dozy

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Posts by dozy

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  9

  Can nonreligious people go to service?

  by Thisdude in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have no idea if im doing this right.

  i'm an atheist but i'm curious about the religion.

  theres a service(?

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  dozy

  The format for the Sunday meeting is usually a 30 minute public talk. This is followed by a Watchtower study which is a tightly controlled format where a paragraph from the Watchtower is read , the conductor asks a few scripted and auxiliary questions and answers are given , ideally as near to word for word from the paragraph as possible. Generally it is quite dumbed down and ( frankly ) quite boring.

  The organisation has some unusual beliefs (including their core teaching that "imminently" ( as they have been proclaiming since 1874! ) God will destroy 99.9% of the earths population at Armageddon and only the faithful ( ie JWs ) will survive.

  Essentially however it is not dissimilar to other similar groups ( such as the Mormons) in that it is a kind of self-sustaining business model that has millions of volunteers being told they are doing "God's will" by basically being unpaid volunteers distributing the Societies literature , developing the Societies real estate operation and generally keep them busy in "Jehovah's service". If you think of a typical MLM model where people are told they are changing the world but in reality selling overpriced and often useless "herbal" products or "green" cleaning fluids to the enrichment of a few people at the top - it's a bit like that with a religious element ( without the obvious enrichment of the leaders. )

  Most JWs are nice people , though it does seem to attract quite a few weirdos and a few a**holes. Be wary of the "love bombing".

  Let us know how you get on. Enjoy....
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  67

  5 kingdom halls in New Addington for sale

  by usualusername1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i had it confirmed today that 5 kingdom halls on one site in new addington are for sale.

  price being asked £3.5 million.. every witness in london worked on that site.

  am in shock.

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  dozy

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u-xRmv2Idk
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  67

  5 kingdom halls in New Addington for sale

  by usualusername1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i had it confirmed today that 5 kingdom halls on one site in new addington are for sale.

  price being asked £3.5 million.. every witness in london worked on that site.

  am in shock.

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  dozy

  I don't really feel sorry for the guy , although he is obviously upset. Did he think that he had a home for life? 28 years residency isn't a bad result - he must have known that sooner or later the site would be sold & he would be kicked out.

  The Society gets its finance nowadays from building properties ( with free labour ) and selling a few years down the line - all tax free. It is basically a real estate development organisation - religion is a bit of a side show. Let this be a salient warning for any people volunteering their time & money to build projects and those assuming the Society will house them & care for them long term.
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  32

  Need Help fleeing my country

  by saorean in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  don't be startled by the title of this thread.

  heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.. in planning for my escape from the borg, i've come to the sad realization that the best thing for me to do considering factors like: breaking my parents and siblings hearts, lack of support groups, lack of counseling groups for cult survivors, and the prospect of finding a mate who shares my secular views on life, i've come to the realization that i need to leave my country and even my continent africa.

  i know i sound desperate, but what can a brother do when all he can do is cry out for help or die in silence.

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  dozy

  I understand how difficult things are , but why do you feel this means that you need to leave your country?

  Much of the needs you have ( such as support groups and counselling groups for cult survivors is concerned ), this could be done online - there are many such groups in Facebook etc ( as well as this excellent forum. )

  One of the golden rules to leaving a cult is not to do too many dramatic lifestyle changes if at all possible. Take it easy and consider your next step carefully. Moving to and living in the West isn't always as easy as it seems to outsiders. Taxes and living costs are high here. There are huge barriers to immigration. A lot of people have moved to my area from South Africa ( for example ) in recent years - white people fleeing the corrupt regime & crime and violence there. But many are totally fed up with the weather and lots of other factors - difficulty with employment and housing. Some have even moved back.
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  21

  New member

  by saorean in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is the first of many posts from me.

  i'm pimo, an overseer, somewhere in africa.

  i'll hold of giving further details until i've executed my plan to leave the organization.

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  dozy

  Welcome. Sorry - middle aged guy here - but there are quite a few younger ones around.
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  23

  Did You Ever Get Hit On By An Elder?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the organization stresses to elders to be careful with members of the opposite sex.

  never be alone with a sister whether it be in field service or paying a visit by means of a shepherding call.

  do you know of any elders that flirted or were overly “touchy” with females?

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  dozy

  For all the years I was a JW , I found that most congregations seemed to have at least one resident "pervy elder" , as the sisters used to call them. Sometimes they were a bit too "touchy feely" with the sisters - just a bit creepy ( often more than "just a bit" ).

  Usually just a boring middle aged guy in a sexless , loveless marriage.
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  27

  Hotels Deny Watchtower Discount Rates For 2020 Regional Conventions

  by JW GoneBad in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  the wtbts is not being given special room rates by 2 major hotels at the long beach convention center area for the upcoming 2020 regional conventions & wt is t'd off.

  letters are being read in surrounding circuits and congregations.

  apparently wt is afraid that other hotels are going to blackball them as well.. has anyone else heard this?

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  dozy

  Interesting thread here https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/7cybbg/watchtower_making_money_off_hotel_deals/

  I remember talking once to a manager of a hotel that many JWs stayed in for circuit assemblies ( this was before the Society started their own bookings system ) and I asked him how beneficial it was to have lots of JWs staying there.

  He said that while he was pleased to have the hotel fully booked which helped his overall occupancy figures , the hotel didn't really find JWs very profitable at all. Hardly any JWs went back for dinner, few took breakfast ( unless it was included in the rate ) , zero lunches of course and very few bought drinks at the bar , so the total revenue per hotel guest ("Trevpar" ) was really low - a fraction of their usual yield. I wonder whether the hoteliers in Long Beach and other areas are starting to do their sums based on previous conventions and coming to the same conclusions.
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  49

  What happens to Bethelites?

  by rickroll in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so if someone puts their life into serving the cult for free at bethel, then say after 25 or 30 years they are not able to for one reason or another such as illness, or family issue or old age, does the cult have any safety net for these people or is it you serve until you can't and when you can't you just go away?

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  dozy

  Barbara Anderson relates that when she decided to leave Bethel she gave an excuse that she needed to care for elderly parents back home. The Society were so keen to keep her & Joe that they offered to move her parents to New York and they would be looked after.

  This shows that those with important skills or those high up in the Org ( or their families ) are looked after, Everyone else basically gets kicked to the curb when they are no longer needed or become ill.

  Our congregation inherited an older ( 60 ish ) couple from Bethel who had been kicked out in a period of redundancies. There was only a tenuous connection to our area ( a distant relative ) but the congregation basically got a letter from the branch telling us that this was a faithful elderly couple and it was up to us to find them accommodation etc. A kind of "keep warm & be well fed - not our problem any more" kind of letter. There was no follow up of any sort. It all seemed a bit heartless.
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  30

  Good memories of full-time service?

  by fulano in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  perhaps not a topic for everybody... mine.. in both sp service in a foreign field in europe , the freedom and helping people to read and write in spanish .

  doing a lot of work in the congregations.. in missionary-service.. helping congregations in a third-world country and see good results in family relations.

  and the siestas from 13:00 to 15:00..... who has good memories of bethel?

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  dozy

  I always hated the ministry but at a "in-between jobs" time of my life decided to sign up , initially as a auxiliary pioneer for a few months and then a regular pioneer for 18 months or so. It was at a time when there was a really buzzing "pioneer spirit" in the congregation so from that point of view it was OK from a social standpoint as there were a few other young ones.

  The best times were just travelling around in a car with other pioneers doing "route calls" - you could get many hours in this way and it was good fun , especially as we took long breaks. The worst was "first call" , especially if you were paired with one of the more nutjob types in the congregation.

  I hated the constant hour demands - it was 90 hours a month back then , so if you were working ( secularly ) one day , you basically needed to do 6 hours ministry the next day to catch up. Even with all the typical pioneer tricks to pad out my report , I always struggled to get the time in.

  Eventually , just after going to the pioneer school ironically , I found a full time job - to be honest it was a huge relief to come off the pioneer list. Looking back - it was a huge waste of time , effort and expense.
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  44

  PIMO Elder with a Dilemma

  by xjwsrock in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i haven’t been on here in awhile and this is my second user name because i was busted by my pimi wife on the first one.

  i have been basically awake since 2013. i have a super dub wife that i love and don’t want to lose and my sick mom in the hall that is a true believer.

  stupid religion has gotten between my wife and i (of course).

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  dozy

  As an ex-elder myself , I know what you are going through.

  My last couple of years as an elder when I was PIMO were painful - my ministry dropped virtually to zero , I was missing every meeting I possibly could , my public talk that I would give list dropped from 20 to about half a dozen that I felt comfortable to give. It is a very difficult transition & I was probably lucky that only one elder ( one of the uber self righteous JW types ) attacked me in elders meetings - the rest cut me some slack ( maybe because a few of them were slackers as well ). Eventually I just resigned - the whole situation was impossible to manage.

  You are better just resigning as an elder on your own terms rather than being kicked out which will happen eventually - as an elder , you are expected to "take the lead" and it is very difficult to go through the motions when you know it is all false. Just my 2C,

  Good luck with the marriage - once a wife loses intimacy , it is very difficult for you to rebuild that. Lots of marriages don't survive this process.