em1913

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Posts by em1913

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  17

  Did You Ever Think You Would Be A Member On A Site Like This?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i first started looking at “apostate” sites , i was always watching over my shoulder, hoping no one would catch me viewing “spiritual pornography”.

  i found these types of sites mesmerizing but i never thought i’d join one.... look at me now.😈.

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  em1913

  When I left, there were no sites like this, and there was no internet. So there's that. I did, however, used to sneak looks in unauthorized books about the Witnesses at the puiblic library, things like "Visions of Glory," which fueled my curiosity about the actual history of the movement since the "official" accounts in the Yearbook, and that dopey "Divine Purpose" book just didn't cut it for me.

  I'd long been out when the Internet came along, but "watchtower" was one of the first things I ever entered into a search engine just out of curiosity to see what would come up. I used to read the old H20 site in the 90s, and I've actually been reading this site on an off-again on-again basis since it began but only recently figured I'd throw in my two cents here and there. I used to really enjoy the serious pieces on WTBTS history such as the stuff Farkel came up with on the Judge, and I really really enjoyed JT's posts on the inside stuff at Bethel. Miss those guys a lot.
  
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  31

  Jehovah’s Witnesses Really Have No Power Over You Unless YOU Let It Happen!

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  should i go to a judicial committee and perhaps get disfellowshipped?

  should i talk to the elders just because they say they want to talk to me?

  should i simply disassociate myself and have nothing to do with the organization?.

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  em1913

  Walked away thirty years ago this March. An elder tracked me down by phone three years later -- I'd moved out of the congregation territory -- and said he'd heard I was celebrating holidays. I said "I'm sorry, you must have the wrong number" and I never heard from any of them again.

  I don't have any bitterness toward them -- some of the elders in my congregation were kind, decent men. One was a real dickhead, and he's the one who called, no doubt because the CO was breathing down his neck about loose ends in the file. No love lost there.

  I didn't leave because of him, though, I left because it was time to leave. Simple as that. I don't know what my current status in the Org is, nor do I care. That's a chapter of my life that came to a close in 1988, just like other chapters that have come and gone. I'm not the person I was in 1988, or that I was when I started studying in 1980, and the person I am know just looks back on that time of my life as something someone else did.
  
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  242

  Do You Think President Trump Will Be Impeached?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whether you like him or not.... it doesn’t matter.

  do you think he will be impeached?

  ?.

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  em1913

  He's a man who's declared bankruptcy repeatedly. He'll resign when the heat gets too hot.
  
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  23

  Has Politics Hurt Your Friendships?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you want to believe that jehovah’s witnesses have the truth, that’s your right.

  if you want to believe in global warming being the most horrific thing we have to face,that’s your right.

  have you been adversely affected by political stands and beliefs?

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  em1913

  One of my closest friends was raised a Bircher. I'm at the rather far left end of the spectrum. We get along just fine. She's the way she is because of how she was raised, I'm the way I am because of the way I am. She isn't going to change me, and I'm not going to change her. So we don't talk about politics -- we have more than enough we agree on in other aspects of life that we get along just fine by leaving that off the table.
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  29

  I’m Sending You My Thoughts and Prayers

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how many people here can sincerely say those words to someone?

  i take it most here do not say prayers, right?

  ?.

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  em1913

  I do pray. But I would never say something so superficial as "you're in my thoughts and prayers" to someone in trouble or in pain. I'd say "what can I do to help?"
  
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  42

  Liberal vs. Democrat in the U.S.A.

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems that many believe that a liberal in the usa must be a democrat, pretty much following the party core teachings and some even think it means approving the party history of, during the 19th century, supporting or tolerated slavery and opposing civil rights reforms after the civil war.

  some even insist that a liberal loves anything and everything obama did..

  balderdash!!.

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  em1913

  America is a one-party -- the Capitalist Party -- state, and has been since the end of World War II. There are merely two wings to that party that differ very little on the main purpose, but these wings, and the personality-oriented bickering they create, produce an effective illusion of two-party democracy. Any party or group that disagrees with the real status quo is suppressed by ballot-access laws.
  
  The Judge was right about one thing: politics, commerce, and religion, all in bed together, really do rule the world to the detriment of humanity. And they will continue to do so until enough people get fed up and tip the bed over.
  
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  22

  Do You Typically Accept The Press As Being Unbiased And Honest?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there is more “ yellow journalism “ than ever before!

  newscasters and writers that you thought were trustworthy often miss the mark.. do you generally accept the “news” as being honest?.

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  em1913

  The idea that "the biased press" is a new and recent thing, as many people believe, and that once upon a time the press was "unbiased" is ridiculous. Eighty years ago the journalist/critic George Seldes, after careful study, concluded that there wasn't a single truly honest newspaper in the United States. *All* of them were held in thrall to advertising and the corporate interests behind that advertising, and only the ad-free New York PM and the tightly-controlled Christian Science Monitor, in his view, came even close to an honest, factual presentation of the news.

  The media today is every bit as corporate controlled as it ever was. That's the real bias, not the petty squabbling of political parties over which corrupt crypto-fascist oligarch is going to run the country.
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  118

  Do You Think President Trump Is Doing a Good Job?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think he is.

  if you don’t want to put reasons for your yes or no, it’s ok. .

  your vote,please?

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  em1913

  You know who Trump reminds me of? There was another prominent figure on the American scene, oh, about eighty years ago -- a loud, arrogant, vulgar man who preached righteousness despite his dissolute personal habits and his lust for power and the trappings of wealth, who treated women with disdain except when he was trying to bed them, who surrounded himself with a cult of personality, and who cultivated in his followers a delusional, paranoid view of the world.

  
  
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  118

  Do You Think President Trump Is Doing a Good Job?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think he is.

  if you don’t want to put reasons for your yes or no, it’s ok. .

  your vote,please?

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  em1913

  I got out of the JWs because I couldn't abide the creature worship. And now look at all these "free thinking" ex-JWs groveling before the orange idol. Dogs returning to their own vomit indeed.
  
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  38

  If the WT is a "money making machine"...who gets the money?

  by NikL in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've seen claims over the years that wt is in the real estate, book publishing business and is a for profit enterprise at it's core.. can those of you that believe this to be the case tell me who benefits from all this wealth?.

  the governing body lives in relatively humble conditions no?.

  i've been curious about this for a while.

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  em1913

  Longtime reader, first time poster here...

  I noticed this thread after spending some time reading transcripts of WTBTS court cases, which contain interesting information on the Society's finances. In the 1918 sedition trial, A. H. MacMillan testified that when Russell died in 1916 his personal safe contained over $90,000 in cash. That's his *personal* safe, not the WTBTS safe, his own safe in his personal quarters. $90,000 in cash in 1916 is over $2 million in today's money. The Society tried to portray itself as a humble, hand-to-mouth,making-best-use-of-every-penny operation, but the Pastor's safe told a different story.
  

  Another interesting bit of information turned up in the case of WTBTS vs. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co, in the mid-1940s, during which either Suiter or Van Amburgh -- I forget who -- testified that N. H. Knorr had a $25,000 a year personal "drawing account" which was his for any purpose he required. Drawing the money required only his own signature, and no one else could question his use of the funds. $25,000 a year in 1945 is over $300,000 a year in today's money, which isn't much by modern CEO standards, but still a very good living.

  It would be interesting to know what sort of "personal drawing account" is available for the members of today's GB. As the Judge once said, "Boys, always go first class."