NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

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  9

  Juneteenth being celebrated by JWs

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so today i saw a group of jws i know, we were sitting down to eat at a public place and i guess they (mom and daughter) were performing at an event with their sports team… for juneteenth.. they (the entire team) happened to sit next to us for some fast food and i recognized them and said hi, hoping to make them uncomfortable.

  they actually said hi and introduced themselves to my family, i’ve seen them before (they go to the same school as one of my kids) and they usually ignore me.

  i know for a fact they and their family still goes, the family patriarch is an elder etc.

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  NotFormer

  A demonstration? Of whatever sport they do, perhaps.
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  35

  WAR begins.

  by lastmanstanding in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  things are moving right along.

  “israel” has gone to war with iran.. who is fooled?.

  this is uncle sam, same as in ukraine.. daniel layed out clearly the events of “d day” june 6, 1944 as the “ships of kittim” would sail against the king of the north.

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  NotFormer

  Vanderhoven7: Wow, Larry Norman! That takes me back!
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  17

  Is There Some Sort of Campaign On?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on friday, i walked to my doctor's to pick up a couple of prescriptions*.

  from there i walked in to town to the chemist's (pharmacy) to get the scripts filled.

  it's winter here, and my town can get get colder than is average for my state**.

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  NotFormer

  Journeyman: "If your main street happens to mark a division between two congregation territories, that might explain why you saw two different groups on the same road"

  That's an interesting thought. I've often wondered if more than one congregation work out of the Kingdom Hall. It's a question I mean to ask him on Saturday week (if he keeps his promise). There are two smaller towns about 1/2 hour away in opposite directions; could they and their catchments be folded into one congregation? Or is that pushing it? That the direction X and direction Y towns must have their own congregations if they're split by a bigger city with its own congregation in between? There are a few language groups here, but none large enough that I would expect a second congregation to be conducted in anything other than English.

  "Generally, the approved list for a congregation would automatically include their pioneers, but you mention the man you met was an auxiliary pioneer (which is usually a temporary arrangement, one month at a time), so if he only does that from time-to-time he may not qualify. Or he may simply not have offered/volunteered himself to do it."

  I didn't realise that auxiliary pioneers were decided upon on a monthly basis. I feel that he may be out of the main trolley ministry loop, but he may be in a loop of his own. He told me that he stakes out the train station once a day (presumably with a trolley and for an hour each time; the train isn't frequent enough for extended hours). Doing that seven days a week would get him seven of the nine hours he needs to get his 35 monthly hours in. Train trips tend to be longish; perhaps he tries to give people stuff that they'll read on the train? I take it that a country town station doesn't take on the same importance as the more Metropolitan stations? To me it strikes me as a sweet deal, an easy way to get in half an hour to an hour every day.
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  281

  Where is Tony?

  by Athanasius in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on february 22, 2023, anthony morris iii was officially removed from the governing body of jehovah's witnesses.

  a few months later it was revealed that the watchtower bought him a house in lumberton, north carolina.. however, and correct me if i am wrong, since leaving the gb nobody has reported seeing tony attending jw meetings or participating in field service.

  in fact nobody has reported seeing him anywhere, not even at a local liquor store.

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  NotFormer

  "I'm shocked to see the tax bill in their personal names as I would have expected WT to hold the deed."

  Perhaps Tony was too clever to allow that situation, where they can just whip it out from under him. Full title may have been part of the deal that saw him walk with no subsequent controversy.
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  17

  Is There Some Sort of Campaign On?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on friday, i walked to my doctor's to pick up a couple of prescriptions*.

  from there i walked in to town to the chemist's (pharmacy) to get the scripts filled.

  it's winter here, and my town can get get colder than is average for my state**.

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  NotFormer

  An interesting point came up in this encounter:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6240050866552832/am-return-visit

  I mentioned the two trolleys/carts being set up at different ends of the main street and being manned by three men each, and my interlocutor didn't seem to have much knowledge of how the trolley/cart ministry worked.
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  17

  Is There Some Sort of Campaign On?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on friday, i walked to my doctor's to pick up a couple of prescriptions*.

  from there i walked in to town to the chemist's (pharmacy) to get the scripts filled.

  it's winter here, and my town can get get colder than is average for my state**.

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  NotFormer

  "Soup kitchens, clothing drives and the like never interested them… an attitude dating back to Russel, in fact."

  That's an interesting assertion. Do old quotes exist from Russell about charitable works being ineffective? I feel like there's an old memory here, tapping me on the back of the head... 🤔
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  4

  Am I a Return Visit?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well, i'm still processing this one.

  saturday morning just gone.

  my wife says: "there's a man in a suit at the door!

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  NotFormer

  Well, I'm still processing this one. Saturday morning just gone. My wife says: "There's a man in a suit at the door!" I was about to say "Why don't you answer it?" when I realised that she wasn't dressed for receiving visitors, so I thought I had better do it, groaning internally, knowing who it would be. To be fair, I wasn't dressed for company, either: pyjamas, dressing gown and socks, hair a dishevelled mess.

  The last time I went to the door, it went something like this (more about that later):

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5144704300089344/they-came-door

  Actually, now remembering, the last time was actually this one, but I couldn't summon the mental and emotional energy needed that particular time:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5993895939276800/there-some-sort-campaign-going-on

  Anyway, the gentleman at the door was somewhat elderly and affable. He didn't try any sneaky opening questions designed to get you discussing their area of interest, but introduced himself as a Jehovah's Witness going door to door. He said something about putting in hours that prompted me to ask if he was a pioneer but referencing the old joke, something like: "So you're being Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett in your 'Coonskin Hat?" He didn't seem to get the joke or what I was getting at so I asked "Are you an auxiliary pioneer?" Often when you show too much knowledge of the WT structures, they can get nervous and start heading for the gate. He turned out to actually be an auxiliary pioneer and seemed very cheerful to talk, letting me know that he was generally expected to put in 35(?) hours per month.

  He did get one of their leading questions in about "What is God's name?" and got "Jehovah" in, but admitted that that was the anglicised version. I said to him: "Do you realise that the older edition of your own New World Translation, in the introduction, said that the original pronunciation would have been closer to 'Yahweh'"? He said something like, well yes, it probably did, and you can use 'Yahweh' if you like, but that doesn't take into account that the Tetragrammaton has three syllables". I said, "That's as may be, but 'Jehovah' is a 12th century Catholic scribe's transliteration error; why would you use that?"

  Anyway, that opened the door to something I've been wanting to do for years:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5282419645612032/new-nwt

  We got to talking about how I once was able to get a Kingdom Interlinear from a gentleman who manned a literature stand many years ago (the gentleman at the door said he had a copy of that himself), and how, in this day and age, might I go about getting a hard copy of the revised NWT? He offered to get me one! None of the grilling and other argey-bargey suggested in the above thread. Apparently there are copies kept at the Kingdom Hall for handing out as necessary. He actually drove to the Kingdom Hall and got me a copy, still wrapped in plastic. I had a chance to get properly dressed in that time, although I still didn't get a chance to run a comb through my hair. We discussed the differences in translational approach between the editions (dynamic versus formal equivalence) and he had to go (probably to catch up with his field service group; there were a bunch of 'em loose in my street).

  During the conversations, I had him chuckling to some of the old "You might be a Jehovah's Witness if:" jokes. And we were also discussing Dorothy L. Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey at one point, but that's not super relevant.

  After he left, my family came out and said "Who was he?" I said "A Jehovah's Witness, of course!" They said "But you had a long, friendly conversation and didn't chase him out the gate! We thought he must have been an old friend!"

  That got me thinking: if you don't come to my door as a pair, effectively ganging up on me and activating my "fight or flight" response, but come on your own, you might find me to be a (somewhat) charming conversationalist! Perhaps. 🤔

  Anyway, he said he'd be back in two weeks, so I suppose that I'm officially a "return visit"? I did warn him about my mild form of bipolar disorder and that I couldn't guarantee that I'd be the same friendly chap next time. That's when it emerged that one of the ladies from a previous visit had apparently said something about me being aggressive and argumentative. So it seems that they do keep some sort of record about what the households are like, if only a mental note. I'm wondering if the kindly old auxiliary pioneer drew the short straw and got to knock on my door.

  Anyway, this time, for once, I was "a sweetheart of a guy". 🙄😊
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  18

  Did Anyone Have Fun With Their Field Service Reports?

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  now that there is new light on reporting hours in field service, it's raised a few questions for me, who was never in the jws.

  did any of you ever have fun with the field service report slips, by finding creative ways of reporting time without raising suspicions in those who oversaw the collection of those slips?.

  also, can anyone upload an image of what the slips looked like, or point me to a post that gives uploaded examples of the sort of paperwork that was familiar to jws in good standing?.

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  NotFormer

  "Now, we all know that JWs eagerly desire to serve Jehovah by going door to door their whole lives.

  "That's one of the key things that distinguishes them from the do nothings of Christendom."

  And yet they dropped their dogma of a hundred years like a hot potato when the Covid mandates went out. I was genuinely shocked when I found that out, probably on here. That the GB had so quickly dropped such a mainstay of the JWism. And I gave the first JWs back in field service both barrels over it. Saying something like*: "Your cowardly governing body folded like a seven high hand of poker in the face of a government mandate", also pointing out that the JWs had fearlessly resisted government mandates before.

  * Something like that; I've only been using the poker hand analogy since after this encounter, but it does capture the spirit of what I said.
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  35

  1/2 of the Jehovah’s witnesses have gone

  by hoser in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there are 1/2 of the jehovah’s witnesses that there were 30 years ago in my area.

  some have left but i think that many have died and none of their kids stayed being jehovah’s witnesses.

  7 congregations have been dissolved over the years.

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  NotFormer

  Paradoxically, or at least anecdotally, I can't comment on the demise of the local JW congregation in my small regional city. I'm a recent blow-in, and my arrival here coincided with the JW's post-Covid resumption of the door to door work. We've had at least one visit per year from the JWs. Just last Friday I saw not one but two trolleys/carts in town to which "encounter" I devoted a thread:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6545528670650368/there-some-sort-campaign-on

  On a Tuesday evening, ironically while on my way to another church's Bible study, I see the Kingdom Hall carpark on the edge of town quite full. From my perspective, the local Kingdom Hall may well be in quite a healthy state. Of course, they could well be down to one healthy congregation, where once they had two. It would be great to be able to engage in the sorts of conversations that would yield such information, but I find that the JWs of today are not the robust engagers in conversation and debate that their ancestors of a mere two or three decades ago were. They disappear very quickly, drawing from my experiences with them since I've moved here.

  My apologies for the above: that was a lot of waffle to basically say very little 😔 🙄
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  40

  The Governing Body is Restructuring the Org.and encouranging young ones to REACH OUT!

  by liam in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the governing body just doesn't let up on encouraging the young children to reach out to do free labor for the organization.

  so another generation of young people with ruined lives.

  another generation of young people that will get old and wake up in their 50s to realize they were in a religious doomsday cult.. and they are getting rid of some old workers that ran the branches of the organization, and giving them different assignments or maybe they are just sending them home, who knows.

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  NotFormer

  "First of all, anybody that age probably has no family left!! Everybody has passed away. Maybe there’s a niece or nephew(?) and when was the last time they saw them. So, the elderly bethelite is supposed to land on their doorstep? Right?? 😮"

  That's pretty well the plot of Futurama. Farnsworth takes in his great-uncle (by thirty generations) Fry. That such a solution should be forced on them by a pragmatic and uncaring government makes an interesting allegorical point, in the case which we're discussing. Or at least, I can see 🙈 an allegorical point 👉 ☝️.