LongHairGal, I come to the same exact conclusion. It's another subtle way they corral Jehovah's Witnesses so they stay within their pasture. They make every effort to keep them from connecting with others in every imaginable context, school, work, travel abroad (gotta wear nametags so everyone knows you're a JW or weird as hell), online (don't play video games on XBOX live), etc. In and of itself the ban on holidays looks petty and misguided, but it's one piece in a larger puzzle that reveals the true faces of those building it. .
john.prestor
JoinedPosts by john.prestor
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14
What holidays are they talking about?
by carla inin the elders manual under apostasy,.
"1) celebrating false religious holidays: (ex.
32:4-6; jer.
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"No more than 40 years"
by dynamiterose77 inin another corner of the internet someone stated that witnesses are proclaiming that this system will be no more than 40 years now... that "gog of magog" will start the great tribulation.
can anyone confirm this latest "prediction"?.
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john.prestor
Never heard anything like that but I haven't set foot in a Kingdom Hall in 2 or 3 years now except for the odd Memorial. It's probably like that story I shared a few weeks ago about an Elder telling me the CO said 5 years to go, it's not official policy. Maybe somebody told them about Flodin's morning worship remark a year or two back, 'does that mean this old system will last until 2040?' and either heard it wrong to remembered it wrong and just went with the 40 part
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Only jw's .....
by carla in"(14) arranging for elders to visit or write a letter to addresses of households that have asked that no further visits be made.—see 23:21.".
what is so hard for them to understand that someone is requesting to be a 'do not call'?.
how does that conversation go?.
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john.prestor
It's like they pretend they don't get what the person wants when they ask for that.
Householder: Don't visit me anymore.
JW: Okay, we'll right you letters, happy to oblige.
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What holidays are they talking about?
by carla inin the elders manual under apostasy,.
"1) celebrating false religious holidays: (ex.
32:4-6; jer.
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john.prestor
From what I read and saw in the Bible Teach book as far as illustrations they single out Christmas (too ecumenical, too many chances to connect with your family and community) and Halloween (too 'spiritistic'). The others they dont seem to talk much about, but like truthlover123 said, that might vary by circuit or even hall.
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Interesting Find
by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara inscandal in malta.
by paul j. bonanno and kent steinhaug.
it was, and still is, a fact well advertised by jehovah's witnesses (hereafter referred to as jw) that every member who works in their general headquarters (which is located in brooklyn, new york, america), and their other worldwide offices, receives only room, board and a few dollars per month.
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john.prestor
I don't want to be too down on the man because everybody likes staying in a nice hotel now and then... But a man who criticizes others of his own faith for enjoying worldly luxuries, and then pulls something like that? Yeah, that's pretty rank hypocrisy. It's particularly bad when most Jehovah's Witnesses, at least in the United States, make below average income, and the Governing Body bears some responsibility for that since they encourage people to work part-time and not go to college. And I'm sure he didn't pay for his room by saving up his Bethel stipend like a kid dropping quarters into a piggy bank, I'm sure it came to him gratis out of 'voluntary donations' ( I can't get over that phrase, what else could they be, coerced donations?) to 'the worldwide work'.
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Legal concerns about: "picnics"
by Darth FayDehr in"congregation picnic"2.
"congregation gathering"3.
"spontaneous gathering of jws”.
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john.prestor
Who thinks about this kind of thing, like why would your mind even go there? I get it if it's congregation bungee jumping or congregation skydiving but just a routine social gathering in a park or something, what's going to happen there? You guys are right, it comes down to money and liability, something they think about more and more these days...
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Is Russia "right" about presecuting Jehovah's Witnesses?
by iliketreasure injehovah's witnesses are presecuted in russia.
on par with the is and other terroristic groups.
it happened when the anti-extremism laws were extended to non-violent groups.. i don't believe that russia actually cares for the well-being of their citizens with this move and probably merely a law to stop other political forces (and the jws are one in a way, since their gather authority over large groups of people and also have their own political and judicial institutiona), but are they right about it anyway?.
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john.prestor
I agree with Simon. People can and should believe what they want.
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Child Sexual Abuse: The Organization Oozes Self-Congratulations over Non-JWs Tireless Work
by steve2 inwow - the may watchtower study edition is out.
who could have anticipated entire watchtower study articles devoted to child sexual abuse?
an appreciative shout out to all the people who worked tirelessly over so very many, many years to call the organization to account over its defiantly self-serving policies and practices on responding top allegations of child sexual abuse.
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john.prestor
Exactly, we shouldn't give them any credit for some pictures they printed in a magazine until we see hard evidence they actually fixed the problems the ARC highlighted. Why include men at all in the preliminary investigation? Could be wrong, and by all means the victim should get to decide themselves, but I don't think most women want to talk about their sexual abuse with men. People don't like to talk about this stuff in general, its embarrassing and makes you remember things you don't want to remember. And from other reports I've read on this forum Elders sometimes ask questions that come across as voyeuristic at worst or invasive at best.
Point being: they need to listen to McClellan and Stewart, let women talk to female victims and determine whether someone indeed abused them (the vast majority of the time people who make allegations like that tell the truth, of course) let men decide the punishment (they really should allow women to be Elders but we know they won't budge on that one so there's no point insisting on it)
And finally, if anybody does have a copy of that letter sent to Australian congregations PM me
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2019 Elders Manual and a Whole Lot More!
by Atlantis insingle zipped folderhttps://we.tl/t-uiqj87wimd.
2019-02-02-musical preludeshttps://we.tl/t-zyfpnodizd.
s-21-e congregation's publisher record (2018-12).pdfhttps://we.tl/t-i9qamx3s0q.
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john.prestor
Atlantis, when I got ready to leave for work I saw that they released a new Shepherd, and when I got home after work just now, I found you already got us covered. You're the best, man
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"Straining the gnat, and gulping the camel"
by stuckinarut2 inwhile watching the annual meeting videos on the official jw channel, i was struck with this scriptural expression:.
"they strain out the gnat, while gulping the camel" matt 23:24. this section was full of condemnation for the wicked religious leaders who were focusing on minor silly things rather than deep important topics.. the amount of silly things the gb focuses on is amazing!
they pedantically focus on things like proper pronunciation of words, (such as s lett joking about how isiah is best said), while missing major issues and topics like the proper handling of child abuse issues, or the court cases being lost worldwide!.
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john.prestor
They're in their own little world, figuratively and literally.