man it's good to be home, relaxed and de-stressing right now!
how many times today, i just wanted to say aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhh!!!!
at my circuit's one-day assembly.
[Blast! Another double post.]
A data point: I seem to recall that a couple of decades ago that the Christian Science group, stung by a three quarters drop in membership, decided to stop issuing detailed statistics. How many members will the WTBTS lose until their statistics are hidden from all outside Brooklyn?
man it's good to be home, relaxed and de-stressing right now!
how many times today, i just wanted to say aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhh!!!!
at my circuit's one-day assembly.
The remarkable decline in baptisms in all but the least Internet-connected countries is dark news indeed to the WTBTS. Note that some countries have had seven or more consecutive years of decline in baptisms. In others, the baptism decline may have been for fewer years, but is more pronounced. Only a few countries had an increase in baptisms and only three have had two years in a row of increases. Baptism counts are the real leading indicator as they show the effectiveness of the field service. And from looking at the graphs for the more developed countries, it's a safe bet that the number of baptisms is less than the number of JWs' children produced, and so the field service has effectively collapsed in many nations.
It is almost incredible that there are assemblies without baptisms. I assure all of you that this was unheard of back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Along with the closing of congregations due to lack of membership, a zero baptism assembly must be rather damaging to morale, at least for those who've been around long enough to remember how things used to be.
I see nothing that will stop the decline. And I think that the WTBTS also sees the handwriting on the wall and so they will continue to pepper the literature with statements like "numbers aren't everything". It will do little good.
When the numbers of total publishers and total congregations start their accelerated decline in a few more years, it is possible that the WTBTS might just stop reporting statistics.
hello again...now that i am officially a horrible, unrepentant sinner (in the eyes of a polyester slack wearing, mini van driving, anal retentive man whore), i have a question (actually several, but i will start with one!
) brace yourselves: it is about 1975!.
where in the wt was the "prophecy" made?
Sometime around 1972 Fred Franz, the WTBTS master chronologist, determined that his date of 1975 was off by a year and that the real date was 1974. According to the account written by Ray Franz in _Crisis of Conscience_, the governing body decided to suppress this because of the "unsettling effect" it would have on the brothers. So it never made it into the literature.
But, it did make it into the rumor mill as I heard about it back then from one of my gossip-loving JW relatives. It wasn't until about ten years later that I made the connection when I read _Crisis of Conscience_. I believe it was in the same chapter that the then WTBTS president Knorr expressed his doubts, not just about 1975, but also about 1914. Of course, if a rank and file JW did such, the judicial boot would soon follow.
Perhaps Knorr, like Rutherford before him, was feeling the end of life coming on and this had a bearing on his decisions. Had Knorr been diagnosed with terminal cancer at that time? Perhaps that made him a little doubtful on how things were going. This was different from Rutherford, also a terminal cancer victim, who probably was motivated by his condition in his last couple of years as he promoted the idea that World War II would end in the Big A and he would make it through.
When then president Fred Franz met his long delayed end in late 1992, I'm sure that the revisions to his precious 1914 generation doctrine started almost immediately thereafter. Maybe the plans were already in place, but were held up because of the opposition of Fred and his sycophants on the governing body.
So, expect more "new light" when Milton Henschel bites the dust or is eased out of active participation. With the organizational changes of last year, the latter may have already started.
years ago, when i first figured out the problems with the 607 chronology, i began to think that the society was mentioning the 7 times link to 1914 less and less in recent pubs.
after all, the knowledge book gave it less space than the live forever book, and the fluffy require brochure doesnt mention it all.
could it be, i wondered, that they are gradually phasing this teaching out?
Note how the WTBTS "apology" places the blame on all JWs and not where it belongs, the governing body.
Did any of the rank and file ever contribute dates, doctrine, or anything besides cash and slave labor to Brooklyn? Where any of the rank and file asked to sign approvals to the material coming out of the writing department? How many times were any of the rank and file invited to attend any doctrinal discussions of the governing body? What happens to any rank and file JW who publicly endorses any doctrine which is at odds with the current "light"?
The only thing the rank and file JWs can be blamed for is their uncritical acceptance of the bovine feces output by the WTBTS printing presses.
years ago, when i first figured out the problems with the 607 chronology, i began to think that the society was mentioning the 7 times link to 1914 less and less in recent pubs.
after all, the knowledge book gave it less space than the live forever book, and the fluffy require brochure doesnt mention it all.
could it be, i wondered, that they are gradually phasing this teaching out?
Yes, I believe that the WTBTS is once again engaged in the practice of "silent dropping". Instead of admitting an error in a doctrine, they slowly stop writing about the doctrine. This is particularly true for their chronological speculations.
Perhaps the final notice before officially dropping some teaching occurs whenever a new bible study book for potential converts is released. If a core belief is not mentioned, then for sure it will be revised as "new light" at the next assembly.
I'd be interested in reading the reference counts to other dates over the past twenty years. For example, how often is 1935 mentioned as the sealing date for the FDS? I think that one is going to be dropped soon. And how about 1919 as the date when the WTBTS was "chosen" as God's Only True Channel? And do they sill mention 4026 BC as the creation date?
I don't doubt that the WTBTS has an already established game plan for silently dropping all their chronological speculations. They're just spreading it out over time as a form of damage control.
Isn't it a bit odd that so much of the "new light" is given to "apostates" before it shows up in Brooklyn?
i came across this little tidbit on the united states postal rate commission web site: http://www.prc.gov/documents.asp?docid=26246.
they reference a legal brief ( http://www.prc.gov/docs/26/26246/watchtower-brief.pdf) filed by the wtbts where the brooklyn boys want their postal rates to stay as cheap as possible.
the brief is full of technical details, but there is one sentence of note early on in the document.
Please do not feed the troll.
i came across this little tidbit on the united states postal rate commission web site: http://www.prc.gov/documents.asp?docid=26246.
they reference a legal brief ( http://www.prc.gov/docs/26/26246/watchtower-brief.pdf) filed by the wtbts where the brooklyn boys want their postal rates to stay as cheap as possible.
the brief is full of technical details, but there is one sentence of note early on in the document.
I came across this little tidbit on the United States Postal Rate Commission web site: http://www.prc.gov/documents.asp?docid=26246
They reference a legal brief ( http://www.prc.gov/docs/26/26246/watchtower-brief.pdf) filed by the WTBTS where the Brooklyn Boys want their postal rates to stay as cheap as possible. The brief is full of technical details, but there is one sentence of note early on in the document. The WTBTS says "... our literature is distributed for free to all who wish to read it".
So if for some reason you want to get a subscription to the WT/Awake, the WTBTS can't refuse on the basis that you're not worthy. As long as you can convincingly demonstrate that you really do want to receive it(regardless of the reason), they have to send it. Else, they risk losing their bulk mailing permits and maybe have a charge of perjury as well.
well i did indeed learn something new from the public talk last sunday.
while drifting in and out of consciousness, hoping for time to quickly pass, i picked up on a very important point.
the words being spoken from the monotone bore machine at the podium had lulled me into a lethargic semi comatose state when all of a sudden one sentence cut through the fog like a hot knife cuts through butter.. he said "the moon is our closest planet".
Some minor points:
Earth radius: 6,400 Km
Moon radius: 1,700 Km
Earth volume: 1.1e+12 Km3
Moon volume: 2.1e+10 Km3
So the volume ratio is about 60 to 1. The mass ratio is slightly higher, about 80 to 1 due to the greater density of the Earth.
The Earth-Moon system is not a double planet because the center of mass of the system is always inside of the Earth.
The WTBTS should stay away from science.
if after all the years of being shunned by family , friends , would you forgive or forget them and all the misery they handed you, or maybe let them think about it for somtime before you talked to them again.
of course this can only happen freely if they left the org.
Of course I would forgive them. In fact, I forgave them long ago, although they still want nothing to do with me.
Think of the following citations:
"Forgive them, for they know not what they do."
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
"Forgive not seven times, but seven times seventy."
Forgiveness of organizations is a different story. The WTBTS would first have to print seven years of detailed apologies and then liquidate itself with the assets going to current and former members. I might consider forgiving them at that point. Maybe.
over a year ago i divorced my husband.
he is the son of an elder, was addicted to pornography, and started doing drugs before i called it quits.
since then, i have met someone else.
Guilt is a useless emotion. It is just a waste of time and does no one any good. In fact, feeling guilty eats up emotional energy that one could be using for much more constructive tasks. Feeling bad about past events is of no practical purpose, unless you happen to have a time machine that you can ride into the past and change things.
The sinister side of guilt is that it can be used by manipulative and controlling persons to force others' behavior. And guilt trips can be sponsored by organizations as well.
Why don't you ignore the WTBTS for a moment and take a look at your bible in the book of John starting at the last verse of chapter 7 and moving through the first part of chapter eight. Read what Jesus did and then ask yourself if he endorsed guilt trips when he said, "Go, and sin no more". Just the opposite, it seems to me.
