Consider it a badge of courage! You go!
CRAZINESS!!! I'M BEING 'MARKED' FOR GOING TO COLLEGE!!!
by MsGrowingGirl20 100 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Gayle
Oh my,, the evil "C" letter to be 'marked' on your forehead, for "College-student." Yikes, you evil person!
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Hortensia
God gave you a brain so you could use it. Use it for your benefit -- a good education is important.
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blond-moment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBY6pF42I-c <-- We got one that can see. (Can't have that.)
Good advice going around.
And most active JWs tell us who have left, been kicked out, marked whatever, "you had to have sinned". (I left my husband, an abusive "brother". That wasn't scriptural grounds for leaving they said) However, there are a quite a number of us, who like you, found out the truth about the "truth. (finding out the reality of the WT came YEARS later for me)
I do believer serious sin is forgiven much easier than seeing behind the curtain. Can't have you know the truth about the truth, you must love the leader. If you don't love the leader, they will take steps to make you.
Jim Jones had a hot box. Some cults use food, or other punishments. JWs get emotional blackmail. Star chamber intimidation tactics, marking, (you don't think everyone knows exactly who is being marked?) etc.
Reality is, they really have NO power over you, only what you give them. Don't let them intimdate you, but play it cool, until you are sure what you want to do. You don't want to tip that boat, until your life jacket is in place.
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Kojack57
Msgrowinggirl20: if that's the worst they can do don't sweat it. Get your education. What they think don't matter anyway. IMO!!!
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Kojack57
Msgrowinggirl20: if that's the worst they can do don't sweat it. Get your education. What they think don't matter anyway. IMO!!!
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Stealth
I got marked for growing a beard. It happens, just ignore them and do what you want. The marking means nothing other than you don't have to put up with self righteous super fine appostles who want to control 100% of your life.
Or tell them that you are looking forward to being able to reach out to young folks with the message that would otherwise not get it. It is your own personal private teritory. Of course if they were to remove you from pioneer then there would be no point then.
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Yan Bibiyan
Or tell them that you are looking forward to being able to reach out to young folks with the message that would otherwise not get it
I like the reasoning, but in line of the control they think they have, it is them telling you where to preach, not you writing your own ticket.
Which, of course, is even a bigger load of s@%t.
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djeggnog
@MsGrowingGirl20:
One of my friends who is a MS told me today that the elders have 'marked' me because i'm a reg.pioneer and i've decided to go to college next semester???! He said he can't tell me anymore but to be careful---what the hell does 'mark' mean? why am i being marked??? ... i so want to ask the elders about it but my friend'll be in trouble!!! My gosh!! These PHARISEES!!!
Not every elder in God's organization is on the same page. Not all elders have the same aptitude academically, but most of them are qualified to serve as such because of their spiritual aptitude. Anyone that should listen to the advice of an elder that doesn't possess academic qualifications to be advising others about college (because, for example, the one to whom you are speaking may not have even completed high school!) would be foolish to follow any of their advice without seeking (at least) a second opinion from someone qualified to give such advice.
There are spiritual dangers, however, that do lurk when you are in the midst of people that do not believe in God, do not have any respect for the things that you have learned from your study of the Bible and are more accustomed than you might be in employing the kind of critical thinking that can and does undermine the healthful teaching you've received as a servant of Jehovah. With this in mind, it is possible that there exists in your local congregation a bias against anyone that should decide to attend college, which bias is based, in part, on the wrong assumption they have as to what the view of Jehovah's Witnesses is toward college, both generally and specifically, and on what some elders subjectively believe to be a no-no for Christians.
This subjective viewpoint, mind you, isn't informed by anything substantial, but only on tangential notions, but no malice is intended whenever an elder suggests that someone shouldn't consider attending a four-year university. But I haven't forgotten that your primary concern is the information you recently received that you have been marked. Marking is not the same as being disfellowshipped. You're not really interested in what led to the decision to mark, since that decision is secondary; you just don't want to be marked, because being marked sounds like a bad thing in your view and in the view of others that should hear that you have been marked.
I understand that you are currently in the full-time work as a regular pioneer, but no one has yet approached you about your pioneer service, about your being removed from serving as such. I would advise you to take an immediate leave of your current congregation and begin attending meetings on a regular basis with another congregation, preferably one that isn't in your current circuit, but with another congregation that doesn't meet at the same Kingdom Hall where you are presently attend. You are not to give any reason for your making this change, but if anyone should ask -- and I mean anyone -- your response should be that you needed to attend meetings elsewhere "for personal reasons."
Note that you will not have as yet decided to change congregations, but for the time being you will judy be attending meetings at your new congregation. You do not want to discuss with anyone (not even with a close friend of yours!) just what those personal reasons are nor will you have any interest in discussing those reasons with anyone (not even with a close friend!) at this time. Go ahead and obtain a college degree without fearing what marking will do since you will not be marked in your new congregation.
Those with whom you will be attending meetings at your new congregation do not know you at all, and they don't have to know more than you are willing to tell them. Just be discreet and enjoy the full-time service as a pioneer even though your service will continue to be associated with your old congregation until three months from now, six months from now, you should decide to officially make your new congregation your new congregation.
No one needs to tell a pioneer what he or she ought to be doing, so as long as you avoid unnecessary association with those college chums that seem to you to be bad association for you (especially having discussions with those who might want to engage you as to why it is you would be attending meetings at one Kingdom Hall, while being associated with some other Kingdom Hall, which shouldn't even come up since you would be directing such persons to your new Kingdom Hall and not your old Kingdom Hall), you should be fine. No one knows anything like this unless you should tell them more than they need to know: "Personal reasons" should be enough. Our aim as Christians should be "to live quietly and to mind [our] own business" (1 Thessalonians 4:11), but some among us tend to be nosey and overly curious about things that do not concern them, including some of the elders.
You will meet people at college that are just as convincing in some of their arguments as many are here on JWN, but if you have ever read any of the threads in which I've exchanged posts with the most prolific and obnoxious among JWN members -- people who are as prolific and obnoxious as I am! -- you will notice how stark my posts differ with their's, for I believe the truth and they don't, and I'm always ready to make a defense for my faith, and I believe that I'm uniquely qualified to do so. We are none of us Pharisees, but some elders do use their discretion to impose rules that tend to restrict our freedom as Christians.
Please try not to let any of such things bother you, and never forget that God's organization is being run by imperfect men. These folks on here that are quoting things from the Flock book should not be doing this; I have this book and I could quote something from it, but notice: I'm not quoting from it to you, am I? So who are these people that are not elders to do so?
@djeggnog
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Roberta804
They "Marked" me when I was a pre-teen because I took ice skating lessons. Never missed a meeting, FS every Saturday morning. Oh ice skating was OK until I got good at it....like winning competitions good. Never mind I never did drugs, did not smoke, had no time for boys (coach would not allow it). I skated before and after school M-F. When I was 17 I qualified for nationals and I stood a very good chance of the top 6 spots. Just before the competition, I got called in the back room. They said they would have to disfellowship me if I participated in nationals because I was setting a wrong message to other JW children.