On this topic, has anyone read Approaching Jehovah's Witnesses in Love, by Wilbur Lingle? The approach of this book acknowledges that scriptural ping-pong will never work, because to a JW a verse only ever means what Bethel says it means. Therefore the tactic this book uses is to pose a series of questions to the JW which might start them questioning whether or not the Tower really is God's visible organisation.
Stephanus
JoinedPosts by Stephanus
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Question for the Board
by ExmormonRobertson inhas anyone here ever read "reasoning from the scriptures with the jehovah's witness" by ron rhodes?
if so, what were your thoughts.
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"I'll be praying for you"
by Sam Beli inill be praying for you.
this thread is not about literally praying for someone (not trying to get into a discussion here about the existence of a god) so much as it is about the thought behind such words uttered by one person by another individual who the speaker knows is facing a difficult situation.
here is what happened to me while i was still trying to hang on as a jw (though i knew full-well that there were many problems with the jw faith):.
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Stephanus
Hmmm, in my religious background, people who said "I'll be praying for you" usually meant they couldn't be bothered actually doing anything for you or spend time with you, but still wanted to earn spiritual brownie points and look good by saying that. I started to counter it by saying to someone who had said that: "Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said that a prayer known to anyone but God and the person who prayed is it's own reward and is unlikely to be answered. Thanks a lot for telling me about it and wrecking the chances of it coming to pass!" It was kind of like when people who couldn't be bothered learning your name just called you "Brother": a spiritual sounding nothing.
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Pay Attention To Yourselves and to All The Flock
by Kent inyou can find pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock in many languages on the watchtower observer, such as english, spanish, polish, portuguese, french, finnish and german.
but there is also lots of other sites that carry the book.. there is a new "pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock" coming soon, and i hope to be able to bring the "new light" in a short while.
http://www.kki.net.pl/~ksk3/ (polish).
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Stephanus
So, if there really is a revised Flock book coming out (and I wouldn't be surprised considering current circumstances), how long will it take to get it up on the internet? If the WBTS were really clever, they could try coding the book, perhaps with a different form of a certain non-critical sentence in each copy so that they could track down the leak. It would be hugely expensive to print off a different edition for each elder (although only one page would need to be different), Brooklyn could be so paranoid about the leaks so as to attempt something like this; they could see the catching of such "apostates" as an important moral victory.
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Whence came all the Aussies?
by Hmmm inbeing an isolated, provincial american, i've learned all i know about the land down under by watching crocodile dundee.
these are the conclusions i've reached:.
there are roughly 1,000,000 kangaroos in australia.. there are roughly 100,000 aborigines in australia.. there are roughly 10,000 non-aboriginal australians in australia.. of the 10,000, roughly 8,000 are lifeguards or surfers.. of the 2,000 remaining, probably 200 are/were jws.. of those 200, roughly 20 are now ex-jw "apostates".
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Stephanus
As for why are there so many of us here on the internet (and thanks SO much for remembering me, Ozzie! ), I think a former Prime Minister of ours expressed it best. He said: "Australia is the arse-end of the world!". Once the internet turned up, a fairly high percentage of us took up the opportunity to mingle with the rest of the world, no longer bound by the "tyranny of distance". There're still a few of us who think that Australia is the be all and end all, but hopefully they're learning. As for ex-JWs, it doesn't surprise me: the Tower religion has a very American feel to it, and Yank-bashing is almost as popular in Oz as it is in Canada (I don't do it much myself!). So it's not surprising that many Aussies who are sucked into a religion that claims that "all good things come from New York" quickly find excuses to get out ASAP! I personally happen to like the US, and I find that's not a popular line to take in certain circles. More fool them, I say!
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Stand firm, my ass!
by Kent inin military base of karadjordjevo there were 14 conscientious objectors before the escalation of war in march.
twelve of them were nazarenes or jehovah's witnesses and two which did not declare religiously.
they were working on "non-military" tasks but on military premises and for the benefit of the army.
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Stephanus
At first I found myself agreeing with msil, but the logic of others here got me thinking. No-one here is like anyone else and therefore it's different strokes for different folks. If Kent is too confrontational for some, then they should not read a thread he's started; there are some here whose attitude and style is not my cup of tea, so I simply don't read their threads. As is stated above, some probably need the "in your face" approach, and those are the ones that Kent is serving. There are other moderate posters who post stuff which appeals to the middle-of-the-roaders.
Then there're the plain, common garden variety arseholes, like YK, Fred and Dunsscot. LOL
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Concerning Innateness
by dunsscot indear wonderful folks of j-w.com,.
the other day, one of my distinguished interlocutors contended that if joelbear says he is innately gay, then he is innately gay.
it seems that my interlocutor is saying the following.. 1) s verbally claims that his sexual orientation is innate.
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Stephanus
Troll
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As usual the JWs dont give a ___ about others
by LovesDubs infrom the wts pr site: proof they dont give a hanging sh** about anybody else but themselves...and then they brag about it.
makes me sick.. .
"thousands of volunteers flood houston.
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Stephanus
Yep, Loves Dubs, we all know how the WBTS answers the question in Luke 15 about "Who is my neighbour?" - anyone who is lucky enough to not at this time have fallen foul of the huge raft of rules, regulations, urban myths and traditions of the WBTS! Everyone else can go jump, apparently...
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Cognitive dissonance in action
by expatbrit inhere: http://www.greatcrowd.com/159ubb/forum18/html/000025.html
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Stephanus
The Awake magazine has probably informed more people of current atrocities throughout the world than any other publication written.
Yeah, sure! Ever read Time, Lady? Even Readers' Digest and National Geographic do a better job of covering man's inhumanity to man than the 'Tower rags.
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Judging Jehovah's Witnesses
by Kent inmore puke!.
judging jehovah's witnesses.
religious persecution and the dawn of the rights revolution.
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Stephanus
That it's more horseshit, OH.
Kent, is the author of this tripe secretly on the WBTS payroll, the way other pro-'Tower "scholars" are rumoured to be?
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What's Wrong With This Picture?
by Stephanus ini just looked at a news article linked to from the front page of this site:.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2153434&brd=1906&pag=461&dept_id=163989&rfi=6.
note this little quote from a jw:.
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Stephanus
Oh, what crap, OH! Like you can vote on a council proposition without being DFed! How many years have you spent in the 'Tower for the lying to become THIS natural to you?
What is your current status within the Borg: inactive, perhaps? And who have you told about the membership of these orgs?
I suggest you test this theory of yours and next time your local council has holds a vote on a proposition, tell your elders you intend to vote on it. Until you do and report back the results, your assertion that it's okay to do so as a JW is just so much horseshit!