locally, in northern california i have seen/heard a drop in jw and mainstream church attendance especially in person attendance.
(exception: a new creepy local new-age charismatic/pentecostal group: "bethel church" 11,000 and growing mega church(kundalini yoga/sex combined with prosperity gospel, trumpism, guns, rock music, dancing, glitter, speaking in tongues, and faith healing).. for me this paragraph sums it up regarding jehovah's witnesses: " ...smith described organized religion to me as having become a “polluted” idea in the american mainstream, because of the publicity around sex abuse scandals and financial malfeasance in many different faiths in the ’80s and ’90s as millennials came of age.
“the scandals violated most of the virtues believed to make religion good,” smith wrote.
According to Pew Research, the breakdown is something like 62% Christian, 29% unaffiliated, and 7% other.
Atheists account for around 5% and agnostics 6%. The growth has been in those who seem uninterested in religion (19%). They don't identify as atheist or agnostic, but they no longer associate with any particular church. I assume that it just doesn't matter much in their lives anymore.
what's with the attack (counsel) on husbands with no corresponding article for wives on the jan 2025 w that is being studied today?.
is there a point to that?.
There's no corresponding article for women because the WTS considers the man the head of the family and the woman should know her place. In their eyes, her role is simple and easy to remember: your husband is the boss.
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.
Times have changed when he is seeking validation from small YT channels. In the past, he would be the one doing the small channel the favor. Now, he is hoping that no one tells her to look into his recent past, or she may have to make a second video about him...
let's start the ball rolling with two connected claims.. the religion of jehovah’s witnesses is the one true religion.
all other religions are satanic, including all the churches of christendom..
That is correct, Jan. As far as the WTS is concerned, the most important things a JW reads are the articles, books and statements written by the organization. Anything that is not provided by the organization may cause a JW to 'stumble' and become confused or misinformed. It's one of the classic signs of a cult- information control.
let's start the ball rolling with two connected claims.. the religion of jehovah’s witnesses is the one true religion.
all other religions are satanic, including all the churches of christendom..
The impression I always had was that the WTS encourages the rank-and-file to read the Bible, but they are to leave the interpretation to the Governing Body. I don't recall ever hearing an explicit encouragement to read it, but they do (did?) have a program where they would review the Bible --three chapters at a time-- every week. If you followed along, you would eventually read the whole Bible.
In the past, Russell claimed that his Studies in the Scriptures were a such a superior guide to understanding the Bible that reading the Bible was unnecessary. In fact, his claim was that someone who only read the Bible would 'fall into darkness' unless he made sure to also read SitS. Thus, there was a time when it could be said that the WTS openly discouraged reading the Bible.
i swear, you can't make this shit up!
for years and years growing up in this cult, i had to constantly hear from my parents, from the stage, in the literature, about "keeping your eye simple", not being "materialistic", not "having a showy display of one's wealth.
" of course, this never seemed to apply to the wealthy business owning elduhzzzz who ran and lorded it out over the congregations, but i digress.
I feel like I'm the only person here without some kind of expertise on watches.
asking jehovah’s witnesses to interpret specific passages is a great way to demonstrate their interpretive abuse.
got any clear examples?.
Journeyman: Could the "slave" be illustrative of a group?
If I am remembering correctly, this is one of the reasons they started referring to the "slave class."
The WTS insists that it does not use a heirarchical structure like the Catholic Church. Then they start referring to various "classes." You are of this class, they are of that class, and so on.
let's start the ball rolling with two connected claims.. the religion of jehovah’s witnesses is the one true religion.
all other religions are satanic, including all the churches of christendom..
Their view that non-JWs are doomed is perhaps the most striking difference as someone who was born in and is now outside of the bubble. I think that it is one of the views that helped me get out over time, because it's impossible not to meet people that you feel don't deserve that fate.
5. The WTS is a spirit-guided organization-- its leadership is informed by Jehovah through his holy spirit.
(5a. Jehovah somehow manages to give them the wrong information from time-to-time.)
how often do you hear the lord's prayer at the meetings or in jw homes?.
i don't know if they revised their stance with the new leaders in america, but i don't recall it having much weight when i were a wee'un.. i think the nwt said, 'pray then, this way....'.
so, jesus gave instructions on how to pray, as in actual words to say.......so the jws don't?
I used to follow the Lord's Prayer when I was saying prayers at meetings or meet-ups. It made sense to follow that format, it was the one given to us by Jesus, after all. I never got pushback for using it. As long as you made sure to bless the GB and ask for Jehovah to look after the faithful, you weren't going to get grief for it.
https://jwtalk.net/topic/60143-sighjust-another-lesson-in-humility-for-tim.
if you can stomach reading this brother's experience via this link, please let me know your views.
for one thing, i'm absolutely dumbfounded that this website jwtalk even exists considering all the warnings the governing body have given the org on not creating their own websites.
I find it interesting that a person who was already engaged with his local elders decided to go to another elder (who was not involved in whatever was going on) for "advice." Sounds like the guy was shopping for an opinion or information that would help him, and he knew that most elders will offer advice if asked. I'm thinking that the person who sent the text --apparently without clarifying what was really going on-- is the person at fault.
Sure, "Tim" should have been a bit circumspect, but if this is a person who had his personal number and was sending texts, it's easy to understand why his guard might have been down. Plus, lots of elders I knew were busybodies and this seems to extend to the organization itself. It's the perfect setup for something like this to happen. And now, "Tim" will respond to future cries for help with hesitation and suspicion...
(I'm also curious as to what his information consisted of and how it affected the situation for the other two elders. Looks like they didn't like being undermined or perhaps exposed for a lack of knowledge or understanding. It would explain why they were so direct and forward in dealing with 'Tim.')
