@ moshe
"... and getting car insurance with Geico!"
just a little tidbit from the congregation i attend..... the congregation has approximately 120 publishers.. well over 1000 magazines per month are picked up, not to mention all the books, brochures, and tracts that are picked up.. there was a "local needs" part on the service meeting recently, asking for more contributions.. it seems our congregation has averaged just about $300 per month contributions to the "worldwide work" over the past year.. .
assuming 1500 magazines / month, that's just 20 cents per magazine - and that completely ignores all other literature that is picked up.. the last price the magazines had, 20+ years ago, was 25 cents per issue.
with inflation that would have been about 50 cents each now.. just another sign of how severely the contriutions to the society are drying up..... .
@ moshe
"... and getting car insurance with Geico!"
so... i am coming to the conclusion that pretty much all of the doctrinal stuff that i have believed for 25/30 years is built on a house of cards and it's about to come crashing down.
question is what do i replace it with?.
my intellectual head says that that whole thing is junk and there is almost certainly no god at all.
Hi konceptual99
I agree that Dawkins has an agenda. Is there anybody who writes a book that doesn't have an agenda? Creationists (including the WTS) have their agenda, Dawkins and other evolutionists have theirs. The trick is to weed through it all and see what is supported by scientific evidence, and set aside the rest until the evidence is in one way or the other.
Another book I recommend is called Why Evolution is True by Jerry A Coyne. This book succinctly explores the best examples of evolutionary development. He's not condescending. He just shows the evidence. And while his agenda is clearly stated in the title, he meets the standard of the scientific method.
The WTS treatise called Creation is one of the most heinous examples of quoting scientific experts out of context - including Dawkins. A long-time member of JWN and an even older friend of mine, alanf, wrote an exposé of each quote that the WTS had in its list of references, and how each had - in a succession of deliberate acts of academic dishonesty - been taken out of context from the original scholarly work. That is one for the ages.
so... i am coming to the conclusion that pretty much all of the doctrinal stuff that i have believed for 25/30 years is built on a house of cards and it's about to come crashing down.
question is what do i replace it with?.
my intellectual head says that that whole thing is junk and there is almost certainly no god at all.
Try reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. He'll give you plenty of food for thought.
just a little tidbit from the congregation i attend..... the congregation has approximately 120 publishers.. well over 1000 magazines per month are picked up, not to mention all the books, brochures, and tracts that are picked up.. there was a "local needs" part on the service meeting recently, asking for more contributions.. it seems our congregation has averaged just about $300 per month contributions to the "worldwide work" over the past year.. .
assuming 1500 magazines / month, that's just 20 cents per magazine - and that completely ignores all other literature that is picked up.. the last price the magazines had, 20+ years ago, was 25 cents per issue.
with inflation that would have been about 50 cents each now.. just another sign of how severely the contriutions to the society are drying up..... .
nugget writes:
The elders actually made it a condition of appointment that brothers set up a direct debit for monthly contributions.
That's disgusting. What it means is that any @$$hole that wanted to be Presiding Overseer™ or whatever the hell they call it now, can basically just outbid the rest of them by making bigger Contributions™.
Sounds like simony, a move right out of the Borgias playbook.
if i write a book(scratch) about my life as a deaf jw since birth and ex jw, i would like to criticize few dubbies but i would not name them at all.
would i be free from libel lawsuit if i do not name them?
there are many details that i have never told you.
Some authors will create pseudonyms (aliases) for the people they describe rather than naming real names.
Some will change place names. Some will create composite characters that use the attributes of a few different people.
And quite a lot of them use a disclaimer that says something along the lines of "The names used in this work are pseudonyms and any resemblance to persons living or dead is unintentional" to cover their ass from a legal perspective.
You could also just call it a work of fiction. Then there's no fact-checking required.
i don't no why, but i tend to lurk more than i do post.
sometimes i feel like i don't have anything to worth while to talk about.
lol.
Congratulations!
I thought this was interesting:
My mom pulled out my baby book the other day and a good amount of my baby pictures were me dressed up at assemblies and gatherings and memorial events. I admit a strong part of me was like, "Wow, my baby isn't going to have that."
You'll find other occasions for photos of your baby. You don't need JW functions to enjoy being a parent. And your baby will be very fortunate lucky to be spared the drudgery of Circuit Assemblies™, District Conventions™ and the Memorial™.
Just be careful that your mom doesn't overstep her boundaries and use your baby to pad hours on her Field Service Report™. You are the mom and you decide on your child's religious education or lack thereof, not her.
as many of us are aware the wt society has done quite nicely in a material way for themselves.
the sales of properties of the former " bethel " in brooklyn amassed them millions of more $$$$ .
they have relocated into upstate new york and are building like wildmen.
Flipper
Every penny those crooks at the WTS "earned" was because of the generosity of anyone who donated money to them. In any other business venture, profits of that magnitude would be repaid to shareholders who invested in them. But not the WTS!! Oh, no, they come around with their hat in their hand, saying how the bad old system is depriving them of money having to defend child molesters etc, or having to defend the House-to-House™ work in courts all over the world, while at the same time taking a dump on people who are having to work two or three jobs in order to provide materially for their family!
It baffles me the rut they've dug for themselves - expecting their followers to be deprived of education that could earn them decent living wages, with extra to spare to support their own pocket padding World Wide Education Work™.
I have no regrets about being Materialistic™! I love having a roof over my head, clothes to wear and food on the table!! LOL Oh, and the pension, my savings, my car, my vacations, my hobbies! I don't have a speck of guilt over not sharing any of it with that money-grubbing bunch of fraudsters. Oh, and if my JW parents decide to write me out of their will and give my share to the WTS, it won't make or break me financially, so I don't really care what they do with their money. They're not going to manipulate me with it.
i just roll my eyes around when she said that to me.
the conversation went like this.
she asked me if i have been going to the meetings?
We all know you're nuts, and it has nothing to do with Leaving The Truth™.
thats what my soon to be exhusband just said to me.
i finally after 25 years of dealing with him and the jws and a litany of other shit, told him two weeks ago i want out.
he wrote me a letter this week and made a list of allllll the things he hates: about my beliefs, the fact that i left jehovah, broke my vows to god, my hobbies, celebrations, what i watch on tv, my parenting, keeping the kids out of the jws, not having any friends....and then said well i dont hate "you".
Hey sweetie! I've been wondering what you've been up to lately! It's nice to see you, though I'm sorry for the crap you're going through.
I had to laugh at him saying "I don't plan on staying single long".
Tell him you plan on working on yourself and building up your self esteem after being married to such a lousy excuse for a husband for such a long time. You have no plans on getting involved with anyone for a longgggggggggggg time. Ask him how long he can hold his dick breath waiting to be Scripturally Free To Remarry™. LMAO!!!
you!
i've been associated with several congregations, and the one thing which is common to them all is this - the preaching work is the foremost thing we are told to focus on.
(matt.
6:33 is always used to reinforce this direction).
I remember one lady who Studied™ for a couple of years, she was a single mom of three, and was on social assistance - didn't have a car. The JWs who Studied™ with her were happy to go out of their way to pick her and her kids up for Meetings™ and Field Service™, let her tag along to District Conventions™ and Circuit Assemblies™. The last ride she got from them was at the end of the District Convention™ when she got Baptized™. The next Meeting™ she was on her own as they had another Study™ to cart around.
This poor lady was like "They say they'll die for you, but they can't give you a f*cking drive to the Kingdom Hall."