Ozzie's Weekend Poll #126 (It's all about feelings!)

ozziepost

G'day all,

and a great big G'day! to all those who've joined us in the past week or so, especially those from the land downunder.

How's things with you this weekend? The weather's gloomy around bethel today (so what's new, you reckon!) but still warm and humid on this last weekend of summer. The week has been hot with storms each afternoon and we've enjoyed some thought-provoking discussions this past week (like this one:http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/85862/3.ashx) and it seems a shame to spoil the mood, so this weekend's poll topic is:

What best describes your current feelings toward "the Organisation" ?

1. Taught me

2. Fed me

3. Supported me

4. Loved me

5. Failed me

6. Fooled me

7. Harrassed me

8. Persecuted me

9. Twisted me

10. Who?

11. Other (please detail)

If you haven't participated before, the idea is to take a while in quiet reflection with a nice drink (preferably a shiraz) and then send in your reply listing your preferences. Easy, eh?

Enjoy!

Cheers, Ozzie (permanently upside-down class)

Freedom means not having to wear a tie.

missy04

Would have to say:

5. Failed me

Love your polls Ozzie!!

~Sarah

Soledad

#5 and later #7

cheers ozzie!

Honesty

All of the above, Ozzie.

I just wonder how much of it was contributed by my former friend (his choice), B.O. Don

Please keep those polls coming at us. I don't think we could handle just once a month ~~Asleep magazines~~ polls.

Xena

Indifference. It's a part of my past. The people still involved with it aren't really people I care to be around that much anyway, so I guess I am lucky.

wednesday

Persecuted me

harassed me

failed me

fooled me

in that order.

weds

Robert K Stock

They fooled me.

I honestly believed that the Watchtower Society cared about finding truth. I thought that any trouble I had with local elders was because the elders were not following the teaching of the Watchtower. When I read Crisis of Conscience I realized that the trouble with the local elders was that they WERE following the teaching of the Watchtower.

MerryMagdalene

Failed me, fooled me, twisted me and confused me... but I'm much better now.

I feel h a p p y !

~Merry

onacruse

Well now, Mr. Oz, as you so often do, you've presented a singularly interesting "outline" of JW development...one might even begin to suspect that you'd been a JW at one time.

1. Taught me

Evem my own folks admitted that they essentially let the WTS teach me as a virtual "default" parent organization.

2. Fed me

Franz, then Rutherford, then Russell: I gobbled up that pablum like every word was virtually from God Himself.

3. Supported me

Sure! Gave me my first real break as a janitor (which I did for several years after I left Bethel), then my first real break as a construction worker (until my elder-employer decided to have an affair with my wife), then my judicial committees, where supposed friends stabbed me in the back with an emotional butcher knife...yeah--"supported me" are the very first words that come to mind.

4. Loved me

Conditionally.

5. Failed me

Considering the absolute trust I put in them, then "failed" is hardly a sufficient description.

6. Fooled me

Considering what some consider to be some degree of intelligence that I brought to the table, then indeed, I was fooled beyond being a fool.

7. Harrassed me

Now and then; especially at the end.

8. Persecuted me

A hard description, but, in retrospect, and with a broader view of religious sytems in general, I have no difficulty in characterizing my treatment as being a form of persecution; notwithstanding the not-infrequent bleeding-heart "oh-how-wonderful-the-WTS-has-been-for-me!" sentiments that are sometimes posted on this db. The Nazis evoked the same sentiments from the fools that followed them.

9. Twisted me

Absolutely. I'll never be the man I could have been...though I strive to be the man I yet can be.

Craig (in a reflective, and somewhat angry, mood)

RebelliousSpirit

Having never been a JW but being married to one recently reinstated, I would have to say #11. The Org has turned my life upside down at this point - that would be my answer.

Ozzie's Weekend Poll #126 (It's all about feelings!)

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