Posts by neverendingjourney

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.

10

Jehovah Witness Wikapedia written by the same people who write the publications?

by thedepressedsoul in

i took a look at the jehovah's witnesses wikipedia page for the first time and i couldn't help but notice it was worded very closely to how jw's publications are.

the good stuff seems to be very positive while the negative items seem to be very downplayed.

the talk of persecution is enough to get your average jw wet.

neverendingjourney

It's one of the thirty most heavily edited pages on Wikipedia. It changes all the time.

At certain points pro-JW editors are winning the battle and at other points they're not.

35

Has the WT ever said it's okay to steak rare?

by neverendingjourney in

i'm revisiting an old topic here, but this was a subject of much confusion for me when i was still a witness.

i went to a spanish congregation in the u.s. and it seemed to be taken for granted by most that you needed to cook beef thoroughly to "get rid" of the blood.

i was surprised when i learned that folks in the english speaking hall would order a steak medium-rare and think nothing of it.. it wasn't until after i left the witnesses that it started to occur to me that if the red fluid that was present when you'd cut the beef was blood, cooking it thoroughly wouldn't get rid of it, it'd just cook it and transform it into another color.

neverendingjourney

Dyakoub,

It's all about following orders. If the WT came out and said eating blood was a good thing, my brother would drink a liter of it tomorrow. I would, too, were I still in.

Sad but true.

35

Has the WT ever said it's okay to steak rare?

by neverendingjourney in

i'm revisiting an old topic here, but this was a subject of much confusion for me when i was still a witness.

i went to a spanish congregation in the u.s. and it seemed to be taken for granted by most that you needed to cook beef thoroughly to "get rid" of the blood.

i was surprised when i learned that folks in the english speaking hall would order a steak medium-rare and think nothing of it.. it wasn't until after i left the witnesses that it started to occur to me that if the red fluid that was present when you'd cut the beef was blood, cooking it thoroughly wouldn't get rid of it, it'd just cook it and transform it into another color.

neverendingjourney

Blondie,

I can confirm that eating beef under-cooked is frowned upon in Spanish speaking congregations in the southern United States. Beef is the particular target since the meat has a red color as opposed to, say, poultry or fish, and the myoglobin in the beef makes the fluid look a lot like blood. That's the limit of my direct experience.

Am I aware of any official bans on eating steak rare? No. There exists a lot of confusion on the subject in my area and elders generally are cautious to issue official orders from the platform. However, much like my brother who was once an elder and prohibits his family from eating beef less than well-done, there are a lot of Witnesses who at least on an informal level believe it's improper to eat beef that retains a redish tint. Someone above posted a story about being the only one to order the steak less than well-done and getting a death stare from the other Witnesses.

It's mostly due to ignorance and lack of clarity on the subject from the WT, I think. At least half of the elders in my area were immigrants and had less than the equivalent of a high school education. If you cut into the meat and fluids come out that look a lot like blood, you tell people you can't eat it. I think it's really as simple as that.