seattleniceguy

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Posts by seattleniceguy

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  17

  Rolling Stone refuses to run ad for Bible

  by William Penwell in

  1. social
  2. current

  is this censorship?

  from cnn :

  rolling stone refuses to run ad for bible

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  seattleniceguy

  That's totally rad.
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  9

  Anyone with experience doing accounts at assemblies?

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was just wondering a few things:.

  what is the average take?

  how much of it is sent on to the society?

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  seattleniceguy

  Wow! That answered all my questions and then some. That is an incredible post. The per publisher formula is really ridiculous. I guess the eternal deficit makes sense now.

  SNG
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  9

  Anyone with experience doing accounts at assemblies?

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was just wondering a few things:.

  what is the average take?

  how much of it is sent on to the society?

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  seattleniceguy

  I was just wondering a few things:

  What is the average take? How much of it is sent on to the Society? Does it really cost $8000 for a two-day assembly?

  With regard to the latter question, I remember always listening to the accounts report at the Circuit Assembly with keen interest, because of two things. First, I wondered how it was really possible for an assembly with no food in a paid-off building to cost $4000 per day. Surely electricity and water don't cost that much. $8K per weekend times about 50 assemblies a year = $400K to run the place? Seemed a little hard to believe.

  And secondly, I couldn't help but notice that when they did the accounts report, they would announce the funds collected so far, and then announce the cost, and we were always a couple grand short. Every single time. I remember clearly on one occasion, because the amount they announced as having been collected so far was significantly greater than normal, and I smiled, expecting to hear for the first time that we actually had enough on hand to cover the assembly already. But the cost had somehow jumped two grand higher than what we had on hand!

  Anyway, I thought it would be cool to hear some experiences from people who were actually involved.

  SNG
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  35

  Dropping attendance and disolving congregations

  by RunningMan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well, i came across a couple of interesting pieces of news yesterday, that i thought you would all find encouraging.

  while i was standing in line at macdonald?s yesterday morning, i ran into a couple of jws from the other side of town.

  they were up in my area because (not surprisingly) they were laying tiles at a local bar and the work had to be done on sunday morning.

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  seattleniceguy

  Then I plastered the 1000 neighbors houses with fliers -missing kids being hidden by the local KH- please help!" The kids got sent home a week later.

  Wow! You go, moshe! And welcome to the board!

  SNG
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  12

  Convention apostates

  by peggy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  have any of you held with signs, yelling out at the jws as they enter the convention?.

  that used to really scare me!

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  seattleniceguy

  Funny thing is, after I left the organization, I found out that the group that does the signs around the Tacoma Dome (near Seattle) isn't even a group of ex-Witnesses! They're just a local church who does that as their ministry. And all this time we thought they were the evil apostates!

  SNG
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  28

  Tuesdays and Thursdays

  by Dustin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for the longest time i used to hate tuesdays and thursdays.

  those were the nights of the bookstudy and the theocratic ministry/service meeting.

  every time when i was at school or work on these days, it seemed i was never in a good mood.

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  seattleniceguy

  For me, it was the weekend. Friday was so bittersweet, because the work week was over, but I had to spend almost the entire weekend in a suit.

  Saturday morning started out with English service. Then it was Japanese service (read: driving around in a stuffy car in suits for a couple hours) in the afternoon. You finally get home and eat dinner, and now it's time to spend a couple hours preparing the WT to read aloud. (It took me that long because I had to read it a couple times to make sure I could deliver it fluently in Japanese.)

  Sunday was usually Japanese service in the morning, then meeting in the afternoon. Evening time was finally free, but it's hard to be excited about the weekend when your first free moment is in its twilight.

  Weekends just had this gloom hanging over them, made all the worse because I was trying to be happy.

  Happily, that has now faded. Sometimes I still can't believe how great weekends are now.

  SNG
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  55

  Who was told that the New order would be here before......................

  by avishai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  they finished high school?

  college?

  etc and what year were you told?.

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  seattleniceguy

  I think it's funny how Witnesses always have this idea that they've got a total handle on the world situation. They put on their international analyst hats, and say, "Yep...the way things are shaping up, I don't see how things can go on much longer. It's looking like about 18 months out right now, maybe quicker depending on what happens in Iraq."

  I remember telling a Bible study of mine in high school that I was "pretty sure" the New System was going to be here before we got into 10th grade.

  Delusional!

  SNG
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  149

  Watchtower Observer site goes down

  by Norm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey folks,.

  an era in the ex-jw history is over.

  kent steinhaug's site http://watchtower.observer.org is being shut down.. it was the first of it's kind, and to this day probably still the largest anti wt site on the net.

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  seattleniceguy

  ITSupport:

  How about if Kent reports what the change is, and after we get the new project off the ground, we'll appoint a treasurer and forward that money to him?

  SNG
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  149

  Watchtower Observer site goes down

  by Norm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey folks,.

  an era in the ex-jw history is over.

  kent steinhaug's site http://watchtower.observer.org is being shut down.. it was the first of it's kind, and to this day probably still the largest anti wt site on the net.

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  seattleniceguy

  Sent my $50 to Kent.

  SNG
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  72

  Judge orders removal of "evolution disclaimer" stickers in Georgia, USA

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. social
  2. current

  thank goodness, a judge with some sense!.

  http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/01/13/national1134est0530.dtl.

  here's a quote:but the judge disagreed: "while evolution is subject to criticism, particularly with respect to the mechanism by which it occurred, the sticker misleads students regarding the significance and value of evolution in the scientific community.

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  seattleniceguy

  Hey Euph,

  I would argue that the motives of the proponents are irrelevant.

  I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think it is simple motive in this case that is the issue. I think AlanF is right when he points out that this sticker does not exist in a vaccuum. Just as the message in the Awake he cites may sound neutral but be brimming with hidden messages just below the suface, supplied by the context, so this sticker is chock-full of religious connotations, and most people reading it will know what those connotations are. It is a clever example of double-speak, which depends for its power on the fact that most people can read between the lines. If this were not true, the sticker would be meaningless.

  So what we have is deliberate deception designed to advance religious ideas even if the literal, surface reading appears benign. In my opinion, however, even the literal, surface reading is totally inappropriate because of the clear lack of understanding of basic scientific concepts it reveals.

  SNG