Posts by FFGhost

3

JW version of Airbnb?

by FFGhost in

jw
friends

hey, has anybody else noticed this?.

https://brotravels.com.

seems to be, as my title indicates, an “airbnb” service for active jws.. nothing on the site explicitly limits users or listers to being active jws but given the name of the website and the high number of listings proclaiming their proximity to “bethel” and/or “world headquarters” it certainly seems all but certain.. the number of basic typos, misspellings, and just general awkwardness of phrasing makes me wonder if it is run by non-us jws or at least jws for whom english is not their first language.. the dates in the reviews seem to indicate the website has been around for the past couple of years, though today is the first i heard of it.. they also have a couple of tours listed, for paris and “bible lands”.. maybe it’s just me, but i get a kind of icky, weird vibe from the website.

FFGhost

Hey, has anybody else noticed this?

https://brotravels.com

Seems to be, as my title indicates, an “airbnb” service for active JWs.

Nothing on the site explicitly limits users or listers to being active JWs but given the name of the website and the high number of listings proclaiming their proximity to “Bethel” and/or “world headquarters” it certainly seems all but certain.

The number of basic typos, misspellings, and just general awkwardness of phrasing makes me wonder if it is run by non-US JWs or at least JWs for whom English is not their first language.

The dates in the reviews seem to indicate the website has been around for the past couple of years, though today is the first I heard of it.

They also have a couple of tours listed, for Paris and “Bible lands”.

Maybe it’s just me, but I get a kind of icky, weird vibe from the website. Seems really sketchy due to lack of much detail other than the listings - no “contact us”, no policy on how to get a refund if needed or what to do if the hosts don’t show up, problems during your stay, etc.

For me, it’s a “hard pass” 🙂

39

20250115**Ages For Ministerial Servants and Elders!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2025-01-15-ages for ministerial servants and elders.. see page 2. .

https://pdfupload.io/docs/1b0b5c00 .

https://imgbox.com/p3a9yjmr.

FFGhost

This is a thoroughly weird announcement.

i think the clue for its reason is in the last part, if someone is under those ages but already appointed, they can continue in their role.

My take:

I think with all the recent emphasis on involving young brothers, even unbaptized ones, in congregation activity, and the recent WT article on how a CO could be appointed “even in his mid 20s”…..I think some / many / a lot of congregations went completely overboard and started appointing 14 year old MS and 17 year old elders.

Someone “at the top” with a few remaining firing synapses realized how ridiculous it was to have teenagers giving marital counsel or child-rearing counsel or whatnot to people old enough to be their parents, or even grandparents. So they finally realized, after literally 5,6, 7 decades of repeatedly stating “the scriptures do not set a minimum age”, they decided they had to “go beyond the things written” and….set a minimum age.

That’s the only thing I can think of to prompt this abrupt and clumsily worded pronouncement.

It also occurred to me there might be some legal considerations as the reason for it, but if that were so it seems they wouldn’t allow those child MS and child elders to continue if already appointed.

22

Memory hole, international conspiracy, and the JW international network

by slimboyfat in

can anyone else who was around 15 to 20 years ago remember an odd story about jw missionaries being stopped at the swiss/italian border with american bonds worth billions of dollars in their possession?

because i can find little to no information about it anywhere online, yet at the time i am sure i recall it being reported by different mainstream news sources, including the bbc.

why do some news stories seem to disappear from the internet altogether?

FFGhost

Occam’s razor time.

Which seems more likely:

There Is a vast conspiracy involving billions of dollars and government bonds and fake JWs, and dozens of Fake-JW-trainers training fake JWs across the globe, and teams of data scrubbers who meticulously cleanse all web pages everywhere of any mention of JW involvement in smuggling billion dollar bonds across international borders….

or…

Some sloppy reporter got his facts wrong in the initial story, and JWs are so vanishingly insignificant in the grand scheme of things that it’s not even worthwhile to post a correction to those early stories?

22

Memory hole, international conspiracy, and the JW international network

by slimboyfat in

can anyone else who was around 15 to 20 years ago remember an odd story about jw missionaries being stopped at the swiss/italian border with american bonds worth billions of dollars in their possession?

because i can find little to no information about it anywhere online, yet at the time i am sure i recall it being reported by different mainstream news sources, including the bbc.

why do some news stories seem to disappear from the internet altogether?

FFGhost

How hard did you search?

Took me about 3 seconds to find this Wikipedia article:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiasso_financial_smuggling_case

No hint there of anything JW related.

Regarding the rest of the post, well, I guess anything is possible. But I would also speculate there would be better / more efficient ways to do “dirty work” than going through all the trouble of training fake JWs.

28

Norway didn't fall for it

by Jalisco in

la norvegia non è caduta nella trappola della torre di guardia di agosto.. https://files.accessjw.org/s/sdzfgcgk4bi48jb.

FFGhost

And let’s just suppose that the “written instructions” are, theoretically, softer now.

The decision to DF, er, remove, is still entirely left up to the whims, prejudices, and perceptions of the 3 guys on the committee anyway.

In every elders school I ever attended, there was always extensive instruction on “judicial matters”. Sometimes the message was “you guys aren’t DFing enough people”, other times it was “you are DFing too many people”, but ALWAYS the message was “you guys aren’t doing it right”.

I.e. elders are left up to their whims and fancy on who to DF or not. Who cares if the August 2024 WT says that “removing” a minor would be a very rare occurrence?

The guys with their boots on the ground, the local elders, are the ones that make the call. If they don’t like the kid, or don’t trust him, or don’t like/trust the parents, then they’ll “remove” him, just as it has always been.

The WTS has been thoroughly and systematically weeding out the elders who are concerned and caring, the ones left are either too overwhelmed to care, or are drunk on their own perceived power.

As I mentioned: they’ve only succeeded in guaranteeing a worse hodgepodge of “removal” decisions than before, for absolutely no gain.

28

Norway didn't fall for it

by Jalisco in

la norvegia non è caduta nella trappola della torre di guardia di agosto.. https://files.accessjw.org/s/sdzfgcgk4bi48jb.

FFGhost

Oh my, that’s just too perfectly rich.

WTS went to all that trouble, revising and re-revising the August WT, even delaying its release, with hundreds of hours of attorneys’ time furiously writing and rewriting to get it….just….so, to “thread the needle” so they can get their precious, precious money back and still keep on DFing, er, “removing” kids, and what happens?

It was all for nothing.

To try to rescue 1.5 million dollars, they muddled their policy, confused their adherents, and humiliated themselves. And FAILED.

Whatever happened to “whatever weapon formed against you will not succeed”?

Why, it’s almost enough to make me believe in a “Jehovah” who is mightily pi$$ed at them and is using “worldly” governments to teach them a lesson.

19

Did Tony Morris Get Sideways with His Bros.?

by Sea Breeze in

interesting video connects the dots.

.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ff1ibybfe4&t=205s&pp=2ahnazacaq%3d%3d.

FFGhost

It certainly is a reasonable conclusion about “connecting the dots” between TM’s dismissal and the flurry of significant changes.

I don’t so much buy the argument that the changes are “merely semantic”, however. This is a pretty seismic policy shift in how df-ing, er, “removal” will be done. As written, pretty much the only people who will ever be “removed” from this point forward are brazen apostates and those who really really REALLY want out.

What’s more interesting to me is the implication of how precarious the financial situation of the WTS must be.

Power is the cocaine of the WTS in general and the GB in particular. Power over their adherents’ lives. For a certain subset of humanity, control and power are far more desirable and pleasure-inducing than money, sex, drugs, glamour, fame….combined.

For them to give up what really is a significant chunk of that absolute control is noteworthy. And for what? 1.5 million dollars a year from a little Scandinavian country?

Are they really so economically fragile that the removal of 1.5 million dollars coerces them to loosen their grip on the one thing they crave more than anything else?

Maybe it’s not so much the actual 1.5 million, maybe it’s, as mentioned toward the end of the video, fear of other countries doing <something> for similar reasons. Maybe removing their tax exemptions?

But again, if your business model is fully dependent on “free government money” and/or “complete and total tax exemption”, such that you nearly completely decimate your primary control element over the flock (fear of being “removed”)…..it’s not much of a robust business model, is it?

How bad off are they, financially?

17

Creation, Not Evolution Best Explains Genetics

by Sea Breeze in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umnhg0a9dlu.

evolutionists can change their model, and invent stories whenever they want to accomodate data.

biblical literalists are stuck with just one model, one account, and are unable to change it.

FFGhost

Is this the same creation Com. That claims that noah took dinosaurs onto the ark?

LOL.

“You’re gonna need a bigger ark”

31

October Elder's Letter Delayed- Big Announcement at Annual Meeting

by Newly Enlightened in

https://youtu.be/93h5zpbil6k?si=ffatfxjuxmj_na9i.

FFGhost

You want to know what’s really weird?

Not only is the October s-147 form not posted yet….but the s-147s for July, August, and September have been removed from the jw hub.

They post the s-147 forms under a single heading, then have multiple files under the heading. They do them for 6 months at a time.

There’s headings for “January to June 2024”, “July to December 2023”, etc. but the one for “July to December 2024”, which was there a few weeks ago and held the announcement sheets previously posted for July, August, and September has been deleted.

I don’t ever recall them (a) not posting the s-147 so late and (b) removing the immediately previous forms.

It’s very strange. There doesn’t seem to have been anything “earth-shattering” at the meeting, so why pull old announcements and not post the new ones?

27

JWhub

by Mikejw in

i’m an elder who is pima, i’m amazed how much info is available to all elders.

you can see all private details of every member of the congregation.

i wonder how these sisters feel about their private details being available to these creepy elders?.

FFGhost

If anyone had any doubts this poster, and his 6 or 7 other aliases, is a troll, this topic should resolve it.

It is complete and utter BS that “all elders” can see “all private details” of “every member”.

Next step: 3 or 4 of those alias accounts will jump on this thread to tell me how wrong I am