Posts by FFGhost

34

Hailstones?

by NotFormer in

jw
friends

when i was interested in things jw two decades or so ago, i never came across these mentions of hailstones.

it crops up so often now that it's almost a meme!

when did it become a thing in jw speak, and what does it refer to?.

FFGhost

It’s based on a (surprise!) weird interpretation on an out of context scripture from the book of Revelation.

Revelation 16:21 mentions “great hailstones” (weighing 45 pounds each) falling on people’s heads.

Official JW doctrine has it that these hailstones represent a “judgment message” that JWs will deliver in their door to door work just prior to Armageddon.

What’s that you say? The hailstones are mentioned as falling AFTER Armageddon, mentioned just 5 verses earlier?

Don’t bother me with details! The GB have thus decreed it! Who are YOU to question the spirit inspired ramblings of God’s only channel? Begone you sniveling worm!

Just as a side note, this “hailstone message” has a prominent part in this month’s JW Broadcast. It’s a little unusual, they seem to be implying that JWs will somehow start up this “hailstone message” very soon, even prior to the “great tribulation”. Which is kind of odd, since that would be a pretty significant change in doctrine.

Not sure if it’s just the usual “very soon now” fear mongering or if they are telegraphing a change in doctrine.

15

Annual meeting 2023....

by mikeflood in

any news?

it should be pretty soon....

FFGhost

Expect breathless, hyper-spastic spittle-flying announcements about their new “Make Disciples” brochure, the ones that have been sitting in those “top secret” unmarked boxes accumulating mold and bugs in Kingdom Halls over the past several months.

They’ll be falling all over themselves about how wonderful this “new tool” will be, and how millions more people will be thronging to join the ranks of JWs.

Because, of course, the plummeting yearly baptism figures have nothing to do with a tired 140 year old message of “the end of the world very soon now” and CSA scandals and human rights concerns over DFing and lack of enthusiasm from their adherents.

Nope, JWs rapid and precipitous drop in recruitment is entirely due to the lack of the 20th or 30th set of instructions on “how to make disciples”.

”Yeah, sure, our ministry hasn’t been effective for over half a century, but these 32 pages will make ALL the difference!”

And the mouth-breathing window washers and janitorial engineers who watch the program will leap with joy over this latest evidence that we are in the “last seconds of the last minutes of the last hours of the last days”.

My eyes already hurt from the extreme rolling they will have to do.

32

Do you play the LOTTERY?

by Fisherman in

jw view gambling as a sin and sadly people get addicted to gambling causing them financial and health problems.

but is playing a couple of bucks a week on some lottery tickets actually gambling?

what do you have to lose?

FFGhost

I heard another name for “lottery” is the “ignorance of the laws of probability tax”.

No, I don’t play

21

Aftermath of being Reinstated

by TxNVSue2023 in

i'm in the process of being reinstated ( my df'ing story is on here).

because i've never been in this position before, i don't know how i will be treated once i'm reinstated.

i moved to a new city/state and i don't know a single person here or in my new congregation i am attending.

FFGhost

It's a verbal legal contract

And in addition to the “verbal contract”, in some countries there is a literal piece of paper that is signed by each publisher, granting express rights for the congregation to maintain their records on you.

21

Aftermath of being Reinstated

by TxNVSue2023 in

i'm in the process of being reinstated ( my df'ing story is on here).

because i've never been in this position before, i don't know how i will be treated once i'm reinstated.

i moved to a new city/state and i don't know a single person here or in my new congregation i am attending.

FFGhost

Is that kind of record keeping legal under the various data protection acts?

In countries where data laws are more strict, JW congregations require their members to sign a legal waiver, allowing the congregation (and organization) to keep records on them. In theory, you have the right to refuse or,if you agreed, the right to see what they have stored on you. In practice, such an act would label you as a “troublemaker” and “not exemplary”, you’d likely be “soft shunned” until you behaved more like a good little compliant JW.

76

Is Tony Morris a Nonce / Pedophile

by MebyonKernow in

jw
friends

this has just been posted on youtube regarding tony morris and the reason why he was removed as a gb member and 'relocated'.is tony morris a pedophile / nonce?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ahj9vxygkelet me know your thoughts down below.celtic.

FFGhost

No idea if any of what she says is true.

But…

True or not, the WTS brought this on themselves by maintaining complete and total silence about TM’s dismissal.

Think about it - he was an enormously prominent member of the organization. As they transformed into a primarily-on-video system of instruction, he appeared on TV screens of millions of JWs 10-15 times a year for a decade, as well as being featured prominently in their video pieces of their latest “literature”. EVERYONE knew who he was, and felt like they knew him, as if he were an elder in their own congregation.

Then, poof! Like a puff of smoke, he’s just….gone. A brief cryptic note appears in a small corner of their website for 3 days then nothing. No one says anything, based on stories from Bethel, no one is ALLOWED to say anything.

Of course, finally, JWs notice he doesn’t appear on the broadcasts anymore. Of course JWs remember “hey, didn’t that video used to have Morris in it? Now it’s Bingo, er, Fleagle”. Of course JWs, after decades of implicit instruction on whispering innuendo on people who “suddenly disappear”, speculate on what really happened.

And in the absence of even a hint of the slightest explanation, there is this massive vacuum.

No wonder any semi-plausible explanation is gobbled up and repeated and spread all around.

Maybe the allegations are true, maybe they aren’t. But in any case, the organization brought this on themselves. It’s a massive self-own.

Any competent “worldly” organization would have been aware of what would happen and would have been way out ahead of all this and would have put out something to quell the speculation. But they did nothing.

They’re either utterly incompetent, or they decided to mercilessly throw TM under the bus. Either way it’s a really bad look for them.

11

The Watchtower—Study Edition | July 2023

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

study article 31.

“be steadfast, immovable”.

11 at times, we might reason that the direction jehovah gives us is not sufficient.

FFGhost

LOL.

You want to know something in WT-world that “go beyond the things written”?

How about:

— the whole “judicial” process: committees of 3 elders, appeals committees, public reproof, private reproof, restrictions, reinstatements, etc. etc. etc.

— LDCs, RDCs, RTOs, Bethel complexes, Branch offices, etc. etc. etc.

— Blood fractions (utterly wrong and deserving of death if you take them) vs. blood components (perfectly fine, no problem whatsoever)….or do I have that reversed? Where is it “written” what the difference is between a “fraction” and a “component”?

— This type of porn will get you DFed but not that type of porn

— “special” privileges: pioneers, special pioneers, full time service, special full time service, etc etc. etc.

I could go on but you get the point.

77

Disfellowshipped for Fornication

by TxNVSue2023 in

hi i want to tell my story and get advice.

i'm a single sister ( in usa) that has been baptized for 20 years.

i came from the world, so did not grow up in the truth and i have no family in the truth -- i am alone.. last year i met a brother & we did have premarital sex while we were dating.

FFGhost

What Blues Brother said. It is an absolute crap shoot, what might happen.

The identical case with the identical words could be heard by 100 judicial committees and the outcome would be 50/50.

Putting it another way, “anyone can be disfellowshipped for anything that 3 elders agree on”.

You are presenting sound, rational arguments for why your outcome could have been different. But a judicial committee is neither sound nor rational. In the “best case scenario”, it’s 3 guys in a room trying their best to interpret intentionally vague instructions on how to judge if someone’s repentance is “genuine”.

In the worst case scenario, it’s 3 guys who are out to “get you” or “make an example of you” and you’ll be DF’ed no matter what.

in short, it is a completely irrational and arbitrary process. You can argue about how it should have been different or “they should have done it differently” but in the end, it’s the opinion of 3 guys.

13

New musical video on jw.org / humour or sad??

by Gorb in

jw
friends

today i discovered the musical highlight of jehovah's witnesses, recently added to jw.org.

we had "from house to house, from door to door", but this song will be more famous!

https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=e&docid=1014316&srcid=share.

FFGhost

If the WTS ever had a “jump the shark” moment, it was surely the “singing literature cart”.

What idiot ever thought that it be even a remotely good idea?

19

Why are aqwsed12345 post`s so long ?

by smiddy3 in

jw
friends

there is no way i will even try to read such long posts and i`m sure many others here would agree with me.. smiddy3.

FFGhost

I always got the impression that they are just copy-paste from some pro-Roman-Catholic source, an encyclopedia or some such. Maybe a few personal comments interspersed here and there.