Posts by Island Man

120

The right to shun - wrong?

by Simon in

many people are understandably upset and angry at the notion that jws have the right to shun people.

it seems such an obvious "no brainer" cruel and inhuman thing to do - it must be wrong ... surely?.

of course we look at things from the perspective of those hurt and harmed by shunning.

Island Man

It's not about the right to shun. It's about the wrong of teaching others to shun a particular group of people.

To see what I'm getting at, replace shuning with hating. Do you have the right to hate an individual? Yes. Do you have the right to publish information to instruct the public to hate a particular group of people? In many countries that's a crime called hate speech.

By instructing their members to shun those who disassociate from the JW religion - on the threat of being shunned themselves if they fail to comply - Watchtower is engaging in immoral behavior that is, in my opinion, not much less criminal than hate speech.

94

What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?

by John Aquila in

its been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.

in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.

carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .

Island Man

I also believe that they will also start doing more and more video productions of meeting parts - especially talks. That way, they can better contend with the shortage of brothers and elders. They're going to try to make the paper-work less for the elders, freeing them up to exercise more shepherding control on the members.

94

What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?

by John Aquila in

its been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.

in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.

carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .

Island Man

~ A provision to make credit card donations to directly to Watchtower, through a button on jw.borg.

~ Rank and file publishers being asked to create a user account on jw.borg by signing up with their full name, country of residence, the name of their congregation and a special, unique publisher code given to them by the service overseer in the congregation. That way, Watchtower can authenticate that the person signing up is a true active JW.

By having JWs establish such user accounts, Watchtower can keep downloadable versions of in-house publications like the Organize book and the study editions of the Watchtower away from public access and make it available only to JWs who log in. They can also make it so that new convention releases are not available for publishers to download unless their congregation has already had the convention. Maybe it would also give JWs an avenue to report their field service directly without having to go through an elder. That would free up elders to do the more important things like having more regular shepherding calls to sniff out doubters and apostates.

225

Cult or Religion

by Richard C B in

what is a cult and what is a religion?

its open to debate.

who has the authority to say for certain what is a cult and what is a religion?

Island Man

Early in the thread someone posted that the cult identity is more of a spectrum or continuum than a fixed digital state. I agree with this.

Cult can be seen as one of many properties or metrics of a group - really, every group - that can have a range of values from low to high. A group's cult metric can be determined by examining its culture to see how closely it conforms to the BITE model. It is fair to say that most religious groups will match some aspects of the BITE model to some degree. But when a group's cult metric exceeds a certain threshold, there can be no denying that the group is a cult. For example, there can be no denying that the People's Temple was a cult.

If we quantify a group's cult metric on a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 meaning they have no trace of cult tendencies (which is extremely unlikely for any group) and 10 being the most harmful blatant cults, then we can use a cult metric greater than 5 as the litmus test for designating a group as being a cult. In my opinion, Watchtower has a score around 7.

It's important to note, however, that a group's cult metric has nothing to do with how orthodox or correct its beliefs are. Rather, it has to do with the group's behavior.

21

November 2015 Awake

by username in

ok. when i first looked at the cover of this issue of awake i was instantly struck on how creepy it looked.

my first impressions were the picture looked almost masonic in nature.

well, further investigation has led me to another picture that shows a grand masonic hall.

Island Man

This is stretching it. Aside from the red carpeting and the spacious high-roof interior, the two buildings have little in common. I think you're seeing a connection that you want to see.

10

new arrangement - chairman

by inbetween in

a thought on the emphasis of the importance of the new chairman arrangement at the midweek meeting:.

it reminds me of a tv-show, where the showmaster introduces tv-clips of some topics.. is it maybe a preparation for meetings with more and more videos ?.

and all the local brothers are doing is introducing them, creating anticipation for what big skydaddy prepared this week.. i wonder, if most of the meeting times in years to come will be videos anyway.....

Island Man

Local needs are still there. It's mentioned in passing, in the instructions for carrying out the meeting.

138

My Mother Died Two Weeks Ago

by Perry in

jw
friends

none of my jehovah's witness relatives called to tell me or my family.

just found out this morning.

Island Man

Submit a "letter to the editor" post to your local newspaper about this issue. Explain to them how it is that your mother died 2 weeks ago without you knowing - because of the JW practice of shunning, your mother and all her friends refuse to communicate with you. Use this as an opportunity to publicly expose JW cult behavior.

20

INSTRUCTIONS FOR OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE AND MINISTRY MEETING

by pixel in

1. the life and ministry meeting will proceed as outlined in the life and ministry meeting workbookand according to the instructions that follow.. 3. treasures from gods word:.

the theme and an outline of two or three main points are provided in thelife and ministry meeting workbook.

this should be assigned to a qualified elder.. 6. concluding comments: 3 minutes or less.

Island Man

Island Man, the talks given by brothers that are not ministerial servants or elders have been removed. This is a MAJOR change! I'm sure that more than a few will not like this at all. Obviously, this is a move to control absolutely everything that is said from the platform

Actually, those talks have been gone for quite some months, replaced with seated presentations using the NWT.

20

INSTRUCTIONS FOR OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE AND MINISTRY MEETING

by pixel in

1. the life and ministry meeting will proceed as outlined in the life and ministry meeting workbookand according to the instructions that follow.. 3. treasures from gods word:.

the theme and an outline of two or three main points are provided in thelife and ministry meeting workbook.

this should be assigned to a qualified elder.. 6. concluding comments: 3 minutes or less.

Island Man

It's the same old TMS just under a different name and a slightly adjusted format. All the hype about the TMS being done away with was wrong! LOL. It would have been more accurate to say that the service meeting was done away with - in reality it has just been drastically curtailed to about 15 minutes in length, with some of its features - the offer for the month - being incorporated into the Apply Yourself to the Field Ministry segment.

The Service meeting has always been a bit redundant given that it dealt with skills that were also covered by the TMS. What really separated the service meeting from the TMS is that the TMS dealt with basic generic teaching and preaching skills while the service meeting was more about higher order teaching and preaching skills - knowing when and how to use the basic skills learned in the TMS - and offering specific literature

I think the biggest change has been the logistical combining of the three meetings into one so you only have to sing twice on a thursday instead of 3 times. That adjustment bought them a couple extra minutes

19

For those of you who is contemplating leaving the Borg, consider...

by James Mixon in

i know it's not easy for you to walk it's a big decision, family and etc.. if you are afraid consider this.

i have been here for a few years and i can count on one hand from posters who made the statement, i can't take it anymore, i'm going back.. what is it that members here have given up their family and friends to be free.

is it so we can have sinful fun, we are our own person and no one will tell us what to do?.

Island Man

"The stories of people immediately becoming promiscuous drug users after walking out of the KH are just made up from the pages of the WTS."

Some ex-JWs do self-destruct upon leaving the Watchtower so I wouldn't doubt the veracity of some of the negative experiences used by Watchtower. Some born-ins, because of being repressed their whole lives as JWs, engage in reckless "sin binging" upon leaving. It's like they're trying to enjoy all the things they couldn't when they were JWs. But they're not typical of those who leave.

The problem is that these minority reckless individuals are used by Watchtower as if they represent the typical scenario of those who leave. These negative experiences are given prominence while those ex-JW who move on to live ordinary successful lives are never mentioned by Watchtower.