neverendingjourney

Joined

• started 60 topics
• posted 1,530 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by neverendingjourney

• 
  44

  Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

  once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

  in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  
  

  @LevelThePlayingField

  
  

  Funny how we used to just eat all of the propaganda up, no questions asked, huh?
  
  
• 
  44

  Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

  once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

  in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  This also reminds me of how I used to brag about the most trivial JW-related things.

  They were building a Pentecostal church down the road from the kingdom hall. It took them a few months, but once built it became very popular in the area. A guy I'd gone to high school with was a member and became deeply religious.

  One Sunday after the meeting I saw him and a group of his church buddies at a table in the same restaurant. I went up and said hi and mentioned that I'd seen how they had finally finished constructing the church.

  "We just built a new kingdom hall, too. And it only took us FOUR DAYS!"

  "That's nice. We're really happy with our new church. It's new, too."

  "Yeah, but did you guys build it in four days?"

  "Uhh...no, it took us a few months. I'm really happy for you guys. God bless."

  I walked away with a smug look on my face as if cheap craftsmanship on a box building was somehow a sign of God's approval.
• 
  44

  Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

  once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

  in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  There was an elder at my old hall who had a crude, probably homemade, tattoo on his hand. He never had it removed.

  I wonder how he feels after reading this fine example in the yearbook. Why did he never feel the same urgency to get it removed?
• 
  23

  "Theocratic Warfare" still alive and well within Watchtower in 2016!

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems like the watchtower is still encouraging "theocratic warfare".

  in the no.1 watchtower of 2016, they (ironically) printed an article on honesty.here is something they said:"lyingwhat is it?

  saying something false to someone who is entitledto know the truth.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  If they conclude a court of law is not entitled to know the truth, will Jehovah protect them from perjury charges?
• 
  33

  Creative day 7000 years, is this correct and how did the Org come up with this idea?

  by Crazyguy in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  any body know?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  Later, they said creative days were "several thousands of years" long, so old JW'S would think "Yeah, 7 thousands" and young people with access to science at school would think "millions" and Watchtower would never admit they were previously wrong.

  That's exactly what happened to me. The blue Creation book was instrumental in getting me to buy into the religion. I read it in the mid-90s and thought it was consistent with science, which taught the universe was billions of years old. I'd never heard of 1975 or the 7,000 year creative days it was premised on.
  

  It wasn't until after I got dunked that a JW pointed out that the literature didn't say millions, it said thousands. He then specifically tied it to the former 1975 teaching. I was dumbfounded since being able to reconcile science and the bible had been the primary reason I'd bought into it. I was a naive and stupid teenaged at the time, but that's a separate story altogether.

  This JW was an adult convert and really had no business being familiar with the 1975 debacle. He converted in the 90s and had no JW family. He must have been doing his own research on the side. A year or two later he moved away and faded. He was a smart guy. In hindsight it was probably inevitable.
• 
  63

  Watchtower crackdown on anointed expansion - are they reaching for a solution to the expanding numbers problem?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if this has been discussed i missed it.

  i think the january study watchtower is a concerted attempt to reduce the numbers claiming to be anointed.

  but i love the sneaky way they go about it this time.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  If there was no sealing of anointed in 1935, what's the point in counting them? Their decline used to be one more way to show the end was getting nearer. Now it's a relic of a bygone era/old light.

  I think it's a matter of time before they stop publishing the figure. It's embarrassing and no longer serves any purpose. Fifteen thousand or fifty thousand... makes no difference under current teaching, especially since the FDS is now only the GB.
• 
  22

  Years ago son raised a few years as a JW. Now struggles with depression

  by Check_Your_Premises in

  1. social
  2. family

  background:.

  i spent some time here awhile back as an unbelieving mate of a jw wife.

  i learned a lot, and was able to be supportive and understanding when she decided to leave the jw.. unfortunately, my son seems to have internalized many of the jw teachings.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  He seems to be unable to shake the idea that they have "the truth". He doesn't live as a JW though, so he seems trapped in an intolerable state between thinking the JW are the way to go, but unable (and having no desire) to live as one.

  This is, unfortunately, an incredibly common problem. There was a guy at my hall who had been disfellowshipped for decades and later returned. He would often talk about the agony of being out and knowing he wasn't living in conformity with "the truth." I believe a lot of the destructive behavior common in DF'd youths is about them beating themselves up over not being strong enough to live up to the "the truth."

  I was in this state for a short while, something like a year and a half. What changed? I found this website. I read enough here to lose the fear of reading "apostate literature" and after a few books any lingering doubts about whether the witnesses had the truth disappeared. Don't get me wrong. The programming runs deep and even today, ten years later, I still find myself responding to some situations according to the programming, but I don't agonize over whether I made the right decision.

  Without knowing your son, it seems the only thing that can help him get over this hurdle is for him to come to realize on his own that there is no truth to the religion. My best friend when I was a witness stopped going to meetings around the same time I did and I swear he's in your son's position. He won't admit it to me because he knows I'm 100% out, but it's evident by his demeanor and some of the choices he's made. That no-man's land of being 99% out but having those lingering doubts isn't a healthy place to be.

  I wish you all the best.
• 
  14

  All of Human Knowledge Could be Stored in a Test Tube Forever

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  the dna code could be used to store unimaginable amounts of information.. researchers have shown that encasing the dna is glass it would remain stable and able to be recovered for more than a million years.

  by adding redundancies into the code it would still be preserved even if it did become damaged.. why didn't god think about encoding a simple "hello"?.

  read more here.... bbc video here....

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  Slightly on topic:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortality_Drive
  
• 
  26

  The Pain of Coming to a Decision

  by daniel-p in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's been at least a couple years since i've posted anything on here, and much longer than that since when i was active.

  ten years ago i first came here all in turmoil over my disillusionment of my beliefs.

  i've been through lots of ups and downs since then.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  Hey, Daniel. I remember you. I don't come around here very often anymore, either. I'm sorry to hear of your marital troubles. Unfortunately, being a single guy, I don't have much to offer other than a sympathetic ear.

  If I'm not mistaken you were considering going to college at one point. Did you ever see that through?
• 
  31

  Yearbook 2016: Annual Report (15177 Partakers)

  by Designer Stubble in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the 2016 yearbook is up on jw.orgbranches of jehovahs witnesses: 89 (was 90)number of lands reporting: 240 (was 239)total congregations: 118016 (was 115416)worldwide memorial attendance: 19,862,763 (was 19,950,019) decreasememorial partakers worldwide: 15,177 (was 14,121 in 2013:13,204) large increasepeak of publishers in kingdom service: 8,220,105 (was 8,201,205) minor increaseaverage publishers preaching each month: 7,987,279 (was 7,867,958)percentage of increase over 2014: 1.5 (was 2.2)total number baptized: 260,273 (was 275,581)average auxiliary pioneer publishers each month: 443,504 (was 635,298) huge decreaseaverage pioneer publishers each month: 1,135,210 (was 1,089,446)total hours spent in field: 1,933,473,727 (was 1,945,487,604) decreaseaverage home bible studies each month: 9,708,968 (was 9,499,933)

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  neverendingjourney

  I think they've reached the top of their hill; they've peaked out.

  If they continue selling the same product, then I agree with you. Right now all their marketing gimmicks have simply been efforts to put lipstick on a pig, selling the same burrito but putting it in a shinier tin-foil wrapping.
  

  An ordinary company would recognize the need to make wholesale changes to the product, but there's a two-fold problem here. One, aversion to change runs deep in the religion's culture. They have the truth; why change it? Conformity is required throughout all of its ranks. Two, the men who lead the group spent their adult lives and made their way up through a system designed to select the most pliant and sycophantic among them. Anyone with even a minimal ability to re-imagine the religion's doctrine would have been culled from the ranks long before they ever became candidates for GB membership.

  In my mind that leaves two possibilities: they continue a slow, gradual fade into further irrelevance or a younger charismatic person (or a group of persons) grabs control of the religion and takes it in a different direction. The second possibility becomes more realistic the more the religion stagnates.