Do you have any material possessions that are of only sentimental value. I think these are our true material possessions...
I have a personal address book that I got in 1980. It has names and phone numbers of people I don't even remember.
and it was with great sadness that today my favorite pair of dirty denim, armani jeans were thrown in the bin.
they cost me £260 to purchase, and were value for money, as they were worn for many years and together we shared some wonderful occasions.they were stitched on numerous occasions, and loving repaired.
but today, and to my wife's relief i finally binned my amani jeans.
Do you have any material possessions that are of only sentimental value. I think these are our true material possessions...
I have a personal address book that I got in 1980. It has names and phone numbers of people I don't even remember.
an atheist (never jw) friend of mine is an rv for a jw who he is trying to deprogram.
he started this totally on his own and just telling me about it.
it's quite amusing what he comes up with.. point 1: why the s & m stuff with foreskins?
@rebel8:
OUCH!
What did they do with all those foreskins anyway?
I remember once getting hit by my father when I asked if that happened at the same time they were eating only Manna.
@Simon:
There's nothing funnier than religiots trying to rationalize the insanity that is genital mutilation.
As much as I agree (even love calling them religiots), there are instances where it is necessary (I'm talking about in today's society) for medical reasons. There's a condition called phimosis that may require it, and also when there's an infection of the penis.
Other than that, I agree, it's a rationalization for an ancient unnecessary practice.
i've always wondered about this.
when a person believes they made a spiritual connection with god and proclaims themselves as anointed, how do they determine whether this person is anointed or not.
does a group of elders look at the person's spiritual resume and check off the person's pioneer stats, bible knowledge, attendance, work ethic, personality, etc and then believe in the person if they have a good track record?
...how do they determine whether this person is anointed or not...
In short, they don't. That's why you see so many people in the entire range of schizoid constellation claiming to be anointed.
If I remember well, what I learned is that they "feel" that they have been anointed. It's something between their Jehovah and the person who claim to be anointed. The words of the WT on it is some kind of description of something they feel in their hearts.
Of course, such description was followed by all the threats of what will happen to those who claim to be and aren't.
i realize that wt has got a wind fall of cash through various means.
so my question is in the greater scheme of things is it really that much.
for example let's say with all their real estate and cash on hand they are worth about $20 billion dollars.
My two cents (no pun intended):
...If that was the case then that $20 billion could all be used up in less than 80 years...
That is only true if :
(a) they will stop having revenue for 80 years
(b) they will continue the printing business as it is now
(c) they will continue being a religious nonprofit organization
Right now things don't point in any of those three directions. They have a great established real estate business that they started with minimum investment since all the properties were given to them absolutely free (almost $0 investment for billions of dollars in real estate). That business isn't going away any time soon. That is, not to mention their current prime real estate that they currently have that in any event, they can sell and make more money.
All the re-branding and changes they are making may look like an event of epic proportions to active, indoctrinated JWs, but what they are doing is nothing other than what every other single company in the publishing business is doing, that is, repurposing their resources, changing directions, and pursuing ventures that are more lucrative.
Furthermore, non-profit organizations can own business. That's nothing new or unheard of.
"real men keep their promises.".
i remember that bumper sticker from the 90s when i was a teenager in texas.
i didn't know it was attached to a kind of cult.. this article is 14 years old, and may well have appeared on this site before, but i'd like to reference it anyway because i see parallels, of course.. whatever happened to the promise keepers?.
Very interesting. I knew about them but never made the connection between them and the stickers. However, I want to comment on this:
The donation–only strategy of fundraising was designed to attract a more economically and racially diverse group of men to PK conferences.
I understand the economically diverse part, but WTF about "racially". I think that was a little insulting to minorities.
my support is with the marchers in washington and around the country today.
i was raised through my formative years by my mother and sister while my father was out of the picture.
they gave me the compassion i have today.
Attention needs to be kept for however long it's necessary on the misogynistic nature of this man. What we are seeing is stirred Mama bears. You don't mess with them, and he has. I believe that what we're seeing is just the beginning. It's often been said that America is like a sleeping tiger, and that you tread at your own risk by shaking a stick at it. I believe the appropriate description at this time is that America is an angry Mama bear.
It's going to be a long four years. I have to admit, azor, at some point I was feeling like women were having it easier in this country than any other minority. This election made me change my mind about that, big time.
the sda's are also getting most of their growth in africa and latin america but plateauing or declining in europe and parts of the western world.. what's also interesting is the sda leadership fronts up and attempts to explain why there is decline in some areas of the world (albeit somewhat disingenously), eg, on the link below from 2014. but the watchtower leaders have never tried to give any explanation for why membership is dramatically falling away in the western world.
increasingly worried jws are instead turning to other sources of information to try and understand why the 'true religion' is contracting.. http://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2013-10-13/membership-nears-18-million-secretary-highlights-regions-of-growth-decline/.
But the Watchtower leaders have never tried to give any explanation for why membership is dramatically falling away in the western world. Increasingly worried JWs are instead turning to other sources of information to try and understand why the 'true religion' is contracting.
I know little about the SDAs. Not sure if they believe in some kind of abrupt ending of the world as we know it by divine intervention like the WT. To me that makes a difference in how they explain their numbers. The WT teachings mention that when the time for their great tribulation approaches, their numbers are supposed to dwindle since there will not be any people in the world left to be saved.
To me, that fact that they are doing anything to grow and keep making money instead of accepting what they themselves preach is a major sign that they don't even believe the nonsense they teach. Their response to less numbers is supposed to make them happy that their work is supposed to be coming to an end, but instead they keep reinventing themselves to keep the money coming.
interesting story i have a friend who is df but his wife still faithfully goes to meetings.
there's a single brother in the cong that is always flirting with his wife.
well at a recent meeting my df friend decided to show up to check this brother out.
Apparently this single Bro was under the impression that because her husband is df he could do and say whatever he wanted because the df Guy is not allowed to speak to anyone at kh .. he said after he pulled his foot out Bro button the sis near by freaked out and ran away.
That's just downright wrong. You don't need to be brainwashed to do that. He's an inappropriate jerk, JW or not.
in the first day elohim created light, and it was day and night in the first day.
then in the fourth day he created the sun, the moon and the stars.
of course, it did not actually happen, but what did the writer have in mind?.
Interesting catch. It's no surprise that they try to provide contrived explanations to accommodate for what they say. That is, not to mention that there's absolutely no correlation between any of that (even if it were 100% as they claim it is) and the ridiculous arbitrary rules and moral "standards" they impose on their crop.
while growing up in the cult one thing that always bothered me was the way witnesses could forecast jobs/occupations that we're going to vanish in their new world.. for example, we would usually discuss at saturday night wt studies how doctors, nurses, funeral directors, and soldiers would go the way of the dodo.
i always found discussions like that just so strange.. in hs, i mounted an unsuccessful effort to enter veterinary sciences, the big answer was always "why" it won't be needed after armageddon 😝😜.
does anyone have their own story about professions that the witnesses believe will not be needed after the big a ?.
does anyone have their own story about professions that the witnesses believe will not be needed after the big A ?
This brings memories of those ridiculous conversations about how things are going to be in paradise. Yes, I remember many saying that there are never going to need doctors.
In fact, I also remember my mother discouraging a woman she was giving bible studies from her daughter becoming a nurse because according to her there are more useful things to do that can be useful in the new order.