Posts by konceptual99

20

Some Recent U.K. Information ...

by The Searcher in

... just received!

london bethel: last year a couple in their fifties were laid off from bethel and made special pioneers.

in january they will be demoted to regular pioneers.

konceptual99

Over this weekend at two CA's - approx 1800 in attendance, 9 baptised.

41

Talking with a young elder

by biblexaminer in

i had a discussion with an elder recently.

it was interesting in a macabre sense.

we were outside the kingdom hall on a nice sunny day recently.

konceptual99

@bibleexaminer

I get your reasoning and line of thinking but can you point me to where it says that James sent the men from Judea? According to the NWT, Acts 15:1 says:

Now some men came down from Ju·deʹa and began to teach the brothers: “Unless you get circumcised according to the custom of Moses,+ you cannot be saved.”

The Bearing Witness book commented on this:

Whether these “certain men” had been Pharisees before converting to Christianity is not stated. At the very least, they appear to have been influenced by that Jewish sect’s legalistic thinking. Also, they may have wrongly claimed to speak for the apostles and older men in Jerusalem. (Acts 15:23, 24)

The Acts 15:23,24 scripture in the NWT says:

“The apostles and the elders, your brothers, to those brothers in Antioch,+ Syria, and Ci·liʹcia who are from the nations: Greetings! 24 Since we have heard that some went out from among us and caused you trouble with what they have said,+ trying to subvert you,* although we did not give them any instructions

So, whilst I do think there is a spin on this, it's not clear that James sent an instruction from what I can see. It's an interesting line of reasoning I would like to have in my back pocket but I can't see anything that clearly says James sent them therefore there was a clear dispute between James and Paul. What else should I be looking at?

EDIT - just to point out that I am using the obvious references that one would have to use if talking to a dub. They have to see it in black and white in the NWT and publications...

166

Mobile Hotspot - JWFACTS.COM - Assembly & Conventions

by thedepressedsoul in

here is an idea i tested.

works at both assemblies and conventions.

i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.

konceptual99

Check back a page cognac. I did it over the weekend.

166

Mobile Hotspot - JWFACTS.COM - Assembly & Conventions

by thedepressedsoul in

here is an idea i tested.

works at both assemblies and conventions.

i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.

konceptual99

I would like to think that the objective #1 is higher on the list. I'm personally not interested in having people running around, more on just creating something that catches attention and makes people think about going online later. I would have liked to have used jwfacts.com_thetruthaboutthetruth as it's a bit more serious sounding, but it does not fit. Perhaps the OP suggestion of just jwfacts.com is better. Perhaps it does not really make any real difference...

As someone currently trapped in, this was a little bit of activism, a little nod towards some kind of rage against the machine. Maybe it's childish. Maybe it's pissing in the wind. What I do know is that buzz I got when I saw an obvious reaction was real. If there was one other person there who gains a bit of confidence knowing there is at least one other person around who is not mentally shackled, and perhaps takes the next step toward finding out more of TTATT then I would be over the moon.

70

Any funny stories of when a"brother" giving a talk, said something "funny" or "questionable", and didn't even realize it?

by Dunedain in

there were always all types of speakers in the org.

myself, growing up a "witness", must have heard all types of talks, and given by all manner of speakers, especially on sundays, when almost every week we would get a "visiting" brother giving the public talk.. sometimes, you would have a "great" speaker, all fluent and animated.

other times we would get a comical speaker, one who would maybe purposelly get a few laughs outta the audience.

konceptual99

The drama with the "Hi I'm Randy" line in it is a very memorable one for me and a number of others from back in the day. They really didn't think about how it would sound in the UK as well as Oz!

166

Mobile Hotspot - JWFACTS.COM - Assembly & Conventions

by thedepressedsoul in

here is an idea i tested.

works at both assemblies and conventions.

i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.

konceptual99

So a hotspot was put up today at the CA. jwfacts.com_thetruthaboutdatroof (character limits!)

Most of the time it was closed to prevent too much data usage by third parties but there were at least 17 people on it when it was open for a while.

There was a clear point where it became obvious that the top brass had become aware of it. Lots of scurrying around...

406

Goodbye JWD/JWN (my last post)

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

after some considerable thought i have decided that i will no longer post on this forum because i want to return to jehovah.

thank you for all the kindness and many interesting discussions over the years.

i wish you all well in the future and the decisions you make.

konceptual99

Welcome back!

166

Mobile Hotspot - JWFACTS.COM - Assembly & Conventions

by thedepressedsoul in

here is an idea i tested.

works at both assemblies and conventions.

i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.

konceptual99

Even if they did, so what? They can't search anyone. They can't look at devices. They can't prove anything.

166

Mobile Hotspot - JWFACTS.COM - Assembly & Conventions

by thedepressedsoul in

here is an idea i tested.

works at both assemblies and conventions.

i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.

konceptual99

My ideas for hotspot names....

F*ckOffMorris
TheLightKeepsOnFlickering
IDontBeleiveItAnymore
TheFloodIsBollocks (for one session)
SoAreAdamAndEve (for the next)
AsForTheGeneration.... (for the next)
IfItWasNotForShunning (for one session)
WouldAnyOfUsBeHere (for another session)
IKnowTheTruthAboutDaTroof
GoToUniversityIfYouWant
IWantToGoHome
AreYouAnApostateToo

I tried looking for an app that changes the SSID automatically but can't find one....

362

No 'Tight Pants' policy is now official - classed as 'disturbing'

by wizzstick in

in short:- tight pants is no longer just a am3 hang up (or is that a hang up on the well hung?

)- brothers who have effeminate body language are flagged up- as are sisters with 'masculine' hair styles or dress- such dress is 'disturbing to the congregation'- the above must heed the (repeated) counsel from the elders...or they get stripped of the right to share on the ministry- however...this will not be revealed (announced) to the congregation.

wow.

konceptual99

Blimey Simon - I thought I was pretty much in agreement with you on your core points

Yes, and in this scenario there is no real change - the society has always been against the latest fashion and trends or youths. All that has changed is that it's no longer mini-skirts or skirts with slits in them or long hair or beards ... now it's metro-sexual style which is today's fashion (apparently, I buy clothes from Costco ... what do I know!).

Agreed - the principle of the society being against whatever the current trend is has always been the case.

Again, local elders who enjoy and wield their power unjustly are nothing new and there is nothing in these instructions that encourages, promotes or excuses that behaviour, exactly the opposite - they are promoting the notion of patient counsel and private sanctions for people who stubbornly refuse to make the requested changes.

Agreed - local elders doing it their way is nothing new. Private counsel has also been par for the course. The instructions are always worded to err on the side of reasonableness however we all know that culturally many elders find this a very difficult line to tread.

The organisation has had decades of experience in providing instructions and direction to elders to know that elders need monkey see monkey do if they want any kind of consistency. Whoever put this together knows full well that by doing it verbally, with no warning, no written instruction and no transparent information to the congregation at large simply means that it will get implemented in a robust and agricultural way more often than not. Which is what they want.

The WTS can write pages of instructions when it wants to. But not this time. Which is bizarre, given their insistence over recent years to promote principles, not set hard and fast rules but rather encourage spiritual maturity to guide people.

There has not been such direct and specific counsel to elders on clothing or behaviour like this for years as far as I know.

I can't recall any sanction where a baptised JW is not permitted to go on the ministry for anything else, and certainly not for something like clothing.

Does it change anything about them being able to set the standards they wish? Does it change anything about them being anti-gay? Of course not.

But this does hark back to top down rule making - something which has softened over recent years.

The lack of benchmarks for what is acceptable or not acceptable, whilst not new, does reflect crude approaches to control from the past. It allows the organisation to claim they are promoting a reasonable view where only the worst of rebels are sanctioned, whilst permitting whatever implementation the local body sees fit, even if that goes beyond what might be reasonable. It's typical WTS disingenuous behaviour.

It's the same old same old but a pattern that had seemingly diminished. And I find it hard to believe that the introduction of a sanction about ministry participation can be ignored as a fundamental difference.

As with anything, if someone really wants to keep their style rather than their faith they can leave. Otherwise, like so many before them, they change to keep inline with the WTS standards on dress, grooming and behaviour.

I am surprised you make it sound so straight-forward Simon, when it rarely is. Remember this is not some club where the dress code is published at the door (other than being well arranged and modest). These instructions are verbal, only to the BoE and have no guidelines. The news here is not the gnashing of teeth at fashion nor the homophobia. It's the resurrection of poorly defined instructions to groups of men who can't generally organise a piss up in a brewery on a matter that is potentially highly sensitive.

I am with you in so many ways here:

- implementing dress standards is not, in itself, the make or break defining behaviour of a cult

- on it's own it's not something that is some game changer for apostate activists or for those who are trying to work out their sexuality whilst inside the WTS

- trying to bash the WTS with this instruction as if they have tied their own noose is unrealistic.

On the other hand, I think there are aspects of these instructions that do merit being highlighted and provided as food for thought for those waking up to the reality of da troof.

To that extent, it's not a case of "move along, nothing to see here".