john.prestor
JoinedTopics Started by john.prestor
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Another day, another run-in
by john.prestor inso a couple days ago i ran into a colleague of mine coming back from the mall, let's call her lianne for the story.
we started talking about our research and when lianne asked about what i'm working on these days i told her about a paper i'm drafting where i argue the culture of jehovah's witnesses is collectively narcissistic, which just means they (typically, most often) think they're special and that their faith is better than others, and i cite a lot of evidence to that effect, things witnesses said to me in conversation, videos i watched on youtube of antiwitnessing, study articles and book chapters, things i heard cos say ("this is the greatest organization in the universe") so a lot of data from a lot of different places that really drives the point home and shows i didn't just invent this after some cranky old man went on a rant one day in when they commented in the watchtower study or something.
lianne seemed interested, i kept it brief, but i noticed this older woman across the aisle staring at me, not glaring, just sorta staring at me blankly or almost in surprise, and lianne and i moved on to another topic for a couple more minutes and then went back to reading our books, we each had one on us and put it down to chitchat for a few minutes, it was nice running into someone i knew, i got the same vibe from her.. after i read a few pages the older woman got my attention politely and said something like, i wanted to tell you that i'm one of jehovah's witnesses (i wondered that when she started staring at me) and i don't agree with what you said, and i'm wondering where you got your information.
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"This system will probably be over in about 5 years"
by john.prestor ini don't think i shared this story yet, it's strange and although i did a little detective work trying to figure out who said what and when i never found out much, big surprise, jehovah's witnesses love their secrets as we all know... but i thought other posters might find this interesting both in and of itself, because of what an elder told me one sunday back in 2011, and because of what it could imply as to high-ranking jehovah's witnesses prophesying the date of armageddon.
specific dates went out the window in 1975, although governing body helper ken flodin hinted at 2040 in a talk uploaded to jw.org a couple years back, and the governing body hinted at 2034 in a watchtower back in the 90s.
but it might be, just might, that more specific date-setting still goes on behind closed doors in certain circuits.... so after i went to "meetings" and talked to witnesses for a couple years at a rural congregation in the eastern united states an elder pulled me aside one service into the vestibule at the hall, in other words, into a private area where no one would overhear us.
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The downfall of the Governing Body
by john.prestor inin a book i read a while back by the sociologist randall collins he says truly powerful people don't get angry because they get what they want in other ways, and he shows a picture of two runners where the one who's losing looks at the girl that passes her rather than ahead at the finish line, guess she doesn't wanna win the race after all.
i want to apply these to the governing body and their actions, the pattern of their actions, in printing all the hateful rhetoric against people like us and why l'm pretty sure, pretty damn confident in fact, it's all downhill from here... thanks to them and them alone.. the moment you let somebody get in your head and let them stay there they beat you, they win, they establish power, we got in their heads, they know we present a threat to them, we won't shut up, we're more brazen than we used to be, we're in the news, we're on tv, we're online we're at conventions we're in the kingdom halls, hell we're just about everywhere.
yeah, we don't have this completely down yet, sometimes we come on too strong or do something stupid, and i'm pointing the finger at myself here too, but for the most part we know how to fight this battle: we drag them into the light when they wanna hide in the dark like jackals lurking in the woods sneaking up on weak and wounded deer.
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Capitalizing names
by john.prestor injust a random thought here but does anyone else notice than when the name "elder" or "circuit overseer" appears in the organization's magazines and books they're always lower case even though they're proper nouns and should be elder and circuit overseer... but branch committee member, governing body helper, governing body member, they get to be capitalized.
another subtle indication of how the governing body and other high-ranking elites see themselves, i think.
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The commercialism of early Christianity and Jehovah's Witnesses
by john.prestor ini'm noticing something that scares me but also... interests me.
here's what i found.. many, not all, but many early christians believed they would enjoy paradise on this earth, like jehovah's witnesses talk about today.
in the (lost, so conveniently) writings of the church father papias who lived in late 1st and early 2nd century turkey he records traditions he heard from people who knew "elders," early church leaders about the eschaton, that's the term they used, the eschaton, paradise, the world to come in and on this earth, in the body, of the body.
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A recent antiwitnessing experience
by john.prestor ini shared one of these before in which my approach left something to be desired, and i got some flack for that, and rightly so.
so if this story doesn't go over well i won't share another... but given how it ended, i just had to share.... a few days ago i took a trip to a nearby city by bus.
in the about 20-30 minute window between my connecting buses i walked over to a mcdonald's and got a cup of coffee, and when i came back to the little bus station i saw a literature cart sitting unmanned near the doors.
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My brother is shunning me (but he's not a Witness)
by john.prestor ini didn't know where to post this but it's been on my mind and i'm looking for support and advice from people who know what it's like being shunned.
i was raised in a fundamentalist baptist church, so what i'm experiencing is a little different than most posters on this site.
i've been out of that church for years, and my brother's been out for a while too.
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Coffee really is magic
by john.prestor ini'm sitting here at my computer mapping out a hike for this afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee... the cup was a christmas present last year, i'm sure satan is just giddy.. .
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Confidential books like Shepherd
by john.prestor ini'm trying to get as many confidential procedural books that have been leaked online.
shepherd the flock (2010).
circuit overseer guidelines (2017).
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"Governing Body Procedure," a secret rulebook
by john.prestor inin crisis of conscience, raymond franz reproduces a letter sent to him from someone representing the governing body in which they thank him for returning the text, governing body procedure.
franz says nothing about this text any other place in the work, but i've been trying to track it down, because it sounds like another confidential manual like shepherd the flock of god.
i doubt it's been leaked (i'm shocked, pleasantly, that we even have circuit overseer guidelines, the confidential manual used by circuit overseers) but you never know.. is anyone else familiar with this work?