Posts by OnTheWayOut

112

London Protest 2018

by josephus in

jw
friends

well today marks the beginning and biggest day of our protest at the london excel.. we believe it's a record number at around 100 exjws at the front door.. we spoke to lots of jw's and one young man studying who has quit after talking to us.

we've been approached privately by jw's who thanked us for coming and the security at the event treated us very well.. if anyone wants to see some clips they are available on my channel the great apostate.. thanks to all for the support and love..

OnTheWayOut

If one young man quit after talking to you, then everything else is gravy. It was certainly awesome.

89

why the watchtower is so short of money

by pepperheart in

the watchtower is so short of money because they have to pay for all the upkeep of so many branch offices around the world.because so many of the branch offices are in very poor countries and they are not balancing the budgets.

OnTheWayOut

I am reading this and it is something that we cannot even agree on whether they short of money or not, let alone why they would be short (or not).

Watchtower was clearly a giant publishing company that made humongous best-sellers that nobody ever really heard of. They sold the books and magazines and whatnot to Joe Publisher. In the past, Joe Publisher also sold the stuff to the public. That was Watchtower's main source of money for decades upon decades.

Members did not really contribute much money beyond buying the books. Oh, they kept the lights on at the local Kingdom Hall and put their modest contribution in at the assemblies and conventions enough for Watchtower to make a profit there. But the real money was in literature. Your average member gave them TIME, not MONEY. That is the model that members were used to.

The money train for literature ended quickly. When members were to donate and not buy the literature, they felt they were giving TIME, not so much MONEY. "Jehovah knows I don't have boatloads of money." And real growth of the organization has been stagnant with mostly kids of members joining. The old folks that are still around still think "TIME, not MONEY." Meanwhile, younger lifelong members are seeing less income from not going to college, they are seeing Watchtower demand too much and they are just not giving it.

Sure, they drop their money in the box. But what they used to drop in the box was a modest amount at the Hall, and a modest amount at the Circuit Assembly, and a modest amount at the Convention. Now, they see Watchtower saying various things about needing so much money and they take money they would have dropped in one box and drop it in the other. When the local congregation needs to pay bills, they drop it in there. But they just don't have more/more/more for the assemblies and conventions. And they figure Watchtower is getting it anyway from the Kingdom Hall, so they don't drop it in.

Selling properties is a crisis management solution, not a viable way to get out of trouble.

37

Why are they announcing 2019 conventions so early?

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

i was just told there will be international conventions in canada in 2019. .

so i looked at jw.org and i see that there's a whole bunch of conventions now listed on the site for 2019.. isn't this odd?

normally we were told the location of conventions during the first week of january.. did they realize there was less in attendance in the 2018 conventions, and want to give ppl more time to make travel arrangements??

OnTheWayOut

They definitely want more time for people to plan. First of all, back when I was in (and probably still so), you had to be approved to be accepted to travel to an international convention (despite the fact that you could just travel there on your own and go on your own).

When you are accepted, they expect you to book your travel and hotel and stuff through their approved agents and get royally ripped off. Cha-ching.

12

No meetings memorial week

by Saltheart Foamfollower in

the august monthly announcements letter, among other things, says that if a memorial is midweek, there is to be no midweek meeting and if at a weekend, then no weekend meeting.

previously it was only no other meeting on the same day.

is this because so many congregations now share halls that scheduling it has become almost impossible?.

OnTheWayOut

It could be because of so many congregations using the hall. But I will suggest that Watchtower has been seeing a dip in contributions sent in from the congregations and will try to make the Memorial seem more "special" somehow, and hope that the cancelling of meetings makes everyone feel they should give more.

29

The bridge

by truthwillsetyoufree in

jw
friends

so my father, who is an active jehovah’s witness, told me yesterday of an experience currently doing its rounds amongst the witnesses in relation to cart witnessing.

there is a bridge called ‘the bridge’ which is a well known place for people committing suicide.

apparently the jws have been setting up there literature carts there for a while now and ever since they have there has been no more suicide attempts from the bridge.

OnTheWayOut

Well, maybe this info. from wikipedia sheds some light on "the bridge."

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has the second highest number of suicides in the world, after the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge,[33] with around 1,600 bodies having been recovered as of 2012, and the assumption of many more unconfirmed deaths.[34]In 2004, documentary filmmaker Eric Steel set off controversy by revealing that he had tricked the bridge committee into allowing him to film the Golden Gate for months and had captured 23 suicides on film for his documentary The Bridge (2006). In March 2005, San Francisco supervisor Tom Ammiano proposed funding a study on erecting a suicide barrier on the bridge.[35][36] In June 2014, a suicide barrier was approved for the Golden Gate bridge.

I know JW's don't have a cart in China by the bridge.

13

Could you really trust the Governing Body to the right thing?

by no-zombie in

over the years, many have speculated on how the governing body might reform the society into something that might actually bring some positivity in to the world ... and a resent melancholy moment, i re-watched the youtube clip of usa for africa's, 'we are the world' which was released in 1985. now while i know our men in warwick would never actually consider organizing the brotherhood to do something completely selfless in helping the truly worldly poor, something that would actually improve the religion's reputation ... but the question is ... could you really trust the governing body to run an aid program like usa for africa or band aid, without skimming from the top?.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9bnonfkcbi.

OnTheWayOut

They saw how willing their members were to help out after hurricanes and other disasters, so they "organized" that to say that people who do go to disaster areas should go only when they are approved (meaning they are in good standing with their congregation at least) and people should only donate to the worldwide work and let Watchtower figure out how to use the funds to help disaster victims out, and they should stop donating cars, clothes, canned goods. I was a recipient of a car and canned goods and the like after Hurricane Hugo. Back then, the spirit of individuals was wonderful. Some families can only donate a small amount of money, but have excess "stuff" and have strong backs. Well, too bad for them.

So they ruined it. They turned it into a profit scheme. "Look at all this worldwide work money coming in. We should buy lumber and supplies from loyal brothers at a markup with at least part of the donation money."

They closed HQ in Brooklyn after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on New York's World Trade Center. Talk about worse than Joel Osteen. Literally, for Christ's sake, they could let people use the bathroom and charge their cell phones and tell them they cannot spend the night, but can have a cold meal and then be on their way.

They have taken away congregation moneys with the promises of knowing where to spend it to do the most good for the members. It's all a scam. I wouldn't trust them to ever do the right thing.

25

1 Timothy 2:11-15...Woman and silence in the congreagation

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

1 timothy 2:11-15let a woman learn in silence with full submissiveness.

i do not permit a woman to teach, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence.

for adam was formed first, then eve.

OnTheWayOut

JW's are all about loopholes like the two women facing each other or being interviewed by a man and not directly addressing the congregation.

Loopholes like blood fractions and a host of other things, the FDS being spirit-directed instead of inspired, not being wrong in the past but rather the light got brighter, YADDA YADDA YADDA!

56

Sex before marriage

by Jules Saturn in

for ex jws, pimos, pomos, faders, born again christians, agnostics, atheists, etc.

what is your opinion regarding sex before marriage, has your view been influenced since you left?

in western society, you’ll probably find yourself ridiculed to be an 18 year old virgin so i am curious to hear opinions from here.

OnTheWayOut

Vanderhoven&:
Hi OTWO,

Do you agree that the Bible is against sex outside of marriage?

Do you believe that if this Bible standard was followed that our society would be better off in terms of the number of unwanted pregnancies, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases and the problems that go with them?

The Bible is against sex outside of marriage, yes.
If "they" could get every human to abide by this one thing, sure- most of those particular problems would be nearly gone. (....just "nearly." I imagine there would still be unwanted pregnancies and abortions to some degree) But getting the human population to abide by one thing- WHO THE HELL ARE WE TO INSIST UPON IT?? And in your fairy tale of such a society, we no longer have to deal with problems like rape because men only have sex with their wife. And where does it stop? Should we go back to multiple wives? Should we arrange marriages young to make sure those crazy kids don't have sex before they are married? I won't even bother with applying other Bible standards since it is too "off topic" to discuss stoning your children or allowing slavery, etc.

A society that enforced such a thing would probably be a depressed society. People marrying whoever they wanted sex with and not checking compatibility, all so they could escape the death penalty for violating that "one standard." (I don't see any other way to enforce it.)

56

Sex before marriage

by Jules Saturn in

for ex jws, pimos, pomos, faders, born again christians, agnostics, atheists, etc.

what is your opinion regarding sex before marriage, has your view been influenced since you left?

in western society, you’ll probably find yourself ridiculed to be an 18 year old virgin so i am curious to hear opinions from here.

OnTheWayOut

Vanderhoven, that is the strangest "defense" of the Bible.

Basically, instead of addressing the issue of men raping women and then marrying them, it sidetracks with the use of words in the instance of Potiphar's wife and Joseph, then simply declares "Nonetheless, the claim......is incorrect."

Especially in Bible times, but still so- rapists are generally men. And to suggest a softening of the meaning centuries later is just reinventing what the Bible says. It was clear that if the woman was "engaged," she should have saved herself by crying out, so the Bible refers to rape and the people who read it back then knew that.

The Bible doesn't declare that people should stone a rapist (or otherwise kill him) unless she belongs to another man. The Bible tries to imply that the rapist is accountable for what he did. That means, he is stuck with the woman he raped. So that is written from a man's point of view- a man who understood the law not only allowed rape, but institutionalized it. If you want an unengaged woman, rape her and she is yours, especially if she did not cry out and doesn't want to be put to death.

And really, when we talk about women in the Bible being forced to marry their rapist, we are primarily thinking about men who have killed her parents in some kind of warfare, and then the man takes the child as a wife, giving the non-Jew no choice in the matter- hence rape takes place. Women were just property, valuable for sex and doing housework.

56

Sex before marriage

by Jules Saturn in

for ex jws, pimos, pomos, faders, born again christians, agnostics, atheists, etc.

what is your opinion regarding sex before marriage, has your view been influenced since you left?

in western society, you’ll probably find yourself ridiculed to be an 18 year old virgin so i am curious to hear opinions from here.

OnTheWayOut

Sex outside of marriage is considered a sin by most religions. Religions invented sin to make people feel guilty and cause them to go to the religion to appease their guilt via donations and/or service.

I have no use for religion and sin. For a long part of human history, marriage has been a protection to children. To me, that is the only part of keeping sex within a marriage that seems important. That, and we are still living under judicial systems influenced by the religious institution of marriage. So that means many people have to keep sex within marriage in order to protect their assets.

But I don't see how sex before (or without) marriage is anything wrong. If people would just use birth control, it should be fine.