Posts by cookiemaster

37

The day after Armageddon

by Pronger1 in

jws are scattered across the globe.

a few million people left, pretty isolated from each other.. telephone lines and power goes down since the people who supported the infrastructure are dead.

communication across town, state, country, etc is cut off.

LOL, you guys are such softies. Most JWs here in Eastern Europe would be fine. About 50% of our population lives in the rural environment. We grow most of our food. We have pigs, goats, chicken, crops in the fields, etc. Most people have their own plumbing system. Food and water would be no problem.

Heating and cooking is done with wood burning stoves because wood is practically a free and endless resource here. There would be plenty of cars and gas around, so that would be no problem. Even without those, there are bicycles and horse carts that people can use, like in the olden days.

One of the local JWs is an electrician. So there are some with some limited technical skills. Communications would be a problem. The local JW community would be isolated from the rest of the world. A lot of different JWs sects would form pretty quickly in my opinion. Being isolated from the GB, the local elders would act as religious and community leaders. By leaders I mean tyrants.

I wouldn't exclude violence against those that don't agree with elders. Disfellowshipping would be carried out by execution. No modern medicine around would mean a lot of deaths, especially among the sick and elderly. The biggest problem here would be an extremely low population density. There are a little over 20 JWs in the local congo, and most are old people. I think there might be only 4-5 individuals under the age of 40. Expect lots and lots of inbreeding.

Also, in a world run by JWs expect total patriarchy. Women would probably have as few rights as they do today in Arab countries. Little more than property. Marriages would be arranged by the male heads of families.

Practically, it would be like living in Saudi Arabia but without modern technology. Women are just a type of domestic animal you breed with. You fornicate, you're dead. You're gay, you're dead. You're an atheist, you're dead. You don't agree with some doctrines, you're dead. Your threaten the position of power of the local elders, you're dead. Conventions would be like tribal meetings. A very weird, bronze age world.

21

Attending a same-sex wedding

by Samantharockeby33 in

my cousin, whom is not jw, but we have grown up together our whole lives has just gotten engaged to her same sex partner, i am very conflicted on wether i can/should attend the wedding or not.

i am very close with my cousin and her partner and they are very understanding to our beliefs and differences as she grew up with our whole family being jw.

some family members have already said they will definitely be attending and some definitely not attending so i just want some extra advice and guidance!

cookiemaster

Hi Sam,
My name is also Sam in the real world. I'm 23 and in a similar position to yours, being theoretically still in and having JW parents but not having attended in a long time. I was recently interrogated by two elders for having attended a worldly public event that was about harmless fun. I have to admit it made me kinda angry and I didn't talk very nicely with them. Anyway, the point is that I don't regret it. It was fun and I can't afford to live my life in fear of breaking some stupid rules.

Some advice that I can give you is that you don't to live by their rules. You can keep a low profile if you do attend, just to avoid any trouble. But if the elders do start the interrogations, you can make up whatever bullshit you think will get you off easier, even saying something you don't really mean. Not getting the family that won't attend mad at you is the hardest thing. You can say that you love your cousin so much that you don't want to break her heart by not attending.

47

CO visit... Circuit is not growing at all, he said during midweek meeting

by StarTrekAngel in

so that was a "shocker".

i was not able to attend the meeting.

i had a more important one with my other apostate friends in the area.

cookiemaster

This might not be the most relevant piece of information but in my congregation here in Romania there used to be 60+ people regularly attending when I was a child, and now two decades later they barely get 20 people, sometimes not even that. This is with pioneers from other congregations being sent here, who will most likely leave in a few years at most.

Nobody got baptized in forever (probably a decade). There are only two local elders, one of which is 70+ and other in his 50s. Only two JW males under 40 in the entire congregation, one of which being me (inactive-rumored apostate) and the other guy isn't even an MS. It's pretty much the same everywhere in the country and most countries in Europe.

This is definitely a larger downward trend for JWs that is taking place on a global scale. In this growingly less religious/traditional world, JWs with all their stupid rules are completely unattractive.

7

My old congregation is gone

by cookiemaster in

went to the hall today as i was the designated driver for my parents.

an elder who was in our old congregation in the city gave the talk.

i've had a little chat with him and apparently our old congo is gone.

cookiemaster

Went to the Hall today as I was the designated driver for my parents. An elder who was in our old congregation in the city gave the talk. I've had a little chat with him and apparently our old congo is gone. The borg decided to sell their KH for lots of $$$ (probably a few hundred thousand euro) and merge their congo with another, now having 140 people crammed into a single congo. Nice money making scheme the borg seems to have going on.

23

Besides Beards . . .

by neat blue dog in

beards have been talked about a lot, especially with the recent wt article, but what about other types of non-mustache facial hair, like goatees chinbeards and soul patches?.

in my own experience i've seen a white young man with big handlebars and a soul patch run mikes, do literature and give talks not too long ago.

i saw a black older man with a sizeable soul patch as the focus of one shot in a jw.org video about an annual meeting a few years ago.

cookiemaster

I did go out in service, even with a CO, and many elders, while sporting quite a puffy soul patch and a little trace of beard. None of them have said anything.

28

Where does WT get their money?

by Dreamerdude in

i assume they get most of it from cash donations and assets left in wills.

there may also be some income from invested assets.

i guess they get a lot of money from old jws who die childless or with only df'd kids.geographically i assume they get it mostly from a few countries that have many publishers and strong economies.

cookiemaster

I think they've been saving a ton of money since cutting back in printing. Everyone uses tablets now. That's the new fad. They barely have to publish anything.

Dreamer - I'm not sure if they send money to HQ. I'd say it's very likely. Although, Romania is a relatively small country in the grand scheme of things and they won't be making impressive sums of money from just below 40,000 publishers. Growth is also at a standstill. They probably do make a few million euro in profit which goes to HQ but I think they also reinvest their money into the real estate business. It's their biggest money maker here.

Take for example the local KH in our town. Huge multiple story house bought by my parents along a small group of other JWs in the early 90s. A lot of money was invested by the locals into renovations. When the local group finally became a congregation officially, the Watchtower took ownership. Now it's worth at least 200-300 grand in euro. A 98 year old brother died recently. Donated his house and all he had to the Watchtower. Another couple hundred grand there as well. So, they have more than half a million Euro in real estate assets only in our small town. I think this is pretty much the case for every European country. Donations might not be making much money, but real estate is making them a fortune.

28

Where does WT get their money?

by Dreamerdude in

i assume they get most of it from cash donations and assets left in wills.

there may also be some income from invested assets.

i guess they get a lot of money from old jws who die childless or with only df'd kids.geographically i assume they get it mostly from a few countries that have many publishers and strong economies.

cookiemaster

I'm not entirely sure, but I think most Western countries they're present in, turn a profit. The US of course has over a million publishers, hundreds of thousands that probably donate and tens of billions in real estate. Other Western countries have much smaller JW populations, so they're probably only a fraction of the income brought by the US, but they're still profitable. Going by the reports, here in Romania they get quite a nice profit. All conventions seem to be making money. KHs have lots of money. They also seem to have tens of millions in real estate throughout the country. Just in this circuit they have all sorts of assembly halls and kingdom halls in cities where they can easily be sold for millions each to all sorts of corporate businesses. All build with free slave labor, of course.

3

How does Life expectancy by Country affect JW growth?

by dropoffyourkeylee in

here's something i haven't considered before.

below are the average life expectancies by country (male and female combined), which i found at:.

http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/life-expectancy-country.html.

cookiemaster

Average life expectancy does not mean people in Malawi don't live longer than 60. It's just the average length of a human life in that country. Being an average, it can be dragged down severely by those dying young and dragged up significantly by those that reach old age. People in Malawi can too die of old age at 80 or 90 naturally, like everyone else, but huge infant mortality brings the average life expectancy way down. You'll find plenty of people over 60 there.

24

Embellished assembly interviews/"experiences"

by ab.ortega in

oh how wonderful those experiences at assemblies and "schools" are - not.

at times it seemed as if these "experiences" were scripted.

the speaker gets criteria in the outline regarding what the experience or interview has to be about.

cookiemaster

I've known a few assholes that really enjoyed lying in these interviews. I'm sure the CO or whomever was in charge was fully on board with this. Thing is, these people were arrogant and saw these interviews as the perfect opportunity to brag in public with their spirituality and so they came up with all sorts of bullshit pioneering stories that were a little too incredible. Oh, the richness of 'spiritual food' in Jah's organization.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, I have a more rebellious friend who's now faded. In our teenage years he had an interview at a convention. Pretended to be totally on board with it, but hated it. On the day of the convention, he came there with a beard. LOL, the CO and the elders were pissed as hell. They basically dragged him to the toilets and shaved him by force. Such a hurried shave that he had cuts all over his face. I couldn't stop laughing. Good times!

57

Did you participate in a Drama?

by Hecce in

i am bringing this up because even it was a lot of work, for the majority of the friends this was a rewarding experience.

camaraderie, joking, costumes, props and when the time came the celebrity status of being in the drama.. back in the 50s and 60s, conventions could be as long as 8 days and from about 1966 the dramas became an integral part of the program.

we had one per day and the brothers looked forward to their presentation.

cookiemaster

Nope, but my best friend was. He was just a kid. Now he has a large beard, long hair and looks like a viking. He also doesn't want to be a JW anymore. Oh, how the times have changed.

As for the dramas themselves, they were always my favorite part of the conventions, because they were the least boring. Sadly, nowadays are aren't any more dramas. Just stupid videos that they make us watch over and over again.