slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  20

  Is it really possible to disprove the Watchtower?

  by Coded Logic in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  dear brothers and sisters,.

  considering the end is so near at hand we thought it important for to reiterate that it's absolutely impossible to prove god's "one true organisation" wrong.

  there is nothing on heaven or earth that could ever be shown to be false or incorrect in our entire .

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  slimboyfat

  I don’t think it’s possible to prove JWs are wrong. It’s not possible to prove they’re right either, of course, until Armageddon comes.
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  42

  November 13, 2017 TO ALL BOE IN THE US Re: Making the Best Use of Our Kingdom Halls

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  november 13, 2017 to all bodies of elders in the united states branch territory re: making the best use of our kingdom halls.

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  slimboyfat

  Are we sure this video is about KH closures? Not just about keeping the KH tidy and doing the gardening?
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  18

  In need of your advice. November broadcasting 2017

  by pleaseresearch in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so my mum asked me to watch the broadcast and to my astonishment i got through it without smashing my screen haha.. so i let her know what liars they are for saying they would never deliberately distort a quotation.. she is ok for me to give her some printouts of watchtower material where this has in fact happened, contry to what they say.. where should i start and what would be your best link, or way to approach this.

  i think this is a good opportunity of waking her up, if she can see that the broadcast has lied to her, she won't be happy.. any advice is you can give is so appreciated.. thanks everyone..

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  slimboyfat

  Watchtower misquotes were one of my biggest doubts in WT. Many are borderline and you could argue over. But some are simply outrageous. Here are a couple of the worst in my opinion (taken from jwfacts):

  "The Encyclopedia Americana notes that the doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be 'beyond the grasp of human reason." (Trinity brochure p.4)

  Full quote:

  It is held that although the doctrine is beyond the grasp of human reason, it is, like many of the formulations of physical science, not contrary to reason, and may be apprehended (though it may not be comprehended) by the human mind".

  "At this point a reader may begin to understand Dawkins' comment in the preface to his book: "This book should be read almost as though it were science fiction."" (Creation book, p. 39)

  Full quote:

  "This book should be read almost as though it were science fiction. It is designed to appeal to the imagination. But it is not science fiction: it is science. Cliché or not, "stranger than fiction" expresses exactly how I feel about the truth."

  https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/misquotes-deception-lies.php
  

  To get the full force of the misquotes it's probably a good idea to get the person to read the original WT publication in context, let the intent of the quotation set in, and only then reveal the parts that are missed out from the original source.

  
  
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  35

  Is All The Bad Publicity About The Watchtower Pedophile Lawsuits Causing Contributions To Nose Dive Worldwide?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i think with all the child molestation lawsuits the watchtower corporation is and has been hit with is the main reason for all the prime property sell off recently.

  the silent lambs protest back in 2001, and the dateline prime time expose probably was the death knell for the watchtower's hey day in brooklyn.. their membership is drying up, young people are leaving in droves, the situation is no doubt far worse than the annually published yearbook figures show and so they ceased it's publication permanently.

  and those left remaining are experiencing a huge grab of money from their congregations accounts and now are required to make pledges about how much they can contribute which i think is a last ditch effort by the governing body to squeeze more money out of the rank and file watchtower indoctrinated drones.. i think all this is happening because even those still loyally attending are hearing reports of these tremendous pay out that the watchtower is making to the victims of their self serving policies that put young ones at great risks so that even the rank and file don't want to contribute to pay court costs and so are withholding giving contributions to a very great extent.

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  slimboyfat

  I've heard a few JWs talk about the Australian Royal Commision. And I don't even talk to that many JWs.

  The Catholic Church certainly lost donations when their scandals broke. Why should Watchtower be different?

  It's not even so much that JWs necessarily turn hostile against Watchtower. Most Catholics are not hostile to their church either. It's just a case of, "what's the point of giving my money to the church if it gets spent on abuse scandal?" So they donate less, or not at all.
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  35

  Is All The Bad Publicity About The Watchtower Pedophile Lawsuits Causing Contributions To Nose Dive Worldwide?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i think with all the child molestation lawsuits the watchtower corporation is and has been hit with is the main reason for all the prime property sell off recently.

  the silent lambs protest back in 2001, and the dateline prime time expose probably was the death knell for the watchtower's hey day in brooklyn.. their membership is drying up, young people are leaving in droves, the situation is no doubt far worse than the annually published yearbook figures show and so they ceased it's publication permanently.

  and those left remaining are experiencing a huge grab of money from their congregations accounts and now are required to make pledges about how much they can contribute which i think is a last ditch effort by the governing body to squeeze more money out of the rank and file watchtower indoctrinated drones.. i think all this is happening because even those still loyally attending are hearing reports of these tremendous pay out that the watchtower is making to the victims of their self serving policies that put young ones at great risks so that even the rank and file don't want to contribute to pay court costs and so are withholding giving contributions to a very great extent.

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  slimboyfat

  I was just wondering about this. I reckon there is a good chance it's hurt donations, combined with the new policy of sending congregation funds to WT.

  The congregation accounts for 2017 in Scotland are beginning to appear on the charity website and many congregations are down this year compared with last year.

  It would take ages to gather all the figures.
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  30

  Another reason Watchtower may be hurting financially

  by shepherdless in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i don't think anyone else has raised this point.

  below i set out the case that the jw demographic in usa has a steadily decreasing combined income, and as a consequence, has less money to donate.

  not only is the flock not growing, the flock is producing less wool for the borg to fleece.

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  slimboyfat

  In conversation a brother told me that a nearby congregation has "gone bust" recently, which was news to me. It struck me that he used those exact words. "Gone bust" didn't exactly sound like theocratic language. I asked him what happened, but he caught himself, and toned down what he was saying. He said a nearby congregation sold their hall for some reason and are meeting in a neighbouring KH instead. I don't know if that was a purely local situation or part of a wider trend. I'm not even sure if he meant that the original congregation still exists or whether it was combined with the other congregation.
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  30

  Another reason Watchtower may be hurting financially

  by shepherdless in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i don't think anyone else has raised this point.

  below i set out the case that the jw demographic in usa has a steadily decreasing combined income, and as a consequence, has less money to donate.

  not only is the flock not growing, the flock is producing less wool for the borg to fleece.

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  slimboyfat

  Thanks shepherdless, interesting analysis. I'd also point out that the decrease in contributions may be larger than the decrease in income because of the important distinction between income and disposable income. In other words, while JW income may decrease by 3% in real terms, the fall in disposable income (which drives spending, including charitable donations) will be much larger.

  The refusal to allow young JWs to get an education may really be coming back to bite Watchtower. Some small poetic justice I suppose. But hardly worth it for all the hardship it puts faithful JW born-ins through. Young JWs are splitting into various groups these days: 1) those who remain good JWs and stop at minimum education 2) those who somehow manage to excuse getting an education while remaining in "good standing", and 3) those who leave and pursue education as normal. As the years roll on, those in the first group probably have many occasions to observe others and wonder if they made the right choice.

  So those who leave and get an education are no longer around and contributing to Watchtower, and those who remain have lower disposable incomes, and some may be increasingly resentful of the low income situation they were effectively coerced into, and less inclined to contribute the little they have. It's the perfect storm, or a downward spiral for Watchtower, to mix metaphors.

  
  
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  24

  the GB's coup of the FDS

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i believe the gb's takeover of the fds was an illegal coup - not illegal relative to the laws of land, but illegal according to jw "laws" or doctrine.. according to jw doctrine, the fds is god's channel of communication between heaven and earth.

  before the coup, the fds was defined to be all the anointed on earth, and the gb was part of that group and merely the spokesman for the group - individual gb members having no more authority than non-gb members of the fds.. however, a few years ago, the gb, independently of the other members of the fds, decided that it alone was the fds.

  that, to me, was an illegal overthrow of the body (fds); it was a coup.. suppose the u.s. president decided that he has all power, and that he removed the powers of the u.s. congress.

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  slimboyfat

  In some ways it was an odd thing to change.

  In theory all anointed were part of the faithful slave. But in practice only the GB had the authority of the faithful slave. Everyone kind of realised that anyway.

  But to actually change the doctrine in order to make that explicit. It just seems heavy handed and so unnecessary. Plus it raises really awkward questions about who was the slave earlier in JW history and whether you can have a slave that doesn't realise it's a slave and others who think they're a slave who are not. It's just a mess.
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  17

  "Jehovah's Witnesses' withheld info will cost them..."

  by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  latest perspective of the san diego reader on wts loosing its $4000 per day sanction appeal.... https://m.sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/nov/10/ticker-jehovahs-witnesses-withheld-info-4000-day/?templates=mobile.

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  slimboyfat

  It looks like they're in a lot of trouble.
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  15

  Could the Watchtower lose tax exemption in US?

  by Outahere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  looks like trump wants to take out the scientologists.. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-scientology-tax-exemption_us_5a04dd35e4b05673aa584cab?vpo .

  as a cult, could the watchtower be close behind?.

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  slimboyfat

  JWs are nothing like Scientology. I don't like equating the two.

  And JW attendance at the Memorial at well over 2 million is just under 1% of the US population. I wouldn't call them a "nobody".