yes, today is the forum's 15th birthday!.
i never thought for one moment that it would survive this long or have so many people post so many great subjects over the years.. it is still humbling when i get pm's or emails from people expressing how the site has helped them and of course thanks goes to all the posters who have shared their experiences and make helpful and supportive comments to others who are in the sometimes difficult process of learning the real truth about 'the truth'.. the site has gone through several different incarnations over the last 15 years running on different platforms, different databases and different hosts but we've been able to keep all the old topics.
the current site is still being developed and i'm hoping to push another major upgrade soon.. i also may have some other news to share soon about the future of the site so stay posted.. until then, here's the the next 15 years!
I found this site in January of '07 and there's been no looking back.
My awakening began in the summer of '03, but my fade was extremely long and gradual. I had stopped going to meetings entirely by the summer of '05, but I hadn't foreclosed the possibility of going back one day. Once I found this place and read thread after thread there was no going back.
Congratulations and thank you for continuing to keep this place in operation. It's been a valuable tool to countless others.
i'm just wondering if the theocratic warfare doctrine is anywhere in writing or if it's a word-of-mouth kind of thing where it's mentioned at elder's school, but not put in writing.. anyone?.
"While malicious lying is definitely condemned in the Bible, this does not mean that a person is under obligation to divulge truthful information to people who are not entitled to it." - Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2, pages 244, 245.
i'm just wondering if the theocratic warfare doctrine is anywhere in writing or if it's a word-of-mouth kind of thing where it's mentioned at elder's school, but not put in writing.. anyone?.
Also, while the term "theocratic warfare" wasn't used, I remember the official teaching as of 10 years ago was that you could withhold the truth from people who weren't entitled to it.
While the literature may not have called it "theocratic warfare," it's essentially the same thing.
i'm just wondering if the theocratic warfare doctrine is anywhere in writing or if it's a word-of-mouth kind of thing where it's mentioned at elder's school, but not put in writing.. anyone?.
current u.s. federal judge is one of jehovah's witnesses - see more at: http://www.jw-archive.org/post/114109639783/current-u-s-federal-judge-is-one-of-jehovahs#sthash.pz6qywnk.dpuf.
Not to be a contrarian, but if serving on a jury is a conscience matter, why wouldn't being a judge be a conscience matter, too? A judge doesn't always act as a finder-of-fact, although he does in a bench trial.
Federal judges are also appointed, not elected, so it would seem to be more of a civil service type of a job, albeit an immensely prominent one.
hello everybody, i was wondering if anyone has been guilted or emotionally blackmailed into attending the memorial this year.
something along the lines of "if you loved your family you would at least attend the memorial".
i myself haven't attended in 5 years.
I have family visiting this weekend. They'll likely mention it.
I live over an hour away, so I can always use the "I'll attend at the local congregation" excuse. That might be enough to satisfy them.
i seldom hear of people getting df'd anymore.
years ago it seemed there were a few per year in a congregation.
More and more people are realizing that they can simply fade.
There might be something to this. When I left, I kind of felt like a defendant trying to flee the country before his criminal trial. I might be able to escape the law for a while, but it'd eventually catch up to me. Except "the law," in this case, the elders, didn't seem to care.
The elder body was tired and overworked and didn't have the desire to go chasing after the flock. From what I can tell, this is a recent phenomenon. I don't think the average elder body, say in the '70s, would have let me slip away that easily.
i seldom hear of people getting df'd anymore.
years ago it seemed there were a few per year in a congregation.
I agree with the "it varies from congregation to congregation" comments.
When I stopped attending, I received one courtesy call from the presiding overseer who made it clear he had no intention of prying. It was evident he was simply going through the motions and checking a box. I don't think we wanted to be burdened with the additional work that would result from discovering any "wrongdoing" on my part and I can't blame him.
Contrast that with an elder at a neighboring hall who acted like a private detective. He was known to conduct stakeouts to smoke out evil fornicators, a real prick of a human being.
I've lost touch with what's currently going on in that world, but disfellowshippings were still quite popular in my area as recently as the early '00s. It was hard to fornicate in secret within such a small, tight-knit group.
march kingdom ministry insert is about how the field service meetings will be shortened from 10 to 15 minutes down to 5 to 7 minutes.
they want the publishers to report more hours.
in my experience the problem isn't the length of the meeting for service but pioneers and publishers dogging it after the service arrangement.
I used to attend a Spanish-speaking hall. Most people would show up at least five minutes late for these things and many were 20 to 30 minutes late.
When I pioneered I tried instilling discipline by concluding on time, but it was a losing battle. People would continue to arrive 15+ minutes late as we were leaving and it would slow everyone else down.
What a terrible waste of time.
so i had about had enough of reading jw's excuses online about wt child abuse and the candace conti nightline abc video about her case.
this is a really deep burning topic to me as i'm sure it is to many of you.
so today the gloves came off.
Every now and then I used to run into someone who'd been waiting for us to knock on his door, the kind of person who'd studied up on JW doctrine and relished the confrontation.
I always wondered whether it was worth their time and effort, all the study and memorization on the off chance they'd get a JW knocking on their door who wouldn't run away at the first hint of "apostasy."
These carts change the dynamic. It's now a lot easier for those who are so inclined to seek out the witnesses and confront them. Just based on my experience, I'd guess a large percentage if not an outright majority of people who approach the cart witnesses do so under some pretense, not because they have any actual interest. If I were still a witness I'd just as soon be out door to door where at least you can run away. There's nowhere for the witness to go if someone confronts them.
