I just got into JW.org’s Wi-Fi network.

[TrueTomHarley]

9 hours ago, JW Insider said:

The brothers and sisters who have their part in the Bible village museum try to stay in character as if they are in a convention drama even if you ask them a question. They don’t have to of course but some of them have fun with it.

I’ll say! Those jerks who stoned Stephen turned their firepower on me! I barely made it back to the car in one piece.

[Anna]

7 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Tony Morris III

Please, remember to ask him!

[JW Insider]

On 4/10/2024 at 1:00 PM, JW Insider said:

I was just in Patterson to see the Bible Village “Museum” tour. It was excellent but too short. They also have a “legally establishing the good news” tour/museum and a Gilead school historical tour which now covers the other schools more extensively than before. 

The last time I was here, they were more ambiguous about taking pictures and sharing them with friends, so I literally took a picture of just about everything and I even posted a set of pictures here. But this time they give stricter unambiguous instructions about the personal and family use of pictures taken, even when you can take a still picture vs a video. And the instruction is now explicitly that they cannot be shared on any social media platform. Sorry.

The 4 "museums" at Warwick are still about the same as before. With a few updates and a few older things cut out. The Bible museum is still the best. Probably the best of its kind anywhere. There is a separate segment on the use of the Divine Name in Bible translations, and it's very good.

There are several bits of interactive equipment that were working perfectly in 2018 and 2019 but are now giving trouble. For example, touchscreens that take your input about all kinds of things, such as whether you have worked on a WTS construction project, or which book you studied in preparation for baptism [e.g., Let God Be True, What Does the Bible Really Teach, Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, Paradise ...Regained, etc.] and then it gives statistics on many of these things for everyone to see. [e.g. 68% of all visitors this week have worked on a WTS construction project, etc.]

One thing that bothered me a bit was the reduction of material in a special "Watchtower History" museum that had a lot of pre-1919 information about the persecution mostly starting with the 1917 Finished Mystery book. They changed the name and now start it mostly in 1919. And then cut out a large percentage of interesting stuff. 

Also, they have the big wall-sized "Chart of the Ages" in one of the rooms highlighting Russell's early work. And another wall-sized chart called "Bible Chronology" that Russell's early followers also used in their meeting places. Those charts have the dates on them -- even if some of those dates appear to be embarrassing today.

But now there is a new "Chart of the Ages" I have never seen before in the Patterson museum on a similar historical subject but it seems like the dates have been removed. The chart is still titled "CHART OF THE AGES" and the museum label below it says:

How was the training provided [in Russell's time]? The "Chart of the Ages" was used as the primary basis for practice talks. 

It's evidently a wall sized blow-up of a page from one of the publications, because it still has the pictures of the pyramids on it, but on the chart itself, in says in fine print (on the side):

"For Explanation see The Plan of the Ages published by Bible and Tract Soc'y, Brooklyn N.Y."

Also odd that they left out the word "Watchtower," just Bible and Tract Society. I could be wrong, but it looks like it was edited to remove the embarrassing dates that are on the large one at Warwick.

If I remember, I'll look it up unless someone here already knows if there was a "generic" chart of the ages. 

[Anna]

5 hours ago, JW Insider said:

I could be wrong, but it looks like it was edited to remove the embarrassing dates that are on the large one at Warwick.

You could be wrong, but if possible, I think we would like to rewrite some of our history...

[Pudgy]

Soon it won’t matter …. the generation that knew the Truth will have all died off, and agenda driven people will win.

… as “history” is beaten to fit, and painted to match, one detail at a time.

Double-Plus Ungood … but that’s how it goes.

(Sixty years from now all JWs will know that JW men NEVER had a problem with beards, and no one will have any idea what the “Overlapping Generations  Chart “ was.)

… but that’s how it goes.

 

 

[Matthew9969]

On 4/10/2024 at 11:00 AM, JW Insider said:

Speaking of security. It’s much tighter than it was in 2019 when I was here last. There is the iron gate out front and the brother has to make a phone call with your name and appointment confirmation # to another person inside before they open it. Then you must stop for an attendant who asks you for the info again. Then a parking attendant. Then a brother at the main lobby door who only lets you in with a card key. 

I was just in Patterson to see the Bible Village “Museum” tour. It was excellent but too short. They also have a “legally establishing the good news” tour/museum and a Gilead school historical tour which now covers the other schools more extensively than before. 
 

I am back in Warwick now. Got here a bit early so I’m looking out on the lake. Very nice. I’ve worked while looking out on this lake before. But for IBM and not the WTS. IBM is at the other end of the lake. We used to handle our disaster recovery setup with them and I was sent here twice for my secular work. 

Dang, why the need for so much security? That truly does sound like a billionair den. I'd be willing to bet those guys were packing heat.

[Pudgy]

… There is a name for those people who don’t have beards, don’t know how to use tools, and don’t carry weapons.

Women.

[TrueTomHarley]

16 minutes ago, Matthew9969 said:

Dang, why the need for so much security?

Waiting for the attack from those IBMers across the Deep Blue lake, no doubt, led by Watson himself.

[JW Insider]

42 minutes ago, Matthew9969 said:

Dang, why the need for so much security? That truly does sound like a billionair den. I'd be willing to bet those guys were packing heat.i

I doubt it. Bethelite guards used to carry guns in the factory up until the 1960s. I recall a well known story of a brother who shot up a large roll of paper for the printing press because it shot at him first. (Actually it “popped” several times because that’s what tightly rolled rolls of paper will do when they contract and expand from temperature changes. 
 

I’m told that the biggest concern is keeping out protesters. Also the “webmaster” told me that they also are always on the watch for hackers who try to get inside the network to get to the databases. That was the gist of my hacking jokes that started at the top of this thread. 

[Pudgy]

Wow! 

I am sitting in my car at a typical WalMart mall, with lots of gunfire going on in the distance.

[JW Insider]

13 minutes ago, Pudgy said:

I am sitting in my car at a typical WalMart mall, with lots of gunfire going on in the distance.

Same at our Costco. It’s next to a firing range in constant use by local and county police. 

[George88]

As you mentioned, it is important not to rely on AI tools for storytelling. The issue in New York was the significant presence of gangs, which led to the perceived necessity for armed security. Although New York underwent significant improvements after the late seventies. However, the water cooler gossip is, there are still individuals who continue to spread misinformation about the true nature in humanity for the security of the Bethel Family. I guess this individual is advocating for the harm of Bethel members. What else is new.

Where was the old Watchtower located? This of course is providing secondhand information that can be trusted. Can you provide a photo of a Bethel Guard with a gun in his hand or strapped to his shoulder? That would be interesting to see, but not surprised.

How about the other fellow that you said committed suicide because he was rejected, instead of it being due to his unstable mental state? How about any other negative thing you can offer against the Watchtower. I find your post extremely poetic, not funny, just poetic being you are a former Bethel member.