Especially post-$28million-lawsuit...
Zid 
Zid, you got that right!
I called Bethel about shunning family, unexpected response.....
by EndofMysteries 48 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Iamallcool
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outsmartthesystem
"The 1988 4/15 watchtower says this....."a man who is disfellowshipped or who disassociates himself may still live at home with his Christian wife and faithful children."
Gee Watchtower Society. That's swell! Thank you SO MUCH for ALLOWING me to live in my own home! The arrogance of these assholes is astounding. They even try to treat those that are not under their control (DFd or DAd) people as though they are still bound to the dictates of the cult.
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tresdecu
End o. M.
What about getting a recording (provided it's legal) of the JW-PR-BS double speak....hit the guy with a few blatant & obvious WT quotes, and record his response. See how well the Bozo is trained... It could be posted on Youtube...(depending on the legality)
just a thought...
TD
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rip van winkle
I wouldn't believe a word they say from either sides of their mouth!
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Stealth
Call back and ask them to put that in writng and mail it to you. Do you really think they will?
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willyloman
I think the point folks are making, EOM, is that the average jaydub doesn't give a sh!t what it says in print because they never read that stuff. They react to what they hear at the hall, from the platform, and from the example set by "mature" dubs.
The rank and file understand that, regardless of the WTS's public stance on controversial issues, there is "inside" information that supercedes the material written for public consumption. And this inside info is what you have to tune into if you really want to be viewed as "spiritual."
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Aussie Oz
I would actually call the phone call an EXPECTED response.
they lied.
Oz
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Dogpatch
Hi Londo,
That isn't quite what I said, you may want to reread the article at:
How The Watchtower's Unholy Trinity Speaks
My third "voice" mentioned was between the secret top brass to certain trusted elders in iffy situations, where they break all their own rules and give advice to save their butts... but they would never publish that, even to the elders at large. This is perhaps the greatest of all sicko preserve-the-org-at-all-costs part, that only a privileged few will ever get the core primal instructions. It's ironic, but the ones who REALLY run the show at Bethel are kept secret to most, like the Adams brothers. (If Don Adams is still alive he is the current president of the Penn. corp.). People like him are really the ones the rest of Bethel fears the most, even those on the GB, who are really just pawns with limited power. Think of it like a REAL conspiracy.
These are some of the REAL power people. Just ask Barbara Anderson about that... she knew and worked with most of the "hidden heavies."
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (Incorporated 1884)
President Don A. Adams
Vice Presidents Robert W. Wallen, William F. Malenfant (bad infant?)
Secretary/Treasurer Richard E. Abrahamson
Directors Danny L. Bland, Philip D. Wilcox, John N. Wischuk
Another secret that is known by only a few is that the GB used to trust Bethel elders far more than Circuit or District overseers, who were out in the "world" and could become rogues or say the wrong thing, simply because they really never lived with these old men, and didn't know their real power or the hidden heirarchy of the org. The GB was NOT and never will be the real power people. And you will not know who they are unless you actually live and work alongside them and watch who fears them. I actually think that's why they ended the Bethel elder arrangement... they could expose such secrets if they defected. How could they maintain such a conspiracy for so many decades? They had the dirt on everyone, and kept it to themselves until needed. :-))
Article repeated below.
Randy
The Unholy Trinity Speaks
Most Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that when the Society appears to clearly designate a new doctrinal position on some issue, like blood transfusions, it is what they really follow and believe. Such naivete' is typical of those who have never worked in a large corporation.
The Watch Tower is indeed a corporation, an ENTITY in and of itself, with its own personality, modeled after the past and current leadership. All such entities, religious or secular, seek to protect themselves at all costs, and most of the employees know they are expendable for the “greater good” of the organization.
Its profits and goals are the most important issues to maintain, again, at all costs. Unscrupulous and/or plainly illegal techniques are used to keep the true policies and financial records from the public in most organizations. The larger they are, the more attorneys they will employ in order to protect the entity from harm or absolute extinction.
Many religious organizations are often no different. Although they seem to appear godly and speak reverently, it is a game of power – the Game of Thrones. A single church or branch may be honest, but the larger corporate identity will always have multiple rats in the closet. Subversive and cloaked policies are set in place to prevent damage to their reputation when their power or resources are challenged.
Due to potential leaks of the “unspoken secrets,” they are prepared to sacrifice individuals that might tend to have a big mouth. These “higher secrets” are almost NEVER put in print, but are spread by word of mouth among a handful of powerful leaders that keep each other in check through either mutual benefit or fear of exposure of their own crimes. The addition of a Public Relations Department that has exclusive rights to tell the “truth” about the organization is a sure sign that they have things to hide. They are there to present a pristine image to the public, a moral one, while never allowing anyone else as a spokesman for the organization; lest in their ignorance they divulge secrets from one of the other mouths of the multi-faced god. In fact, there are often more than just two mouths; the WT has at least three I have personally witnessed. These mouths of the three-headed god must keep secrets involving policies and goals that the public would not appreciate. Yet there is an inequality in this pecking order… all the mouths do not speak the same thing. The rank-and-file Witnesses who deceive the public usually do not know what is spewing from the next mouth up, which involves information or procedures that only leaders (elders) are to know.
The Public Relations man is on the next level up. Because of his potential to do great damage to the organization if he says the politically incorrect thing to the public, and potentially ruinous to the godhead if he defected, he is given a script to follow by the third level to tell the public in times of need. His job is to present favorable information in an exaggerated or devious way, in an attempt to distract people from important questions that need to be answered. Each time an answer is to be given to an outsider or even a lesser-ranked member of the organization, it is carefully tailored to what audience is being addressed. Within the sacred halls of Bethel, very few are entrusted with the organization’s REAL policies, finances, and so forth. In some cases, it might just be one or two such leaders at the top. And they have VERY TIGHT-LIPPED mouths! So in a big organization with several levels of obfuscation over others lower in the hierarchy, only a handful are really running the show, and the show may be completely different than what is visible to the public.
The Watch Tower organization is a prime example. In MANY ways, it has mastered duplicity among the peons beneath them. First with the public media and their public Watchtower and Awake! magazines, by giving mostly devious answers to outsider’s questions, but also to the average Witness as well. They make their policies sound convincing using the Bible to twist the truth. They are NEVER to admit mistakes. The three-headed Jehovah has spoken! All but the most seasoned of JWs know the trick of “theocratic warfare." MOST Witnesses are convinced the first mouth, the P.R. man, is speaking the truth, or are so confused by the continual changes in policy that they just avoid saying much of anything. WOE to the Witness who reveals the three-headed god’s secrets!
How do we know?
Consider this small sampling of completely contradictory policies.
Sexual Abuse and Pedophilia
Case in point is the recent history of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society regarding elders who have been caught in sexual crimes. Filthy crimes, like child molestation and sex and prostitution rings. Because of the hugely negative publicity this results in (as demonstrated by the Catholic Church in recent years), the survival of “God’s organization” requires every one of these to be swept under the rug, and any publishers who know the secrets are threatened with disfellowshipping AND destruction at the hand of this unholy trinity. I have heard hundreds of testimonies in the last 30 years since leaving WT headquarters of mothers who let elders or other men in the congregation abuse their children, all because of the grave penalty that telling the police would bring on their heads. The first-level P.R. mouth will always say (up until just recently) that the publisher(s) must ALWAYS call Bethel’s Service Dept. for instructions and warnings FIRST; and even though they say just recently that a JW can call the police, the other mouths of the unholy trinity most certainly do not want that to happen!
Pressure is applied to keep their mouths shut, or else! ONLY the unholy trinity can speak on such matters! If you are so dumb as to ignore their advice, the top mouth of the unholy trinity will instruct the second mouth what to do in order to mitigate the problem. A few lawsuits in these matters in recent years has made their lips even tighter, so they can whisper to each other on the proper “procedure” to use in dealing with the errant publisher or distraught child. Dozens of such horror stories have been exposed by Freeminds in the form of Letters to the Editor and on our website in the last 30 years. We have FOUR BOOKS in print on Letters to the Editor alone that contain these stories in the Freeminds Store.
The inner core of WT leadership (top mouth) even refuses to give up their “biblical” policy of the need for two witnesses of the SAME CRIME to commit the pedophile to the courts! Like there are ever going to be two simultaneous witnesses to the same exact incident who are going to exist, let alone testify. NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. In the meantime, the elder may step down for 1-5 years or so, continue going door-to-door, and if he seems repentant after his crime, he may even be reinstated as an elder! This has happened on a number of occasions, but since the elders are often “shuffled around,” the crimes may go unknown to the moms and dads in the new congregation. Often they even remain in the same congregation in relatively good standing. After all, Mother knows best. It is in her best interest to keep the brats quiet.
Public Lectures, Special Talks and Defending the Organization
Actually all of this sacrificing of elders who talked too much goes way back to Rutherford, the second president, and some say to Charles Taze Russell himself. In effect, heads with overactive mouths were severed using sharpened Bibles and threats of shunning and damnation. Knorr was no improvement, callously inflicting banal punishments on those he didn’t like. Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz did not believe in a trinity! It was too risky to have a dozen talking heads with a limited education in charge of things. Fred Franz made that very plain in a Gilead Missionary graduation at the Queens assembly hall to 2000 Bethelites (including myself) in 1975. Knorr even brought Ted Jaracz in with a crackin’ whip to gain complete control of the Service Dept. and basically the Governing Body, too. Thank God he bit the dust in 1977, as almost everyone at Bethel hated him.
But Knorr was dying of cancer and this was his last act of revenge on the unappreciative organization. He was practically Jehovah himself, and there was to be only ONE GOD. ONE MOUTH. Imagine if Jehovah had 18 mouths! Secrets would be leaked (and they were when Ray Franz, Fred’s nephew on the Governing Body, was disfellowshipped and wrote an expose’ with Crisis of Conscience in 1981. I witnessed all of this as a Bethel elder during my six years stay in Brooklyn.
Knorr had a reputation to use his mouth as a sword to keep order. Then he died. But no first or second level mouth of the unholy trinity would put up with Fred Franz at the wheel, so they ushered him out quietly. Knorr was the top mouth, but even he was kept in check at times by a handful of others who knew all the dark secrets in Brooklyn and of Knorr himself. Few Witnesses today know who REALLY runs the organization, but they are still there. And they aren’t on the new Governing Body. Even most Bethelites are clueless as to who runs the joint.
Ruthless leaders are sometimes awful public speakers, and those who have the charm and a better heart to lead are silenced. Colin Quakenbush, one-time editor of the Awake! magazine for years, was sacked by Knorr because he drew large crowds at special gatherings for a upbeat lecture. He was invited back after Knorr died, but never regained any real power.
Another Bethelite relative in the Quackenbush clan and his wife accidently had a baby and were so disgusted with having to leave Bethel over that development, they treated him like dirt and his mother literally told him that she wished he had never been born to them. No wonder Mark Quakenbush’s cartoons he drew in the Pressroom, when he came to Bethel, were so sarcastic of the corrupt leadership! Mark left in 1980 with the rest of us who despised the cowards in charge, and was so hurt and angry at how his parents ruined his life he later changed his name – never again to be a Quakenbush. But Mark taught me a lot of what went on inside the organization just by his cartoons. I had to make up my own cartoon book of Bethel stories as well from my observations, after Mark left.
The Punishing Nature of Nathan H. Knorr
Knorr was smart. He knew he would be the last charismatic, hardline leader that would keep the Watchtower going. Cults have a half-life, and his death signaled the beginning of the end of the organization as we know it. It will survive many years more only because of the $billions in property they own, and their new efforts to drastically cut costs by cutting out a large chunk of printing… suggesting to the publishers how much to give to the Society at conventions, when picking up books and magazines, cutting magazine distribution nearly in half and even the size of one Watchtower a month to 16 pages instead of 32, and making sure little old ladies put the Watch Tower Society in their wills to deprive their family of any inheritance. They are VERY AGGRESSIVE in this. They would steal an old lady’s handbag if it had a deed to her property, and they do, in effect, by their clever policies.
Something quite unknown to most Witnesses is that they receive generous outside funds to teach classes for the deaf and dumb, even to non-Witnesses. They are cutting back on the number of meetings and assemblies very soon, and have already mentioned that in writing. They must be losing money on the conventions now. They definitely lost a large chunk of income after the California court case involving Jimmy Swaggart, where they filed a "friend of the court" to observe. If a congregation orders too much literature and doesn't pay what the WT thinks they should (based on the old prices before the Jimmy Swaggart sales tax dodge lawsuit), they will STOP sending the congregation more books! This is documented by several ministerial servants who worked in the congregation literature room, but almost completely unknown even to the average Witness.
Most lucrative of all, they buy property cheap, fix it up so it can easily be converted to luxury apartments later with free Witness labor, then sell it for millions in New York. Even now their Brooklyn Heights properties are worth over a billion dollars. They are selling them off now to survive. They have all but moved to several new facilities in upstate New York, mainly in Patterson. Another clever tactic - as they slowly die out they buy cheap property, greatly enhance its secular value at the expense of the rank-and-file, and then years later sell it at a tremendous, tax-free profit. Plus they basically own all the tens of thousands of Kingdom Halls and the property they sit on, after making the local Witnesses pay for it!
Fear of the “Anointed”
One teaching that will likely bring them down real soon is that up until recently they pretended that all the 144,000 “anointed” would rule the earth in the New System as kings with Jesus. Of course since only 300 of these were at Bethel in 1975, and much less now, rarely did any of these have any say whatsoever in the operation of the organization, or even writing a magazine article. For years now virtually all articles are written by those of the “Great Crowd.” Now many of the "Great Crowd" are starting to partake of the bread and wine at their yearly memorials, claiming they are now "anointed."
So just as in 1979 when Ray Franz and others' findings revealed no basis for many of their teachings (607 BCE for the destruction of Jerusalem, the "two class" system, etc.), the power-hungry Governing Body freaked. If you collected all the Watchtower magazines from 2011 to present, almost every issue now warns of:
NO higher education. If you are an elder and promote college, you will likely be forced to step down. This is in their new secret elder’s book, “Shepherding the Flock of God.”
Being of the “anointed” means nothing. They are no more aware of God or life or heaven than anyone else in the organization, so if they start getting popular by claiming to be anointed, DON’T LISTEN TO THEM.
This is pure paranoia; they know the writing is on the wall. There are no more charismatic leaders at Bethel. A smart and popular local elder could easily start a divisive sect. More outspoken and charismatic Witnesses would follow in various parts of the world, and the Watchtower will likely go the way of the Worldwide Church of God (Herbert W. Armstrong) when he died… a bunch of small sects scattered around the earth. Ambassador College was closed, and the remnants of the leadership that were good people became evangelicals! The rest kept following men, just like when Russell died and several sects of Bible Students came forth.
Hey, Christian Science is still alive and has money, but who goes into their reading rooms anymore? The world has changed and the Watchtower is a 19 th century laughingstock of a religion, THE only prophet of Jehovah for 133 years, and yet they are no more than a sick carnival act. They have NOTHING TO OFFER ANYONE ANYMORE. In 133 years not one of their prophecies have come true. Most fortune tellers get at least 50% results!
So the Titanic Watchtower will hit an iceberg soon, if their fear is felt by the local Witnesses. Opportunistic men will seize the day. People don't cater to cowardly, unknown leaders in religions. Unfortunately, there are not near enough lifeboats to save them all.
If more of us take heart, we can save the lives of many of them. We can teach them new skills and how to live in the open world. But if we are going to keep the ball rolling, we are in need of a significant amount of funds. Believe me, we run a tight ship financially.
Stay tuned for our new project called RandyTV.com and 13seconds.org. Much of these funds will go for setting up new forums and links to help services, social networking for all types of persons who have left the Watchtower, writing contests and video forums. We want to see rejected Witnesses learn skills, find jobs, get exit-counseling, and learn to live in the real world.
Sadly, we are finding many former Bethelites who are very poor and have no health insurance, and are lucky if they can even pay their rent. We can't pay their bills, but we can help them locate the best resources to get back on their feet.
At Bethel my salary was $14 a month for six years, and (coming from an youthful evangelical Baptist background) I tithed $5 of it to Bethel. I have learned to sacrifice much in my life.
If you can help us, we can do much more. We have a new Treasurer and blogger, Lance Goller, who was at Bethel as a Gilead student, who recently graduated from college with the business savvy needed for non-profit bookkeeping and other much-needed skills.
Have you ever met a JW that got kicked out for taking blood (without other issues being involved)? But that is the secret of the top two mouths of the Watchtower’s unholy trinity. JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES TAKE BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS ALL THE TIME! It’s time to stop the word games and quit repeating their lies.
The Watchtower pretends it’s time for a parade! They tell everyone they are growing, they are expanding, and they are keeping up with technology, and have all new desperate tricks to fool people. Now they are advocating the Witnessses get on their new Internet site, jws.org, and get their literature in digital format - after demonizing the Internet for the last decade. Cutting way down on literature costs will save them millions per month.
The mouths just can't get it right. It’s not even sad, it’s funny. The dying throws of an aging 19 th century cult are upon us - not by disappearing or going broke, but by defection and soon-to-come competition. There’s MY prophecy.
So let's have a quick review...
Written Review Time on the Unholy Trinity
The Mouth That Speaks to the Elders
The local elders in the congregation are given special instructions at elders' meetings every few months, where a representative of the New York corporation makes known its new policies and procedures, especially in matters of handling judicial committees, apostates, fornicators, and in general anyone or anything that causes trouble in the organization. Since the organization is deeply rooted in legalism and punishment and perpetual shame rather than the grace of Christ (as they are supposed to), the elders will follow what they learn from the “Shepherding the Flock of God” book, the special meeting instructions, and advice given over the phone by the Service Dept.
The Mouth That Speaks Only in Situations to Others One-on-One
Over the eight years of time I spent as a member of the Watchtower organization, serving at its higher levels, and especially when I was appointed one of the special 300 “inner circle” of Bethel elders at the time, I was able to attend secret meetings with the Governing Body periodically, and these were occasions when the powers-that-be spoke openly and let down their hair, revealing the true emotions and the primal drive behind each leader. It was extremely enlightening to learn the character of each of these men, and how their individual styles contributed to the “personality” of the greater entity, the Mother Organization. This “godhead” of the Watchtower is protected by their own enforcement police team, the Service Department. They are the keepers of the inner policies that the Watch Tower will not put into print for fear of legal reprisals or losing legal recognition as a religion in other parts of the world.
Though never having served in the Service Dept. (Bethel hell), I gained quite a bit of insight into what I call the “third mouth” of Watchtowerspeak. I lived on the 10 th floor of the 107 building facing Manhattan and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. My room was adjacent to that of Harley Miller and his wife Brook (who rarely left her room except in a bathrobe). At that time (mid-80s) Harley was in charge of the Service Dept. I guess the Bethel office was too cheap to put a phone in his room (a serious misjudgment) so he had to step outside of his room to use or answer the hall phone, which was a few feet away from my door.
Trouble is, hallways carry noise quite well, so I often got to listen at length to Harley’s conversations with Circuit and District overseers and elders who had difficult decisions to make with problems such as child molesters or crooks or “apostates” or whatever was the flavor of the day. I don’t actually remember much citing of any Bible verses in Harley’s answers. It was either his own learned “wisdom” in protecting the reputation of the organization at all costs, or was most-often created on the fly, using common sense and appropriate organizational problem-squashing techniques. Cronyism was quite common, and his advice often differed according to who liked Harley Miller or knew him personally. It was rather noticeable, as sometimes very different answers were given for the same problems that you see in the “second level” of Watchtower secrecy, their elders’ handbook, “Shepherding the Flock of God.”
But the elder’s books were always intentionally printed with wide margins on both sides of the page, and elders were instructed to put “second level” secrets (those secrets too legally problematic to be put in print where outsiders might get ahold it it). These books were NOT to be kept once they ceased to be elders, as they very much desired no one else to get their hands on them. But if they did, the writing of the ELDERS who owned the book could be disputed, as the Society had only printed things in it that were vague enough to be interpreted many ways (which it is!) I know a lot of people would like to read the “secret” elder’s book and they have, only to be bored out of their mind because it rarely says anything they don’t already know if they are in tune with the organization.
The darker side of the “third level” mouth of this unholy Trinity is the hiding of criminals and pedophiles. Often the legal department has to get involved in these. They involve such matters as what to do when a JW secretly donates all of their possessions to the Watch Tower at their death, excluding the family, and how to harass the victim and the courts into getting their due money, often rudely brushing off the bereaved family, making them fend for themselves. (A déjà vu of when Knorr one time refused to pay a one-way ticket for a sick missionary to come home, and she jumped ship in despair on the way back home.) They have also been famous at paying the court costs of child custody cases, so that the children remain with the JW parent. This was VERY effective, as few people can afford custody attorneys on their own, so the WT would often win by threatening the other party with bankruptcy. They even wrote a secret book on how to “educate” the child as to what to say in court, called Preparing for Child Custody Cases. It has no author or date listed inside, and is very difficult to get a copy of it.
The Service Dept. mantle was eventually passed on to Ted Jaracz, a Governing Body member appointed by then-president Nathan Knorr, close to his death. Jaracz was to be the new head of the Service Dept., knowing it would rankle the REST of the newly-appointed Governing Body in the late 70s. President Knorr and Vice-President Frederick W. Franz greatly opposed a Governing Body, preferring an autocratic ruling president, such as Rutherford and Knorr had been.
Thus began, in around 1977-1978, the darkest years in Watch Tower history thus far, where any vestige of the Bible’s teachings on “grace” were replaced with the Pharisaical hard hand, demanding full obedience to the organization.
Fear and Lying
The Watch Tower is once again afraid of takeover from within by some charismatic elder or elders who dare to openly disagree with WT policy. They are deathly afraid of an inevitable schism. Well, my Watch Tower friends, that schism is not only coming but has existed in infant stages for years, starting in Africa and now leading out to Brazil and other countries who suddenly have access to information negative towards the Watch Tower. It’s happening to the Mormons and Scientology as well. As I write, many Portuguese Witnesses in Brazil are picketing the Watch Tower for its shunning practices.
Other countries are re-assessing the lies told to Bulgaria (in their efforts to become recognized as a legitimate religion), where the WT P.R. machine plainly said, “We do not disfellowship our members for taking blood transfusions.” But in secret Bethel meetings, the third-level guardians of the inner secrets instruct the elders that when someone breaks one of the Society’s laws or openly disagree with any doctrine, they are “disassociating themselves.” But they have quit that secretly even now, while still scaring the rank-and-file over it. There’s your third and hidden to all but a few mouth of the unholy trinity.
There may be more heads on this false prophet called "Jehovah." But for now, I clearly see a head with three lying mouths speaking different things to different people. Three heads on one person makes for arguments, however, so let the schisms come and put Jesus back where he belongs in the minds of seven million plus Witnesses.
Randy Watters
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steve2
Orwellian double-speak:
"Brothers and sisters, please be guided solely by your pure Christian consciences. But remember: If you've truly got a pure Christian conscience, you'll shun the people we mark and/or disfellowship or who dissociate from Jehovah's Christian congregation".
In all innocence, EOM fell for the PR double-speak. As I said earlier, this is nothing new - it characterized my attempt to leave in good faith just on 30 years ago: They officially say one thing, but openly do another and stamp it as a conscience matter. Purity personified.