Posts by cookiemaster

40

WT is trying to scare off memorial partakers

by cookiemaster in

i don't know how many of you still participate in the sunday wt study, but i unfortunately still do.

even though i was asleep half of the time, i did notice something i thought i should share with the rest, in case you haven't noticed.

a lot of the paragraphs were worded strongly against partaking and used clear language of intimidation and discouragement toward anyone thinking of partaking.

cookiemaster

Opusdei1972 - It can be found in the Watchtower magazine that has it, on the JW.org website. Here's a link to that magazine: http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20150115/

Sorry but I don't know a more direct way of providing it. :)

40

WT is trying to scare off memorial partakers

by cookiemaster in

i don't know how many of you still participate in the sunday wt study, but i unfortunately still do.

even though i was asleep half of the time, i did notice something i thought i should share with the rest, in case you haven't noticed.

a lot of the paragraphs were worded strongly against partaking and used clear language of intimidation and discouragement toward anyone thinking of partaking.

cookiemaster

I don't know how many of you still participate in the Sunday WT Study, but I unfortunately still do. Even though I was asleep half of the time, I did notice something I thought I should share with the rest, in case you haven't noticed. A lot of the paragraphs were worded strongly against partaking and used clear language of intimidation and discouragement toward anyone thinking of partaking. They kept repeating just how serious of an offense against God it is to partake if you're not one of the 144.000 and how God will punish those that do. I guess the constantly growing number of partakers is starting to seriously bother them. I don't remember older articles so determined to discourage partakers.

21

How old were you ??

by Clambake in

when you had to start dumping your worldy friends ??.

just curious that's all.

not being a witness ( ubm here ) i think everyone has known a jw kid and at a certain age " my mommy won't let me play with you ".

cookiemaster

Even though my parents were very "spiritual", they never forbid me to have worldly friends. It might have something to do with the fact that, until I was 13, we lived in a small town were there aren't any JW's. I'm still friends with people I met in kindergarten. Real close friends. I met this guy at 4. He was 8 at the time. We're like brothers to this day. There were about another 5-6 guys and 3 girls to which I was, and mainly still am, a close friend. Before baptism I thought the elders might ask, but they never did.

41

Nethanyahu speach to US Congress - not in sync with NRA position on weapons

by RubaDub in

i don't quite understand why mr. nethanyahu is so fearful if iran or other nations have nuclear weapons.

as the nra espouses, the more people are armed and the more weapons on the street, then the safer we should feel.

we all should have the right to protect ourselves.

cookiemaster

TD - I'm glad you found it interesting. That's one way to do it. Guns are another way and are easier to use. And don't get me wrong, a few of the times I came in contact with a bear, I sure would have liked to have a gun around. Your comment about wild beast has provided me with some more insight on why Americans have historically needed and liked guns. I would support trained and authorized hunters to have guns, as well as people that like in highly dangerous areas (maybe they could get a special permit of something), but I'm not sure I'm okay with the average city/suburban dweller being allowed to carry a handgun.

41

Nethanyahu speach to US Congress - not in sync with NRA position on weapons

by RubaDub in

i don't quite understand why mr. nethanyahu is so fearful if iran or other nations have nuclear weapons.

as the nra espouses, the more people are armed and the more weapons on the street, then the safer we should feel.

we all should have the right to protect ourselves.

cookiemaster

RubaDub - Hahahah, I love your comment. Very funny!

littleSocrates - That actually seems like a very good explanation. Thanks for the insight!

TD - Unfortunately I did not get to read Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child. However, I do understand what you're saying. It is indeed a good reason to own guns (protecting yourself from dangerous wild beasts that is). And to answer your question, "When was the last time you worried about what the smell of your cooking might attract?"

This is a daily concern to me. You see, I live in Transylvania, deep in the Carpathian Mountains. I grew up here. Outside of Russia, we have by far the largest brown bear population in Europe. We also have the largest grey wolf population in Europe. Just last spring a bear killed my dear dog Olga, and I have had three close encounters with large adult brown bears this past summer. In two of the situations the bear ignored me and in a third it approached at about 10 meters. At that point I shouted extremely loud at it and chased it off. It ran away. My neighbor has about 250 sheep and two years ago one of his employed shepherds got drunk and forgot the sheep in the woods. About 60 were killed by a pack of 13 wolves. Even earlier today, wolves attacked our village but we managed to chase them off. Yet, none of us (about 2500 villagers) own guns. There was this old hunter guy I told you guys about, but he got his license revoked because he's too old. Anyway, we manage to defend ourselves mainly by working together as villagers (If a bear or a pack of wolves attack, everyone jumps to fight them). In general, if absolutely necessary to fight to defend ourselves, we use axes. We also own a lot of dogs, mainly large ones. On average, there are about 5 dogs for every person around these parts. Anyway, here are a few videos about our ways that you might find interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T1iiTYAaSI&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=474bblZXZrk
In this one the dumbass shepherds accidentally kill a dog, which those who know what they're doing don't do, but it pretty much shows how we fight wild beasts without having to own guns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nedmYJ68vo0

41

Nethanyahu speach to US Congress - not in sync with NRA position on weapons

by RubaDub in

i don't quite understand why mr. nethanyahu is so fearful if iran or other nations have nuclear weapons.

as the nra espouses, the more people are armed and the more weapons on the street, then the safer we should feel.

we all should have the right to protect ourselves.

cookiemaster

I'm from Europe, so sorry to barge in on your discussion but I never understood why Americans love and feel that they need weapons. Is it a sociological remnant from the time of the colonies? Is it a cultural thing? I just don't get it. Here in Europe, I've only met one person that owned a gun in my entire life, and he was a professional hunter. No regular person I have ever met owned a gun. It's also weird to see all the police shootings and chases that take place in America. Again, I'm not trying to make any claim or anything, but I've lived in Europe all my life and never, ever heard of a police chase. I did hear of a shooting a few years ago on the news. But that was the only one and only two bullets were fired in the air as a warning. You guys also have much harsher prison sentences. What gets you 25 years in the US, gets you 5 in Europe. I'm fascinated by these differences. Why do they exist?

58

A Question for Underground Apostates, How Many Are There?

by Village Idiot in

when i first came to this forum i was of the belief that those of us who were still in due to family reasons were few in numbers perhaps one in a thousand in the jws.

soon i came to the realization that there were many more.

we have dozens of posters here who are mentally out but still in.

cookiemaster

I've been mentally out for over 3 years now. I submit about 1-2 hours of service every month to keep up appearances and everyone leaves me alone. I haven't been to a meeting since October. In my current congregation there are about 40 pubs and I think I'm the only one mentally out. There was this daughter of an elder who used to come to meetings, but never baptized and now is dating a worldly guy, so she's definitely out. In my old congo of about 100 pubs, my best friend was also mentally out. I knew most young ones really well, so I knew for certain he and I were the only ones. I knew another guys from a neighboring congo who was also mentally about. So, in my experience, it's 1-2 on average that are still in and mentally out. At over 100k congos in the world, it should be something like 150 k undercover apostates.

29

The "preaching work" is just laughable!

by cookiemaster in

the "preaching work" they're so eager to brag about is just laughable.

they say their number is an indication of god's blessing.

oh, please, give me a break!

cookiemaster

The "preaching work" they're so eager to brag about is just laughable. They say their number is an indication of God's blessing. Oh, please, give me a break! How many members do they currently have? A little over 8 million? I could name at least 20 religions of the top of my head that have way, way more members, without even trying to attract a membership. Certainly not like them. The "preaching work" JWs do is stupid and inefficient. It keeps them busy but doesn't do much else. And while they like to brag about the percentage growth in new members, let's not forget that the planet has a hell of a lot more people than it used to. So, they might rejoice about spending trillions of hours in service over the course of a decade and gaining a couple millions of new members, but that's less than a drop in the ocean on a worldwide scale.

29

I need your advice

by cookiemaster in

i need some advice.

actually my friend needs some advice.

a few years ago i moved about 50 km (30 miles) away from the nearest congo and have since tried to live a normal life.

cookiemaster

OnTheWayOut - I might have not mentioned it, because I thought it was kinda obvious, but he asked me for my advice. Furthermore, I even told him I will ask for advice on this forum and he said that's a great idea. So, he's definitely willing to accept advice from me and from you guys. He's not so much after closure as much as he is for being left alone by JW's, preferably without getting DF'ed or DA'ing.

29

I need your advice

by cookiemaster in

i need some advice.

actually my friend needs some advice.

a few years ago i moved about 50 km (30 miles) away from the nearest congo and have since tried to live a normal life.

cookiemaster

Thank you so much everyone for your advice! It's quite helpful. About the meeting with the elders. They asked if they could meet with him. He said they could come to his apartment on Saturday at 7 PM, and they agreed. It doesn't sound like a judicial meeting.

He was seen a few months ago in town with his worldly girlfriend, holding her hand. If my mother, who lives 160 km (100 miles) away from where he lives, heard the rumors, the elders probably have too. Still, I don't think it's likely this is a judicial meeting just yet. As far as I know, it's not a sin to hold a girl's hand. Anyway, he's the kind of guy who likes to be honest about stuff. He just tells things like they are, but in this case I don't think it's the best course of action.

They recently had the CO's visit, so the elders probably want to visit him because the CO gave them a hard time about not visiting him. It's funny because three elders live in the neighboring apartment buildings, and they did make any visit for a long time. Now, all of the sudden they want to visit. Since he lives in a city with something like 15 congregations, and JW's are on every corner, I don't think getting disfellowshipped unnecessarily would be a good option. Seeing how he's not fond of lying nor is he any good at it, per the advice given by most of you, I think the best option is to just avoid meeting them. That way, there's nothing they can do.