my mom just told me the theme of the next special assembly day.
"the time left is reduced!
" now how many times have we heard that?.
Repetition for emphasis Billy..you get a G!!
Of course the time is reduced...the world is going to implode in 4 million years...and the time has now been REDUCED! My life just got reduced more by sitting here typing this too. Luckily it wont be even MORE wasted and REDUCED by spending HALF my frickin life waiting for the planet to end sitting in a Kingdoom Hall.
as an ex- elder, i can look back and see all the power and control we had as "shepherds".
when i was an elder i genuinely tried to comply with anything "mother" demanded of us.
i would reason that since "mother knows best", i would comply with the organization, even if it didn't quite seem so fair or right.. as time went by, i could not help but see the unfairness of soooo many rules and regulations.
There were some good elders. There were some senile elders. There were brutish elders, self righteous elders, elders who were forced into the job because there werent enough "qualified brothers" available in the congregation who still didnt have pimples....and some dick heads. I started to become disallusioned when I was studying and then after baptism moved in with the CO and his wife...who had been my study conductors and became long time friends to me and my whole family. I named my children after them.
But I watched Brother B...and he was an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT person at home. He put on his elder cape and his spandex suit with the big E on the front of it and went to the hall several times a week, and at nights holed up in his office fielding calls, doing reports, studying for a talk somewhere...and he was all "spiritual" when he needed to be for the sake of the suit. Elders were not crags in the storm, they were puppets, they were suckups to the CO, they were janitors and window washers and landscapers on a POWER TRIP who when outside the four walls of that hall, didnt amount to a hill of beans, but inside they were demigods with the lives of 120 people in their hands. Very intoxicating stuff.
So my translation of that was...this whole GIG is smoke and mirrors! NOTHING is real, genuine, or Godly....it's a big PLAY and the elders and the MSs and the congregations are all players in it. All of us showing the world one thing, showing each other at the hall another thing...and in the privacy of our homes...something else again.
Disingenuous bullshit...so TOTALLY not of, from, or with....God.
once again our lurking jw friend sent us a copy of the june 15th " witness only " watchtower.
all i can say is that the wt society sure knows how to compartmentalize and pick and choose how they view truth and honesty.
i'll share some of these " golden nuggets " and see what you think.
Apparently "lying by omission" isnt REALLY a lie to them. Hey I didnt LIE to you I just didnt tell you EVERYTHING. Whatever conclusion you draw based on what I said is YOUR problem. That holding back all the facts things also applies HEAVILY to the courts. I have watched JWs lie through their teeth in court, bold faced lied, right to the judge because they dont believe they are subject to the courts or laws or any worldly control.
Its sickening. And then they LAUGH about it.
this letter to the editor appeared in today's paper: http://www.monticellotimes.com/articles/2009/04/16/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/851witness.txt.
this is basically a response to the article that was published about me and my family (which, frustratingly, has already been archived).
in it, i claimed to shunned by almost all friends and family and to have been neither df'd nor da'd (both of these claims are true, by the way).
I remember getting my shackles up every time someone said anything even REMOTELY negative about the JWs. I was quick to defend them. And of course what I used for arrows was all the crap the JWs fed me over the years, which in retrospect, made me look really stupid. But I didnt care. I was a REBEL WITH A CAUSE you know.
I did reply to the article...they may not approve it though LOL
after many, many years outside of the jw world, my elderly parents finally decided to give me an ultimatum.
i either rejoin the jw's or they will never speak with me again.
apparently my brother is going to get the same choice.
Ask Ray Franz what happens to people who associate with DFd ones. He knows first hand.
let me first say that i believe in god, in jesus and the holy spirit.
therefore to hear the watchtower liken us who have been df, ( in our case asking questions about u.n. paedophiles 607 etc ) liken us to the first apostate the devil i find them judgmental in the extreme, not surprised but very offensive.. thanks to "flipper" with his thread i have decided to ban my brother in law from coming to my home, this year he intends to come over from spain where the need is great, ............the wine.and the beaches very nice too.. he is going to visit his mother who now because of dementia lives with us.. he will not be allowed on my premises at all, he will pick mum up at the front gate.. as a witness you must accept what the so called boffins tell you.. therefore if he can align himself with thinking that way, of his sister and myself then he is not welcome.. i will only accept him in my home when he gets out of her (babylon the great).
kt.
My brother in law who never was a JW, hates his mothers second husband who is a JW elder. HATES the man. And now that my mother in law is DAd, her JW kids, my husband and his sister, have decided to shun their own mother and have this little clique of gossipping going with the step dad elder against my mother in law...passing emails and text messages about her every move, and mocking her.
Well... my non JW brother in law decided to SHUN his JW siblings to show them what it is like to lose a loved one to their rediculous practices. He went for two years without speaking to my husband and my husband was devastated by it. Very depressed....missed his brother sooooooo much. And even though my husband doesnt seek out his mother, he is at least kind to her when she is here, and so far he hasnt shunned me at all. So perhaps PERHAPS it is possible to teach the JWs a lesson when reverse shunning is applied.
i am writing in to say that i have come to a decision to return to the meetings at my local kingdom hall.
after much soul searching and careful thought, i feel happy with my decision.. i have decided to submit this on the jwdf to prove to god that i am genuine in my sincerity towards him and to show repentance for the things i have said in the past.
the reasons as to why i have decided to return are as follows;.
I know you SAY you are going back...but you will find your key no longer fits in the door. Your brain hears and translates what you see and read differently now and there isnt anything you can do about it.
But go...you need to go see for yourself. You will be back here. It may take a couple of these SHIFTS for you to finally get it but nobody can make that decision for you.
Good luck.
LD
i've been lurking on the sidelines for a while and have decided to jump in and introduce myself.
the name kinda gives it away.
i'm a lifer who got a shocker about a year ago by stumbling across the 607 baloney.
Welcome OFO !!! Oh Im glad you spoke up. Its much for fun when you jump into the pool with us. LOL!
Yep we are all in some state of being stuck with this religion....like the Tar Baby....we just cant shake it.
hugs, LD
.
just wondering....... are there certain teachings / beliefs they don't tell a person who is studying....until after they're baptized?.
.
They dont tell you that you are to love bomb trusting individuals into bible studies, tricking them into thinking you are friends now and that you CARE about them, all the while count the time you are USING them, then if they dont make progress just DUMP them back where you found them. Dusting your self righteous feet off as you leave them.
They dont tell you about Judicial Committees where you arent allowed to have anybody with you, nor any support, nor any recording device, nor any witnesses in your defense...and that they will ask you intimate questions and you WILL answer them or your life is in their hands.
They dont tell you that nobody in Bethel really gives a shit about you. Its not a big world wide brotherhood at all but a collective with individuals who are afraid to be exposed as doubters for fear they will have their families taken away from them.
They dont tell you that their history doesnt even remotely resemble what they document for you to read...that old literature is their enemy and exposes their lies and deceit...that to think is a sin and to express thoughts...a death sentence.
wow you guys...what a difference five days makes.
thursday we went to see s and he was feeling more encouraged.
he was more upbeat and hopeful and he said they were going to give him some medication to help him sleep and to help get rid of the voice and the hallucinations he was having.
Seriously...watching him like a hawk without wanting him to know that I am. You know...how do you know if you can ever trust this not to happen again? You just have to literally take it one....day.....at.....a.....time.
I am holding him tighter, loving him harder, appreciating every moment I have with them all.
