Hmmmm. I can see that. But publishers (baptized or soon to be baptized), seems to be the only real hallmark of actual members. I'm not thinking you did anything wrong by the way......just commenting. But it certainly seems like AVG publishers is the real way to measure things. We all know, you only really count if you are out in the ministry. :)
problemaddict 2
JoinedPosts by problemaddict 2
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28
An infographic I just created...
by HappyHappyHappy1914 inhey everyone.
i don't post here often, but i lurk pretty much everyday.
i just created the following infographic based on the recent yearbook stats.
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problemaddict 2
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An infographic I just created...
by HappyHappyHappy1914 inhey everyone.
i don't post here often, but i lurk pretty much everyday.
i just created the following infographic based on the recent yearbook stats.
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problemaddict 2
Great job happy. Me like.
With the 264K baptized, is it possible to extrapolate from what they give us, the amount of JW's that were DF'd, died, or simply walked away and don't report?
My thought is the best way to do that is the "avg publishers" from each year.
2016 - 8,132,358
2015 - 7,987,279
The difference is 145,079. This is their "net gain".
If 264,535 were baptized, that means 119,456 are in the left, DF'd, or died category more or less.
They have to be shitting bricks over this right? Just glancing over the last several service reports, this is sort of the recent trend. The loose almost as much as they gain.
So now its more like .82% growth as net (someone check my math).
Worldwide population growth is currently at 1.11% per year.
So they aren't even keeping up with normal population growth.
What wonderful expansion is now taking place!
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Russell's Pyramidology Originated In Edinburgh Scotland
by cofty inthe edinburgh city observatory sits atop calton hill at the east end of the city centre adjacent to burn's monument, scotland's national monument modelled on the parthenon, and nelson's monument with the time ball that falls at 1pm every day except sundays.. .
the second astronomer royal of edinburgh was charles piazzi smyth (jan. 1819 - feb. 1900).
smyth was a man of many and varied interests including meteorology, producing weather observations that still form an important part of uk climate records to this day.. building on the work of james taylor, smyth became fascinated by the great pyramid of egypt at giza.
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problemaddict 2
Orphancrow, I think the spin is usually along the lines of that was the old Russelite/Bible Students/didn't make the adjustment to JW's group......not real JW's. Ugh.
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Warning: A. Vogel (JW-run organization) treatments popping up in the US
by Anony Mous ini've noticed a few of my local grocery stores are stocking a. vogel homeopathy products.
a. vogel is a company ran primarily by jehovah's witnesses, the "brains" behind the operation, alfred vogel, has since died but he claimed to be one of the anointed.
the bolle family (co-founders of the company) is a well-known, (now very wealthy) family in the netherlands and there have been significant "contributions" in the past from the company to the watchtower organization.. alfred vogel was a well-known conman, he claimed blood transfusions would change someone's personality, he claimed to have studied native american herbal healing methods... from a native american tourist photo-op actor.
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problemaddict 2
Ugh. Homeopathy has no science based evidence to support its claims. But regardless, the Vogel claims are especially spurious. I don't know if a place that already carries that type of product would be willing to hear a letter saying the founder was a loon, because I imagine there are quite a few loon founders out there.
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"Apostate" brother gives talk in Kingdom Hall and gets removed
by StoneWall inthis guy has to have the most courage of anyone i've ever seen or balls the size of basketballs.he actually gives a good talk and has tidbits scattered about throughout his public talk with hints,suggestions,innuendos of the wt organization.i never want to go in another kingdom hall again in my life but would have made an exception just to be in this audience.
lolnotice what's going on in the audience when they realize somethings up.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqqt0y1peuu.
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problemaddict 2
I mean he was already kicked out......he had nothing to lose. Glad he took advantage of it. I don't know why I can't get out of my head the reaming that the poor elder who called him to give the talk probably got. I am sure he was stripped of his dignity and made to feel like a conduit for Satans influence.
Poor guy.
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A Poll Regarding Shunning
by pale.emperor ini've created a poll here: https://goo.gl/7xburo.
i'd be interested in seeing the results.. .
#qp_main1119848 .qp_btna:hover input {background:#00355f!important} #qp_all1119848 {max-width:815px; margin:0 auto;}if watchtower scrapped the shunning policy due to "new light" and your family suddenly agreed to speak to you again would you accept them back?.
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problemaddict 2
Yes. They are captive to a concept, and the only way to have any hope at freeing them is to be able to speak to them and hopefully find the right time to introduce sanity.
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why jw's commit suicide?
by notalone inwe all know the rate of suicide is high among jw's.
my question is this- was there some subliminal messages that encourage this.
i was a born in and my entire life i would have these thoughts that could come out of nowhere,"kill yourself.
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problemaddict 2
I think Steve and JWfacts nailed it. We don't really "all know that suicide rate among JW's is high". We suspect it might be compared to the general population of the individual countries they are active in. But we don't really know. It might be the same as the normal population (which is what I suspect), but because of the small community word travels fast.
Also, I don't believe they actively or subliminally encourage suicide. That would be folly when you are already hemorrhaging members to the tune of 60-80K a year.
But feeling like you are not good enough, that the entire world will be destroyed.......these things can't help.
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Watchtower Doctrines JWs most commonly don't believe
by Diogenesister inthere was a recent thread on another site where posters maintained that many of the *most* long-standing jw's don't believe at least one official watchtower doctrine.
i've even read reports from bethelites saying they've heard bethel overseers say they don't believe some watchtower theology.
this made me think - i believe there are a few official doctrines that are common for many jw's to be either in denial about or simply not really believe ( often one and the same thing).. i'd say these are pretty high in the ranking:.
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problemaddict 2
In a seemingly previous life, I spoke to a doctor at our hospital about blood. She said that the hospital respected the decisions of adults to do what they want....but that if the person says no blood, they don't even bring it in the room. And then she said "but be absolutely certain. We can keep it as a last resort, but many times we find that people change their minds, and then leave us scrambling to try to find what we need. Remember, your medical decisions are PRIVATE."
So yeah......a lot of JW's take blood.
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Starting To Wake Up
by Searching ini suppose after lurking around for a few weeks i thought i might share my own personal story, as i think it would probably be a very freeing experience for me right now.
to start off, at 23 years old i'm actually a third-generation jw, my grandparents were baptized (my grandfather is actually an elder) when my mother was only a toddler, she was raised as a witness, then of course, married a witness and thus myself and my two brothers were born-in's.
growing up my mother was always very careful about what she taught me, all the good things for sure, about how we would live in a paradise earth and i could pet all the animals that i wanted and not worry about growing old, and she'd ask me who in the bible i'd love to see and talk with - my grandparents however, were a different story and the cause of i think, most of my childhood trauma.. they really drilled home the fact that we were the only people who were going to be saved, we were the only people that were going to survive and that everyone else was going to die horribly - that i shouldn't try to make that many friends in school because they would never be "real" friends unless they were fellow jw's and they would die anyway.
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problemaddict 2
Also Welcome! I missed that part.
I in my early 30's did what you did. I was shocked to find out that "apostates" in most cases had legitimate gripes, and were not mentally diseased liars. They were just people....like me....and they lost so much for what they believed.
Fear is a great motivator, but a bad decision maker. Study the history and doctrine. Start over. Watch the fear go away. These dudes in Brooklyn can't hurt you, no matter what nonsense they spout. Not if you don't let them.
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Starting To Wake Up
by Searching ini suppose after lurking around for a few weeks i thought i might share my own personal story, as i think it would probably be a very freeing experience for me right now.
to start off, at 23 years old i'm actually a third-generation jw, my grandparents were baptized (my grandfather is actually an elder) when my mother was only a toddler, she was raised as a witness, then of course, married a witness and thus myself and my two brothers were born-in's.
growing up my mother was always very careful about what she taught me, all the good things for sure, about how we would live in a paradise earth and i could pet all the animals that i wanted and not worry about growing old, and she'd ask me who in the bible i'd love to see and talk with - my grandparents however, were a different story and the cause of i think, most of my childhood trauma.. they really drilled home the fact that we were the only people who were going to be saved, we were the only people that were going to survive and that everyone else was going to die horribly - that i shouldn't try to make that many friends in school because they would never be "real" friends unless they were fellow jw's and they would die anyway.
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problemaddict 2
Most JW's do not believe what your mother does not. Here is an interesting thought to share with her.
If Jehovah is "being patient" and allowing more to come in that is fine, but he is also making sure that more people born will die.
Just look at it this way. These are rough numbers but pretty close. the point is clear.
Every year around 130 Million people are born. About 50-55 Million people die that same year (includes all deaths).
Last year 265K were baptized (and by guess, roughly 60-80K were disfellowshipped).
So every year Jehovah is patient, he is going to have to kill another 75million or so people!
Does that make sense? I think she is reading that scripture with meaning that has been supplied to her, but not the meaning intended. Or the bible could be kooky.