Posts by Roddy

4

Need scan: Awake! 1971 October 8

by zakheyold in

need scan of awake!

1971 october 8 which contains a diagram of human history representing millenial reign..

Roddy

Oh, I was about to paste from the WTCD but unfortunately the WTS don't preserve images in the WTCD.

11

WHO ARE THEY TO STOP HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS!?

by XxJazzxX in

i find this as a way for my wife trying to avoid going to church with me on easter.. my wife has a meeting with the elders about her reinstatement sunday after the wt study, which is indeed true.

however, the only reason why she would go to church with me on easter is because i went with her to the memorial.

she tries to bargain her way out with this by she should go to church with me on good friday instead on easter.

Roddy

Holidays cut into Rutherford's drinking budget.

Does that explain why he figured every day should be a day for 'celebration' rather than a religiously specific few?

41

Does the rapid end of paper news forbode a crisis for the WT?

by jamiebowers in

according to this article, not all papers will be gone, and some that are gone was due to mismanagement more than the bad economy: http://www.slate.com/id/2215154/?gt1=38001.

that being said, i'm sure the wb&ts will do whatever is most profitable for them, as usual..

Roddy

Doubting Bro,

I enjoyed your analysis. Thank you.

-LWT

As did I. That was a great analysis.

41

Does the rapid end of paper news forbode a crisis for the WT?

by jamiebowers in

according to this article, not all papers will be gone, and some that are gone was due to mismanagement more than the bad economy: http://www.slate.com/id/2215154/?gt1=38001.

that being said, i'm sure the wb&ts will do whatever is most profitable for them, as usual..

It would be hard to see the end of paper... I for example would not like to blow my nose on a computer motherboard, nor use it as hygenic tissue, but that's a different story. It does seem that there's newspapers local and national and also magazine publishers that are going bankrupt and going out of business. Do you think that the WT can change to new media? The recent move to MP3 only CDs, the use of DVDs, the new websites for the Society. Are they hints as to how the WTB&TS may be "evolving"?

What do you think?

It would spell a great paradigm shift. That means the rank and file will not have literature to distribute.

Or, let me guess, there will be a big push for the rank and file to get their own color printers and print PDFs off a secret JW only website for tract and magazine distribution on the weekends? (Well, why not further exploit the free labor?)

The WTS has been slow - very slow - in distributing anything that is not run off from their facilities.

You can guilt-trip people into giving some sort of money for the paper (magazines, books, brochures, etc.) materials and the non-paper (audio cassettes, video cassettes, CDs, DVDs, etc.), but I wonder how you can make people give money over that you can freely pull off their official website?

I think one day they will have to offer their paper and non-paper offerings for a price, and pay the required taxes for it. Caesar is broke. So if you want your garbage collected and your roads not worse than they are now, pay off Caesar their unfair share and you can keep the rest of the money.

10

Wierd story! I was Harrased by Witnesses before attending the Memorial!!

by Witness 007 in

afew days before the memorial the phone calls started.....i even had a long message left on my answering machine while me and my wife were "busy" in the bedroom.....it was very distracting.

i could hear "memorial blah blah if you want to go blah blah or call this number sister blah blah she went on for five minutes!...the next afternoon because i shift work i was having a snooze before the memorial and knock knock knock......i get up blurred eyes and all and yes witnesses reminding me for the 100th time there is a memorial on..."sorry i'll let you go back to sleep.

" at the memorial this same brother yells at me from his car in the dark carpark.

Roddy

At the memorial this same brother yells at me from his car in the dark carpark. "HELLO BROTHER -------- WELCOME! HOW ARE YOU!" Another Brother says how nice it is to see me and how "Satan keeps us busy so we can't attend meetings"....WTF! Lots of pats on the back and love bombing, but I attend for my wife who seems happy with the attention.....I just feel sick...like a traitor to my own beliefs.

Don't take it so seriously, Witness 007.

My folks don't have much longer to live in this world. If it gives them a little bit of joy to see me there, I'll show up for the Memorial.

I don't mind doing one meeting in 365 days if everybody is happy and it gets me out of 260 (5 x 52) meetings in 365 days.

I never got this much attention when I was a regular at the meetings! LOL!

10

Wierd story! I was Harrased by Witnesses before attending the Memorial!!

by Witness 007 in

afew days before the memorial the phone calls started.....i even had a long message left on my answering machine while me and my wife were "busy" in the bedroom.....it was very distracting.

i could hear "memorial blah blah if you want to go blah blah or call this number sister blah blah she went on for five minutes!...the next afternoon because i shift work i was having a snooze before the memorial and knock knock knock......i get up blurred eyes and all and yes witnesses reminding me for the 100th time there is a memorial on..."sorry i'll let you go back to sleep.

" at the memorial this same brother yells at me from his car in the dark carpark.

Roddy

The Moon in Australia looked like a huge cheese wheel in the sky...it was awesome!

It did in the United States too. It will appear that way when it is both full and low in the sky.

I think few beyond the JWs would notice the Moon that night. It did look wonderful. After an hour or so the Moon would give up its colorful hue and shine bright white during its climb to the sky. Still looks wonderful but in a different way.

39

Sales of Bethel premises and transfer of millions to Brooklyn ?

by Nick! in

sales of bethel premises and transfer of millions to brooklyn ?.

just heard a very surprising and unbelievable news which i want to share with you and ask whoever has the right connections higher up in the borg, if this kind of news can be double checked for reliability.. .

the source of the information is believed to be reliable as it seems to be intimately related to some officials of the branch.

Roddy

The blog thereafter picks apart and analyzes the letter, quite flamboyently & sarcastically, speculating on Bethel layoffs among other things. He makes an interesting point though: This directive came from the Governing Body. According to what was written in 2000 / 2001 or so, the GB was separated from the Watchtower legal corporations so they could concentrate exclusively on "spiritual matters". How is it then that the GB is the one to send a letter to the Madrid branch that their printing services are no longer required (i.e., a business decision)?

You make a valid point. Especially when you consider that most of the GB are nursing home candidates so they couldn't have come up with the researched analysis and determination for all this.

I've become convinced that that the Legal Dept is the real power in the WTS. I once thought it was a two party system running the WTS - the Legal Dept and the Teaching Dept. But it looks like they both sleep in the same bed with the Legal Dept assuming the "male position".

The Teaching Dept will come with the necessary positive spin to hide the true facts. I'm fairly certain that the GB had no significant input in this.

I think the true facts will come from disgruntled ex bethelites from the soon-to-be former branch in Spain. As usual, this will be the biggest kick to those that have decades of service to the WTS and have no benefits and resources to fall back on as they are cut loose.

This should shake all Bethelites worldwide into believing the unbelivable: The WTS is not the ark where they can reside their lives in peace and security in a spiritual paradise until the coming of the New Order.

And I think this should end the general public Bethel recruitment efforts too. (Do they still announce that special Bethel application meeting held on the Friday lunch break at District Assemblies?) The COs have always been scouts for Bethelite talent. Now they will be scouts for Bethelite drones as well. What they can't offer is that this will be a secure job.

14

Which group would you say J-dubs hate more?

by awaken2004 in

catholics or born again christians?.

i know someone who doesn't believe the j-dub doctrines but anytime he talks to a non-witness about religion he takes on this arrogant attitude that.

the witnesses know more about the bible than any other religion.

Roddy

Traditionally it used to be Catholics because the Catholic Church was a big target. And the Rutherford legacy left the taste that when it came to disgusting Christendom, the Catholic Church is the representative bad guy for everything Christendom.

Lately it has been shifting to Born Agains. As the JWs seem to be more and more "mainlining", to lack a better turn, they have less reason to pick a quarrel with the Catholic Church but more so with Born Agains as they tend to be more controversial and more difficult to pidgeon-hole on issues. They present a moving target. And the WTS seem to hate moving targets. Those that prefer a more lively religion and personal religion will find the Born Agains an attractive alternative. So I'd say the Born Agains are more on the gun site than the Catholic Church had in the past.

Just my opinion.

5

What if Judge Rutherford never became president of the WT?

by Roddy in

i was talking with a friend and an interesting point came up: what if judge rutherford never became president of the wt?.

much of the heavy-handed, centralized, and authoritarian things we don't like about the wts is the rutherford presidency legacy.

if the wts stayed on the charles russell track, would we still be jws (or "bible students"?

Roddy

I was talking with a friend and an interesting point came up: What if Judge Rutherford never became president of the WT?

Much of the heavy-handed, centralized, and authoritarian things we don't like about the WTS is the Rutherford presidency legacy. If the WTS stayed on the Charles Russell track, would we still be JWs (or "Bible Students"?) Would there be less scandal, controversy, and dogmatic rules?

We rather thought that the WTS would be a kinder and less heavy-handed organization if it didn't have a Judge Rutherford presidency. It wouldn't have had its officers jailed in 1918, it wouldn't be arbitrarily injecting itself constantly into Bible prophesy, and so many things. I wouldn't be surprised if it would actually apologize for 1914 or other failed dates. And so much more.

What do you think?

27

How can I help my wife to get out

by Albert Einstein in

i am fading out after 18 years in jw cult (pioneer, ms, elder etc ...).

my wife was born in jw family, very strong family bonds, very loyal to jw.

at home we can talk pretty open, but she is so blindfolded, so loyal, not willing to admitt jw could be totally wrong... is there any chance to help her step by step?

Roddy

This is a tough one. You'll probably hear many menthods: the strong approach, the weak approach, the direct approach, the indirect approach. etc. What worked for one may not work for another, and vice versa. You need to know your wife and how important her extended family with the JWs really is. And If she is willing to sacrifice that for you.

This may not work for you but what sort of worked for me is the low, meek, under-the radar approach. Go inactive but don't go openly nor defiantly apostate. If you obviously turn apostate and get yourself disfellowshipped, you've just made your task ten times harder. So be inactive. Or irregular at the least.

Say that you are going through depression or other personal issue problems and allow yourself to loose your congregation privileges. This might be the hardest for you to do. It was for me because I enjoyed my congregation privilages. And the public shame that goes by their having to announce that I'm no longer a servant is a hard pill to swallow. But you'll get over that with time. In fact, if that depresses you further you can use it to further your case for depression. It will really be convincing if it was actually true. And being in a religiously semi-torn family should give you real basis for depression without you actually stating the nature of the condition.

They won't disfellowship you for being depressed or else they will have to disfellowship more than half of all JWs. But they will disfellowship you if you go against the WTS no matter what you got.

Start missing the meetings but also look for things that are of interest that you can do with your wife. If not on a Sunday then on a Saturday afternoon. Try to court your wife all over again. Not too fast, however. You'll have to be patient as it could take years. Start working by having her cut back on the time she spends in Field Service for starters.

When certain conversations come up just concentrate on what is the loving Christian way to do things looking for Biblical examples of them. Let her see how that is contrasted against how the WTS does matters. Winning her "without a word" is better then trying to argue or attack the WTS beliefs directly. Let her see how Bible examples of doing things contrasts against the WTS ways of doing things. Let her see for herself.

I'll turn over to others. May you find something that works best for you.