scratchme1010

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Posts by scratchme1010

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  10

  Oh NO, Debbie Reynolds has died !

  by smiddy in

  1. social
  2. current

  what a shock to hear that news.

  her passing so close to that of her daughter dying ?

  so, so, sad.. sorry glenster i thought she deserved a thread of her own also..

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  scratchme1010

  I hope this trend stops. So many people. May she rest in peace.
  
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  9

  Black Mirror TV Series

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  if you're looking for something new to watch, i can really recommend this show.

  it's on netflix and there is a new series starting soon.

  don't let "series" put you off - they are only 3 or 6 episodes long.. how to describe it?.

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  scratchme1010

  It's like a dark, disturbing version of "Tales of the Unexpected" or "The Twilight Zone". Each episode is a standalone story but they have links between them (like Easter-eggs ...a song featured in on, on in the background of the next).

  Most are about the future and a commentary on how our society uses or misuses technology and the impact on us. Many of them have you trying to figure out what is going on and sometime jolt you into the realization that you didn't know what was happening or your sympathies for a character were misplaced.

  If you like the kind of TV or movies where, the day after watching it you're still thinking about it, you should give it a try..

  So many good episodes, they keep getting better. White Bear is probably my favorite so far.

  I like the show. It's very well made. I'm currently watching season 3.
  

  Somebody posted about that show here and mentioned their Christmas special episode that has a technology that resembles the WT shunning practice.

  That said, if you are the type that loves happy endings and charming stories, stay away from that show. The very first episode sets the tone about the darkness of the stories. However, my suggestion is that if you get disgusted with the plot of the first episode, please keep in mind that each episode is a completely unrelated story. You won't see people having sex with a pig on live TV in the rest of the episodes. Enjoy
  
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  10

  My wife and I are hooked on European series screening on SBS TV

  by smiddy in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  whether they be norwegian ,danish ,french or whatever , having sub-titles doesnt bother us as their usually is a mix of english dialogue as well.. some examples : tracked ,the tunnell ,the bridge ,dicte ,borgen ,just to name a few.another one i`m watching now about the middle east the name just escapes right now .. anybody else watching these shows ?.

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  scratchme1010

  I'll search for them. I agree that many American shows are crap, but not all. Every now and then there are one or two worth watching (unfortunately, some are the American version of foreign written shows, but not all).
  
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  6

  Do you know someone who is going to the Elders school 2017, in any country?

  by defender of truth in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  an informant in spanish forum, active elder in a congregation in madrid (spain) has posted new info regarding elders school 2017. important changes are to be done for "child" or sexual abuses.

  https://abusostj.vbulletin.net/forum/main-forum/audiencias-judiciales/5506-escuela-de-ancianos-2017.

  doing a summary:.

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  scratchme1010

  I don't know (can't care less either). However,

  The victim might be asked to sign a statement according he/she is aware of the possibility to report to the authorities.
  

  They are just covering their backs. They expect a child who has been sexually molested to sign a statement about the "possibility" of going to the authority. Sounds like holding the victim responsible. They are so disgusting.
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  12

  Charitable works are not the foremost consideration of Christians

  by Lostandfound in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  remember that from the sermon outline booklet for field service use.. my question would be, has wt or witnesses performed any charitable works, even as a secondary condition.. i know of none, maybe you do..

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  scratchme1010

  my question would be, has WT or witnesses performed ANY charitable works, even as a secondary condition.
  

  It's a high demand controlling group that expect their people not to pursue higher education, to die before accepting blood and to shun their own family members. Their attitude is that this world is so bad that isn't worth saving at the same time they keep making money any way possible. They shelter pedophiles and give the law a hard time finding them liable for it. What do you think, do they look charitable to you?
  
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  24

  A Comforting Thought About Watchtower

  by freemindfade in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this organization will never again be what it was by 2013-2014. .

  they peaked in the form they were, i believe they were already falling apart in ways, but from the outside and to the majority r&f, things likely still seemed on the up and up.

  browsing through the boards and just keeping my finger on the pulse of what's happening, this organization will never again be what it was.

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  scratchme1010

  ...this organization will NEVER again be what it was. Yes, people debate whether it will decline or go away or not, over what time, and on and on. I believe most of us feel it will never be gone entirely. But the cult it was, is no more...
  

  And the denial continues. The WT is in the business of real estate. Far from dying, declining or going away, it is just evolving into a business, or what some us call, "a profitable nonprofit". They just don't give a rat's ass about their people, and people still keep pulling in the direction that there has to be some kind of deep Jehovah related revelation that will explain everything.

  It is that simple. The WT is changing the focus from making money from publications and house-to-house preaching to real estate. If you look at each and every single publishing company, newspaper and church in this planet, you will see that the WT is not doing anything so exotic. It's doing what everybody else is, that is, adjusting to keep up with the times and getting rid of what isn't profitable.
  
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  9

  Still Contaminated After All These Years

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the contaminantion of years of being a jehovah witness.. it's interesting to see in myself and in many others here how no matter how much we want it or wish it, we will never be able to erase all of the mental contamination.

  in one way or another it will always be a part of us.. i've had many friends that have been out for many years say "well i can't do that it just wouldn't be right.

  " yes they are still judging themselves and others.

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  scratchme1010

  The contaminantion of years of being a Jehovah Witness.

  It's interesting to see in myself and in many others here how no matter how much we want it or wish it, we will never be able to erase all of the mental contamination. In one way or another it will always be a part of us.

  I've had many friends that have been out for many years say "Well I can't do that it just wouldn't be right." Yes they are still judging themselves and others. They are under some kind of law code. Of course there are laws we must obey but there are many laws that are handed down to us by are parents or religions that are really just a matter of opinion and not laws at all.

  "Contamination" seems like such strong word and makes me (I'm keeping this in I statements) feel like a victim. I prefer to see it in terms of "negative influence", which I believe is a better way of describing my experience with having that JW crap shoved down my throat since the day I was born.

  Regardless of which term we feel comfortable using, I do agree that the influence of the WT is always going to be present in our lives. I for once, can't talk about my childhood without mentioning the JWs. I can't speak about my family without mentioning them, and those are only the tangible, identifiable things.

  When I look at how many decisions I had made in the past after having left the WT without realizing that I was still under their influence, I started really analyzing everything I was doing, being and deciding. I realized that to me, my recovery from their negative influence is about minimizing it, not about eradicating it since I believe that's not impossible. That helped me gain perspective and see things in a more self-loving and realistic manner (I used to take it on me for not being able to get rid of their influence). It was a process, and not an easy (nor fast) one.
  

  Regarding other people and the way they do things JW-ly, you remind me of one of my friends. He's as gay as I am, he never baptized, and in his 30s he had been away from the JWs for almost two decades. We were roommates, and as gay friends we used to talk what gay dudes talk about (and trust me, it wasn't bible related). He threw a Christmas party once, and we did a whole lot of "wordly" things as friends.
  

  However, to my surprise, I decided to give him a gift for his birthday, and he told me that he couldn't accept it. When I asked him why, he gave me some JW nonsense about it. At first I truly believed that he was joking, but he wasn't. I did feel offended and threw at his face all the non-JW things that he has done. Then as I started knowing him better and learning about his own life I realized what the real issue was. Turns out that his mother was a JW when he was a little kid. He didn't grow up with his father, only his JW mother. Then he (nor his mother) didn't leave the WT when he was 10; his mother passed away when he was 10 and his new family weren't JWs, and he never set foot in a KH ever since.
  

  So his refusal to accept the birthday gift had nothing to do with the WT nonsense, and everything to do with his respect and sense of loyalty to his deceased mother. That's the first lesson I learned about being sensitive when some people hold on to their believes, as irrational as they may be.

  Time and time again I have posted about how may people completely neglect to see that behind the believes, doctrine discussions and practices there are a lot of feelings that we don't know about. For some reason many people here refuse to even acknowledge that fact.

  My suggestion to you is let them be, be sensitive because:

  1. There are feelings connected to what they say and do and you have no idea what they are.
  2. There may still be in the process of separation themselves.
  3. There may be in denial about what they are doing.
  4. They may still be dealing with their doubts; it's not in black and white, it is a process.
  5. You may not know what a given practice or believe represents to them.
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  13

  Is the Dubbers cult going to more digital than printed?

  by dogon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know they have slave labor free but it costs a lot to print, ship ect and then you have waste.

  digital would cut costs.

  i was thinking about this because my wife visited her mother an father who are still cult members.

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  scratchme1010

  I know they have slave labor free but it costs a lot to print, ship ect and then you have waste. DIgital would cut costs. I was thinking about this because my wife visited her Mother an Father who are still cult members. They are older 78 plus or minus and were using Apple Ipads to get Tower bull shit. Is this a thing they are moving to?
  

  Yes.
  

  Your Avatar is obscene.
  

  So is your screen name.
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  7

  "New Light" and the Watchtower's quasi legal disclaimer

  by jwleaks in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  found this interesting quasi legal religious statement at the bottom of this 》》》 jw.org page advertising "bible-based books and magazines":.

  some updates made to digital publications may not yet appear in the printed edition.. glad to know that jehovah and the governing body have seen fit to inform the entire world that certain doctrinal teachings of "truth" may differ between digital and print edition of the watchtower magazine and bible-based books.

  doesn't say much for the credibility of the guardians of doctrine.. confusingly, some of the doctrinal teachings, particularly in the online versions of bible-based books and magazines from the watchtower, have already undergone updates but these updates only appear in the new digital version of the new printed edition.. good thing we have a digital-only version of the "research guide for jehovah's witnesses" which is updated every year to contain all the references to the new teachings and interpretations of the bible.

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  scratchme1010

  Maybe I am way too far off the JW mindset, but what exactly is the big deal with that? Every publishing company does that and has been doing so for quite some time. In technology, for example, in the 90s things were changing so far that the most recent information was available in magazines since printed books could not be updated that fast.

  With the proliferation of electronic media the way it is now, information flows a lot faster than in print. I don't see why the WT is any different.

  I fail to see what the big deal is.
  
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  36

  Noah a Preacher of Righteousness?

  by Spoletta in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  during the watchtower study today, i browsed genesis and looked for evidence of noah ever preaching to anyone.

  from what i could glean from the scriptures, it was a foregone conclusion that noah's family would be it on the ark.

  (unless they towed some rafts behind) my wife says that building the ark could be considered a witness of his faith to the wicked world, but that seems kind of lame to me.. so, should i just assume that god decided not to give anyone else a chance for redemption?

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  scratchme1010

  For any who care, the idea of Noah being a preacher was common in the historic milieu that 2 Peter reflects. Josephus reports it (AJ 1.74), and an extensive description of it is in the non-canonical Jewish Sibylline Oracles (1.125-129, 148-198); it's also in numerous rabbinic works (like the one referenced above), and other early Christian authors (1 Clement 7.6; Theophilus, Ad Autol. 3.19; Apoc. Paul 50). Not that the WT writers know this or are allowed to share it, if they do.
  

  Well, there's only one little problem with Josephus, and it's that Josephus was born in 37 CE, which means that writing about Noah being a preacher doesn't make his account any accurate. It just makes the fallacy older. He did not live any time near when Noah lived.

  Along the same lines, the Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek, ascribed to the Sibyls, prophets who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen books and eight fragments of Sibylline Oracles survive, in an edition of the 6th or 7th century. They are artistic work in a style that imitates that of the original Sibylline Books of the ancient Etruscans and Romans, which were burned by order of Roman general Flavius Stilicho in the 4th century. Again, the timing of the recollection only makes the fallacy older, not a reliable source of information.

  Same thing with the works of any writer who lived during or after the Christian era. In other words, just because it's old doesn't mean that it's true, or that that the author can attest to those events.