i've always been a bit of a reader - but only reading about topics i find interesting, e.g.
natural history, dinosaurs, etc.. recently i've started to select, buy and read novels.. this year i've bought and read frankenstein (mary shelly), dracula (bram stoker), the hound of the baskervilles (a. conan doyle), 'salem's lot (stephen king), jurassic park (michael crichton) and the firm (john grisham).. i have an inclination towards horrors and thrillers.. what fiction have you been reading?.
could you recommend anything?.
I used to be an avid reader of fantasy novels...the thicker the better. I second Robin Hobb's series...among the best fantasy there is...especially the Liveship trilogy.
Recently I've been slowly rereading Lord of the Rings and appreciating the vast parts that have been left out of the movies, parts I've completely forgotten.
i think the single biggest mistake the governing body have made in the last 10 years has to be creating jw broadcasting and putting their gb members on there... on a weekly basis too.. when i was a kid, i had no idea who the governing body were, what their names were or what they looked like.
there was one or two long term pioneers that knew the names of two of them but that was about it.. when i was about 10yo i imagined they looked something like this:.
ahh.... those learned men with a lifetime of bible knowledge just oozing out of their very hearts.
The green Your Will Be Done was my favorite too. I made verse by verse notes on the whole King of the North/South interpretation. I loved reading about the 1260, 1290, and 1335 days. I wish I'd verified this stuff rather than reading it uncritically and being in awe.
As a JW, I felt it important to know the "deep things" and didn't understand my fellow JWs who just felt it was "over their head" and "glad the brothers figured it out". I gladly the regurgitated nonsense in comments at the meetings.
Of course, I knew old-school pioneers who knew this nonsense better than me and would debate non-JWs at the door about it. There is likely not a cart-tending pioneer today who could even compare. The Watchtower has given them the "We do not debate" duck and run defense.
i think the single biggest mistake the governing body have made in the last 10 years has to be creating jw broadcasting and putting their gb members on there... on a weekly basis too.. when i was a kid, i had no idea who the governing body were, what their names were or what they looked like.
there was one or two long term pioneers that knew the names of two of them but that was about it.. when i was about 10yo i imagined they looked something like this:.
ahh.... those learned men with a lifetime of bible knowledge just oozing out of their very hearts.
Overall, I have to say JW Broadcasting is an evil genius idea. JWs nowadays are not the readers and debaters they used to be. They are not tackling and retaining information like in the days of the red Babylon book or the Your Will Be Done book. They cannot defend their doctrine (thus they usually run when questioned) and the stuff that has made it into print in the last 16 years has been very simplified. Basically it boils down to: go in field service and attend all meetings.
JWs (like my parents) are TV addicts. Watchtower has given them a TV channel to watch...whenever I've visited my parents they've it playing nonstop. It's noise in the background even when they are not watching directly. It's like 1984.
had two lovely jws (stephen and ruth) visit this morning.
this was our second study in the last 2 weeks.
they first knocked on my door (bell is out) 3 weeks ago and i shared my testimony and we arranged to meet last tuesday which we did.. our first study went like this:.
Yes, that is often a question I would like to ask a JW to get them thinking, "When did the truth become the truth?"
i think the single biggest mistake the governing body have made in the last 10 years has to be creating jw broadcasting and putting their gb members on there... on a weekly basis too.. when i was a kid, i had no idea who the governing body were, what their names were or what they looked like.
there was one or two long term pioneers that knew the names of two of them but that was about it.. when i was about 10yo i imagined they looked something like this:.
ahh.... those learned men with a lifetime of bible knowledge just oozing out of their very hearts.
When I was in, I could've only named a couple of them, but had a reverent awe for those in that position.
Some of the more bubble-popping moments as a JW were when a GB member would show up at an assembly or convention. At best, it was a letdown. At worst, it was outright demoralizing.
we all gossip.
it is only human.
watchtower actually tries to instruct adherents not to gossip and it can land a jw in front of a judicial committee—some do try to follow this admonition.
In part the title was a play on Anthony Morris referring to JWs as "the thinkingest people on the planet" but not meant to be taken literally. Of course, if scientists did a study of every religious group and found out that JWs as a group were #1 in gossip, I don't think it would surprise me.
we all gossip.
it is only human.
watchtower actually tries to instruct adherents not to gossip and it can land a jw in front of a judicial committee—some do try to follow this admonition.
I've often thought pioneers were the worst. Of course, it is inevitable driving around all day in a car group to not bring up what's going on in the congregation. Try as people might to avoid it, all topics will eventually be exhausted.
It's part of pioneer culture as much as creative ways of getting one's time in.
i've taken the bible lessons but have never attended a kingdom hall.
i was curious as to what point they begin to tighten the screws of control?
let's say you're a baptist.
Prepare for boredom!
It's a low and slow process. There are outsider doctrines that are more acceptable and insider doctrines which are harder to swallow. When JWs are questioned about things like DFing, they will spin and word things with a spoonful of sugar.
Newcomers are lovebombed....so a visitor will believe these are the nicest, friendliest people on earth. It's only once a person is dunked that things change.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11257637/religious-sect-whats-it-like-to-grow-up-in-one.html .
article sent to me by a friend in the uk.. yep..
Excellent. I posted this on FB.
we all gossip.
it is only human.
watchtower actually tries to instruct adherents not to gossip and it can land a jw in front of a judicial committee—some do try to follow this admonition.
We all gossip. It is only human. Watchtower actually tries to instruct adherents not to gossip and it can land a JW in front of a judicial committee—some do try to follow this admonition. But then, that doesn’t seem to contain the storm.
And there are likely other groups that might outdo JWs, but do you believe that JWs gossip more than average?
I suspect that the heavily judgmental nature of the organization, the many rules that make mountains out of anthills, and so forth, the announcements of judicial decrees, the midweek pioneer cargroups, set the conditions that make gossip not only inevitable, but rampant.
Take the bunker videos at the recent convention, where folks sat around and gossiped about “Kevin”. It is almost an instructional video teaching people to gossip about those who are not towing the line.
