by Daniel1555 26 Replies latest members private
Well handled!
I agree with the comments you posed to them about "whether or not everything the FDS teaches is directly from god (after all they taught SO MANY wrong things over the years). Also the comment that you dedicated yourself to God, not an organization"
I also love the way Problemaddict turned around the resepones! That is the way to gain control of the situation, instead of cowering to their whims and dictates!
All the best! Keep your dignity and cool through all of this!
He explained to me, that I obviously don't accept some main JW teachings like the blood doctrine.
The elders are idiots.
According to JW doctrine, it is a matter of conscience if a JW wants to accept blood fractions or not. As a practical matter, no transfusion is of whole blood (see my next post).
Your experience proves two very important points:
The elders only have authority over you if you give it to them.
So the elders decided that I am not allowed to talk to any other brother or family member about these things
You are under no obligation to do what they "decide." However, there will be consequences because of the way you handled this situation.
Your mistake was to defiantly challenge them on their own terms.
Notice this very informative comment that snare&racket gave in a recent thread:
"The shelf life of all the components in blood vary by years, so they are seperated and stored appropriatly at different temperatures. Then we give what is needed, blood loss or low Haemaglobin. give red blood cells.
Jw's have really confused what 'blood' and 'fractions' are to its members. Blood is the combination of all these factors whereas most JW's think of blood as a 1L bag of red stuff. It isn't, it's red blood cells, a small fraction of blood."
Thanks oubliette for your points.
Of course I will be careful with whom I talk about my differing views. My best friends know about it already quite a while and they don't go to the elders with it. My parents believe the organisation has the truth. Even though they understand my reasoning and they don't agree fully with the blood doctrine and they hate the official stand on 'shunning.' They would never shun me.
I don't give the elders anymore authority over me. As I don't want to be df / da at the moment, I will be careful to whom I talk about these things.
Mostly I don't bring these matters up anyway. Mostly the other person starts about it.
Well played sir. It's a shame that you had to waste such mental effort playing their games, but it certainly could have gone worse.
I'm under very similar restrictions right now, it really does stink of FEAR that theyre scared of any dissenting voice. If the truth is the truth then it's defendable.
DHOH: it really does stink of FEAR that theyre scared of any dissenting voice. If the truth is the truth then it's defendable.
The irony is that the elders were wrong regarding Daniel1555. A JW can accept a blood transfusion and not violate JW "doctrine" because transfusions are almost never whole blood, but are "fractions" of blood.
Notice this comment from WebMD regarding Blood Transfusions:
Again, the issue is NOT doctrine, it is CONTROL.
Honestly, I don't believe in the XIAN GOD anymore. That may shock some of our group. I used to write lengthy letters of encouragement on other forums. Of course these were all based on the Bible being inspired, so to agree with the Bible you must disagree with the GB.
I have been without privileges for almost two years. Why? I said that I will never respect the GB MORE than the word of GOD. By saying that my loyalty to the GB ( mere mortals) was conditional, I was labeled as a possible apostate. Finding ANY fault with the "channel" is forbidden, even though the Elders will admit that the GB is fallible. They must also admit that not everything written in the WT is really from "Jehovah", especially all the totally inaccurate stuff.
As brought out already, DOCTRINE does not matter. All that matters is the appearance of loyaly to the ORGANIZATION. After all, it's a cult.
DD
Just like what was posted before the elders are a bunch of Morons, they don't even know what the ORg teaches. The mags say and I hope to put together a few for my daughter that if you want blood you can and there's so many ways to get around the blood thing in their teaching that yes a JW can except blood. The Elders just don't know it because like the rank and file their just as stupid. I also had a discussion with the elders about this subject and I used the bible to blow up the doctrine. So I learned that the elders don't even use the bible or view it as the final decider they follow the GB.
I like how you gave credit for Christ being in their midst without bowing to the spirit directed nonsense. That was slick.
Well done Dan, I can see myself handling them that way had the opportunity arisen.
As it is, I have been inactive/non-attending for years now, but I am sure they have been "watching" me, if I had actively expressed my views to the wrong person again, (I did so once, a friend from my youth who I thought I could trust, and then I got the 2 Elder visit), I am sure I would be dealt with in their usual loving way. Be very careful in future with anyone you speak to, the most I say is "I left for good reasons".
If I were you I would tread a careful path so as to keep your "fade" intact, so as to help your son. Maybe your wife will wake up too one day soon and it will ease the situation.
Well done again, you have handled this so well that you have managed to retain your dignity. It felt good to me to force the point home to two Elders a few weeks back that I left because I am a lover of truth.
Funny, they have not come back to show me that as a lover of truth I should be a JW, because JW's have the truth, why have they not come back ? I asked them to, when they were ready show me it was the truth.
As said above, JW's don't care about doctrine, and I think they have been mind controlled so much now that they really believe that "truth" does not matter, only loyalty to the Borg, (JW.Org) matters.
Good luck for future.
