i didn't attend the meeting last night, but my in husband came home and was quite shocked because there was a letter announcing that there will be no wt-library cd-rom any more, and..... no more calendar.. he said there was a lot of talking and noise when that was announced.. i didn't expect the calender to go, by the way.
and my husband sounded really concerned, talking about how society is cutting down.
i love it when he says with a tone of surprise in his voice: 'you were right, now they want us to do everyting digital, and throw out the printed stuff.
No calendar? They really are cutting to the bone.
The library can be downloaded online so that's less of a surprise.
They will have very little left to print. Soon they may abandon printing themselves entirely and print the few remaining stuff with commercial printers.
according to new, officially published guidelines, jws can now shun a person who has not been disfellowshipped from the congregation.
i see this guideline being abused by many jws who have an axe to grind with a fellow jw.
for example, let's say sister peinindiass rubs sister sensitive the wrong way.
They already have the "marking" system over which there seems to be some confusion. Some JWs think a person is only "marked" if there is a talk specifically about them In a local needs talk. Others seem to think it's up to individuals to decide who is to be marked when, based on their own "consciences".
according to new, officially published guidelines, jws can now shun a person who has not been disfellowshipped from the congregation.
i see this guideline being abused by many jws who have an axe to grind with a fellow jw.
for example, let's say sister peinindiass rubs sister sensitive the wrong way.
I was thinking similar. But then again, the new guidelines (if they really are new) seem to be talking about inactive people. Apparently meaning people who no longer attend meetings and may not have done so for a long time, but who somehow slipped under the net and escaped disfellowship while doing things that would merit disfellowship. So it wouldn't arise that a sister in the congregation does this to another sister in the congregation. If they are both at the meetings then neither is inactive and they are not covered by the instructions.
But it does seem like it gives license to bully inactive people who may have maintained some contacts in the congregation. They probably perceive these people on the periphery as corrosive and time they were rooted out.
in a discussion about the best flavour of ice cream everybody's opinion is equally valid.. in a discussion about the shape of the earth or the origin of species everybody's opinion is equally irrelevant.
only objective facts and evidence matter.. confusing these two categories is a common feature of conversations in this forum.
people deserve respect, errors do not..
I can respect it is your opinion that there is a clear distinction between opinions and facts. However some of the leading thinkers of the last century have tended to argue otherwise, such as Quine: "no statement is immune to revision".
You can't say that you allow evidence to shape your views, and yet also say that no evidence will ever make you disbelieve a certain fact. You can't have it both ways.
in an effort to reduce the number of posts, this year i will try to add links to this post.
now, on with the leaks & releases!
first up.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nzvwhflss4.
If shunning is sanctioned on mere hearsay without a committee, doesn't that just give a green light to gossip and bullying? What's the point of protesting innocence?
i used to be a member of this site, but jumped off a good number of years ago (08?).
i don't have access to my old email, so i'm using a new account.. anyway, i was baptized jw in late 90's.
da'd mid 2000s.. when i left there were three meets a week plus field service.
Decline, from gentle to precipitous, with distinct indications of panic emanating from the top.
in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.
i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).
but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2181.
24 may 2016. russia: jehovah's witnesses face possible liquidation.
by victoria arnold, forum 18. if prosecutors proceed with their threat to liquidate the jehovah's witness headquarters near st petersburg, thousands of local congregations across russia could also face prohibition of their activities and individuals could be vulnerable to criminal charges for expressing their beliefs, forum 18 notes.. the jehovah's witnesses' principal body in russia is under threat of dissolution as an "extremist" organisation after the deadline in an official warning from the general prosecutor's office expired on 10 may, forum 18 notes.
i know, how do i find this stuff, right?
the article is long, so just do a ctrl-f then type in your name... also jehovahs-witness.com mentioned in this article.
"theocratic warfare" is a contentious theological doctrine of the jehovah's witness (jw) movement in christianity.. .
I missed this reference to a classic thread of mine!
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/91203/theocratic-warfare-apostate-strategy?page=1
i love books; i always have.
they are my life and my livelihood.
and many jehovah's witnesses, when they leave the religion, they think to themselves, "i'd like to read a book".
