TonusOH

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Posts by TonusOH

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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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  TonusOH

  So the reward for remaining a diehard supporter is that he squeezes you for more cash?
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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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  TonusOH

  I assume he is rebuilding the list of goals.
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  18

  The use of "Stumbled" as a Control Technique.

  by Phizzy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i thought about this when i read the expression in another thread, "someone was stumbled", they would never tell you who the person was, and simply used it to control you, or it got worse, some times it was "you might stumble someone" .. who were these stumbling loons of which they spoke ?

  not only was it a control mechanism, it encouraged you to not be your real self, ever.. i liked the response of one of my jw relatives to this, where they expected him to change the person he was, he said "these people accusing me are not perfect are they ?

  no, well then, they cannot expect perfection from me".

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  TonusOH

  I think a lot of these ideas begin organically, and some are further refined when they realize how useful they are. It'd be interesting to learn when they started focusing on the concept of causing others to stumble. The WTS will print a lot of articles on a subject and mention it repeatedly in a short time frame to get the idea across. I wonder if they did that with this.
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  18

  The use of "Stumbled" as a Control Technique.

  by Phizzy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i thought about this when i read the expression in another thread, "someone was stumbled", they would never tell you who the person was, and simply used it to control you, or it got worse, some times it was "you might stumble someone" .. who were these stumbling loons of which they spoke ?

  not only was it a control mechanism, it encouraged you to not be your real self, ever.. i liked the response of one of my jw relatives to this, where they expected him to change the person he was, he said "these people accusing me are not perfect are they ?

  no, well then, they cannot expect perfection from me".

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  TonusOH

  It is intended to keep you in line by making you paranoid- you are supposed to be terrified that your actions might cause another to go astray, and Jehovah will call you to account for it. In other words, you must be a good JW at all times, even when no one in authority is watching.

  Turning our conscience against us is an old tool of religion, and has been refined by high-control cults like the JWs. As a JW, you are working to save yourself, and you are working to save everyone else. And God is watching closely.
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  42

  WT Ruining Members' Futures

  by HiddlesWife in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what i mean by the title of this thread is what has happened to a relative of mine, one who is really upset about this factor:.

  this relative is a distant cousin on my mother's side of the family.

  she studied as a child and got baptized at 14 1/2 years old.

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  TonusOH

  I can recall that any brothers who had even a slightly nicer lifestyle than the norm were looked upon as snobs, or people whose wealth could be an obstacle. Keep in mind that this was in a moderately poor area of New York City, so these families were not living it up!

  But I think it is common in these environments for people to have these competing views- they sneer at people who are doing well (even by the low standards of their neighborhood) while also wishing that they had more money of their own. But the JW worldview makes it okay to stay poor because you can justify it by believing that it somehow makes you more righteous.
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  43

  Anthony Morris responds to Norway's denial of financial aid

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  https://direkte.vg.no/nyhetsdognet/news/jehovas-vitner-nektes-statsstoette.5z-pnao3e?utm_source=share-btn.

  08:20 27.1.kristoffer solberg.

  jehovah's witnesses denied state aid.

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  TonusOH

  It might depend on where he is from, in some places it seems as if signatures are more like doodles. Some years ago I had a co-worker from India, and he said that in order to combat fraud, their signatures had to be very messy and complex. I'm not sure how making the signature even harder to understand made it more secure, though.

  And I did know one or two co-workers who were European and also had very simple signatures which were mostly just a couple of squiggled lines. Again, how this helps with identification or verification is lost on me, but that's how they did it.
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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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  TonusOH

  I'm wondering how much work will be required to get it back online and running as before. It's been many years since I had a website and I don't know how site hosts work these days. Would he be able to reach out to the webhost and get the site restored from a backup? That would be the quickest and easiest path, but I have no idea how cooperative a site host would be with a deadbeat account that was relatively small.

  Otherwise, there is a whole list of questions I have. Does he have the domain name, or is it unsecured or belongs to someone else? Does he have backups of the site, in the event that he needs to restore it? Does he know, or have someone who knows, how to do that and get all of the links and scripts working? (Or is that even necessary? Maybe it's a WordPress site or something?)

  There is a lot to wonder about even before we get to the question of whether he has the drive or desire to update the site regularly anymore. Writing short articles should not be an issue for him, he seems to spend all day typing up missives on social media. Short commentary on JW 'news of the day' should be something he can get back to doing with ease, so long as his heart is still in it. If he sees it as beneath him, as a step back, he might struggle to do it. And let's be honest, he's not the sharpest writer on his best day. If the effort isn't there, the site will die quickly.
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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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  3. 
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  TonusOH

  I'm not sure that it was about the right person at the right time. It might even be the opposite, the wrong person at the wrong time. He joined a small community that was going about its business in a loose and generally cooperative manner, and steamrolled his way through it. People were willing to help him because they didn't realize that he was out for himself only, and by the time some of them realized what a problem he was, he had just enough support to get away with pushing them aside. Many simply walked away when they realized the effort was more than it was worth to fight back, especially when the response from many was to pile on. Anyone who wanted to do their thing peacefully fell in line, anyone who tried to fight back either walked away or was marginalized.

  The time is always ripe for an amoral opportunist to overwhelm a small community and poison it. There might be a chance to run him out of this one, but people will need to make sure not to underestimate him.
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  43

  Anthony Morris responds to Norway's denial of financial aid

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  https://direkte.vg.no/nyhetsdognet/news/jehovas-vitner-nektes-statsstoette.5z-pnao3e?utm_source=share-btn.

  08:20 27.1.kristoffer solberg.

  jehovah's witnesses denied state aid.

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  TonusOH

  The WTS will paint this as persecution, because they thrive on that narrative. The rank and file are more easily kept in line with the "us against them" approach that makes them think that this is an attack from Satan. And since widespread suppression of their work is seen as one of the final signs of the end, they get pretty excited when they feel they are being attacked.

  The GB will be careful how they present it, because they don't want anything that might sow doubt among the followers, such as finding out that this is mostly about money and that it is an attempt to protect children and young adults from the devastating effects of shunning. Although, let's be honest, many JWs would not flinch at learning about either.
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  349

  Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.

  estephan.

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  TonusOH

  It's too bad that they didn't agree to accept the 586BC date. Imagine- they first use the 607BC date and come up with 1914 and BAM! World War 1! Then they recognize the error and go with 586BC and BAM! the early 1930s and the rise of Hitler! They could then say that God was cleverly showing them when the events leading to the crowning of Jesus in 1935 began.

  They would not have had to come up with that overlapping generations crap for at least another few years from now. Missed opportunity!