A WTF Moment While In the WTS

by Searching 44 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Searching

  Has anyone else had a moment, while still within the Organization (and before learning TTATT) that caused them to stop and go, "This is kind of messed up."

  For instance, back I believe in the early 2000's, I was attending a DC with my family. It was announced at the beginning of the convention that there was going to be a special announcement at the end, so for everyone to please try to remain until the very end of the meeting.

  Well that point rolls around and it's announced that due to the economy and increasing gas prices - that they were going to put a halt to the monday (tuesday? its been a while) meetings, so that people could more easily attend the longer meetings on thursdays & sundays.

  Afterwards my family stayed and chatted with the family that was sitting next to us, a mother and her two children I believe. And she was talking about how she had gotten so excited about the announcement, she was certain it was that it was going to be that Armageddon was coming. She exclaimed that her children had been so excited that they'd rushed outside to grab the camera.

  I remember staring at her and then looking over at her kids, who couldn't have been more then six or seven years old and thinking 'this is the most messed up thing I have ever heard come out of someones mouth.' To my mothers credit, she smiled at laughed it off, but I think it really perturbed her as well.
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  All or nothing

  Yes, I have had so many of those moments. The tight pant tony rant was the one that actually made me physically ill as I looked around the KH and no one seemed visibly bothered by everything unchristian coming out of his mouth. I still am so confused how more people didn't wake up that day...
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  Crazyguy

  I was at a RC back a few years ago . The economy was crap I was 3000 miles away from my family. When I left to go get work this far away my youngest girl was crying and hysterical begging me not to leave so this was and emotional time. Here I was 3000 miles away from my wife and kids trying to get a business started and running in this new area.

  I really needed a pick me up to say the least. I went to this new place with a more spiritual attitude, that I would put Jah first and leave my financial struggles in his hands. So I made every meeting , answered and went out in service some times both Saturday and Sunday. I was showing Jah that he would be first ! All the while I seen and talked to others in the hall that were going through financial issues as well , people that were more spiritual that I. This was depressing to say the least, so any good positive talks at the RC was and would be greatly appreciated. Instead it was the same crap as always and I was even thinking this to myself becoming more discouraged.

  Then the last talk was given by Lett. During his talk he expressed how when he was at bethel in the early 197Os he didn't believe the end was going to come at 1975. And that he was even razzed by others their as an apostate for his thinking because every one their clearly believed the end to be in 75.

  I did the double take , thinking WTF, we had always been told that they never really taught this and this was from Rogue elders and COs that is wasn't really from the top down.
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  LisaRose

  For me it was at a convention, Cow Palace, late 90's. They were trying to guilt people into doing more in the ministry. They said "are you regular in service? If not, why not? If you are regular in service, could you auxiliary pioneer? If not, why not? If you auxiliary pioneer, could you regular pioneer? If not, why not? If you are a regular pioneer, could you be a special pioneer? If not, why not?

  All I could think was, what do they do to make special pioneers feel guilty? I had a BOGO ( Brilliant Glimpse Of the Obvious) that no matter how much you did, you would never, ever feel you had done enough, they didn't want that.
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  William Penwell

  I have told this story on here before but one of the last WTF moments I had at a convention was one of the last time I attended a convention right after 9/11. An elder that I have known for 40 years cam up and said hello. Then he made a snide remark about how all of a sudden people start coming back after a couple of planes hit a couple of buildings.
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  zeb

  'Special' announcements. Yes I recall a few and left me thinking.. yay.. so?

  and re the closure of the 'book study' when that happened here the elders didn't know and said so what the reason was.

  When did the price of fuel ever enter the gb mind.? What ever the real reason the price of fuel wasn't it.
  
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  Finkelstein

  The WTS mentally manipulates peoples by using emotion, fear, ignorance, select information, devised hype.

  Its all done to serve the organization's means, needs and sustenance.
  

  There is a publishing house operating at its core with a supporting religion (Jah's will and purpose), there lies the clue to all of the activity by the WTS/JWS.
  
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  LongHairGal

  SEARCHING:

  I guess the major WTF moment for me was the Sunday WT study with the 1995 changed teaching on Generation. This could not be ignored. It was over.

  WILLIAM PENWELL:

  Very callous remark by that elder. Lots of callous remarks were made by JWs after 9/11....I certainly did not go back to the hall but knew some who did. I was newly "faded" and didn't want anything more to do with the religion.
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  Tight Pants Twinkle Toes

  A big one for me was while serving as an elder in Del Ray Beach, FL, we caught the CO, Steve Ferrell, stealing money from the congregations and the circuit. He did this by turning in his weekly expenses of almost $800.00. He first trolled the differant elders to see which ones would become his 'homies', he would reward his 'home boys' with coveted assignments ( I was told I looked like someone he could use in the Chairmans Office, after he noticed " the shine on my shoes and the crease in my pants") ,Instant Red Flag for me! After his visit was over and the COBE ( home boy royale) tried to ram through a vote on paying his expenses, but refused to show us his receipts even thought I demanded he produce them to the body. Several weeks later at the Circuit elders meeting his Pioneer School expenses ( $1500 ) came to the attention of the DO, and he was pissed. Well to make along story short, it turns out he had robbed at least 9 other congregations, A big investigation followed several elders were removed, and the CO quietly disappeared, replaced by another. End of story, right?

  Imagine my shock when I found out several years later that Ferrell had been secretly moved to another circuit just like a pedophile fucking priest!! That was my WHAT THE FUCK!!! moment. It was never the same for me after that. Though that was a huge deal in my mind, I now realize that was only a misdemeanor compared to the real horrific pedophile crimes now coming to light in every country in the world.
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  slimboyfat

  In the 1990s a pioneer couple came back from Kenya and said the JWs over there still paid the cover price for the literature while it was being offered free of charge in the UK. How come? They charged poorer countries for a few years longer than western countries. I never heard a good excuse for that.