scratchme1010

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Posts by scratchme1010

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  11

  Is this a World Wide Pattern?

  by Slidin Fast in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hundreds baptized at jehovah's witness convention.

  at first sight this afican rc looks as though it's acheiving the quantity of baptisms of another era.

  348 is a substantilal number and impressive until you see the sunday attendance 28,300. so a baptism rate of 1.2%, in africa.

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  scratchme1010

  They are in fact doing well in third world countries, in developing nations and in places where there's not lot of technology infrastructure. As soon as the Internet catches up...
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  40

  How Are Ex Elders Treated In The Congregation?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are they pretty much left alone?

  are they respected for their having been elders at one time?

  are they treated like crap?.

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  scratchme1010

  Are they pretty much left alone? Are they respected for their having been elders at one time? Are they treated like crap?
  

  Depends, for what I remember. In the congregation where I grew up the elders hated each other and they were constantly involved in political fights over who was the most stuck up righteous hardcore JW. When one of them lost their "privilege" over something stupid like their son/daughter participating in some kind of extracurricular activity, the others were completely vicious.

  In other congregations the process was handled as if it was the disclosure of the nation's nuclear codes. In others it was more a laid back, careless event.
  
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  9

  Random thoughts of an ex-JW on a coffee break

  by StarTrekAngel in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  lately i have been finding myself doing a lot of thinking.

  not that i am smarter than the keurig coffee maker in my office, which lately has made me reevaluate the perception of my professional career.

  somewhere along the way between winding down my relationship with my now ex-boss and starting a new one with my current boss, i noticed that the machine complaints with a message on a touchscreen….

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  scratchme1010

  Thanks for sharing. I would have never been able to connect programming coffee machines, hell, and mistreatment of women they way you have. Great post. Thank you. Very insightful and fun to read.
  
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  60

  DPRK Asserts that USA has Declared War

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  north korea has taken president trump's recent statements as a declaration of war.

  pyongyang reserves the right to shoot down american planes even if they are not inside their airspace.. i listened to trump's speech to the un with dismay.

  it demonstrated a total lack of understanding of his enemy and the inevitable consequences of inflicting personal insults on kim jong-un.

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  scratchme1010

  I'm not surprised by any of it. Those two idiots, Kim Jong and Donald Trump deserve each other.
  
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  20

  What exactly is grieving gods Holy Spirit?

  by Chook in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i had an elder tell me once i was grieving holy spirit but i’m not sure how this dickhead knew..

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  scratchme1010

  What exactly is grieving gods Holy Spirit?
  

  One of the many made up terms and concepts that groups use to make people feel like they know something that others don't.
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  23

  1st it was happy at bethel now it also appears in the KH

  by joe134cd in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  https://youtu.be/lfddxzipzga.

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  scratchme1010

  Well, it's official. The world has just gone mad.
  
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  36

  Jehovahs witnesses that believe its "The Truth" vs JW's who know it isn't

  by Christian Gutierrez in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey guys!

  what do you think is the percentage of jw's believe that it is the truth and the percentage of those who think it might be some false or all false??

  ?.

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  scratchme1010

  Hey guys! What do you think is the percentage of JW's believe that it is the truth and the percentage of those who think it might be some false or all false???
  

  I took some time thinking about this before entering an answer. What I think is that the question is a little too broad. In order to accurately quantify this, I think one has to consider that many current JWs may not believe in certain things, but believe in others. It's not a believer/non-believer thing. So there might be a need to define what constitutes a person thinking that the WT is a "false religion". Will that be based on a percentage of the things that they teach that they accept versus the ones that they don't?
  

  Then there's the issue of believe vs action. Many people still follow their rules and act as JWs out of fear, not trusting their own doubts. I'm not referring to those who are truly PIMO. I'm talking about people who don't believe or have doubts, but are too afraid of acting on it, out of not trusting their own feelings. Will that be considered people who think it's a false religion? The same concept applies to measuring actions and activities. Will there be a percentage of practices that a person does according to what they teach versus the ones they don't?
  

  Also, in this very forum there are many people who are in various stages of leaving, some no longer attending meetings, but still holding on to some or all of the JW believes. A sample of those might increase the number of believers if you can count them as believers of that religion being "the truth", or otherwise counted as believers of it being a "false religion" because of where they are now in relationship to the WT.

  Then there's the issue of "true religion"/"false religion". If you ask me, all religions are false. They all have at least one believe I don't accept as right or truthful. I am sure that I am not the only person who thinks that way. There may be others that still consider it to be truthful in spite of things that they don't accept or understand. What exactly constitutes a "true/false" religion?

  Finally, there's the issue of the real reasons why people join religions in the first place, especially one like the JWs. According to research, the main reasons why people join and stay in a given religious organization have nothing to do with what the religion teaches. They are related to relationships with loved ones, or because many people feel safe from abusive families, or that's how they abstain from abusing drugs and alcohol, or to find a suitable mate. They care more about the structure and guidance that religion gives them (or the opportunities to socialize) than whether or not they actually believe (or even understand) what they teach. To me, it seems like by default, the vast majority of people can't care less about what they teach.
  

  Sorry if I'm being too analytical.
  
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  4

  White Christians Minority in U.S., Survey Says

  by jws in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is from earlier this month.

  the opening line of the article reads:.

  the share of americans who identify as white and christian has dropped below 50 percent, a transformation fueled by immigration and by growing numbers of people who reject organized religion altogether, according to a new survey released wednesday.. the article is at: https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-09-06/survey-white-christians-are-now-a-minority-of-us-population.

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  scratchme1010

  White Christians Minority in U.S., Survey Says
  

  
  
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  23

  Did you ever buy into 1975?

  by tornapart in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  for those of you that can remember.... did you really believe that armageddon was going to come in 1975?

  i was a child of the 60s, in my teens in the 70s and can honestly say that i never bought into it.

  i saw brothers and sisters selling their homes and moving into rented property.

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  scratchme1010

  For those of you that can remember.... did you really believe that Armageddon was going to come in 1975?
  

  What I find interesting about my born-again weirdo JW father, is that he never bought that 1975 nonsense. Looking back, I think that it had more to do with the fact that he became a JW in 1974, so he wanted/needed more time to do his born-again testimonial preaching act. It was too soon for him. We, his children (I was 9 back then) had no choice but to believe whatever crap he came up with, so aside from being too little to discern on my own, I just followed what my dad said.

  I remember him having heated arguments with the elders in the congregation over it, and making fun of this one elder who decided to become a pioneer in October 1975 and train himself to eat leaves (don't ask me, I was only 9). That elder had 13 children...
  

  ...Gee, sometimes I wonder how I manage to maintain some sanity!

  Anyway, I was only 9, was more interested in getting away with playing whatever I found cool at that age, so couldn't care less about the insane behavior or believes of the adults I was surrounded with at the time.
  
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  20

  Why the verb shun is missing from the JW lexicon

  by cognisonance in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so my parents when i confronted them about how unhappy i am at them shunning me, responded by saying: "you keep using the word shunning, we're not shunning you.

  "i am a bit confused how they can say that.

  i'm an ex-jw and an atheist.

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  scratchme1010

  Why don't JWs or the governing body use the word shun?
  

  Because if they use that word, they would be admitting that they are in fact shunning you. By not using it they convince themselves that they are not doing anything wrong, and therefore in their mind they are earning paradise on Earth by shunning you.
  

  One distinctive characteristic of cults and high-demand, controlling groups is the use of unique, made-up words and concepts. The only organization (that I and the researchers I know, know of) that uses the word "disfellowhip" is the WT and the JWs.

  Other groups use different, exotic sounding terms, concepts and words that they make up, to make their followers believe (a) that they are the only ones who have some kind of unique truth or knowledge of something no one else knows, and (b) that they are not taking harmful actions by not calling their actions for what they actually are. Followers buy into that nonsense and convince themselves that they are not doing something bad.

  Other words/concepts that I have heard other groups use are:

  1. De-foo: In one of those groups that word means that you are cleansing yourself from abuse from your "family of origin" (F.O.O.), what they are doing is actually shunning their family or "de-fooing" themselves. That group convinces all members that you were abused by your parents simply because you have parents, period. Every person has been abused according to them and therefore need to get "de-fooed".
  

  2. Out of righteousness: Another group uses this term to shun family members who don't follow everything and anything that their leadership says they should. They believe that they are the only ones in "the right path", and therefore anything and everything else is "out of righteousness" and should not be considered worthy of anything.
  

  3. Liberal: Some groups (and people) use this term to identify anything and everything that they don't like hearing from other people, or anything that represent things that makes them uncomfortable, or don't agree with. They use that term to dismiss and, therefore, shun people and things that they don't/can't hear about.

  In my files I have a collection of ridiculous made-up terms that religious, political and other groups that don't care about their people use to mask their harming, shunning and/or isolating people from their loved ones. I used them in a speech I gave on cults and other high-demand, controlling groups.
  

  The JWs use disfellowship, which is their made up term for shunning.