Hi Wanderlustguy,
Just wanted to say, this post is brilliant.
Duncan.
Duncan
JoinedPosts by Duncan
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5
The Brought-in, and the universal exit of a dub
by wanderlustguy inof course there are exceptions to everything, this is strictly my view and no judgments should be implied.... .
there are different levels of brought-in, starting with the varying ages of childhood, when the childrens parents are brought in.
for the purposes of this, i am dealing with from teenage on up.. .
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The Best of Brits.
by Englishman injust curious... we had a poll here in the uk as to who was the most famous brit of all time.
i was so underwhelmed that i can't remember who even won it.
it wasn't churchill, that's for sure.
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Duncan
Michael Palin
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are congregation revolving around mini-moguls or dynasties of elitist JW?
by cyborgVision inin your experience, did you ever see congregation being revolved around clan-like, all-influential families?.
i don't know about your experiences, but in my personal experience and basically wherever i went i've seen congregation being influenced by mini dynasties of elitist jw.
in fact their influence goes far beyond of what you'd normally consider "spirituality" and branches down to some absolutely bizarre issues such as what type of car you should drive, what brand of clothing is "christian", what sort of barbeque is appropriate, even what cereal you should not buy since it supports "babylon the great", etc.
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Duncan
Hi cyborgVision,
I think you're absolutely right about the influence that a powerful personality can have.
I posted something a couple of years ago about a situation in my old congregation. Dubs are particularly prone to sheep-like following.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/20694/1.ashx
Duncan.
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The Cult of Four "Just Imperfect" Men
by Farkel inthe cult of four "just imperfect" men.
(please move on to the next thread, fluffers.
move on!
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Duncan
Great post, Farkel. Really enjoyed it.
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The Contribution Box
by professor ini have always wondered: to what extent do the elders go to get contributions?.
how closely do you think the elders work with individuals?.
i left the org.
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Duncan
This is a little off-point, professor, but your post reminded me of it.
When we were just young kids, my mum would very often give the money for the contribution box to me or my younger brother to put in. I guess she thought this was more modest or "discreet" or something.
Anyway, this particular meeting night, she gave us both a handfull of coins - sixpences and shillings (this was the sixties) - and told us to put the money in the contribution box at the back of the hall. I guess I was eight, and Ken was six.
I can't really remember which of us thought of this (I'd like to think it was me, but Ken was so much better at this kind of mischief) but we decided instead of just quietly putting the money in, we'd hold each coin up high above our head, and announce it loudly - "TWO SHILLINGS!" - and make a big show of putting it in the box.
We had drawn quite a little audience by the time my mortified mother rushed over to put a stop to things.
Still makes me smile.
Duncan.
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What's Your View of Living Forever?
by Golf inok, be realistic, would you want to live forever?
what is your view of living forever?
golf
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Duncan
I think I agree with Peppermint, my Hertfordshire pal...
I have never been one of those who say "wouldn't it be AWFUL to lie forever!"
Seems to me, however old you were (as long as you had reasonable health), if you were faced with the knowledge that THIS was your last day of life, but were offered maybe just one more year - you'd take it. Everytime.
I wouldn't mind living forever, just one year at a time.
Duncan.
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Duncan
Hi Christopherrobin,
Yup, Got pretty much everything they ever recorded.
Nobody will ever record anything as good as Close to the Edge.
here's a post from a couple of years back:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/56308/1.ashx
Duncan.
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Would Your "Spirit-Directed Conscience"Have Made You Walk Out Of A Movie?
by Englishman inthis was a fairly frequent occurence amongst the brothers and sisters in my young dubby days.
i was heaved out of the cinema on more than one occasion, generally by my mother who reckoned some things were just too much for my innocent young eyes and ears.
i only half saw:.
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Duncan
Hi Mike,
The best "movie-walkout" story I can think of, was actually a non-walkout.
Me, and a couple of pioneer buddies had gone to see a film one Saturday night - 1972 or 73 it was - and we happened upon a Robert Mitchum gangster film - "The Friends of Eddie Coyle". Not much remarked-upon or remembered these days, I guess, but I remember it because of what happened.
We could see, a few rows ahead of us in the not-very-crowded cinema, two of our leading Elders and their wives. But they couldn't see us.
As the film progressed it was clear that this was very much NOT suitable entertainment for Mature Christians.
Don't remember much sex, but there was plenty of graphic violence, and unrelenting, start-to-finish bad language. It was a kind of film-noir/blaxploitation cross. "Muthaf----r this" "Muthaf----r that" the whole way through. I still remember it as a film where none of the characters had any redeeming features whatsoever.
We loved it, and thought it was kind of funny to have caught out the two Elders.
We met them in the lobby, after. They quickly sized up the situation, figured they'd been rumbled and went straightaway into Did-You-See-that-Filth? mode. "Shocking, absolutely shocking! Disgusting they should make films like this! We had no idea" etc. etc.
The funniest thing was how they kept telling us that they were going to walk out. "we were just about to get up and leave, but then [wife] said let's not make a scene" and "we were on the point of walking out but didn't want to embarrass [other couple]" and so on and so on. It was pathetic, really.
Interestingly, so guilty were they in front of us, they forgot entirely to challenge us about watching the film ourselves.
We had a good laugh about it in the pub later.
We were The Cynical Pioneers.
Duncan.
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Pompey Face Their Worst Enemy In FA Cup Draw.
by Englishman inbloody hell!.
fa cup fourth round draw: .
derby v watford or fulham.
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Duncan
Hi Mike.
...and there's that whole Harry Redknapp angle and everything! What a draw!
Errm... just thought I'd mention that a certain team of Goldenboys has played them both and beat them both this year. On the relative showings against us, Pompey were miles better. So you ought to be okay.
Good luck!
Duncan.
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The decade is now half over....
by Leolaia infor those of you who are not stunned thinking "where has all the time gone?
", what would you say about the decade we've now in?
do you think world conditions are worse than in the '90s?
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Duncan
Interesting. What will we call this decade we're now half way through?
Leolaia said:
Incidentally, it is interesting that so far we don't say twenty-oh-five so much in English (as in nineteen-oh-five) but two thousand and five. We like saying "thousand," as in "Two thousand and one: A Space Odyssey". Maybe when we get into the next decade we still start saying "twenty-oh-fourteen" and so forth. It's weird that we use two different systems to refer to dates before and after 2000; we don't say "one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine" to refer to "1999".
I remember, at the turn of the century, there were a number of newspaper articles and TV spots that dealt with this, and which canvassed viewers opinions. A popular suggestion was that, after the "eighties" and "nineties" this decade should be called the "noughties". Cute, but it never caught on.
Pretty much everyone I know refers to it as the "two-thousands".
I would guess that at the turn of the next decade, people will start talking about "twenty-ten" and "twenty-eleven".
Already, on BBC radio, which prides itself on its use of English, whenever they mention a year such as that - for example in all the reporting about the bidding for the 2012 Olympics - they use exclusively the "twenty-twelve" formula, never anything else.
Duncan.