in the long winter nights you need some good tv shows to watch while you wait for the eternity between seasons of game of thrones.. we've watched marco polo (pretty good) and have just started watching orange is the new black which is not at all what i imagined (didn't know it was funny!).
house of cards is on the list too as we've heard good things about that.. anyone have any others that are worth seeing?.
I just watched the first two episodes of Dicte. (subtitled)
The lead is cast as a woman who was raised a Jehovah's Witness. She gave birth as a teen and was forced to give up her baby. She returns to her home town as an adult and works as an investigative reporter.
The scenes with her mother and father shunning her are well done.
The trailer shows a brief clip of Dicte tearing the letters off the Kingdom Hall.
Good series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqzuZuyMsM
so the last two watchtower studies talked about circumcision as a mark of god's people.
i thought it was weird why they would pick that as a mark.
why dont they chop of their earlobe er something.
You'd have to be a really dedicated spy to be willing to have subjected yourself to what would be needed to pass that test.
The British explorer, Richard Burton, had himself circumcised as part of his disguise when he traveled to Mecca.
In 1853 intrepid British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton disguised himself as an Islamic pilgrim and made the trek into the heart of Arabia visiting the holy cities of Medina and Mecca. If his true identity as a European Christian had been exposed, the penalty for his indiscretion would have been death.
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/mecca.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton
church leaders refused to co-operate with a police investigation into a sex attack by one of their congregation on a teenage girl.. jehovahs witness paul atkin has now been jailed for five years after he admitted sexual activity with a 15-year-old.. a court heard the south shields based branch of the church carried out their own investigation after the allegation came to light and atkin was booted out.. but when police came knocking, church officials refused to help what was then a rape allegation, on the grounds of confidentiality.. prosecutor deborah smith told newcastle crown court: it would appear there was some form of investigation by the church.. we know the defendant was disfellowshipped as a consequence of that investigation but there has been no disclosure of any minutes of meetings with the defendant and the elders have refused to provide statements to the police, despite the fact the defendant is no longer a member of their congregation, on the grounds of confidentiality.. atkin, of east moffat street, south shields, was initially accused of rape but the charge was dropped when he admitted sexual activity with a child.. the court heard his victim was 15-and-a-half when he had sex with her.. miss smith said: she did not wish to have sexual intercourse with him.. the crown accept, having discussed matters with her, the defendant may reasonably have believed that she did.. she did not fight back or shout out at the time of the incident.. the court heard the woman is still on anti-depressants and says her self confidence has been shattered by the ordeal.. in a statement read to the court, the victim, who is now an adult, said: this has had a major effect on me and i cannot trust men.. i bottled everything up and as a teenager i turned to drink and drugs.. i hope he gets sent to prison and gets what he deserves.. judge simon hickey jailed atkin for five years and said he must sign the sex offenders register for life and abide by the terms of a sexual offences prevention order for five years.. the judge told him: this has had a huge effect upon this young lady.. gavin doig, defending, said atkin has a good, supportive family and partner and said his family describe him as a hard working man with a job who will face devastating consequences if sent to jail.. he added that it was atkin himself who had brought the matter to the attention of police.. mr doig told the court: this defendant made a very bad mistake a number of years ago.
he has not made any further mistakes.. he is extremely sorry he committed this offence knowing, as he did, the complainant was under age.. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/south-shields-jehovahs-witness-jailed-8567927.
The WTS has promoted a belief of superiority within their elder class.
The elders I have encountered are pompous and ego-centric to the extreme. They are products of an organization that tells them that they are special - members of an elite club - that they have special status, not just within their community, but over the entire world.
The elders end up believing that they have the ability to judge people because they are God's elite - they believe they have more power than the courts of the land. And, because they have the backing of their big Brother in New York, they believe that they are smarter and better than the secular judicial systems.
Men who have little education - I know of elders who have not completed high school - are being told that they are administrators of 'God's Law'. These same elders hold in contempt people who have had years and years of education, experience and practice in law.
Big mistake.
check out the song about the trolley at the end of this month's dubcast.. http://www.jw.org/download/?fileformat=mp4&output=html&pub=jwb&issue=201502.
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I can't watch all of it...
But I love that Herd's clip-on microphone looks like a cross pin.
in addition to the above question, why do citizens of the two above mentioned countries, or other countries, feel the necessity to tell americans how they should interpret the american constitution for localized issues?.
i fairly much have an idea what the general population in the usa feels in regards to the first question.
this could be one of the possible reasons cnn piers morgan poor ratings and eventual firing.
srsly I do not understand why most of US news and politics is of any interest to foreigners.
I realize that Canada is wee tiny in comparison to the United States in population, and that a big country like the US feels like we are a fly on their nose....but....American politics and happenings DO affect Canadians. We are greatly influenced by what happens in that country.
The US does not exist in a bubble - the US political climate affects way more than those who live within its borders.
in addition to the above question, why do citizens of the two above mentioned countries, or other countries, feel the necessity to tell americans how they should interpret the american constitution for localized issues?.
i fairly much have an idea what the general population in the usa feels in regards to the first question.
this could be one of the possible reasons cnn piers morgan poor ratings and eventual firing.
Strange that a Texan, of all people, would think a bovine was a moose.
I think it may be the mentality that anything north of the border on four legs must be wild. Or maybe it was one of those Texan city folks.
The stories of Americans, not just Texans, coming to Canada and making asses of themselves while hunting are numerous and hilarious. More than one truck has been spotted with a dead animal in the back and once you get closer you see the moose tag hanging off either a horse ear or a cow ear! And that is NOT a Canadian legend - it is real.
with the bulletin of atomic scientists moving its iconic doomsday clock up 2 minutes on 23.01.2015 (which means we are just three minutes closer to midnight in comparison to 17 minutes to midnight in 1991), and rapturewatch.net/timelines.htm predicting the end of the world as early as 2017, subject of last days is getting heated up again..
next time you have a witness boasts about the uniqueness of biblical propheciesespecially about last days, you can point the following photographic description of our times found in srimad bhagavatam, one of the ancient scriptures written even before the bible:.
1) religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the age of kali (age of unrigteousness).12.2.1.
When, exactly, was it written?
The Google search function is quite marvelous...
http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/sb.htm
13th century CE as a date for Srimad Bhagavatam was accepted by scholars until the half of 20th century. Nevertheless, the work Tahqiq-i-Hind by Alberuni, a Muslim who made a study of the India in the 10th century CE, mentions Bhagavata Purana.
Nowadays the date 9th century CE predominates. The critics claim that the Bhagavatam mentions Hunas and thus it had to be written after their invasion to India in 5th century CE. Nevertheless, the Hunas are mentioned also in older texts such as Lalitavistara, a Buddhist work dated to 3rd century CE, and Mahabharata, a recognized archaic work. These evidences indicate that this race was known before the invasion and its mention in the Bhagavatam doesn't suggest any occupation.
Others argue that Bhagavatam was influenced by the philosopher Sankara (commonly accepted: 8th century CE) because of similarity of ideas and of the language. But Gaudapada, teacher of Govinda who was teacher of Sankara, mentions the Bhagavatam in his Uttaragita-bhasya and in his commentary on Sankhya-karika makes reference to other two verses.
with the bulletin of atomic scientists moving its iconic doomsday clock up 2 minutes on 23.01.2015 (which means we are just three minutes closer to midnight in comparison to 17 minutes to midnight in 1991), and rapturewatch.net/timelines.htm predicting the end of the world as early as 2017, subject of last days is getting heated up again..
next time you have a witness boasts about the uniqueness of biblical propheciesespecially about last days, you can point the following photographic description of our times found in srimad bhagavatam, one of the ancient scriptures written even before the bible:.
1) religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the age of kali (age of unrigteousness).12.2.1.
It tells me that mankind has commonly foretold a "last days" marked by social upheaval and lowering personal standards.
Yes. There is even a fable written about this phenomena.
Chicken Little was on her way through the woods to her grandmother’s when something fell on her head. She picked herself up and shrieked, “The sky is falling!” Then she gathered her skirts and ran off in all directions. “Help! The sky is falling!” she cried. “Help! Help! The sky is falling!”
what a great read.
what's interesting is that this was written in 1917. right about the time when the wt was being born.
he doesn't mention jw's directly but does mention the millerites.
Ctrwtf, I actually thought that Sinclair was pretty light on Russell.
I like his little footnote after his very brief mention of Russell:
P.S. A few months pass, and while this book is going to
press, “The Finished Mystery” is suppressed by the government
and several score “Bible Students” are landed
in jail for sedition.
I lost my notes I had made on the Golden Age articles, but I seem to remember that Upton Sinclair got a plug for his book Brass Check in one of the issues. The early Golden Age magazines published many articles supporting socialist views.
what a great read.
what's interesting is that this was written in 1917. right about the time when the wt was being born.
he doesn't mention jw's directly but does mention the millerites.
He doesn't mention JW's directly but does mention the Millerites.
No, Sinclair doesn't mention the JWs because they were known as Bible Students at the time he wrote this essay.
In Book 6 of The Profits of Religion, in the chapter titled Bible Prophecy (pg 203) Sinclair speaks of Pastor Russell and the Bible Students.
Upton Sinclair was spoken of favorably in the Golden Age magazines during the years that the WTS was pro-Socialist.
