DECEMBER 15 WT UP ON jw.org

by St George of England 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  undercover

  They are truly becoming a bonafide CULT! I know they already were but this SEALS IT!

  Becoming? Seals it? No, they already were a bonafide cult. Always have been. The religion that DFs and shuns people who wish to leave is enough to gain cult status. But add up all the other kookiness and history and it's obvious that it was a cult from the git-go. We were either unlucky enough to be born in it, or gullible enough to buy into it.

  Semi-shunning of people who have HOBBIES, Or FOLLOW SPORTS?!!

  They have always practiced what you call 'semi-shunning'. Anyone who doesn't fall in line and obey the directives is looked sideways at by the rest of the group. Even down to how you dress, how you wear your hair, what you drive, what you read, what you watch, what you listen to. Nothing really new in their MO; maybe just being a little more vocal about it in the mags is all.

  Are they trying to set up two classes of witnesses, like a caste system?

  Trying to set up? It's already there. Actually there's several classes of dubs. You got the GB, Jehovah's direct voice piece to the rest of the sheeple. There are DOs and COs who travel around soaking up the glory of the local dubs that suck up to them Then there are Bethelites. The very ground they walk is worshipped by the rank and file. On the local level, you've got elders, then pioneers/MSs and at the very bottom are the average rank and file publisher who is contantly harassed to do more, give more, pray more, etc. Each of those 'classes' being looked up to, or admired, by the ones below isn't accidental. It's set up that way. They use guilt to drive the rank and file to keep busy.
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  never a jw

  In that same country, a building project was scheduled for a much needed Kingdom Hall.

  The local brothers and sisters wanted to assist. However, the project was to be undertaken in

  the middle of their planting season. Still determined to have a share, they worked on the

  Kingdom Hall project during the day and then went into the fields in the evening to make sure

  that they got their crops planted. What a selfsacrificing spirit!

  The paragraph above is from the Watchtower of Dec 2013. What bothered me is the abuses of the Watchtower that decides to make projects according to its own convenience and despite the trouble it creates for the very people who make the greatest contribution and is most needy. What an abusive, callous, inconsiderate "spirit-guided" organization!
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  DATA-DOG

  " They never mention the numerous speculations they have advanced in the past that were never adopted. That would spoil their campaign to get their present ideas gobbled up."

  What speculations and subsequent printing of said speculations am I guilty of? WTBTS, could you please be more specific? Really aren't YOUR speculations printed by the millions? What about YOUR 'speculations..advanced in the past that were never adopted.' Would that not spoil YOUR campaign to get your present ideas gobbled up?!

  From JWsurvey regarding the 2012 nu-light:

  In addition to the doctrinal changes, it was also explained that:

  • The Governing Body members now make decisions based on a total majority, meaning that if a doctrinal understanding does not have full agreement by all Governing Body members, it is “shelved” until a future date.

  This means that the GB's ideas or speculations are allowable, but your questionings are not, especially if it spoils their current campaign to get "new truth" gobbled up without a second thought. Webster's definition of speculate is interesting.

  spec·u·late

  : to think about something and make guesses about it : to form ideas or theories about something usually when there are many things not known about it

  Isn't this what the entire foundation of the WTBTS is built upon?
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  westiebilly11

  definition of a fanatical cult...: they redouble their efforts when they've forgotten their aims... . They seem to becoming paranoid about each other....
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  JW GoneBad

  Par 9 of 1 st article:

  ‘If ever someone attending our congregation meetings would try to entice us into discussions of personal speculations or critical conversations, we should definitely be on guard.’

  WT takes the meaning of ‘gag order’ to a whole new level!
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  whathappened

  When I was in I was semi shunned. I was in a congregation that was 75% black. I am white, single and middle aged, dressed the way I wanted to (read cleavage) and was not over the top theocratic. I was left out of everything. No one invited me over and I was ignored at the meetings. Once I wasn't even put in a car group when I showed up for the service meeting on a Saturday morning. They left me totally out of the plans, like I was invisible. I was so hurt I went to the mall all by myself and spent a lot of money on myself.
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  BU2B

  You are right undercover, and I knew all that intellectually, but something snapped inside of me when I read cedars article, and it turned my hate of the WT/gb up a few notches. Somehow they seem to be tightening the grip and the silver lining is that this WILL wake many up. Not a mass exodus, but this will open more eyes IMO. In any tyrannical group, the leaders must cultivate mistrust among the peons. It's ironic. They want dubs to be paranoid about people who speculate, or fishes a bit too often, but they don't want you to have a healthy fear of the pedo j dubbs including elders running amok.