When living in Brisbane I heard a fanciful tale about a Gold Coast pioneer couple buying a Porsche that was advertised for $100 after seeing it in the classifieds. A couple of years later, living in New Zealand, I heard the same story about an Auckland couple buying a Mercedes for $50 after seeing it advertised in the classifieds. It was an identical story, with only the minor details changed. As it turned out, the tale is an urban legend, which Snopes.com says dates back to at least 1948. Read it here. I have also heard the urban myth of the mysterious millionaire benefactor, related here, delivered breathlessly from the platform before the opening of the public talk in Brisbane, allegedly as an experience a brother heard in a letter.
MrMonroe
JoinedPosts by MrMonroe
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Australian Convention Pioneer family Experience - We found our vegetables in the gutter..why do they wanna be Martyrs?
by Witness 007 ina couple years ago district convention - a pioneer family with two kids explained how they had ran out of funds and had no dinner...as they turned the corner out witnessing they saw a vegetable truck had spilled some produce in the gutter and so "jehovah provided in our time of need..." i felt like yelling get a job you bum stop starving!!
not encouraging.
this week an elder with pnemonia discharges himself from hospital, promising to remain home...so he can go out preaching!
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Why GB does not want couples to have children?
by faqs7719 ini was thinking the other day about this.
i guess you have seen many couples who have not had children.
the main reason given is that it is difficult to raise children in the last days.
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MrMonroe
That's very funny. I remember an elder's wife recalling her shock at seeing a movie in which there was a lovemaking scene and the woman was .... wait for it ... on top. I mean, can you imagine it? How perverted is that? What kind of animalistic behavior is that?
I pity those poor Witnesses who have been shocked into submission by the Society about what they can and cannot do in their own beds with their own spouses. They fear that God is watching them with every move they make, and that the dutiful spouse will let the elders know if tongues or fingers drift into places where they ought not go.
A female friend (an ex-Witness) told of a conversation she'd had with another female friend (ex-Witness) who'd split from her dimwit JW husband and spent the night with a male friend she'd subsequently become attached to. She was simply gushing about the sheer sensuality of it and told my friend, "I had no idea sex could be so good." What had she been missing out on? And is her experience amplified a thousand-fold in every Witness grouping?
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Jehovah can change science...(when I asked my mom about 'Paradise')
by Joliette inme and mom was having a conversation over breakfast a few weeks ago, and she brought up the circuit assembly that she just the brothers warned about apostates and going on 'questionable' internet sites.
we started talking about heaven and 'the generation' change.
i told her how could a paradise happen when science prove otherwise.
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MrMonroe
Joliette, I'm afraid you're wrong. Jehovah sometimes decides to change his mind. For a while he thought "higher authorities" were governments, then he decided they weren't, and let the faithful and discreet slave know this. Then he thought again and had to let the FDS know that he'd gone back to square one.
He has also rethought the concepts of "generation", blood fractions, oral sex, alternative service for conscription, the last days, the separating of sheep and goats, the shutoff date for the heavenly calling ... and, to his great credit, has kept the slave class informed of his adjusted thoughts.
He WAS contemplating resetting the last days to begin in 1957, but rethought that; he let slip to SOME of the anointed a thought that the "other sheep" were just the Gentiles, but pulled back on that one and was a bit annoyed that those anointed went ahead and talked about it.
Look, Jehovah does change his mind, OK? And if he decides those immutable laws of science need to bend a bit when he wants, he'll do it. Bugger gravity. Bugger the consistency of time. Bugger tectonic plates. Bugger the dietary habits of carnivores. Bugger the consequences of, say, falling from a great height or swallowing arsenic in the new system.
I'm with your mum on this one. Like Roger Waters says, What God wants, God gets.
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Why GB does not want couples to have children?
by faqs7719 ini was thinking the other day about this.
i guess you have seen many couples who have not had children.
the main reason given is that it is difficult to raise children in the last days.
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MrMonroe
Designs, you didn't offer to do their dirty work for them? "Here I am, call me!"
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1951-1969 Awake PDFs!
by Atlantis innote: update 2017-08-07 - most of the links in this thread are long-dead so have been removed, please contact atlantis if you need these documents.. new files for the awakes from 1951-1956. credit goes to bereanbiblestudent.. 1951 awake, 1952 awake, 1953 awake, 1954 awake, 1955 awake, 1956 awake.
awake files posted in an earlier post.
credit goes to cabasilas:.
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MrMonroe
Thanks Atlantis. I've hunted for some of these in the past.
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New exJW Pamphlet to leave with Bible Studies
by jwfacts inrecently someone asked for a pamphlet to leave with a neighbour that started studying with jws.
i noticed that they was not a lot available, so have put together something.
please let me know your opinion and any errors.
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MrMonroe
Paul, it's excellent. From a huge source of material, you've chosen some very good quotes.
Two suggestions:
1. You have referred to the fate of born-ins who decide to quit, but not those who join as adults. If the intended audience of the pamphlet is people who are studying with the Witnesses (or being urged to do so) the pamphlet should make clear that once baptised, individuals must obey all dictates of the religion. Those who may later choose to leave and formally resign are shunned; those who simply cease association but breach the religion's rules on conduct may, even years later, subsequently be questioned by a judicial hearing and disfellowshipped and shunned.
That was never spelled out to me when I joined! It may come as a shock to prospective members that once they've joined -- as sociologist Andrew Holden has pointed out -- those who later choose to leave "are seldom allowed a dignified exit."
2. The reference to blood transfusions needs to say "... Witnesses die, having to refuse blood transfusions on the basis of the religion's interpretation of a scriptural admonition to avoid eating blood".
A few minor points: "Is this truth?": (a) I'm not sure the reference to the Witnesses being an "eschatological" religion means much. (b) "The Watchtower" is not a religion. (c) "What affect" should be "what effect".
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Why GB does not want couples to have children?
by faqs7719 ini was thinking the other day about this.
i guess you have seen many couples who have not had children.
the main reason given is that it is difficult to raise children in the last days.
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MrMonroe
Money, sex .., you're all on the wrong track. My wife and I waited more than 10 years before having children and our focus changed immediately. Children introduced a complicating factor in our life that came between us and the org. Sick, tired or crying babies meant we were more inclined to miss meetings or walk out early, ditto for field service even as the kids grew older.
The birthday/Christmas issue suddenly developed a new focus and we began to question the justification for that doctrine. Having children to focus on meant we were dealing with the real world, real people outside the org, and the the JW thing retreated in importance. I think having children became an important step in our departure from the JWs.
I see other couples who, because they have no children, maintain that focus on the organization because they have nothing else in their lives. And I think that's what the society wants.
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Quotes from 2010 Watchtower publications
by wannabefree inthis magazine has long been used by "the faithful and discreet slave" as the primary channel for dispensing increased light.
(matt.
24:45) for example, consider our understanding of those who make up "this generation" mentioned by jesus.
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MrMonroe
Many thanks for those quotes. The worried father of a young guy who has recently been baptised has given me a list of "characteristics of a cultic group" and asked me to provide WT quotes that support those characteristics. I've done a bit of work on the list already, but many of those quotes fill in the gaps immediately, with very up-to-date statements that would torpedo any "Old light" defence. Greatly appreciated.
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Did You Believe That The World Adored JW's?
by mentallyfree31 inas a jw, i always believed that the outside world adored us.
i knew that many people didn't care for us, and didn't believe our teachings, but i thought our conduct was a "bright light" shining to the world.
from the stage, we heard endless stories of business people and other non-jws praising us because we were such nice people.
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MrMonroe
My wife makes the point that when she used to explain to teachers and other parents why our kids didn't celebrate birthdays, Christmas and Easter she got the impression they respected our stand as a matter of conscience.
Since we left, we see it from an entirely different perspective. We hear other parents speaking with puzzlement and dismay that JW kids are denied these things and are victims of their parents' nutty and restrictive religion. Which mirrors our own view now!
The barrage of talks claiming how councils, governments, businesses etc viewed Witnesses with such respect was pure self-reassurance. We all knew from the reaction at doors how exasperated and irritated ordinary people were with our religion, which insisted they listen to our views and also insisted OUR religion was the only true one. That private irritation would simply be a reflection of what the wider community, including schools, councils, doctors etc feel.
Bottom line: everyone hates Jehovah's Witnesses.
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In what year did Rutherford forbid military service?
by jwfacts ini am trying to find out when military service was forbidden.. russell allowed participation in war and military service.. .
"there is no command in the scriptures against military service.
it would be quite right to shoot, not to kill.
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MrMonroe
See also WT January 15, 1918 (pg 6202R) reporting on the shareholders' meeting (at which JFR was re-elected president and explained it was the Lord's will):
REGARDING MILITARY EXEMPTION
Quite a number of our brethren in different parts of the country have been denied military exemption. Some of them, because of their refusal to engage in military service, have been court-martialed and sentenced to long terms in prison, while others are held in detention camps in different parts of the country. Those attending the convention felt it incumbent upon them to express their love and sympathy in support of these dear brethren who are so loyally standing for the prineiples represented by our Association; and it was deemed proper to pass a resolution relating to the matter. A committee previously appointed for that purpose reported a resolution on Sunday morning which was read before the convention and, upon motion, was seconded and unanimously adopted. The resolution follows:
... That we recognize ... that the Congress of the United States, representing the people of that nation, placed a provision in the Selective Act that no person should be compelled to engage in military service who is a member of a well-organized religious organization or association whose teachings or principles forbid its members to engage in war, or who are against war in any form; that in taking the position they do, our members are claiming only the protection the law provides against violation of conscience.
"THIRD. That we are followers of the Great Master Christ Jesus our Redeemer, and have covenanted with the Lord to do his will; and that we are certain that it is not his will that we, as his followers, should participate in the great war now upon the earth. We recognize in the present great war one that is different from any other war ever before known, to wit: That it marks the end of the world -- that is to say, the end of the present evil order of things -- and is purging the nations and preparing the way for the kingdom of God for which followers of the Great Master, Christ Jesus, have prayed for many centuries; and that for forty years past this Association has held and taught that the year 1914 would mark the beginning of this great international conflict which the prophets of the Lord foretold must take place, immediately preceding the establishment of the everlasting kingdom of righteousness.
The official line at that point, then, was that Bible Students did not fight.