respectful_observer

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Posts by respectful_observer

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  7

  WT response to artificial blood

  by cookiemaster in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hey guys !

  here's an interesting piece of news.

  apparently there's an israeli company out there that has managed to produce universally accepted artificial blood with the help of stem cells.

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  respectful_observer

  I've been wondering the same thing. It sounds like they're still years away from having it on the market, but when it finally does, the GB will HAVE to rule on the issue. My guess is that it will become a "conscience matter". Honestly, from the GB's and WT Legal's perspective, manufactured blood is the most ideal outcome for them.

  The current blood policy is such a tangle of contridictions, no one can clearly explain or defend it as a whole. The WT will get sued left and right if they ever officially abandon it as a doctrine, so allowing manufactured blood would solve all their problems-- they could continue with the ban on "real" blood, but in reality JWs could accept this manufactured blood by the gallon, if needed.
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  39

  A few International Conv instructions (more ways to control)

  by doinmypart in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few official instructions jw delegates are being told leading up to the international conventions.

  congregation secretaries are holding conference calls and then relating the instructions to the congregation.. atlanta - do not drive to convention, parking will not be available.

  take public transportation; attendants will be on all public transit and able to assist.. dallas - attendants will be on site at all hotels to make sure delegates leave the hotel at their assigned times and take their assigned route.

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  respectful_observer

  Wow.

  Given the fact that these stadiums/cities normally don't have WT-badged attendants running around telling everyone in the hotels, cars, and public transportation where to go and what to do, it must be some type of miracle that these venues in Atlanta, Dallas, and New Orleans manage to host capacity-level sporting events on a weekly basis without descending into Mad Max Thunderdome level of chaos.
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  35

  Family of 4 in Miami FL Partakes

  by James Jackson in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  kendall lakes congregation (miami fl usa), partook of the emblems.

  he is an elder(40), his wife and their 2 daughters (21 &19), all 4 are also regular pioneers.

  another 6 pioneers in that congregation partook of the emblems..

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  respectful_observer

  Sounds like they might be frequent readers of anointedjw.org
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  30

  Memorial Musings

  by undercover in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few things noticed in last nights annual, jesus who?

  gathering:.

  1: only one scripture from the gospels was read or cited.

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  respectful_observer

  They did read from 1 Corinthians... Right before passing each emblem

  But Corinthians is not part of the gospels... Supposed first hand accounts (if you believe in the Bible) of the apostles who lived along side Jeseus and witnessed his ministry and death.

  Early on in the talk, our speaker directed us to Luke 22:19 and began reading. When he stopped at the end of v. 20, my SO leans over and whispers "Guess he needed to stop before he got the verse about Judas being there", and smiled. Later on when the speaker directed us to the verses to be read while the emblems were passes, my SO leans over again and says "yeah, because why would we want to read it from the Gospels?" and proceeded to look at the Matt - John accounts, while the speaker read from 1 Cor.
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  25

  Gerritt Loesch life story .... Total hypocrisy

  by Skinnedsheep in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as written in the july 15 2014 wt.

  what gerrit used to believe and teach.... the roman catholic teaching of apostolic succession claims that there is an unbroken succession of popes in a line extending all the way back to the apostle peter.

  (the church misinterprets jesus words that are quoted at matthew 16:18, 19.

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  respectful_observer

  How about this part

  When I visited the priest, he could not answer my questions, but he pulled from his shelf a book on Catholic doctrine that dealt with apostolic succession. I took it home, as he suggested, read it, and returned with more questions. Finally the priest, not being able to answer my questions, said: “I cannot convince you, and you cannot convince me. . . . I wish you the best!” He did not want to have any more discussions with me.

  ...or....

  How about this part

  When I visited the priest elder, he could not answer my questions [using just the Bible], but he pulled from his shelf a book on Catholic doctrine Watchtower that dealt with apostolic succession the Overlapping Generations. I took it home, as he suggested, read it, and returned with more questions. Finally the priest elder, not being able to answer my questions, said: “I cannot convince you, and you cannot convince me. . . . I wish you the best let's schedule a Judical Committee Meeting with two more elders to see if you're guilty of apostacy!” He did not want to have any more discussions with me.
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  45

  OH NO!! The latest clip for kids on JW.ORG so very wrong!

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so the latest clip on jw.org for kids is so wrong!.

  it is about the "victory song".

  lets all sing songs about how vengeful and destructive "our loving god" can be...along with cartoonish pictures...... all rejoice at the death of the evil people who used their "god-given free will", then got punished for doing so!.

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  respectful_observer

  Hmmm....love how there are only smiling faces shown on screen while legions of soldiers are executed. Oh, and the final battle scene manages to hide all the violent hand-to-hand combat in some type of heavy fog so young JWs can watch it. If it was halfway realistic, it would get the same "'M' for 'Mature'" rating that most violent video games get.

  "Sanitize! Sanitize! Sanatize the King and His Kingdom!"
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  87

  July 2014 WT cracks down on apostate debates and 'dance parties'

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in the july 2014 study wt article titled "jehovah's people "renouce unrighteousness".

  par 9 and 10 .

  9. how did foolish and ignorant debates affect the early christian congregation?.

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  respectful_observer

  I had to chuckle at the signs the "apostate" protesters are holding:

  "No No No"

  "Stop Believing Everything"

  "If You [something something] Deceived"

  They can't even show what would actually be printed on apostate protest signs...blood issue, UN, effects of shunning, JWFacts.com, jehovahs-witness.net, etc. If two or three words on a protester's sign can cause someone to begin questioning their belief structure, what does that mean?
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  87

  July 2014 WT cracks down on apostate debates and 'dance parties'

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in the july 2014 study wt article titled "jehovah's people "renouce unrighteousness".

  par 9 and 10 .

  9. how did foolish and ignorant debates affect the early christian congregation?.

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  respectful_observer

  only dancing aroung evidence and facts allowed......

  Best...response...ever....
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  324

  Is this new donation arrangement for real?

  by nugget in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just read a post on jwsurvey about the new donation arrangement.

  congregations are to pledge a monthly amount to be sent to the society to fund the building of assembly halls and kingdom halls.

  congregations who already have a loan from the society will no longer have to pay back the loan but the amount pledged should not be less than the current monthly repayments to the society.

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  respectful_observer

  What I find really far-fetched, almost to the level of conspiracy theory fantasy, is the notion that the WTS would stoop to reviewing bank statemenst and tax returns of individual members of the congregation, albeit just brothers or servants.

  Agreed. That would be akin to a J-dub reviewing another J-dub's medical records to determine whether they accepted blood. Oh wait, that's actually happened. "HIPAA laws be damned!!"

  All kidding aside, reviewing personal banking records would be pretty far fetched.
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  46

  Would you still be a JW, if you had to Tithe?

  by moshe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the next new light from the f&ds could be the tithe for jw's.

  it's a logical corporate decision , needed to replace the lost income stream from the publishing side of the wt business.

  they know that the kh has many inactive slugs who don't contribute any $$ to the business, so this would be the best way to milk $$ from the inactive ones.

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  respectful_observer

  We once had a local needs about donations, or rather the lack thereof, and the PO (at the time) started his talk by reading a letter from the WTS stating that we were now starting to tithe. After a few lines he stopped and said "Of course this isn't a real letter. If you ever hear a letter read like this, you know this isn't the Truth."

  I sometimes wonder what he would do if, in fact, a letter to that effect was read someday. Would he remember his own words? Probably not.