xero

Where has this been eliminated? I have yet to read of an organization anywhere where this has been eliminated. All these things are red-herrings. These are important issues, but after years of deliberation I've considered that the hoping and waiting on Jehovah can create in some people so much stress and so much dissonance that they'd rather stop hoping and waiting. Hoping becomes for them another promise which they feel after years will ultimately fail. Believe me, I understand the feeling. But the organization isn't the issue, which after a time we realize from viewing many who leave for one reason stay away from God altogether (if they don't narrowly reinterpret things into yet another private expectation). We're all of us waiting on Jehovah and I'm as impatient as the next. (But who wasn't feeling all these things over the centuries?). I suspect this is why so many flock to organizations which promise a direct contact with the divine. You see this in charismatic churches, in people who dabble in the occult, people who look to new age religions, Ancient Aliens, anything which can provide them with that direct contact with the divine (even if that 'divine' turns out to be demonic). I understand all that. Quite frankly, I'd get myself nailed up to a cross myself if I thought I could get five minutes verification of what's going on. I don't do that, but I will go for a ten mile run and a dip in the ocean.

I do think Tom's reference to the outside source which distinguishes between institutional abuse and abuse in familial non-institutional settings is important. The source noted 1-2% of any given population having issues in this regard. This same percentage appears to be present among those identifying as JW's. These are humans w/the same failings. What's at issue is what it is that's suggested - conflating institutional abuse, Sunday Schools, Camps and the like w/paid clergy/laity vs abuse which happens in a home and later reported on.

There are a lot of factors relative to weight. One can be satiety issues w/the brain. Not everyone's brains are getting the feedback mechanism as well as others. There's also related to this leptin sensitivity. Also issue w/inborn microbiome in the gut. Factors w/in control are things like avoiding foods which rapidly transit to glucose. This means avoiding most grains. Some are intolerant to lactose. Diets w/more fibre, not much in the way of fruits which transit to glucose rapidly. High protein and fat, but not trans fats, say olive oil, hemp oil, walnut oil, black seed oil, pumpkin seed oil. Eating at certain times of the day, say like intermittent fasting (eating once or twice a day). Certain supplements like berberine are also useful w/regard to keeping blood sugar in check. Exercise (walking or cycling) something most can do. Strength training. Then be sure you keep a pattern. Weigh yourself daily to monitor the needle's direction. If you have a spiritual program, you should have a physical program as well. Healthy mind, healthy body. Buying cases of scotch to drink at home, on the other hand. Not such a great idea.

This makes me feel like I'm one of the characters opposite Adam Sandler who hasn't a clue what's going on.

Well then. Can you tell me if you're a native English speaker?

It's your usage of English which has me confused. This doesn't parse into anything meaningful: "Therefore, the objectivity of resources, only applies when signaling time of vigilance which has nothing to do with man's politics."

I'm not sure what instrument you're talking about. No offense, but are you using google translate?

This is helpful.

You know I've been studying this phenomenon for a long time. I decided to look at other non-trinitarian groups as well just to see what they had to say and how these were doing w/scandals. I've looked at non-denominational non-trinitarian groups as well. I've looked at some who say they believe in the trinity, but everything they say about Jesus and Jehovah indicate they are henotheists and not trinitarians at all. I haven't found a group yet which hasn't been touched by one scandal or another. I would say this doesn't surprise me. It also doesn't surprise me that a lot of CYA goes on in organizations. I find it quite disappointing. So that's why when I'm asked to pretend that our organization is the purest of them all. I can't. I don't know. How am I supposed to know?. I'm sure that the people I see in the congregations have the best of intentions and yes there have been exceptions, but all the failings I see are human failings. Even the way certain things are handled. I mean what are you to do when you're not a professional in these areas and you are honest with yourself. I suppose I would have (and still do) belay any instruction that I can't internally agree with. But we're back again. I've been going through prophesies which emphasizes specific events as being interpreted specific ways and unless you insist on a few key points, you find that it all gets rather ambiguous. Take the little horn in Daniel. If you look at it w/o the lens you currently have you might conclude other things. https://www.gotquestions.org/little-horn.html https://readingacts.com/2020/02/11/who-is-the-little-horn-in-daniel-78/ https://atoday.org/a-new-interpretation-of-the-little-horn-of-daniel-7/ (In this one it's Donald Trump) So I suppose I may be treading water (I wish I could walk on water) But rather than spending my time in defense of a narrow set of ideas, I focus on the practicality of living as a Christian. Not particularly thrilling to some, but necessary. I'm still asking/searching and knocking but my focus is trying to wrap my mind around what I can and can't know from scriptures. When I read the eisegesis done w/Rev. 11 I have to roll my eyes a bit now. (But I could be very wrong too, maybe it's right, but it seems forced) I keep this to myself because it invariably leads to a call on the mat and a flag salute. (Sorry Scooter...I follow Jehovah, his Son and the Bible) Also, these questions are MY problem. Not someone elses . I don't need to drag anyone along w/me and my private investigations.

I understand. So measuring your success for your efforts. Has it moved the needle in the right direction?

Everyone has a filter. I do and you do. But the reality belongs to the Christ. When you use your scarce resources, as we all have scarce resources you have to choose how to expend these. You see what appears to be a problem. You try to verify that it is a problem. You compare notes with others like and unlike yourself to see if they are seeing the same things. Then you ask yourself "What can I do to make the situation better, and not worse?" Then you try those things and then repeat the process. In all this you have to decide what is the biggest problem over which you have some measure of control and you expend your energies in these directions. I remember how my dad used to love working on other people's cars while ours were up on blocks in our own driveway. That didn't make sense to me as a child. But then I came to realize that there is greater joy in trying to give than actually giving at times where no one is there to thank you. The cars were in bad shape and it was his responsibility, but no attaboys would come if he simply did what he was expected to do. On the other hand working on a neighbors car got him more attaboys.

I think a lot of JW's are losing their minds right now. Expectation is making the heart sick. I get it. I look at Christendom and see that their scripturally incorrect views give them an advantage of sorts insofar as these believe, in the main that death leads immediately to a resurrection. This is a lie, of course, but if you believe the lie, you then aren't really waiting for anything. Armageddon and the ultimate righting of wrong becomes a nebulous idea so far off so as to cause them to take no notice. They just get of with living. W/JWs...The frustration I see comes from all the not knowing. Many believed at one time or another that they really knew. I was worried when I started pioneering that I wouldn't be able to get enough hours under my belt before the end came. Clearly I was wrong. Then I thought about it all and researched all the groups who really believed the end was close at hand. There have been many. It's hard to be in a state of readiness if you really believe that some super important thing is going to happen this takes a toll on both your body and your mind. You can get into a sort of PTSD. People have differing reactions too to information given. No one listens to a talk or reads a publication without creating a narrative or movie, filling in the gaps with themselves. The anxiety can build up in people and then like a human immune system it may select a target to attack. Many are focused on the GB or anointed or these kinds of things. I get it. These things are not the real reasons. The real reasons come from all the not knowing while being in a state of stress. This is where you have to go back. Pump the brakes and pray. Jehovah is in charge. Jehovah created this universe (through his Son) and his son said "take courage, I have conquered the world". Read carefully the book of Job. Keep studying. Don't stop living. Don't go towards hating on the world, hating on apostates, hating on the GB, hating on anything. Understand that the real enemy is in the spirit realm. Understand that you yourself can be your own enemy with your own thinking and obsessions. Meditate on what it means to wait, what is it doing to you. I jumped out of a plane by myself once with only a morning's worth of training. It felt like suicide. During the training (over a high jump pit) we were told how to spot and deal w/a parachute malfunction - how to discard the tangled chute and deploy your reserve. The bikers running the jump site freaked out the guy in front of me and he didn't jump. They joked "You'd be lucky to get a malfunction - you get two rides for the price of one!" But they also told us once we got a chute to be sure we got lined up properly for a landing and relax and look up (don't look down) when you're one your way to a landing, otherwise the landing would be too hard as you'd stiff up and maybe break a leg. (we used old Vietnam era chutes, not the fancy kinds). So to me the illustration is to be sure you have yourself lined up right, and when you do relax and look up (not at your bro/sis/GB/world) and you'll stick the landing. If you're feeling anxiety, you're in good company. Just make sure while you feel trapped you don't chew off your own leg or the legs of those around you. The trap isn't your bros/sis's/elders/gb... it's this world under Satan's influence. You fight the trap by following as closely as you can the patterns set which lead to faith. Just be sure that when you see another human that you imitate faith based on the promises in the bible. Eat right, get regular exercise, find something to do which you enjoy and do what you can and learn to ignore the ones who imagine they know you and what you can do better. (I'm still working on all of this too)

I can't say that I know this last statement to be false. It could very well be true. Maybe this is what old threatened lobsters do. I have to be honest that to me all the anointed talk sounded like this to me:

I see a lot of concern for hierarchy in every society and JW's are no different in that regard. Of course people are not simply JW's but they have other social hierarchies they're intersecting in as well. Their families growing up. The schools and this environment. Sports, if they played sports. Work environments too. The lobster has a part of it's brain which is similar to ours in it's serotonin system. This system is activated and suppressed by perceived rankings in social hierarchies. Now the following video discussing this includes evolutionary ideas with which I part company (I prefer the idea of Jehovah as a sophisticated object-oriented engineer making reuse of previously solved problems as to why these are seen) So when people are worried about hierarchies in the congregation, I just think of lobsters.

My questions are out of curiosity. I think some just imagine there's some hierarchy and their little feelers don't like being down some imaginary totem pole. "Where are YOU on the totem pole?" Like if I was in the desert for 40 years and there was a pillar of fire out there all the time, I mean wouldn't you if you were a kid, throw a stick into it to see what happened? No one talks about that. I mean you get out of your tent at night to take care of business and "Yaaaawwwn! There's that pillar of fire. Hmmm! Looks slightly different tonight. Must mean the weathers changing"...

Reminds me of the guy who tried to steady the ark and got zapped for his trouble. 6 But when they came to the threshing floor of Naʹcon, Uzʹzah thrust his hand out to the Ark of the true God and grabbed hold of it,i for the cattle nearly upset it. 7 At that Jehovah’s anger blazed against Uzʹzah, and the true God struck him downj there for his irreverent act,k and he died there beside the Ark of the true God. - 2 Sa. 6:6-7 Someone didn't follow instructions, someone thought "here! let me help!" - Wrong choice! Thanks for playing.

That was my experience w/a few of the older ones. Most of the older brothers had gone to prison during WWII for conscientious objection. One learned the truth as a hand on the King Ranch. He had been a colporteur and his son told me used to sit any cry on the edge of the bed that people weren't accepting the truth. He really cared about people.

I prefer "Inexpensive" or "Frugal"

On the fatty thing - I admit it's a cheap shot. But people make cheap shots because they're just that - cheap.

Like one brother said "Opinions are like elbows - everyone's got two" I said, "but what about that brother w/one arm?" He replied "good point!"

Perhaps some do dedicate to an organization. But the same can be said for a true believer anywhere. People are always making idols out of something, someone or even some idea. Whomever you obey, you worship. So if you find yourself obeying and internally transferring the authority to command away from Jehovah or Jesus or the Bible, then you're in dangerous territory.

I suppose I always blew off the anointed idea as having authority (to me it's sola scriptura all the way, even Jesus said "Why do you call me good? Nobody is good except one, God" - Jehovah is the authority, Jesus is the authority, the scriptures have authority - balanced w/the need to allow for differences in consciences (to me, focus on anointed is a weak faith which I tolerate). Maybe it was a local phenomenon, but it was mostly weirdos or really old people who partook. Invariably some would just go nuts. I think some people mistake the voices in their heads for being special. The desire to worship the creation has a real pull on people. The other issues I have with the whole thing (not saying that it's not real) is that there's no objective measurement to determine this thing. It's not as if you could go to the Bible and establish a diagnostic criteria (a spiritual DSM manual) for cases of being anointed. In one congregation there were some that had some weird theory about being anointed meant you could see some weird thing when you looked at the sky when the sun was setting. I didn't even bother investigating that. The sister was weird, she'd lost a daughter and her son was a musician and periodically had to deal w/alcohol issues. I chalked it up to distress and wanting to be special in some way. Her belief did at least for a time calm her down. I don't know how she is today. We used to think that all this was moot. It was simple. If you were at the right place and the right time and the deal was if you became a "true christian", then you were a defacto "anointed". So all the people from the 1st century on, if they were true, then they were anointed. I wondered. "Is that even true?" "Why some and not others?". Of course it didn't matter so much to me, because if anyone was it wasn't my business. I never got the chance to ask (I would have if there wasn't so much social pressure to NOT ask). Ostensibly it was a spiritual job interview process, like they're hiring 144k down at the factory and they need people w/various life skills and experiences. Once the slot got filled (you died w/the golden ticket) it would be 144k-1 and so on. I still believe that this kingdom and it's rulers will be pulled from humanity, but whether someone is or isn't anointed - that's their problem unless they make it my problem by saying "If you don't believe X, Y, and Z are anointed, you're outta here." I certainly won't argue the point when it's been made manifest. In any case in MT 25, not one of the righteous had a clue who Christ's brothers were. They treated all men equally. But we claim to know. Huh. Somehow we're smarter than the righteous.

Are you sure we weren't in the same congregation? FS sounds about right.

You're absolutely right about the hypocrisy. It's all there. The cowardly behavior of some too. I understand too that some are closing their eyes to the deficiencies of yet another organization. I don't fault them for being human. I think of the parents of the man born blind who was healed, but for fear of getting kicked out of the congregation failed to put their faith in Jesus, the one who healed their son. I don't fault those leaving because of any pain they've suffered at the hands of those they'd come to trust. So many have left and some have stayed. To me this is all in fulfillment of prophesy as well. To me it's all wheat and weeds until the end. There won't be any perfect organization now any more than there was in the 1st century. People can choose to stay or choose to leave and there's pain either way. The pain comes always when people put their trusts in nobles, the son of earthing man to whom no salvation belongs. No one should abdicate their Christian conscience to an organization, and yet what are people to do? Worship alone? Form yet another defective church? The history of Christianity is filled with these experiments in purity, but in the end all of them are impure. One has to determine how to live as a Christian in the midst of all this and try as much as possible to focus on what is for up-building. As to what people make of various prophecies and how these are interpreted, I'm certain that we won't know w/o any doubt or force-fitting what these mean until the time these things take place. I'm so sorry you lost your husband. I do appreciate your telling these things openly.