Posts by OrphanCrow

19

Watchtower Strains Local Town Budgets

by pontoon in

http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150307/news/150309486

OrphanCrow

DataDog: If they would continue to mainstream; clean up the Pedo issues, and do some actual charity, then I could almost contemplate remaining a dub. If they did those things, they would more closely resemble all other Xian sects.

Yeah, then all you would have to do is ignore the doctrine that states everybody else except JWs are rotting bird food and only the JWs are elite - they are special.

And, you might have to ignore the whacked out beliefs respecting blood. No other Xian sect has strange blood beliefs.

19

Watchtower Strains Local Town Budgets

by pontoon in

http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150307/news/150309486

OrphanCrow

There are good reasons why religious organizations received tax exemptions from the federal and state governments, said Zaino. They generally contribute to the local community by providing a place of worship and by serving the homeless.

But...who are the 'homeless' that the Watchtower are 'serving'? Are the homeless all those worker drones that get free housing and food inside the WTS compound? Because, the Watchtower certainly doesn't serve homeless people unless they are wearing a blue badge.

And that is another thing. Do the Watchtower workers have to declare their food and housing as 'taxable income'? I worked on a crew once that supplied food at lunch time. I had to pay tax on what the food was worth.

43

The floodgates are about to open in the UK.. Sunday Times article

by defender of truth in

jehovah church faces flood of sex abuse cases.

"a woman who was abused from the age of four by a senior officer of the jehovahs witnesses has lodged a 500,000 claim for compensation in a test case that could open the door to hundreds more suits involving members of the religious organisation in the uk.".

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/crime/article1525363.ece.

OrphanCrow

I like that they call it "Jehovah church" lol... not even an attempt to call them by the proper name.
Brilliant!, they don't deserve that legitimacy.

I don't think that the 'proper name' is the same as it is for the rest of the world than it is for that tiny little wee group of people who think that dotting "i"'s and crossing "t"'s is where accuracy is at.

For 'the rest of the world', the JWs are a "church". It is what the rest of the world uses for language when talking about a religious group who meet together in buildings. "Jehovah's Witnesses", with all their colloquial language and cultic 'correctness', are the ones who fail to get it 'right'.

Just because you have encountered everyday, real world language in this article, does not give you the legitimacy to ridicule the contents of it.

*I am sorry - I re-read the post you made...I think you may have been referring to the illegitimacy of the JWs...I think I read your post wrong. I apologize!

13

Russian Court Denounces Jehovah's Witnesses as 'Extremist'-- The Moscow Times Mar. 04 2015

by defender of truth in

"a court in southern russia has denounced a local organization of jehovah's witnesses as "extremist" and ordered it disbanded, the interfax news agency reported wednesday, in the latest in a long line of such rulings issued to the religious group in russia.. the group's building and surrounding land will be confiscated by the local government in the town of abinsk, krasnodar region, the court ruled.the group had been distributing publications titled "humanity in search of god" and "what does the bible really teach?

" that were included in the federal list of extremist materials and are banned for distribution in the country, the news report said.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/news/article/russian-court-denounces-jehovah-s-witnesses-as-extremist/517026.html.

OrphanCrow

BU2B Russia is correct to rule them extremist. However this is counter productive as it just feeds into the persecution complex of the cult members. Soviet Russia sent JWs to Siberia and they came out even stronger. Persecution actually strengthens the cult.

Russia has a long and sordid history of 'Christian' cults that dates back to the very beginnings of the spread of Orthodox Christianity in Russia. For several centuries, the 'Word' was taught by semi-literate and or/illiterate monks who had wandered into the steppes of Russia and Siberia. These monks and religious adherents, fanatical in nature, would have at times, only a text or two of Biblical text memorized, and from that, they would build a whole following of uneducated people. What resulted was fragmented, strange cults that practiced just as strange rituals. Odd sexual practices were common among these cults.
It was from this cultural background that Rasputin emerged in the early 1900s, just prior to the Russian revolution of 1917.. He was the monk credited with the downfall of the Romanov Empire.
I think that the history of 'extremist cults' is just too recent in the Russian memory for them to accept another cult.

26

QUESTIONING THE OBVIOUS or deconstructing Jehovah's Witnesses

by TerryWalstrom in

what is the most obvious thing you can think of about jehovah's witnesses from the standpoint of worldwide recognition?.

wouldn't it be 2 primary things: the name jehovah and secondly, the public testimony or witnessing?.

let's begin deconstructing those two things.. first, why would christians refer to themselves by any other name than christian?.

OrphanCrow

looter: That "New Bible Study Method" (aka studying Zion's Watchtower Pubs) is plenarily unscriptural and was made to detract people from the bible but to lead them to untruth from Russell.

Yes. In that sense, the roots of the JW movement is 'apostate' in nature.

Finkelstein: Maybe the obvious should contained in the fact that the JW organization is really a expansive and connecting religious literature company and that the Kingdom Halls are really its own sales representative training centers.

One of the best conceptualizations/descriptions that I have read of what the Jehovah's Witness community actually is, comes from an anthropologist, Dr. Jena Bachus-Lichenstein. She did some amazing embedded research in a Mexican JW community. In her doctoral dissertation, she defined the JW community as a 'textual community', rather than a 'religion'.

It is 'the text', the authoritative text that originates with the Watchtower Society, that binds and defines the JWs worldwide.

I like Dr. Bachus-Lichenstein's definition. The Jehovah's Witnesses are a 'textual community'.

26

QUESTIONING THE OBVIOUS or deconstructing Jehovah's Witnesses

by TerryWalstrom in

what is the most obvious thing you can think of about jehovah's witnesses from the standpoint of worldwide recognition?.

wouldn't it be 2 primary things: the name jehovah and secondly, the public testimony or witnessing?.

let's begin deconstructing those two things.. first, why would christians refer to themselves by any other name than christian?.

OrphanCrow

Finkelstein
Thinking reflectively its interesting how C T Russell was able to commercialize his opinions and turn them into what eventually become a world wide publishing house.

I think that a lot of Russell's success can be traced to his financial concerns and investments that impacted his publishing company.

The WT revisionist history paints Russell as a poor man who 'gave up all his earthly concerns'... or words to that effect. That is erroneous. Charles Russell's investments included interests in spin-off industries of paper production. For example, he owned shares in Brazilian Turpentine. Turpentine is a by-product of the paper making process. He also owned shares in a clay extracting company. Kaolin clay is used in the papermaking industry - it is what was used in the whitening process.

Charles Russell was not the man who the WTS has presented him to be.

26

QUESTIONING THE OBVIOUS or deconstructing Jehovah's Witnesses

by TerryWalstrom in

what is the most obvious thing you can think of about jehovah's witnesses from the standpoint of worldwide recognition?.

wouldn't it be 2 primary things: the name jehovah and secondly, the public testimony or witnessing?.

let's begin deconstructing those two things.. first, why would christians refer to themselves by any other name than christian?.

OrphanCrow

Terry: THE MAGISTERIUM of the Church did not require "learning a script" of right Christian belief for 99% of Christians on earth for 1500 years.
Going to Mass, confession, taking the bread and wine, being forgiven by the Priest . . . THAT was Christianity.
Then, Martin Luther came along and the corruption of the political and religious Catholic institution lost its status.
DENOMINATIONALISM was brought back!
Protestantism is opinion-ism.
Any hack with a Bible and folded hands can cook up a crazy religion (Mormons, JW's, you-name-it)...

Martin Luther King, and the rise of Protestantism, owes everything to the invention of the printing press in the mid 1400s.

It was the ability to control the "Word', and the ability to profit from the printed word, that allowed the Protestant movement to evolve into the corporate structure that fostered the likes of men like Charles Taze Russell.

The printing press was the primary component that influenced the development of textual authority.

"...and the Word was God."

26

QUESTIONING THE OBVIOUS or deconstructing Jehovah's Witnesses

by TerryWalstrom in

what is the most obvious thing you can think of about jehovah's witnesses from the standpoint of worldwide recognition?.

wouldn't it be 2 primary things: the name jehovah and secondly, the public testimony or witnessing?.

let's begin deconstructing those two things.. first, why would christians refer to themselves by any other name than christian?.

OrphanCrow

pixel: Rutherford used the Jehovah's Witnesses name because he understood the lingo, remember, he was "Da Judge".

And Da Judge did not capitalize the second word.

His new religion was called Jehovah's witnesses.

In addition to being influenced by his 'law lingo', Rutherford structured his new religion using a military arrangement. His new salesforce was sometimes called "Joe's Army".

31

has anyone seen vidio on youtube about why they changed cover of songbook search youtube jw.org embarrassment

by poopie in

jw
friends

any thoughts.

OrphanCrow

I think it was an accident but a damn funny one.

Please bear with me...this is going to take a bit...sorry...

I have several friends who are artists. Most are also academics. They have Masters degrees in Fine Arts. Or Bachelor degrees. I taught a couple of them. One of my friends who was over recently for a visit is currently doing her research for Phd in Art History with a focus on image deconstruction.

Myself, i have a degree in Psychology - I have taken classes in neuropsychology and cognition/perception. I also have a degree in the Visual arts - photography. Darkroom based imaging - with many theoretical and historical studies in image making - both the production of, the history of, and the politics of making representations. And I have a Masters degree in Fine Arts - in Intermedia.

i am a retired lecturer from a university. One of the classes I taught for several years was a foundation class - 2D design. In that class, i taught the fundamentals of creating optical illusions on a 2D surface. i also taught a comprehensive color theory component.

I taught a senior class in Photography - both classroom lectures exploring the history and politics of photography and hands-on darkroom.- the basics of image making and manipulation.

So...after the last thread that was started on this subject, I showed some of the Watchtower images to a few of my friends. They had no problem seeing the subliminally inserted images. I also asked them what they thought - were the images deliberate? Would an artist have not seen them before production?

They all answered the same. No accident. Deliberate. As artists, they could not conceive that the images were not there deliberately.

So, for what it is worth, myself and fellow artists, educated and trained in image making, all agree that the images are there and that the images are deliberately put there. The fundamental errors in formal element arrangement cannot be ignored by the artistic eye.

I will ask another friend who should be stopping by shortly. He is also a retired university professor. He taught studio art for many years. I shall ask him next.

I am sure he will get a good laugh. Everyone else I have showed the images to have. It is a good conversation topic to bring up with the people I hang around with. It gives us something to talk about.

31

has anyone seen vidio on youtube about why they changed cover of songbook search youtube jw.org embarrassment

by poopie in

jw
friends

any thoughts.

OrphanCrow

Its clearly a penis. What else could it be in the context of the man standing there? Why else did they replace him? It is an anatomically correct huge penis.

Of course it is. Good for you for recognizing the image. That means that the message is no longer subliminal for you. Subliminal refers to 'below the consciousness'.

For those who cannot 'see' the image, it is still working subliminally on your brain.

For the science behind brain function and subliminal images:

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/18/12/4697.full.pdf+html

Neural Response during Preference and Memory Judgments for Subliminally Presented Stimuli: A Functional Neuroimaging Study Rebecca Elliott and Raymond J. Dolan.

A region of right hippocampal gyrus was activated in association with objective stimulus novelty in the absence of awareness of novelty.

(italics mine)

More scholarly articles and studies concerning subliminal stimuli:

https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=scholarly+articles+on+subliminal+images&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=5zT3VJu1DISzogS2tYDICQ&ved=0CBoQgQMwAA