PopeOfEruke

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Posts by PopeOfEruke

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  20

  hello

  by maxwell in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'm a jehovah's witness who's doubts about god have been kinda forced to front by some adulterous acts on my part.

  i don't really feel the the jw's are dangerous presently, at least not any more than any other religion.

  i do feel the urge to free myself from it and my marriage within the week.

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  PopeOfEruke

  Hello!

  coming to this forum Maxwell, was the SMART thing to do!

  Hope you don't find the KAOS here too much to bear!

  The Pope
• 
  60

  Losing my Religion......

  by flower in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  well at 29 years old, after a lifelong relationship/belief in/association with a higher power i called god, here i am very close to taking an athiestic or agnostic approach to the rest of my life.

  it really hit me the other day although my doubts have been there but i just have been forcing myself to ignore them because i was afraid to give up that religious part of me because its all that i have ever been and i was afraid of the unknown.

  but i realized after getting through another one of those weeks from hell that it makes no difference how much i pray or how much i believe.

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  PopeOfEruke

  My kids saw through the crap long before I did.

  I have 2 boys a couple of years apart, and when they were young there was the normal sibling rivalry and occasional rough-housing/fights. Anyway when breaking up a fight, I tried to instill in them the sense that violence is not the way to accomplish anything, better to come and see Dad and let him sort the problem out. Don't use violence.

  Then...at night I would read them from the My Book Of Bible Stories. And one night my kid asks me "Dad, if violence is not the answer, why does Jehovah use violence in every story here to sort out the problem?"

  God has a problem with Adam so he kills him. He has a problem in Noahs time, so he kills everybody. Jezebel he kills. I think every damn story in that book ends up with God killing somebody or everybody.
  And from that point on I knew the Bible was crap. And if God really existed he was hopeless. "Got a problem? Lets kill everybody".

  So even if God exists, he is a total dimwit and someone I wouldn't bother giving the time of day too, far less worshipping him.

  The Pope
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  3

  JW's and Aborigines

  by PopeOfEruke in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i would like to ask our australian contingent here if they.

  know of any success of the dubs with regards to conversion of australian aborigines.. are there any aborigines who are jw's?

  in which areas are they more prevalent?

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  PopeOfEruke

  I would like to ask our Australian contingent here if they
  know of any success of the Dubs with regards to conversion of Australian Aborigines.

  Are there any Aborigines who are JW's? In which areas are they more prevalent? Are they welcome in "white" congregations or are there aborigine-only Kingdom Halls?

  And what about the Australians who were missionaries in Papua-New Guinea? Are there any JW's there anymore??

  Thanks for any info....

  The Pope
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  9

  JWs reading Franz's books.............

  by TheApostleAK in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this has got me wondering....... in australia there is a national christian bookstore that stocks coc, isocf.

  right now the wait for those 2 books is currently 12-14 weeks (there's a pre-order list so first in gets first books of the next order).

  this bookstore orders books by the pallet regularly.. i'm starting to think that jw's are ordering these books cos the wait is sssoooo long.. any comments?.

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  PopeOfEruke

  Hey considering Australia is 20 years behind the rest of the world in everything else, its a miracle the books can make it there in 14 weeks!!

  The Pope

  (PS ONLY JOKING YOU OSSIES!! ;-)
• 
  3

  Jehovah - A lover of diversity

  by PopeOfEruke in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while looking out the window on a recent long road trip, i took some time to reflect on the natural world.

  what amazed me was the amount of diversity in the plants and animals.

  i noticed a certain type of tree, and just in this family of trees there are simply hundreds of varieties.

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  PopeOfEruke

  While looking out the window on a recent long road trip, I took some time to reflect on the natural world. What amazed me was the amount of diversity in the plants and animals. I noticed a certain type of tree, and just in this family of trees there are simply hundreds of varieties. And thats just one tree! There are thousands and thousands of other plants, each with their multitude of varieties.

  Then I thought about all the animals, and all the nationalities of people. All different colours, all different lifestyles, dress, speech patterns, languages, mannerisms, traditions, cultures, and so on.

  Well, the JW's believe that Jehovah created everything. And creation has so much diversity. What does that prove? Jehovah must love diversity! I think there is even a scripture that says God invisible qualities are made evident by the things created. The wealth of diversity in ALL created things, plants, animals, humans must indicate that Jehovah is a god of diversity and who loves diversity.

  I can imagine Jehovah sitting back and looking at the planet, with all the diversity of his creation and feeling very pleased. This planet has got it!

  Any arguments so far?

  So then, if he is pleased with all the diversity of his human creation, the skin colours, customs, clothes, cultures, WHICH HE CREATED, why would he be displeased with the variety of the way in which the humans worship him?

  Why would he insist that only 1 religion is correct? Why did he not create 1 type of cat? 1 type of dog? How could he create a planet of such diversity and then expect that he would be worshipped in 1 way?

  The JW's ask the householders: Why are there so many religions?

  Well, because God Loves diversity!! Its a natural fact of creation taht there are many religions. Obviously he loves the myriad of ways he is worshipped, from Jew to Muslim to Catholic to whatever. Thats the way he made the planet.

  He is a god of diversity. To believe that he insists on only 1 way of worship is ludicrous.

  To believe such a thing flies in the face of the evidence of Gods creation surrounding us, and to me proves how off track the JW's are, and how their beliefs are anti-Bible and anti-God.

  The Pope (and I should know!!!)
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  12

  A Cautionary Tale For Newbie Ex's.

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the best parts of leaving the jw religion is the discovery that the majority of people worldly people are kind and decent folk, who are willing to be helpful if given the opportunity to do so.. but!

  exiting dubs who have been born into the faith are definitely going to be somewhat naive in certain situations that can leave them open to abuse by cunning perpetrators.. i well remember my first couple of years out of dubdom.

  i wanted to try anything and everything.

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  PopeOfEruke

  My wife and I went to a wife-swapping party once, I only got one offer and that was for a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle with a blown engine.

  The Pope
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  2

  We shoulda guessed it'd be them.....

  by PopeOfEruke in

  1. social
  2. humour
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  PopeOfEruke
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  6

  French WT Site posts Tax News

  by PopeOfEruke in

  1. social
  2. current

  actualites / taxation (english).

  communique of march 6, 2002. on february 28, 2002 the appellate court of versailles rendered a judgement that we were keenly awaiting.. the court made its ruling in the litigation opposing association of.

  "jehovah's witnesses" and the hauts-de-seine internal revenue department.. the internal revenue department undertook a colossal tax adjustment to.

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  PopeOfEruke

  Actualités / Taxation (english)

  Communiqué of March 6, 2002

  On February 28, 2002 the Appellate Court of Versailles rendered a judgement that we were keenly awaiting.

  The court made its ruling in the litigation opposing Association of
  "Jehovah's Witnesses" and the Hauts-de-Seine Internal Revenue Department.

  The Internal Revenue Department undertook a colossal tax adjustment to
  impose a 60% tax on donations made by our faithful brothers during a
  four-year period.

  The Appellate Court of Versailles confirmed the position of the tax
  authorities who, in the case in point, used the new article in the General Tax Code adopted by the financial law on December 30, 1991, which became Article 757-2 of the CGI. In the terms of this article, the disclosure to the tax authorities of a manual gift leads to the collection of a 60% tax as registration fee. According to the Court of Versailles, this taxation would apply "to all persons, both physical and juristic (...), including associations". This interpretation appears contrary to the will of the legislator, who obviously had not conceived this new arrangement as a means
  to levy taxes on manual gifts to associations. In this matter, the
  parliamentary deliberations are revealing. In its decision, the Court of Versailles goes as far as to recognize "that manual gifts are not (...) taxable, that there is no obligation to declare manual gifts" (p. 11 of the judgement). In fact, the law of July 23, 1987 confirms the possibility of all registered associations to freely receive manual gifts (Article 6 of the law of July 1, 1901).

  Bringing the deliberations back to the simple interpretation of Article 757-2 of the CGI, the Court brought out that "the only question that can be asked is that of determining if the taxpayer disclosed the donations, in the sense of Article 757, paragraph 2, when the accounts were presented to the requesting authorities" (p. 11 of the judgement).

  In short, the deliberations were purely technical, with the Court making its decision based on the point that "the presentation by the association, in harmony with legal obligation, of its accounts records, (...) is equivalent to revealing in the sense of Article 757, paragraph 2".

  The Association of "Jehovah's Witnesses" has, therefore, been taxed for voluntary donations from its members during a four-year period, not because of their being taxable, but because they were carefully recorded by the association. For the Court, "what motivated the taxation is, therefore, not the gift itself but rather the disclosure of it by the donator." (p. 11 of the judgement).

  This interpretation with have serious repercussions for associations as a whole who receive manual gifts and who record them. Perfectly aware of the consequences of its decision, the Appellate Court of Versailles, as is excusing itself, affirms: "it is not the prerogative of the judge to reform or modify the law, no matter how inadequate it may be." (p. 13 of the judgement).

  In this way, on February 8, 2002, a new tax was consecrated. From now on manual gifts, or using the terminology of the Appellate Court of Versailles, the "resources of the generosity of members who are benefactors" are taxable at the rate of 60% if they are recorded in the accounts records of an association.

  However, the motivation of the taxation will depend on the attitude of the Internal Revenue Department who could decide to audit this or that association. In the future, those who have the misfortune of being audited and who have recorded the donations from their "members who are benefactors" will not be able to escape this tax.

  No doubt about it, such an interpretation, constituting a legal precedent, should be judged as "inadequate".

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

  See also : Excerpts from the decision rendered by the appelate court of Versailles on February 28, 2002

  Copyright © 1999 Association Cultuelle les Témoins de Jéhovah de France.
  Tous droits réservés.
  Adresse postale : B.P. 625, 27406 Louviers Cedex - Téléphone :
  02.32.25.55.55 - Télécopie : 02.32.25.56.56
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  12

  Burger King and Going Out in Service

  by teenyuck in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as i stepped out of the shower yesterday the phone rang.

  thinking it was my husband, who had just left, i answered without checking caller id.

  it was my mother.

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  PopeOfEruke

  I heard that Burger King got Dairy Queen pregnant.

  No, it was Ronald McDonald with his impressive Quarter-Pounder.

  The Pope.
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  28

  My wifes affair of over 20 years with local elder!

  by ukexjw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i would like to take this opportunity to give a brief account of the events that i have had to under go over the last 5 weeks.

  i have been a jehovahs witness for 38 years and all of my close family are currently active jws.

  i got married to my wife in march 1999, she was a baptized witness and had been for over 30 years.

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  PopeOfEruke

  These evil elders are everywhere.

  I remember a young sister who moved to our congregation and she was pregnant with her own fathers child! The father had been a Cong. servant for years and had been sexually and physically abusing his children all the years as Overseer, WT Study conductor, etc.

  He was DF'ed finally when his daughter got pregnant. Bit hard to cover that one up!

  I heard stories of him kicking his sons with his meeting shoes in the head or body while they were on the floor at home, then going to the meeting and doing the WT study!

  Nothing surprises me anymore after this....

  The Pope