Topics Started by JWoods
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116
Time for Tort Reform? Check this out...
by JWoods ini scarcely need to comment on the morals, the physics (or lack thereof), or the implications to society:.
google_ad_section_start(name=article) mont.
jury awards $850,000 in aluminum bat lawsuitby matt gouras (ap) 14 hours ago.
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I am having some reservations about Barbara Anderson
by JWoods inrecently, there was a very nice thread in which one of our posters apologized for having the temerity to challenge barbara anderson.. i thought it was very nice to see that they made up and put the personal stuff aside.. however, i felt the need to call it like i really feel it - i was very put off by the barbara anderson reply in which she plugged her new promotional meeting.
it brought back memories of that horrid little affair from a couple of years back when she kept posting up "the greatest new thing about blood which will bring down the watchtower society is just around the corner -- and i could tell you but then i would have to kill you, etc."..
just like another jehovah's witnesses prophecy about the coming of the lord in our time.. i am beginning to wonder if perhaps the siren song of self-promotion is getting a little too strong for real life.. ok. i said it.. james - and saying it was not the easiest thing that i have ever done.
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53
I have a little announcement to make.
by JWoods injwoods is sixty years old this morning.. btw, the actual name is james.
james woods.
my old logon would not work, so i had to make another..
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39
What percentage of JWs have been disfellowshipped?
by JWoods ini was just thinking about people i knew - and i come up with around 15% who were disfellowshipped.
some got re-instated, some left for good, i even know a few who were disfellowshipped more than once.
it may be even higher than that - certainly it is pretty common in jwland.. i know that other religions have a theoretical state of disfellowshipping - the catholics have excommunication, for example.
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35
Is the "torture stake" dogma a reverse idolatry in itself?
by JWoods inwitnesses have famously (and gleefully) tossed the usual christain "t" cross symbol overboard after having used it themselves for quite some time.
one common arguement is that "if christ had been shot by a rifle, you would not worship the image of the gun" -.
and yet, they do not shy away from insisting on the notion of the upright torture stake.
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May I just ask one simple ? on 607, apologists, and this board???
by JWoods inhere we have iirc more than four separate threads on 607, and of course a remonstration to not be unkind to the apologists.. why?
607 is of course complete nonsense - not even regular witnesses can remember the "logic" behind it and why it is even mentioned from time to time in their stupid "deep spiritual literature".
some time back this board was so badly infected with this junk by people like the "scholar" that it was painful to look over all of it and find an intelligent thread to participate in.
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Does the bible really say that Jesus Christ was celibate?
by JWoods ini was somehow thinking that it did say this for john the baptist, but thought not about jesus..
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25
Hotel California - is this Eagles Album Single for Christians?
by JWoods init came on the car radio this morning, and reminded me that this was probably the big single of 1977 - just about the beginning of the end time for me with the jehovah's witnesses.. now, you might understand that as a doubting elder with many deep issues at hand (it was the ray franz era of disenchantment for many elders)...i never heard much from them about the lyrics.. however - listening to it today, i can see where a "good" dubbie might find it to be at least as demonized as the smurfs cartoons.. and yet, very ironically, looking at them then and now, i always viewed it to be a sort of pop-social commentary on the california celebrity scene.. stretching it a little, you could almost compare the traveler's nightmare experience to getting trapped into the jehovah's witnesses - thinking it was a safe haven but then finding out that "you can never leave".. "we haven't had that spirit here since 1959".
"in the master's chamber they gathered for the feast".... yes, i can apply a lot of this to the cult entrapment experience..
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25
Weird "end of world" convention advert left in my door yesterday.
by JWoods init is a single 8.5 x 11 color page that opens with this drivel: how can you survive the end of the world?
--- you are warmly invited to come and listen to the answer.... there is a typical watchtower picture of zombie-like survivors coming out of a dark armageddon storm cloud with lightning and thunder, and walking into a spring field of sunshine and flowers.. on the back is quoted mark 13:37 - "keep on the watch".
(said near 2000 years ago, but continuing on) - four bulletins: stay awake as christian families / know that the end is near / imitate jesus' example of watchfulness / keep in expectation, watching for jehovah's day.. at the bottom is a generic invitation to mail in what is a little coupon for a bible study to the local branch office (no local contact information is given) with entries for such places as trinidad/tobago, ghana, nigeria, curacao, etc.
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23
Science Channel program on "Lost Gospels" - did anyone else see it?
by JWoods ini watched an interesting program last night on science channel called mysteries of the bible - this episode was about the lost gospels.. they include one by peter, another by mary magdelene, and one by judas.
the most interesting part of the show, to me, was how they debunked the notion (shared by the wtbts) that constantine's council was somehow inspired and picked out the correct four gospels by divine means.. the pictured constantine as a practically non-religious person except in the sense that he saw a centrally organized system of christianity as a source of political power for himself.
much was made of how he disliked the independent spirit of the gnostics, and therefore viewed mathew, mark, luke, and john as the least politically dangerous of the numerous gospel writings available in his time.. and, of course, again i was reminded of just how uncertain we really are about the writings preserved in the present-day new testament: they were written at least decades after their events took place, and were the result of verbal traditions told from one person to another.