Posts by neverendingjourney

75

Brooklyn Layoffs and Halt to Kingdom Hall construction projects

by James Jack in

a good source just just told me that at morning worship today that the governing body announced that a total of 1600 bethelites will be let get go and not transferred to warwich when the last property is sold in brooklyn and all kingdom hall building projects are on hold for at least a year so that all the focus will be on the preaching work.

neverendingjourney

Did people donate more back then?

They just charged for everything back then. The food was for sale. The literature was for sale. The donation-only arrangement ate into the bottom line tremendously.

75

Brooklyn Layoffs and Halt to Kingdom Hall construction projects

by James Jack in

a good source just just told me that at morning worship today that the governing body announced that a total of 1600 bethelites will be let get go and not transferred to warwich when the last property is sold in brooklyn and all kingdom hall building projects are on hold for at least a year so that all the focus will be on the preaching work.

neverendingjourney

I feel bad for most of the people who'll be laid off. Many of them sacrificed a lot in service of what they sincerely felt was right.

However, one of the most arrogant people I know is a Bethel elder who gets sent to conventions to give talks. I knew him 20 years ago before he ever went to Bethel. I won't feel sorry for him at all if he doesn't make the cut. He can go to hell.

18

Anyone miss "Scholar" who used to post here? Found him!

by sir82 in

jw
friends

...in the jwtalk thread covering the september broadcast re: "generation".. http://jwtalk.net/forums/topic/22665-september-broadcast/page-5.

poor neil, he comes on this forum, he gets hammered.. goes on the virulently pro-jw forum, gets hammered.. you'd almost think he was a troll.....no, couldn't be..... .

neverendingjourney

His repeated use of his "celebrated Watchtower scholars" catchphrase indicates his intent is, at least in part, to troll.

Seriously, even if he believes his own reasoning, who talks that way in real life?

39

JW UN Rumor

by ivanatahan in

jw
friends

yes, i have returned.. a short recap of major events since my inactivity began: i finally revealed to my parents that i do not believe the same thing they believe in (after i was caught smooching my girlfriend by a family of good-for-nothing pieces of human feces), and of course they view themselves as failed parents who were unable to brainwash their children.

that is, of course, the reason why they are much more controlling over what i do in my life now (my mom even tried having a "bible study" with me).

i told them everything and i was unable to dent their jw imposed mind force field, while also exposing a clear jw misunderstanding of probability, evolution, history, logic/reason, and the big bang theory.. in a conversation i had with my mother a few weeks back (i also heard this rumor before, but my mother told me it again), she mentioned how the un held a summit of all religions and when the jws presented themselves and mentioned their preaching work warning of the coming un ban on religion (referring to an international organization who can't even prevent genocide, much less impose human rights), a un official came up to the jw who presented the cult and told him to "speed up the preaching work", because they plan on doing the ban soon.. it saddens me to think of how ignorant jws are in relation to the principles upon which the un was founded and being unaware that the un at least has some sense as to not ban religion, but this rumor, as ridiculous as it is, needs to be put at rest.

neverendingjourney

I heard the same rumor except the UN official was a smurf.

5

Light speed isn't as fast as Hollywood portrays it.

by Island Man in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aau_btbn7s

neverendingjourney

I never studied physics much in depth in when I was in school, but I've read a lot on the subject over the years. Relativity is fascinating in ways that my mind can't fully comprehend.

For instance, since space and time are intertwined, if you could somehow catch a ride on a photon of light and travel at light speed, you could travel the length of the universe and it would seem instantaneous to you, but to an observer on Earth billions of years would have passed.

Time and distances aren't fixed quantities but can vary based on motion. Weird yet fascinating stuff.

28

help me understand: My wife seems to be utterly detested by skelletons and skulls. Why?

by goingthruthemotions in

so, here i am again....asking more questions to help me understand my wife.

she was brought up in the cult in the 70's and 80's.

so i can only imagine what kind of indoctrination she deals with.

neverendingjourney

that interesting, did the BORG push that alot in the 70's and 80's?

My mother had us read an Awake! published in the early 80s that described a woman's supposed ordeal with a particular demon that stalked and killed her family members one by one. I remember the descriptions quite vividly. The demon left her alone, of course, once she discovered "the truth" and learned all about Jehovah.

It was like showing a child The Exorcist and telling him it was real.

23

Getting the Urge!

by Theburstbubble in

jw
friends

evening folks, so as some of you may know we have recently decided to leave the witnesses and can see it for the man made organisation it is.

so, why do i get the urge to go back and feel guilty for not being there!

it's like my mind is telling me to be logical about it all but then something keeps pulling me back.. don't get me wrong i really want to break free from it all and i'm resisting the urge to go back as i have been miserable in the truth for a long time as i've known it's not right and want to do the best by my daughter.

neverendingjourney

The programming runs deep, much deeper that we imagine.

After I found this website and did online research I knew I would never go back. Yet every time I broke a new rule, I'd feel immensely guilty, the kind of guilt that wakes you up at night. The first time I got drunk, the first time I smoked marijuana, the first time I had sex, each of those instances was followed by feelings of incredible guilt even though I no longer believed in the Witnesses. It was programming pure and simple and I knew it, but it didn't make the feelings any less real.

Eight years after I left the Witnesses I found myself on a business trip in a foreign country. We went to dinner and my boss wanted to order blood sausage. Even though it'd been eight years since I left the Witnesses an unsettling sense of panic came over me. After all that time the indoctrination was still there.

As others have mentioned, it gets better with time, but there's a very real re-wiring of the brain process that takes place at a physiological level that's simply part of unplugging from the Watchtower.

Best of luck to you.

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.