Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  24

  What changes would JW.org need to make to become a normal Christian denomination.

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am interested in getting people's thoughts on this.

  on average 40 thousand people leave the organisation yearly for one reason or another.

  the experiences all over the media are proof of this.

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  Island Man

  • Stop the practice of shunning.
  • Allow blood transfusions.
  • Stop discouraging higher education.
  • Stop expelling people for "sins" not mentioned in the Bible.
  • Stop the gratuitous use of coercive persuasion techniques.
    
  • Stop encouraging worshipful blind loyalty and obedience to the organization and its Governing Body.
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  28

  Another JW Urban Legend Thread

  by Funchback in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  threads about jw urban legends are nothing new on this forum.

  they are loads of fun to read.

  how many of you remember the one about the teenager who skipped the meeting and decided to get into a car with his worldly friends and they worldly guys decided to rob a store and the jw didn't know they were going to do so but he was arrested simply for being with them?.

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  Island Man

  They had a fatal traffic accident right after leaving the clinic. Ki grieved over the incident but was glad his life had been spared on account of his sticking to the good habit he had formed over the years.

  The problem with these types of stories is that they don't take into account the "butterfly effect". Maybe if he went with them right when they asked then the timing of their departure would have been changed just enough to avoid the accident. Maybe they died because he didn't go with them . . .
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  55

  Why do ones that got out come back in?

  by moreconfusedthanever in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i have not been to a meeting for about 2 years now.

  i do not intend to go back but one thing has me baffled.

  why do ones that have faded and been out for years return?

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  Island Man

  Various reasons:

  • They left for lifestyle reasons, never learned TTATT and still considered Watchtower as The Truth, so faced with a life crisis or changed outlook on life, they return to Watchtower like the prodigal son.
  • They return as PIMO just so they can restore family relationships and possibly try to wake up family members.
  • They were stumbled out by a single incident and never did any thorough research to grasp the full depth and scope of TTATT so they later fall for BS JW apologetic excuses and rationalizations for why it's still The Truth.

  So it basically boils down to two reasons: They never made TTATT their own, or they're coming back PIMO to restore family contact.
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  4

  On our Tendency to Hang Labels on Others

  by snugglebunny in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  back to my favourite pet hate of "labelling", ie, someone has such and such an opinion so consequently he must therefore be a part of this or that particular group.

  what tosh.

  (btw, i've decided that it's ok for politicians to be labelled.

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  Island Man

  There's nothing wrong with labels. They're a convenient way to quickly identify a person's position on a particular matter. The problem is when labels are misused by making them a barrier to learning more about the individual nuances of a person's position; or when we let label's obscure a person's identity by thinking of them only in terms of the label instead of seeing it as just a label that identifies just one aspect of a person who is much more than the label.
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  17

  Does Christianity Promote Self Hatred?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i think that christianity's teachings pose a very unproductive world view and are a danger to our survival.

  their teachings that man is sinful and worthy of death and in need of a savior to rescue him and free him of his sinful tendencies or else feel the wrath of god.

  these things that condemn man as sinful are his own powerful drives given to him at conception which he now must deny due to indoctrination and consign to his shadow(jungian).

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  Island Man

  Yes, I'd say that a religion that encourages its followers to consider themselves as being "good-for-nothing slaves" with bodies enslaved to sin's law and who should disown themselves and despise their family and their own life for the sake of Jesus, definitely promotes self hatred.
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  20

  North Korean Gift to "American Bastards" for Independence Day

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  nk has taken another important step towards having a viable nuclear arsenal with the successful trial of an icbm.. kim jong-un says new missile is 'gift' to 'american bastards' from north korea on independence day.. one major hurdle left for kim jong-un is working out how to make his nuclear bombs small enough to be delivered by the missile.

  that is not an insurmountable obstacle.. the us sate department have issued a statement stating that it "will never accept a nuclear-armed north korea".

  how exactly to prevent this outcome is not clear.

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  Island Man

  It looks like military action is the US' only option now. My guess is that they will strike NK military infrastructure with some powerful bunker-busters and maybe even some MOABs. They will attempt to cripple North Korea's military capabilities. The US will have to do it quickly and thoroughly to prevent them from striking back at US allies and US territories in the region.
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  20

  North Korean Gift to "American Bastards" for Independence Day

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  nk has taken another important step towards having a viable nuclear arsenal with the successful trial of an icbm.. kim jong-un says new missile is 'gift' to 'american bastards' from north korea on independence day.. one major hurdle left for kim jong-un is working out how to make his nuclear bombs small enough to be delivered by the missile.

  that is not an insurmountable obstacle.. the us sate department have issued a statement stating that it "will never accept a nuclear-armed north korea".

  how exactly to prevent this outcome is not clear.

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  Island Man

  North Korea, a country that hasn't invaded any foreign country ever

  I'm not so sure about that. Wasn't it their invasion or attempted invasion of South Korea that started the Korean War?
  
  
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  34

  Oct 2017 WT again shunning instructions

  by Daniel1555 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

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  Island Man

  It is interesting how they used the word normal - "normal contact". I think this is a weasel word. They can later use it to argue that they have never told Witnesses to cut off all contact - to shun - just to cut off normal contact.
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  16

  They should show this 2 minute video about 1975 at the convention

  by LevelThePlayingField in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  if only there was a way to hack in and play this.

  :).

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bmca1qdhho&feature=push-u&attr_tag=3yku113wrp-khxdt-6.

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  Island Man

  After listening to the audio clip at the end of the video that said "stay alive to 75" it just occurred to me that this was all just a terrible misunderstanding. The brother wasn't saying to stay alive to 1975. He was saying to make sure you live to the age of 75. You evil apostates are just twisting the brother's words to mean something else. 😄
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  25

  Aust Census Data shows decrease while Yearbook shows increase

  by shepherdless in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  on threads about 8 or 9 months ago, i put up some detailed data from the 2011 and 2006 australian censuses.

  data from the 2016 census is becoming available in stages, and i mentioned recently that i would do an update.

  finally, as of about today, some data of interest is available, and i have started to look at this, but it is time consuming, and i am time-poor.. anyway, the first search i have conducted is just a simple breakdown of the number of people describing themselves as jw's.

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  Island Man

  I think it means that there are a lot of POMO and PIMO JWs in Australia and the rate of growth of this demographic is greater than the rate of growth of POMI and PIMI demographic. Because Watchtower is looking at growth rate only in terms of actual new recruits as a percentage of baptized members, there could indeed be an increase in this figure. But the national census is looking at all who are willing to identify as JW, which would include MI X-JW, MI inactive JWs and even unbaptized publishers and MI bible students. So there must be a lot more MI X-JWs and MI inactive JWs who are going MO.

  The national census reflects the growth rate of the number of mental JWs. The Watchtower figures represent the growth rate of the number of physical JWs. The growth rate of mental JWs is reducing but the growth rate of the number of physical JWs is increasing.