the first study article is about getting bible studies and children baptized.
there is much more emphasis placed on parents to get their own children baptized rather than focusing on bible students.
they try to impress on others the need for urgency.
While I haven't read the article, its funny how witnesses can see that its ok for children as young a 8 (and now possibly even lower) getting baptized, when the son of God; Jesus at 12 (who's outstanding spiritual and biblical understanding made the priests in the temple listen in awe) still remained in subjection to his parents and waited until he was 30 (the age of a man by jewish custom) to be baptized by John.
no-zombie
here in australia, during the service meeting this week, the local needs part was taken up to quickly discuss a letter from the organization stating that there will no longer be a annual meeting part to discuss or remind the congregations about their blood cards.. i found this quite odd.. its not like that there is a shortage of meeting time to discuss this issue, as the society has recently been hijacking more and more local needs parts for its own messages.
and for a supposedly important doctrine, you would think that it should be mentioned more often rather than less, to keep everyone in line.. could this be a beginning of the movement away from the blood doctrine, through the process of gradualism?.
no-zombie .
Here in Australia, during the Service Meeting this week, the local needs part was taken up to quickly discuss a letter from the Organization stating that there will no longer be a annual meeting part to discuss or remind the congregations about their blood cards.
I found this quite odd.
Its not like that there is a shortage of meeting time to discuss this issue, as the Society has recently been hijacking more and more Local Needs parts for its own messages. And for a supposedly important doctrine, you would think that it should be mentioned more often rather than less, to keep everyone in line.
Could this be a beginning of the movement away from the blood doctrine, through the process of gradualism?
no-zombie
i've now seen a couple of references to this and did a little digging before leaving for work.
i saw someone on reddit in july saying that someone on the inside said a change was coming in 2018 with the jw message, and i've now seen two references to this in the past week.
help a former brother out.
With the apathy of the from what I see here in Australia, there is no way that the general Brotherhood will start witnesses anything more unpopular or crazy. Of course some of Brothers and Sisters will get all excited for a while (as many are now enjoying the meetings' emotional highs thanks to the cheap tear jerking videos) but If the GB wants to ruin the country's field service totals ... just change the message and you'll see. The days of 'foot in the door' witnesses are long gone.
no zombie
i'm just curious to get people's views on this.. the bible students seem to start of as quite a liberal group under charles taze russell, albeit he had some whacky teachings going on.
obviously things began to change under rutherford.
but what decade did it become abundantly clear that the society was indeed high control religion or even labeled a cult?.
At the congregational level, I definitely felt a change in the early 80s. At the time I (like so many) didn't know what was going on in Brooklyn with Ray Franz and the great apostate purges, but none the less you saw something on the ground during that time.
Previously, there was a lot more freedom for elders to shape or make public talks as they liked. For those old enough to remember, many even made their own on-stage dramas which often involved many in the congregation. Other elders genuinely tried to help the spiritually fatherless youths and others formed Watchtower pre-study groups and the like, to encourage the congregation's kids to have a share and be apart of what was going on.
On the social side, elders arranged congregational picnics, particularly to compensate the younger ones loosing out on public or religious festivities. Or take a couple of them under their wing and let then share in their own family's entertainment.
Yes it was all a bit amateurish, but there was a real spirit caring and community.
But the 80s finished all that completely. Elder arranged congregational outings were immediately banned, even smaller parties organized by the youths themselves was criticized from the platform as being dangerous. Instead of it being a case of us vs. the world, it became a inward focused religion, always on the watch for other witnesses who may be 'bad association'.
And we ended up with in the end with a cold, script read, cookie cutter faith that only made the world look more fun ... thus begun the exodus of the young.
no-zombie
this morning i got a call from a friend of mine who i was actually roommates with at bethel in the 1990’s.
he left that organization about 3 years ago.
he was crushed because it was the 10 year anniversary (for lack of a better term) of the day that his brother took his life after being disfellowshipped many moons ago and not being reinstated.
All these points are sad but true.
Yet another factor I believe is in the mix, at least for those who have converted into the faith. And that is, many of these ones have become a Witness because they are unable to make sense of the world around them. Perhaps they are grieving due to the loss of a loved one and are unable to move on. Maybe they have been involved in some natural disaster, lost everything and cant reconcile that event with their views on a loving God. What ever their life story, the 'Truth' provided them with a frame of reference that has helped them make understand the world and where they fit it to it. Unfortunately its fake. And when the reality comes crashing down on them for whatever reason (be it through fellowshiping or some other form a awakening) they are unable to mentally cope and they are in a worse situation, then when they started.
This is because the Organization is great for one thing; destroying peoples confidence in all the other world's religions. But when it becomes clear that even it is just another man made religion, they have nothing to latch onto ... and are left drowning in the sea of reality.
no-zombie
october 31, 2017 to selected bodies of elders in the united states branch territory re: discontinuation of the funds-on-deposit arrangement.
Correct me if i'm mistaken, but are what is being spoken of here, is money that congregations placed in the Society's care, while the congregation continues saving to build a new hall? That's the impression that I've got. If that is right, it should be encouraging to us here on this forum because it shows how despite they must be. But also, just like when they stripped the local congregation's of 'excessive funds', it a one time deal. Like selling your furniture to pay for the bills. Soon enough there will be nothing more to sell to ward off the debt collectors and you end up on the street.
feature article in today's print edition (sunday, october 29, 2017) of the irish sunday business post newspaper along with small article on the front page.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_sunday_business_post.
jehovah’s witnesses in spotlight over their response to abuse cases.
the sunday business post, sunday, october 29, 2017 - front page of print edition.
Is anyone able to provide a set of hi-res scans of the actual "A Failure To Bear Witness" article?
this is a video from down with the tower.
it's excellent.
enjoy.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0lvvy2qurm.
Well I suppose that the question about those numbers, really revolves around the Society's definition of the word 'congregation'. If it now includes foreign language groups within that number, that would explain the discrepancy. And of course, call into question the number of real congregations in any country. Dropping the threshold of what makes a congregation is not without precedent, if we remember how the Organization fiddled with the term 'Publisher' for the sake of older ones who could barely go witnessing, as with the term 'Pioneer'.
No Zombie
ok, so hot on the heels of the announcement at the agm, we have been told that there are probably only 12 magazines left!.
yes, there will be only 3 wt each year, and 3 awakes.... and that they will do this for two years, then reprint those issues.... so yes, the "abundance of spiritual food" is limited to 12 more magazines..... surely, this is proof of the end coming so soon!?!
😉.
"Ok, so hot on the heels of the announcement at the AGM, we have been told that there are probably only 12 magazines left!"
no zombie
i have a bad feeling that the annual report in the form that we can analytically use, will no longer be available.
according the post agm letter, it said "this information will be published in the 'about us' section of jw.org" however when you go to that page, there are already a country by country listing of statistics.
the problem is that, the numbers displayed at the moment are not the whole story we used to get.
I have a bad feeling that the annual report in the form that we can analytically use, will no longer be available. According the post AGM letter, it said "this information will be published in the 'About Us' section of jw.org" however when you go to that page, there are already a country by country listing of statistics. The problem is that, the numbers displayed at the moment are not the whole story we used to get. So while we have been told that the 'information' will be published, i fear that it will not be ALL the information. And it could end up, just a sneaky way to release a annual report ... without actually telling the whole story.
I could be wrong. The GB could place a hyperlink for people to download the report we used to receive. However, when you think about the current woes the Organization has, cancelling the yearbook's printing, could be their opportunity to skip out of an embarrassing problem.
