stilla: Thanks, didn't realize it was lucky number 13 -- which the superstitious avoid like the plague. On reflection, maybe there's something to that after all!
willyloman
JoinedPosts by willyloman
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17
Ever give a ridiculous 'talk'?
by Steve Lowry inone day at the hall when i was about fifteen i guess, i looked at the talk schedule to see my name posted next to my next talk.
i hated giving a talk.
it made sick to my stomach before i would go 'on'.
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28
Being publicly reproved
by Strawberryfieldsforever inyears ago my husband and i were publicly reproved.
we had gone out with some "worldly friends" from work and went dancing and had a few drinks too many.
well someone must have been around to see us and told the elders.
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willyloman
The whole public/private reproof thing is widely misunderstood by most publishers, and some groups of elders apply the rule inconsistently. If they're going 'by the book,' the rule is simple: If you did it, they 'reprove' you, which really means to 'counsel' you but has a much harsher ring to it, doesn't it (and why do you suppose that is?). If no one else knows about the offense, the reproof remains private. If others know about it, the reproof is made public.
It's rules like this that leave little or no room for compassion, empathy, and love, concepts all foreign to the vast majority of WTS disciples.
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12
The societys view would be what?
by El blanko ini'll boil it down to this: .
does an "active male jw" who is married "have the right to stand in the way" of an "inactive and divorced mother-in-law"; by not allowing her daughter (his wife), on the grounds of the divorce and bad association, to see her mother?
the mother-in-law was seen with a disfellowshipped person and is now divorced from her husband by secular law.
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willyloman
As far as the society is concerned, do I have a leg to stand...?
At some point, you'll have to set aside the Society's miserly standards and act on moral principles. Why not ask yourself, What's the right thing to do here? Then do it. I don't know enough about the particulars to advise you further, but if you know these people -- especially the hard-headed husband -- well enough to speak your mind, follow your instincts.
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Ever give a ridiculous 'talk'?
by Steve Lowry inone day at the hall when i was about fifteen i guess, i looked at the talk schedule to see my name posted next to my next talk.
i hated giving a talk.
it made sick to my stomach before i would go 'on'.
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willyloman
Come to think of it , why did we have to discuss such things at the meetings any way?
Exactly! There's a public talk called, "A Godly View of Sex and Marriage." I used to cringe every time it appeared on the speaker list. It was always given by some guy from a tiny little backwater congregation, a yokel with a sixth grade education and a visible fondness for the word, "penis."
These "sex talks" were almost always poorly delivered, awkward for everyone concerned, and especially embarrassing for the audience. I could never seen any sense in delivering these topics to a group of people that included young as well as old, the prudish as well as the enlightened. Can you imagine inviting someone new to "a bible based talk" and having this be the topic?
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The Watchtower Attendance Crisis
by metatron inif the average congregation has about 83 publishers in the us, then the organization may be sinking into a crisis.. take that 83 and consider that half the congregations may have less.. take away '15 minute publishers' who don't attend.
take away completely fake publishers who rarely attend.
take away increasingly tired publishers who 'feel sick', are depressed, or just want to stay at home and watch tv.. .
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willyloman
Probably the two most interesting things about that newspaper article quoting the elder from Talladega:
1. He refused to give his name.
2. He lied about the number of publishers they have.
This says a lot more about what's really happening out there than the handful of regions where there is significant growth due to population shifts.
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40
Were YOU Considered A "Good Example" In The Congregation???
by minimus inor were you considered "weak"?
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willyloman
Well, let's see: Elder for decades, polished speaker used at Circuit and District conventions, reputation in congregation as excellent teacher. Wife, kids all pio'd. Friends in high places; followed party line; home was designated hospitality center for the congo, yada yada.... Gee, I guess so!
This is not to brag but to point out what they lost when they lost this large, active family of congregation pillars. Since our fade is ongoing, few know about the leakage. I may go public when "all are present and accounted for" with respect to my family, some of whom are still "in" but almost all of whom are now moving slowly toward the earliest possible exit.
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28
Cognitive Dissonance 101, Bethel Style
by Room 215 indo you remember these two gems of spiritual insight?
``at times explanations given by jehovah's visible organization have shown adjustments, seemingly to previous points of view.
but this has not actually been the case.
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willyloman
Sadly, I wanted so desperately for it to be "the truth."
Me, too.
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24
Anointed in JW's midst?
by Noumenon inin your time with jw's did you meet any of the 'anointed' ?.
i have met a number over the years, and they all seemed very normal, intelligent, balanced, loving people.
i've met a few obviously 'bogus' ones too.. my question is (atheists, agnostics, and god/bible basher please ignore and move on to another thread): what if there are genuinely anointed christians in jw's midst?
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willyloman
I knew several who professed to be. Whack jobs, all of them.
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133
Who has despised the day of small things?
by Know_You inas the apostates increasingly gather courage, poking their vile heads out of their filthy spider-holes, slavering like the mad creatures that they are, as they shake their puny fists at the lord of all creation, jehovah's people may may become downhearted, even despondent.
many, we hear, are slowing down or even becoming inactive.
others have been so bold as to have risen up to question the slave as it faithfully dispenses food in due season.
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willyloman
The apostates were rightly cleared out of the organization in the ensuing years like rats infesting a barn or cockroaches from under the sink -
Why, you slimy earthcrawler.
I'm pretty sure I and a number of other people posting here "outrank" you by a country mile when it comes to hours of service, congregational responsibilities, and time spent putting the interests of the "sheep" ahead of our own. That you have the audacity to compare our years of heartfelt effort, misguided thought it may have been, to the activity of insects and rodents, is sooo typical of the kind of love you learned at the trough of perversion at which you continue to sip.
Your description of the organizational deception practiced by Freddie Franz and his ilk in 1975 says volumes about your own lack of ability to think and to reason.
But, hey, thanks for livening up the board!
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102
The Trinity in the Old Testament
by hooberus in"and god said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
" genesis 1:26 .
note the plural "our image", "our likeness" yet from other verses it is clear that man was created in gods image and likeness (singular).. "so god created man in his own image, in the image of god created he him; male and female created he them.
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willyloman
Pull up a chair and bring your lunch. This argument is now in it 1800th year.