TonusOH

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Posts by TonusOH

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  13

  JWs and Conscription/ Military Service

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  matthew 5:41 (nwt) "...and if someone in authority compels you into service for a mile,* go with him two miles.".

  a member of the roman occupying forces could command a local to carry their pack for a mile.

  the local was thus pressed into a form of military service.

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  TonusOH

  NotFormer: How do the JWs get around this?

  It depends on who was making the rules at any given moment. There have been times when it was okay to do anything short of enlisting, and there have been times when even providing products or services to a military base was forbidden. Ray Franz described this in Crisis of Conscience, when he explained how one brother had a job delivering drinks to different businesses and to a military base. The GB, at the time, decided that this was immoral and the brother decided to look for work elsewhere.

  When I was 18, I registered for the selective service, which made me eligible for the draft in the USA. This was not considered immoral. Had I been drafted, I was expected to refuse to serve and accept any consequences of that stance. I think that this was less of an issue by that time (1986), as the US military had realized that draftees tended to be of such low quality as to be better off left alone.

  But always remember, you can justify a broad range of directives by selecting some Bible verses and omitting others.
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  27

  Ernie Fyans, JW elder CSA abuser from "Palmer Leaks" sentenced in Maine today

  by EasyPrompt in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  .

  https://x.com/mark_j_odonnell/status/1704588790730256487?s=20.

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  TonusOH

  If the governments of the world began shutting down large religious groups, that would certainly be a notable event. Much clearer than "wars, disease, earthquakes" etc that happen all the time and that have been used as signs of the end times for centuries now. It would be a direct and highly controversial action that could not be ignored.
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  110

  Lloyd Evans Patreoff Pool - November 2023

  by DerekMoors in

  1. social
  2. humour

  let's get the fun started and put in our votes for how far down the pumpkin patch lord of the fries will fall in november.. for those keeping score, last month he started at 457 patrons, did some begging and managed to bump those numbers up to 478, but as of this writing he's down to 439.. so, how well do you think the grift will continue this month?

  let us know where you think he'll be on november 2. lucky number 420?

  will he drop back down below 400?

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  TonusOH

  I will be a bit conservative this month. My guess is a loss of thirty, so that he will have 409 at the start of November.
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  3144

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

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  TonusOH

  LMsA: [...] he added an adjective "briefly" to "dating". This was done on purpose and meant to further minimise what he had done.

  That could be the next meme. How many qualifiers can we add to his statements to try to make it look less damning.

  "I very briefly considered approaching a 20-year-old sex worker about a date, and we had an engorging discussion about the local tourist spots and how stiff and erect an elephant tusk could potentially get, under the proper circumstances. The sort of banal thing that everyone does when they travel. Little did I know that Kim would use this utterly innocent non-event to destroy me and my family."
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  3144

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

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  TonusOH

  Teddnzo: I can’t believe that he thinks it’s ok to date a sex worker.

  I hope he realizes how pathetic that statement makes him look. But he probably doesn't.

  Because no one else thinks he dated a sex worker. I love it as a meme, and if people use it to mock him, that's the bed that he made. More to the point, no one thinks that a sex worker dated him. It's another example of how bad the truth must be, that he thinks this explanation makes him look better.
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  12

  Are adjustable rate mortgages the norm in the UK?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  perhaps an odd subject for a presumably religious focused discussion board, but there are a fair number of brits here... i'm an american, but i sometimes listen to the podcast of the james o'brien radio show.

  (a brit political radio show where people call in).

  the past few months, a common topic has been people calling in discussing how hard they are getting hit financially because of a dramatic rise in interest rates on their mortgage.

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  TonusOH

  The CEO of JPMorgan Chase recently said that he thinks interest rates will go up more than is being projected, and a base rate of 7% is possible. That would mean mortgage rates starting at 8.5%.

  On the other hand, when interest rates are high, you have an actual tool for dealing with an economic downturn- lowering interest rates. Since 2024 is an election year in the USA, expect the White House to put strong pressure on the Fed to lower rates. An angry electorate is not a friend to incumbents.
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  9

  WHAT HAPPENED WHEN GOD TRANSFERRED JESUS LIFE TO MARY PER WTS

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  pardon all caps on original post title.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/176336/blondies-comments-you-will-hear-05-31-09-wt-study-praise-forever.

  comments you will not hear at the 05-31-09 wt study (march 15, 2009, pages 24-28)(righteous forever).

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  TonusOH

  I may be wrong (it has been many years) but I think the "All Scriptures" book explained that Joshua completed the writing of Deuteronomy after Moses' death.

  But I am pretty sure that they believe it was Moses who described himself as the most humble man on Earth.
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  24

  1974 and all that

  by Number 6 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xznh9icm1os.

  i came across this footage recently whilst searching for something completely unrelated and it blew me away!.

  it's from the august 1974 convention at murrayfield, edinburgh and you can clearly see the stage set up still keeping the 6000 years and 1975 mantra going.. what makes this very personal for me is that i was here.

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  TonusOH

  We always applauded the dramas. Sometimes we would applaud a particularly dramatic part of it. We also applauded the speakers when they finished their talks.

  JW crowds are the epitome of politeness.
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  11

  Michael died twice for JW's sins.

  by moomanchu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  once when jehovah turned him into a sperm and once when the romans crucified him.. technically sperm is still alive when used for invitro fertilization.

  then again is sleeping in a tomb for a few hours really dead ?.

  forget it, no one died for jw's sins.

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  TonusOH

  moomanchu: Luke traces Mary's blood line to King David. Why do this if her egg wasn't used?

  I'm not religious, so I'm not defending this as fact. But I think we tend to get unnecessarily far into the weeds with this stuff.

  The tracing of the blood line could be symbolic. I think one of the gospels traces it to Mary, and the other traces it to Joseph (who couldn't have contributed DNA to the process, if we accept the story as told). These were people who didn't understand genetics or know about DNA, so they may not have been put off if they'd known all the details. The mechanics of it shouldn't matter, so long as god gets the result he wants- a growing human skin suit that he can inhabit with one-third of himself, in order to sacrifice it to pay himself a debt on behalf of humanity.

  Which he could have done by, you know... forgiving us. Something humans do all the time without bloodshed.

  In any case, once we introduce magic into the mix, the rules of logic and nature have to be bent or broken to accommodate it. Trying to reason it out seems futile.
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  3144

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

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  TonusOH

  You can see the problem for his supporters. One person is defending him, but the further along the discussion gets, the more difficult his position becomes. He was trying to say that it's unfair to ruin Lloyd's career with a potentially false allegation (that he committed CSA in Thailand, which is not the accusation being made). But he finds the sailing rough when he has to bring his argument down to "he cheated on his wife with a sex worker, and unless you can prove she was underage, that's all he did."

  The problem is-- most of his patrons find the "cheated on his wife with a sex worker" bad enough, not to mention that he admitted to paying for sex at least every few months for three or four years. You do not even have to get to the part where sex trafficking is rife with abuse of women and minors. The stuff that a few people try to shrug off as not a big deal is a very big deal to people who just left a fundamentalist religious organization.

  This is why the only thing that needs to be done is to keep pointing out the things he said he did. I love the videos that compare his statements at different times, showing how his story changes depending on his needs or desires. No one defames Lloyd Evans more than LLOYD EVANS does.