Posts by FFGhost

Answering your question in general, I think it would be pretty hard to use a religion for money laundering. You could feed the "dirty money" in easily but how would you get the "clean money" out? Money tends to flow only one way for religious organizations, WTS included.

Real estate is the classic money laundering vehicle, though of course there are others.

That said, there are some pretty enterprising folks in the underworld. Perhaps someone more clever than I has figured out a way to do it.

30

Butchered pronunciation

by road to nowhere in

since it is my turn (wife) to have the assembly streamed they start with the music.. i have never in 70 years heard it called a "pree-lood".

twice, morning and afternoon..

FFGhost

Oh this is terrible, you guys are dredging up buried memories....

We had a guy, not very well educated, who at some point discovered that "permeate" is a real word.

He loved that word. Used it any and every chance he got. Jehovah's holy spirit permeates the universe, loves permeates the congregation, Satan's spirit permeates the world, etc. etc. etc.

Except.....somehow he learned the word as "PRE-meate".

And - he loved the word so much, not only would he use it every chance he got, he'd get this goofy grin and tilt his head to the side every time he said it.

Imagine listening to 45 minutes of this:

"And do, just as the spirit of the world PRE-meates (grin-tilt) the world, and Satan's spirit PRE-meates (tilt-grin) worldly people, Jehovah's spirit PRE-meates (tilt-grin) the congregation..."

Can you see why I'm brain-damaged?

30

Butchered pronunciation

by road to nowhere in

since it is my turn (wife) to have the assembly streamed they start with the music.. i have never in 70 years heard it called a "pree-lood".

twice, morning and afternoon..

FFGhost

Oh yeah, we had one could who would always say "Crishendum" instead of "Christendom". Drove me nuts.

11

Just wondering

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

can someone with dementia get disfellowshipped?.

FFGhost

Elders are supposed to take extenuating circumstances into account, and dementia would most definitely fit that.

I recall a DO (yes many years ago) explaining the "rule of thumb" was that if the person was capable of living independently, they would be "accountable" for DFing - can he hold a job? Care for his own personal hygiene? etc. If so, then he can face a judicial committee.

So regarding dementia, it would largely depend where on the spectrum of dementia the person fell. If mild, the person might well be considered "accountable". If farther along, probably not.

That said, the "quality" of elders varies wildly. Some are incredibly proud, or egotistical, or stupid, or on a power trip, or "all of the above". It's an absolute crapshoot which 3 elders end up on a committee - often it's whichever 3 have openings in their schedule for a particular evening or the 3 who most recently haven't "handled" any judicial cases.

So, it would not surprise me one scintilla if some, or many, judicial committees ended up DFing folks with more severe dementia, mental illness, brain damage, you name it.

30

Butchered pronunciation

by road to nowhere in

since it is my turn (wife) to have the assembly streamed they start with the music.. i have never in 70 years heard it called a "pree-lood".

twice, morning and afternoon..

FFGhost

One of my all-time favorites was when the heavy elder (in more ways than one) was reading for the book study. The lesson for the week was on Jeremiah and his secretary Baruch.

Baruch, based on the punctuation marks in the text and the way it is read on the WT website, is pronounced BEAR-uk.

This guy somehow got it into is head that it was Bear-OOK.

There were a few paragraphs where Baruch's name appeared 6 or 7 times. So it was a constant stream of Bear-OOK, Bear-OOK, Bear-OOK, Bear-OOK.....

So, now it's time for the conductor to ask the question on the paragraph, which, naturally enough, included the name Baruch.

What to do? If he pronounces it the right way, it will publicly "show up" Brother Heavyweight. And then he'll get a firm scolding after the meeting about the proper time and place to give counsel, "Don't you dare ever correct me in public ever again", etc. etc. etc.

Ugh, he thinks. So what does he do? He reads the question referring to Bear-OOK.

Now, the audience. Many / most folks know it's pronounced BEAR-uk, right? Right? Well, um, now two elders are pronouncing it Bear-OOK, they're more spiritual, they must know better, so here goes my comment: "Well, you see, Bear-OOK being Bear-OOK, Bear-OOK decided to...."

The whole #$%#%FF! night. Bear-OOK, Bear-OOK, Bear-OOK, Bear-OOK......

18

Watchtower January 2022 The Memorial

by Listener in

next years memorial article focuses on the two class system that they promote.. interestingly, they mention how the anointed are in two covenants.

the new covenant and the kingdom covenant.

they claim that both of these covenants opened up the way for a small number to become kings and priests in heaven.

FFGhost

I love these types of articles.

"All of those who who partake of the emblems nowadays are deluded fools or insane or emotionally disturbed. Except we 8 on the GB, of course, we're all perfectly normal."

12

Jesus is a horse?

by Diogenesister in

jgnat posted this in one of punky's posts.

third century.

why is jesus portrayed as a horse, does anyone know please?.

FFGhost

IIRC, it is 3rd century graffiti, intended as an insult to Christians. It shows the Christian God (Jesus) portrayed as a donkey nailed to a cross.

12

Watchtower More Important than the Scriptures

by Vanderhoven7 in

mack moore ex-jw recovery writes:.

yes, that is how they want people to esteem the magazine.

they believe it is the unique mouthpiece of god.

FFGhost

And the higher you go in the organization, the more they rely on "the organization".

Elders are taught to research what "the slave says" about a matter, rather than to do Bible research.

13

Can non JWs be witnesses in a committee meeting?

by mickbobcat in

i am not sure but i know where non jws have been brought in for a witness to a judicial meeting.

what is the official policy on this?

FFGhost

Non-JWs can be used as eyewitnesses to establish the "two witness" bit. But as noted above, it's as "witness for the prosecution" only.

The judicial committee is primarily there to cast judgment on the "genuineness" of the repentance of the accused, as if that were somehow possible.

EDIT: Just got to add, I would think that inviting a "worldly" person to a JW judicial committee would be the number one, absolutely fool-proof method to inoculate that "worldly person" from ever joining the JW nuthouse.