Posts by stillMS

20

Russian gunman raised in JW family

by Alex Bogdanov in

jw
friends

the link bellow is sort of ok. i could not find a decent article in english language about this, but russian media is exploding.

2 days ago a teenager killed 19 people and injured dozens and committed suicide.

he was raised in a jw family.

stillMS

IMHO, the OP is flat out deluded. It's wrong from the very beginning - from the assertion that Russian media's story is anywhere close to the truth. The 'terrorist attack' in the Ukrainian city of Kerch (occupied by Russia since 2014) is no more 'terrorist' than the rest of terrorist attacks organized by FSB (ex-KGB) on a regular basis in Russia itself, and in other countries where they have interest in.

In this particular case, Russian media blame those who they hate - namely, 99.9% Ukraine (as usual), and 0.1% JWs. Nothing new, nothing strange - people who knew what life in Russia is like have warned/'prophecied' about this since the very beginning of Russian invasion to Ukraine in 2014.

8

Using congregation funds to pay for medical costs

by the girl next door in

did it ever happen in your congregation?.

it did in one of mine a decade ago.

not only were funds on hand in the congregation account used but repeated announcements were made to contribute towards the medical treatments for an elder’s wife who was battling breast cancer.

stillMS

In terms of accountance rules - they obviously differ from country to country. In our country, for Instance, there are no state rules forbidding help to congregation members. Which is more there are rules to make it properly from a legal standpoint.

Nevertheless, the borg policy is to have cash flow go only into one direction (guess which one:) ).

In the congos I know, there was no single case of helping ill jdubs from the congo funds - but in the times before 'the rise of theocracy' we could just collect money for someone who is sick bypassing the donation box.

Such a policy has resulted in deaths that could possibly be avoided - but who cares :( .

44

JW detained in Putin's Russia ... accused of extremism

by mikeflood in

from bbc news "five jw's from the kirov region detained with about $ 7,500 accused of funding and organizing meetings....they found literature...and two hand granades and a landmine".

the russians are such idiots planting evidence....and quarrelling with the neutral and sheepish jw land...and of course inflamating their persecution complex.

.

stillMS

and just for fun - a video about Russian Orthodox pseudo-church headed by a KGB/FSB agent from a Russian underground punk-rock band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4HfSbqlj-k

I guess it should be clear even for those who don't know a word in Russian.

44

JW detained in Putin's Russia ... accused of extremism

by mikeflood in

from bbc news "five jw's from the kirov region detained with about $ 7,500 accused of funding and organizing meetings....they found literature...and two hand granades and a landmine".

the russians are such idiots planting evidence....and quarrelling with the neutral and sheepish jw land...and of course inflamating their persecution complex.

.

stillMS

How ironical - the Russian Orthodox so called 'church' that throughout decades used to blame jdubs to be a 'sect' has now become an Orthodox sect itself. Good news! - even despite it has been a KGB pseudo-church since its very founding by Stalin in 1943.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/15/russian-orthodox-church-cuts-ties-with-constantinople

33

Court documents reveal Watchtower's tactics in Montana child abuse case

by LevelThePlayingField in

there were numerous objections and claims that watchtower lawyers made to try and get out of being held responsible for their negligence and malice.

here’s the juicy ones:.

montana is a mandatory reporting state, but watchtower lawyers claimed that the law for reporting abuse only applies to “individuals” and they are “corporations”.

stillMS

minimus: I strongly suspect that pretty soon, they'd be experiencing a serious barrel-bottom-scraping shortfall of vital "qualified brothers" needed to run the Org at the grassroots level

I don't think the pedophile are THAT wide-spread. I suggest it's more because of fear for spoiling the 'holy org' image and getting bad media coverage.

44

JW detained in Putin's Russia ... accused of extremism

by mikeflood in

from bbc news "five jw's from the kirov region detained with about $ 7,500 accused of funding and organizing meetings....they found literature...and two hand granades and a landmine".

the russians are such idiots planting evidence....and quarrelling with the neutral and sheepish jw land...and of course inflamating their persecution complex.

.

stillMS

OrphanCrow: Thank you for your vote of confidence - 1% is better than nothing.

Forgive me if I'm being over-suspicious - believe me, I haven't been joking about meeting hundreds of pro-Russian paid/sincere trolls, and I hope you're sincere here.

I wouldn't say Soviet era life is a very fun topic to examine - although it might be interesting for those who've never lived under that regime. For the outsiders, it's quite hard to understand what it really was like - because of the time passed, because of history falsifications, human's memory deceitfullness, etc.

One of the best and funniest way to get a feel of what it was like is to read Soviet times anecdotes (short jokes - so truthful that Soviet citizens could easily get 10 years of imprisonment for spreading them).

I'd advice trying to read this one (it contains details you can hardly find elsewhere):

http://www.lib.ru/ANEKDOTY/anec1001.txt

Other than that, Russia today is not much different from the USSR (and is quite proud of that) - in many respects is even worse, the better part being that it is more open to the world (they're working on bringing it down gradually) and has more modernized/open economy/market - which evidently stops them from blatant acts of violence like performing 20th century-style genocides and massive repressions.

44

JW detained in Putin's Russia ... accused of extremism

by mikeflood in

from bbc news "five jw's from the kirov region detained with about $ 7,500 accused of funding and organizing meetings....they found literature...and two hand granades and a landmine".

the russians are such idiots planting evidence....and quarrelling with the neutral and sheepish jw land...and of course inflamating their persecution complex.

.

stillMS

OrphanCrow:
I try to maintain a non-biased approach - I like to find out what is really happening rather than just what western media and the org reports.
...I am more interested in accuracy rather than in taking sides purely based on a pre-conceived political notion

That's exactly what every pro-Russian propagandist says - believe me or not, I have an eye of 'em (after seeing hundreds of them online and offline during the last years, when they literally flooded the Web). If it were not the english-speaking ex-jw community, I would be 100% percent sure you're one of them, and wouldn't even care to discuss anything with you. But since I can't think of a reason why they could be interested in this type of a board - I allow about 1% that you could do it just out of your own initiative, being influenced by that propaganda.

OrphanCrow:
Just because the info I present doesn't fit your narrative doesn't mean I am defending the Russian authorities.

I don't know you, and have nothing against you personally - but that's exactly what you do for quite a while.

I also wonder what's my narrative that is not accurate?

P.S.: I personally know active jdubs from Russia, so I have some idea of what's going on there at the moment, too (I wouldn't trust jwforum.eu much - because the people who gained controlled over it are pretty far from being trustworthy and non-biased).

44

JW detained in Putin's Russia ... accused of extremism

by mikeflood in

from bbc news "five jw's from the kirov region detained with about $ 7,500 accused of funding and organizing meetings....they found literature...and two hand granades and a landmine".

the russians are such idiots planting evidence....and quarrelling with the neutral and sheepish jw land...and of course inflamating their persecution complex.

.

stillMS

To me, everything is clear with these nonsensical accusations and bullying jdubs in Russia (they're actually just one of the groups experiencing persecution - and far not the severest, BTW - from the authorities). The only thing that makes me wonder is what's the Orphan Crow's interest in protecting Russian authorities almost in every thread where Russia's mentioned? How in the world can he know of some no-name Russian-language website mentioning the things he (just accidentally) needs to play Russia's advocate?

44

JW detained in Putin's Russia ... accused of extremism

by mikeflood in

from bbc news "five jw's from the kirov region detained with about $ 7,500 accused of funding and organizing meetings....they found literature...and two hand granades and a landmine".

the russians are such idiots planting evidence....and quarrelling with the neutral and sheepish jw land...and of course inflamating their persecution complex.

.

stillMS

I struggle to think of a reason they would plant such things.

You probably just have little idea of what's going on in Russia. They can come up with ideas 10 times crazier than WT stuff and do 'flip-flops' in their bold-faced lies 10 times a day. Governing Body can only dream about that level of brainwashing and deceipt.

Just for a quick reference - scroll through the Russian's versions of why it wasn't them who downed MH-17 in 2014, why it wasn't them who invaded Ukraine, why it wasn't their spies in Salisbury , etc.

Further, there is nothing new in that type of Russian's police behaviour: just check what the Russian occupational administration's 'police' in Eastern Ukraine have done with JWs (spoiler - virtually, the same thing):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8T3AXZJBY?t=152

39

New releases at annual meeting??

by _Morpheus in

this has been mentioned in passing but it seems to deserve its own thread.. this year at the rc, no releases.

instead they wait to drop them at the annual meeting which isnt a even simulcast event.

what is their thinking?

stillMS

I'd vote for the 'money' reason for the change. Looks like they try to save every cent these days - and at the Regional conventions (RC) lots of hard copies goes to guests (mostly, for nothing), and to every JW present - while not every jdub will bother to order those hard copies via the cong. I'd guess for about 20%-40% saving of hard copies. Which adds up to a pretty decent number if taken worldwide - at least several if not dozens $$ millions (maybe, even enough for one of the child abuse trial expenses).