The fellow in the front row of the photo doesn't have his book and KM like everyone else, I have to admit it looks like they are trying to say he is 'not following direction' because he came with out the prepared material. If so, it is really sad. He's there, isn't he? Sheesh - what nit-pickers.
dropoffyourkeylee
JoinedPosts by dropoffyourkeylee
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61
todays WT study...the picture...?
by stillin ini wish i could scan it and get your thoughts.
it was a picture of a happy group of witnesses during a meeting for field service.
there was a. comment from a local high-horse-rider about a brother in the front row in the picture being disobedient.
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89
New CO talk: Be loyal to Org. even if you get weird instructions or can prove them wrong doctrinally!
by sir82 intheme was something about "loyalty to jehovah's visible organization".. i have neither the time nor inclination to summarize the whole thing, but a few points stood out:.
even if it causes you personal hardship.
example: joshua & caleb returned from spy trip to promised land with good report, but were "outvoted" by the other 10 spies.
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dropoffyourkeylee
There was a recording posted of this talk by a circuit overseer, or another talk much like it, a few months ago on this site:
Another comment:
From the first post of this subject by sir82:
"Example 2: During World War I, the WT did not promote a strong neutrality position, told Bible Students to "follow conscience" with regard to supporting war efforts. Some Bible Students knew this was wrong, and broke away. But soon after breaking away, they "faded and came to nothing." Eventually, by 1939, the organization got it right and published a series of WT articles on the importance of strict neutrality."
For the speaker to use this in his talk is simply falsehood. The neutrality issue was not the reason most of the Bible Student groups left, I am not aware of any of the early groups leaving for that reason. This is another case of the society trying to rewrite their history. There were two main reasons the leaders of the Bible Student groups left:
Rutherford took over the society and started to p-o everyone. The method he did so was, if not exactly illegal, was unethical. The four elected directors of the society were kicked out the door. They left and started their own magazines and following. PSL Johnson, an early pilgrim, but not a director, related in one of his books how he left the Bethel building one night and Rutherford locked the door and wouldn't let him back in. Hilarious.
The second thing is that Rutherford started to deviate from Russell's teaching. The biggest bone of contention was the seventh volume which was supposedly prepared from Russells notes, so 'written' by Russell. In reality it was written by Fisher and Woodworth. There was a long period from 1917 through till about the mid 30's during which Russell's teachings were changed one by one. What emerged at the end was very different and the majority of the pre-1917 group simply would not accept it.
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What's The Biggest Difference In Today's JWs And The Witnesses From Decades Ago?
by minimus ini believe today's witnesses lack zeal, resolve, "love" of the "truth"......just to name a few things.. years ago, witnesses were excited to knock on doors and tell people they were gonna die if they didn't accept paradise.. now, when you see jws in service, they all look zombied out.. it's a slowly dying religion that will last probably forever like an ancient rotted out tree..
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dropoffyourkeylee
Incidentally, there a half dozen or so other videos at the site mentioned earlier by dozy from the British newsreels.
An example
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=35321
Wow what a trip down memory lane
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19
Let's Review: How the Watchtower Society Uses Quickbuilds to Make More $$$
by under_believer ini posted something similar to this in another thread, but i decided that this is an important subject, and something that a lot of people don't realize, so i expanded it into its own post.
and we can always use a review now and then, so that lurkers, active witnesses, and newly ex-witnesses can catch up.
according to the watchtower society, one of the best examples of god's holy spirit operating on the organization is the building program.
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dropoffyourkeylee
I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but about 1-2 years ago the Society stopped charging interest on KH loans in the US. I expect there was a legal or tax reason for the discontinuance of interest, but have never heard the real reason.
The interest rate charged was small, about equal to the inflation rate, so it cannot be construed as income for the society. If a company has, say, 100k loaned out at no interest, they are actually losing money, as the value of the outstanding loan amount is eroding due to inflation. This is basic finance.
I do believe that the Society is in the business of managing real estate (both KH and assembly halls, as well as Bethel buildings) and this is a major source of their funding. ie: re-model two existing halls, wait a few years, sell both and build a larger centrally located hall and make the congregations double up. There is nothing wrong with an organization raising funds, but the way that it is done seems deceptive.
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The Magazine "The Plain Truth." Remember It?
by AvocadoJake indo you remember the magazine and the author of this magazine, any old timers know who the backers were?
i was five years old, when the old man was the editor or author of this religious magazine.
did you ever talk to any of the followers of this movement?
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dropoffyourkeylee
There is an interesting documentary about the WorldWide Church of God and its re-organization. It has been posted and discussed here before, here is one link to it on Youtube;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8GK-q1W34c&feature=related
It is tempting to think that something like this could happen to the WT.
Armstrongs diatribe was so similar to the Society's in those days (70's) that it was commonly assumed there was a connection. I don't believe there was a direct connection, but Armstrong came from an Adventist background in the US, a similar background as Russell did in the 1880's.
After Armstrong died, the new leadership changed the doctrines (accepted Trinity and stopped tithing) and most of the people left. It is an interesting story and worth the time to watch the video.
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Costs of Circuit Assembley
by Gorbatchov inrecent we had a circuit assembley.
we used the jw assembley facility.
it's (the building) totaly payed off without any mortage.
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dropoffyourkeylee
Question:
Is is possible that some of these properties have second mortgages, and the Society is having to make payments?
I don't know one way or the other, just asking
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Aid to Bible Understanding
by Sharpie inhow many people still have the book aid to bible understanding?
and when did the watchtower decide to scrap it?
was there any offical anoucements anyone rememeber to please return the books?
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dropoffyourkeylee
I seem to recall that Ray Franz wrote about the Aid book quite a lot, and related that there were about 5 writers of the Aid Book, which included Ed Dunlap and Ray himself. So 2 of the 5 writers ie; 40 percent of the book, was written by people who eventually left. The Insight books are nearly identical for the majority of subjects. I think the main reason they were produced was to edit out anything questionable (the chronology section was completely re-written, I recall)
I have been around this religion a long time, and there has never been a request or statement to the effect that any older books should be discarded or turned in. They have a way of getting thrown away on their own. Who would have ever guessed that the blue Truth book, which you used to see at every yard sale and in every book sale, would become a rarity - I can't even remember the last time I saw one.
Bottom line is that the WT literature is poorly written, poorly researched, unsatisfying both spiritually and intellectually, and is not the paper it is printed on.
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JWs Depression and Suicide
by 00DAD insince jehovah's witnesses supposedly have "the truth" and are part of god's visible organization living in a "spiritual paradise" you would naturally expect that they should be the happiest people on earth!
this clearly is not the case.
wha happened?
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dropoffyourkeylee
This subject has concerned me greatly, as I have lost 3 friends, 2 of them dear friends who I miss greatly, to suicide in the past few years. I have come to believe that the ridiculous policies and characteristics of the religion itself were largely responsible. This has occurred in two adjoining congregations located about 40 miles apart in rural midwest US, each with about 100-120 publishers.
The first was in 2007-2008. Elder and wife, mid 50's, children at the age of moving out, wanted to go into the Spanish speaking work. The Society and Witness culture - you know what I am talking about- influenced them to sell their house and serve temporarily in the Dominican Republic, with the idea of immersing themselves in the language to learn it better. After 6 months they returned broke and he was literally burned out, as they had him giving virtually every meeting part, in Spanish yet. Also he had been taking an anti-depressant, and without health insurance he decided he could do without it. He had returned to the home congregation for a few months before they were going to serve in a Spanish speaking congregation in the US southeast. He killed himself on a cold weekday afternoon in March. I think about him virtually every day, as he was at my house in the weeks before they went to the DR, and I got the feeling he wanted to talk about it, but I didn't take the time to sit down with him. It haunts me to this day and I have since resolved to never again let such an opportunity pass. He was an active elder in good standing at the time of his death.
The second was in 2009. A sister with a great deal of intelligence and drive, was unhappy with being a 'Stepford' witness wife... she liked to work and was of the type who should have gone to college and find a measure of fulfilment in a career. Her teenage son was disfellowshipped. She wanted desperately to move out of the area and start something different. She got an appartment 80 miles away and separated from her husband. She overdosed in the spring of '09. She was not actively associating at the time, but was not disfellowshipped. She was a dear friend and I thought the world of her.
The third was in 2010. An active ministerial servant, married with young children, took his own life. Depression over losing his job, starting a different job with lower pay, prospect of losing his house, perhaps other reasons I do not know about, as I did not know him really well.
I have not given any names or exact locations because, in agreement with the previous poster, we need to think about the surviving family and children, who would be pained to see their loved one's name pop up on a google search in this context.
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BETHELITES - Whatever Became of?
by Black Man ini often times wonder what happened to certain bethelites that i ran around with during my 1990s tenure there.
while there are still a few left there, the greater majority of them aren't there for various reasons (marriage, disillusionment, left the borg, etc).
a couple of cats i wonder about - there was one brother who i believe was from kansas, who got his fingers cut off in a printing press.
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dropoffyourkeylee
OK, I'll throw out a few names from the 75-81 era (I was never there, but had a family member there at that time, and visited frequently)
Russ Kurzan (there were two Kurzan brothers, one (not Russ, but the other, his name escapes me) was a bit of inventor, and came up with the design of the fold-out phonograph in the Rutherford days)
Jim Cleaver
Ed Reny (worked on elevators)
Reinhart Lengtat (I think he left the org in the 1980 purge, he was a scholar and had written some of the literature - not sure which books)
Joe Brown ( an artist who did some of the murals and paintings around bethel and much of the artwork in the 80's)
That's all I can think of right now
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Is this a Jw website or what?
by dropoffyourkeylee inthis website is odd.
it seems to be the witnesses, but maybe not?
honestly i don't know what to make of it.
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dropoffyourkeylee
Thanks fokyc, from the credits at the bottom of the website, it appears to be affiliated with a break-away Seventh Day Adventist group, which most here will know shares a degree of common heritage with the Witnesses.
Even so, the site makes no sense, why would a breakaway SDA group create a website with old 1950's watchtower literature reproduced and presented as if it were current?
Really strange