Posts by dropoffyourkeylee

35

Shunning a myth says jw spokesman

by doofdaddy in

http://www.theage.com.au/national/jehovahs-witnesses-a-cruel-cult-20130315-2g5x3.htmlit's hotting up in australia regarding cults, especially tax free like jws but how is the response of vin toole (the australian wts legal mouth piece) regarding shunning!.

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dropoffyourkeylee

First of all , Kudos to Raphael Aron, who is a courageous hero in my opinion!

Second, Vincent Toole, if quoted accurately, is lying. He has to know that his statement is grossly false, misleading, and contrary to JW practice.

4

A JW Mentioned On The Executed Today Site

by Bangalore in

jw
friends

http://www.executedtoday.com/2013/04/27/1940-wilhelm-kusserow-jehovahs-witness/.

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bangalore.

dropoffyourkeylee

This man died for standing up for God and Christ, and I admire him and others like him.

I do wish that writers of articles like this would make the distinction that the religion was not called 'Jehovah's Witnesses' until 1931. For instance the referenced article states:

Kusserow had actually been born Lutheran, but his parents became Jehovah’s Witnesses after World War I and raised their eleven children in the faith.

This is of course not accurate, as they would have become Bible Students at that time.

53

Kidnaper of 3 Cleveland women - his mom a JW

by Gayle in

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/castro-brothers-spend-night-jail-article-1.1338131#ixzz2sjzrxozd.

dropoffyourkeylee

Sorry for the double post.

Here is another quote which says that Castro's JW mom visits Reading, PA frequently and attends 'church' while there.

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=476287

One by one the Berks County family members of Ariel Castro got the horrible news Monday, all receiving cellphone calls or seeing news reports about the monstrous acts their relative in Cleveland was accused of committing.

Their first thoughts were for the three young women that Castro, 52, is charged with kidnapping, raping and imprisoning for about a decade, and the now-6-year-old girl one of them delivered in captivity.

And then they thought of Ariel's mother, Lillian Castro, who brought Ariel and her three other children to Reading in the late 1960s.

They were unable to comprehend how a man raised by such a good woman, who now is around 70 years old, could go so wrong.

"She is the rock of the family, and she's always been there for whoever needs her," said a Berks woman who is one of dozens of Ariel Castro's relatives in the county.

The woman's father is Lillian's brother, so she is Ariel's first cousin.

On Thursday she, her sister and brother spoke with the Reading Eagle, asking that only their last name - Rodriguez - be used due to concerns for their family's safety and privacy.

They said Ariel Castro was born in Puerto Rico and came to Reading with his mother, his sister and his two brothers after Lillian separated from her husband Pedro, the children's father.

They lived with the Rodriguez family in a row home in the 400 block of North Second Street, and the Castro children attended Lauer's Park Elementary School.

In 1975 they moved to Cleveland, where Pedro Castro was living, but Lillian remained close to the Rodriguezes, coming back to Reading for visits a few times each year.

'Didn't raise Ariel this way'

Lillian ensured that the family stayed tight, lent a hand where needed and insisted on meeting with all her Berks nieces and nephews during each visit.

Three times in the last few years she stayed in Reading for months at a time to care for two of her sisters and her mother when they grew ill. She attended church here, as well as their funerals when they passed away.

Lillian Castro still has two sisters and a brother in Reading, including the father of the siblings interviewed Thursday.

"My dad wants to stress that Lillian didn't raise Ariel this way," said one of those siblings.

The woman said she remembers Ariel as a normal child, and as an adult talked to him occasionally by phone. He would always tell her he missed her and asked when she was coming to visit him.

The last time they spoke was about a year and a half ago. Like always, he seemed normal and happy.

"Nothing seemed strange," she said.

He kept mom outside

The only red flag for Lillian Castro is that Ariel never invited her into his home, the cousin said.

Instead, he'd always go to her house for dinner, or tell her to leave her home-cooked meals on his porch. But she thought that was because he was a hoarder, and she had no clue what was really happening inside, her niece said.

"He knew how to keep people away," she said. "I can't even think what made him do this to these girls. What happened? What went wrong?"

The Rodriguez siblings plan to visit Lillian soon to comfort her.

Baffled by flesh and blood

"It's indescribable what she is going through, what the rest of the family is going through," said one of her nieces, who said Lillian is like a mother to her. "I spoke to her a little bit and she doesn't sound like herself.

"She said it's hard to believe your flesh and blood did something like this."

She is relieved, though, that her sons Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, were released Thursday. Authorities said they won't be charged.

Ariel Castro's relatives said they are still in shock over the news.

"When I hear the 9-1-1 call from one of the victims and I hear all that she went through, all this stuff she had to endure and the cause of it was this animal (Ariel)," she said. "It makes me sick to think of it.

"Evil comes in different forms. You never know who has that cold, evil heart. You never know how it will be disguised."

She has been in touch with relatives in Cleveland, New Jersey and Puerto Rico who feel likewise.

"Our hearts go out to those families," she said. "We're all in disbelief. He made so many victims."

Fearing the fallout

The woman is afraid that her family will be persecuted or ostracized if it becomes known they are related to Ariel Castro.

"Some people are ignorant like they think something like this is in the genes," she said.

When the Rodriguez family saw photos of 6-year old Jocelyn Berry, who was born in Ariel Castro's home to victim Amanda Berry, they could tell right away that Castro was the father. They said the girl has his features.

Jocelyn is their cousin (first cousin, once removed), and despite all that happened, they hope her mother will someday agree to let the family meet her.

"We're so grateful that little girl is all right," one of the women said. "We're so thankful those girls are alive."

53

Kidnaper of 3 Cleveland women - his mom a JW

by Gayle in

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/castro-brothers-spend-night-jail-article-1.1338131#ixzz2sjzrxozd.

dropoffyourkeylee

53

Kidnaper of 3 Cleveland women - his mom a JW

by Gayle in

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/castro-brothers-spend-night-jail-article-1.1338131#ixzz2sjzrxozd.

dropoffyourkeylee

53

Kidnaper of 3 Cleveland women - his mom a JW

by Gayle in

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/castro-brothers-spend-night-jail-article-1.1338131#ixzz2sjzrxozd.

dropoffyourkeylee

Castro apparently lived in Reading PA as a youth. Here is an abbreviated quote from a news article:

http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-berks/former-reading-man-ariel-castro-arraigned-in-cleveland-kidnappings-held-on-8m-bond/-/121418/20079792/-/xdy76d/-/index.html

Before Ariel Castro became known as the alleged Cleveland abductor, his roots ran deep in Berks County.

Castro, 52, grew up in the early 1970s with his family in Reading. His childhood home was 435 North 2nd St.

"Every single day out here, all the kids played together. We played kick the can when there were still bricks here on the sidewalk," said Joe Gonzalez, who's grandmother lived directly across the street from the Castro family.

....

According to the city directory, the Castros lived in Reading in 1970 and 1971. Castro was about 9-years-old at that time.

53

Kidnaper of 3 Cleveland women - his mom a JW

by Gayle in

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/castro-brothers-spend-night-jail-article-1.1338131#ixzz2sjzrxozd.

dropoffyourkeylee

There are a number of reasons that it is relevant to mention the JW connection. Here are a few that come to mind.

Castro's mother has likely been a JW for quite a while, a lady in her mid 70's likely who became a JW as a young mother. I'm guessing, but we have all known of many young mothers like that. If so, most likely this Castro and his brothers grew up attending a KH. Surely someone on this forum from Cleveland knows this lady and can give some details. A Spanish congregation maybe? It is astonishing that no one had a clue he had three captives for all those years. Surely someone's spidey sense tingled sometime. If Castro ever attended KH, then various elders and JWs would have known him personally. Scary.

If Castro has not been working as a bus driver since he was fired, where has he been getting money? Hmmm. You can't maintain a home, pay bills, buy McDonald's food, without income.

How much you want to bet there are Watchtowers and JW literature in that house?

As someone already mentioned, the Jaycee Dugard story had a JW connection too. Simply a coincidence?

As this story unravels, I think we will be both horrified and astounded.

21

Does anyone remember letter from GB "end is imminent" around 2009?

by cha ching in

my sister remembers, hearing at her congregation, a strongly worded letter from "the society" that hinted that "we may not be getting any more letters from the society, as the end is coming soon.".

she thinks it was around 2009, or after.. anyone remember this?.

as a result of this letter:.

dropoffyourkeylee

Sure, it must have been a copy of the letter from 2008,1998,1988,1978, 1968,etc etc

75

Bibles out of stock at Bethel?

by nochoice in

our congregation is rationing regular bibles like they're gold bars.

i was told that bethel is out of stock!

anyone else hear about this?

dropoffyourkeylee

The local congregation (midwest US) is out of English bibles also. My thoughts:

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has one of its primary (supposedly) mission to distribute Bibles. In this it is failing. There can only be a few reasons. Here are three reasons that I can think of, in order of probablility.

1. They have produced another edition and are planning to release it soon, possibly at the summer conventions. Or, they could announce the release at the conventions to be available later in '13.

2. They are hopelessly broke and cannot afford to print them.

3. They are incompetent in management and have lost the ability to meet the needs as they come up.

Does the NWT need revised? YES!

Does the WT Society have qualified translators who can do the revision NO!

Have they ever had qualified translators? NO!

Does the WT Society care if the NWT is in agreement with the original manuscripts? NO!

Does the WT Society care if the NWT supports their pre-conceived doctrines? YES!

What will come out of this?

If the NWT is revised it will be 99.9% the same old NWT with a few revisions to support WT doctrine. For example, in the 1950's NWT New Testament the words in Revelation were 'older persons', but the later editions the words were changed to 'elders'. This mirrored the NW terminology change that came in the early '70's. Neither word choice is really any better than the other, but the change supports their doctrine. That is all they care about. We will see similar word choice changes in any future revision.

Anyway, that is my two cents worth

5

China Central TV takes a look at NK from the Yalu River - (The Border)

by fulltimestudent in

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dropoffyourkeylee

Interesting, thanks for posting.

A couple of things stike me as informative.

You mean China doesn't know any more than we do on what North Korea is up to? That's scary.

It looks desolate and cold. very uninviting. I don't know much about the climate there, but the place looks depressing.

They have a standing army of 1 million and a reserve of 7 million? Isn't that just about anyone who can walk? If that is so, that is part of the problem, they have spent so much money on their military that they don't have enough fook and basic necessities.

Their propaganda and social control must be something out of Stalin's playbook. I'd like to know how they do it, and compare their rhetoric to the WT society. I'd think you would be surprised by the similarities