I think my D.O. Is a closet apostate. References Stanford Prison Study and hints he sometimes disagrees with the Branch

by kneehighmiah 46 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  kneehighmiah

  I find it odd that the district overseer today made

  1. Zero yes 0 references to the FDS in any of his talks.

  2.He also told elders that the brothers worship God and not them.So therefore the elders have no authority to order the friends around.

  3. He also talked about the Stanford prison study and said that people who receive authority over others often abuse it.

  4. He mentioned that when he disagrees with the branch (aka the FDS) he's learned to just do what they say.

  5. He was a '75er convert. Aka came in around 1975.

  6. Mentioned unkind treatment from an overseer in bethel. Said he was shocked to find that in gods house. Told the elders not to be like that.

  This is guy is super cool. I bet he's woken up.
• 

  AnneB

  Ask him if he is "a friend of Simon's"! :)
• 

  kneehighmiah

  Also mentioned elders being unapproachable and forming judicial committees to go after people they don't like.
• 

  NewYork44M

  I am sure there are many closet apostates in positions within congregations and at the society. You may never know, and may be that is a good thing.

  If he knows TTATT, then there is a reason why he remains in the closet. It is really not up to you to expose him, and it would really not be fair. If you are one-on-one with him you may bring up a conversation about the blood doctrine. It might be interesting.
• 

  JustVisting

  That's encouraging, but I would bet a dollar to a Watchtower that he won't give up the free apartment, leased Buick Lucerne, health insurance, airline miles, business suits, meals, green handshakes, travel opportunities because the BOEs are "unapproachable".
• 

  fulltimestudent

  Interesting.

  Justvisiting, consider that in connection with the fringe benefits, this D.O. may be better off, if the JWs morphed into a more conventional religious format with a paid clergy.

  In the second century of their existence, changes are likely to happen. That's precisely the timeframe, when early Christianity morphed from a Jewish lookalike, into a more Hellenistic type of religion.
• 

  rebel8

  Ask him if he is "a friend of Simon's"! :)

  What an awesome idea to have a way to covertly identify oneself as an ally of those questioning. I'm serious.
• 

  AnneB

  Rebel8: I am too.
• 

  sparrowdown

  If he is a closet apostate he had better watch his back. There are plenty of zealot apostaphobes in the org hungry for a linching.
• 

  Pete Zahut

  I wish we wouldn't use the word Apostate when refering to someone who's woken up to the fact that JW's aren't the ture religon. That's "their" word for it and like much of what they think, it is inaccurate.