Posts by TonusOH

18

JWs in Norway lost to the state - will not get state support back

by BelisemDeBelimakom in

translated with google translate:.

the trial went before oslo district court in january, and now the district court has concluded that the state is acquitted.

jehovah's witnesses are also ordered to pay court costs of just over nok 1.1 million.. https://www-vg-no.translate.goog/nyheter/innenriks/i/2bljxg/staten-frikjennes-etter-aa-ha-blitt-saksoekt-av-jehovas-vitner-melder-dagen?_x_tr_sl=ka&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp.

TonusOH

I think they are saying they are not a religion so that they are not eligible for certain benefits (such as the subsidy they no longer get). So it's probably a technical or legal term. In the practical sense, I'm sure they understand that it is a religion.

The WTS can simply spin it as religious persecution and lump Norway in with Russia. The big difference here is that they're losing out on a lot of money (wasn't it two or three million dollars a year?) and they have no real gripe, as they do with the treatment of JWs in Russia. In Norway, they are still free to practice their religion as they see fit, they simply are not getting rewarded for it with money and perks.

8

My old KH is a house now

by Gordon in

rossville, il, i heard it had disbanded about 15 years ago.

know, i see someone bought it and turned it into a home, but sadly for them , the bad kh karma did not help the resale value.

looking at the interior pictures it's hard to see the old kh.

TonusOH

Nice job on the remodel. Where did people park when it was a KH?

17

Again, More confusion about the direction of the Watchtower Society

by Truth and Justice in

jw
friends

hi friends, i have not been on this board in awhile, and i would like to get some thoughts from some of you.

i have noticed a change within my 4 siblings in approximately the last year and a half to 2 years regarding their communication with my mother and i. they have either phoned us, texted, emailed, or written a letter or card to us.

the conversation has been good, and on any topic that comes to mind.

TonusOH

Going mainstream may be their best option. It doesn't guarantee that they will not suffer a bad downturn, but there's something there that can be built on. The biggest potential issue is that going mainstream will alienate the hardcore base of true believers who held on for so long and are probably the only reliable source of donations. If they cannot replace them quickly, they could face a very difficult money crunch.

46

Lloyd Evans Patreoff Pool April 2024

by DerekMoors in

you know the drill.

here's an updated chart and i'm using 356 because that's where he's at today.

please let me know if there's anything you think might be added.

TonusOH

336, because I don't want to give up hope just yet, lol.

3070

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

by Simon in

jw
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.

TonusOH

As for growing his YouTube subscriber base, keep in mind that there are two uses for that word. You can subscribe to a channel for free. You can also agree to support it via a paid subscription. Growing the channel by 800 subscribers could mean he has added some income, and it could mean he has added none.

Also, I am not aware that YouTube pays out for how many subscribers your channel has, paid or unpaid. They pay based on video views and income generated by ad views and clicks. If you have 100,000+ subscribers and your video got 12,000 views, you're paid based on the latter, not the former.

He can buy as many fake YT subs as he wants- they are obviously not watching his videos. And this is where his laziness hurts him a lot. If he gets 10k-20k views per video, that's not bad if you are creating videos every day, or at least a few times a week. But he is struggling to upload content.

And, as someone who has had a relatively successful channel for several years, he could also attract sponsors... if he didn't have that messy past to deal with, thanks to his own video confession. A single 60-second sponsor spot in each video would probably pay enough to cover modest living expenses for a month, especially in Croatia.

He can blame whoever he wants, but his present situation is entirely of his own making.

3

NPCs at the Kingdom Hall

by Simon in

jw
friends

in case you're unfamiliar with the acronym, an npc is a "non playable character" in a game.

typically, they are kind of a placeholder that do set things rather than being controlled by another player or any kind of ai to vary what they do.

they just follow a script.

TonusOH

I do recall that there were some couples in our KH who always sat in the same seats. They would even get a bit snippy if someone else happened to be sitting in "their" seats. They could be like NPCs, in that you always knew where to find them (and how to get them to react).

3070

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

by Simon in

jw
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.

TonusOH

His trip to Canada to try mushroom therapy was fully paid for by someone else, as he tells it. During his livestream, someone offered to pay for a trip anywhere around the world for him and his family. There are wealthy people who will bankroll him for some time. But that's a Faustian bargain, in the long run.

If he cannot get a large and diverse base of financial support, those wealthy donors will find a new beneficiary. Why throw money after someone who has stopped 'making a difference' and has come to expect your continuing support? Does anyone think that Evans won't turn on these rich patrons once they turn off the money spigot? Do any of them think he won't consider their action a betrayal?

He can only ride the "Blame Kim" train for so long, and --in spite of his promise to follow up for decades-- he will need to find a new villain to blame his problems on. A group of wealthy former patrons with buyer's remorse would be the logical choice.

40

Dates and times

by jhine in

last night at my bible study group we looked at 1thessalonians ch 5 .

we have been working through the whole letter.

verses 1-11 start with .

TonusOH

westibilly11: If so, why would they? What would be their motive?

There is no shortage of people who have predicted the date of the end over the past two thousand years. I think that, for most of them, the motive was a sincere desire to know. The early predictions of men like Russell and Rutherford were probably formed from a desire for it to happen, a desire to see it, and at least in part the realization that it would get people's interest piqued.

Surely, the WTS could not ignore the growth that occurred during the late 60s and early 70s after Franz wrote about the 1975 date. By this time, bitter experience had led them to provide the occasional disclaimer and not sound quite as certain as the early leadership. And if the words used just so happen to mislead people into staying, well... those increases sure did look good.

71

Lloyd Evans Patreoff Pool March 2024

by DerekMoors in

for those still interested in lloyd's fall from grace, i made up a chart of my own.

april 2023 is when he put out his "things are bad" tin cup begging video, and he got a small surge to 592 on the 13th of that month.

i'm also using his all-time peak of 897 from november 2022.. for march, we're gonna say a modest -15, putting him at 352. i'm also curious as to when he might hit 300 and then 200. if he keeps up with an average of -20 every month, he'll be at less than 190 before the end of this year.. happy guessing everyone..

TonusOH

His activism career is looking rather flaccid these days.

144

Hailstone message AND everyone will be saved? Questions

by slimboyfat in

i’ve not been paying close attention to watchtower developments, but talking to a jw yesterday it occurred to me the society (yes, still use that term - old school) have been sending out mixed messages in recent years.

from what i gather, a few years ago the gb announced that during the great tribulation jws would be required to preach a “hailstone message of judgement” which involved telling people it was too late for them to repent and they were definitely going to be destroyed.

there were hints that this could be very soon, “any day now” preaching could stop and the hailstone message come in, kind of thing.

TonusOH

Well, I agree that their newest "light" sounds like nonsense. Are you "JW Lite" people still convinced that this is the right organization to remain in? At some point, the doubts overwhelm any reason to stay in, don't they?