Posts by Doubting Bro

18

New brother to have a bible study with

by Akid48 in

well i moved to a new congregation, and i have no one to study with and i didnt have a bible study in weeks and i was loving but one meeting my aunt said ''im going to set up a bible study with brother bob (dont his name)''.well come to find out brother bob is a man that puts a lot of pressure on you to join the school etc.. well right now im like fuck,because i dont know how to deal with brother bob so i just wanted to know if any could help me..

Doubting Bro

Wasanelderonce has great advice. Remember, you don't need to be disrespectful, but you certainly don't have to act interested. Honestly, your aunt should be the one studying with you if she's your guardian. I seem to remember the WTS discouraging family "heads" (assuming your aunt is a JW and your uncle if around is not?) from having outsiders study with their kids since it's their "spiritual" responsibility.

Definitely use anxiety to avoid joining the school and becoming a publisher. If they force you on the school, try to find the positive in getting used to public speaking. Pretty sure you can avoid being a publisher since they actually have 2 elders meet with you to see if you are qualified. You can definitely answer questions incorrectly and kill that even if you are forced to go through the process.

Keep us posted!

10

"Colour inside the lines!"

by stuckinarut2 in

just some random musings here.... picking up on the thoughts expressed in other posts (such as @wake me's post excellent earlier this week), about how "infantilized" jws are, it made me think of this post topic.. just like little children, jws need to be given constant praise and reassurance that they are doing well and doing the right thing.

also, they feel so bad if they stray or deviate from the ideal prescribed course, behaviors or activity that is approved by the society.. if they are told that they have "coloured outside the lines" so to speak, they feel dejected - or worse - defensive, depending on who points it out to them.

(eg a witness vs a non witness).

Doubting Bro

Sir82, I've actually done that before! I would say something like: "Glad you enjoyed it. Was there something that stood out to you? I'd really like to improve the talk and highlight areas that people really found interesting". Usually, the response back was along the line of they liked the general delivery of the talk. I had one person actually mention a specific point to me.

Even though I was all in at the time, I knew that most people weren't really listening!

28

Special Seating at the Convention

by mann377 in

jw
friends

has anyone noticed at the convention that there is special reserved seating?

the convention that i attended (to keep peace in the family) had seating in the suites of the arena.

all arenas, stadiums etc.

Doubting Bro

Right it's for the higher ups in convention oversight. I was offered special parking but not the special seating. I usually turned down the parking pass because it always felt wrong to me.

34

How to spot awake JW at a convention

by Akid48 in

i cant spot one to save my life, so i wanted to now if any one could me figure out how..

Doubting Bro

It's almost impossible without outing yourself. I've had meet-ups with people from this board at conventions which was awesome. But, we had already been communicating here so its not like we were meeting for the first time.

The programs are so long and boring, lots of good JWs end up doing other things, wandering around, leaving early, sleeping, that you really can't read into those behaviors.

I wish there was a secret sign that a PIMO could use but most people are PIMO for a reason (too much to lose at the moment) so even if a sign was worked out, I'd be paranoid to actually use it.

44

Has Your JW Background Benefited You In Any Way?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i would like to think there was some good that resulted from our being a witness at one time..

Doubting Bro

Allowed me to develop public speaking skills that I likely wouldn't have developed if I was forced to at a young age.

Allowed me to realize that there is no true religion. I was already convinced that every other religion was false and beyond redemption. So when I applied their lens to my own religion, I saw they were no different!

55

Cults in our Midst

by Lee Elder in

this is related to a comment i made in a previous thread.

cults exist in many diverse parts of society.

this includes politics.

Doubting Bro

Maybe it's my JW upbringing, but I have believed for quite a while that politics in general exhibits very cultish behavior sometimes. It's not a right/left thing for me at all. I have a deep distrust and dislike for all politicians They all seem to be interested in either separating me from my hard earned money or trying to control every aspect of my life. Of course, I see the need for laws and understand that you need regulations on the behavior of people and businesses because if you don't, there are those that will take advantage. But, the slavish "my party is always right" type of mentality that seems to grip politics at least here in the US, is frightening. Even on this board, I see more debates along the lines of " Trump is awesome - no he's a trainwreck" than any actual debate on real issues. The ironic thing is that if Trump does something similar to what Obama may have done, its considered brilliant by Republicans and outrageous by Democrats. And vice versa. Just so much hypocrisy! Having lived my life under a system where hypocrisy was a daily event, I have very little tolerance for it now.

I try to see all angles of a debate and usually fall into a moderate position where I try to take some good ideas from the left and from the right and mush them together. That's literally heresy for both the Republicans and the Democrats.

18

"This Good news Of The Kingdom Will Be Preached In All The Inhabited Earth" ........

by smiddy3 in

..".for a witness to all the nations and then the end will come" .matt.24:14.. the religion of jehovah`s witnesses kid themselves into thinking they are filling or have fulfilled this prophecy/scripture .. given that you take the jehovah`s witnesses and the international bible students association as one and the same religion , then they have been preaching their message primarily within lands that are predominantly christian based.....and certainly do not cover "all the inhabited earth " as their are many populous non christian nations nations that do not allow, even forbid any proselytizing in their lands.

i would estimate about one third of the current world population.. but that is not all .. given that you take the jehovah`s witnesses and the international bible students association as one and the same religion ,then they have about 140 years of preaching their beliefs to the public specifically to preach "this good news of the kingdom " as they claim to do in obedience to j.c.commands at matt.24:14.. take a survey no matter where you live on this planet earth of the people in your locality and if you asked them "what was the message jehovah`s witnesses left you and no one would be able to say "they told me about and explained to me the good news of the kingdom" and what it would mean to me.. no one would be able to say that .after 140 years of preaching and witnessing by what is now 8 million plus jehovah`s witnesses .. what a waste of time and energy and lives .. after 140 years of preaching what do the public know about jehovah`s witnesses ?.

they don`t take blood transfusions .

Doubting Bro

I think the public knows even less about them than the OP suggests. They know that they 1)knock on doors to distribute the WT, some may know that they don't take blood or don't celebrate holidays. That's it.

21

For Those Claiming That the GB are Simply Naive - Another Philly Story

by berrygerry in

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sex-abuse-stephen-lett-chessa-manion-20180620.html.

Doubting Bro

This is a PR nightmare for the WTS and the way they are handling it is the worst possible way. It's as if they are so wrapped up in their belief they are God's chosen ones that to think they made an error in how things are handled and need to apologize to the victims and rethink their procedures is almost unimaginable. Society in general is much less willing to turn a blind eye to abuse as they have in the past. Organizations like the WTS and others need to change or ultimately they will be forced to by either external pressure or internal pressure.

Well written article

29

Anyone think Assemblies will stop?

by blownaway in

not completely but the expensive renting of halls or assembly hall ownership.

maybe with streaming they could have assemblies at the kh and stream the program.

i bet they cut costs in a lot of ways.

Doubting Bro

No way would they dump the assemblies. 1) makes the members feel like they are part of something bigger than the local congregation and 2) (MOST IMPORTANT) they make a ton of MONEY$$$$.

If the assemblies ever stopped being a major source of revenue or if they can come up with a new scheme that costs less to operate and brings in more revenue, then they will stop. That's the only reason.

138

LEAKED: WHQ Accounts: 2016-2020 Budget

by Fay Dehr in

leaked: whq accounts: 2016-2020 budget [part 1 of 5] https://youtu.be/g08tw2v3b4s.

leaked: whq accounts: 2016-2020 budget [part 2 of 5] https://youtu.be/rpceb5v0vbe.

leaked: whq accounts: 2016-2020 budget [part 3 of 5] https://youtu.be/2xa08ukc_6i.

Doubting Bro

Couple of thoughts:

1 - Why do they ALWAYS use some cherry picked portion of a scripture to support EVERY SINGLE thing they talk about. Jesus, common sense tells you that you need a budget especially to run a multi-billion dollar organization. Its just so annoying.

2 - These guys take boring and dull speaking to new lows. I would give them a W on multiple speech counsel points.

3 - They definitely have overspent in the past. How much, not sure yet. Did they borrow money that was coming due? Likely given the liquidation of assets.

Cofty's assessment is right in line with my thoughts. They have certainly peaked. They are in the beginning stages of decline. They are doing things they have to now in an attempt to right the ship. But, their long term prospects do not look good. That doesn't mean collapse in my mind, it means them shrinking.

It would be great if it was a house of cards. But my wishing it was doesn't make it so.