"Full-Time" Bethel Servants and Elders, making comic books for kids, for Ghova.
Compensation: free room and board, and a "title". At least they have a marketable skill when things go sideways.....
Tech49
JoinedPosts by Tech49
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WT makes comic books now!
by wifibandit infull set http://imgur.com/a/jvcla .
i put that album together so you don't have to give www.jw.borg any more traffic .
sample:.
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I got asked THE QUESTION !!
by Tech49 ina little experience that happened very recently:.
another brother, an elder, and i were talking, i was explaining to him and giving him several examples of how a couple of the elders in our congregation were blatantly trying to run their own show, parading themselves around as "representatives" of the body, when the other brothers didnt know what the hell they were talking about.
they are using their "elder powers" to bully and push people around, causing a bit of angst and hurt feelings.
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Tech49
A little experience that happened very recently:
Another brother, an elder, and I were talking, I was explaining to him and giving him several examples of how a couple of the elders in our congregation were blatantly trying to run their own show, parading themselves around as "representatives" of the body, when the other brothers didnt know what the hell they were talking about. They are using their "elder powers" to bully and push people around, causing a bit of angst and hurt feelings. I was bringing this to the attention of friend-elder, and asking him "why dont you all see and know what these guys are doing... don't you talk??" Anyways, the conversation got a little heated, as my frustration was continuing to build.
He said something along the lines of "well, Jack, I am not here to talk against the other members of the body..I wont do that..." Oh, ok, like you are all a little clique, a "special" team??? Whatever. Go ahead and ignore the obvious.
Then, THE QUESTION. It went like this:
"Jack, it is always important to remember that the brothers are imperfect. And this is Jehovah's organization. And no doubt you agree that this is the case. So Jack, you know that Jehovah sees and takes care of everything, and Jack don't you agree that Jehovah is directing his organization right here on earth through his FDS, the governing body, and the elders?" .....PAUSE.....
Now alot happened in the .82 seconds in that pause... Keep this in mind.. he was alone with me, so no second "witness" to the conversation. He wasnt "hunting" for a reason to string me up. I also realized that this question was not one that was thrown out there for any other reason other than a parroted group of words, right after the "all men are imperfect" phrase.
Two distinct possibilities here: Did he really want me to answer the question? Or was it just an inculcated mechanism ingrained to this elders brain to elicit a response from anyone "not of the same mind".? I think the latter.
So I didnt answer his question. I didnt wuss out, I just saw the situation for what it was. I quickly did the sidestep, explaining to him that this was not what I meant, but rather this and that and this..... His attention was diverted, and off we went on another tangent.
Honestly, I was a little taken aback by the question itself. Here is an elder, not really knowing what he is asking, and not really understanding how he will react if he gets an answer he is not prepared for. He is merely puppeting, or parroting words and phrases. The kicker is that if you provide the "wrong" answer to the question, you instantly trip a different switch in the mind of the Borg, all sorts of alarms and bells and whistles go off in his head, and all of a sudden things take a right hand turn down the road of "investigations" and "inquiries" into Brother Harper's spiritual condition, or lack thereof. Phone calls are made, emails are sent, and the body of elders is in a tizzy.
He also mentioned that our (Vic and I) lack of meeting and field service attendance had caused him quite a bit of concern lately, as surely there must be something going terribly wrong. I replied, " ummmm, no, in fact quite the contrary... we are really enjoying the peace and quiet, as well as the lack of DRAMA that goes on. There is NOTHING wrong with us! It sure is nice to not have the burden of dealing with the petty bickerings, gossip, and foolishness that goes on DAILY in the congregation. Wouldn't you agree that it would be nice to leave that behind, brother?"
He mumbled something, then complained of a headache, and it was getting late, and he hadn't eaten, and........ off he went.
Today's Lesson:
Be prepared for THE QUESTION, and how you will deal with it, answer it, or sidestep it. It WILL come up, and wether you are in, out, fading, or whatever, you all need to be ready with the reply that is appropriate for YOU.
Jack Harper, Tech49
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Comments on Tonight's Investigation Discovery Program
by jamiebowers inhttp://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/deadly-devotion/deadly-devotion-videos/if-the-end-is-coming-so-soon-why-do-you-need-an-education.htm.
i made my comment.
hopefully as many who are able will do the same.. edited to add: once the commercial is over and the video starts, you can pause it and click on comments read what's already been written and add what you have to say.
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Tech49
Ok, I will chime in. I saw the program as well. It did have its share of inaccuracies. Maybe I will play the devils advocate a little bit.
I was surprised that the writers/producers did not have a JW or exJW perhaps "critique" it for accuracy, terminology, expressions, etc. Many of the scenes displayed of the "services" at the KH could have been done better, the dress/attire of the "witnesses" could have been more accurately displayed. The scenes of the "elders" talking to the young lady were a little over the top, the "main elder dude" looked pretty scary, and it seemed like a little more effort was made to make the whole scene look "cultish".
Now don't mistake me here, I get the point of the program. This young lady and her family were killed by a psychopath, who paraded himself around as a "brother". I get it. Were the "elders" guilty of not protecting her? Yes, to an extent. So many "brothers" let them down, and ultimately contributed to the sad scenario.
But the bigger issue that is insinuated is .... THEY CAUSED IT!!!? No, they did not. Jehovah's Witnesses did not CAUSE this situation. Did they ALLOW it to happen?? Maybe. Remember too, that these events took place 30 years ago.... not an excuse, but I think it fair to say that the "brothers" (who were likely born in the 30's and 40's) were pretty "hard-ass" about some things at the time (coming from a different "generation"), and weren't as concerned about a woman's equal rights in the household and congregation arrangement. Times ARE different now, albeit not as they should be in reality. Are there groups of brothers right now that might act the same way towards a similar situation?? ... probably. Are there young single moms that are victims of abuse, and who are drawn to abusive relationships? Yes, to both counts. Are some JW's? Yes.
But be careful not to use this situation, and granted there are probably hundreds just like it, to paint a broad brush across the entire organization, or congregation. The same would be true for any of the other Investigatin Discovery programs (if you have been watching the series), you could use the same brush to paint across the LDS, the Amish, Baptists, Catholics, Protestants, etc, etc. based on 1 incredible story of abuse, violence, and criminal behavior, including that of a churche's leaders.
Overall, I appreciated the story, and parts of it rang true and left me embarrassed to still be associated to a degree with this bunch, but I thought that it was a feeble attempt at "demonizing" an entire group. More effect could have hit the mark if someone had done a little more homework, been less haphazard, and had been a little more factual. Granted, its made for TV, and with a limited timeslot, it can be a challenge. At the same time, I was also dissappointed that not much, if anything, was said about how someone in a similar situation to the young lady could receive help, or be encouraged to walk away from such a situation. I dont mean to sound cold, but you get the point. How about a link or phone number of a national hotline for abuse victims??... something along those lines. It would have been nice if Discovery had taken things just a little further and showed more responsibility with their programming. Again, its made for TV.
Now, don't string me up, I am just trying to be objective in looking at things from all sides. Carry on.
Jack Harper, Tech49
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Noticed my old KH is using a lawn care service
by Zoos inwhen i was still attending i almost single handedly took care of the outside grounds.
i actually enjoyed it - gardening being a hobby.
but i turned in the keys to the shed about three months before i made my official exit.. .
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Tech49
One congregation I was in fairly recently had a very nice looking lawn and flowered landscaping. I always thought it odd, since i had never seen anyone ever working on anything, especially on the typical saturday afternoons like most KHs do. Turns out one of the brothers, a daddys boy ministerial servant, owned his own landscaping business, top of the line equipment, new trucks and trailers, very posh outfit overall...., and had his worldly crew do all the work. Even though the KH was shared by 3 congregations, the brothers and sisters were just too busy to be bothered with paltry chores like mowing the grass and weeding flower beds.
All well and good, until the CO visit, he blew a gasket, and he wanted to know why the KH Maintenance Committee was writing XYZ Landscaping a full price check every month!!??? You should have heard the feeble excuses, it was truly disgusting. He told the elders to get off their lazy asses and take care of it themselves. It was the congregations responsibility and they should be happy to have a share in the upkeep of the KH.
Heres what happened next.....CO went on his way, brothers stopped writing checks, kept the lawn service, his daddy just paid him in cash from a secret collection kiddy so that no one would be able to track the paperwork.
Problem solved!
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District Convention
by thedog1 indon't know if this has been covered before, but who noticed that at every talk at the district convention (mine anyway), every speaker was introduced by name and then 'brother x has been serving for 25 years as a pioneer" or "he has served on the branch committee" etc etc.. what is it with these credentials?
i've been an elder on and off for most of the last twenty years.
big deal.
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Tech49
I noticed this little phenomenon as well, seemed to me to be the first time it was so obvious and in-your-face, and i thought it was a bit much. Glorified titles? The not-so-subtle implication that the words spoken by these "holy ones" are to be taken as directly from Ghova himself? And that anyone else, even a faithful brother or sister of many years, is lesser somehow? For all the hype about "no clergy class", it sure looks like there is one to me!
Do you think you could ever go up to a "GB HELPER" and get them to join you and your family for dinner at the steakhouse, in jeans and a tshirt, just for a casual beer and a chat? Nope, never would happen, you wouldnt even get near one of the "dukes".
The superior attitudes and titles are demeaning to the rank and file. Admit it or not, there certainly is an upper crust, and a crowd of crumbs.
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Drama friday 2014 DC
by inbetween inanyone seen the drama on friday ?.
it was about a pioneer couple, when the husband, also an elder, lost his job, and borrowed money from a fellwo elder, who apparently was considered weatlthy.. the main lesson of the drama was quite ok, even though a bit overdone, touching on the issue of gossip and false assumptions.. but there were at least two subtle lessons, whitch were quite disturbing:.
1) no matter what happens, remain pioneering.
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Tech49
My first thought when viewing this drama:
if brother pioneer loses his job and cant live up to the obligation he made and repay brother elder, then why not do the common sense thing and sell the car, repay brother elder the remainder of the balance owed to him, so as to not have hard feelings and bad debt. Why does pioneering trump repayment of debt? Sister elder gave up her vacation money to loan it out for this car, why does she not get a say in how it is repaid?
Call your bank or other institution that finances your car and tell them that and see what happens!
Instead, we see and are reminded of the theme that is becoming all too familiar: pioneering takes precedence over ALL things, including taking care of relatives, repaying money loaned to you by your brothers, and use of your reasoning abilities.
Yes, far more important to lolygag around the territory in you "free" car, stopping for coffe and donuts, passing out flimsy leaflet tracts that no one reads, every month, than to take care of "worldly" obligations, instead mooching off of your "brothers", making them carry the burden of your debts and responsibilities while you do "busy" work.
Stupid. This was a sad, lame drama that did nothing more than to show congregation members how to shirk responsibilities and mooch.
Moral of my rant: Dont "lend" these idiots any money, no matter what, because if you do, theres a good chance that you wont see it again, and at the very least, you have to know that you are NOT very high on the repay list.
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Local Needs 07/08/2014
by piztjw ini don't know whether i should laugh, or run screaming into the night.. tonights "local needs" was titled "are you following 'the slave' "?.
the theme scripture was 1 peter 2: 21. it was applied that by following jesus steps closely we would then be able to keep up with 'the slave'.
now i don't know about others, but if i were to follow one person and that meant to keep up with someone else, it would mean that the person i was following was following the other person.
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Tech49
Our local needs part this week was on "How to Properly Fill Out Your FS Report Slip". And dont forget to count up all your tract placements! According to the recent CO visit, the congregation hours are falling.... "evidently", "surely" and "apparently" due to the fact that so many are "forgetting" how to fill out their slips!
Get it together you stupid sheep! Next month is the GRANDEST CAMPAIGN EVER to promote JW.ORG !!!!
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Tech49: Mini RC 2014 Review
by Tech49 ini attended the regional convention (district convention) over the last weekend, and thought i would spend a few minutes putting down some thoughts, for your amusement.
i will bounce around a bit, as my notes and thoughts were a little craaaaazy.. we met at one of the smaller venues on the west coast, with attendance around 7,000.
(28 baptized.... <.04%) we were tied in to the international convention in arlington, tx.. my first thought, only about 2 hours in, was how much this sounded like a plain old sales meeting!
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Tech49
BANDONTHERUN: Exactly my point. They are just gradually distancing themselves away from the original meanings and wordings. That way, soon enough, all the oldsters will forget what really happened, or be dead,... and the new young crowd of Borg-ites won't know the difference! They will just shuffle merrily along, oblivous to the bait-and-switch, slight-of-hand that has just occurred right under thier noses. Now please nod approvingly, and turn your songbooks to "Listen Obey, and Be Blessed"
LOSTG: yes, someone else mentioned it in another RC post... I was waiting for it, so had to write it down to be sure that was what was said. It was said so quickly, and almost as a mumbly afterthought, that I doubt many even heard it.
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Tech49: Mini RC 2014 Review
by Tech49 ini attended the regional convention (district convention) over the last weekend, and thought i would spend a few minutes putting down some thoughts, for your amusement.
i will bounce around a bit, as my notes and thoughts were a little craaaaazy.. we met at one of the smaller venues on the west coast, with attendance around 7,000.
(28 baptized.... <.04%) we were tied in to the international convention in arlington, tx.. my first thought, only about 2 hours in, was how much this sounded like a plain old sales meeting!
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Tech49
I attended the Regional Convention (District Convention) over the last weekend, and thought I would spend a few minutes putting down some thoughts, for your amusement. I will bounce around a bit, as my notes and thoughts were a little craaaaazy.
We met at one of the smaller venues on the West Coast, with attendance around 7,000. (28 baptized.... <.04%) We were tied in to the International Convention in Arlington, TX.
My first thought, only about 2 hours in, was how much this sounded like a plain old sales meeting! Part after part, the brothers trotted out some OLD brothers and sisters, telling about how they have been in the truth for soooo many years, how much they sacrificed, and glossed up and topped off with their WONDERFUL experiences of SUCCESS!! (Each part really started to sound like a sales meeting, where the top producers tell the lowly peons how much money they can make, if they just TRY HARDER.)
We had the "honor" of having Bro. Loesch as the main tied-in speaker. OH.....MY......GOD...... is this man BORING!!! I dont think he EVER graduated from the Theocratic Ministry School! I think they passed him, and moved him to the next grade! He wore a JW.ORG pin, anyone else catch that? Anyways, I digress....
One of his parts he mentioned that we are SUPPOSED to go over the Daily Text every day with our family. SUPPOSED to, COMMANDED to. (sorry, since when was that a commandment???) Family Worship evening is NOT ENOUGH! We should be having seperate studies with each of our children, in addition to the FW night. And then, we should be reviewing the ENTIRE convention program with them too.... (All these made-up rules really chap my hide).
There was the part about not associating with DF relatives. His wording was that we could associate with them and show them respect, as long as we were discreet. (open-ended and non-commital language).
There was a very poorly acted Drama on Friday, one fella said "The bible says we arent supposed to miss meetings!" No, it doesnt. But if we say it does, then it must.
Loesch's talk mentioning the 3rd Paradise, he repeatedly used the phrase "likely this means...." Likely, as in, just guessing, probably, evidently, etc etc. You get the idea. He said that Jehovah tells us to read the bible DAILY. Skit showing brother about to go to bed, forgets that he has not read his bible today, gets out of bed to do the bible reading, because "Jehovah tells us to". No, he doesnt. But if we say he does, then he must.
Loesch said that if our children are too young to read, then we can play the bible recording for them every day. Ok sure, that's gonna happen. This will "prevent them from leaving the truth later." In other words, if your children leave the "truth", it was your fault for not playing bible tapes, you selfish bastard parent?!
All this from a guy that has never had kids, and didnt even grow up with a father. He was a Boy Scout, remember?
The RC Program was full of the ever-so-dull "do more, do more" "pray more", "sacrifice more" give more".... on and on and on. Each day you felt that if you werent a full-time pioneer, or learning a new language, or moving house and home to serve in the jungle or the desert, then you werent sh*t on the bottom of someone's shoe.
And for the great GHOVAH, SELL ALL YOUR STUFF and SIMPLIFY!!!!! You dont need a big fancy house (like in the movie preview they show). Oh by the way, we NEED YOU to come help us build our NEW MCMANSION!!! GHOVAH NEEDS YOU!!
And why must we harp on PORNOGRAPHY and HOMOSEXUALS in every part? It started to get a little embarrassing. Porn this, Porn that, Homo this, Homo that...... someone have a little fettish????
Then there was the other main speaker, Brother GB HELPER. Oh my goodness. Good speaker, but a freakin CYBORG! This guy didnt blink, didnt even hardly look at his notes. Even my wife Vic looked at me and was like "wowzers!" He reminded me of the cyborg cop in Terminator. Genuine A#1 Company man there.... every time he was introduced, they made sure to mention that he was a GB Helper.
Loesch had another talk, the one on 100 years of History. Mentioned the talk entitled "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". He said specifically that the brothers back then did not really mean THAT... what they meant was that millions of our BROTHERS in the FUTURE would never die.. ???? huh??? No, they didnt. You just made that sh*t up, Garrit. They said what they said, cause they meant it...ok they were deluded, but they still meant it. Dolt.
Interestingly, the new publication released, as a kind of soft-cover Proclaimers Book, never even mentions that talk, but it does go into great detail, with illustrations, on the 2-part overlapping generation theory.
All in all, a depressing waste of 3 days. I took just a few notes of the really stupid stuff that was blatantly ridiculous. Vic took absolutely ZERO notes, which is a first for her. She said it was soo hard to stay awake and pay attention, that she would rather walk around and talk to people!!! Truly, it was mind-numbing. They kept it lively with videos, dramas, and tie-ins, with SHORT talks of about 10 minutes to keep the attention of the audience. As I looked around, I saw SOOOO many people sleeping, staring into space, talking, browsing stuff on their ipads. It was hilarious. Packed, stinky bathrooms, uncomfortable stadium seats, sack lunches. UGH!
edited: I forgot about the 3 jumbo-tron screens. Looked SOO much like that scene in George Orwells 1984... freakin scary.
So glad its over, now I can get back to idolizing my pets, hobbies, and a money-making business that takes me away during the week!
Yours, Jack Harper,Tech49
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Is the GB against JWs having pets?
by NAVYTOWN indoes anyone know what was said at the recent ras about jws owning pets?
was it discouraged strongly?
hopefully jw pet owners will tell the organization to f-off!
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Tech49
Pets and hobbies were very specifically mentioned in the "idolatry" talk, inferring that these could be a distraction, on par and in line with idolatry.