There is one assembly hall in my area, close to the border with Mexico that stayed empty the whole summer time. No assemblies here or anywhere near the border with Mexico. None of the undocumented brothers, which make most of the congregations in the area, were able to attend the assemblies up north, in areas like Houston or San Antonio. I asked if other assemblies were programmed within driving distance but no one knew of any. Twenty five or so miles from the border with Mexico there are inmigration checkpoints. Those without documents will be deported. Did the F&D slave forgot about this brothers? The Hall is fairly new, less than 5 years old.
StarTrekAngel
JoinedPosts by StarTrekAngel
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What Kingdom Halls do you know of that have been closed down recently?
by 4thgen inrecently, we drove by the kingdom hall in galena, il, the sign was removed and it was closed down.
a while back, the hall in taylor mo was also closed.
one congregation in peoria, il was dissolved last year.
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English to Spanish differences
by StarTrekAngel ini was wondering if someone here can guide me a bit.
i have been doing some research on wt publications, specifically those that have the key writtings regarding changing doctrine.
the problem is that i am native spanish speaker and i attend a spanish congregation.
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StarTrekAngel
Thanks A.proclaimer! I think that is a good general rule of thumb. At least gives me a good range to search. As far as the spanish PDF, I would be interested on that. I'll message you my email address.
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New Zealand News: Jehovah's Witness dies after refusing blood transfusion
by AndersonsInfo injehovah's witness dies after refusing blood transfusion.
monday, october 20, 2014.
3 news - nzn.
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StarTrekAngel
She might have been an ex-JW, but it comes to show you the extent of the influence they have. My wife has a cousin that lives nearby us. She is no longer attending meetings, attends other churches, celebrates birthdays, etc, etc. But she is in need of a surgery and she is being told by her doctors she needs to get her iron up or else, she may need blood during the surgery. She is still in that mindset that she needs to refuse it because of her belief. Despite having "failed Jehovah in every other aspect".
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English to Spanish differences
by StarTrekAngel ini was wondering if someone here can guide me a bit.
i have been doing some research on wt publications, specifically those that have the key writtings regarding changing doctrine.
the problem is that i am native spanish speaker and i attend a spanish congregation.
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StarTrekAngel
Ok, so in some chases, I guess, chances are that whatever was written about 1975 in English, may have never been published in spanish
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English to Spanish differences
by StarTrekAngel ini was wondering if someone here can guide me a bit.
i have been doing some research on wt publications, specifically those that have the key writtings regarding changing doctrine.
the problem is that i am native spanish speaker and i attend a spanish congregation.
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StarTrekAngel
I was wondering if someone here can guide me a bit. I have been doing some research on WT publications, specifically those that have the key writtings regarding changing doctrine. The problem is that I am native spanish speaker and I attend a spanish congregation. While I understsand, speak and write english fluently, many of the elders and the people I could talk to, do not. When I go to the WT Library CD ROM and look back at 1970's publications, the english and spanish writtings do not match. With this I mean, they talk about completely different subjects. Any ideas? Anyone knows where I can get a copy of the WT CDROM in english? I have asked for it in the congregation but somehow is taking forever.
Thanks
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10 good reasons why celebrating birthdays should be allowed
by bluecanary ini cannot take credit for any of the gems below but i did want to polish and organize them.
much of the information was borrowed from this thread.
if you can come up with any more, please post them.. the bible does not ban birthdays.
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StarTrekAngel
This is something that has recently caugh my attention. Simply trying to explain why such insistance on avoiding certain pagan activities but not others. This is when I suddenly realized that the divide between the dos and donts on celebrations has a pretty clear line. For the most part, ans speaking on the most common western celebrations, those that only happen once in a lifetime are ok, but annual celebrations are not. Bellow I copy a message a wrote to JWstruggle. I guess I am not the only one that has seen this. And I thought I was over thinking it.
Regarding the celebrations, I had once to wonder, why would they be so dead serious on banning them. I mean, I don't think the GB is unaware of the possible flaws on this doctrine. The only reason I can find for them to be so serious about it, is money. In your experience in relating to other ExJW, has anyone ever noticed or mentioned how JW are allowed to celebrate every feast that only happens once in a lifetime (even if they are pagan) but not yearly? Weddings, graduations, baby showers, etc. But none of the yearly celebrations are allowed. Birthdays, mother and father day, etc etc. Wedding anniversaries are a yearly celebration by definition but very few people actually carry them out, as they are, usually, an intimate thing for the couple. Only marriage milestones are celebrated consistently (like every 10 years). As much as I thought about it, I could not separate my mind from the fact that there is a very clear line dividing the dos and donts when it comes to most celebrations. All allowed celebrations only happen once in a lifetime for every person. We, however, do make it a point to make sure everyone and their mother attends all four of the yearly WTBTS celebrations (3 assemblies and the memorial) and we make sure to take gifts to almost all of them. So with that in mind, I decided to run the numbers. Just to give them the benefit of the doubt, I decided to keep it conservative...
-Based on the 2014 Year Book, there is 13,714 congregations in the US main territory. Also, there is a total of 1,167,723 publishers. This shields an average of about 85 publishers per congregation.
- Based on this numbers I looked at my own congregation and behold... we actually have 85 publishers exactly. So, I will not be too far off assuming our congregation is a good sample to depart from.
- Assuming an average witness family of 4 (parents and two children), this give you an average of 20 families
- Assuming most birthdays, if allowed, would probably be oriented to children, then that means 40 celebrations per year. - While we do have 85 publishers in our cong, the actual attendance numbers are anywhere from 120 to 140 (watchtower study days). Most of whom are associated members of the congregation. Where we stand today we have no one who is DF. So all in all, this give a total potential attendance to a birthday of 30 families (120 attendance / 4 family members)
- Again, in an effort to be conservative, consider that may be not everyone will present a gift to the host, but lets assume one gift per family. It will be safe to assume every family can spare $20 dollars for a gift. At 30 families this means a potential $600 in gifts alone. If we consider the number of celebrations per year, the total is $24,000 per year.
- This don't seem like a number the WTBTS would be willing to consider in light of the controversy that could surround the doctrine, until you consider the entire US JW population. At 13,714 congregations, this would amount to $329,136,000 per year.
I understand the variables are many and so are the assumptions I am making. Many families could choose not to attend if they have no children or if they could not afford the gift. Other wealthier families may choose to make more expensive gifts. I am also leaving out JW relatives from other congregations that may attend, the many adults that may choose to celebrate their own birthdays and the other congregations world wide. The point being is that, all things considered, there is a millionaire sum to be accounted for when it would come to celebrations within such a tight knit community. Another thing to notice is that we are looking at birthdays and the gifts only. If you account for the actual cost of the party (food, decorations, games, music, etc) or you begin to consider other celebrations like mothers day, etc, then the numbers would quickly skyrocket. And lets not forget that we, JW, have more than just our fleshy parents, we also have spiritual parents (those who brought us in)
Could it be said that I am implying that the WTBTS did this in an attempt to have us donate the money that would otherwise would have gone as a gift to a person? Not at all. For once it would have made it too obvious and, second, history most likely shows that, if the earlier was true, the strategy did not work (or did it? I could not say for sure so I will not make such statement officially) With all of these in mind I can only conclude this is an attempt to "keep life simple". An attempt to make sure people have no other reason to spend money beyond their basic life necessities. This can be done while allowing the others, relatively cheaper celebrations, go on as normal so that no one feels we are being deprived of fun things to do.
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What I really fear about JW.ORG
by StarTrekAngel inmuch has been written, twitted and youtubed about the extent to which the wtbts may go in order to keep its members from peeking out of the box.
from name calling, constantly telling members about the dangers of apostasy, all the way to dfing anyone who dares to look outside.
many tools and theories have been brought forward.
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StarTrekAngel
Certainly.. that would be one more venue of activism. We may need to organize the first worldwide "Visit JW.ORG with apostate cookies on your browser day"
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What I really fear about JW.ORG
by StarTrekAngel inmuch has been written, twitted and youtubed about the extent to which the wtbts may go in order to keep its members from peeking out of the box.
from name calling, constantly telling members about the dangers of apostasy, all the way to dfing anyone who dares to look outside.
many tools and theories have been brought forward.
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StarTrekAngel
Captive portals hardly require any interaction with the ISP. It is in their best legal interest to have a level of logging for the sites visited while on their wifi. But again, I would suggest against anyone using the KH wifi at all. Using the wifi at any public place presents an inherent risk for yourself as well as the business/org providing it. While I may use the wifi at a Starbucks, I use seldomly and for very trivial stuff. Besides, they are not going to ban me from their store if I use it to visit the website for another coffee company.
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What I really fear about JW.ORG
by StarTrekAngel inmuch has been written, twitted and youtubed about the extent to which the wtbts may go in order to keep its members from peeking out of the box.
from name calling, constantly telling members about the dangers of apostasy, all the way to dfing anyone who dares to look outside.
many tools and theories have been brought forward.
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StarTrekAngel
Much has been written, twitted and youtubed about the extent to which the WTBTS may go in order to keep its members from peeking out of the box. From name calling, constantly telling members about the dangers of apostasy, all the way to DFing anyone who dares to look outside. Many tools and theories have been brought forward. The latest of this, has been the upcoming of new electronic means of distributing information. From the well known website, to mobile apps and electronic literature distribution, many wild theories have been put forth as to what is the real purpose behind it all.
While I am sure that the GB would not pass on any opportunities to root out defectors, lets not forget that, like any business, they also need to make new members. Keeping the current count is not a viable solution. All businesses, for profit or not, require a factor of growth in order to just survive, let alone thrive. I would ask that you keep this in mind as you read. I believe it is one of the key factors in understanding what might be going on at WT HQ.
Many people have feared of what could happen if they were to install the new apps on their mobile devices. Comments of potential spying and site tracking have been presented. Whie technically speaking (and only if strictly technically speaking), everything is possible, I will attempt to explain, from my IT background, what makes financial sense, which in the end, will tell the likelyhood of the WT of embarquing on some of the huge tasks of habit tracking.
To begin, lets take a quick look at the technical aspect of it. The internet of today, is a heavily distributed network, where hardly any single stream of information comes and goes on the same connection at the same time. The trend is to make this diversification even more complex. This is the very tactic that keeps the internet running smoothly and reliably, so we can only expect it to get worst. Depending on how you get your internet, chances are that the minute the information comes from or leaves your household, it takes a redundant route. And from here, it only gets more complex. Meaning that the route the information took to get to you, is not necessarily the same route it would take when it goes up grom your connection. Sometimes this can be even for your neighbor, who may have the same service as you, but his information may come and go from and to a complete different paths than yours. The point I am trying to make here is that it is really difficult to track information live. Having work for an ISP for over 10 years, I can tell you that it is a whole lot easier to do when you own your network, but this only allows to you to work with your own connections. I am pretty sure that not all JW use the same ISP.
This is why it is not far fetched to think that having an app made by them is about the easiest chance they get to peek into your privacy. This is true to some extent, and technically speaking, everything is possible, but not likely. This would be the most incidious form of spying on you. They could actually get to know every single word that you type on the device. Software that do this are found on the internet every second. They are called "Key loggers" and are usually part of virus programs. Hackers use this to capture your password and credit card numbers, among other things. Most times, however, antiviruses would pick this up and let you know. What is the likelyhod that the new apps are spying on you? I'll say close to none. See, for starters, the WTBTS needs to become a registered developer with the companies that develop the devices. This is in order to gain access to the developer tools and kits that are required to succesfully launch an app that actually works. From here, you may market your app indepedently from the device manufacturer, but the development interface still requires certain things. For the most parts, apps are not able to access all your information without permission. When, for example, you get a pop-up in your ipad that says "X app would like to access your photos", this is an example of the manufacturer requiring that apps ask for consent before accessing critical information. Such message is nor part of the app you develop but rather the system in the phone or tablet detects an unwarranted access. While this is not always flawless, any unkown breach or lack of check by the manufacturer, will be eventually corrected. Many years ago, an app came out that made it possible to turn your iphone into a wifi hotspot without paying extra. The app made use of a flaw in the IOS design that allowed for this without checking for payment. This was eventually discovered and the gap closed, rendering the app useless. In the other hand, if you do market your app over the, for example, apple store, then apple will first certify your app to be free of this issues. One of them being security and assuring that the app would not access information without your consent.
On another corner, you have the possibility of them capturing what you do while using the wifi at the KH. Here they have more lineancy. This is their turf now and they have more right than you do. However, they will eventually, for their own protection, have to provide you with a thing called "acceptable use policy". If they plan to continue letting publishers to use their wifi, they will need this. If they have not done so yet, it is proof that their IT IQ is far behind or disconnected from the legal aspects of what they are doing (By the way, the main point of my writting surround the technical/financial feasability, not legal). If they thing about it for just about 10 minutes, they will realize they might be shooting themselves in the foot by allowing anyone to use their wifi. All it takes if for one person to do something illegal, and get in trouble. The acceptable use policy would show that they have made you aware of the limitations on using it and thus providing certain level of protection for the org. Most times this are done electronically. Very much like when you log in to the free wifi at a hotel. You are redirected to a page (called a captive portal) where some of your information is collected in order to track you later if needed. This can be done off site too. For example, you could jump into the KH wifi, which will, upon first connecting, redirect you to a JW.ORG server for authentication. Here some information about your device will be collected. What other personal information is collected at this time is up to them, but they need to let you know (this would be part of the acceptable use policy). Here they could, without much effort, track the sites you visited. Their acceptable use policy would have to clarify which sites or type of sites are not allowed before they can question or ban your activity. They, however, would have to block the sites directly rather than come to you later asking for an explanation. This, however, would not stop them from questiioning a certain site on spiritual grounds, even if they did not provide you with an acceptable use policy. As you can see, this is very much a possibility, but who in the right mind would come visit apostate sites at the KH? I would not dare to use their wifi even to check the weather. If someone was to do something illegal, authorities could come around asking to check your device. This has happened to regular folks in their home. I can recall a news article from years ago where a person's home was broken into by the SWAT team. He reportebly downloaded tons of child porn. Upon further investigating his computer, they realized his wifi had no protection. Someone had been using his wifi to do this and he got the blame.
The above could be extended into your home. If you were to willingly allow your internet traffic to be scrutinized (as part of your spiritual e-shield LOL). In the very same token, you could have your wifi be setup the same as the KH. This, however, is not as easy. The KH can be required to acquire certain equipment that can be too expensive for your own use. It would not be the most effective way to keep track of your activity, specially when you can always say a relative was using it, visiting sites you would have not dare to visit. A second twist to this, could be if they offered to filter your traffic. This is much easier to achieve from a subcriber perspective. However, the amount infrastructure required on their end, may make this an undesirable option. They would basically need to create an internet of their own. Many governments do this, to some degree, but it has proven to be ineffective against those who are resolved to get thru it. Most JW may not have the tech know-how to avoid the system, but just as easy as one can follow instructions on how to get in on the sytem, someone could provide instructions on how to get out. They could do this filtering for you by means of a fee... sorry, donation. Giving them the financial support needed for the infrastructure but my feeling is that given the increasing number of witnesses that have embraced the internet, soon it would be too much of a burden for them to carry. Besides, they would have to give the option to filter or unfilter certain sites that you find objectable but they don't. You know, those that are left to your concious?
Last but not least, I am fairly sure that they are tracking your visits to their site. Chances are they are also getting a clue of what other sites you visit. Cookies and other tracking mechanisms can provide and summarize this information for them without much effort. This, however, can not be used to personally idenify you, unless there was a legal ground for it. Basically, you would have to have their infrastructure attacked (digitally) for them to use that information and demand, over the legal system, that your name and address be provided. Another cause would be if you were distributing their copyrighted material. But they would need electronic evidence of this. At most, with the current information that they are surely tracking on JW.ORG, they can probably tell what percentage of visitors have actually gone to apostate sites or watched porn before going to JW.ORG. What clothes you buy, what online channels you watch, what plans of travel you have, and so fort. But none of this can be pinned to you personally without legal grounds.
So far, we only explored the tools they could use to retain memebers or cast out apostates. None of the above will necessarily help them get new members or assure that those that are considering it, will not be made aware of their mistake. This is why I consider all of the above to be a bit of too much of an effort in order to keep people from starting out of the org. Like I said before, they also need to grow new members. I would not discuss how they would do this, my writing is about what I fear or do not fear about the new JW.ORG
So what is it that I fear from JW.ORG? It is certainly none of the above. What I really fear is the push they have on producing everything electronic. At this moment, we still enjoy the ability to do independent research by consulting old publications. Most magazines and books are still downloadable. It is known though, that most of us have 1000s of personal and family pictures stored in our computers without backup copies. While our old paper picture albums were too dear to us to toss away, the same can not be said about our digital lives. We feel like the computer is always going to be there. Many have resorted to the "cloud" in order to have our information be available. That is a fairly good move. Most JWs, however, would not likely save the old mags or will delete them unrecoverably if asked to do so. The moves towards an JW Library app is by far the worst. When connectivity becomes more and more common, and cloud storage continues to get cheaper and cheaper, I can see the org moving towards and all-cloud based architecture. Where you app will be "synched" to the latest "light". There will be no need to redownload a book or a magazine because of a change. Mistakes and "changes in understanding" will be corrected on their own servers and synched to you the next time your device gets online. That's right, there won't even be a need to push a "synch now" button. There will be no way for someone to read old material. Someone technically savy, although more towards an expert level, could certianly find a way to save old mags and articles, but I am pretty sure that such literature will be distributed using electronic certificates as means of "seals of authenticity" and in order to read the material, a hacker would have to hack the certificate as well, rendering in non-authentic, or at the very least, unchallengeable by someone without the knowledge to verify. If any of it succeds, it is always possible to say that it has been altered and therefore is not trusworthy. You won't have the good-old scan type digital file, where the most untrained of audiences could judge wether it was an original magazine or a photoshopped one.
And that my friends, is what I truly fear about an organization that already has the attitude but lacks all the tools. Now we are witnessing a process, in my point of view, where the tools are catching up to the attitude.
My two cents, which just like that widow old lady, are the only means of survival I have.
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StarTrekAngel
thanks for the input sloppyjoe2.. I guess is part of being left to the device of the local elders... I guess it is alive and kicking on some cong. IF this was truly instructed by the org, though, it would happen in all of them