I am accustomed to encountering a pair of 7th Day Adventists (at least, that seems to be who they are) at the bus stop one weekday afternoon/evening per week. They have a breifcase, a pop-up display like poster (made more of fabric) and a tall, narrow rack of paper brochures to give away.

Unusually, they do not engage in conversation with passers-by. They stand there like ornaments. I've never seen them engage with anyone this way!

Saturday, I happened to be at a stripmall that I rarely need to visit. There they were - outside the Mexican restaurant. They didn't seem to be having any more luck there than at the central bus interchange.

After golf the other day, some of us were talking about maybe getting a bit to eat and one of the guys said, "follow me!"

A couple of us did. He took us to a market/restaurant next to Sierra University in Riverside, CA. No meat served. I had a burrito with faux meat, but really fried eggs and some other normal stuff. I missed the meat.

My friend said that 7th Day Adventists have a much higher actuarial life span than mortal men...

So I just asked of Google and found this. Note the membership figures and the growth rate!




"The primary prerequisite for membership in the Adventist church is baptism by immersion. This, according to the church manual, should occur only after the candidate has undergone proper instruction on what the church believes.

"As of December 31, 2016, the church has 20,008,779 baptized members. Between 2005 and 2015, around half a million people per year have joined the Adventist church, through baptisms and professions of faith. The church is one of the world's fastest-growing organizations, primarily from membership increases in developing nations. Today, less than 7% of the world membership reside in the United States, with large numbers in Africa as well as Central and South America. Depending on how the data was measured, it is reported that church membership reached 1 million between 1955 and 1961, and grew to five million in 1986. At the turn of the 21st century, the church had over 10 million members, which grew to over 14 million in 2005, 16 million in 2009, and 19 million in 2015.

"It is reported that today over 25 million people worship weekly in Seventh-day Adventist churches worldwide.[80] The church operates in 202 out of 230 countries and areas recognized by the United Nations,[2] making it "probably the most widespread Protestant denomination".

"G. Jeffrey MacDonald, an award-winning religion reporter, and author of Thieves in the Temple reports that the SDA church is the fastest-growing church in the United States. "Newly released data show Seventh-day Adventism growing by 2.5% in North America, a rapid clip for this part of the world, where Southern Baptists and mainline denominations, as well as other church groups, are declining."

--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh-day_Adventist_Church


They be kickin' mormonism's flabby ass!!

I didn't know Seventh Day Adventists preached on street corners.

I am curt with all religious fanatics who try to talk to me, though I hate it more if I'm at home or in a captive audience setting.

I very, very much doubt that the sighted religious mercenaries were SDA. I would bet a LOT ($15!!) that they were JWs.

Did you see where they are growing at 2.5% yearly in the US? Only through boinking their brains out are los mormones able to maintain parity, that it, to keep from shrinking their numbers in the US.

But the SDA have exSDA people, just like mormonism has exmos. Is there a religion that doesn't have people who put 'ex' in front of that religion's name?

Here's a sample of exSDA in action:

"The Seventh-day Adventist church has been going all out to try to stop websites that are devoted to sharing Biblical New Covenant concepts with former or questioning Seventh-day Adventists. People checking into Adventism through their outreach efforts have been going online and discovering some of these issues and seeing some of the theological problems in the SDA church. The church wants to put a halt to this free access to information. In the official Church sites and publications, issues with Ellen White are often downplayed and the theological problems kept out of sight.

"They are concerned that people are getting information they would rather keep secret. Because of this, the SDA denomination has been actively pursuing legal means to get the alternative sites shut down. The SDA church has been taking legal action against any site that has SDA or Adventist in the name."

--https://www.religionnewsblog.com/16582/seventh-day-adventist-church-takes-legal-action-against-ex-sda-websites

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I very, very much doubt that the sighted religious
> mercenaries were SDA. I would bet a LOT ($15!!)
> that they were JWs.

I would bet that too, Mr Lot.

Hey, how's the computer analysis coming along?

I'm putting my money on your analysis proving without a doubt that my moon is ascendant and in the house of Mercury, which is in retrograde.

Please keep me/us informed!

I would like to do an analysis of youe posting times which also seem to be suspiciously similar but I don't have enough time on my hands.

Wow!!!!

Talk about dodging a bullet!!

So you're not going to do the computer analysis to prove we are identical? You are such a tease!

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So you're not going to do the computer analysis to
> prove we are identical? You are such a tease!

It would be far easier to do a textual analysis since it would involve cutting and pasting.

As for calculating when you both clock in, there aren't enough hours in the day to compile that. Suffice to say your visits always overlap, and you often reply to each other within five minutes or at least under ten.

I get it - so EOD is LW, and therefore Saucie is Lot?

oldpobot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I get it - so EOD is LW, and therefore Saucie is
> Lot?

I'm not very convinced by saucie, who is probably separate, but the other two act like a chorus, and post at similar times.

She's been complaining that I am a couple of other posters, one of whom is clearly a parody of me (also by Lot's Wife seemingly), and the other shares some common views with me (that's about it). Neither of these characters is particularly beneficial to me, so I don't know why I would supposedly wish to use them.

I see where you're coming from. LW has also been writing some of my posts lately, especially on constitutional law, from her Swedish island fortress.

Oh, you wait and see what comes next, oldpobot. You're going to sound like a complete idiot!

Now I'm confused. Is this me posting or you?

I'll never tell!

Correction: I haven't complained about you. You must be confusing

me with all your other haters.

Maybe you should get a life which doesn't consist of trying to

piss people off. You've got it down to a fine art. Whats the

matter? You failed at making friends so now you settle for

enemies just as long as it gives you some crumbs of attention?

Be pathetic somewhere else. You bore me.

saucie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Correction: I haven't complained about you. You
> must be confusing
>
> me with all your other haters.
>
> Maybe you should get a life which doesn't consist
> of trying to
>
> piss people off. You've got it down to a fine art.
> Whats the
>
> matter? You failed at making friends so now you
> settle for
>
> enemies just as long as it gives you some crumbs
> of attention?
>
> Be pathetic somewhere else. You bore me.

Was this a poem? One can never tell these days.

Jordan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It would be far easier to do a textual analysis
> since it would involve cutting and pasting.

We await your analysis with bated breath!


----------------
> As for calculating when you both clock in, there
> aren't enough hours in the day to compile that.
> Suffice to say your visits always overlap, and you
> often reply to each other within five minutes or
> at least under ten.

Well that's because EOD and I are in the same time zone. I'm writing from Visby and he's posting from Gdansk. You see, he's really a Pole!

In fact, he was a secret service defenestrator until he turned his coat and became Lech Walesa's right-hand man and orchestrated the Soviets' expulsion from his beloved homeland. At present he's holed up in an old dacha with Saucie, hiding from Putin's men, who never forgave Solidarity.

That Californian Latin lover stuff is just a disguise to keep the cultural Marxists off his trail!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2019 12:41AM by Lot's Wife.

I actually met Lech Walesa back in the early 1980s. Strange but true. I can't go into details, but let's just say it was an accidental meeting and it wasn't in Poland. He was fundraising secretly for Solidarity in western Europe and we shared some mutual acquaintances who felt the same way about Communism I did.

This sounds total BS, but it isn't. We met very briefly and I would like to say we had a long conversation and I helped him out but I didn't. It was only later it dawned on me that I should have done, but c'est la vie. He was the right horse to bet on.

I doubt you'll believe any of this, and I don't blame you. I wouldn't believe it unless I'd been there.

LW probably does not care enough either to believe or to disbelieve it.

I remember meeting a couple of SDAs when I was a missionary...they were nice, invited me in, and we sat down on the back porch (well, of the apartment) sipping watermelon juice.

OK, first time I had sandia and blew me away that anyone was smart enough to make that stuff.

Anyway, my take-a-way from the discussion is that it amazed me how much their beliefs sounded like Mormons. Except the part about the sabbath on Saturday. In many other respects, more than any other religion.

7DAs have mainstreamed far quicker than LDS but they still retain the Saturday sabbath (which from a scriptural viewpoint makes sense).

They had a big prophet cult for a while, but have been quietly burying her.

I still think OlderDog is the dark altar-ego of Elder-the-Older, and Saucie is Lot's niece's second cousin (twice removed) through marriage to OlderBerry's grandmother's (his grandfather's fourth wife) fifth daughter's grand nephew.

As the late, great California sage Rodney King once said, "Can't we all just get along?"

--The7thBeatiFiend.

Yeah, but where does Judic West fit into that family?

Judic is everyone's dysfunctional younger brother.

I heard that someone who posts here semi-regularly is actually the love child of Raptor Jesus and Ann Romney, though I don't know the identity or even if the rumor is true.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2019 04:02AM by scmd1.

So their main recruiting tactic is claiming that they live longer because they are vegetarians ?

That's a good conversational ice breaker!

I'm not trying to help these religions find people to join, but the best way to attract new people involves their members. It's my opinion that if these members were so damn happy, then their CLOSE friends would take notice/interest and want to join for themselves.

Of course, the underlying problem is that these cults do not allow people to be themselves. It's all about control and dictating what members can and can not do.

I have a slight amount of interest in the stat that here in the USA the SDA church is growing at a 2.5% annual rate. They may be over 25 million worldwide and have more foreign missions than los mormones.

They have to be doing something better than los mormones. Conceding that the SDA church is a cult, how are they culting so much better than the mormons?

I think this remotely suggests that Without the Mormon missionary effort, the mormon membership numbers would plummet; due to the raw decrease in converts PLUS lack of devotion/activity / loyalty of current members.

JW will pick the busiest streets and pop out their table, lawn chairs, and an umbrella. Sit there for hours surfing their phone. They no 99% of the time nobody is going to bother them. They get to count the proselyting hours and be a good JW for the month keeping their member status current.