in his last couple of vlogs, john cedars is wearing a t-shirt saying shunned.
some people liked it and asked him if they could purchase one.. in his last vlog (#111) he is advertising it and mentioned the link www.apostee.com, based in the us.
comments attached to vlog # 110 mentioned the fact that this company will close in april and that the business will be continued by cedars itself, who has also a stock of anti-witness items.. besides that, he was not the owner of jwsurvey.org, but since january 16, 2016 he is.. it looks (as mentioned before by simon in an earlier thread), this guy is making a living from his activism, a paid career.. one should seriously question his true motives, demonstrated in his activism.
I don't know the full tale about Cedars, one thing that I can tell is that the man is very proactive in his work. Just recently, the video that he created about child abuse was translated and subtitled by a group of Spanish friends at their Forum. It was given at no charge to Cedars and I think that he is going to use at his site.
With time he is going to become mini tycoon.
in his last couple of vlogs, john cedars is wearing a t-shirt saying shunned.
some people liked it and asked him if they could purchase one.. in his last vlog (#111) he is advertising it and mentioned the link www.apostee.com, based in the us.
comments attached to vlog # 110 mentioned the fact that this company will close in april and that the business will be continued by cedars itself, who has also a stock of anti-witness items.. besides that, he was not the owner of jwsurvey.org, but since january 16, 2016 he is.. it looks (as mentioned before by simon in an earlier thread), this guy is making a living from his activism, a paid career.. one should seriously question his true motives, demonstrated in his activism.
i am going to engage on a trip to the past and share with you some of the matters that marked the beginning of the jws persecution in cuba.
you will be surprised that the pattern that was followed is very similar to what happened in other dictatorial countries.. in the cuban case, i am going to surprise you and tell you that like what happened with hitler; the wt was partially responsible for their clash and confrontation with the cuban government.
during the early 60s the revolution was fighting for survival and they were willing and ready to demolish any perceived enemy to their cause.. a prime example was their war against the catholic church that was the most influential religious entity in the country; it took the supreme leader only a few public discourses to send the vast majority of clergy packing and back to their country, in this case spain.. the jehovah’s witnesses were an insignificant minority but they over estimated their importance and displayed a belligerent attitude, it was known that this was a us based religion and an easy target to connect them with the cia.
At this point and in the interest of closure I will need a few more pages to assign guilt or responsibility for the Cuban debacle, I am not going to do that and just close the loop with some easy to understand remarks.
The main culprit for the long suffering of the JWs in Cuba is the WT, for their lack of foresight, carelessness, empathy and for using the brothers as “cannon fodder”.
The Cuban Government was ruthless, barbaric, abusive and inhuman in their treatment of persons or a group that in reality was never a danger to them. What they did was like killing a “fly with a bazooka”.
We the flock, have a degree of responsibility for being naive and trusting, when things starting going south some of the friends saw the writing in the wall and went to the hills; they were highly criticized as lacking faith and not trusting Jehovah, time proved that they were right all along.
Lesson for all of us, if you have to make decisions affecting your lives and families please don’t rely in whatever the WT is telling you. Education, business, blood, marriage and anything else are very critical matters to leave it at the whims of people that at the end of the day are unaffected by their choices and have no clue of how the real world operates.
Thanks for reading, I won’t be adding anything else but will answer any questions that may arise.
by its own mandate in the founding of the watchtower magazine in 1879, it was set up to proclaim the arrival of jc in the heavens according to the then currently failed adventist claim for jesus' return the year 1874.. russell's catalyst for all that came afterwards was his pet claim (in so many words) "aha but jc did in fact come... but came invisibly!
" he added without sound evidence that it took four years for jc to come to rule from the heavens after his arrival there and that then was said to be in 1878. .
within forty biblical years from the arrival date, russell promised, with hopes even higher than his bank account, that god’s kingdom with christ at the helm would rule the earth in the absence of all worldly opposition.
i just got the news from our former congregation in hollister, ca regarding a tragic event following the 'memorial' wednesday night.
we shared the kh with 2 spanish congos.. a couple from the spanish congregation were leaving the kh so that the next spanish congo could have their 'memorial'.
they exited the parking lot in their car when hit by an oncoming car right in front of the kh.
the greatest soccer player ever of my country died today.
only 68 years old.
he meanta lot to many people because of his skills, as a player and trainer.
Rip
He was great and sorry for his death.
i am going to engage on a trip to the past and share with you some of the matters that marked the beginning of the jws persecution in cuba.
you will be surprised that the pattern that was followed is very similar to what happened in other dictatorial countries.. in the cuban case, i am going to surprise you and tell you that like what happened with hitler; the wt was partially responsible for their clash and confrontation with the cuban government.
during the early 60s the revolution was fighting for survival and they were willing and ready to demolish any perceived enemy to their cause.. a prime example was their war against the catholic church that was the most influential religious entity in the country; it took the supreme leader only a few public discourses to send the vast majority of clergy packing and back to their country, in this case spain.. the jehovah’s witnesses were an insignificant minority but they over estimated their importance and displayed a belligerent attitude, it was known that this was a us based religion and an easy target to connect them with the cia.
I was asked about if any JW died as a result of the persecution, it is possible that more than one did but the only documented case that I know is that of Felipe Hernandez, he was a career Circuit Overseer married to Ina. He was about 45 to 50 and he was put in jail suffering from a heart condition, at that time he was also for legal purposes a Vice President of the Society. He died after complaining for more than a week of his ailment and being denied treatment. I put two links, one in English and another in Spanish that document the matter; this man was a fine human being.
His funeral in Havana was a massive concentration of brothers and the Government had the place blanketed with security because they figure it out that some disturbance was bound to happen, nothing did.
In January 1985, Jehovah Witness Rev. Felipe Hernández died in prison of heart failure after Prison Director Col. Edel Castillo refused him medical care: "We don’t give medical care to counterrevolutionaries, let Jehovah save you.”
http://www.cubaarchive.org/downloads/CA19.pdf
Así mismo provocaron la muerte en l984, al Ministro Vice Presidente de la Iglesia Testigos de Jehová de Cuba, Felipe Hernández, quien estaba preso conmigo en la prisión Combinado del Este de La Habana, injustamente acusado de propaganda enemiga por distribuir sus publicaciones religiosas.
Estos hechos criminales se produjeron cuando, después de estar reclamando durante siete días asistencia médica por un fuerte dolor en el pecho, Felipe Hernández murió en una celda de esta penitenciaria. En realidad, la respuesta a sus demandas de atención clínica se la había dado un día antes de morir el Coronel Edelmo Castillo, jefe entonces de ese plantel de encierro, al mandar a que llevaran a Hernández a sus oficinas y allí, le expresó que recibiría asistencia hospitalaria cuando dejará de captar y formar a nuevos miembros de los Testigos de Jehová entre los presos.
i have posted one other time on this website.
just for the mere fact that i wasn't anger and bitter and ready to declare the gb the sociopathic criminals that so many here ascribe to, my initial question digressed to bickering over ad hominem attacks against the gb and not my beliefs that i'm questioning.
some did give me some help on my questions.
My two cents worth, this board and the WT are as different as night and day.
I come here post when I feel like, read what I like and have the choice of participating or not, as long as I don't break the rules I don't have to answer to no one and generally speaking I am free.
Compare that with the constant surveillance and suspicion in a congregation, try to open yourself even your most closest friends and you will see what happens.
i am going to engage on a trip to the past and share with you some of the matters that marked the beginning of the jws persecution in cuba.
you will be surprised that the pattern that was followed is very similar to what happened in other dictatorial countries.. in the cuban case, i am going to surprise you and tell you that like what happened with hitler; the wt was partially responsible for their clash and confrontation with the cuban government.
during the early 60s the revolution was fighting for survival and they were willing and ready to demolish any perceived enemy to their cause.. a prime example was their war against the catholic church that was the most influential religious entity in the country; it took the supreme leader only a few public discourses to send the vast majority of clergy packing and back to their country, in this case spain.. the jehovah’s witnesses were an insignificant minority but they over estimated their importance and displayed a belligerent attitude, it was known that this was a us based religion and an easy target to connect them with the cia.
As previously mentioned, one of the Government conditions for a relaxation of the JWs situation was the replacement of the Branch Committee that was impossible to monitor. The WT agreed and a brother form Panama was brought in as Coordinator and most of the Branch control was taken over by the Mexican Office.
As far as I know one of the members of the previous committee died a little bit thereafter, another one left for USA and the third one remained in Cuba without any significant duties. Like or not these negotiations relaxed the pressure and persecution over the flock and were positive changes. Kingdom Halls were opened, arrests went down to almost nil, an Assembly Hall was built, Bethel was officially opened and many other good things happened for the locals.
The highlight of all of this back and forth was a visit about 1999 by a GB delegation, brothers Barr, Barry and Loesch; they were able to meet with Governmental dignitaries, visit different conventions over the country and encourage the brothers with their presence; it was similar to a Papal visit.
Things have been mostly quiet since then, due to their heavy infiltration State Security knows exactly what the JWs are doing and that they pose no danger. Growth has been steady, always affected by the migration to USA.
Almost done, maybe one more.
Thanks for reading
during our wt life we met a good number of friends involved in the circuit and district work.
i am sure that we share the same experience and that we remember fondly some that we caring, loving and generally interested in the brothers.
at the same time we might remember others that were arrogant, selfish, abusive and oppressive.
