FFGhost

Joined

• started 13 topics
• posted 725 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by FFGhost

• 
  41

  KH's Still All Closed- How Bad is WT doing Financially?

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  most churches are back to in-person worship.

  not jehovah's witnesses.

  is watchtower still managing to fleece the flocks as the sheeple no longer get literature, no longer go to the kh, no longer walk past the donation box?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  It's tough for them to figure out, I'm sure.

  On the one hand, with Kingdom Hall expenses at near or absolute 0, virtually all contributions to the local congregation end up being forwarded to the WTS instead of going toward electricity, water, etc.

  On the other hand, without in-person meetings, it is much harder to maintain control over the flock.

  On the 3rd hand, contributing via the website makes it extraordinarily easy - you can even set up recurring payments.

  On the 4th hand, old-timers, the ones who tended to contribute the most, are more likely to be technophobic and not want to "send money over that danged interweb or watchamacallit". Such folks were far more likely to drop cash in the box at the KH.

  Which do they value more - money or control? I'm sure it's a question they continue to wrestle with.
• 
  34

  What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was younger we had song books and i recall that some of the songs were pretty catchy.

  then they revised it took some of those songs out, and added more.

  i have to admit some songs were pretty good.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  old and antiquated words in the songs

  Our calls for succor he quickly will hear (see earlier post)

  Even though mendacious men the truth deny, we know it's impossible for God to lie
  

  I also "enjoyed" the Yoda-speak they used, to force the rhymes to work.

  Remember this beauty from "Shulamite Remnant"?

  Exclusive devotion, no gold can it hire,

  Since blazings of love are like blazings of fire.

  Unyielding as Sheol all true love will be.

  Like flame of Jehovah is your love for me

  "Tortured renderings" is an insult to the word "tortured".

  My apologies for producing the ear-worms.
• 
  34

  What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was younger we had song books and i recall that some of the songs were pretty catchy.

  then they revised it took some of those songs out, and added more.

  i have to admit some songs were pretty good.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  Does anybody remember that song, can't remember the title, maybe it was something like "Praise Jah" or "Praise Jah With Me?"

  There was a line in that song, something about calling to Jehovah for help in times of distress.

  The line, as I recall, was this:

  "Our calls for succor, he quickly will hear"

  "Succor" being a rather obsolete word for "assistance in times of distress". Probably Karl Klein (mentioned earlier in this thread) was quite proud of himself for finding a two-syllable word that fit the meter.

  Anyway.

  So, in English, "succor" when spoken is indistinguishable from "sucker", which means "one who sucks" and "sucks" is one of those almost-but-not-quite dirty words that "good" JWs don't use.

  And of course in modern times, if you hear the word pronounced [suk-er], 999 times out of a thousand someone will think "sucker" not "succor".

  The horror! What is a good JW to do? Can't be singing about "suckers" to Jehovah!

  So, when that line was reached in the song, it sounded something like this:

  80 decibels: "Our calls for...."

  40 decibels: "Su - mumblety mumble - er"

  80 decibels: "...he quickly will hear"

  It was a source of never-ending amusement to my teenaged brain. Hey, when you're stuck in the Kingdom Hall for 2 + hours and would rather be watching "Happy Days" or "Welcome Back Kotter", you look for enjoyment wherever you can find it.
• 
  4

  Set Free in the Seventh Year.

  by S0ShowdidIgethere in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  someone else posted a tid bit if this weeks meeting...but here's my favorite part... .

  so...deuteronomy...jehovah cares for the poor...those with no inheritance get help...debts are forgiven...and then!.

  deuteronomy 15:12-14:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  How about automatic reinstatement every 7 years after being DF'ed?

  Imagine if, say, year 7 ended up being 2028....how much fun would naughty JWs have in 2027?
• 
  34

  What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was younger we had song books and i recall that some of the songs were pretty catchy.

  then they revised it took some of those songs out, and added more.

  i have to admit some songs were pretty good.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  The music was terrible.....'Laaaaaaaaaaazarussssssss lay sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping.....'

  A long time ago in a Kingdom Hall far far away....

  Remember when many if not most Kingdom Halls had pianos in them? Someone would play the piano for the songs before & after each meeting.

  For some long-forgotten reason, for a time in our Kingdom Hall, we had, not a piano, but an honest-to-god organ.

  Trouble was only one person in the congregation knew how to play it.

  One night she wasn't at the meeting. What to do?

  "Hey", some genius elder thought. "Let's get X, the teenaged kid who is taking piano lessons, to play the organ. A keyboard is a keyboard, right? What could go wrong?"

  So, teenaged brother X started into it. The song of course was this one, "Laaaaaazarus lay sleeeeeeping...."

  He got through maybe 3 or 4 stanzas before it turned into unrecognizable honking screeches.

  Deep in that teenaged brain, he remembered what his piano instructor told him: "If you make a mistake, start over and do it right, from the beginning."

  So, here's how it worked out:

  "Laaaaaaazarus lay sleeee-" sour note. Stop.

  "Laaaazarus lay sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeping, in -" Sour note. Stop.

  "Laaaaaazarus -" Sour note. Stop.

  "Laaaaa-" sour note. Stop.

  This went for what seemed like 5 minutes. Evidently someone put a stop to the travesty, since I am not currently still sitting in that Kingdom Hall trying to sing to the screeching organ.

  Not long after that, as I recall, we started using the vinyl records to provide the music to sing along to.
• 
  34

  What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was younger we had song books and i recall that some of the songs were pretty catchy.

  then they revised it took some of those songs out, and added more.

  i have to admit some songs were pretty good.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  For the old-timers, one of my favorite Farkel threads:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6456/my-epiphany

  Their “songs of praise” suck worse than any other songs in the entire universe. Even the songs of cats tearing each other’s eyes out while in heat are more melodious (and have better lyrics for that matter) than dub songs.
  Why would Jehovah God, the Sovereign of the Universe, hand-pick as his ONE AND ONLY true and righteous organization, a group that writes the WORST melodies and the WORST lyrics possible: melodies that are designed to either bring on a screaming migraine headache, or if one is lucky, lull one to sink into a deep coma? Well, WOULD He?

  This pretty much says it all.
• 
  9

  Just another failed prophecy ...

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so, i was going through some consolation magazines of 1939, and found this absolute prediction by rutherford:.

  only 8 years later .....

  oooooopssss......!!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  Oopsie!
• 
  29

  The bus stop analogy

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  suppose we were naïve observers, given the following data, and asked to draw a conclusion.

  we see people gather at a busy bus stop several times a day.

  at first one person, then another, and another, until they form a group.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  then they test the hypothesis and soon find out it fails when busses stop even when no people are there.

  Except....in every bus I've ever ridden, if there is no one waiting at the stop, the bus doesn't stop.

  Why would a bus pull over and stop when there is no one there?

  Now let's add in the complication of people requesting to exit the bus when someone signals from inside the bus....
  
  
• 
  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  Sadly true.

  "The graveyard of empires".
• 
  50

  What would happen if the Watchtower decided no more meeting at Kingdom Halls, only Zoom?

  by pistolpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i’m seeing my hard core believing relatives slowly losing faith that the watchtower is the organization that “god” is using to represent him on earth.. just about all the churches in their area have opened up.. but not the watchtower.. this is having an affect on the faith of even the old timers.

  now the only ones who are still holding the faith are the female jws and only those past 70 years of age.

  even my old male jw relative past 70 are starting to say that it can’t be jehovah’s organization because the other churches are all open and god supposed organization who is supposed to preach the warning message is still closed with no open in sight.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  FFGhost

  My best guess is Zoom for the "midweek" meetings and "in person" on the weekends.

  It's going to be a bear for them to try to get the R&F motivated to get back to door to door though. It's well over a year since it's been done and I'd bet it wouldn't start up again for at least another year.

  After 2-3 years of writing letters in your pajamas on Saturday morning, how are they going to get folks to wake up early, get dressed, travel to the KH, walk around in extreme heat or cold, and knock on the doors of houses that are 90% empty?

  There will always be the zealots and the ones who will grudgingly do so out of fear of losing their meager "privileges", but for Joe & Suzy Average Publisher, who have no such incentive? It's going to be harder than they (the GB) can imagine.