Yes indeedy, I like to get the grey matter churning. Amazing, this is the same old junk the WTS has been serving up for years, yet only in the last couple have I ever drilled deeper.
The mind is a wonderful (and scary) thing.
WinstonSmith
JoinedPosts by WinstonSmith
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
This week's WT study is a fine example of the absurdity of applying individual bible examples to the modern day. As you go through it, think how modern day elders or the WTS would react to someone engaging in the activities described....
WT Study: What Does Jehovah's Forgiveness Mean for You?
- Theme scripture: Such a shame elders often don't follow this example. - Paragraph 3-5: If someone today spied on a sister, got into a relationship with her, got her pregnant, then arranged for her husband to die so they could be together, what would the reaction of the elders be? Forgiveness, or disfellowshipping? - Paragraph 6: Was David repentant because he was sorry, or because he got busted? - Paragraph 6: It says here that Jehovah sent Nathan to David because he was interested in extending mercy. When two elders are assigned to investigate a matter, are they doing so with a view to extending mercy, or to establish guilt? - Paragraph 8: Psalm 32:5 is used here. Notice how in that scripture, David says that he confessed and did not cover his transgresion. Would you say David is being truthful here? Did he, of his own volition confess, or was it only after he got busted? - Paragraph 10: Do you think Jehovah's show of mercy was based on how David had shown to mercy to Saul, or because he had promised to bring the messiah through the family line of this adulterous scheming murderer? All I learn from this is that if the moody Old Testament God Jehovah decides to be on your team, you can get away with anything. - Paragraph 12: Is Manesseh an ancient example of the saying "there are no atheists in the foxholes"? Again, when did he show repentance? Off his own volition, or after things went really bad for him? - Paragraphs 17 and 18: James 5:14,15 is used here to show that sinners should confess to the elders. But read it again. The phrase used is "older men" do you think this is talking about a position in the congregation, or a level of maturity?
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
00DAD: I really enjoyed the thread and blog post from Cedars. It would not be hard to imagine that in the near future the Bodies of Elders will get a letter specifying the type of chairs they can have in their back meeting rooms. Any attempt to get nice ergonomic chairs on wheels will be viewed as a sign of rebellion against the Slave. Only the best chairs can be used by them. Based on recently discovered manuscripts, the new light is that this is in fact the 'crown of glory' mentioned in the scriptures :-P
Tornapart: Wow, that is fantastic news! I echo RayP's advice to keep it up. It is a real challenge to not dump all our newfound knowledge and understanding on others. Helping a cult addled mind is a delicate task. Good on ya mate, keep us updated.
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
So I'm reading In Search of Christian Freedom at the moment. It's quite different to Crisis of Conscience, and I'm really getting into it. Over the last couple of days I've been reading in it about how the Christian congregation slowly changed from being a collection of like minded people to being an authoritarian structure. Now we see power in the hands of a chosen few, and it is these ones that dictate what others are to believe.
Coincidentally, tonight I read Ephesians 5. After giving advice to the individuals in the congregation to be mindful about walking wisely (vs 15), Paul goes on to say in vs 17 that people should "go on perceiving what the will of Jehovah is." I note here that it was up to the individual to do the perceiving, not someone up the hierachical foodchain.
Jehovah's Witnesses pride themselves on being set up in a similar way to the Christian congregation in the first century. A review of history and scriptures however shows that they are in fact far from it.
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Some observations on Animal Farm by George Orwell
by WinstonSmith ini recently finished reading animal farm, written by george orwell.
as someone who has recently awoken to the truth about the truth, this book blew my mind.
the parallels with the watchtower society are quite astounding.
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WinstonSmith
Anyone else read this book lately? Re-reading the list of comparisons is chilling, especially when you think this was written with Communist Russia in mind!
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
Here are some points to keep in mind as you consider the Watchtower study article for this week:
Cultivate the Spirit of a Lesser One
- Paragraph 5: After relating the example of Leo who trained as an astrophysicist and lawyer, the paragraph asks "Despite his background, what has helped Leo to conduct himself as a lesser one?" Note how the WTS subtly implies that those who are well educated are haughty? Despite his background he was still able to be humble. What's implied is that people who are well educated have difficulty being humble.
- Paragraph 7: Do you think that David was hoping Jehovah's shield would protect him while he was shagging Bathsheba and arranging the death of her husband?
- Paragraph 7: Do you think the GB were conducting themselves as lesser ones when they signed bibles for public officials in Cuba? WT 99 5/15 page 8. - Paragraph 8: So in other words unhappiness or discomfort at organisational policies is a sign of a lack of humility. Interestingly there are no scriptures in this paragraph. Might it be because there isn't one that backs up this thought? - Paragraph 9: Surely as Christians and lovers of God the bible should be our main source of spiritual food. Note how in this paragraph the bible is mentioned ever so briefly, then the rest of the paragraph discusses how beneficial the WT, AW and other publications are. Its obvious where the priorities are. Reminds me of Russell's comments about reading the Studies in the Scriptures. - Paragraph 17: Starts off with "to apologize is difficult for most people" the GB are certainly qualified to make this statement. Time and again they have refused to apologise for their mistakes. On the few occasions when they do attempt this, they make it seem like the publishers fault and that there is no error on their part.
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
So here are some things I picked up from the meeting this week....
Congregation Bible Study:- Let our Yes mean Yes? What about Franz during the Walsh trial? (See my post above).
- Experience from Chile: Do you think Jehovah answered the sister's prayer, or that it was just coincidence the same lady was at the same train station at the same hour as the previous day? As a brother said in our congregation "her prayer was heard by God." When I ride the train to work, I'm almost always at the same train station at the same hour as previous days, and there is no divine providence in that. I often chat with a guy from the Salvation Army. Maybe I'm the answer to his prayer since I'm the same guy at the same station at the usual time...?
- Paragraph 18 finishes with "Our efforts at giving a witness should prove how much we love our wonderful God as well as people, who are created in his image." Funny how there is no scripture placed at the end of this sentence to support this thought scripturally. Maybe its because there is no scripture that says that our efforts in a ministry show much we love God. In the WT world greater effort is indicative of greater spirituality.
- In talk 3, the sister said "Jehovah blessed their efforts to clean the ethnic groups from the land of Canaan." Sounds like a hairs breadth away from Jehovah approving ethnic cleansing. Oh wait, he did!
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CO disfellowshipped, Central Coast, Australia
by WinstonSmith inhi guys,.
i was just looking through www.reddit.com/r/exjw and there is a thread that was posted about four hours ago with the title "so our circuit overseer just got disfellowshipped" and there some basic details in their op.
the location is given as central coast, australia, which is north of sydney.. there aren't many more details other than "it has sent shockwaves throguh the congregations" and a query on the protocol in situations like this.
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WinstonSmith
LP: Thanks for reporting back on what your local mates said. I can't help but wonder, when a CO gets DF'd, what do they do? Do they have a house? Would they have money for a rental bond? A car? Money for living? Its bad enough getting DF'd as an average Joe publisher, but as a CO where most things are provided for you, it is a long way down here to reality. If he was DA'd, maybe he at least had some external network built up.
Lozza Aussie: Welcome to the forum! Great to have you here, so many newbies turning up lately. Thanks for confirming. We had a young popular CO get DF'd in NZ, Doug Black, so I know what an affect it can have on the congregations. Thanks again for posting. Hey why don't you start a thread and introduce yourself? We'd love to get to know you. You'll find us to be a friendly bunch!
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NOT on " JW.org" :NBC NEWS: Jehovah's Witness Servants who molested children and the cover-ups. A re-share for new members.
by Balaamsass inadvertise | adchoicesnew evidence in jehovah's witness allegationsthe jehovah's witnesses have settled nine lawsuits alleging church policies protected men who sexually abused children for many years.
below:next story in nightly newsrelated 31frederick mcleanby lisa myers and richard greenbergnbc news investigative unit updated 11/21/2007 5:43:14 pm et2007-11-21t22:43:14 <a href="#" onclick="fdcpurl(window.location.href, true); void(0);">print</a> printfont: +-frederick mclean is one of the most-wanted fugitives in the united states, charged with 17 counts of child sexual abuse in california.
law enforcement sources say that when a victims family confronted mclean in 2004, he allegedly confessed.
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WinstonSmith
Just noticed the dateline is 2007. Just goes to show that the things raised in the Conti case have been going on unaddressed in God's organisation for a loooong time.
So "Jehovah's hand" was seen in helping that family not get killed when the plane crashed into their building (2013 yearbook), but not available to protect these little kids?
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Attention Melbourne: Sister Williams is in town!
by WinstonSmith inattention jws of melbourne, australia!.
i see from the news tonight that sister williams has arrived in your beautiful city to compete in the australian open.
no doubt she will follow the wts advice and keep up with her spiritual routine while away from home for work and pleasure.
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WinstonSmith
Oops, double post! LINE FAULT, BREAK POINT.