by Balsam 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Visit the laundromats. There are usually some magazines there. Also, figure out where the "favored pioneers" get to "street witness." They may be set up at a table at one of the local malls. With a little planning you could have a little contact with lots of different JWs, rather than a lot of contact with just one. Malls that allow them to set up a table may tell you what their schedule is.
Shoshana
I know the JW's set up in these little hallway connectors in buildings in downtown Charlotte. I wonder if I tell them I'm disfellowshipped they will refuse to let me have literature. The Elder Big shot said our literature is not for entertainment but to bring people to jehovah god. I said and so what are you implying? He didn't answer. I said why would disfellowshipped people who don't desire to go to meetings not be able to have them? They said well it just policy to which I said policy that has changed since 2001. The Elders refused to comment. Funny thing is they were totally poker faced the whole time they were talking, no animation no nothing which was creepy and very borg like. Lord I could imagine them saying "Resistence is Futile". The really weird thing is the Elder who's wife had been bringing the literature to me and had been in my house to talk with Howard and I and I once in his house. He was totally expressionless which I found strange since they had been calling here for 2 years now.
When the Elders also said they have no access to my file and didn't know why we (my son and I) were disfellowshipped I didn't offer any reason what so ever. I said I thought that was good though I am surprised they would be willing to follow the policy.
I'll get them from somewhere it is really no big deal now as I don't need them as much as I once did to help folks. Most are finding their way out when they are ready.
I just think it is funny and bizarre that the congregations of JW's will not let ex-witnesses have literature without attendence at meetings.
Balsam
Someone is leaving brand new mags at my local laundrette. I didnt think they were supposed to leave the current issues at wash and drys but there they are every month in both English and Spanish. You might check your local Ducky Wucky for the latest issues.
Just get a JW relative to mail them to you once a month. That's what I did.
Just get a JW relative to mail them to you once a month. That's what I did.
Don't mention the elders saying "The only way..." A former friend or family member might be glad to count the placements.
i was df'd for about 10 years , and when i went back they told me they couldnt find my files on why i was disfellowshipped..it also happened to another girl i knew which made me led to believe they dont make files about you when you get df'd, or maybe our elders were to lazy to write them. anyway in my judicial committee ,my dad was there, I was 17 , and i didnt want to get in trouble ,so i didnt say a word,, and i got df'd for not saying anything..??!!??>>they didnt accuse me of anything ,nor knew that i was just lonely,and suffering an identity crisis and was just about to go haywirer on lsd.
i think its just great,that when your a vunerable teenager,they just throw you out with the garbage,just when you need the suport for the first time in your life.........NOT
So if LITERATURE is not for disfellowship people, what are the other restrictions added in the 10 years since I dissappeared? The last comment by Pippy in Australia piqued my curiosity, because I know others that were df'd at her age, in the same mental condition, and nothing ever offered to get them off the Dangerous Evildoer List. (and apparently now she shouldn't read WT literature) The woman I'm thinking of was 18, on the verge of a mental breakdown, AND IS NOW 40 years old! She has an older brother, now an elder, that still won't speak to her, and doesn't want his family to speak to her or see her. "Family" includes his 68 year old mother, a JW living 300 miles from him, and his married daughter! (still a JW) He's ranting and raving and threatening to Turn his mother and daughter in" to their local elders for SOCIALIZING TOGETHER on the occasion of his mother and father's 50th wedding anniversary! He has totally lost his mind, but is there anything published by the JW's that backs up his outrageous actions? I don't keep up with reading those WT's and AW's left around laundromats. I get angry whenever I see one. But then I can't say anything to refute his ridiculous ranting because I don't read the stuff he reads. Can anyone share the latest crazy outlook on the "How to interact with df'd relatives?" subject.....(and do these safety measures to "protect" the other JW's ever make anyone want to join up again?" Sincerely, Fine Example
I wondered why my parents never sent me any JW stuff. ....and I never got any shepharding calls.
They didn't even warn the local congragations that I lived here.
Oh ...well...I'll just continue on with my bs each week with the unsuspecting sisters....
lisa
Oh something else they said is that Elders are told to make a yearly call on disfellowshipped individuals, and I let them know that they were the first ones ever to contact me though two other congregations knew where I was and my new last name. It had been 5 years too. They had nothing to say except Elders are imperfect, yah I quickly agreed they sure were.
Thanks for all the kind comments and words of assistance.
Balsam
I have to laugh whenever a discussion breaks out about "procedures" such as sealing the records of a DF'ing case . Yes, there are instructions from the Society. Yes, there are some anal-retentive elders who follow them to the letter.
But I have been through the locked files in the KH on "official" business and can tell you there is no consistent pattern to what you find there. The "rule" is that all the notes that are kept by JC members are collected by the chairman and placed in an envelope, along with a copy of the official form that goes to Brooklyn stating the name, date, reason for DF'ing, and other information. This envelope is to be sealed, and never opened except in a case where the DF'd person asks to be reinstated -- and then only if there are no members of the original JC available (like, they've died or moved).
The rationale is that when three "new" elders have to determine whether someone is repentant and can be reinstated, they have to know what the original circumstances were. This makes a certain amount of sense, since the WT parcels out "sentences" based on how heinous the "crime" was... if your sin was deemed minor, you could be reinstated in a matter of months; if major, it could be a year or more.
In actual fact, you should see the files! Some of the envelopes are sealed. Others just have the flap folded in. With some of those manila envelopes, the metal clasp is all that holds it shut. The instructions require some basic info be written on the outside of the envelope, such as a name, date, what action was taken, thus making it unnecessary to open the envelope to find that out; but often this info is missing, which explains why a number of the envelopes are not sealed. As for the contents, very often you find several pages of scrawled notes that are completely illegible. You'd be hard-pressed to be able to read whole sentences, although you could get the gist of the matter from the large words that are underlined!
As for the copies of the official forms, sometimes they're in the envelope, sometimes they're not. Let me let you in on a secret: At the congregation level, the WTS is hopelessly inept when it comes to record keeping. This is mainly because the files are organized and maintained by the Secretary, which is the least "glorious" job on the elder body and which no one wants! It's too damn much work and responsibilility, plus it requires some skill -- you have to be a seriously good filer and be able to write letters that look and sound intelligent and which actually convey information concisely and accurately. This in turn requires training that almost no dub elder possesses, thanks to the WTS' anti-education policy.
Now I know some elder or ex-elder will take issue with this and insist that their files were much tighter than that. And that may be true. My experience is based on nearly 30 years in four different congos, and this was pretty much the situation in all of them, although some were better than others. I don't doubt there is a congo somewhere in which all the rules are followed, all the files are sealed, and one guy has been Secretary (or PO) forever.
But generally, these guys just aren't that well organized.
