Posts by TMS

45

When selling was preaching ...

by Hecce in

i am going way, way back.

history reveals that in the beginning the wt was just a publishing house, selling books and magazines; over the years it evolved into what it is today..

the placement of the original publications was mostly done thru sales people masquerading as preachers.

TMS

Hecce: "the pioneer’s cost was like an allowance to help them with the transportation and some other expenses in their ministry."

Indeed. Moving from the Pacific Northwest, where "placements" were difficult, to the Texas/Mexico border in the mid-60's, I definitely had more pocket change. "Truth" and "Evolution" books cost pioneers a nickle and magazines a penny. The key was having adequate literature in Spanish. When you consider gas was 25 cents a gallon and Corona Extra about 20 cents in Mexico, life was good.

26

Living as Christians at the C.L.A.M this week

by Truthexplorer in

this weeks meeting under the section - living as 'christians', starts off with 'repentance makes a difference', which is a talk given by an elder taken from w06 11/15 27-28 par 7-9. in a nut shell it discusses those who have been disfellowshipped and then show repentance.

it then goes on to discuss reinstatement and how a certain amount of time must pass by before this can take place.

it makes the following point in the paragraph.. 'a disfellowshipped person is not automatically accepted back into the congregation after a certain amount of time has passed.

TMS

In 1995 three disfellowshipped young men in their early 20's were given appointments for individual reinstatement hearings scheduled just 15 minutes apart. They all arrived at the Kingdom Hall in separate cars, not interacting in the parking lot.

As the first young man exited the hall after just a few minutes, he gave a thumbs up to the other two.

Within an hour, all three had been reinstated.

Had all three miraculously demonstrated repentance at the same time? How did the committee know that the hearings would be so brief that they could schedule them that close together? Isn't the operation of holy spirit wonderful?

59

Would I lie to you?

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

given recent posts on the forum and discussion, maybe we could play this game: would i lie to you?

in the uk we have this tv programme where minor celebrities tell weird or embarrassing stories about themselves and the rest of the participants have to guess if it is a true story or made up.

when the others have voted then the person reveals if the story is true or false.

TMS

1. A group of group of 15 or so young JW young men were at a playground basketball court. The group was evenly mixed between black and white brothers, but several white brothers languished on the sidelines, not being picked to play. One tall white brother had enough of this and at the conclusion of one game shouted "blacks versus whites!"

Quickly, two teams took the court, entering into an overly competitive game of b-ball which was eventually one by the blacks, but not without a couple loud disagreements.

2. At what we used to call a District Convention, a brother in his mid-twenties approached me. "You know, TMS, I was appointed a department head at this assembly, well actually, another brother and I were both given departments. I don't think it's right. All we did was lay carpet in the circuit overseer's RV and we get the appointments. I'm not accepting it. I've never even been an assistant before. I don't think this is right. We shouldn't have received these assignments for doing a favor for the circuit overseer."

59

Would I lie to you?

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

given recent posts on the forum and discussion, maybe we could play this game: would i lie to you?

in the uk we have this tv programme where minor celebrities tell weird or embarrassing stories about themselves and the rest of the participants have to guess if it is a true story or made up.

when the others have voted then the person reveals if the story is true or false.

TMS

slimboyfat: "TMS I'd like the second story to be true. Good story."

Actually, that was the phony, fabricated, but "feel good" account.

59

Would I lie to you?

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

given recent posts on the forum and discussion, maybe we could play this game: would i lie to you?

in the uk we have this tv programme where minor celebrities tell weird or embarrassing stories about themselves and the rest of the participants have to guess if it is a true story or made up.

when the others have voted then the person reveals if the story is true or false.

TMS

1. As a precocious little Witness boy, I got got some early opportunities. During the weekly TMS the school overseer asked for a volunteer to give the weekly #1 or so-called instruction talk. When none of the adult male members responded, the brother was forced to recognize my 11 year old hand. I gave my first instruction talk on the book of Esther, based on the book: Theocratic Aid to Kingdom Publishers.

2. As a member of a judicial committee, we informed a sister of our decision to disfellowship. She immediately broke down, imploring the individual elders: "How was I not repentant?" I reported the incident immediately, confessing to my husband. I haven't slept since then, praying to Jehovah over and over again."

We asked the sister to step outside for a few moments while we discussed things. The committee of elders decided that she indeed was showing repentance and reversed their decision.

155

Survey: How long were you in the cult vs what year you were baptized

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

hi people,.

i want as much data as possible on the effect of the internet on the time captured by the cult.. please answer the three following questions about yourself or about someone you know (for example, if your parents or grandparents were jw's and left).

1) were you raised as a jw, or did you convert?.

TMS

born in. . so to speak

baptized 3-9-1957

departed in 1998 after 50 years of indoctrination

30

Is this the earliest WT reference to 1975?

by Splash in

i thought that the 1975 thing started in the mid to late 60's, but it seems the seeds were sown two decades earlier.is this the earliest reference to it?.

18 how many today are awake to the fact that the lord christ jesus, by his resurrection of the faithful bride members that slept in death, is taking his "bride" unto his father's house and the marriage of the lamb has begun' .... they do not say, 'it is a long time yet to the wind-up, and, according to the present understanding of bible chronology, six thousand years of human history will end first in the coming seventies and till then it is a long stretch to serve the lord continuously and undividedly.'.

... they keep their eye and heart on jehovah's kingdom, and not on the time clock.

TMS

My Watchtower non-education is rapidly fading, but. . . . . "Aid to Bible Understanding" in the article on chronology mentioned 1974 as the likely end of 6,000 years of human history. I guess the authors missed the cardinal/ordinal year miscue. "All Scripture is Inspired of God and Beneficial," published in 1963, in its chapter on chronology mentions the difficulty of knowing how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before procreating, thus starting the so-called 6,000 years.

Doesn't all this shit sound quaint, archaic and ludicrous now?

73

Everybody loves Raymond

by Saintbertholdt in

a while ago the user vinman started a forum thread called: "ray franz was an idiot".

the reaction to it was quite negative but i have to admit that the title of that thread was intriguing to me.

by nature i am an iconoclast.

TMS

I definitely think Ray was involved in some sort of power struggle and lost

It's possible to get sucked into such a struggle by simply expressing an alternate viewpoint. The less-than-well-intentioned "brothers" come at you with such force, vindictiveness and fake righteous indignation, that you feel compelled to "fight fire with fire." Not favoring a Kingdom Hall remodel, for example, quickly becomes "disrespect for a traveling overseer" or worse, the FDS.

I appreciate the counterpoint on Ray even though I don't totally agree. I'm pretty certain he sweated getting his documents out of Brooklyn, though, as I would in that situation.

48

Any Senior Citizens, Retirees here?

by AlwaysBusy in

jw
friends

howdy....well, what do you think?

of everything?

is it all crazy?

TMS

Able to retire 11 years ago at 55.

Spent at least 3 years reliving my JW life in my dreams, sometimes angrily. These dreams(nightmares?) still recur, although less frequently.

My 50 years of JW life was not a total waste, as it gave me a unique skill set.

I started a blog several years ago on a whim. Somehow, it got several million pageviews. I live off SS, a small pension and Google adsense.

Worked a few years as a volunteer with CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates. . . . learned a lot.

Learned a great deal from this website and the one before it. . . . . especially during those heart-wrenching first years of making the break.

At peace

25

The Watchtower Corporation has paid off CNN...

by Calebs Airplane in

rick mclean gets only 15 minutes of fame.... no mention of how the watchtower protects pedophiles.... http://www.themasonictrowel.com/books/the_hidden_powe_behind_freemasonry/files/chapter_19.htm.

TMS

A few things:

A subliminal message showing JW's calling at a home. The householder comes to the door with her young daughter. The fact that potentially a pedophile could be at your doorstep, close to your young ones was conveyed.

Also, the victim, now an adult, referred to "the church," indicating she's no longer a JW.

The father of the victim stated that his ideal scenario would be for McLean to be caught and spend life in prison. He said fellow prisoners "know how" to deal with people like that. IMHO, an active JW would likely think that, but not say it on national tv.

Was is that mother that said the incidents had "torn the family apart?"

My guess is that the family are no longer JWs. Although it did not come up in the story, at one point, they were likely approached about protecting Jehovah's name.

Also, one more thing. How did McLean have time to sell his possessions before being indicted? That indicates to me a possible delay in reporting the crime.