A friend of mine is in a coma after this attack. Hope he pulls through
Really sorry to hear this Laika. Hope he pulls through too.
3 male passengers then get out and start stabbing / shooting people according to early reports.. but it could have been anyone for any reason, who knows, possibly jehovahs witnesses or amish.. maybe we'll never know the reason but i'm sure there will be people praying for those involved and hashtags.. thus solving the problem once and for all.. just "life in a big city" according to the muslim mayor of london, sadiq khan..
A friend of mine is in a coma after this attack. Hope he pulls through
Really sorry to hear this Laika. Hope he pulls through too.
had lunch with some friends during today's waste of time convention.
they spoke of the rumor floating around that the jws will move away from these big regional conventions and have them at assembly halls and tie them in to kingdom halls.. they seemed to believe it was a pretty reliable source.. i think it would be too good to be true but who knows?.
anyone else heard this rumor?.
BB - they have reduced the number of days for CAs at the assembly halls and could easily increase occupancy for a two day convention.
I get the buzz thing but I suspect the finances will drive it forward in the end.
had lunch with some friends during today's waste of time convention.
they spoke of the rumor floating around that the jws will move away from these big regional conventions and have them at assembly halls and tie them in to kingdom halls.. they seemed to believe it was a pretty reliable source.. i think it would be too good to be true but who knows?.
anyone else heard this rumor?.
This has been forecast here several times over the last few years. It's already happening to a degree in some places.
just some random thoughts here... theme scripture is matt.5: 33 .
we already had a thread explaining that jesus added a "but" after those words.
however, few would argue against the principle of keeping one's word.
There are two reasons for this article I wager.
One is the pay, pay, pay your pledges as pointed out.
The other is a guilt trip about field ministry, meetings, talks etc. For those teetering on reducing their effort, if they are still mentally in enough then this could be enough for them to give themselves a kick up arse and get back to doing more.
muslims in mosul have helped rebuild a christian church that had been destroyed by isis.. iraq has one of the smallest, but oldest, christian communities in the world but isis oversaw the destruction of iraqi churches, books and christian spaces during their occupation of the city..... it's heartening to see both the military defeat of isis in mosul and the desire for normal relationships shown by the inter-faith community.. there is hope..
You are right to an extent Spoletta however you are forgetting the group mentality that grows in communities and countries with high control leaderships. Nazi Germany is a great example where great evil was allowed to occur and participated in by those who under different circumstances would have had no part in such atrocities.
The danger of religion and cult like social thinking is that even good hearts are corrupted and tolerate evil behaviour.
The more a society seeks to unconditionally do good to all then the more hope there is.
muslims in mosul have helped rebuild a christian church that had been destroyed by isis.. iraq has one of the smallest, but oldest, christian communities in the world but isis oversaw the destruction of iraqi churches, books and christian spaces during their occupation of the city..... it's heartening to see both the military defeat of isis in mosul and the desire for normal relationships shown by the inter-faith community.. there is hope..
I think this is an important point, because I am sure if they felt they were being " bad" Muslims they wouldn't have done what they did?
Of course. They were doing what they thought was good but there are a whole bunch of fundamentalists who would class them as apostates against their religion just as many Witnesses would see your actions in ignoring the command to shun as rebellious as opposed to simply being human.
muslims in mosul have helped rebuild a christian church that had been destroyed by isis.. iraq has one of the smallest, but oldest, christian communities in the world but isis oversaw the destruction of iraqi churches, books and christian spaces during their occupation of the city..... it's heartening to see both the military defeat of isis in mosul and the desire for normal relationships shown by the inter-faith community.. there is hope..
What this has required is for both sides to ignore the bits of their holy books that say non-believers are worth less than them and revert to basic human sentiments of love, respect and cooperation.
This is not about these people being good Muslims but, in reality, bad Muslims. Good for them.
there was a letter read this week, followed by a talk about all the changes that are coming in the next couple of months regarding merging congregations in the area (va/md/dc) - the letter said that the kh's in the area are only being filled to 48% capacity.
this was music to my ears as i have noticed the decline in attendance in all the neighboring congregations.
they will sell some kingdom halls and merge some congregations.
The long and the short of it is that whatever happens any person who is experiencing cognitive dissonance about their beliefs and reality will simply shift the facts to suit their belief. Logic and reason are exactly what is missing.
When your eyes are open to it you can see that it's been happening for over 100 years. For example, the idea was essentially that 1914 was going to see the faithful raptured. When this and subsequent expectations on the system ending in a few short years have proved false then the logic changes so that Jehovah is simply allowing as many as possible to come to know him.
The fact that this means countless births of children into suffering is not a logical inconsistency. The fact that countless people are being born that will never hear the "lifesaving" message is not a logical inconsistency.
It's was bullshit 100 years ago and it's still bullshit now.
i was looking around from some information on the wt's stance concerning the use of stem cells, and i came across this article on a defending jehovah's witnesses blog.. rather than informing the reader all that much about stem cells, the author diverts the conversation into a discussion of "blood fractions" (*note: the term "blood fractions" appears to be another one of those wt bloodspeak terms coined by the wt.
"blood components" or "blood products" are the terms used more frequently by the medical world.
"fractions" implies tiny amounts).
I remember a big thing going round the local congregations back in the 80s where we were told not to buy mushrooms because the fertiliser contained a blood by-product.
To be fair, in the late 70s, early 80s when I was growing up the blood doctrine made sense because it was pretty black and white. As medical technology advanced that's where the grey areas came in and all this hand wringing about what is acceptable, what isn't acceptable etc started.
It then got exacerbated by things like cell salvage, not least as you had congregations (Chichester local to me for example) buying machines for the local hospital and then some Witnesses saying it would be against their conscience to use one.
You had congregation elders essentially determining what would be right or wrong and therefore steering people to a choice that suited an increasingly watered down front to the medical profession. It's no wonder that most dubs just tick all the boxes and reason that if they can't be DF'ed for it then it's OK. Zero critical thinking.
i was looking around from some information on the wt's stance concerning the use of stem cells, and i came across this article on a defending jehovah's witnesses blog.. rather than informing the reader all that much about stem cells, the author diverts the conversation into a discussion of "blood fractions" (*note: the term "blood fractions" appears to be another one of those wt bloodspeak terms coined by the wt.
"blood components" or "blood products" are the terms used more frequently by the medical world.
"fractions" implies tiny amounts).
mental gymnastics
Unfortunately gymnastics implies skill, dexterity and artistry. Trying to make this whole thing logical is is actually more like a game of Twister on a board covered in turds.
It's nothing more than blind obedience to whatever the current "thinking" of the GB is.