Posts by scratchme1010

27

Brooklyn Brothers Signworks... WUT?

by schnell in

jw
friends

the ad for this site came up here on jwn.

http://www.brooklynsignworks.com/jw/?gclid=cp7ppbzr_tacfy-baqodwocm1a.

i was not aware that these cart signs were being made and sold by essentially a private company or proprietorship.

scratchme1010

Even if this weren't an egregious disregard for Jesus casting out the temple charlatans, why are these guys advertising?
A) You gotta pay to run ads. They're making money.
B) Who are they advertising to? Obviously they're looking for terms like "jehovahs witness" and "JW". Which leads to...
C) They screwed up by advertising on a predominantly ex-JW site. Well done.

I have to admit, it is pretty odd and rather silly to advertise products to such narrow and unique niche. I cannot imagine another company wanting to come up with products only for JWs to compete with that one.

And as I type, well, I'm thinking maybe not so fast. Maybe that company may want to expand their markets, maybe starting to sell and distribute other products, maybe aiming at enslaving JWs into buying pretty much everything else they sell. In that regard, if that's their vision, then the advertising works well to make JWs believe that they are a legitimate entity. Hmm, I wonder. I guess time will tell.

16

You Have Been Looking Forward to This for a Long TIme - October 2nd 1914

by steve2 in

picture yourself as a member of the brooklyn bethel family on friday morning, october 2, 1914. you are seated at your usual place at the breakfast table, awaiting the arrival of brother c. t. russell.

suddenly the door to the dining room opens and brother russell appears.

he pauses for a moment, as is his custom, and greets the bethel family with a cheery “good morning, all.” but then, instead of immediately taking his place at the head of the table, he claps his hands and makes a thrilling announcement: “the gentile times have ended; their kings have had their day!” you can hardly contain your joy—you have been looking forward to this moment for a long time!

scratchme1010

Waking up can be very disturbing, disorienting, but ultimately, empowering and enabling you to break free from the stench of religion. Rutherford unintentionally got one thing right:
"Religion is a snare and a racket"

Great thoughts. As I started reading I first thought that I needed to remind others of what was really happening at that time. Glad that your post turned out to be very informative and beautifully presented.

Love how you ended it too.

30

My real name (and a shameless self promotion)

by schnell in

jw
friends

my real name is benjamin heath, i live in southern oregon, usa, and you can always reach me on twitter @ben_heath_.

i have also rebooted my blog at benheathonline.com which is linked with my twitter.

i intend to write about experiences at work and in life, as well as whatever it is i'm reading about at the moment.. i'm a programmer by hobby, a truck driver by profession, an atheist by education and reasoning, and an ex-jw by choice.

scratchme1010

I was never great at programming, but I had to do some for a few jobs I had. Good to find out about a few new things. I'm afraid to mention the languages I started with (FORTRAN was one of them). I didn't get to use punch cards, though.

10

Not Inspired?

by kairos in

jw
friends

the head, jesus christ, supplies the body members with what is needed for good cooperation, coordination, and spiritual nourishment.

in such respects, the governing body is organized to take the lead as jehovah directs them by holy spirit.. 2008 wt 5/15 pg 29. the party's over....

scratchme1010

Not sure if I'm missing something, kairos, but I fail to see anything different or new they say. As for the rest, I still can't see why entertaining their nonsense if by know we know that they are full of nonsense.

32

Jesus Christ was no Moses

by smiddy in

moses has a history of what 80+ years as a servant of jehovah ?

in one form or another .. moses wrote / penned the first five books of the bible and went through many trials and tribulations in serving his god jehovah in his long lifetime.interacting with god at times.. jesus was born and nothing is recorded of him until he is a young adolescent child ?

and very little about him.. then we are introduced to him when he is 30 years old and gets baptised ,and only then does he start his preaching .. does he start preaching to the world ?

scratchme1010

Moses served his God Jehovah for at least 40 years and acheived a lot in that time and wrote five books of the Bible.
Jesus ? preached for 3 years to a small group of jewish people under Roman rule ,never writing anything down for the benefit of the jewish community he preached to let alone the human race he is supposed to save as a human sacrifice on their behalf.?
And Jesus is supposed to be the greater Moses ? Who is kidding who here .

I didn't know there was a competition over who doe what and how much.

30

My real name (and a shameless self promotion)

by schnell in

jw
friends

my real name is benjamin heath, i live in southern oregon, usa, and you can always reach me on twitter @ben_heath_.

i have also rebooted my blog at benheathonline.com which is linked with my twitter.

i intend to write about experiences at work and in life, as well as whatever it is i'm reading about at the moment.. i'm a programmer by hobby, a truck driver by profession, an atheist by education and reasoning, and an ex-jw by choice.

scratchme1010

Nice to meet you schnell, I mean, Benjamin Heath. Good to hear that my crassness (at times) serves for something. What language(s) do you program in?

10

I am Deaf and blind is Jehovah going to destroy me because I can't hear or see a JW broadcast or read a watchtower or go to the kingdumb hall???

by UNCONDITIONAL LOVE in

jw
friends

an easy way to stump the delusional jws at your door is come to the door with sunglasses on holding a sign with the words in the above title, and not say a word.

the reaction will be priceless.... hopefully it will wake up those that still have some use of their thinking abilities..

scratchme1010

Or you can just tell them go go away.

17

the future for the borg

by pepperheart in

it look very possible that the borg could lose their charity status in both the uk and oz if this happens the jw will not have all the tax breaks for the buildings that they have now.and that the headquarters will have to start finding extra money.and as they have done so much cost cutting anyway these past years i think they will have to start selling kingdom halls off.

.

scratchme1010

Are they successful enough as a real estate co. to survive all the lawsuits?

One of the lawsuits settled for $300,000. They sold one KH for way more than that. remember, they had all congregations in the USA turn over their KHs to them. That is billions of startup dollars that they got for free. Without making any sell, they already made billions of dollars, so what do you think?

If they lose their charity status they will be upset, but they also will be way far from bankruptcy.

11

My Mother reach out to me AGAIN!

by HereIgo in

about 3 weeks ago i created a thread due to my mom reaching out to me (we hadn't talked in over 2 years due to typical jw politics).

well, today she reached out again thought facebook messenger saying " i'm so sorry i hurt you my beautiful baby boy.

i'm hurting very much also.

scratchme1010

She said " Because I love you, but our difference keep us apart"
I replied,
"They only will if you let them. Because I could be the most sinful person on planet earth and yet you would still talk to me if I was never baptized. But, because I made the decision to get baptized at age 16, barely old enough to drive, I am being responsible for it. At the end of the day, I believe we have to walk our own path and be responsible to God directly and I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with is being accountable to imperfect men. Men, who I have seen say and do things that are not so Christian. Being "imperfect" is an excuse you can only use so far when you claim to be God's mouthpiece. I'm not the only one. I believe half of witness have doubts. The question is, who is afraid to speak up? Who is afraid to lose family? I've never been a follower."
She never responded back.
Did I come across too strong? Do you think what I said was thought provoking enough? Thoughts?

I remember your previous post, and I remember my reply, and this is exactly what I mentioned. Again, there is a possibility that she is just being a mom. JWs are human too.

Not sure if you were too strong or not, but I want to ask you, would you be open to the possibility of having her in her life as a JW if she's respectful of where you stand?

She is your mother and she (may, I don't know the specifics) love you. She may be reaching out as a mother. I have some relatives who have reached out to me in spite of what the WT says. it is possible that she may be doing that on her own.

Don't shut the door. Not yet at least. Try to find out where she's coming from. She may be hurting, or she may be looking for a way to push the JW agenda. Only one way to find out, have a talk with her.

27

Here's a morbid thought...

by Rainbow_Troll in

it probably will never happen but... imagine the gb recieved some new light that told them the great tribulation was imminent.

the world is going to hell and all jws can expect until armageddon is terrible persecution the likes of which no christian has ever experienced in two thousand years.

but jehovah has a solution: put yourself and your family 'to sleep' and after armageddon's over, jehovah will 'wake his people up' at the resurrection.

scratchme1010

Frankly, this is one of my nightmares. I know it seems improbable now, but keep in mind that even Heaven's Gate explicitely taught that suicide was wrong.. until Applewhite got his new orders from the saucermen. It wouldn't be hard to pull off either. The Org has a very efficient private grapevine that allows them to swiftly and discretely communicate with any congregation in the world. No need to publish anything in the official publications. It could be done in a matter of hours.

It's a real possibility. Cults do have people make decisions they would never otherwise made for themselves or their loved ones. However, that said, I don't think that that's the WT's style. It's not in their best interest, as of now to have people take such drastic measures.

Remember, the WT has a real estate business. They are flourishing and growing financially, so there's no need to have their crop killed (yet).