Brother now I am stumbled!

Shane

Have you ever been so dam hurt from the things done to you in the so called Gods organization that you wanted to just set down cry your guts out?
I will list a few reasons but basically I feel that my reality has been denied to me as a young man growing up as a JW.
I was not taught to love God, but have excrement scared out of me if I did not do what they said, I too had an over bearing father who seemed to fit right in with JW's mind set. I can still hear him now God rest his soul, he would say every morning if he happen to hear Garner Ted Armstrong, Honey listen they are robbing from the Lords table. Weird the only vacations I remember having was going to boring assembles circuit and district ones, and I had to go and help in the cafeteria scraping all those filthy dirty food trays into a large fifty gallon trash can to the point of over flowing. To make matters worse I had to see a few friends I made have their socks beat off them for not wanting to work for nothing, heavens sake you could not even get a free donut, though I would snatch an occasional chocolate milk. I remember going to Dodger stadium for district convention, and seeing enchiladas be moved through a crowd of about sixty to eighty thousand people nothing covering it flies blowing it setting in the hot sun, and cheese burgers getting the same treatment. The high light of that assembly was eating in a large tent and having some jackass keep telling everyone to hurry and eat we have many hungry brothers and sisters who are so hungry, man that makes you want to digest your food.
Anyone else out there been stumbled like me, I am laughing but serious, feel free to continue this travesty upon a young man who is now an old fool.
THE END, Shane

ElijahTheThird

What can be said of all the many wrongs that have been done to so many in the name of god?, As I do love my Father very much for giving me this life. Many have felt these injustices and wrongs you mention. Hope and trust in that one day you may look back on all of it and not stand for it being done again! You have learned a great lesson, learn and keep going.

Norval

mommy

Shane,
I had a very good friend of mine who's son had MS. She had pioneered her entire adult, married life it seemed.lol Well her son sitting in the carseat all day with no activity was very bad for his already weak muscles. I would take some afternoons and sit with him working his muscles etc so she could go in service, but noone else really lifted a finger to help her. Often times she had noone to work with so we decided to start doing other forms of the ministry work.

It was just her and I for awhile, then a few more came along and so on, unitl it became the type of field service everyone wanted to do. There was probably 10 sisters who all of the sudden was interested in "helping her achieve her hours" Of course as you know the elders don't like things like this, so the sister was counseled against doing this kind of work. I cried as she took her son out day in and day out locking him in the carseat, such a shame. If it had been me, I would have told them to kiss my butt haha, but she was the pioneer not me, I had no say in it. I am sure there are many more I can think of though.
wendy

When I leave, you will know I have been here

picosito

Shane, I luv yu.

Thans fer the luv.
Picosito. We cud lotsa shtuffe tagetherre.!!!

patio34

Hey Shane! I sat thru many conventions down at Dodger Stadium in the past 20 years! Nice to hear your perspective.

Pat

"It's easier to put on slippers than to carpet the world." (from "Stuart Saves His Family")

terafera

Shane,

Thanks for the laughs! Even though they're tears of pain... I can vividly remember sitting through an assembly in Hawaii.. mustve been about 88 degrees with no breeze. I could see the food sitting there for a few hours before lunch (that was when it was potluck.. everyone would bring a dish). Then they realized it was against Food regulations and started providing meals. I also wanted to work the food line.. thought it would be fun. Boy, those jobs got snatched up fast!

My memories of my youth involve me turning 10. 'Mom, its my birthday!' "NO, its not, Tera. Its your BIRTH DATE. There is a difference!' That was depressing...

Mommy, what a horrible story! For any child to have to sit in a car for hours is wrong, but a disabled one? Oh my word!

wheelwithinwheel

Setting up toilets in the campgrounds, cleaning the stadiums before and after, trucking in all the equipment (stoves and cookers, trays, sound equipment, chairs etc.) and then hauling it all away to KH basements...all the fine memories

What with the 8 day conventions, rooming (hah remember that !), setting up and clean-up no wonder all the good dubs didn’t have any time left to take the family on a holiday

garybuss

Hi Shane, All,

What stumbled me was my own inability to accept dead men's delusions any longer. That coupled with the blatant lies and dishonesty I saw first hand relative to the events of and preceding the year 1975.

My last district assembly was in 1975 in Bismark, North Dakota. My oldest was 3 and a gogetter. He had a sharp eye for rainbow lifesavers and he had spotted a candy vending machine in the corridor of the convention facility that issued them for a nickle.

I was very happy to use his restlessness with long sitting sessions as an excuse to venture with him into the corridors during sessions for refreshing walks. The first day he made a beeline to the vending machine and I dropped a nickle and off we go with the lifesavers. Life is good.

The next day we see the vending machine is fully re-stocked. Ah, good news. During our next session walk my son heads off, with me in tow, for the vending machine and finds it covered with the same wrapping paper used to cover the cafeteria tables with a hand lettered sign in crayon that said "OUT OF ORDER".

My bull shit detectors were flashing red. I knew the machine was not out of order and I lifted the paper and dropped a nickle and pulled the lever. Out rolls a rainbow lifesavers as nice as you please. No sooner had that lifesavers hit the tray than two Watch Tower Corporation candy machine cops (Attendants) stepped between my son and me and the machine, belly pushed us back a step, and said, "The machine is OUT OF ORDER BROTHER."

These two attendants couldn't have been more that 18 or 20 years old. I was probably their first big criminal.

I replied, "You are a liar BROTHER." That set em off. They demanded to know my name and what congregation I went to. I gladly told them and then asked who is responsible for the lying sign. They said Brother Matz and I told them to go get him and bring him here. I had some questions for him about the sign.

They trotted off almost running to attendant headquarters and pretty soon they were back without Matz. I asked, "Where is Matz?" They said he said we could use the machine but to keep it to a minimum. What a crock of crap.

The physical child abuse at those assemblies is another whole post and it was one of the things that helped me to quit meetings and assemblies.

Hope you all are having a good winter.

Best wishes,

gb

picosito

Hey, Shane:

Thanks for the reminiscences. Yeah, I sure remember Dodger starting in 1975! Some special details:

** Young Mexican-American brothers dressed like Mafia with black underarm wallets made to look like shoulder holsters. I wondered about their spirituality.
** Young slender dyno-mite looking Mexican-American sisters with long black hair in long black skirts slit up to the hip joint. I couldn't take my eyes off the slit and the leg it was not covering, besides the rest of them. Wished I was not married at that point.
** Hotter than fukken hell. Your umbrella kept the sun off you, but its translucency intensified the heat so it felt like you were in some kind of weird sunburning sauna.
** Eye-burning Smog.
** You got to hear each utterance from the platform 3 times because of the echo.
** Deafening chatter noise when you walked around inside the stadium.

My favorite part was watching helicopter practice by the LAPD academy in the distance out over center field. Up and down, up and down. It was more interesting than the talks.

Then there was the racetrack by LAX (Hollywood Park?). Cute how even the speaker had to pause for the noise of jetliners landing. So low you could see the wheel nuts on the landing gear and the stewardess sitting on the copilot's lap (this is an example of hyperbole).

When I saw how unhappy lots of volunteer brothers seemed to be, I never wanted to suffer like that so I never did any work at a convention, even as an elder (I sure got away with lots of flaky stuff and it did not bother me one bit!!!) It was harder-than-hell-enough to just get there, and my wife and I always had a screaming fight right in the middle of some talk. My favorite fight was when they were presenting the FAMILY book.

2SYN

Luckily I never did any of that crap at the Conventions. Conventions were basically the low point of my whole entire life so far. For those on this board who've never been to one, imagine sitting in an uncomfortable, non-ergonomic chair for 8 hours a day (used to be more, but they wised up and made the conventions shorter), hearing exactly the same pointless drivel coughed up during meetings, just in longer bursts than usual. Sometimes I got SO bored I would start counting carpet tiles on the damn floor!!!

To me, a Convention represented an entire weekend lost to the gaping maw of BOREDOM. Yeurgh.

The earlier in the forenoon you take the sun bath, the greater will be the beneficial effect, because you get more of the ultra-violet rays, which are healing. - The Golden Age

Brother now I am stumbled!

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