A member-in-good-standing inside Jehovah's Witnesses organization is certainly
not at liberty to voice any angst, stress, or criticism of any sort.
Why? There is no individuality and the fear of "bringing reproach" is horrifying.
I speak as a former member from association beginning at age 12 in 1959, baptized in 1963, imprisoned in 1967 (conscientious objector), paroled in 1969, a full-time pioneer (door to door ministry for one year and a half) and disfellowshipped in 1980.
The corollary of this is obvious, of course--a former member would hardly be a former member unless considerable stress, disappointment, heartbreak, and anger issues had brought about such a reversal.
Consequently, between the cone of silence on one end and complete antipathy on the other end--a researcher won't be able to find a middle ground to calibrate what "normal" would look like.
I wish you well, by the way
Terry Walstrom
[email protected]
TerryWalstrom
JoinedPosts by TerryWalstrom
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Research Opportunity
by researchstudentsophie inmy name is sophie mueller, and i’m currently in the class ap research.
the aim of ap research is to have students enter into an academic conversation that exists about a specific topic or issue.
for my research project, i have chosen to evaluate the social stress levels, or sense of belonging, within members of the jehovah’s witnesses community, due to my personal background with the religion.
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TerryWalstrom
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Does any other denomination change Doctrines as often as JW's?
by TerryWalstrom inwould i err in stating most religions and denominations have set doctrines?and yet, the watchtower's version/rendition of christianity is riven with contradictions which stem from changing predictions, policies, doctrines, and interpretations seemingly adrift from foundation or principle.wouldn't you think the constant upheaval, sifting, churn, and reorganization bespeaks whim, mood, uncertainty, and wilful speculation more than divine guidance?there's something endemically jittery and insecure about this religion which i would opine has more than a little to do with unstable mental affect than mere whimsy.what's your take on this?.
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TerryWalstrom
Rank and file members look forward to "new light" as if it were a box of chocolates instead of stark proof the previous "understanding" (Ha!) was dead wrong.
The word ADJUSTMENT comes to mind this way...
If a picture of Jeebus hanging on your wall hangs a bit wonky this way or that...
You ADJUST by slightly moving it.
Jehovah's Witnesses' GB remove the picture from the wall and replace it with an
Elvis on black velvet in garish oil. -
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Why HADRIAN built a wall to M.R.G.A. (Make Rome Great Again)
by TerryWalstrom inwhy hadrian built a wallto m.r.g.a (make rome great again).
it was and ever will be known as hadrian's wall.. hadrian’s wall stretched across northern england, cutting britain in two.built in the 120’s a.d.. the dimensions of hadrian’s wall are staggering.hadrian’s wall was more than just a “wall”.
it was a complex of forts, lookout towers, and castles.. when new, the height of hadrian’s wall reached 20 ft. (6.096 meters).. the wall was 10 ft. thick (3.048 meters)._____background.
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TerryWalstrom
This last September I visited Castile-La Mancha, Spain in Toledo.
Of all the sites (and sights) I'd seen in London, Paris, Lourdes, Giverny, and Madrid--for some peculiar reason
I was most gobsmacked standing at the foot of the Roman aqueduct which (the guide, who was herself an archeology student, told us) ran nine miles from a mountain crest to the castle itself.
Of course, it looks not only impossible but infeasible that bare hands and brains conceived and created such a miracle.
The angle of decline was reckoned with such astounding methodology the flowing water would not over-brim and slop out before it reached its proper destination!
The duct was stone upon stone without mortar!
Even the arches have no mortar-- the stones squeeze each other and hold in place.
The hand-hewn stones blew my mind.
The ducts disappear UNDERNEATH the street with manholes along the way for shopkeepers to dip in as needed.
These were built between the 2nd and 1st-century B.C.E.
These Roman engineers and builders were F-ing amazing!
I was in Seville and Toledo on a guided bus tour.My friend Ron and I had the best steak of our lives in Toledo btw
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Why HADRIAN built a wall to M.R.G.A. (Make Rome Great Again)
by TerryWalstrom inwhy hadrian built a wallto m.r.g.a (make rome great again).
it was and ever will be known as hadrian's wall.. hadrian’s wall stretched across northern england, cutting britain in two.built in the 120’s a.d.. the dimensions of hadrian’s wall are staggering.hadrian’s wall was more than just a “wall”.
it was a complex of forts, lookout towers, and castles.. when new, the height of hadrian’s wall reached 20 ft. (6.096 meters).. the wall was 10 ft. thick (3.048 meters)._____background.
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TerryWalstrom
This is an interesting documentary on the so-called HISTORY channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_i2xnf1Dpk&t=691s -
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Why HADRIAN built a wall to M.R.G.A. (Make Rome Great Again)
by TerryWalstrom inwhy hadrian built a wallto m.r.g.a (make rome great again).
it was and ever will be known as hadrian's wall.. hadrian’s wall stretched across northern england, cutting britain in two.built in the 120’s a.d.. the dimensions of hadrian’s wall are staggering.hadrian’s wall was more than just a “wall”.
it was a complex of forts, lookout towers, and castles.. when new, the height of hadrian’s wall reached 20 ft. (6.096 meters).. the wall was 10 ft. thick (3.048 meters)._____background.
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TerryWalstrom
WHY HADRIAN BUILT A WALL
to M.R.G.A (Make Rome Great Again)______
It was and ever will be known as HADRIAN'S WALL.
Hadrian’s wall stretched across northern England, cutting Britain in two.
Built in the 120’s A.D.The dimensions of Hadrian’s wall are staggering.
Hadrian’s Wall was more than just a “wall”.
It was a complex of Forts, lookout towers, and castles.When new, the height of Hadrian’s wall reached 20 ft. (6.096 meters).
The wall was 10 ft. thick (3.048 meters).
_____
BackgroundThe Roman army had conquered “most” (but not all) of Britain by conquering local tribes.
Hadrian’s wall represents determination--Roman know-how and determination.It bespoke: “Stay Out or become Civilized!"
In its time, Hadrian’s Wall was a Wonder of the World.Can you imagine the local tribesmen wide-eyed and staring at this project unfold, slack-jawed as their world transformed before their eyes?
Brick and mortar?
Arch gates and tiles?
WTF!Believe it or not, Roman writers and historians at the time shrugged indifferently and stated the wall’s purpose was to seal off the “untamed” from the civilized.
(i.e. Ruffians from Sophisticates).Rome had commenced colonizing Britain 80 years earlier in 43 A.D. under Emperor Claudius.
Surely it was just a matter of "mopping up."
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Roman RuleThe southern parts of Britain (such as England) quickly came under control willingly.
Rome was the first power in history to “make you an offer you can’t refuse.”
Accept Roman rule and you can keep your local rulers, religions, customs and your enemies become ours.
The British “upper class” quickly jumped at the chance to enjoy the Roman lifestyle knowing full well they were protected by the greatest military power on Earth.Ah, but what about north of England?
What about those pesky Scots??In the land of the Scots, fiercely independent warrior tribes gave the middle finger to so-called “civilization.”
Scotland rejected Rome’s rule and stood ready to resist.Rome won battle after battle but could never keep what they conquered under “control.”
Ruling a Scot was like herding cats.
In fact, it was such a pain in the ass dealing with the obstinate, cantankerous, uncouth tribes of Scotland--Rome retreated to the south and commenced walling the buggers in!
The B-wordRomans came up with a scathing epithet to hurl Ad Hominem against the Scots.
The word they hurled in contempt was: BARBARIANS!
(To a Roman, civilized living was the elite way to exist and anything less was barbaric.
The word Barbarian comes from the sound of blubbering nonsense (“Baa-baa” like a sheep) which the Romans heard when Scots were speaking.
Yes, to a civilized Roman citizen, Scots were a basket of deplorable sheep who blather uttered nonsense.
(Damned foreigners!)Romans may have looked down their noses at “barbarians” but they also feared them.
Romans, as a people, were small and short in stature.
In Roman literature, the taller, menacing warriors of the north of England were scary dudes!
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M.R.G.A.Claudius was succeeded by Emperor Hadrian who came calling on the troops to determine why the conquering standoff had stagnated (like today’s American troops in the Middle East.)
Hadrian determined to set the Roman Empire on a revolutionary new course.
Hadrian espoused his plan to rein in a sprawling, conquering warfare as a thing of the past.You could say, Emperor Hadrian wanted to
M.R.G.A. for the S.P.Q.R.(Make Rome Great Again) instead of pouring men and money into endless unprofitable skirmishes and quagmires.
As the poet Virgil had scribed:
“The gods have given Rome empire without end.”
Yet, Hadrian declared, “Enough is too much.”
(i.e. Get it all under manageable control and make the best of what we have.)Emperor Hadrian made a tour of his empire to see for himself where hot spots needed shoring up.
After all, an Empire isn’t really an empire if it couldn’t control its borders.
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Problem = SolutionWhile in Britain, Hadrian got an earful of complaints from his soldiers.
Archeologists have found actual letters written by soldiers describing the barbarians and their feelings about having to deal with them.
“We hate these Britons; the won’t stand their ground and fight you man to man! They’ll take a hack at you, throw their javelin and then--run off and hide behind a tree!”
Yes, hit and run strikes were seen as cowardly because the extremely efficient Roman soldier was only equipped (brilliantly) to fight a formal engagement with regular armies in standard variety formations.
Work began in 122 A.D. immediately after Emperor Hadrian’s tour of Britain.
“He came to Britain. He reformed many things. He built a wall--the first to do so, to separate the Romans from the Barbarians.” (Ancient biography of Hadrian.)
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Master Architect or Know-it-all?Who was the architect? Hadrian considered himself a great architect and saw himself as the great guardian of Rome’s building tradition.
Born in 76 A.D. just as the Coliseum in Rome was under construction, Hadrian had observed the feats of engineering with awe and determined to study and become a significant builder one day. He would continue his designing and building throughout his reign as emperor.The inscription on Hadrian’s wall is more than symbolic. It was his personal ‘brainchild’.
It was the very symbol of his “M.R.G.A.” policy:
Protection of the borders, no more wars, peaceful development, and keeping uncivilized ruffians out.Infrastructure was more important than endless conquests.
He was known as a “know-it-all.”
Hadrian’s ego was larger than life. To criticize him was to risk your personal fate.Once while redesigning the Temple of Venus in Rome, Hadrian asked the opinion of a renown architect, Apollodorus of Damascus ( a Syrian-Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor from Damascus, Roman Syria, who flourished during the 2nd century AD).
Apollodorus wrote back to Hadrian telling him there was “...a problem with the statues of the goddesses portrayed as sitting on thrones in the temple.”
Apollodorus seemingly mocked Hadrian for making them so out-of-proportion to the temple itself….”If these goddesses ever stood to walk out of the temple, they’d smash their head against the ceilings!”
It was written as a sarcastic joke on Emperor Hadrian which was as one architect to another, not to be taken in offense.
Hadrian didn’t see the joke as evidenced by the order to have Apollodorus executed immediately.
(So great a loss to Rome would this be--it was pointed out--the sentence was softened to mere banishment.)
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MotiveWas fear of the Barbarians the sole motive behind Hadrian and his 73 mile (118 km) wall?
After all--4 legions in Britain meant 4 X 5,000 troops--surely more than enough to deal with incursion, and insurrection by hit-and-run Scots, right?
Historians have noticed and rethought the matter.
The design of the wall, its length and disposition would belie a greater concern beyond ruffians screaming “baa-baa-” as they hurl a javelin and duck beyond a tree.What then?
Control of human traffic.
Cross Frontier Trade, specifically.Revenue from trade with foreign powers was quite the profitable enterprise for Rome.
Without proper controls--what was to stop the trade of Roman Weapons with potential enemies without
Sophisticated technology?Historians suggest further--Hadrian wanted a mammoth symbol of his MEGALOMANIAC SCHEME to impress people! To place his “brand name” on a magnificent achievement that would last into the millennia.
This wall of his would tell future rulers, governors, citizens of posterity that Hadrian had been the first in history to say: “Here is the limit of empire, and this wall is my Trump card.”
After all, it is the person who builds great things and places his name upon those edifices who lives on in history--isn’t it?
Why else would we call it--HADRIAN’S WALL?
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Does any other denomination change Doctrines as often as JW's?
by TerryWalstrom inwould i err in stating most religions and denominations have set doctrines?and yet, the watchtower's version/rendition of christianity is riven with contradictions which stem from changing predictions, policies, doctrines, and interpretations seemingly adrift from foundation or principle.wouldn't you think the constant upheaval, sifting, churn, and reorganization bespeaks whim, mood, uncertainty, and wilful speculation more than divine guidance?there's something endemically jittery and insecure about this religion which i would opine has more than a little to do with unstable mental affect than mere whimsy.what's your take on this?.
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TerryWalstrom
Would I err in stating most religions and denominations have set Doctrines?
And yet, the WatchTower's version/rendition of Christianity is riven with contradictions which stem from changing predictions, policies, doctrines, and interpretations seemingly adrift from foundation or principle.
Wouldn't you think the constant upheaval, sifting, churn, and reorganization bespeaks whim, mood, uncertainty, and wilful speculation more than Divine Guidance?
There's something endemically jittery and insecure about this religion which I would opine has more than a little to do with unstable mental affect than mere whimsy.
What's your take on this? -
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Historical snapshot of how Watch Tower manipulated $$
by TerryWalstrom incharles t. russell, age of 13, joined the congregational church (dumped presbyterian).. he went (like girl scouts are sent out with cookies to sell) door to door to raise money for the congregational church.. attitude as a youthrussell hated fundraising.
he had to ask poor people to part with their money.
he said he felt he was "fleecing the flock.".
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TerryWalstrom
Believe it or not, THIS Discussion group's back catalog of posts contains extraordinary resources posted over many years by some excellent researchers.
Take a look at this one, for example:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/53692/wtbs-financial-empire-tip-iceberg -
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Historical snapshot of how Watch Tower manipulated $$
by TerryWalstrom incharles t. russell, age of 13, joined the congregational church (dumped presbyterian).. he went (like girl scouts are sent out with cookies to sell) door to door to raise money for the congregational church.. attitude as a youthrussell hated fundraising.
he had to ask poor people to part with their money.
he said he felt he was "fleecing the flock.".
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TerryWalstrom
Religions are exempt under the Constitution
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How to peddle Doomsday for Fun and Profit
by TerryWalstrom injames ussher (1581-1656).
your name is ussher – james ussher – and you are the archbishop of all of ireland.. you are living in the 1600s and are obsessive-compulsive when it comes to speculative ideas.
you are convinced that you alone have the intellect to figure exact dates of all the major events in the bible actually.
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TerryWalstrom
Indeed! well said!
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How to peddle Doomsday for Fun and Profit
by TerryWalstrom injames ussher (1581-1656).
your name is ussher – james ussher – and you are the archbishop of all of ireland.. you are living in the 1600s and are obsessive-compulsive when it comes to speculative ideas.
you are convinced that you alone have the intellect to figure exact dates of all the major events in the bible actually.
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TerryWalstrom
I think Fred Franz had a fertile intellect and fell into a "true believer" spell which captivated his talents and ego. By the time he took over as President, he'd wrecked the reputation of JW's as peddler's of Truth--but--his pre-eminant status made him a shoo-in and he probably was someplace high on the nutjob scale.
I think little Charlie Russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal. His mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.
He seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.
He was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given an adult's responsibilities. Although the family was Presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a Congregational church with autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.
Why was this a big deal, do you think?
You might suspect Charlie had a feeling of being too special to follow other people's orders. Maybe he was reared like a little Prince destined for greatness.
Charlie must have been spoiling for a debate because an atheist got ahold of him and apparently left him dazed and confused for a while.
It is here where young Charlie probably had to choose whether he was a retail merchant by trade or man of higher principles destined by God to educate the whole earth about God's soon-to-arrive Prince of Peace.The fact that a young man would seek such an apotheosis is astonishing unless he was a preening Narcissist. I'm no psychiatrist, but I suspect he had delusions and perhaps burgeoning megalomania.
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Russell was living at a time of great unrest. After the War of 1812, a Baptist lay preacher named William Miller had gotten a big reputation from juggling scriptures and dates resulting in a mad dash to escape the downside of Armageddon. The prediction of `1843/1844 must have caused a thrilling sensation in all Christian folks who took such things seriously.
I speculate that young Charlie Russell saw the effect of Miller's predictions on simple church folk to the extent they began leaving their own churches and preparing themselves for Christ's coming. This was truly a Big Moment!
Despite the 'Great Disappointment,' the true believers would not admit defeat or own up to being dead wrong. A great many clever and imaginative Christians had their own unique ideas. Some printed and published those schemes along with charts and dates and all sorts of crackpot speculations.
Keep your eye on these people!
They were stubborn and impervious to reason. If you got them in your corner with just the right kind of razzle-dazzle you would have a strong core of solid gold as a foundation for whatever kind of ego monument you'd care to build.
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Civil War had damaged Christian's Puritan ideals of a shining city on a hill. People were eager for answers and a quick solution to their very human woes. If somebody could convince them of a way out of their problems--that man stood to make a fortune!
This is where Charles Taze Russell emerged as a very wily and ambitious "Seeker" as well as an investor in such ideas.
Two things launched C.T. Russell's career as a future pastor, columnist, author, lecturer and entrepreneur of a worldwide movement. He was able to AFFORD his weird hobby, dabbling, cherry-picking, and eventual invention of a theology.
What if you ran your religious ideology like a business? Not like his competitors in the marketplace of ideas who were on a shoestring--but really put some money behind the marketing and distribution?
He partnered up with men who were high-profile and got in with the crowd of movers and shakers and began competing--not as a businessman selling clothing--but as a purveyor of religious crackpot ideas exemplified with dazzling bullshit.
He hired book salesmen (colporteurs) and publicized his work in a way nobody else could afford to do. He put his money where his mouth was and got in at the right time.
Russell had just the right personality, manners, courtesy and genteel style to win over women (who were the bulk of Christianity as far as becoming followers.)
His weird arrangement with Maria Frances Eckley to have a sexless marriage formed a beneficial partnership (she was a helluva editor and writer) and a terrific "photo op" when the two of them began working for the crowds both in print and in many visits to homestyle Bible Student gatherings. This was a power couple like Jim and Tammy Faye Baker in later years. The glow of success and divine light was irresistible.
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The self-styled Pastor Russell believed his own bullshit up to a certain point when his personal actions and treatment of others (partners and wife) triggered an awakening.
He became shrewd, cowardly, stealthy, litigious, self-aggrandizing, and cruel.
Throwing himself into a whirlwind of predictions, prognostications, pyramid schemings and, above all, churning out a revolutionary method of Bible Study (Studies in the Scriptures) he broke down the barrier for common folk by making study Topical and lending his slant to a pseudo-revelatory tutorial about End Times.
Being half-charlatan and half-assed spellbinder, Russell spent the last years of his life juggling lawsuits, marital scandals, newspaper exposes, and the disintegration of his slapdash prophetic fulfillments which were crashing and burning right and left.
The fact that he edited out all his Wrong predictions and changed the wording in reprints, indicates a guilty state of mind and awareness of his errors.
As he aged and grew frail, he had on staff both a firebrand lawyer with gigantic ego ambitious to outgrow his humble agrarian background and an autodidact with a photographic memory who had had plans to be a theologian.
Rutherford was the lawyer and Franz was the whiz kid with the photographic memory who had an invaluable talent. He could dip into the Bible and pull out anything you wanted him to produce and make it sound like it was prophecy.When Russell died on a train in Texas on Halloween, Rutherford and his carefully placed minions knew exactly what moves to make both legally and strategically to produce an insurgency with the goal of commandeering Russell's shell of an empire and branding it as his own.
Rutherford was the polar opposite of Russell and he damned near wrecked everything by making enemies out of allies right and left. But, with Franz by his side, a wicked legal mind, and a bellicose temperament, he blazed a scorched earth policy across the entire Bible Student movement.Rutherford was ruthless, diabolical and hellbent on being a Big Man who could make everybody bow to his unbridled power. He published a book (The Finished Mystery) under false pretenses (Russell's 7th volume) and got himself and the other Directors of the Society prosecuted by the Federal Government for being traitors to their country in a time of war (WWI).
Luckily for Rutherford and the others, the war ended soon after and the unnecessary expense of prosecuting a religious organization's lunatic administrators who had appealed on a "Writ of Error" turned on a whim and the case was dropped. None of these men were exonerated, simply released.
Rutherford went on a holy crusade to punish everybody everywhere and he became a tyrannical monster throwing people of faith into the fire to create martyrs and publicity for his new-fangled religion with the awkward new name: Jehovah's Witnesses. What else would a Lawyer and part-time judge think of but "Witnesses"?
These first two men were larger-than-life and totally driven by inner demons. They surrounded themselves with ardent supporters and cronies who would march into the furnace for them. They built an empire off the volunteer army of true believers by keeping the carrot of heaven or paradise in front and the stick of Armageddon to create fear of ferocious destructions at the hands of an angry, vengeful God.
Every wrong step made, and each faulty explanation given--each silly prognostication and preposterous prediction, drove the weak members out and solidified the cognitive dissonance of the staunch loyalists who remained on.
We all know the rest of the story. One day we joined them and one day we left it all behind with a hole in the center of our life like a festering holocaust in our spirit.
Russell, Rutherford and each who followed, became contaminated with the same cancerous ideology of doom and fealty--an absolute belief based on nothing more than the psychotic ravings of self-centered mandarins full of themselves with ambitions to rule as kings and priests over the earth. This elite band of brothers is a festering pimple on Jehovah's ass admired by one and all.
