The simple rule of JW biblical doctrine is: take everything figurative literally, and everything literal figuratively.
sonofapreacherman
JoinedPosts by sonofapreacherman
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The moral of the story of adam and eve and witness kids
by Sirius Dogma inwe all know the story of adam and eve - god forbids fruit, man and women eat fruit.. what is the real moral of this story?
tradition teaches that man is sinful by nature and must be punished.. i was thinking the moral could also be this "that which is forbidden, is made desirable.".
i don't know if that is sin, when you tell someone they can't have something, it almost naturally makes us at least curious as to why that is.
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The people who write Watchtower articles - what do you know about them?
by truthseeker ini don't know if this topic has been discussed before, but i have some questions about how witnesses get to write articles in the watchtower.. while reading a few of maximums' posts from 2 years ago, there was one from barbara anderson who briefly described the internal politics between the editors of the awake and the editors of the watchtower.. i'm more interested in the watchtower writers though than the awake, as this is supposed to be the "spiritual food" we are all to take in and absorb.. so how does one get to be a watchtower writer?
do you have to be able to write well?.
what are your experiences with any writers you have met?
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sonofapreacherman
Our CO did my dad a favour and had a word with me when It became obvious that I was fading away. Knowing that I had just started studying journalism at university, he asked if I would consider instead making my goal joining the Bethel writing dept. He would put in a good word for me once I had met the spiritual requirements. I just nodded and grinned (gritted my teeth?) at his suggestion.
Then he said that the writing department was an excellent training ground and that writers there had won several awards. My jaw dropped. Has anyone else heard of this?
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What One JW Belief Could You Never Totally Accept???
by minimus infor me it was that god will destroy billions of innocent children simply because their parents weren't jehovah's witnesses.....and you??
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sonofapreacherman
Death is so unnatural.
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The straw that broke the camel's back
by Satans little helper inyou know, the last little thing that blew your patience out of the water and forced you to face up to the fact that you were in a cult that doesn't believe in the bible so much as it believes in it's own power structure?.
for me it was beards.
stupid i know and possibly the most trivial of things to be 'stumbled' over but to me it was the epitomy of what was wrong with the witnesses - arbitrary rules poking their noses into the lives of people where they had no business.
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sonofapreacherman
:For me it was beards.
That beard thing wound me up too!
I especially remember a very earnest, baptised, young man -- who was a few years older than my teenage self at the time ? who was not allowed microphone privileges (and other duties) because he had a beard. He had a beard because he had some medical condition that meant he would have to shave four-five times a day just to stay clean-shaven.
To answer the question; I suppose the final straw was laid by a very intelligent householder/RV who succinctly questioned/refuted all that silly stuff we used to peddle. She pulled together a lot of loose threads that had been secretly bothering me at the time.
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ANOTHER CALL TO ACTION: Newspaper ad's?
by 2escaped lifers ini have been thinking about this for a while, and a couple recent events here on the board have solidified my thinking.
first, seattleniceguy's triumph with the un posting a letter regarding the wts affiliation with the un.
it just shows that with a little combined effort we can accomplish alot.
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sonofapreacherman
IMHO, pithy statements have more resonance; such as those used in political campaigns.
Rhetorical questions, such as, ?Which religion believes that 99.9 per cent of mankind will soon perish at God?s hand?? might smooth over the negativity while illustrating a real belief.
On the other hand, witnesses are often associated with those children?s encyclopaedia-like drawings found in Watchtower literature. Perhaps a series of smaller display ads featuring a Watchtower-like drawing + a killer fact (especially about wacky doctrine) would be more effective. While reaching the non-JW crowd, JW kids would most definitely be drawn to these ads.
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Do you have a story with a great moral or lesson to it?
by Love_Truth indo you have a story with a great moral or lesson to it?
if so, post it here.
a man and his dog were walking along a road.
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sonofapreacherman
One poster posits a thread in the doctrinal/study article section entitled (for example) "the messiah or the god-head" and waits a week for a reply.
Another poster starts a thread entitled "newby needs a big hug" and gets thirty (((hugs))) in ten minutes.
Moral: love conquers all.
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the great world powers; which other religions follow the JW list?
by sonofapreacherman ini can recall most of the world powers, accordimg to jw interpretation, but what other sect has agreed on the anglo-american world power being in prophesy?
especially at the turn of the last century?
how about the chinese, who ruled 1/3 of the earth in medieval times?
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sonofapreacherman
How did they decide on this? I remember being told that they were just JW wannabees -- so they might not count anyway.
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Has anyone ever munched at the memorial?
by Sirius Dogma ini have always wanted to do that at a kingdom hall.
over the past few years i celebrated pesach (passover) with some jewish friends and it was so cool to be able to munch the food.
besides the jewish tradition was much more fun and was more like a party.
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sonofapreacherman
As for the "bread", yeah I've munched a few, but you'll get more taste out of sawdust.
I did the same as a youth -- unfortunately had the same experience. My dad was in charge of the Matzos and Manichewitz for a few years. We took home the left overs a couple of times. The wine was sweet, but the bread was ... bland.
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the great world powers; which other religions follow the JW list?
by sonofapreacherman ini can recall most of the world powers, accordimg to jw interpretation, but what other sect has agreed on the anglo-american world power being in prophesy?
especially at the turn of the last century?
how about the chinese, who ruled 1/3 of the earth in medieval times?
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sonofapreacherman
I can recall most of the World Powers, accordimg to JW interpretation, but what other sect has agreed on the Anglo-American World Power being in prophesy? Especially at the turn of the last century? How about the Chinese, who ruled 1/3 of the earth in medieval times? Ethnocentric interpretation, or what?
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Do you think some sisters used the scriptures to...........................
by BLISSISIGNORANCE in..............................................................control their husbands and force them to put up with all sorts of things?.
most of us here would agree that alot of men in the wts use and abuse the scriptures to keep women under the thumb.
we have seen time and again how some married brothers like to have the wife and daughters 6 paces behind him.
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sonofapreacherman
I think I know what you are getting at blissisignorance -- based on my childhood homelife -- even though I don't think that being manipulative is more or less the domain of women or men, in or out of the truth.
My mother, whilst not wanting to go to work, would credit my father with being the head of the household and therefore the natural breadwinner.
When she would want to redecorate the house - which was often - she would cite a certain scripture (can't remember exactly which) regarding everything having its time and season.
When the credit card bills came in my mother would smile and nudge my father in the ribs until he recited "Armageddon will soon be here" :¬(