by AlmightyDog 65 Replies latest jw experiences
Hi AD, I really feel for you right now. Being appointed an elder is a real shock, its like looking behind the curtain at the puppet show.
Well done on making a stand, I understand how strongly you feel about the need to act on what you now know and it may be the best thing rather than prelong the agony. On the other hand you have had some suggestions on how to use this situation as a pretext for fading and it might just work. Only you know your own situation best. Best wishes.
Just exchange brothers for sisters and you have my pioneering experience right there.
The jealousy, fights, rumors, shunning...
It's all the same.
Sisters are as bad as the brothers.
I left because I didn't see the identifying mark of Christ's brothers: Love.
It wasn't there.
The elder body also didn't care what the sisters were up to in service.
All the backstabbing and fighting happened in service.
I put up with it a year then switched congregations, being accused of running away from MY problem.
I didn't have one. They did.
After switching, it all got better.
Time went on and about 10 years later, I quit over the same thing happening all over again across the country in a different congregation.
I was never the target but saw what they were doing to the target.
It was purely ugly.
Finally, I was the target of abandonment due to being a divorced mom of two kids and being "different" and not a part of the club.
Then I really got to see how the "love" operates.
Yeah, I'd get out of there to spare your nerves and embrace freedom.
The trick will be getting out with your family intact.
I seriously doubt that a loving god would use a friggin' cult to trap, abuse, use, and throw away people.
It's a CULT!
I stay away from them.
Marked for later.
Loz x
I agree with flipper . . . DA-ing or getting DF'd is according to thier warped shunning policies which have only one interest . . . the Borg's retention of members by marginalising dissenters. Tell them NOTHING about your feelings . . . only that you are no longer are prepared to serve for personal reasons, period. I withdrew because of illness 7 years ago . . . have been as outspoken as anybody with my views (on FB etc) . . . but still remain simply "inactive" as far as they are concerned. They either don't care anymore or don't have the balls to confront the issue . . . I don't care which. I still make contact with some old JW friends occasionally . . . others give a wide birth.
It takes a while AD . . . because of years of subjection to the Org's rules . . . to see this debacle in it's true light. It's pretty low-calibre stuff in the grand scheme of things . . . a schoolyard scrap between schoolboy minds . . . resentment, deciet, revenge, hate . . . all the worst in human nature. Keep your head outwardly . . . but do not feel pressured over "respect for Jehovah's arrangement" . . . it's not worthy of an ounce of respect. You are a far better man than what you are turning your back on.
I once watched two elders almost get into a fistfight
It wasn't "almost" for me. Two Elders in my last Congo actually came to blows on a front lawn . . . they were rivalling each other over who would take the recently vacated PO's position . . . pathetic! And they slapped at each other like a couple of girls. I'd already departed mentally and just laughed my head off!
Forget about "them" and what they want . . . your family must become your primary focus now. Good luck, keep us posted.
Walking out..wow! that really took courage.somtimes ignorance is bliss and getting appointed only opens the veils to view what really goes on behind the scenes.by walking out you have shown those elders your a concientious objecter(something parised over and over in the society) sadly they may view it as your no longer a team player.as others have posted go the spiritual health line and visit your doctor for whatever you like but you can tell them you have seen your doctor and you need to de-stress for a while.Call this to yourself of course"buying out the opportune time"and start planning.the problem in their minds will be you know too much about what really goes on in the cong.watch out!i was in a similar situation and depression got a hold of me,i resigned due to my health ,this opened up the mental health issue and that was the beginning of the end for me and sadly i was pushed into being disfellowshipped, pushed out of my home,pushed out of contact with my three children.so please brother consider your family and plan things on your terms.read crisis of concience and be subtle with your wife as she most likely has no idea of the real workings of the cong.hopefully she will feel for your predicament and Jehovah willing she will go with your decision.Good luck friend and we look forward to hear how you go and were here to offer support.
Satan uses the effect of fleshly claimants to being elders of God, for that exact intended effect, to make people theink the entire organization is not God's, when in fact it is the culmination on mankind's final warning, regardless of how many fleshly elders though, may harm the sheep, those keeping their eyes ON JEHOVAH, know these things must occur to a finality IN God's own house.
Well, 2057, that tells us a lot about what you, and the WT, believe God to be.
The God I believe in is the loving God imaged by Jesus, his loving Father, not one who gives out final warnings.
Almighty Dog, it is indeed a cult, and you are well out of it. My experience is as an unbaptised publisher who had a rude awakening just in time caused by the extraordinarily jealous, possessive and controlling behaviour of a sister, so I can sympathise with White Dove above.
Even at that level, recent and not even baptised, I found it very difficult and disorientating to stop the study of the second book and just not to go to meetings, but now, two weeks later, I'm feeling free (though they'll start the recovery mission on me again soon.) I don't know how it is with you, and I'm sure you have hard times ahead, but once you realise that it's just not true, your inner honesty is going to take over.
You'll be fine.
Yup, two sisters got into a shouting match in the khall parking lot.
They came close to slapping each other.
It was over who was the better pioneer.
The lot was lined with houses on the other side of the fence, so I wonder how many of them heard it and laughed.
Well at least they did not try to murder you.
So anything less than that must be OK eh pnt1?
Calling John 8 an "elders meeting" as if it bears any resemblence to such petty squabbles is almost blasphemy.
It's all trotting out one set of arguments to suit the situation for JW's . . . as your post demonstrates.
Where is the identifying "love among yourselves" that mark true Christians here? . . . tell us that!
"Highway of holiness" indeed!
AlmightyDog has seen the light . . . you haven't . . . and that's all there is to it.
In my old cong a MS one of my best friends straight after the closing prayer went up to PO on the platform and punched him to the floor then gave him a kick for good mesure.my kids were in the front row and thought it was awesome.it took every effort to stop them from DF him.
Im shocked that Maze isnt in here trying to justify all this... Run dog run.
