GrreatTeacher

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Posts by GrreatTeacher

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  18

  Do you recognize?

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  gorby has had a personal paradigm shift lately.. from one point to an other i "feel" and "think" different about the jw subject.. - no more interest in doctrine.

  - no more interest in things that happen 100 years ago into an religion.. - no more taking statements too serious.

  it doesn't matter me at all what a generation doctrine change is all about, it doesn't matter me at all that brother elder said "blablabla boe!".

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  GrreatTeacher

  Yes, millie! Like, "The Truth." Could anything be more arrogant?

  Or how about, "getting your time in?"

  Or how about, "I believe," when they really mean, "what the Watchtower says."

  You can really just dismiss everything easily at that point.
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  21

  60th Anniversary today - I was baptized 9-01-56

  by Bonnie_Clyde in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  60th anniversary – i was baptized 9-1-56 .

  my parents weren’t witnesses at the time, but my witness uncle studied with my brother and i. i think the only reason my parents let him was because my brother was having mental issues and were hoping it would help him.

  my father surprised me a few years later, started studying and was baptized in 1961, later appointed an elder.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Hi, Bonnie! I just want to say that I enjoyed your post.

  So much dedication and no appreciation from the Society for all your years of hard work. You are only as good as your last hour reported.

  You are to be commended for taking care of your elderly parents. Alzheimers is a cruel disease, both for the patient and the caregivers.

  I wish you a happy retirement and many more years with your loving family.
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  11

  Benefits to Faith over Reason

  by cobweb in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i wrote this earlier for my own benefit in order to get some thoughts straight in my head.

  it is just my own personal pondering on what i think might be the motivating force behind having a faith.

  it is not intended to attack, provoke or patronize anyone who has a belief and i hope it is not taken in that way.

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  GrreatTeacher

  This is an excellent, thought-provoking post.

  I think you're onto something when you talk about the rational mindset requiring trust of one's own abilities. This feels good to some people, but not others. And, some of it might be due to personality factors. Some people are natural leaders who trust their own abilities to reason and make decisions. This feels empowering.

  But, I think there are some personalities who are more comfortable as followers. They don't like the responsibility of figuring things out on their own. They don't trust themselves to make the right decision and they would prefer that others figure things out so they don't have to. Everyone's heard of those folks who complain about having to decide things for themselves when some issue or another is newly declared a conscience issue. I believe this might cause them anxiety, where by contrast, just believing something reduces anxiety because everything is already decided and follows a script. And if those religious feelings feel so good, and they feel like an anxiety reducing drug, then the body will crave more and more. Then, it's no wonder that people become deeply invested and entrenched in their beliefs.

  I appreciate this discussion because in psychology, personalities are considered rather fixed. If that is the case, and people are either predisposed to a logical mindset vs. a belief mindset, then that not only explains the persistance of belief in itself, but also raises troubling questions about the long-term conversion to a more rational mindset in the world at large.

  Thanks for making me think!
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  52

  People hate God?

  by looter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it is a pain that certain individuals pride themselves on hating god, who created everything.

  like it's understandable that you choose to not believe in him because of your selfishness or thinking skills but to hate him is forcing it a bit.

  i'm very thankful that those such as myself have the courage to believe in the lord.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Atheists don't hate god. They can't; they don't believe in him.

  Maybe what they DO hate is the representation of god that Christians have come up with.
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  81

  Elders and Attendants sing, clap and turn backs on Street Preacher after Duluth RC.

  by ToesUp in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  very strange behavior by the attendants and elders after the duluth, ga, rc.

  on the first link the attendants start to exit the arena, then line up and turn their backs on the street preachers.

  (around the 6:00 mark).. elders and attendants after duluth rc.

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  GrreatTeacher

  And what happened next? It looks like preacher's camera got bumped and it shut off. Was there an assault? Were the police called?

  What was the conclusion???
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  31

  Racial Bias in Policing

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. current

  the us justice department just released findings from their investigation of the baltimore police department.

  as 40% of the force is comprised of black officers some thought they'd be "immune" to racial bias.

  it turns out black cops can be just as racist - if not more racist - against black people than white cops.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Also, there is the phenomenon of middle class flight from the city. This is similar to "white flight" in the mid 20th century that left the inner cities black while a lot of whites moved to the suburbs and forever snarled traffic.

  However, Baltimore has always been a segregated city. There were unofficial black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods. As fortunes changed for working class whites, especially after this latest recession, poverty increased even among whites. The middle class moved away from neighborhoods that had fallen into poverty, and those neighborhoods were filled in by poverty -stricken folks. Then, those neighborhoods attract drugs and crime and once a neighborhood goes downhill, no one with better fortunes will ever want to move there.

  It's like the tragedy of the commons; everyone acts in their own personal best interests which is detrimental to the common interest. And to rebalance that you need outside intervention, whether public or private. Publicly, Baltimore has provided old abandoned rowhomes for a dollar to people who promised to refurbish and live there for a certain period of time. Some neighborhoods turned around. They have also had a razing program for abandoned blocks of rowhomes to rid the city from some of the blight, but they have trouble finding finding for this.

  On the private end, the affluent and prestigious Johns Hopkins University and Hospital is still thriving in the city and they have bought up blocks of rowhomes surrounding them to refurbish and house students and medical interns. This has, in general, spruced up these blocks, but the residents are transiet, so not a perfect solution for neighborhood building.
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  31

  Racial Bias in Policing

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. current

  the us justice department just released findings from their investigation of the baltimore police department.

  as 40% of the force is comprised of black officers some thought they'd be "immune" to racial bias.

  it turns out black cops can be just as racist - if not more racist - against black people than white cops.

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  GrreatTeacher

  There was the question, can black cops be racist against black folks?

  Black folks who are upstanding citizens have a BIG problem with other black folks who "don't act right." It makes the black community look bad which ultimately directs negative attention towards themselves.

  I don't necessarily think that's racist, but it is intolerance to bad behavior from their own race.
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  10

  To all those underage and awake…

  by Londo111 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i salute you.. when i was in, i was a brainwashed idiot.

  it instilled an arrogance and made me part of a community that contributed to your suffering.. i remember when i would see a jw parent drag their teens to the meeting.

  some of these parents had converted recently, some had been some years.

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  GrreatTeacher

  What a great post, Londo.
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  31

  Racial Bias in Policing

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. current

  the us justice department just released findings from their investigation of the baltimore police department.

  as 40% of the force is comprised of black officers some thought they'd be "immune" to racial bias.

  it turns out black cops can be just as racist - if not more racist - against black people than white cops.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Ruby,

  Baltimore can't get and keep cops because their pay is so low compared to surrounding counties.

  Also, the working conditions are extremely dangerous because the poverty is concentrated within the beltway. There's virtually no middle class in the city at all; there's endless poverty and only some lucky working class. There's gangs there. It's a black hole of concentrated crime.

  The net effect is that they can't find decent cops who live in the city to hire, and when they do, they can't retain them. Their job is dangerous and, in general, just awful. They see terrible, terrible things and some of them are never the same again.

  Cops get their first couple of years' experience in Baltimore city and then transfer to the surrounding counties for both a raise and better working conditions.

  This is from personal experience. I just accepted a teaching job there and have lived there in the past. My husband grew up there. The city got more and more dangerous which is why we moved.
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  29

  Signs That Armageddon is "Any Day Now"

  by Nevuela in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my "anointed" roommate told me a good one today.

  as we were discussing psychotropic medications, she brought up a friend of hers who was recently forced off of "benzodiazepine" (there is no one drug by this name; rather, it is a specific classification of drug).

  she claimed that many people are being forced off of the medication(s) due to "concerns over side effects," and that her friend is suffering from withdrawal on top of whatever symptoms the drug was previously helping to control (she didn't elaborate and i didn't feel comfortable asking, sorry).. my roommate then went on record to say (i'm paraphrasing here) "this is why armageddon has to happen very soon, because satan is using this system to make all these people suffer psychologically to drive them into the streets and go crazy.

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  GrreatTeacher

  Early eighties? Mid eighties?

  Never heard it before, but I like it!

  I remember going to school in the late seventies and eighties and watching old movies with squiggly lines from the fifties.

  Jesus, I'm getting old.