"It is generally believed that the curse which Noah pronounced upon Canaan was the origin of the Black race. Certain it is that when Noah said, "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren," he pictured the future of the Colored race. They have been and are a race of servants ... There is no servant in the world as good as a good Colored servant, and the joy that he gets from rendering faithful service is one of the purest joys there is in the world."
- Official teaching of the Watch Tower Society (aka Jehovah's Witnesses). The Golden Age magazine (now known as Awake!), July 24, 1929, p. 702.
jwleaks
JoinedPosts by jwleaks
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44
Thoughts on African Americans and Slavery
by Simon inlet's start by saying that slavery is of course a terrible thing, one of the worst crimes imaginable, and that "slavery" rarely implies good treatment, anything noble or defensible.
nowadays, even god doesn't escape judgement from our enlightened views with passages about slavery in the bible usually glossed over because they are shameful.. but not all slavery was equal.. because of the media, movie industry, racial tensions in the us regularly shown on the news and our taught history, i think most people's knowledge and idea of slavery is that of the north atlantic slave trade where white people took africans to work in cotton fields.
this idea is probably also re-enforced because the largest group of descendents of slaves we see today are african americans (usually in the us or places they subsequently migrated to).. but it's incomplete.. it's only when you look into it more that you discover that there was much more to the slave trade than that, otherwise it would have been just called "the slave trade" and not "the north atlantic slave trade".. some 12.5 million slaves were taken from africa to the us with just under 11 million surviving the trip so it obviously took a terrible toll immediately, even before any maltreatment once they landed in the americas where conditions and treatment were truly awful.
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jwleaks
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23
Moscow City Court JW Restriction Verdict Today - 16-Jan-2017
by Da.Furious inon jw.org this is the first paragraph on the 12 january news on russia:.
on january 16, 2017, jehovah’s witnesses in russia will again seek to counter the decade-long tightening of restrictions on their religious freedom.
they will ask the moscow city court to rule that a warning against their national headquarters be rescinded as unlawful and unfounded.
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jwleaks
Win or lose, it's win-win for the JWs and Watchtower.
WIN = We are the true religion because the evidence is clear that we are following Jesus who said his followers would be blessed.
LOSE = We are the true religion because the evidence is clear that we are following Jesus who said his followers would be persecuted.
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26
Every Country and Land... Except Oman
by ILoveTTATT2 inso the other day someone asked me what use was it to make the list of countries in which there have been reports.... well... to know that, as far as i can tell, there has never been preaching done in oman.. it has never appeared in any report, and the reports go back to 1926!.
all other countries and lands have appeared, but not oman.. so there... first useful fact about the watchtower that we can get from 90 years of data..
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jwleaks
I have a friend, an XJW, who works in Oman. There are JWs there and they are active among the expat community.
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22
How Do JWs Reconcile Contradictions Between Mt. and Lk. and Their Birth Stories?
by Saename indoes anybody know how jehovah's witnesses reconcile the contradictions between the stories of jesus' birth as found in matthew and luke?
when i was a jehovah's witness, i wasn't even aware of this contradiction; i simply thought that all of it happen—namely that there was a census (luke 2) and the slaughter of the innocents (matthew 2) simultaneously.
but at the time i didn't know that the census took place in 6 ce and that herod the great died in 4 bce, thus placing those birth stories 10 years apart in time.
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jwleaks
It goes like this ... young unmarried JW girl, Mary, falls pregnant. Elder Matthew and Elder John, after consulting with Elder Mark, conduct initial judicial investigation.
Young unmarried JW girl, Mary, denies having sex with her fiance, Joseph, who himself denies having sex with Mary.
The elders convene and offer a prayer to jehovah for guidance so as to remove the unknown fornicator from the congregation.
A short time later jehovah comes clean and says "It was me. I got Mary pregnant even though she was engaged to Joseph at the time. I wanted a son."
The body of elders ring the Watchtower legal department to report the rape of Joseph's fiancee.
Watchtower legal ask "Were there two witnesses?" The elders reply "Well jehovah admitted to impregnating the fiance of Joseph."
Watchtower legal replies "Hmmm. Considering that Mary has denied committing fornication, then no sin has been committed as there are no two, or more, credible witnesses."
As for Elder Luke, he's not credible as he was never there nor part of the judicial committee.
Problem solved. And the rest is history...
By the way, under the Mosaic law the punishment for getting Mary pregnant, while engaged to Joseph, was death. Remember, Joseph, after finding out that Mary was pregnant, went away to get a secret divorce.
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45
Are there any doctrines which all Christian religions follow.
by jwfacts ini cannot think of a single doctrine that is so clearly laid out in the bible that every christian sect teaches the same point.
are there any doctrine where there is total consensus amongst all christian religions, including jehovah's witnesses?.
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jwleaks
If there was it would have to do with financially supporting the Christian religion of your choice.
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30
How to reply when someone asks about your spiritual health
by RodrigoGuerreiro infirst of all, sorry if i cannot correctly express the original expression used in my native language to ask for the "spiritual condition".. a few years ago some member of the family asks my wife directly how is her "spiritual health" (for me it's one of the many strange vocabulary used by jw like "the slave says...").
she was catched by surprise with the direct question and says that everything is ok... and luckily someone call them for lunch.. my question is: do you have any good answers for that question?
you can be ironic/use some humor because the question is a little bit anecdotical .
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jwleaks
Q: How's your spiritual health?
A: Not too good. I'm suffering from a severe case of diarrhea and stomach cramps. Must have been some of that food that was served at the recent regional convention.
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117
2017 Yearbook released
by bohm ini saw this on reddit:.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.
overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).
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jwleaks
“I feel as if Jehovah were talking to me right in my room when I listen to members of the Governing Body and their helpers,” says Agatha, a circuit overseer’s wife in Ghana.
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117
2017 Yearbook released
by bohm ini saw this on reddit:.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.
overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).
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jwleaks
blondie: I wonder what happens when it gets nearer to 50,000..........then 100,000, then 150,000....
I wonder what happens when it gets to 144,000.
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117
2017 Yearbook released
by bohm ini saw this on reddit:.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.
overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).
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jwleaks
USA had an increase of 2,945.
I wonder if that number is the same amount of JWs that were called back to the USA after the branch they were serving in was shut down and sold off. Seems about the right number and would explain the slight increase.
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23
6 New Kingdom Halls Built In The US This Year
by James Jack inon our local needs part tonight, the elder (on the local ldc), conducting the part, said he just got back from a meeting in memphis tn with members from the us branch rdc conducting the meeting.
they mentioned that only 6 new kingdom halls and 2 major re-models were completed in 2016.
"it may seem like a small accomplishment, considering under the old rbc arrangement there was some 700 projects on the average each year being done", "but, this is going 5-10 years of training to kick this new program into optima production".
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jwleaks
I wonder if that number 6 includes the kingdom hall built at the new headquarters. I can't imagine the JW elite class travelling further than is necessary.