Simon

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Posts by Simon

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  14

  Do you find Watchtower as Looney as Jim Jones?

  by Foolednomore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  forbid the universe for the mass suicide of many.

  but with the no blood policy, the constant call to be loyal to the org no matter how looney it seems, just very dangerous to any normal thinking person.

  or just crazy stupidity?.

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  Simon

  Sounds like you were a real jinx to JWs in the area! LOL
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  48

  What is the harm or downside of being PIMO?

  by PimoElder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what is the harm or downside of being pimo?.

  i get all the good things about being in the cong, good social life lots of invites to bbqs and meals out.

  lots of interesting gossip 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

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  Simon

  Yes - there has been one person who must have signed up 50+ times. They are obviously mentally deranged, but can still work a computer.

  There's someone now busy creating accounts with all manner of names to insult me. They haven't noticed that new accounts that haven't been confirmed no longer appear in the users list. We're not dealing with the brightest of people after all, LOL

  I laugh when I think of the time they must spend doing it, and an automated script is just undoing all that effort!
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  14

  Do you find Watchtower as Looney as Jim Jones?

  by Foolednomore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  forbid the universe for the mass suicide of many.

  but with the no blood policy, the constant call to be loyal to the org no matter how looney it seems, just very dangerous to any normal thinking person.

  or just crazy stupidity?.

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• 

  Simon

  Simon, I don't know if you were a born-in JW or not.

  I was born in, 3rd generation.

  I don't doubt that there are many people who will blame all their woes on the WTS and some of those will of course be valid, but if we look at things objectively we have to also factor in the positives:

  There will be people alive who wouldn't be without the religion because it provided the community or crutch they needed.

  There will be people who didn't suffer from tainted blood transfusions.

  There will be people who didn't die from drugs or aids or whatever.

  The number of people in the general population who receive organ transplants is vanishingly small so the intersection of JWs needing them is likely infinitesimally tiny.

  I watched the testimony of a young woman the other day (pioneer sister) who told the tale of what happened to her when she tried to leave the org. Her parents took her to therapist after therapist trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Finally they took her to a JW Psychiatrist who prescribed her powerful anti-schizophrenia medication

  Anecdotes like this have me wondering the age of the girl and therefore whether it's poor life choices or bad parenting. The other examples sound like made-for-TV lives straight out of the Jerry Springer show. They are certainly not typical and nothing like the JWs I came across. They sound like inventions to push the "and then became a Christian" agenda. Do you really know them? What are their names, what cities do they live in? Or is it "I heard of someone once", because those things are rarely real - they are invented caricatures.

  Yes, the WTS has some influence, but at some point people have to take personal responsibility for their decisions, including whether to allow someone else to make them.

  I know some people don't like these kind of opinions, but "we have to blame the WTS for everything" is too simplistic, easy to debunk and then just makes all valid criticism look weak, like an obsessive ex trying to tell the world all manner of faults.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  Simon

  Even in the peak of the AAWA debacle, you couldn't drag an apology out of him.

  If he's pushed, he may start explaining the currency of apologies again and how they would be devalued if he issues more than one to his wife, who he's not sorry to either*

  *because when do you count them? after the first prostitute? the second? the third? ... the twentieth? Oh right, it's definitely totally sincere after the twentieth and not just because he got caught.
• 
  14

  Do you find Watchtower as Looney as Jim Jones?

  by Foolednomore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  forbid the universe for the mass suicide of many.

  but with the no blood policy, the constant call to be loyal to the org no matter how looney it seems, just very dangerous to any normal thinking person.

  or just crazy stupidity?.

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• 

  Simon

  But "convince people to drink poison" crazy? That's so immediate and direct.

  The WTS definitely has a strong influence on many and promotes being faithful to the point of death, but the death part is never intentionally sought out.

  But factoring in the volume of people they impact, they may well be worse (but then we're into small percentages of big numbers always produce those kinds of results).
• 
  14

  Do you find Watchtower as Looney as Jim Jones?

  by Foolednomore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  forbid the universe for the mass suicide of many.

  but with the no blood policy, the constant call to be loyal to the org no matter how looney it seems, just very dangerous to any normal thinking person.

  or just crazy stupidity?.

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• 

  Simon

  It's not as concentrated crazy or immediately dangerous, but all mainstream religions have some pretty mental ideas when you step back and think about it.

  I'm not sure you'll get agreement on how many may have died due to the WTS teachings, and whether it's a net loss of life vs those they help prevent.

  But the JWs are not at the same level of "cult" as what most people imagine a cult to be ("heavens gate" type).

  Maybe if we measured things in potential life-years lost, it would be more clear-cut - you don't have to have been killed to have years of your life taken away.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  Simon

  Can we get Judge Judy onto this one?

  I would love to see her laughing at his stupidity and being angry at his insolence.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  Simon

  I know how long renedering can take. Will get it later, but for now, trying to decipher it.

  It's more that the system resizes images so they are optimized for the screen / bandwidth. But that was way back when retina displays were less common or even a thing, so now it resizes them too small so things look blurry.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  Simon

  I'll fix the rendering when I get chance, in the meantime right-click on the image to copy the address and remove the ?s= part and it will be clearer,

  https://img.jehovahs-witness.com/image/11ec63053930c7c502ed0232e5fe6d24
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  Simon

  He's melting down in real time. This is not just a random occurrence, there always seems to be something behind it.

  Yeah, I get the impression that Lloyd isn't the type to deny himself anything, so he may well have upped his lifestyle and spending to match his income as he started "earning" more by soliciting Patreon funds. If that income has now taken a hit, maybe he's struggling to meet payments and needs to give some things up. Is the car going back Lloyd? That really would be "too bad, so sad".

  My prediction: more videos to "set things straight", more claims of being victimized, more claims of legal consequences, no actual action.