If what DesirousOfChange said is true, then I find it ironic that now what qualifies brothers is tech-saviness, not experience, spirituality, record of service, etc. A few years ago, those who were tech savvy might have been viewed suspiciously, as being worldly.
Posts by Magnum
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2380 Year old COBE Layoff Conspiracy
by XBEHERE inwho else thinks something is afoot with this?
is the gb deciding to go back to pre-1971 times with perhaps the cobe as the man in charge and the rest just ministerial servants.
so for this reason they want younger men in those postitions?
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80 Year old COBE Layoff Conspiracy
by XBEHERE inwho else thinks something is afoot with this?
is the gb deciding to go back to pre-1971 times with perhaps the cobe as the man in charge and the rest just ministerial servants.
so for this reason they want younger men in those postitions?
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Magnum
Well, there has to be some reason. Nobody just arbitrarily comes up with decisions like that without having thought about it and discussed it. Why won't they just say what the reason is?
This might be the initial step towards something bigger. I think bigger changes are ahead. Maybe they're just laying the changes out gradually - in smaller pieces - so they'll be easier to swallow. They let the rank and file get used to the changes a little bit at a time.
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Being a JW Used to Be Fun :-)
by snowbird inwe found some people who were happy to welcome us into their homes, even offering us food and drink.. sometimes, they would flag us down and ask for the magazines, walk miles to the kh meetings, come to our defense if someone got ugly or rude.. now, jw's are either routinely ignored or outright vilified.. no one respects them anymore.. sad.. .
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Magnum
I agree with a lot of what has been posted. Factfinder, I agree with both of your posts.
It is sad though that what we thought was the truth and that we were part of God's organization and the security it gave us, was in fact just another made up religion.
And we can't go back even if we wanted to. THAT religion is gone. What passes for it now is nothing like it used to be.
I am sentimental about and nostalgic for old times. I miss the old exciting district conventions. I miss the fruit bags. We did really think the end was coming any day and I miss that. We had one sister who, in the pre-1975 era, would always find the first district converntion and go to it no matter how far away just so she could get the latest information. That exemplifies the general feeling of excitiement back then. I and my mother and sister would go out of town to district convnetons with my grandparents and stay in motels with them. My grandfather was wonderful fun, and he was one of the real, true faithful JWs who would have died for it. It was so nice being with them. We all had such a sense of security; after all, very shortly we were going to be in paradise.
On the way to the district conventions, we would put Watchtower mags in the front and back windows of the car. Fellow Witnesses on the way to the convention would see the mags and wave. We had a feeling of comradery. Witnesses seemed different then; they seemed to be made of better stuff. I was in an area that had a core group of older JWs that were smart & knowledgeable. I"ve mentioned this before, but I've got to mention it again because it's so burned in my memory and I miss it. After district convention sessions, at night, these older ones would sit by the motel pool as we younger ones swam. I remember seeing them relaxed in their shorts having deep, exciting converstations about Bible prophecy, when the end was coming, etc. JWs just don't do that anymore. For one thing, most are incapable now; they don't even know their own doctrine. Also the org doesn't really provide that kind of info anymore. And I think the org doesn't want such conversations to go on because they expose the holes in JW doctrine. In fact, now such conversations are almost forbidden.
As somebody mentioned above, a lot of the lit now is just stuff for children. So much of it is about social stuff and daily living. The org has abandoned the heavy doctrinal and prophetic stuff - the stuff that I enjoyed and found exciting.
Wow, I miss those exciting times and the feeling of security - like we were part of an organization that was going to take care of us, protect us. But, as was said, that religion is gone... gone. I just can't believe it. It seemed so real. One of those older JWs I mentioned told my unbelieving dad that I'd never drive or graduate high school because the end was so close. It's been over 40 years since he said that. Most of those folks are gone now and I miss them. I can't relate to JWs today; they're just different. It's all different.
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Being a JW Used to Be Fun :-)
by snowbird inwe found some people who were happy to welcome us into their homes, even offering us food and drink.. sometimes, they would flag us down and ask for the magazines, walk miles to the kh meetings, come to our defense if someone got ugly or rude.. now, jw's are either routinely ignored or outright vilified.. no one respects them anymore.. sad.. .
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Magnum
Yes, though it was very hard, and I lived a life of extreme sacrifice, it was fun and exciting in that we thought we were going to delivered any minute. We thought exciting events were about to unfold. We looked forward to district conventions because we thought we might get exciting new information. There was a sense of urgency, excitement, and accomplishment. We took pride in being different and being looked down on.
Then it all started changing. I gradually began to see behind the curtain until I got a full glimpse of the little old powerless men behind that big old curtain. The magic is gone. Now, instead of taking pride in being different, JWs are trying to fit in and be cool and hip and they will never be. I couldn't care less about district (regional) conventions because there will be no exciting new info. I couldn't care less about the latest Watchtower or Awake. I now know they are simply written by people who have no more connection with a deity than Jack Black. Their writing is awful.
And I agree that they're not taken seriously anymore. And I think that will be more so the case as time goes on because of the availabilty of info against them and with the passing of time, their doctrines, include end-time predicitons are shown to more and more wrong.
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In Death lies Glory
by BluePill2 ini was alone at the new branch construction site in ticuantepe (nicaragua).
everybody had taken off for a weekend assembly in the capital and it was my turn to have watchman duty and guard the site.
we had dogs and i only had to walk around the perimeters and check all the gates and entrances.. suddenly a young boy appeared at the main gate, breathless and visibly nervous.
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Magnum
I have had some of the thoughts you mentioned since before my baptism. I always said it was just unnatural for humans to live forever because it violates eveything we know about the natural world and biology (and ultimately the laws of physics). You're right; everything dies. For humans to live forever would require constant divine intervention. I always said that even if we were perfect according to the JW definition, our teeth, knees, etc. would still would wear out.
Some JWs I mentoned that to said "no they wouldn't because we'd be perfect". I replied that being perfect doesn't make one Superman. I said that if you take two rocks and rub them together, they will eventually wear down. Same thing with teeth. "Perfect" teeth would just me made of basic elements such as calcium. They would still wear out and they woudn't renew as, for example, skin cells do.
It just doesn't make sense for humans to live forever in a realm where everything dies. Plus the issue of overpopulation can't be overlooked. JWs say things, as you mentioned, like 'Jah will control the population at that time'. Well, if he's going to interfere with the natural goings-ln, the laws of physics, why did he put us in a realm governed by those laws in the first place?
It never made sense, but I was told to wait on answers and that I would understand one day. It's been a long time and that day hasn't come.
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Complete list of how "The Watchtower" make money
by usualusername ini have been reading this forum for umpteen years and have heard of so many ways that the watchtower is making money.. .
would you mind contributing to help me compile a list?.
to start:.
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Magnum
The disaster relief scam. They repair houses and get the insurance checks. All the labor is free, and often, that is the biggest expense on a job. So they have hundreds and hundreds of skilled and unskilled labor working for free and they pocket the money. They don't even pay food, lodging, or transportation for the laborers. The materials they use are bought in bulk at a discount and some may even be donated.
A constructon company that was paying labor would make a profit, so you can imagine the profit the org makes.
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Atlanta Int Convention 2014:The Big Party. Does this look like WT believes Armageddon is coming "soon"?
by AndDontCallMeShirley inhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=potrr2qxhue.
.. if armageddon is "imminent", why is wt focused on sight-seeing, entertainment, travel, etc.
instead of preaching and saving people??.
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Magnum
OK, so reactions from JWs:
wife of breakfast of champions - "jaw hit the floor"
wife of DesirousOfChange - same
sister of label licker - 'she was floored and just can't believe it'
I'm interested to know what current JWs, esp those who've been around a while, think about this video. Is anybody aware of any other reactions?
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Detroit Style Ballroom Dancing
by KateWild intrying to make rcs less of a snorefest.
not exactly award winning either, but worth a laugh.
kate xx.
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Magnum
exwhyzee: for anyone who grew up in the restricted and regulated JW lifestyle, it makes the loss of ones youth that much harder to take. To a small degree it would be like not going to College when you were young, then years later finding out the Society had begun setting up scholarships or grants for deserving JW kids who wanted to go on to higher education. It would make a joke of your sacrafice.
It does sort of make a joke of my sacrifice. I was kept on the edge of my seat for several decades thinking the sky was going to fall any minute. JWs at that time were instructed to live accordingly, and I did. I lived a very Spartan lifestyle. And now JWs are chilling out and lightening up - starting to try to be more mainstream and hip and cool. They are providing cartoons and entertainment for children, etc. I now resent the way I lived for 30 years and will continue to have to live because of them.
baldeagle:
SadElder: If that's true about Ted Jaracz, then it shows that JWs are just governed and guided by the whims and personal opinions of whoever is in charge at the time or whoever is alpha male. No guidance by a deity - just whatever the current top dogs think.
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Expect more Crazy as JW.ORG trims the fat and fills the coffers.
by donuthole inwhen rutherford assumed the presidency of the watchtower society he instituted series of sweeping changes to the teachings and practices of the bible students.
some of these changes were at complete odds with what had been taught previously.
a key example was the elevation of the watchtower society as "god's visible organization on earth".
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Magnum
Interesting. I wasn't aware of this:
When Rutherford assumed the presidency of the Watchtower Society he instituted series of sweeping changes to the teachings and practices of the Bible Students. Some of these changes were at complete odds with what had been taught previously. A key example was the elevation of the Watchtower Society as "God's Visible Organization on Earth". The end result was that an estimated three-fourths of the religion seperated over those decades. However, what remained was a core group fiercely loyal to the Watchtower Society that were rebranded as Jehovah's Witnesses. Far from die out, Rutherford's JW's flourished.
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New Tract for August 2014 - Scan
by BluesBrother inif someone has done this before , i apologise but this was new to me.....struck me as strange that nowadays, the answers to life's problems are found on the internet .
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Magnum
Wow! They've really sold themselves out. I know a guy who was working door-to-door with a friend. The friend knocked on the door of some true surfer dudes. He started trying to preach using surfer lingo as if he was one of them. Afterwards, his partner told him he sold himself out. He told him that he could have been friendly and down-to-earth without going overboard and being a sellout.
Definition of "sellout" - one who betrays a cause for personal advancement. So I guess the guy thought his friend betrayed who he really was in order to appeal to the surfer dudes. I feel like the org has betrayed its cause or who it really is (was?) for its advancement. It's trying to hard to appeal, to be hip and cool. JWs used to almost like being different and being viewed as not cool or not hip, but no more.
The JW.org website is not one for people who want real scholarly answers; it's a very shallow site that appeals to people having social or emotional type issues. Intelligent, thinking, knowledgeable people will not (I think) like the website; they're not interested in corny, goody-goody cartoons, etc. They want real answers with depth. I find far better answers, scholarship, etc. on other websites - for example, sites that have many different transalations, original language interlinears, various commentaries, etc.
JW.org is cheesy. There's no way I could get up on Saturday morns and enthusiastically offer that tract.