Posts by neverendingjourney

12

Sad News: Girl of JW parents with schizophrenia murders two siblings

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

this is a very sad and disturbing case in mexico.. used google translate.

ask me if the translation is not clear:.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=utf-8&u=http%3a%2f%2flaverdadnoticias.com%2fnina-de-11-anos-mato-a-sus-hermanos-porque-satanas-se-lo-ordeno%2f570605%2f&edit-text=.

neverendingjourney

Can't have them finding out that the WT worldview and lifestyle might be making the problem worse, now, can we?

While not exactly on point, I always felt that keeping mental health problems in-house was motivated by the same logic found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 6:

Does any one of you who has a dispute with another dare to go to court before unrighteous men, and not before the holy ones? Or do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to try very trivial matters? Do you not know that we will judge angels? Then why not matters of this life? If, then, you do have matters of this life to be tried, is it the men looked down on in the congregation whom you assign as judges? I am speaking to move you to shame. Is there not one wise man among you who is able to judge between his brothers? Instead, brother goes to court against brother, and before unbelievers at that! Really, it is already a defeat for you when you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather let yourselves be wronged? Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded? Instead, you wrong and defraud, and your brothers at that!

12

Sad News: Girl of JW parents with schizophrenia murders two siblings

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

this is a very sad and disturbing case in mexico.. used google translate.

ask me if the translation is not clear:.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=utf-8&u=http%3a%2f%2flaverdadnoticias.com%2fnina-de-11-anos-mato-a-sus-hermanos-porque-satanas-se-lo-ordeno%2f570605%2f&edit-text=.

neverendingjourney

Treatment of mental illness is an underrated failure of this religion, in my opinion.

There was a kid who was clearly mentally ill in our congregation. An elder told me in confidence that the elders had been dispatched to this family's house because the kid was hearing voices and the voices were telling him to kill his mother.

Obviously, the elder said, the family was suffering from demonic influence so they prayed with them and helped them go through their belongings to throw away any possessions that could in some way be attached to spiritism, you know, books about witches and the like. As far as I know, the family was never encouraged to seek medical attention.

Thankfully, the kid didn't act out on his impulses (at least not that I'm aware of), but the fact that a complex medical problem like that was addressed by a welder and a ditch-digger is phenomenally irresponsible.

23

Take the Kingdom back to Mexico!

by John Aquila in

if donald trump wins the presidency, about 90% of the jws in my area will have to go back to mexico.

the watchtower will be having a fire sale on kingdom halls.

if trump became president and he followed through on his policy of sending back undocumented immigrants, would that affect the jws publisher numbers big time in the united states?

neverendingjourney

I never said 90% of the population is illegal. I put the U.S. census to help you see that in my City about 90% of the Population is Hispanic compared to 38% in the State of Texas.

Let's walk through this logically.

Trump has called for deportation of illegal immigrants and an end to birthright citizenship.

You said your city is 90% Hispanic.

You said if Trump becomes president 90% of the JWs in your area will have to go back to Mexico (because apparently that's where they all originate from).

Seems pretty clear to me you intended to conflate illegal immigrants and JWs who attend Spanish language congregations in your area.

21

Guardians of Doctrine.

by Pubsinger in

i'm still working my way through the videos..... this has probably been covered before but had anyone else ever heard them use this phrase before?

not me... but it's a clever and as per usual misleading choice of words.. if they are indeed guardians of doctrine, they are very poor ones.

if so jws would believe the same thing now that they did in 1879 and we all know that's not true.

neverendingjourney

Guardians Of Doctrine (G.O.D.) sounds like another effort to become more like the Catholics, in this case theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Curia, today called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office which in previous centuries was better known as the "Inquisition".

James Penton makes a pretty compelling case in Apocalypse Delayed that the Witnesses have much more in common with Catholicism than they do with Protestatism, despite their history of launching hysterical attacks against the Catholic Church.

Despite the obvious similarities, I had never put two and two together until I read his book many years ago.

23

Take the Kingdom back to Mexico!

by John Aquila in

if donald trump wins the presidency, about 90% of the jws in my area will have to go back to mexico.

the watchtower will be having a fire sale on kingdom halls.

if trump became president and he followed through on his policy of sending back undocumented immigrants, would that affect the jws publisher numbers big time in the united states?

neverendingjourney

But where I’m at, the percentage of Hispanic or Latino in 2013 was over 81%. The local news said a few weeks ago that it pretty close to 90% now

You do understand that a 90% Hispanic population is not the same thing as 90% illegal immigrant population, don't you?

You're equating Hispanics with illegal immigrants by saying that (a) your city has a 90% illegal immigrant population and (b) if Trump becomes president 90% of JWs in your area will have to leave the country.

Not every Mexican, even those who look like the folks in the pictures you posted, are in the country illegally.

23

Take the Kingdom back to Mexico!

by John Aquila in

if donald trump wins the presidency, about 90% of the jws in my area will have to go back to mexico.

the watchtower will be having a fire sale on kingdom halls.

if trump became president and he followed through on his policy of sending back undocumented immigrants, would that affect the jws publisher numbers big time in the united states?

neverendingjourney

I get where you're coming from and you're probably trying to be funny, but that's a really unfair characterization.

I spent my entire life up to my mid 20s in Spanish congregations in Texas and the number of illegal immigrants was nowhere near 90%. Sure, there were many illegal immigrants, but let's not forget there's such a thing as legal immigration as well.

My parents, both of whom speak broken English, are likely viewed as illegal immigrants by a lot of people, but they're both U.S. citizens.

15

Are beards allowed yet for MS and Elders??

by EndofMysteries in

i remember a little over 15 years ago, one of my first jobs at a grocery store, the manager was happy that they passed a new policy allowing them to grow a beard.

previously they were not allowed.

among the usa, i guess beards were considered not very professional still.

neverendingjourney

I work for a large, multi-national company that employs tens of thousands of employees worldwide. Our CEO has a beard.

Much like the expectation that women wear flowery dresses all the time, the no-beard rule is a remnant of bygone generation (not the overlapping kind).

84

The Kingdom Halls are empty

by punkofnice in

my jw spies tell me that the kingdom halls are empty compared to how they used to be, since i left 5 years ago.

not saying they're empty because of me though.. is that what you are hearing?.

neverendingjourney

In my limited experience, it varies greatly in the U.S. (at least in the South) depending on whether you're talking about English or Spanish-language halls.

When I was a child 30 years ago there were 2 English congregations and 1 Spanish congregation in my hometown. There are still 2 English congregations after all this time but there are now 4 Spanish congregations.

The English congregations were typical in that attendance hovered around 70-80%. Attendance at Spanish congregations was always above 100%, usually 130% or so if I remember correctly.

Churches of all kinds, particularly those that are more controlling (and often have tighter-knit communities as a result), were good resources for newly-arrived immigrants who had very few friends and family in their new location.

Also, a lot of the growth came from JWs who relocated to the U.S from other Spanish-speaking countries. It showed up as growth on the stats, but really there was simply a lot of relocation taking place.

31

Jw kids setting off fire alarms in hotels

by purrpurr in

a friend of mine is staying at a hotel next to one of the big convention sites this weekend.

yesterday she tells me one of the hotels had to be evacuated and the fire brigade called when the fire alarm went off.. it turned out to be a bunch of jw kids having a prank.

she had been speaking to the hotel manager who told her that this happens every year and only when the jw's come to stay!.

neverendingjourney

Off the top of my head, I can think of five JW contemporaries of mine who have been imprisoned or are currently serving a jail sentence. I can probably think of a few more if I spent some time on it. And that's just from the same immediate area that I grew up in.

On average, the Witnesses weren't any better companions than a randomly-selected group of "worldly" classmates would have been. In fact, they were probably worse.

25

How big a deal is the royal commission..? It seems to be not much...

by _Morpheus in

my understanding (very limited and maybe flawed) is that this commission has no teeth.

if thats true why would the org care?

send a few lawyers, go through the motions but in the end.... its a dog parking on a porch.

neverendingjourney

It all depends on the perspective.

The Watchtower could collapse overnight and it might not even make the front page of the New York times. The world at large doesn't care about the inner workings and controversies of religious denominations unless there's some celebrity angle or general tabloid-quality scandal attached to it.

As far as the ex-JW community is concerned, this is a big deal. It brings notoriety to an issue that's been on the community's mind. The news might funnel its way through the congregations and help wake a few Witnesses up.

As for legal repercussions, I haven't been following it too closely, but it seems like the Commission has bigger fish to fry. That's been the problem, generally, with child abuse within the WT. There are always larger, better known churches with even more scandalous problems, and that removes the focus from the WT. I don't see anyone ending up in jail over this.