits you you could never find out. You could very well be rejecting the wrong verses without knowing.

Or maybe you're not rejecting enough ;-)

With the way you pick and choose parts that match your own ideas even the Quran, the Book of Mormon, the Scientology books and every other book is a good guide to the divine: reject what you don't like, keep the rest.

Is picking and choosing parts of an ancient book a reliable way to gain knowledge?

25

Who wrote the Bible?

by Ireneus in

the wordings suggest much of the bible is written by false friends of god.

to mention a few:.

1) god planted a special tree to pay the way for suffering and death into the lives of his children.. 2) god protected cain who murdered his innocent brother out of sheer jealousy.

Anders Andersen

The same in-built sense of justice in me tells me all those 10 listed above and similar ones are written by false friends of God because it doesn’t help the readers in any fruitful way.

My built in sense of justice says slavery is wrong, genocide and exterminating women, children and elderly in wars is wrong, punishing children for the crimes of their (grand)parents is wrong, women and foreigners are equal to everyone else, etc. etc.

So can we please declare that any Bible book that contains any of that and approves of it is written by false friends of God too?

Hmmm....I'm afraid we just reduced the Bible to Song of Songs only....

25

Who wrote the Bible?

by Ireneus in

the wordings suggest much of the bible is written by false friends of god.

to mention a few:.

1) god planted a special tree to pay the way for suffering and death into the lives of his children.. 2) god protected cain who murdered his innocent brother out of sheer jealousy.

Anders Andersen

Bible itself admits much of it is written by false friends of God (Jeremiah 8:8).

That's a very interesting thought. Hold on to it. Because Paul wrote to Timothy that all of Scripture is inspired by God.

You're saying Paul is wrong. Which means he's mistaken at best, a liar and false friend of God at worst.

In any case, we can't trust anything he wrote. By extension we shouldn't trust anyone who associated with him (after all who would trust a friend of a known liar and fals friend of God?)

So we must ignore most if not all of the NT. Well maybe the gospels can stay.

Oh no the gospels have to go to as they state what is included in your list of 'written by false friends'. So no more NT in our Bible.

Looking through your list we also get rid of the first 5 books, all (claimed to be) written by Moses, a false friend of God too according to your list.

Take out the books referring to other items on your list, or written by the same writers, and we're left with not much of a Bible anymore, are we?

25

Who wrote the Bible?

by Ireneus in

the wordings suggest much of the bible is written by false friends of god.

to mention a few:.

1) god planted a special tree to pay the way for suffering and death into the lives of his children.. 2) god protected cain who murdered his innocent brother out of sheer jealousy.

Anders Andersen

By the way what makes you think the less favorable depictions are the false ones?

What if these are the true depictions, and the favorable ones are written by false friends?

How would one ever find out?

If someone doesn't have an existing belief that Bible God is awesome and good and love and such, they have no means to pick which depictions of God are correct and which ones are not?

25

Who wrote the Bible?

by Ireneus in

the wordings suggest much of the bible is written by false friends of god.

to mention a few:.

1) god planted a special tree to pay the way for suffering and death into the lives of his children.. 2) god protected cain who murdered his innocent brother out of sheer jealousy.

Anders Andersen

The wordings suggest much of the Bible is written by false friends of God.

Another viable conclusion could be:

The wording suggests much of the Bible is written by friends of a false* God.

*) 'false' as in non-existent.

9

Jehovah’s Witness girl could receive blood against her will during childbirth

by Tahoe in

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/31/jehovahs-witness-girl-could-receive-blood-against-her-will-during-childbirth.

a jehovah’s witness girl may be forced to receive a blood transfusion against her will this weekend when she gives birth in melbourne.. victoria’s mercy hospital was granted supreme court authority on friday to give the girl blood as a “last resort” if she suffers a postpartum haemorrhage when induced into labour on sunday afternoon.. the 17-year-old first-time mother is considered to be at increased risk of haemorrhaging because she is of “small stature” and the baby is large, meaning she may have a long labour, an assisted birth or an emergency caesarean section.. jehovah’s witnesses forbid followers from receiving blood transfusions or blood products.. the risk to the baby from the mother refusing blood is considered low.. the human tissue act has a provision that minors may be given blood transfusions without parental consent, but it was edited in 1994 with the concept of a “mature minor” who could “make up their own mind”, the court was told on friday.. however, the child psychiatrist campbell paul told the hearing he did not believe the girl had the “decision-making capacity” to be considered as having “gillick competence” – a term used to describe whether a child can consent to their own medical treatment.. paul said the girl had “been through considerable disruption and trauma through her life” and had “transgressed a major value of her family and her community” by having pre-marital sex.. “you could imagine that she feels very frightened” and worried about “further punishment”, he said.. the obstetrician and gynaecologist jacqueline van dam told the court she was concerned about the girl’s “naivety” that if anything happened, “she would be protected by her faith”.. she said several strategies could be undertaken first in the case of haemorrhage, such as injecting a drug to limit bleeding or stitching the uterus.. the girl’s mother, who said she would not consent to the hospital administering blood to her daughter, told the court receiving a transfusion would have a significant impact on the girl’s wellbeing.. “being forced to have that done against her will would be something like having violence done to her or being raped,” she said in a statement read to the court.. “she wants to do the right thing by jehovah, by god.”.

justice cameron macaulay granted mercy hospital the authority to give the girl a transfusion if necessary as “a last resort” but only if they first used all other strategies to stop the bleeding and obtained authority from two doctors.. “i’m not satisfied that [the girl] has the maturity to understand the consequences of her choice,” he said.. “i do not consider that allowing her, in effect, to choose to die ... is in her best interests.” .

Anders Andersen

I guess this 17 year old minor is not married?

Given that no reference is made to her being a victim of (statutory) rape I guess her faith isn't so strong after all?

Is she trying to make up now by refusing blood?

Or are her parents putting the pressure on to save their faces in the congregation and before their vindictive bloodthirsty tribal god?