I don't know about subliminal messages, but I remember a lot of pretty brutal and depressing WT study topics in the 1990s. In particular there was a WT about the "avenger of blood" and how you need to run to the "city of refuge" in order to be safe. Then all the Bible stories about putting pegs through people's heads, pulling down pillars and crushing people, and throwing Jezebel to be eaten by dogs and so on. Brutal stuff when you think about it, all focussing on death by various means, And in the same WT we were told not to watch worldly movies because they're too violent.
slimboyfat
JoinedPosts by slimboyfat
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why jw's commit suicide?
by notalone inwe all know the rate of suicide is high among jw's.
my question is this- was there some subliminal messages that encourage this.
i was a born in and my entire life i would have these thoughts that could come out of nowhere,"kill yourself.
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Aust Census: JW's and Divorce Rates
by shepherdless inthis post is actually in answer to a question i got from jwfacts.
i think the issue was also raised on a recent thread.. first, some data from the 2011 and 2016 censuses:.
(a) 1,751,733 (7.5% of population) reported being in a de-facto couple on census night, but .
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slimboyfat
Yes point taken about mixed marriage divorces counting, and about comparability with other religions.
With statistics from censuses in general, there are lots of complicating factors to consider. When we see graphs, and tables of numbers, we may naturally tend think that the production of the data was as reliable, accurate and uniform as the reassuringly organised method of its display. Unfortunately there is lots of room for skewed data and misleading comparisons to arise.
For example:
1. The format of the census may differ from year to year, including different options, in different orders, and with different prompts. Such apparently small changes can significantly impact results.
2. Religious organisations may encourage identification with their church during a census. For example I read a report that the Mormon church was concerned about the low numbers identifying as Mormon in South American censuses. So they initiatiated a campaign to contact and encourage all inactive Mormons to identify as Mormons in the next census. This no doubt impacts results where such campaigns are conducted. Needless to say not all churches carry out such campaigns, so are we really comparing like with like?
3. Censuses differ hugely from country to country in scope and intent. The UK census is pretty useless at counting JWs because the British census invites all Chrsitan denominations to identify simply as "Christian". Those JWs who wrote "Jehovah's Witness" in the "other" box numbered around 70,000 in 2001. On the one hand that's a lot fewer than the 130,000 publishers JWs claimed in Britain. But on the other hand those JWs had resisted hints in the census form to pick "Christian" as a catch all term. In fact JW s were the biggest "write in" category of "other religion" in the UK. Which may be interpreted as an impressive display of distinctiveness. But ultimately, UK census results are pretty useless for comparing numbers of JWs with other groups or over time.
There's a good discussion of the problem of the "other" category in the UK census here:
http://www.brin.ac.uk/2012/census-2011-any-other-religion/
It's interesting that the author of that page assumed that the JW "write in" response was "orchestrated". I can see why he would assume it must have been, because it's such a large number, and "Christian" would appear to be an adequate response for JWs to most outsiders. But I don't recall any particular instruction from WT about how to fill in the census. And I think people familiar with JWs and how they think realise that often JWs don't need to be told to act distinctly in such situations. For a significant proportion of JWs it comes naturally to insist on a separate identity, even when being encouraged to identify as "Christian": for about 70,000 of them in the UK in 2001, to be exact.
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Aust Census: JW's and Divorce Rates
by shepherdless inthis post is actually in answer to a question i got from jwfacts.
i think the issue was also raised on a recent thread.. first, some data from the 2011 and 2016 censuses:.
(a) 1,751,733 (7.5% of population) reported being in a de-facto couple on census night, but .
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slimboyfat
As I understand it the data do not tell us anything directly about the propensity of JW couples to divorce, because it doesn't tell us 1) if the person divorced while a JW or 2) whether both partners were JWs. It could be that divorcees join JWs in higher proportion. And it could be that many JWs divorce non-JW partners.
In my observation many JW marriages end when one person (usually the man) stops being a JW and the woman continues.
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Help/Advice on Birthday Present
by Phizzy ini have a very xjw type problem, i am invited to my cousin's 70th birthday party, and really don't know what to buy him.. i only met him a couple of months ago, as my jw parents never encouraged the non-jw side of the family, so i don't know much about him, except that he is retired and his hobby is sailing his boat.. i don't have contact details for his kids etc to ask them for ideas, so could you come up with something please ?
not too extravagant, i am a poor pensioner !
but, it is his 70th.. thanks in advance for any tips !.
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slimboyfat
A book, of course.
What about The Old Man and the Sea? ;-)
Or a book about sailing. :-)
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2017 Convention Releases
by Edison Trent inon http://avoidjw.org/2017-regional-convention/ you can find the talk outlines of the regional convention this year.. i looked into the final talks each day and found these releases to be announced:.
on saturday:.
new magazine-size book entitled "lessons you can learn from the bible".
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slimboyfat
It's almost as if, without the incentive of income from book sales, the WT isn't motivated to produce much literature any more.
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1950- present PDF Scans of original mailed or literature counter, WTs ?
by itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat ini think these exist ?
has someone created pdf scans of original mailed or literature counter wts?
or have copies of those pdf's?.
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slimboyfat
The kinds of articles they tended to miss out in the bound volumes were the ones on the back cover that described how a tract blowing in the wind was found by a man and it saved his life, and things like that,
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NWT - revised 1984 vs revised 2013 versions
by Tallon inin the latest 2013 revision the footnote of john chapter 8 states; a number of ancient and authoritative manuscripts omit vs 53 (of chapter 7) to chapter 8, vs. 11.. yet the 1984 revision quotes a similar footnote, however the passage of scripture is included in the text, albeit separately at the bottom.
this passage of scripture is about the scribes and the pharisees who brought a woman that was accused of adultery before jesus to test him on the punishment to be meted out.
then came his famous reply; let the one of you that is sinless be the first to throw a stone at her.. i just found it interesting that the wtbts would leave this out in the latest revision.
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slimboyfat
The 2013 NWT removed most of the cross references. It's a stretch to read too much into any particular cross reference that was removed, simply because so many were removed.
There were certainly "embarrassing" cross references in the old NWT that seemed to run counter to JW teaching. Such as cross references that identified Jesus and Jehovah. The NWT committee probably relied on cross references from other available version and amended them as they wished, rather than creating them from scratch. So a few inconvenient cross references slipped the net.
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Comparing Total Numbers Baptized During the 1990s and the Last Ten Years:
by steve2 insometimes, comparing raw numbers provides a more clear-cut numerical picture of growth or otherwise than percentages.
below are the numbers for peak publishers (rounded off so that 4,1 represents more than 4,100,000) for each year throughout the 1990s and those for the last ten years.. year: peak* baptisms.
* peak publishers abbreviated - simply to show annual baptisms in relation to peak publishers.. the main point: .
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slimboyfat
I was questioned about getting my time in. I auxiliary pioneered at 17 years old for three months. The elders said they wanted a word with me. Did they want to tell me how good I was doing? No. They said they "heard reports" that I was "walking" in between return visits, some as far as half an hour apart. Was this efficient use of field service time? They asked me. I didn't have a car at the time, nor did the elders offer to run me around.
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Comparing Total Numbers Baptized During the 1990s and the Last Ten Years:
by steve2 insometimes, comparing raw numbers provides a more clear-cut numerical picture of growth or otherwise than percentages.
below are the numbers for peak publishers (rounded off so that 4,1 represents more than 4,100,000) for each year throughout the 1990s and those for the last ten years.. year: peak* baptisms.
* peak publishers abbreviated - simply to show annual baptisms in relation to peak publishers.. the main point: .
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slimboyfat
If we measure baptisms / publisher then I think the all time peak was 1973, 1974 or 1975. No year since has come anywhere close to matching the baptism rate per publisher in those years.
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Do You Hope Donald Trump Makes Jestures Of Mending USA With Russia Relationships?
by Brokeback Watchtower ini think the problems the us and russia face are mainly ideological.
the cold war these two countries have been in needs to be stopped and common sense needs to be applied i hope trump can push thing in the right direction and that he has good advisors.
i'm all for these two major world military powers to put away their differences and find way to work together on common problems they face.. they need to cooperate with each other even in their cyber warfare.
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slimboyfat
If he succeeds simply in not bringing about the end of civilisation I'll settle for that.