eduardo & family with kids will pioneer and survive on 10% of his regular income.. .. .
page 24. .
sort of reminded me of this guy: father of four quits job after attending annual meeting.
Some guy prying on your browser history instead of minding his own business = "a blessing".
Now, talk about Orwellian Newspeak.
BTW, the elder that pryed onto the poor guy's cell was, by ~90% probablity, viewing pornography HIMSELF. The 90% statistic is, according to a local CO, the proportion of appointed jws (elders & ms) that have viewed pornography. That means that if you have a BOE of 10 people, 9 of them have viewed porn. The 10th, must be either blind & deaf, or like 95 years old.
looking at the percentage of average publishers of 2013 over 2012 (not the peaks):.
brazil 1.46%.
nigeria 2.60%.
Oh, Jehovah's blessing is evident! Many encouraging statistics! :P
Now, I gladly see that in my country there is a substantial decrease, which means my planned fade will not be out of touch, but part of a greater tendency. Now, that's encouraging!
hahahahha going up up up.
the new yearbook is finally on jw.org.
PRAISE THE LORD! More are being summoned to join Him in Heavens!
#not
If a person really, genuinely and firmly believes that they're ''anointed'', it is obvious they have serious mental and/or emotional problems.
This is not to be startled of, though. The 2.000-year-old history of Christianity is full of people who had a 'special channel' of communication with God. Many of those (prophets, mystics, fanatics, recluses, monks) were really serious cases.
The only case they *don't* have mental/emotional issues is: (a) they pretend, (b) they are made to believe they are anointed. Example: a Nethinim/Helper in Brooklyn progresses on to be part of the GB. The existing GB imply that he may have the potential. So what does he do? He HAS TO become anointed in order to go up the last step of the ladder. Hence, he is made, or pushed, to believe he's anointed; just as a special pioneer's wife, in order to progress further, is pushed to believe she does not want to have children. (Note that all of the existing 8 GB members are former Nethinim, belonging to the 'other sheep' until (relatively) recently.)
To be fair, the case is similar (if not worse) for other religions as well, such as Pentecost & Evangelical, who *all* profess to be anointed.
so as i looked at the material i was struck by a few thoughts about this article.. par.
6 glossed over the idea that we can pray for ourselves, or our needs.
9-11 on one hand they say jesus did not harshly criticize peter or the apostles for falling asleep instead of praying continually, and on the other hand make veiled threats if we should feel tired out by life.
Billy: Exactly! There's always a ''buffer'' article, before and after the 'actual' stuff.
there are many similarities in the stories attached to both the buddha (the one born in lumbini, nepal) and jesus, even though buddha lived in the 6th c/bce and jesus in the 1st c/ce.
this video compares some aspects of their teachings.. the text attached to the video states:.
buddha searched for the truth.
Of course there are a lot similarities.
Mind as well the supernatural similarities with Mithras, Horus, Attis and other 'gods' of the time, such as the "Virgin birth", birth in the winter solistice and, of course, resurrection.
As for the moral teachings, a historical person with striking resemblance in their teachings is Socrates, who died 400 years before Jesus was born. It's worth a look.
I used to believe that the gospel of Matthew ALONE was a PROOF of the Bible's divinity! I thought that no other human EVER, could possibly think of the incredible teachings that were laid there. That was before I looked at the same (but OLDER, and maybe superior) teachings of men like Buddha and Socrates. And I'm sure there are other teachers as well with similar teachings that I'm not yet familiar with.
It's hard for a religious introctrinated person to look objectively at the life of his 'god' in a historical context, but it's more beneficial than ignorance.
have you seen the jw child who grows up to be the ideal product of the cult from its point of view, and presumably from its indoctrinated parent's point of view?.
that young person is a weirdo !!!.
i can think of a number like this, still a minority fortunately, in that most of the ones i watched grow up either left or did not embrace the thing anywhere near 100%.. but those one-hundred-percenter kids are something to behold !.
There may be a handful of those weirdo types, but as one psychologist put it: "Biology happens". No matter what the desperate (and hypocritical) attempts of religion to subdue nature are, biology is stronger.
There's no way a super-duper zealous perfect jw youth does not succumb to human nature, one way or the other, short or long-term.
The only difference between seculars and religious fanatics (as those overzealous jw kids), is that religious ones pretend and lie.
i havent been to a meeting in four years.
during that time i completed a successful fade from the organization after almost 40 years being baptized.
it seems nothing anymore will surprise or shock me with these latest bunch of brooklyn leaders.
baldeagle: Excellent article on this hot topic!
It may seem absurd that the .Org now embraces the Internet in such a sudden (and almost funny) turn of policy, but I suspect (as most do) that the reason is the simplest of all: MONEY. The world economic crisis couldn't but affect the WTS for good. All those things with the "dangers" of the Internet may be good (so to speak), but the economic is *the* greatest factor. It is the one which allows any company (and religion) to survive. First we see what we can to to overcome the economic crisis, and the moral dangers come second. If along the way some jws visit 'wrong' websites and fade/leave, well, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs!
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
Cofty, it is obvious that your pastor's tries would fall in vacuum, but your title reminded me of something important:
It is very sad indeed when a person who has just escaped from the WTS control later turns to other, equally false and illogical (if more) beleifs and cults. I just can't believe it when someone grows critical thinking (or does he?) and leaves the WTS, only to fall for a weird Evangelical church.
It reminds me of the emperor Julian, who was clever and sophisticated enough to see through the improbable christian dogma and free himself from his christian upbuilding, but then turned to the mystical worship of Mithras!
Religion always has a way of sneaking through the back door.
it always made me think when i corinthians 11 was read at the memorial, when jesus said "as often as you keep doing this..." i would think"hmmm, once a year isn't really very often, the other churches are a lot more often than us.".
great to see that they fixed that to "keep doing this.
" wouldn't want any doubts, now, would we?.
Well, I'm surprised that they didn't revise it to "keep doing this once a year".
Or, even better, "Keep doing this once a year, on Nisan 14, after the sun goes down".
Or maybe, "Keep doing this once a year, on Nisan 14, after the sun goes down, and advertize the event with a well-coordinated campaign, for 3 weeks before that day. Oh, and make sure you degrade the event to a salesman-quality talk advertizing the WTBTS".
It's not that they wouldn't have the nerve for it.
(Darn, I hope I don't give them ideas.)
