Posts by dozy

37

How Long Did It Take To Finally Leave The Organization Once You Realized It Was Really Not The Truth?

by minimus in

jw
friends

it actually took me a few years to finally leave the organization so i was mentally out for a while before i simply stopped all meetings altogether.. how long did it take you to finally make the break?

?.

dozy

Probably took 6 months or so - the process was drawn out because I have a lot of family as JWs ( including elderly parents ) and to go "cold turkey" & leave in a very short time period would have been difficult logistically.

I eventually came off as an elder & the plan was to stay and intermittently attend meetings for a few months and then fade completely but that step only took 6 weeks or so. I had always been involved in the meetings and invariably had an item ( or two ) every week and was the TMS overseer - I hadn't realised that the meetings are so boring and pointless when you aren't involved in any way and I just hated them & my kids didn't want to attend either. I went on a vacation abroad & decided while I was away to never go back.

24

Jehovah's Witnesses Came to My Neighborhood

by Juan Viejo2 in

for nearly two years i have not seen any jehovah's witnesses going door to door in my neighborhood.

that was not the case when my wife and i first moved here (north central oregon).

in fact, our neighborhood was visited at least once every 4 to 5 months - even in the coldest winter months.

dozy

One of our elders was one of the biggest ministry time wasters that I knew - he actually made our pioneers who had long mastered the "pioneer plod" look industrious - he was the type who would assign the territory ( eventually ) and then spend whole mornings driving around the territory making sure "everybody is OK" and basically using every dodge under the sun to knock on as few doors as humanly possible yet still count his time in full.

He had an evening insurance / loans door-to-door collection round and a couple of times he had car trouble so I drove him around in my car. What a contrast - he virtually would run from door to door - knocked loudly - no hanging about at all - shouted out directions to me & kept asking me to speed up. He wouldn't even stop for a take out coffee or toilet break ( the round took about 3 1/2 hours ). I couldn't help but think about the incredible contrast with his apathetic attitude to the "lifesaving work" and when he was doing something that actually was productive.

6

My first real conversation with a person from JW

by Johnk24 in

it’s interesting how i have actually passed so many people who teach gods bible.

from jw.

today i met diane and alesha, in manchester on my lunch hour, we talked for a good while about a number of topics and i was interested to know more.. i have no idea if i will ever meet them again, i showed alesha something i wrote about 9 years ago.. perhaps i may share it again.. we be nice to talk to people, and perhaps meet up in manchester uk for a coffee.

dozy

Hi John - there isn't really any official public forum that JWs use to talk to each other - JWs are generally discouraged by their leadership from forming or joining such groups. That's not to say that there are are a few that exist - https://jwtalk.net/ for example , but these tend to be heavily "policed" to stop ex JWs getting involved , so you might have trouble signing up.

You might want to do some general research before getting too involved ( JWs do kind of "love bomb" the ( very ) few people who show an interest - especially people who are lonely and don't have many friends ). Look at www.jwfacts.com for example.

For your information , JW is basically an American MLM style religious publishing / property development business. It is not dissimilar to the Mormons - a group of generally nice , sincere people who are very busy doing a lot of religious and other organisational activity thinking that this is "God's work" and controlled by a USA based group of men who are regarded as God's sole representatives on earth. Many view it as a cult - it certainly has a lot of the characteristics. Be careful.

33

Motivations for Watchtower leadership

by GetMeOutofHere in

i’ve struggled for some time with this question.

why would the elders, cos, branch committee, helpers to gb and the gb themselves devote their lives to progressing in the organization, if the whole thing is one big sham?

i have 3 ideas so far.. 1) money.

dozy

Ray Franz discussed this in his books. While the original poster is correct in saying there are other motivations , essentially the GB believe in it 100%. They have a belief system that is constantly confirmed and very rarely challenged. Franz coined the term "victims of victims".

20

Reinstatement/dating

by Pinky in

a month ago i was reinstated as a jehovah’s witness.

he was not disfellowshipped.

in my meeting i was told that i could not become involved with the man that i committed a sin with, which is adultery once i’m reinstated.

dozy

I've seen a few screwed up situations like this in my time in the Borg. It kind of gets really messy. Are you sure the guy still really cares for you - if he really loved you , wouldn't he have made an effort to contact you ( even privately ) after your reinstatement?

Otherwise - why not take advantage of your reinstatement & just fade. Do you really want to be subject to the organisation's complex and often arbitrary web of rules dictating who you can / cannot date / marry etc for the rest of your life? And believe me , even though you are reinstated , the elders will be on your case for some time - get used to the back room in the Kingdom Hall.

29

New Armageddon date?

by neat blue dog in

looking at the most recent wt the study article focuses on the jubilees.

the made a separate box in the article to highlight the math behind jubilees, and i'm wondering if they're trying to get people thinking and stir up the pot without actually making a false prophecy.

for instance: jubilees happened every 7 times 7 years.

dozy

Even the Society aren't daft enough to promote particular dates now. Other than the bizarre "overlapping generation" workaround( which buys them another 40 years or so ) , there isn't any kind of year that they are even hinting at at the moment.

Their modus operandi is like the dodgy double glazing firm that promises a constant "70% off in the sale - must end tomorrow" and has done successfully for the last 30 years. You know in your heart that it is just a marketing pitch but on some level you just get suckered into it.

30

one picture too far ( fetched)

by waton in

july 2019 wt mag.

study article 27, to sept 8 (last weak) sic intended.

page 5. .

dozy

I didn't know Ross from "Friends" was a JW... :-)

Actually - these sort of pictures usually elicit a wry smile from most JWs. Apart from a few totally lobotomised uber JWs I don't think many would be having a "Kingdom Melodies" sing song in the car.

34

WTC has become adept at using tragedy as a means of raising cash.

by AndersonsInfo in

wtc has become adept at using tragedy as a means of raising cash.

for example, when puerto rico was devastated by a hurricane, wtc directed a large number of congregations to donate $1500 each in supplies that would be used for relief purposes.

it is not known how many congregations took part in this effort but the feedback suggests it was in the hundreds.

dozy

Does the USA have the same system as the UK in that the congregations pay virtually all donations to the branch , just keeping a very small sum for essentials? Also - sorry to be dumb - but what does WTC stand for? Watch Tower Corp?

37

highlights from Circuit Overseer Guidelines

by neat blue dog in

i just finished looking through the circuit overseer manual, so here are some highlights.

first up, regarding circuit assemblies:.

if a brother is so extremely overweight that others would be distracted if he had a part on the program, good judgment would need to be used in deciding whether to give him an assignment.

dozy

It is important that circuit overseers avoid being extravagant or giving the appearance of wanting the best of everything in the way of food, clothing, apartment furnishings, the latest electronic devices, vacations, and so forth. In this way they will avoid “any cause for stumbling”

That will just be available to "higher ups" in Bethel , then....

https://ibsaproperty.com/

81

Evolution or Creation Poll

by Vanderhoven7 in

evolution is how we got here.. demonstrate that you believe that all species evolved from a single cell over/within 3.5 billion years by tapping "like" below.. demonstrate that you believe in special creation by tapping "unlike" below..

dozy

roughly a third of Americans reject microbe to man evolution as well.

With respect , this is the country that elected Donald Trump as President. Not exactly the brightest...

What always strikes me with JWs is that on the one hand they deny evolution , on the other hand they say that all of todays life forms have developed over just over 4,000 years ago from all the animals in the ark - which would be an astonishing rate of hyper evolution.