Yeh ... "friends" ... just another warm and fuzzy American term.
However, what really gets me going is when the GB closes an update video with ... 'we love you all very much".
Boy, what a joke.
its a personal pet peeve to me but i hate it when ex jws use the catch phrase friends.
this was used at every convention and many meetings i went to.
the friends, mother and others.
Yeh ... "friends" ... just another warm and fuzzy American term.
However, what really gets me going is when the GB closes an update video with ... 'we love you all very much".
Boy, what a joke.
like many, i’ve been bemused at lloyd evan’s excuses/reasons for his lusting after prostitutes.
apparently, as he claims in his disastrous video, he blames his wife for being inadequate between the sheets.. could the real answer to his ‘problem’ be closer to home?.
perhaps if he consulted a medical person or even a sex therapist he may learn his “problem” is not down to the borg at all, it may simply be caused by his weight i.e.
I think that with all personal problems, its multi-faceted. However if a person started using women for sex after coming to the complete realization that he has just wasted the last 30,40,50 years of his life, giving it to a organization that doesn't give a damn about truth, then the idea of living it up before you die, isn't that irrational. I've read many posts on this board over the years, where people have confessed to going wild sexually after leaving the 'Truth'. And if you are now a true atheist yourself, then what does it matter what a person does ... as all human value systems, are just unreal constructs created over time by society. In fact in times past, what Lloyd has done was totally normal.
in a recent article there was this experience from el salvador:.
"during the meeting, brother baltasar perla, sr., who later became a member of the branch committee, asked all the elders present to give him their government-issued identity cards.
he then informed the elders that their names and addresses would be included in a written request to the government for legal recognition... then explained to us that since our names and addresses would be in that document, if the authorities ever wanted to ban our work, we would be the first ones they would come after and the first ones to be thrown in jail.
Its just like any congregational resolution. I've never been in one where someone has put their hand up, to oppose it.
i personally would like to foster a couple of those parent-less kids from ukraine, but i know that my 'full in' witnesses wife would never agree.
for her, they are 'worldly children'; children who are most likely will never become a witness, and so why even consider opening one's heart to them and their suffering.. while her attitude really upsets me, ultimately she is just a product of the organization's teachings and for me, it is just another example of the hypocrisy and coldness of the religion.
you see, this religion is meant to be a christian faith, one that should copy the qualities the jesus himself taught others to display.
I personally would like to foster a couple of those parent-less kids from Ukraine, but I know that my 'full in' Witnesses wife would never agree. For her, they are 'worldly children'; children who are most likely will never become a Witness, and so why even consider opening one's heart to them and their suffering.
While her attitude really upsets me, ultimately she is just a product of the Organization's teachings and for me, it is just another example of the hypocrisy and coldness of the religion. You see, this religion is meant to be a Christian faith, one that should copy the qualities the Jesus himself taught others to display. Yet seems (at least to me) as if the Governing Body has never read or understood the illustration of the 'Good Samaritan'.
Did the Good Samaritan say the jew ... "well before I can help you, first you have to read this book about my faith, start praying with me at Mount Gerzim and then come every week to our synagogue" ... of course not. Jesus was trying to teach about unselfish giving; being a true neighbor, without preconditions. But It is something totally lost on most JWs.
And their very weak fall back position ... we are giving through our preaching. The preaching work ... what pile of crap. How it that going to help people when they die on street from exhaustion or picked up by human traffickers and sold into prostitution? So, instead of keeping all those billions of dollars warm in the bank, perhaps the Governing Body should show what real Christianity is like and use those 'unrighteous riches' for something really good. Or at the very least, teach the rank and file to be more like Jesus, rather than extolling the virtues of the adulterer and murder, King David. Then maybe, worldly people will see past the Organization's weakness and sins and consider joining.
It will not happen of course, because in the eyes of the Governing Body and Jehovah's Witnesses, why help those people when they are going to be killed by God at Armageddon anyway.
no zombie
the problem is where do we go from here?
lloyd is not going to go away , he has too much to loose(money) neither will his followers go as we have seen the last few days there was hardly a drop to his membership .so what's next?
we will be branded in the same colours and because of him we won't be taken seriously anymore.
What I think would be a useful idea for some, would be a little self reflection on how we continue to follow men. We were all once followers of one group of men, blindly thinking that they could do no wrong, only to follow others (or one in this case) thinking the same. For me, I think of Lance Armstrong. I was really crushed at the time, when I found out he was doping despite his near impossible winning streak, particularly so since my family had been so affected by cancer. Yet there you go. And while I have the highest regards for the work of Ray Franz, there is no way that he was perfect ... as none of us are ... or will be.
remember when after a circuit assembly the assembly overseer would come out right before the end of the assembly and make a special announcement;.
"brothers, we have a financial deficit of $5,000 dollars for our circuit assembly.
keep in mind that we have utilities and other expenses that need to be met.
Circuits are effectively billed before a convention, the levy amount based on the anticipated number of people that will attend. This gives the appearance that the circuit is in arrears.
Mental illnesses of any kind are not acceptable excuses in judicial cases.
i have a question.. have every member of the governing body (past and present) been american citizens?.
while i understand that some may have been born outside of the us, ultimately to serve in the world hq long term, i imagine that they all had to become 'americans'?.
no zombie.
I have a question.
Have every member of the Governing Body (past and present) been American Citizens?
While I understand that some may have been born outside of the US, ultimately to serve in the world HQ long term, I imagine that they all had to become 'Americans'?
no zombie
a comment on another thread cracked me up where the poster related what some elder said on the platform that: .
in the new system, we likely will not have genitals.” lol.
i’ve heard so much speculation from many jw’s on what will and won’t be allowed in the new system.
Probably, everyone will be nudists.
spotted this article this morning.
i will try to post a link.. jtg.. australia.. institutions refusing to join the national redress scheme are "doubling down" on the crime of child sexual abuse, prime minister scott morrison says.. mr morrison and social services minister anne ruston have warned institutions they may lose funding and tax concessions if they fail to sign up by tuesday's deadline and will be named and shamed.. "all institutions are doing in not joining is doubling down on the crime and doubling down on the hurt," they said in a letter to 25 institutions.. "we consider it to be reprehensible that you have failed to sign up to the scheme.".
the jehovah's witnesses is among the organisations that has refused to sign up, arguing it does not have the institutional settings of other faith-based institutions that the redress scheme is designed to cover.. senator ruston is set to name the non-participating institutions on wednesday, when she will announce what action the federal government will take against them.. "we urge you to join the scheme not because of concerns about being identified, but because it is the right thing to do," the minister and mr morrison said.. "it is the right thing to do by survivors and their families and it is what every, decent, honest, australian demands.".
Just a question for those who may know ... but when the Organization looses its non-charity tax exemption, what would be actual loss to them. I'm assuming that any donations given to the local branch would be taxed. However as the Brothers are encouraged to do more and more direct debit donations, couldn't the money be just transferred off shore to the HQ in the States?