Posts by NeverKnew

35

A question

by JeffT in

jw
friends

has anybody ever written bethel and just flat out asked for an accounting report on the society's finances?

we all keep batting around speculation about the wtbs and money, and actual information seems non-existent.

what would they do if somebody asked for a financial statement?

NeverKnew

Nonjwspouse surely that can't be all the money... Is it? There'd be a whole lot of celebration but they HAVE to be pulling in way more.

I hate tax stuff. That's why I have a preparer.

Does anyone know what that document is?

31

Couldn't take it anymore.

by Darkknight757 in

so i decided yesterday to give my wife's full disclosure.

not sure it was the best decision considering she holds very firmly to the resurrection hope so we can see our babies again.. anyways she is agreeable to begin a study to find a better truth.

where is a good place to go to get some good reliable biblical info on the web that we can consider together?.

NeverKnew

Depends on what you're looking for and its very important to know the difference. Google "word for word" (formal equivalence) and "thought for thought" (dynamic equivalence) Bibles.

The word for word translations that I prefer are the Holman Christian and ESV. They are both nice mixtures of word for word and thought for thought.

An interlinear is the best word for word but you end up missing the message through the translation.

Some paraphrased and thought for thought translations COULD come off as doctrinally biased if you've been a witness for long BUT I have had more than one Witness tell me that by reading these versions they realized that the info they were getting had to be in error and it made them do further research. The versions they read was the Good News Bible.

The NIV is a thought for thought translation

If it were me, I'd get the point of the scripture (forest) and then analyze the words (trees).

57

Despite a 'number' of similar projects being pulled, the Chelmsford Project will continue...

by NeverKnew in

jw
friends

this article suggests that there are projects being halted, but chelmsford isn't one of them.

can someone from the uk tell me if this article was written by a reputable and known publisher?

plans for huge jehovah's witnesses hq continues.

NeverKnew

Just clicked around a bit and it is a community based circulation whose police stations will either be closing or not accessible to the public soon. If the community is having financial problems, I'm sure there's a vested interest in this project continuing.

Committeechairman, you might be right. I wonder if a reduction in activity was noticed and this article written to address community concerns.

Nonetheless, a quote of interest from a "spokesman"

Spokesman Stephen Morris said: “In order to make best use of contributed funds, some construction projects worldwide will be delayed or cancelled.

57

Despite a 'number' of similar projects being pulled, the Chelmsford Project will continue...

by NeverKnew in

jw
friends

this article suggests that there are projects being halted, but chelmsford isn't one of them.

can someone from the uk tell me if this article was written by a reputable and known publisher?

plans for huge jehovah's witnesses hq continues.

NeverKnew

This article suggests that there ARE projects being halted, but Chelmsford isn't one of them.

Can someone from the UK tell me if this article was written by a reputable and known publisher?

Plans for huge Jehovah's Witnesses HQ continues

Brentwood Weekly News sounds like a small community paper.

61

Today's Special Day Assembly Expenses and the $10,499 Deficit. Silent Majority?

by Tenacious in

today i attended a one-day assembly in my hometown.

i knew when it came time to read the afternoon expenses that it would be an incredibly high and ridiculous amount that was nowhere near the real expenses for that day.

sure enough, after lunch came the announcement.

NeverKnew

Is it common practice to announce how much has been collected towards the end of the day? It'd be interesting to get counts of

Total Attendance

Number of Baptisms

Amount "Needed"

Amount collected by late afternoon

I've never been to one of these assemblies. I'm not a 'witness' - just an observer.

24

Judicial committee letter to elders

by Israel Ricky Gonzales in

warning: this is rather lengthy.

i thought i would post this information that i took with me to my judicial committee.

the elders promised that we would talk about everything that was bothering me, yet, we ended up talking about less than 10% of it.

NeverKnew

Maybe something in that 10% will stick to one of them one day.

47

Songs celebrating leaving the faith? Not being a puppet, mind controlled, living life, etc etc

by aley63 in

i am looking for some songs that are in ref to celebrating leaving, seeing the light, realizing what you were told wasnt right, being happy w your life, etc etc.

all those emotions about being controlled and repressed, being told what you can feel or think or how to live, blindly following the "brotherhood ".

NeverKnew

For some reason, I think of Jwism whenever I listen to some songs on Pink Floyd's "The Wall."

Sorry... probably not a good choice for celebrating. He was trying to escape his societal norms and requisites - that's what may be taking me there.

14

Need help on Resurrection

by Bella15 in

i hope all is well.

recently my uncle ( my mom's brother ) passed away, he was never a jw but evangelical christian all of his life, never accepting my moms teaching.

so my mom in facebook keeps on making references to other family members when her brother comes back in the resurrection and live in the paradise ...i thought that worldly people who is not jw will not going to be resurrected .... what is the current teaching on resurrection for nonjws?...

NeverKnew

Good question Bella!

Sounds like paradise will have imperfect people... Doesn't that make it an imperfect paradise? And does anyone know what scriptures are leveraged for this second chance program?

I'm a non-jw who communicates with quite a few jws so my questions are not rhetorical. They are real. I just want to know what landlines I'll step on if I bring this up.

30

What the hell, what's the deal with Summons for Jury Service?

by James Mixon in

jw
friends

i posted two years ago with the same subject.

every two years i receive a summons.

for jury duty.

NeverKnew

The absolute real reason?

They apply your permanent excusal to your record but, over periods of time records have to be updated as people move in to and out of the county. Some agencies just provide the counties with names and addresses with no associated unique identifiers that would tie your new record to your old record. Many counties find it easier and faster to just purge and replace the complete driver's plus voter's lists that they pull jurors names from with a new one and deal with the fallout of permanently excused people having to re-prove their illnesses rather than go through the pain of trying to compare records and make assumptions about who is who.

In my county there is an attempt to do this, but it's not always perfect. Our drivers agency provides us with the driver's license number which allows us to maintain reliable information on permanent excusals, but the voter list we get is just names and addresses. The most flack comes from females who have married and changed their last names. With no unique identifier, there's no way to tell that Peggy Smith who used to live at 123 Maple Avenue is now Peggy Jones who lives on Elm Street.

I could be wrong, but it sounds like your county deletes the old and starts over every couple of years.

33

Within one minute JW with trolley directs me to JW.org

by steve2 in

i live in relatively small seaside community (regional population around 45,000).

in my ten years here, i've had witnesses call on me perhaps twice (not special visits but during door-to-door).

whereas they once canvassed door-to-door much more frequently - and in larger size service groups - there is quite a decline in their door-knocking - at least in this region.. with the advent of the "trolley" work, their visibility has increased - but i'd estimate only marginally.

NeverKnew

Reminds me of a conversation I had with a JW a few months ago.

A day after my friend had returned from an assembly - all hyped up about the "encouraging" message, I asked, "Out of curiosity, how many people got baptized?"

To which he responded... "I think about 8."

I then asked, "How many people attended?"

"....mmm about 3,000."

I reached for my calculator, multiplied 3,000 x 5 hours x 52 weeks and said, "So at an average of say 5 hours a week, your collective efforts of three quarters of a million hours yielded 8 lives saved? My friend had 5 people baptized at her church of 250 people and they don't even do the door to door thing...."

To which he responded, "That's not what it's all about *Neverknew*... We just share the Bible with people." He knew he sounded like an idiot so I didn't bother asking him to elaborate. I'm hoping he does that math at every single convention.

So Steve2?... "That's not what it's all about" anymore. Sorry.

Because I approach JWs at every opportunity I have story upon story.