slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  30

  Why is it so hurtful to be shunned? Why object to it?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it seems like many feel hurt or saddened by the practice of shunning by witnesses.. yes, when ones who we were close to, perhaps family or ones we thought were close friends choose to follow the warped directions of the society, it may seem hurtful.. but really, our reaction is up to us.

  the fact is, these ones have shown that in reality, their love for us was never real or genuine.

  no, those relationships were superficial and lacking in substance.

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  slimboyfat

  Because, despite telling yourself that they are under mind control and "only following the rules", you can't help feeling that their affection for you should have been meaningful enough to override it.
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  34

  Found Another Medieval Coin This Evening

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. physical

  i got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.. it is a silver penny of henry ii minted in london by "davi" between 1180 and 1189. this adds a king i didn't have in my collection.

  i now have the series of henry ii - john - henry iii - edward i - edward ii - edward iii.. i now need richard the lionheart to fill in the gap.

  he was the brother of john and reigned after the death of henry ii.

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  slimboyfat

  Thanks for the explanation. I would like to do that. These machines are bound to get more and more sophisticated. I wonder if or when technology will reach a point of being able to catalogue all of the objects on the face of the planet, and in the soil, and what hid treasures and knowledge might be uncovered then.
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  34

  Found Another Medieval Coin This Evening

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. physical

  i got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.. it is a silver penny of henry ii minted in london by "davi" between 1180 and 1189. this adds a king i didn't have in my collection.

  i now have the series of henry ii - john - henry iii - edward i - edward ii - edward iii.. i now need richard the lionheart to fill in the gap.

  he was the brother of john and reigned after the death of henry ii.

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  slimboyfat

  Can you say how did you start to do metal detecting and learn about how and what equipmeant to use? Are you part of a local group? Maybe you know this person although it says anonymous.

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37285349
  

  
  
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  16

  Jehovah's Witnesses - a religion of displaced people?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've had a theory for a long time that jws historically have appealed to people who have been displaced or find themselves in a new environment away from family and friends.

  i also read an article recently that suggested that internal migration in italy was a big boost for jw growth.

  more generally it has long been theorised that new religious movements are a phenomenon particularly associated with disruptive features of modernity, including the hyper-mobility of people in the modern age.

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  slimboyfat

  Thanks for the replies. I thought this would be a much more common experience just because I heard so many stories like this.
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  30

  How to Fade - The Basics!

  by The Searcher in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this really works.

  i've already applied the basics of this with one elder who "offered" us a shepherding visit.

  we've been totally ignored since!!!

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  slimboyfat

  This is very good advice. I wish I had followed it.

  I played the game well for a few years but in the end they got me. Now I am marked as bad association which is not much different from DFing.

  Repeat any/all of the above to anyone who tries to extract information from you, because the elders will likely get someone you trust to try and get information out of you!

  That's what they did to me and I fell for it.
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  16

  Jehovah's Witnesses - a religion of displaced people?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've had a theory for a long time that jws historically have appealed to people who have been displaced or find themselves in a new environment away from family and friends.

  i also read an article recently that suggested that internal migration in italy was a big boost for jw growth.

  more generally it has long been theorised that new religious movements are a phenomenon particularly associated with disruptive features of modernity, including the hyper-mobility of people in the modern age.

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  slimboyfat

  If it's not so much true any more that JW converts are people who recently moved location, I think that may largely be because there are simply so few converts to JWs any more. The vast majority of recruits to JWs these days are children of JWs, or family of JWs who have been exposed to JW teaching over a long period of time and finally decide to get involved for whatever reason. The few true outsiders who convert these days, not to put it too bluntly, tend to be mentally challenged or have severe social problems. Plus still a few refugees and migrants, which still conforms to the "displaced people" idea.
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  16

  Jehovah's Witnesses - a religion of displaced people?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've had a theory for a long time that jws historically have appealed to people who have been displaced or find themselves in a new environment away from family and friends.

  i also read an article recently that suggested that internal migration in italy was a big boost for jw growth.

  more generally it has long been theorised that new religious movements are a phenomenon particularly associated with disruptive features of modernity, including the hyper-mobility of people in the modern age.

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  slimboyfat

  OrphanCrow that's exactly the sort of experience I'm talking about.

  When I first became a JW I always asked the older JWs "how did you come into the truth?" So I knew all of their stories. Thinking back, the vast majority of them who weren't born into JWs, converted shortly after moving to a new location.

  I know it's commonly said that people join "cults" when they a vulnerable, after a bereavement or similar. That may be true, but for JWs in particular I think stories about joining JWs after moving somewhere new are so common it stands out on its own.
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  16

  Jehovah's Witnesses - a religion of displaced people?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've had a theory for a long time that jws historically have appealed to people who have been displaced or find themselves in a new environment away from family and friends.

  i also read an article recently that suggested that internal migration in italy was a big boost for jw growth.

  more generally it has long been theorised that new religious movements are a phenomenon particularly associated with disruptive features of modernity, including the hyper-mobility of people in the modern age.

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  slimboyfat

  I've had a theory for a long time that JWs historically have appealed to people who have been displaced or find themselves in a new environment away from family and friends. I also read an article recently that suggested that internal migration in Italy was a big boost for JW growth. More generally it has long been theorised that new religious movements are a phenomenon particularly associated with disruptive features of modernity, including the hyper-mobility of people in the modern age.

  When I think about JWs locally, having recently moved to a new location accounts for most of the people who were converted to JWs that I know about, from the 1940s up to the 1990s.

  There was a sister who had moved to a naval base to be with her husband. Away from family and friends she got a knock on the door in the early 1970s and became a JW. Her husband followed her and gave up his job.

  Another sister arrived in London as a refugee from Austria in the late 1940s. JWs befriended her and she became a JW and pioneered for 50 years.

  Another brother moved from the north of England to Scotland in the 1960s with his new wife. He was a bus driver and extremely busy with work so he had no time to be lonely. But he caught a bad illness and was in bed three weeks. The JWs knocked at the door and left some books. He read them, got to know the local JWs and became a JW elder for 40 years. (He died a few weeks ago)

  I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Most of the older JWs I know became JWs shortly after moving to a new country or to a new town some distance away.

  Even JW leaders like Fred Franz converted in similar circumstances. I think Franz was at university and away from home for the first time when he became a Bible Student. Similarly Rutherford bought Russell's books in his hometown in the 1890s, but it was only when he moved to a new state that he got seriously involved.

  Plus more recently JW targeting of foreign language and displaced people is well known and seems to have some success.

  I wonder if other people have noticed, in their family or old congregations, that older JWs tended to come into the religion when they moved to a new location?
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  48

  "Mother" Teresa—a Fraud?

  by Saename in

  1. social
  2. current

  i often comment in threads that interest me on this forum.

  moreover, some of you may know that i study the history of early christianity.

  i once wrote an extensive comment on the historicity of jesus' existence in one of the threads.

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  slimboyfat

  It's easy to forget just how publicly moralistic and self-righteous Catholic leaders were until very recently. How they blamed homosexuals and TV and liberals for every bad thing in the world and acted like they themselves could do no wrong. I guess it's the abuse scandals rather than a genuine change of heart that shut them up.

  Who on earth is this Donahue and is he still at it?
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  23

  Heaven is ready and prepared for Armageddon - Talk A Morris III

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  and why he doesn't go to the gym, jog or workout!

  also no survivalist mentality is required.deciphering warship has posted a youtube of part of the speech given by the one and only, anthony morris the iii at last years imitate jesus convention.deciphering warship makes this comment.

  governing body member anthony morris demonized preparing for this disaster by building such a bunker or (bomb shelter)going so far, as to warn even against stocking up food.

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  slimboyfat

  Morris is prepared and ready for the crazy house.