US Zone visit: disappointing, depressing, discouraging

by sir82 38 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sir82

  I will have plenty of "snark" to post later on, but please indulge me while I get this out of my system....

  Suppose you are the leaders...yes, THE leaders...there are only 7 of you...for the ONE TRUE RELIGION in ALL THE UNIVERSE.

  JEHOVAH the GOD of the WHOLE UNIVERSE speaks to YOU, YOU ALONE, out of 7 billion+ people on teh planet.

  You have an opportunity, thanks to the advancements in technology, to speak to 750,000 of your followers "live", and another 750,000 or so within 24 hours.

  1.5 million people! Hanging on your every word!

  This is the first time in history you can simultaneously, or nearly simultaneously, address so many of your adherents.

  What message are you going to present for this special occasion?

  "Jehovah loves you! Jesus loves you! We love you!"

  Nope.

  "Thank you for all your hard work! You're building us a magnificent & palatial headquarters through your donations & volunteer work! We appreciate it so much!"

  Nope.

  "Jesus loved people. Be inspired by him! Treat others with kindness! Help your fellow man who is cold or hungry or in need!"

  Nope.

  "You miserable worms! You're always showing up late & leaving early! You're horrible parents if you take your kids to an amusement park before taking them to Bethel! Homosexuals like to watch you when you wear tight pants! If you're not a ministerial servan by age 23, you're a hopeless reject who is doomed to a failed marriage! Yargel bargle spittle-speckled invective and ranting!"

  Yep, that's the one.

  Shaking my head.....Christ's brothers.....a stinking pile of horse $#!+.
• 

  WTWizard

  And what about those entering the cancer after 23? Or, suppose there are already "too many" in your congregation and no vacancy, or the hounders feel like ruining your chances so, despite doing everything you are supposed to and doing pious-sneering (and even doing those short term volunteer projects and two-week missions to certain foreign countries where you run into high ranking rabbis or Muslim priests), they simply will not let you advance while someone else barely doing any field circus gets in?
• 

  pixel

  The Branch Visit (AKA, Zone Visit) in a Nutshell:

  The-most-boring-Watchtower-review-ever, after that, Don't be late!, better yet, start working early for us!, after that, donate money, after that, don't go to Disney World, don't wear spandex, tight pants.

  That's it.
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  Luke 12:45,46:

  But if ever that slave should say in his heart, ‘My master delays coming,’ and starts to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day that he is not expecting him and at an hour that he does not know, and he will punish him with the greatest severity and assign him a part with the unfaithful ones

  What was Jesus refering to when he suggested that the slave might "beat the [...] servants" in this scripture? I think we can all agree, since he was speaking in parable, that this would be somewhat metaphorical. Would, perhaps, going on rants publicly shaming the (ostensibly) hardest working servants (bethelites) and rants designed to induce guilt and horrible mental images, and guilt about personal style decisions and guilt about entertainment with no mention of the provision of Jesus' sacrifice to wash away our sins and no mention of Jehovah's making our "scarlet" sins as "white as snow" and no mention of the god who IS love? Would that qualify as beating the servants?

  I can't think of anything that the "evil slave" could have done that would more closely resemble beating god's servants without it being a literal beating.

  This is the tack I think I'm going to take if I'm able to get the topic of the zone visit to come up again. Or maybe just the next time that we read the FDS scriptures in a meeting again, they love those scriptures so I'm sure it won't be a long wait.
• 

  Oubliette

  sir82: You forgot to mention the prohibition against spanx and colored socks!

  But seriously, your point is I think the most important one. The entire tone of the presentation, what they chose to discuss and what they chose to leave out makes it pretty clear: there's no way in hell this is God's Organization:

  Picture this: Two JWs going door-to-door, "Good morning, we're here to preach the glorious good news of loose pants, black socks and no spanx. Dress like us and you too can live forever in a Paradise Earth. But you'll have to give up Disneyland and take all your vacations at Bethel."
• 

  skeeter1

  Well said.
• 

  sir82

  Yeah, I got tired typing.

  All unspecified lunatic ravings are covered in "yargel bargle".
• 

  daringhart13

  they are some of the dumbest dudes you will ever know. Clueless on every level.
• 

  4thgen

  Sir: Thumbs up. Very well said!
• 

  Magwitch

  My very dear, faithful to his last breath, 85 year old elder father wrote this to his die hard sister yesterday about the meeting ..... "Upbuilding, but agonizing in pointing out our mistakes"

  (I have access to his email with his permission)

  I know he is referring to children leaving the org. It breaks my heart that he faithfully keeps serving this organization only to continually get beat down and discouraged.

  Good job Tony!! Way to keep those old people in line!!