“i know the org has made mistakes and failed in some areas but it is still better than christendom”.
ugggghhhhhh.
I faced the same comments.My reasoning was Mistakes are forgiven ,Sins are punished !
How many mistakes does one cover up? How many can be counted as errors of imperfect men? 10, 50, 100 ! What about over 1000 (This in relation to the ARC) ! Surely this many cannot be an overlook; errors ; mistakes ! When does weakness become wickedness?
And this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Any thinking person will react to that favorrably coz my friends did and are now Pomo.
Zing
so i am still trying to help my husband realize ttatt.
i have asked him some questions .
.. “are you okay with jehovah killing your mom, sister, nephew (non-witnesses) at armageddon?”.
I personally find that in helping someone out ,one has to be very patient and subtle. Not like a canon ball-barraging them with all that is wrong with the organization. Ofcourse different strokes for different folks but in my friends (2) case this approach has been true in helping the friend out. When I first mentioned something(sorry cant remember what it was), I got slapped in the face with(not literally) "Are you becoming an apostate? that is seriously bordering on apostate speech !"
I was shocked and afraid too coz I was a fresh PIMO.I could not believe that my best friend would not even give me a chance and reason with me,leave alone correct my thinking if I have gone astray of the truth ! I immediately excused myself and left the matter there and apologized.
Next I only brought another subject up at the KH when a letter was read about signing a pledge of money every month. I just asked pretending not to clearly understand how it was voluntary,....somewhere on those lines. The person willingly obliged to discuss this so I took th opportunity to discuss different scenarios of different families in the cong and how this seems unreasonable n all. the person was happy to see my point too and possibly a seed was sown.I dont know coz I cant read minds.
Next after quite a while I mentioned about a child abuse case going on in a nearby cong with a brother involved. The person did not indulge me too much but was willing to hear my reasoning out .How can elders close thier eyes to this,sweep under the carpet; all children at risk if not taken proper action etc etc. My friend did not answer much but could see my line of reasoning.and boy I quoted one or two scriptures in order to make the person feel that I was just not fathoming all this and I was actually discussing with my friend for explanation.
Nothing much came out of this one but after a month or so when my friend was working with the PO of our cong , he mentioned about the same child abuse case and discussed in more detail with the friend.That must have struck another seed somehwere and I assume my friend seemed to start to believein me; what I had shared in the past with my friend; my confusions and doubts too. Immediately after, I got a phone call to meet for lunch. I was scared that my friend had ratted me out to the PO (Who is PIMI). We met and my friend then discussed what the PO said and then my friend wanted to see where I got the info from. Mind you I only showed the news article nothing else. This opened my friends eyes some.
Then on every time a letter was read at the hall ie merge of KH'S; The loans canceleld etc I started discussing what was not sounding right at all. Things that any thinking person would question. If my friend could answer my questions , it sounded reasonable or not I would let things be ,I would not counter attack or counter question,Thereby laying a foundation of trusting my friend as a sounding board and leaning on my friend.
I would say this was a long process of patiently biding ones time and keeping emotions in check .
In a few months the one who believed strongly in Jehovah, now has serious doubts and makes statements like if God exists then.....! I am happy to say that I have never influenced my friend just pointed out my doubts, why I struggled to accept, beieve, trust the organization that is all. If my friend has answers then to enlighten me and lead me to the right path .
Now my friends are both POMO. So my suggestion is not to try to steer too hard or else the car can careen out of control and there be a lot of damage and you do not want that. please be patient,this cant be hurried.
Sorry this was long but not long enough coz it took ages to come to this stage for me. I do not try to influence anyone, just nudge them to start thinking for themselves and whatever they conclude in or out will be thier decision toatlly and I will respect that.
Zing
click here for source of material, governing body letters.
i highlight only these words when studying my wt.. buzz words used in watchtower publications.
the next time that you read a book or magazine published by the watchtower bible and tract society, see how many of these buzz words and phrases you come across.this clearly shows .
The only difference between my coffee and their magazines is :
I asked for coffee ! (get the pun)
Zing
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just stumbled upon this .found it so appropriate for the jdubs n wbts ,so sharing.. zing.
Oh boy! the word Sheep has taken a whole new meaning after this for me.
Wake up call for all "SheepLike" ones!
Zing
many of us know that watch tower (yes, two words in this case) has issued a subpoena to reddit to try to gain darkspilver's identity due to accusations of copyright infringement:.
tl;dr: on april 9, watch tower filed a response to the eff's motion to quash (filed march 26) regarding the subpoena submitted to reddit in an attempt to find /u/darkspilver's identity.. the wt response is publicly available here as a pdf, from the site court listener.. a number of other documents relating to the case are available on the same site, here.. and the eff's motion to quash is available on the eff's website here.. details: as i'm sure many of us know, watch tower (yes, two words in this case) has issued a subpoena to reddit to try to gain /u/darkspilver's identity due to accusations of copyright infringement.
specifically, watch tower is claiming copyright infringement for two things: first, darkspilver posted the back page of the november 2018 watchtower which was an article entitled "what gift can we give to jehovah?” which explained how to donate.
Many of us know that Watch Tower (yes, two words in this case) has issued a subpoena to Reddit to try to gain Darkspilver's identity due to accusations of copyright infringement:
Tl;dr: On April 9, Watch Tower filed a response to the EFF's motion to quash (filed March 26) regarding the subpoena submitted to Reddit in an attempt to find /u/Darkspilver's identity.
The WT response is publicly available here as a PDF, from the site Court Listener.
A number of other documents relating to the case are available on the same site, here.
And the EFF's motion to quash is available on the EFF's website here.
Details: As I'm sure many of us know, Watch Tower (yes, two words in this case) has issued a subpoena to Reddit to try to gain /u/Darkspilver's identity due to accusations of copyright infringement. Specifically, Watch Tower is claiming copyright infringement for two things: First, Darkspilver posted the back page of the November 2018 Watchtower which was an article entitled "What Gift Can We Give to Jehovah?” which explained how to donate. Secondly, Darkspilver posted an internal organization document regarding the handling of information after the passing of the European GDPR law which was "not intended for wide-spread public dissemination" according to Watch Tower.
Edit: My favorite quote from the Watch Tower response so far:
If widespread unauthorized reproduction and display of Watch Tower’s works online were permitted, there would be virtually no need to visit Watch Tower’s website – JW.ORG. Diverting traffic away from Watch Tower’s website could result in a significant decline in readership of Watch Tower’s content .
Edit 2: The paragraph below, again from Watch Tower's April 9 filing, is probably the most trickily-worded section I've found yet. I'll explain afterwards:
Watch Tower is not Darkspilver’s local church and has no ability to excommunicate him from his local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. See Polidoro Decl., at ¶10. Not a single person that has been the subject of a Watch Tower-sought DMCA subpoena has been excommunicated from their local church as result of Watch Tower obtaining their identity from a DMCA subpoena. Id. Watch Tower has never publicly disclosed the names of the individuals who were the subject of DMCA subpoenas. Id. Some of the subjects of Watch Tower’s DMCA subpoenas who were active Jehovah’s Witnesses before they became the subject of a Watch Tower DMCA subpoena, remained active Jehovah’s Witnesses after Watch Tower received identifying information about them.
Statements I take issue with:
WT is not DS's local church and cannot excommunicate him. This is strictly correct, although WT absolutely exercises notable control over local congregations and can by all means influence this action to be taken.
Not a single person has been DF'd as a result of WT obtaining their ID through a DMCA subpoena. The act of WT obtaining their identity isn't what gets them DF'd. WT sending that identity to a local congregation certainly could have that effect, though.
WT has never publicly disclosed the names of DMCA subpoena recipients. I don't think anybody ever expected them to, nor would it be required in order for DS to get DF'd.
Regarding DMCA subpoena recipients who continued as Witnesses: If such subpoenas were issued to Witnesses who chose to use the JW.org logo on merchandise or websites, of course they wouldn't be DF'd. They just got overzealous in trying to spread the "good news".
Zing
just posting these links for no particular reason :).
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/teenagers/whiteboard-animations/alcohol-think-past-drink/#?insight[search_id]=636e164a-d628-4c53-abb8-54b6c3767de6&insight[search_result_index]=2.
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/teenagers/ask/drinking-alcohol/#?insight[search_id]=863b31b6-ec9b-4c6d-b7a5-e7ee62b353c2&insight[search_result_index]=13.
@ Nonjwspouse
Thank you , I enjoy pics more than writing a lot of words.Pictures say a 1000 words always.
Zing
another class action from canada.. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/jehovahs-witness-sexual-abuse-1.4532041.
zing.
@ Careful
it seems unlikely. According to the judge it would be too huge a group to deal with.
If anyone is on here from Canada ,they might be able to update us ,give us additional info.
Zing
another class action from canada.. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/jehovahs-witness-sexual-abuse-1.4532041.
zing.
Another class action from canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/jehovahs-witness-sexual-abuse-1.4532041
Zing
hilarious,enjoy.found on reddit.
this should set the mood for the weekend !.
zing.
Sketchy Scotchie in the mall !
Zing
just posting these links for no particular reason :).
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/teenagers/whiteboard-animations/alcohol-think-past-drink/#?insight[search_id]=636e164a-d628-4c53-abb8-54b6c3767de6&insight[search_result_index]=2.
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/teenagers/ask/drinking-alcohol/#?insight[search_id]=863b31b6-ec9b-4c6d-b7a5-e7ee62b353c2&insight[search_result_index]=13.
