There is a also a difference between same-sex behavior and same-sex desire. Most of the same-sex experiences are not necessary coincide with attraction to the same gender, and is often due institutionalization of people within close space like in prisons, barracks, and boarding houses. The study on same-sex attractions were already conducted in the 19th century and their finding is not much different from today. In Austria empire and Prussia had estimated that about 2% of men were homosexual based on arrest records and subculture around 1850. In large cities like Berlin, Prague, Budapest, and Vienna about one man in 50 had continuous same sex experience or lived in domestic partnership around 1890. Austria attempted to decriminalize homosexuality as early as 1850's when new constitution was written up together with criminal laws and significant material was presented by Austrian scientific community.
Posts by kaik
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24What percentage of the population are gay?
by fulltimestudent induring the long debate on the question of gay marriage, there have been many competing answers to the question of, "how many people are gay?".
a very anti-gay christian minister in sydney, the reverend fred nile, (who is also a member of the state parliament) claims that the percentage is as low as 1%.. some university (u.of new south wales) research in sydney has suggested 5%, but the authors of the study cautioned that there was a problem in the fact that an unknown number of respondents would likely not admit to being gay.. there are other problems in asking the question.
for example, what does being gay mean?
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Nicest thing a JW has ever done?
by aintenoughwiskey inhere is a change of pace, what was the nicest thing a jw has ever done for you or you have seen done?
it wasn't all bad all the time!
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kaik
I have a fond of one sister, that already passed away. She was an excellent cook and baker and she used to share recipes all the time. After book study, she was baking all the goodies, decorated cakes, and even made marzipan decorations. A she shared with everyone. Sometimes she just left wrapped pastry and baked goodies and they were delicious.
There was also one sister who was very well off, because she inherited a huge property in the countryside. She did a lot of field service among homeless people and poor, and was giving them food from her farm like eggs, poultry, and home-made canned products. Otherwise my KH had attitude everyone for on its own, and there was not much social interactions.
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Do JW still drink like a fish in small gathering??
by James Mixon inin the 60's and 70's when i became a mindless cult follower there.
were gathering for the elite and they would get sh---t face, i mean down right.
drunk.
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kaik
My JW uncle was alcoholic. He was so many times drunk that it was embarrassing; and he usually crashed at my granny so my JW aunt would not know how wasted he was. My granny eventually refused to open the doors, so he sometimes went to our house and my dad let him sleep a bit on the couch to sober up. As the time progressed, my uncle drunk even more (late 1970's) and got violent to the point that he beat up my father who ended at emergency room to get stitches while neighbors called cops. Afterward, my father refused to open the door at night as he was afraid of the welfare of the kids and my mom. My uncle came drunk several times afterwards, banging on the doors, throwing rocks into the windows, until he passed out on the doorsteps. Last time I saw him 25 years ago, and I think he died from cirrhosis or something similar.
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Pope Condemns Weapons Industry and Those Who Make Weapons
by fulltimestudent inthe (almost) pacificism of the jws was one of the things that attracted me to the witnesses when young.
i wondered today, when i read this headline:.
pope francis suggests those in weapons industry can't call themselves christianat rally of young people in turin, francis issues his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry, criticising investors as well as workerspeople who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves christian, pope francis said on sunday.link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/22/pope-francis-says-those-in-weapons-industry-cant-call-themselves-christian.
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kaik
Many weapons have civilian use and dual usage within every day life. Think of satellite communications, fuel, aerospace industries, aircraft, etc. During the flooding or disaster like Katrina, National Guards or other military units are the only one capable to deliver necessary supplies and start doing search and rescue mission. When bridges are swept in 60 miles stretch of the coast or major waterway, everyone is glad for the military pontoons, until all the infrastructure could be restored. -
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Demons
by Pattytheperfect1 inthis isn't a joke and i don't post here often but i had a conversation with my grandma i found comical and thought i'd share.
my uncle lives far away and my grandma wants to go visit him but says she is afraid of the demons in his rental home.
she is afraid a demon might follow her home.
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kaik
Yeah, JWs and the good, old, demon stories. I used to hear them a lot. Years and years back there was a woman in the KH who insisted that demon was sitting on her chest at her sleep and she was so scared that she felt asleep on her love seat. She used to complain in the KH that she felt something heavy sitting on her and was freaking her out. Later she was diagnosed with some kind of cancer in the lung and she eventually passed away. She also claimed that the demon was following her everywhere as she had this condition in any places where she went.
I agree with Lisa, that it is widespread delusion among JWs. However, I would not underestimate medical condition like mental issue, dementia, or starting of Alzheimer where one JW claimed that demon was misplacing his stuff.
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I had breakfast with 50+ JWs on Sunday
by zimunzucz inwe pulled into a hotel parking lot saturday around 6pm on the return leg of a wonderful family vacation to new england - an then fate stepped in---a man in a suit got out of a car with the rest of a picture perfect family.
i immediately noticed all the name tags--- and my blood pressure spiked 50pts- damn!!
i was booked in a 4 story hotel full of jws-- the only time they took off the name tags was in the swimming pool- they were so proud of themselves.. at 6:30 am the hot water went cold in the wife's shower- what do you expect on the 4th floor when a herd of jws is trying to get ready at the same time?
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kaik
Faye, back in the Czechoslovakia under commies, the publications were done on the xerox or some kind of hard film, that was like scroll because they were not cut or assembled into notepad format (around 1975-1980). Later they came printed on yellow paper without pictures in small A4 notepad format. However, I remember books were always bound with pictures as far as 1970's and blue cover. My mom has these WT printed on yellow paper bound, because over time the were falling apart for that reason. I believe she has these on the xerox foils in her basement in the box if they did not fade completely. Last time I was at her place, she still kept my WTs from 25 years ago with my notes in it and she tried to leave them with me. Wasn't sure it that was an attempt on her side for me to see what I have missed or not.
During the 50's JWs depended on books published immediately after war and prior WWII. In Czechoslovakia, JWs were legal in interwar period as it was parliamentary democracy, and immediately after war until communist takeover in 1948. JWs were outlawed later in 1950 during the crackdown against all religions under Stalinist regime. We had one old JW who had these books visible at her bookshelf like Harp of God printed in 1920's and entire Rutherford collection - all in Czech language, but she never allowed anyone to read it or borrow it. During liberal 1960's and under Prague Spring events, communist regime tolerated JWs and I do not remember ever my mom had issue with the regime for being JW.
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Being marginalised by JW's and family, how to combat it?
by Crazyguy inwhen one leaves the religion and fades it starts to become obvious that they move on with out you but this is not enough for them so they also marginalize you, loose respect for you etc.
they even tell stories about you.
example my wife talking to my mother tells her that i now believe aliens came to this planet and created man.
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kaik
The best way is to start your own family. Move away and live your own live without worrying about something that you cannot change. -
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I had breakfast with 50+ JWs on Sunday
by zimunzucz inwe pulled into a hotel parking lot saturday around 6pm on the return leg of a wonderful family vacation to new england - an then fate stepped in---a man in a suit got out of a car with the rest of a picture perfect family.
i immediately noticed all the name tags--- and my blood pressure spiked 50pts- damn!!
i was booked in a 4 story hotel full of jws-- the only time they took off the name tags was in the swimming pool- they were so proud of themselves.. at 6:30 am the hot water went cold in the wife's shower- what do you expect on the 4th floor when a herd of jws is trying to get ready at the same time?
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kaik
My mom is witness for 40 years, but I think she was studying with them through my relatives already in the 1950's or so. My relatives are three four generations of JWs. Over the time, my mom accumulated all these WT publications and she got them bounded and has them in her bookcase. Her elders asked her several times to surrender these prints, and even sent my cousins to acquired from them. Couple months ago, my mom asked me what to do, she does not want to give up old publications and even my sibling accused her that she keeps apostate literature. My advice was to give it to national archives or university instead. I am not surprised that witnesses are extremely reluctant to acknowledge mistakes from their old prints, but they still consider their organization as a God's channel of communication. They will never learn, but it is always good to use their BS for counter-argument(s). -
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I had breakfast with 50+ JWs on Sunday
by zimunzucz inwe pulled into a hotel parking lot saturday around 6pm on the return leg of a wonderful family vacation to new england - an then fate stepped in---a man in a suit got out of a car with the rest of a picture perfect family.
i immediately noticed all the name tags--- and my blood pressure spiked 50pts- damn!!
i was booked in a 4 story hotel full of jws-- the only time they took off the name tags was in the swimming pool- they were so proud of themselves.. at 6:30 am the hot water went cold in the wife's shower- what do you expect on the 4th floor when a herd of jws is trying to get ready at the same time?
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kaik
Love it!
The best is to use their literature against them, dig some old print from WT.
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Convention Invites are Idiotic
by cookiemaster inso, like every year, there's a campaign going on about giving people convention invites and urging them to attend the convention.
what an utterly moronic waste of time.
we live 500+ kilometers away from the convention hall.
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kaik
Also nobody mentions that large gathering make easy to spread a propaganda. It is indoctrination. While many people are oblivious to WT doctrines and lag in field service, the convention attempts to stir up the association of one individual to a large pool of people by production of well measured hysteria. In that moment, people became spiritually delirious and feel the moment of being Chosen people. I witnessed several of these conventions where tens of thousands JWs gathered in one place like in Strahov 1991 with 80,000 to 100,000 people, and the mass spiritual hysteria had occurred.
The mass gatherings are not specialty of JWs, they were invented in the 19th century by German nationalists. Mass rallies became popular for other nationals in Austria-Hungary as early as 1868 as a result of Pan-german conventions. Later they had political context and were used by both Stalin and Hitler totalitarian regimes. North Korea also stages mass rallies like this, were people are introduced under strict guideline to the state propaganda. I remember this form of brainwashing from communist rallies in the 80-85, which were extremely similar to the one I attended in Strahov: Enemies (political/spiritual like Satan), better future ahead (classless society/paradise), new goals... etc.