I started to wonder this myself when I did some research. Although Mother's Day has happened in Greek and Roman paganism, today's mothers day has nothing to do with them or no connection whatsoever. Mother's Day was started in the US by a lady named Anna Jarvis who wanted to dedicate a special day for mothers. Eventually the celebration expanded to other countries. Ironically, she later wanted the holiday she promoted removed because it became very commercialized. how is this pagan? No idea. Even if a Witness argues that it's dedicating a date for your mom and it can be seen as "worship", it doesn't make sense. After all, there are celebrations and days dedicated to high school graduates, baby showers, wedding anniversaries, etc. Plus, I have a JW cousin who I saw write on Facebook, "happy teachers day" (she's a teacher). its celebrated in her country, not here but that's a lot like Mother's Day in the sense that it dedicates a day to teachers. I've never heard any information against teachers or children's day.
A.proclaimer
JoinedPosts by A.proclaimer
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43
Why JWs don't celebrate Mother's day
by Laika inin the uk, this sunday is mother's day!
ask a jw why they don't celebrate holidays and they'll tell you it's because of some nefarious pagan connection.
but this is really just a cover.
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What the writer of Revelation intended by his cryptic 666 mark of the beast reference.
by Island Man init's amazing how simple the answer is and yet the watchtower organization seems completely oblivious to it.
revelation itself tells you what the number is: "a man's number", "the number of his name".
the writer of revelation spells it out and yet they don't see it!
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A.proclaimer
Woah, this explanation is a lot better than what other religions today try to make out of it. Makes a whole lot sense tI find out what it meant back then. If only people knew this. Good video, thanks for sharing
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Help, got JW in home....need details on how to answer question
by skeeter1 in"the world is much worse off today then yesterday .
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i know the basic answers, but give me some more ammunition.
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A.proclaimer
Next time, you could say how famine has dropped. It's easy to find statistics on that. I don't know if you're from the US, but violent crime rates have dropped here and being murdered is less common than that from the 1950's. Also, point to the fact that women have better right and comforts than in the past, civil rights movements have improved for people of different backgrounds and colors. Sure it's not all perfect but it's a lot better than before. The only reason things seem worse is because today we are able to know about it more than in the past. The news highlights stories like these. Technology allows us to stay in constant communication with the world around us, and people like to know more about others. Of course, there are things that have gotten worse but to say everything is all bad is an exaggeration.
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Hello, I am new
by LillyC ini am not a jehovah's witness but i am very interested, i have many questions and hope they can be answered here.. i do believe in god, privately.
i do say my prayers daily and do believe god helps me in countless ways.
but i don't go to any church.. i have always been impressed at how smart, polite and nice jehovah's witnesses are and i always make time to speak to them when they call at my door.
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A.proclaimer
Hello LillyC welcome!
Many of us here have been in your footsteps before. I can't say I was because I was born in, but there are others who aren't. Anyway, before joining, I suggest you take a look at both sides of the equation before making a formal decision. Look at the history, past and current teachings, the positives and negatives, the different experiences people have, do some research. Jwfacts.com is a good start, and of course you have the official website Jw.org. There are many different ways to interpret the Bible, and the Witnesses have many unique ones compared to mainstream Christians. In the end, the decision is yours to make to join or not, but there are many people who will gladly help with questions.
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The Organization is expanding so much........
by DATA-DOG in...that district overseers are now being used as circuit overseers!!
that was a comment at the wt study program.
another great comment was this: " you can go to bethel and have zero skills.
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A.proclaimer
Cutting hair was a really popular job in my old congregation. Those that couldn't find jobs went for that. think of it as the equivalent of window washing.
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One day Assemblies and the removal of the RBC
by A.proclaimer inso i was at a jw gathering today, and i over heard a brother telling a sister about these new changes.
according to him, both one day circuit assemblies will be put together on the same weekend, one on saturday, the next on sunday.
that way the assembly halls could be used to fit in more circuits as they increase in numbers.
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A.proclaimer
So I was at a JW gathering today, and I over heard a brother telling a sister about these new changes. According to him, both one day circuit assemblies will be put together on the same weekend, one on Saturday, the next on Sunday. That way the assembly halls could be used to fit in more circuits as they increase in numbers. New halls means more people and circuits which means they will be able to use the same Assembly hall without the need to build a new one.
As for the Regional Building Comitee (RBC), I heard him say that the plan was to remove them and instead, make a departmant at that would be incharge of the construction of Kingdom Halls and Watchtower properties worldwide. Not just that, they will be building houses for missionaries (and I think full time pioneers or something having to do with pioneers) and have maintenance teams in charge of maintaining the properties and kingdom halls. He said that the brothers reporting this were very "giddy" as it was "the biggest change" in their history.
I also overheard something about having rescue teams during disasters. That brothers have their own equipment and such. But I couldnt hear everything so that's all I know.
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Pushing the JW.ORG
by Etude ini took these pictures over a month ago.
i had not realized that they were really pushing their site.
this was at our farmers market, although they were not officially in the market area but off the side on the sidewalk.. .
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A.proclaimer
They are really trying to get people to go onto the the JW.org. Now they recommend showing householders the website, and make sure to mention it during the preaching work. February's Kingdom Ministry for the week of the 17th even had a discussion on it:
"Are you Using JW.org in your Ministry? Discussion. Invite audience to relate good experiences they have had using jw.org in the ministry. Encourage the audience to publicize jw.org at every appropriate opportunity." KM 02/2014 p.2
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Will firing the DOs be the first step to a new Watchtower?
by Juan Viejo2 inagainst my better judgement, i've decided to share the following as a response to guy pierce passing and the announcement of the elimination of district overseers later this year.. late in january (2014) i got an email from one of my contacts (a fader) who served at bethel for several years, but is no longer at wt hq.
he still has a lot of close contacts within the service department and in other departments at patterson and knows people in all of the ny offices.
i kept this email set aside on a flash drive and haven't shared it with anyone - figuring i'd publish an article about it later this year when i had more time to do it right.
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A.proclaimer
Wow these are big suggested changes that are coming up. I had a feeling this was coming ever since they said to listen to the organization whether it "appears sound from a strategic or human standpoint or not." I'm expecting the 144,000 to change, no way they could excuse the increasing number as being a "mental" problem or something from a previous religious experience. As for cutting off sisters from the anointed, that would be a real blow for them, for any sister that partook. So I don't think they could really pull that off, unless like what was said that it will be ambiguous. These guys are smart to plan changes in small pieces. The average JW will only see this as a minor changes and as time goes on, it adds up to something big that they won't realize the leap it took from the previous teaching. Changes to the 144,000 will shake up some members.
Putting the Watchtower and Awake would be a lot more convenient. It would be as long as the old Watchtowers, about 30 pages. Though it is a break from the history of these magazines, it's always been two. Ironic that the "dumbing down" was brought up since I remember at the annual meeting where the new bible was released, they mentioned how these new magazines were simplified to make it easy for everyone to read, thanking Jehovah for all these changes.
Now it's just time to sit back and see what will happen, what will be accepted and changed, and what will remain the same.
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BOE District Overseers- CONFIDENTIAL
by WatchTower87 ininstruction: press the 'skip ad' button top right, you should then see the download screen more easily.
no virus ;-).
boe district overseers- confidential pdf: http://adf.ly/glwdn.
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A.proclaimer
Cutting down on one level will save resources. No need to have more people, to care for them or pay for cars, travel, the time to train them. Saves time and money. Like Wisdomfromabove said, there are no more district conventions, no district overseers. I doubt that every DO will be turned into a CO, too many people around unless there's a shortage of COs or they rework the whole system. We are living during a time of change for the Watchtower, new advertisements (JW.org), doctrinal changes, no Brooklyn, no District Assemblies, death of a governing body member and now this.
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Heard a rumor: Guy Pierce died this morning
by respectful_observer indidn't see any other threads, apologies if one already exists.
apparently died of a massive stroke this morning.. r_o.
(completely unconfirmed.
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A.proclaimer
So that's who he looks like!, grandpa from the Munsters. Thought he had a familiar face. Cross that with Liberace too. RIP Guy Pierce, off to the launching pad. I wonder what they'll do now, if there will be a new member to take his place, or just stick with 7.