do you still avidly view sports and entertainment?
have you been affected by athletes views on racism, the national anthem, white peoples vs. black?
same question for those in the entertainment industry.
Athletics is good for the body. Sports is an opium for the masses. I like drinking tea. I do not get joy from watching others drink tea.
COVID-19 has shown just how much Western civilization has declined by our addiction to entertainment. Our economies are in the tank because we cannot go to restaurants, bars, movie theaters, concerts, and sporting events.
thanks petra and atlantis for providing the latest announcements from the watchtower.. they are telling congregations to replace the 15 minute local needs talk in the midweek meeting of october 26th with a talk on neutrality.
i am not sure if this is due to there being a usa election on tues 3rd, november or because of their worldwide preaching campaign targeting government officials.
it does sound like it is due to the usa election due to comments about propaganda and political promises.
Dear Elected Government Official:
I don't believe in supporting the government. I don't donate to political campaign funds. I don't vote. I am not even registered to vote. In spite of all this, please listen to my plea for supporting my cause.
Sincerely,
No Part of your World
ughhhhh wife wants to pioneer.
our future together doesn't look promising .
i told her she doesn’t know what she is getting into.
I would recommend having a calm, rational conversation with your wife.I would start by reading her Luke 14:28-32.
28 For example, who of you wanting to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the expense to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, he might lay its foundation but not be able to finish it, and all the onlookers would start to ridicule him, 30 saying: ‘This man started to build but was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king marching out against another king in war does not first sit down and take counsel whether he is able with 10,000 troops to stand up to the one who comes against him with 20,000? 32 If, in fact, he cannot do so, then while that one is yet far away, he sends out a body of ambassadors and sues for peace.
I would sit down at the dining table with pencil and paper. Chart a typical week Sunday through Saturday. Figure out when everything required to run the household will be completed and when you will make time for each other to maintain your relationship.
As previous posters have mentioned that there are only so many hours in a day and so many days in a week. Be sure you make it clear that you love your wife and you are not willing to sacrifice your marriage so she can spend even more time in the ministry. Compliment your wife's zeal, but also remind her that Pioneering is not scripturally required to gain everlasting life.
i just saw the congregation analysis report for 2020, a form i have not noticed before.
it asks for the number of "active publishers.
" this is a term i have not seen specified before.
As much as Jehovah's Witnesses leadership would like to separate the Watchtower corporation from the religion, they can't. They attempted to back in the mid-1990s be adopting the name "Christian Congregation of Jehovah's WItnesses" and ordered members to refrain from citing the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society as their ultimate authority (e.g. the phrase "The Society says..." was and is sometimes still used by members, but it is frowned upon now).
The Watchtower is a publishing company (i.e. a business) masquerading as a religious organization to obtain tax exempt status. The fact that they even today still refer to members as "publishers" is proof of this.
pub·lish·er
/ˈpəbliSHər/
Learn to pronounce
noun
a person or company that prepares and issues books, journals, music, or other works for sale.
"the publishers of Vogue"
I became a publisher in my youth in the 1980s. We still sold the magazines for $0.25 a piece. Books were like $1.50. We purchased the publications from Watchtower with cash and then re-sold them to the public. Monies collected from the public were then donated back to the Watchtower. So, the Watchtower was making $0.50 a magazine. All with free labor.
potential truthiness?.
the comedian stephen colbert wrote a book, "truthiness".truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.. to me, this perfectly defines the term: potential.as in "potentially true" or "potentially lying.".
such labels poison relationships destroying reputations.potential labels are subtle and also just under the radar of committing libel or defamation legally.. that key word is "potential" positing a shadowy inference, suspicion, propaganda point.do you feel me?do you understand the point i'm making?.
Words are tokens of ideas. We often soften hard truths or deceive through carefully chosen words that misrepresent the truth like a magician uses slight of hand. Some common things most of us have done are things such as -
1. "I can't..." When we say we can't do something what we are often really saying is "I don't want to." However, by using the word "can't" we are making it appear (to ourselves and others) that the situation is out of control. The next time you find yourself confronted with such a statement ask "Is it truly impossible for such a thing or are you just unwilling to do it?"
2. "I need.." or "My needs..." Air, water, food, and protection from the elements in the form of clothing or shelter are the only things we need. Everything else is a want or desire.
3. "?" End any sentence with a question mark and you can remove liability of liable or slander. People make accusations in the form of a question and then defend themselves with the statement "I was only asking a question. I didn't make any claims." However, when we hear a question we naturally draw a conclusion because the human brain hates mysteries.
We also excuse behavior by the way we describe things - "We are not at war. We are simply using our military to conduct a peacekeeping action in a foreign nation." "These are undocumented immigrants."
if you enjoy a challenge, i recommend this book: mind the gap: how the jewish writings between the old and new testament help us understand jesus, by matthias henze.
fortress press.. one example from the book:.
while there are several individuals in the bible who are said to be anointed, the word “messiah” or “anointed one” is never used in the old testament to designate a future anointed redeemer figure.
The Watchtower, like most Protestant Christian religions, believes in the Lutheran dogma of Solo Scriptura or "By Scripture Alone." They believe that the Bible is a complete record of all Godly teachings and beliefs. They believe you can come to a complete understanding of Judaic and Christian belief by reading the Bible. They believe you can use one part of the Bible to explain or bring understanding to another part of the Bible. Martin Luther was an Apostate on steroids.
I wonder how the Watchtower explains the origins of -
Israel making synagogues
Rabbis
Scribes
Sadducees
Pharisees
The Jewish belief in an afterlife as taught by Jehovah's Witnesses was not adopted until the Pharisees came on the scene. The Gospel accounts even record that the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection.
So that makes for any interesting challenge to present to Jehovah's Witnesses - "Using only your Bible, show me the origins of Rabbis, Synagogues, Scribes, and Pharisees."
raised as a jo blow and married into it.
37 years in it and now last 7 years out of it which feels great.. have memories of being a kid in school in the uk and just hating everything about being the jw kid.
bullied, embarrassed in front of others and self-esteem went into the toilet.wished i was born into a different family.. what angers me is the messaging i would receive at home when i talked about being bullied.
So many great posts! Well done everyone. Here is an example of one of the best ways to use this website.
raised as a jo blow and married into it.
37 years in it and now last 7 years out of it which feels great.. have memories of being a kid in school in the uk and just hating everything about being the jw kid.
bullied, embarrassed in front of others and self-esteem went into the toilet.wished i was born into a different family.. what angers me is the messaging i would receive at home when i talked about being bullied.
Great question. I too have experienced similar thoughts and feelings. I will just share my viewpoint.
I was also angry and resentful towards my parents for raising me as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. What I found was that anger and resentment (a form of anger) are natural feelings, but harmful. Underneath anger lies the root of any issue - fear and anxiety.
Anger tends to come in the guise of a protective friend with airtight logic. That logic however has a very narrow view and prevents us from seeing the whole picture. We have laser like focus on the reasons for our anger and tend to have a blind eye to anything good that may be there. Anger is also a defense mechanism from both physical and emotional harm.
It has been said that he who can forgive anything can understand everything. If you can empathize with your enemy you understand him. Put yourself in your parents shoes. They truly believed in the story the Watchtower has spun and truly believed that what was best for you was to raise you in their belief system. They truly believe you would die at Armageddon and be lost for all eternity. Like most parents - they did the best that they could with what they had.
The hardest part is not the youth we think we lost out on. The hardest part is the shunning we experience and being separated by their fanatical devotion of a publishing company that is about to go belly up. True happiness comes from freedom. We cannot have freedom is we are unwilling to hold on to anger or anxiety.
against our wishes she got baptised at 16 because she got brainwashed by her cousin.
the last year or so she hasn't been so gung ho about the "truth".
anyway the elders came down on her for not getting her time in the last couple months because she absolutely hates zoom letter writing.
NowWhat? -
It breaks my heart to hear your story, but I thank you for sharing it with us. Being one of Jehovah's Witnesses while suffering from things such as depression or anxiety is a recipe for disaster. Being one of Jehovah's Witnesses means being subjected to endless guilt and being made to compare yourself to others, which is ethically and morally wrong.
There is a video I wish I could find that you might share with you daughter. Here is the basic message -
1. You are not what you possess. The things you own or obtain have no bearing on your self worth.
2. You are not your achievements. College degrees, titles, certificates, professional licenses, etc are not you and have no bearing on your value.
3. You are not what others think of you. Regardless of what others think of you has no bearing on your self worth. You cannot ever truly know what others think of us. We actually tend to believe we are what we think others think we are, which is false. In the words of Lao Tzu, "What others think of me is none of my business."
Being one of Jehovah's Witnesses involves a form of torture in which you sacrifice until it hurts and then you are told by your leaders, "Well, that's nice and all, but can you sacrifice a little more?" At some point we must reply, "No! I cannot sacrifice anymore," to which you will be branded a heretic and shunned.
most of the individuals here from what i have read have gravitated to believing in evolution for various reasons and no longer have a belief in a creator.. the questions begs though, is there a higher conscious in the universe than mankind's.
i am sure everyone agrees that animals are conscious, but to what extent can they reason?.
here is the link to dr. rupert sheldrake's - is the sun conscious.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfhsobpja8a.
Humans have a higher level of consciousness than animals. Animals do not seems to comprehend, understand, or show they are aware of the displays of human higher consciousness. It would seem logical that if there were a level of consciousness higher than that of humans we humans would not be able to comprehend or understand it.
