CRAZINESS!!! I'M BEING 'MARKED' FOR GOING TO COLLEGE!!!

by MsGrowingGirl20 100 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  gubberningbody

  Yeah. Same old stuff.

  I was working full time, pioneering and going to college. Never missed meetings, was the TMS school conductor, conducted a book study at my house for ten years and STILL some had problems with it. (my college activities...never mind I was testing out of everything via what's now known as Excelsior College and never bothered with normal class work because I studied on my own and took CLEP's, and the like for the bulk, so you couldn't argue w/regard to my nonexistent association with so-called worldlings)

  They aren't anything. They're wrong about being anointed, they're wrong about there being a class called "Christ's Brother's". The FDS is a parable with a point, namely "Are YOU faithful" and later followed up with a point where in the final judgement you get looked at by how you deal with so called "least ones". You do well and you're called "Christ's Brothers" at that time. There was no identification of class.

  I am so glad I'm out of that nonsense now.

  Of course totalitarian madness exists in academia as well.

  http://disciplinedminds.tripod.com/
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  jamiebowers

  I hope you follow Billy's advice and then stop going to the meetings and service. When approached by jws, tell them you've been stumbled by the elders. Your family isn't in, so get out now. Go to college, and live your life!
• 

  matt2414

  Actually, there is no scriptural basis for marking you for going to college, because there is no scriptural basis for condeming higher education. By marking you for doing nothing wrong is bascially causing divisions in the congregation, which by the Governing Body's own Flock book is a disfellowshipping offense:

  The Bible condemns the following:
  Causing divisions and promoting sects.
  This would be deliberate action disrupting the unity
  of the congregation or undermining the confidence
  of the brothers in Jehovah's arrangement.
  It may involve or lead to apostasy. (Rom. 16:17, 18; Titus 3:10, 11 )

  Now, having said all the above, I would follow the suggestions of Miles3 -- That way the elders have no authority over you. That is, if you plan to remain among people who promote the words of men over God's and who will have no respect for you.
• 

  WontLeave

  I was marked for refusing to shave off my beard. Then, I was forbidden from preaching (supposedly) for wearing a tie someone didn't like. Of course, the real reason was that I refused to grovel and scrape to the power structure and worship the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and its literature. Like most cults - Mormonism, Scientology, Westboro Baptist Church, etc. - their stated reasons and real reasons for doing things are completely different.

  Marking is one of those things they don't even tell you they've done, even though it's an official action by the "body of elders" (usually one or two nut cases on a power trip with a pet peeve about whatever it is you're doing). Of course, the cult mentality and Watchtower literature condemning everything create an atmosphere where any extremist elder Watchtower ass-kisser with an axe to grind can make a case against anyone who isn't perfectly toeing the Watchtower line to Watchtower standards. This is bound to happen, whenever losers in cheap suits are placed in fake positions of authority.

  Basically, "marking" is what they do when you've done absolutely nothing actually wrong, but you've violated a Watchtower rule (whether overt or implied). Since the only way to not violate a Watchtower rule is to be a hive-minded weirdo worshiping men and a printing company, the only way to be sure to avoid being marked is to slap God and Christ across the face with idolatry and blasphemy. Look at the succession of events in the Gospels: Jesus was marked, counseled, then disfellowshipped, by JW standards. The enormous list of similarities between the Pharisees and the JW power structure are obvious to anyone who isn't doing mental somersaults to avoid seeing them.
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  Vidqun

  MSGG20, I did say it, and I do say it again. This is what it means to be a "leper" and be treated as such. The cong. will view this as a go-ahead for pre-emptive shunning. They will avoid you (and your family) socially. This is not a prophecy, this is a fact. Been there, done that. View this as your first badge of honor.
• 

  Notreadytorun

  OMG that sucks

  funny what they decide about you without telling you

  but good on you for starting college!! how exciting!! what are you going to study??

  congrats anyway xx
• 

  TheOldHippie

  A MS would not know that a person is "marked" any more than the person himself would know it, so the starting point is wrong. If the elders think someone is to be "marked", they beforehand have talked repeatedly with the person in question and also a talk might be given for the whole congregation, using the "local post" which is held once every month. If they see no need in giving such a talk but still think the person should be "marked", then that person has been the participent in a number of discussions, and of course would know about it. A MS cannot know something which the person in question does not know, unless an elder privately has said to him (what he ought NOT to do) that in his personal opinion, the person in question ought to be "marked", or the elders as a group have decided that they are to talk with the person in question (and then they no way ought to descuss this with a MS before they talk with the person himself).

  So the starting point, the very onset, is bogus, fake, wrong, non-existant.
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  TheOldHippie

  By the way, I have gone to college myself - and the only "mark" I have is that I hope I am "marked" for survival ........ :-)
• 

  rebel8

  Great example of a fundamental difference between a cult and mainstream religion. Posted at http://cultprevention.blogspot.com/.

  WT procedure is to meet with the person first.

  If they haven't met with you I can't see how they've already marked you.

  All their "procedures" are subject to change at any time though. They've marked plenty of people without meeting with anyone!

  In fact I am sure you can find articles mentioning how anyone in the banana republic can and should mark others if they give the slightest indication they are not SuperSpiritual TM . The fact that the elders did it can mean they did it as individual xians or they did it as a group--either way they can and do anything they want. This entire group's rules, norms and mores are totally invented by them, as is their doctrine.
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  Miles3

  MsGrowingGirl, something I realised since my last post - in a previous post, you told us that since starting pionneering you've been approached by brothers looking for a spouse. The fact the one approaching you is a MS(if he's single that is) probably means they're "marking" you by discouraging single brothers to associate with you or think about courting you. It's possible only single brothers (or parents of a nubile boy) are personnaly told you're "marked".

  The mating game is one of the Borg's favorite. At all levels of the hierarchy they love to have a say in who is marrying who (and elders make sure their offspring has the best prospects, first dibs if you prefer - if one has an unmarried daughter they'll want to neutralize the competition). So while I can't say for certain, it could well be the root motive. As a female child of a non-believing home, possibly (unless I've misunderstood) raised by a single mom, you're bottom of the pecking order in the Borg, and elders have a God-given responsability to make sure peasants remember their place.