by sir82 30 Replies latest jw friends
Culty cult cult..... Yeack
I could smell the bullshit from the highest seats at the convention.
Why didn't they talk about all the WT slaves that died that year from not taking a blood transfusion, that would have been encouraging and up lifting information for the drones
to take in.
Yes, I noticed the voice whatevers also.
It was all the same for every sister.
The men all sounded the same, too.
Greenhornet, Harold King and Stanley Jones were imprisoned many years ago, so I would think they are dead by now.
I remember a Brother King. He was imprisoned in China for like 40 years? . . . I wonder if any one knows what he is up to today?
Actually, he was imprisoned nearly 5 years. Four of those years were spent in solitary confinement. His wife Faye died two years ago, and I believe he died a few years before that. (Don't quote me on that, though. I may have heard wrong, and he might still be alive.)
"Experiences" were one of the many things that made me back away from the organization. At first, I believed the experiences and thought they were real. Gradually, as I realized I was not having similar super-success and miracles in my theocratic life, they made me feel guilty and frustrated. Then, I eventually I came to know people who told their "experiences" on stage. It was a shock to me. Import details had been left out. Facts twisted. Exaggerations to the point of lying. As an active JW it made me feel sick. And the "experiences" were just a snapshot, one frame out of a movie, without context. They didn't tell what happened to that super-good pioneer family a few years down the line (regret, illness, kids left the truth due to the bad example, and so on). And THEN I started to worry... why the dishonesty? Why would God's organization resort to half-truths and dishonesty? It made no sense, when they would be more effective if they were REAL. Now I understand, sadly, they are an attempt to create an illusion, motivate through guilt, and make it seem like life as a JW is perfectly wonderful if you shut up and do what you're told no questions asked.
The "experiences" given at the conventions all sound like they are given by the same person.
Just like the "life stories" published in The Watchtower, they all read the same. It is as if they are all written by the same person!
My experience with "experiences":
There seems to be a lot of pressure on those who are asked to give the parts on assemblies and conventions to find great stories to tell. I believe the pressure on these one to "bring home the bacon" so to speak is what really leads to the misrepresentation you see. I was on the assembly program twice and can say without a doubt that the Elder in charge of the part was pretty stressed out because he was having a hard time finding any experience at all that matched what the WTS wanted. One Elder in particular worked with me for around 30-45 minutes or so until we formed the "experience" I had into something that was acceptable for the platform.
In my local area the same experiences were used over and over again. My own personal experience was on the state three times. I later noticed that the same people I shared the state with also were on the assembly program multiple times. One guy I believe was at least on four different programs, telling the same story. I'm sure he has been back a few times since I left two years ago.
I think it comes down to the fact that so few new people are coming into the organization there really are no exciting stories to tell. Those in charge of finding these stories essentially have to resort to leaving out facts and other distortions to match what the WTS wants. Most of those guys are hoping to receive a position in the org down the road and don't want to screw up.
I had lots of assembly parts that involved experiences, and rehearsed many others.
There were COs and DOs who were absolutely committed to making sure that EVERYTHING in the experiences was positive. That was the overriding reason that the experiences at CA and DC are pretty much a joke even among faithful JWs.
And the comment that it is often impossible to find an experience that fits what the WTS puts in the outline is absolutely true. I remember one in particular. The outline was quite specific; they wanted to use a family on the DC where the father worked, the mother was a stay at home mom who happily made do managing the household on the one income and often aux. pioneered or reg. pioneered AND they had to have exemplary teenage children who also were content with the one income while they helped mom pioneer.
There was not a family in the entire DISTRICT that fit the profile!
I remember one CO - Ray Hayes – who went out of his way to talk about real issues in his talks. Depression, abuse, the friends tiring out - he'd nail it all and the friends loved him for it. But I remember one talk at a CA, and he's discussing this and not glossing over things or telling the audience that "JWs are the happiest people on Earth!" Well, the DO, can't remember exactly who, but it might have been Dennis Raftopolis, was visibly disturbed by the honesty of the talk. "What is he doing? He's ruining everything!" the DO was heard to say during Ray's talk.
Ray was a good guy, and could care less if they kept him in the circuit work or not. He eventually left it.
S4
I know of an experience here in Rosenburg in like 2003.2004. A brother in our Circiut inThe Woodlands Congregation gave of giving up "riches" to serve Jehovah.
There a few ex-NFLers who reside in The Woodlands, so I took it to be true, and his name exscapes me,but I always remember it like it was yesaterday. He was really big black brother, and he was drafted by the Washington Redskins. He he played a a number of years and then quite.
I felt running on the stage and punting his a*^ off for being so stupid. Thats a bit harsh,but I remember asking others afterward if they would have given up that kind of money.
Of course everyone had a ready-made answer of how the WTS provides true riches........
I SAID ....
Man, I believed those experiences! How dare they guilt people into "doing more". By the way, I remember being moved to auxilliary pioneer after a CO talk. I felt awful during that month, doing stupid stuff to count time and I still didn't get 50 hours, only 38. But I knew I would not do that ever again!!! Something just felt wrong.
