americans are so emotionally demonstrative.
this ain't no criticism folks, it's just an observation.. take a peek at gently ferals story about the xmas tree, lovely stuff but zilch response from us hard-hearted brits.
oozy stuff from the us!.
There's nothing funnier, in my humble opinion, than dry British wit.
And as a Canadian, I do appreciate that you know how to spell properly.
Merry Christmas!
and <HUGS>
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
the public talk speaker today said that some countries like the us are no longer in the harvest work but are now in the gleaning work.
hmmm.
sounds like a creative way to rationalize the lack of increase.. eby
eby writes:
The Public Talk speaker today said that some countries like the US are no longer in the harvest work but are now in the gleaning work. Hmmm. Sounds like a creative way to rationalize the lack of increase.
Main Entry: glean
Pronunciation: 'glEn
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English glenen, from Middle French glener, from Late Latin glennare, of Celtic origin; akin to Old Irish doglenn he selects
Date: 14th century
intransitive senses
1 : to gather grain or other produce left by reapers
2 : to gather information or material bit by bit
transitive senses
Main Entry: [2]harvest
Date: 15th century
transitive senses
1 a : to gather in (a crop) : REAP b : to gather, catch, hunt, or kill (as salmon, oysters, or deer) for human use, sport, or population control c : to remove or extract (as living cells, tissues, or organs) from culture or a living or recently deceased body especially for transplanting
2 a : to accumulate a store of <has now harvested this new generation's scholarly labors —M. J. Wiener> b : to win by achievement <the team harvested several awards>
intransitive senses
: to gather in a crop especially for food
Interesting. Both words refer to "gathering". But "harvesting" is a large scale operation of the main gathering-in of a crop; while "gleaning" refers to picking over the left-overs.
I'm sure that will be SO encouraging to someone who's just been "gleaned" in. "We'll take you because you're all that's left. All the good ones have been 'harvested in' already."
Rather appropos, really, considering they're feeding on unappetizing, warmed-again, left-over doctrines being served at the table of Jehovah.
hee hee I've been known to refer to it as the 'hog slop trough of Jehovah' in the past..... I guess this isn't too far from the truth now, is it? <eg>
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
this is a spin-off to scully's stunning account of mistreatment at the hands of jw elders.. scully was refused the emblems at a memorial celebration.
this happened once to me also, just after my father had died.
stupidly, my wife and i agreed to accompany my mother to a memorial.
This is a spin-off to Scully's stunning account of mistreatment at the hands of JW elders.Scully was refused the emblems at a Memorial celebration. This happened once to me also, just after my Father had died. Stupidly, my wife and I agreed to accompany my Mother to a Memorial. When the emblems came along, the server whisked them away from the person on my left and handed them to my wife, who was sat on my right. Twice. Now, leaving the personal experience to one side, I find myself asking the same question as I did back then:
Is it WTBTS policy to choose who can or can not be offered the emblems?
I can't find any reference to this policy anywhere, are there any ex-elders out there who can enlighten me as to whether this is approved policy? Or is it just the individual congregations who set about limiting a persons choice of partaking of the emblems by physically preventing a person from so doing?
Thanks for addressing the topic here, E-man. I do love your posts!
The 'rationale' that was used when the incident occurred was first of all that they were afraid that the baby would grab at the Emblems and cause them to spill. However, when I countered with the thought that surely, as the child's mother, I could have ascertained whether that was even a remote possibility...... I had been standing at the back of the auditorium with the baby perched on my left hip, leaving my right hand free to accept and pass the Emblems; my reach extends about 60cm from my shoulder, obviously the baby could not have reached an emblem unless I permitted her to do so. They flapped their gums on that for a bit and then made reference to my medical condition and being unsure of whether or not I would partake. "Then why didn't you approach me during the 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting and ask me what my intentions were?" Their non-response was to the effect that "well, since you weren't planning on partaking, it's not such a big deal then, is it, whether you passed them or not." Before I walked away, I said "When it appears that the congregation that CLAIMS to represent Jehovah has decided that someone is unworthy to pass those Emblems, YES IT IS A BIG FUCKING DEAL". I said that. To two elders. In a Kingdom Hall. I'm so proud of myself.
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
why jehovah's witnesses are the "happiest people on earth".
thus spake homer simpson:.
"those germans!!
Erich writes:
Do the Math Erich. 6 million JWs. 6 billion inhabitants on planet earth. JWs are 0.1% of the earth's population. The other 99.9% are not, and according to your beliefs, must be destroyed at ArmageddonSorry, no biblical statement or message supports this view.
Hate to burst your bubble Erich, but here is what the WTS says:
*** Apr 1, 1986 Watchtower ***
Questions from ReadersApproved association with Jehovah's Witnesses requires accepting the entire range of the true teachings of the Bible, including those Scriptural beliefs unique to Jehovah's Witnesses.
*** Nov 15, 1952 Watchtower ***
We are not living today among theocratic nations where such members of our fleshly family relationship could be exterminated for apostasy from God and his theocratic organization, as was possible and was ordered in the nation of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai and in the land of Palestine. "Thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw thee away from Jehovah thy God, . . . And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee."-Deut. 13:6-11, AS.
Being limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ, we can take action against apostates only to a certain extent, that is, consistent with both sets of laws. The law of the land and God's law through Christ forbid us to kill apostates, even though they be members of our own flesh-and-blood family relationship.
In other words, if they could "execute" us, they would!!
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
when i was twenty or so years younger, i should have.
gotten a clue as to how cheap this organization is,.
when a member of the governing body told us that our.
When I still lived at home with my parents, my father was a Ministerial Servant for the congregation and was in charge of the congregation's accounts.
On occasion, he asked me to type reports for him, and when I asked him to show me how to balance my cheque-book, when I first had one, he used the congregation's account to show me how it was done.
The income wasn't that great from the congregation's contribution boxes, it wasn't even enough to cover the expenses, much less send a contribution to the Branch Office.
I was curious as to how the situation rectified itself, as it seemed that whenever the Accounts Report was read to the congregation, there always seemed to be enough. My father swore me to secrecy, especially to my mother, and then confided to me that when the contributions were low, he would make a loan/donation to the congregation to make up the difference. Since my dad handled all the family's finances, my mother had no idea that he was doing it.
I suspect that over the course of the years, he bailed the congregation out like this many, many times. Not that we were affluent and could afford to bail out the congregation, quite to the contrary! But he was more concerned with the congregation looking solvent on paper than he was with making sure his children weren't wearing hand-me-down clothes and shoes.
Did this happen anywhere else??
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
lets see what is the difference between a bethalite and a publisher?.
when working in bethal you are considered to be a pioneer.. that means in bethal you can do carpentry , cleaning , cooking , painting ,washing clothes , ironing sorting out bills and accounts and many other jobs and be considered a pioneer and spiritualy strong.. you can even miss meetings do no ministry in the week and still be spiritualy strong.. if extra work is needed to be done you can miss meetings to do it and still be considered a pioneer and spiritually strong.. if you are a publisher and spend all week doing house work , decorating your house sorting bills out a miss a meeting or don't go on the ministry you are spiritually weak.. the elders will be concerned at your lack of spiritual goals and you may become an iregular publisher or even inactive.. of course the publisher has the advantage of having to do all his/her menial tasks after working full time to pay the bills.. i wish i could be spiritually strong like those bethalites.. of course as a publisher if i had a house kept as well as bethal employing all those extra workers to do so i would be considered materialistic, but the governing body can do that and still be considered spritualy strong.. of course there are no class distinctions with jehovahs witnesses all are equal just some more than others.
I always thought it was "odd" the way pioneers could count their time while volunteering at assemblies, but normal publishers could not. More often than not the pioneers worked for themselves and "scheduled" their work around the assemblies while Joe and Jane Publisher sacrificed vacation time or had to haggle with their employers so they could take time off for assemblies. I remember how the crowds would applaud when they heard that someone stood up for their faith by walking away from a job just so they could attend the assembly. It was that important!!
Gawd it makes me nauseated to think of the stupidity and hypocrisy in that organization!!
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
why jehovah's witnesses are the "happiest people on earth".
thus spake homer simpson:.
"those germans!!
Erich:
Please do not throw all JW's into the same pot.I am JW more than 16 yrs and I never have felt "Schadenfreude" regarding those people not surviving armageddon... Most of my friends too. We do not believe that 99,9% of all people will die. Nonsense. Totally.
JW's shall be bootstraps-follower of Jesus Christ. As you surely know, Jesus never had felt Schadenfreude during his whole life (in contrary, he wept about Jerusalem's fall); but his enemies though!
You are disregarding the facts though, that the Watchtower Society commands Jehovah's Witnesses to feel happy, joyful, glad, delight at the thought of all earth's wickedness being wiped out. That, my friend, is Schadenfreude that bears the Watchtower seal of approval.
Do the Math Erich. 6 million JWs. 6 billion inhabitants on planet earth. JWs are 0.1% of the earth's population. The other 99.9% are not, and according to your beliefs, must be destroyed at Armageddon.
I agree with you that Jesus wept over the fall of Jerusalem. I agree with you about his compassion and love for others. I also agree with you that many JWs do their level best to avoid feelings of Schadenfreude. However, in examining the publications, how can one NOT come to the conclusion that the Watchtower Society endorses Schadenfreude as an appropriate emotion for their followers to indulge in?? And why would a "boot straps follower of Jesus Christ" want anything to do with an Organization which promoted and endorsed the emotion of Schadenfreude the way the Watchtower Society does??
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
why jehovah's witnesses are the "happiest people on earth".
thus spake homer simpson:.
"those germans!!
gambler asked:
What is the correct pronunciation of that german word?
Merriam-Webster has an audio utility so you can hear the correct pronunciation of a word. The best I can offer otherwise is this:
shah-DEN-froy-DEH (unless of course you want to make a long distance call to Canada )
the Merriam-Webster audio pronunciation is at this URL:
http://aolsvc.merriam-webster.aol.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?schade01.wav=schadenfreude
Hopefully it works outside the AOL environment!
HairyHarr:
Yes I am female. Please be more careful when you shave!
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
i thought jw's weren't supposed to deal with anything christmasy.
so why is there a santa claus poppin up at the top of the site?
with snow & holly in addition?
and would somebody please explain what the Christmas tree and related paraphernalia is doing on the main www.watchtower.org site??? Shouldn't they be setting a better example??
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
if there is one thing that i think that i have learn't this year, it is that people really do not give a shit about you, unless there is something in it for them to gain.
family?
they don't give a shit, they say they do, but when it comes to any real communication about feelings, you just get told to shut up, go away, not needed, useless, liar, your just making it up etc etc.. my old faith, jehovahs witnesses, do they care?
Mark,
This is a tough time of year for many people, and those of us going through the ringer right now understand the feelings of futility that you expressed so eloquently here.
We have been kicked around by the JWs' rules and heirarchy, and basically we've discovered that they aren't much different than other religions. People are people, and organizations are unable to mandate kindness and caring in their members; it's far easier to make spitefulness and hatefulness the rule as many people will jump on the bandwagon to be mean once they have permission to do so..... but to be kind to people??? BAH HUMBUG.... that's for sissies!!
Well, I for one, do appreciate the kind of person you are Mark. Your thoughtful posts here and your concern for others in the chat room were one of the first things I noticed when I started lurking here just shy of two months ago. I was impressed, and I daresay I would feel a sense of loss if you disappeared from this little corner of cyberspace.
Caring is a tough thing to do when it seems that nobody appreciates it, or even bothers to care in return. In my job as a nurse, it's what I do, and sometimes it can be so draining that I'd just as soon be at home in bed with a good book instead. It's important to take care of yourself Mark. If you have a basket of apples and give them all away, there's nothing left for you.... so take some time and let other people share their apples with you!! Take a break, do something that's just for you for a change, and do not apologize for it!
For what it's worth, I do feel for you and care about what you're going through. I wish I could do more.
Love, Scully
