having recently read orwells 1984, i was impressed with how he understood that both politicians and people abuse language.
this further confirmed to me how the w.t had deceived me by using words to distort reality.
the book 1984, also contains many other great thoughts of george orwell.. of course there have been many other great thinkers, buddah, darwin, freud, einstein and marx come to mind.
If not Hitchins, then probably one of those who inspired him - Bertrand Russell.
The Rebel - I don't think it necessarily goes that great thinking and correctness go hand in hand. The obvious example that comes to mind is Christopher Hitchens' brother Peter. While being raised in the same household and debatably an equally thoughtful person, the two brothers differed fiercely on many matters.
this was a famous case here in the uk, based around the experiences of matt barrie (aka hobo ken).
we've uploaded the audio recording of his judicial committee meeting with the glasgow bishopbriggs congregation elders and you can listen/download the (long) unedited file here:.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1pajlf7duc5zgh/matt%20judicial%20raw.mp3.
jambon1:
The above files aren't accessible.
Pretty please.
I think I heard it on his blog/podcast here but the links to that audio also don't work anymore.
I think there's transcripts here: https://jehovahswitnesstrial.wordpress.com/tag/matt-barrie/
a catchy little number this one!
curiously, this little known christmas song by perry como was actually the theme tune to the odessa file movie back in the 70's.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l1uddoh-yu.
so what have you got?.
i'm quite new to this site, & have realised some members have a union jack symbol under their avatar.
i don't.. could we have a "show of hands" from any uk members?
i've already found several by reading older posts..
an updated list of documents relating to the charity commission investigation into watchtower of britain and jehovah's witnesses are available on jw leaks.. jw leaks.
original charity commission press release.
press release.
Yeah I noticed that too SBF - seems the Goddard inquiry really isn't going far enough.
Perhaps the Charity Commission will have more teeth.
with all the talk about the org's policies and failures regarding child sexual abuse being publically exposed in australia, i thought that it may be a good time to highlight this... i apologise if this has already been discussed, but on the 9th of july the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in england and wales was opened.
here is some information regarding it's aims.. "about the inquiry.
the inquiry offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine the extent to which institutions and organisations in england and wales have taken seriously their responsibility to protect children.. the inquiry will investigate a wide range of institutions including:.
Sadly not seeing anything that could involve the JW's on the list that came out today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34940723
It seems the inquiry really doesn't go far enough at all.
so i'm sure a good number of us saw the chart that i believe the poster splash put on another thread of figures since 1990 regarding how many baptized and % of increase each year .
i started analyzing it ( and i know some referred to it briefly on the other thread ) and guessing of reasons the % of increase didn't match the number of newly baptized.
and of course common sense tells us that either jw's leave the cult each year through death, fading into inactivity, or getting dfed.
The global numbers give some insight, but only up to a point. The country-by-country numbers will be even more fascinating - there could well be substantial decreases in already weakening countries that is being offset by bigger increases in developing territories,
The best result would actually be big swings on both sides - a huge decrease in already weakening countries, even with gaining increase in developing territories.
Even if the developing territories are increasing further, they don't bring in the cashflow that the WTBTS needs. Meanwhile a few percent decrease here and there in the top 10 countries should ring alarm bells for the leaders and perhaps even the awakening rank-and-file.
so ofs got to comment again this morning and thought the comment might bring a smile to someone.the second half question on par.
15 was, "we cannot actually see jesus, sohow can we look intently at him?".
ofs commented, "of course, we cannot literally see jesus as peter did.
I've heard of this but never actually seen it. Does anyone have a link?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erWV8YnTFto&feature=youtu.be&t=17m54s
at the agm this year geoffrey jackson identified the "man with a secretary's inkhorn," of ezekiel chapter 9 as being jesus christ.
this was declared an "adjustment" from the previous understanding that the organisation used to believe that this "man" was "the annointed.".
has the society always taught that the "man with the secretary's inkhorn" was someone other than jesus - or is this a situation where back in the mists of time the bible students understood him to be jesus, and then rutherford (or someone) identified him as "the annointed," and now they have reverted back to their initial belief?.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.
Yeah, you mean that big cash grab earlier this year where they got the congregations to empty their bank accounts?
Did that money just dissolve? Are people just forgetting about that?
