You are going to find this to be the case for almost all yearly celebrations. There is a funny pattern to be seen on this. All life celebrations that happen once in a lifetime are celebrated without a problem. Even if some of the rituals on such celebrations are pagan in nature. But when it comes to things like b-days, mothers day, etc etc, that is a no-no. Other more critical issues like blood have undergone changes but the seemingly innocent celebrations remain untouched thru time.
StarTrekAngel
JoinedPosts by StarTrekAngel
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5
Chri$tma$ for the Org
by OrphanCrow inhttps://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1112/average-cost-of-an-american-christmas.aspx.
in 2017, it is expected that the average american will be spending $967.13 on gifts for friends and loved ones.
i was thinking about how much money the org has at their disposal within their membership by simply banning christmas.. because jws are notoriously cheap, i rounded way down with projected gift spending and went with a $900 figure and then rounded down the estimates of jws to 8 million (because a lot of that number are dependent children) and came up with an amount of 72 million american dollars that will have been "liberated" from the worldly tradition of getting together with friends and family to celebrate during the long winter months.. i didn't bother putting in the $ that is spent on things other than gift giving (travelling and food, etc) just because so many jws do that anyways over the holidays "because turkeys are on sale".
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Chri$tma$ for the Org
by OrphanCrow inhttps://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1112/average-cost-of-an-american-christmas.aspx.
in 2017, it is expected that the average american will be spending $967.13 on gifts for friends and loved ones.
i was thinking about how much money the org has at their disposal within their membership by simply banning christmas.. because jws are notoriously cheap, i rounded way down with projected gift spending and went with a $900 figure and then rounded down the estimates of jws to 8 million (because a lot of that number are dependent children) and came up with an amount of 72 million american dollars that will have been "liberated" from the worldly tradition of getting together with friends and family to celebrate during the long winter months.. i didn't bother putting in the $ that is spent on things other than gift giving (travelling and food, etc) just because so many jws do that anyways over the holidays "because turkeys are on sale".
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StarTrekAngel
I ran similar figures for B-days a while ago... here is what I came out with
-Based on the 2014 Year Book, there is 13,714 congregations in the US main territory. Also, there is a total of 1,167,723 publishers. This shields an average of about 85 publishers per congregation.- Based on this numbers I looked at my own congregation and behold... we actually have 85 publishers exactly. So, I will not be too far off assuming our congregation is a good sample to depart from.- Assuming an average witness family of 4 (parents and two children), this give you an average of 20 families per congregation- Assuming most birthdays, if allowed, would probably be oriented to children, then that means 40 celebrations per year. 20 families x 2 children per family- While we do have 85 publishers in our cong, the actual attendance numbers are anywhere from 120 to 140 (watchtower study days). Most of whom are associated members of the congregation. Where we stand today we have no one who is DF. So all in all, this give a total potential attendance to a birthday of 30 families (120 attendance / 4 family members)- Again, in an effort to be conservative, consider that may be not every single individual in attendance will present a gift to the host, but lets assume one gift per family. It will be safe to assume every family can spare $20 dollars for a gift. At 30 families this means a potential $600 in gifts alone. If we consider the number of celebrations per year, the total is $24,000 per year.- This don't seem like a number the WTBTS would be willing to consider in light of the controversy that could surround the doctrine, until you consider the entire US JW population. At 13,714 congregations, this would amount to $329,136,000 per year. -
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Do you or did you experience too much intrusion into your personal life by the elders in your congregation?
by UnshackleTheChains ini ask this question because i have personally experienced first hand the control and intrusion into my personal life by the elders at our hall; and for virtually trivial things or non issues!
what's more, i regularly hear of individuals moving to other halls because they were stumbled by the thought police....er, i mean these elders.. have you had any such experience?
have your elders been a bit ott over trivialities?.
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StarTrekAngel
I personally did not experience as much intrusion as some other ones have. Although I think that is partly because the most nosy elder moved to another congregation but I know one of my good now apostate friend had his life made hell by the same elder.
In my case I was mostly bombarded with snarky comments and remarks. Like this elder, which is the one I converted with, would call me on a Saturday to have me fix his computer. I would show up with a half grown beard and then he would ask "how was field service this morning?"
My good apostate friend was in a band that played at most JW parties. Obviously their songs were mostly innocent but some of them could be interpreted with double meaning. He has had elders encourage people to leave the party because he would refuse to quit playing those songs. After being DFd, he had to cancel contracts (even when he accepted to not play, just provide the equipment and the rest of the band would do it). He has had to cancel contracts on the eve of weddings because of this.
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Does "Hanlon's Razor" apply to the Governing Body?
by stuckinarut2 ini recently learned of the term "hanlon's razor".. wikipedia defines it as: .
hanlon's razor is an aphorism expressed in various ways including "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
" it recommends a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for a phenomenon (a philosophical razor).. so could it be said that this applies to the gb / society ?.
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StarTrekAngel
I can understand your stance from an elders perspective but that would be much more acceptable if they GB, just like elders, had a human figure above them. The GB members report to no one. I don't believe you can put them in the same frame work as you saw yourself as an elder.
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Is the Watch Tower giving out loans?
by The Poetry Of Reality ini originally posted this on the reddit exjw subreddit on 7 feb 2017. i think it's worth revisiting.
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/35255519-75/land-management-division-recommends-approval-of-gimpl-hill-subdivision.html.csp.
in 2008, they borrowed $1.87 million from the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania, the legal arm of the jehovah’s witnesses group, to start the project.
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StarTrekAngel
wow.. this is really interesting. What could the WT have to do in funding residential development?
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Does "Hanlon's Razor" apply to the Governing Body?
by stuckinarut2 ini recently learned of the term "hanlon's razor".. wikipedia defines it as: .
hanlon's razor is an aphorism expressed in various ways including "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
" it recommends a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for a phenomenon (a philosophical razor).. so could it be said that this applies to the gb / society ?.
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StarTrekAngel
I personally believe that they know full well what they are doing but they give themselves permission to do it based on their perceived efforts and the sacrifices they have endured for the Kingdom
Is not uncommon for people who stay in power for this long to begin giving themselves this type of privilege
JWs do, to some level, teach that God will bless your efforts and that those blessing can be spiritual as well as material. Just refer to some of the stories given at assemblies, where people who gave up jobs and other things to attend assemblies. In many cases they later on get rewarded for their sacrifice. They probably feel no one has done more and that is why the holy spirit has put them in that place.
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Pull the Plug Already...
by megaboy inafter reading and seeing so many detailings of the dealings with people in this religion, i have to wonder how to get people who are just extremely asleep.
reasoning doesn't seem like it works, there needs to be some kind of plug pull event, like the leaders doing something so uterly stupid that it causes the immediate downfall of the entire religion.
but because i am naturally curious i want to know from people who have more experience with jw structure why they seem to have a resistance to an event like this?
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StarTrekAngel
God appearing in the sky and announcing JWs are wrong...
Doubt it... they will shun such God.
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Did You Know “Weird JWs” When You Were In The Organization?
by minimus init could be argued that all jws are weird.
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i’m referring to really weird odd witnesses.. most of the oddballs that i remember were elders..
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StarTrekAngel
We had a man that started attending meetings after my brother in law paid him a visit. He admitted that he was a recovering addict and suffered from schizophrenia. My brother in law kept telling us how every time he would go to his house for a study, the guy would tell him that Obama would speak to him from the TV and would tell him to kill my brother in law. Not sure why he kept going back but he managed to get this guy to give his first talk. After that we never saw him again. This was years ago. I bumped into him a couple of weeks ago and he recognized me. He still calls me brother. LOL
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Why the 2 witnesses rule is not worth attacking........barking up the wrong tree!
by krismalone insome former jw protesters are wasting their time and energy "exposing" or criticizing the watchtowers 2 witness rule here's why:.
lets suppose the governing body changes this and expells anyone accused of child molestation even if accused by one person.
would that solve the problem?
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StarTrekAngel
I think you are bringing up a social issue rather than a religious one. Many pedophiles walk free in the legal system and rape more than one kid before they actually get caught and sent to prison.
Unfortunately, religious freedom involves a degree of impunity for certain actions within the religious realm. In this group, we discuss the latter. Because the WT insists that they do not shield pedophiles and in their minds they are absolutely correct because a pedophile is not a pedophile unless there is a second witness. If they were to get rid of that rule, then the authorities are likely to be involved more often. Provided that this is also not perfect, the moment a victim is able to report their abuser without fear of retaliation from the elders, then it is much more likely that they will come forward.
Expecting the congregation to publicly announce pedophiles is far too unrealistic at this point. Both from the JW culture perspective as well as from a legal perspective.
Much more damage is being done by holding back the victims and pressuring them into silence. This entire silencing process depends strictly in the two witness rule, simply because the two witness rule is the only way they can silence the victims using the bible. If the bible wasn't involved, they would hardly have any tools to control them.
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Pull the Plug Already...
by megaboy inafter reading and seeing so many detailings of the dealings with people in this religion, i have to wonder how to get people who are just extremely asleep.
reasoning doesn't seem like it works, there needs to be some kind of plug pull event, like the leaders doing something so uterly stupid that it causes the immediate downfall of the entire religion.
but because i am naturally curious i want to know from people who have more experience with jw structure why they seem to have a resistance to an event like this?
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StarTrekAngel
Do I really have to explain what I really mean when I say cult? It shocks me sometimes when we can't have a conversation in the same lingo when most of us here come from the same background.
Going back to the "choice". I don't believe an indoctrinated person can really make a "choice" that one would consider personal. Sure is a "choice" if we limit the definition to the dictionary as we did with cult. But is it really a choice you can hold them fully accountable for? If so, it pretty much brakes the well known usage of the word cult that we all talk about in this site.