Welcome, Concerned X! It will be tough road ahead, but well worth it in the end!
j
two months ago i stepped down as an elder in the cong, it was a tremdous relief although a shock to the cong.
two and a half days ago i sent in a letter of explaination concerning why i wanted to step down and why i will be absent from the kh.
it only took two and a half days for the accusation of apostasy to be made against me.
Welcome, Concerned X! It will be tough road ahead, but well worth it in the end!
j
there are 3 current threads that say these very things.
(ok, the one about armageddon says it will come within days or weeks--not months--so that means june 2007.
seems to me this is whipping up into a paranoia bigger than the 1980s apostate scare, bigger than they've ever seen before.
The whole thing is just cyclical, that's all. 1975 was 32 years ago, and it's time once again stir up the masses. The last time they did this before '75 was the early 1940s, another 30 odd years. People are realizing the end isn't comming anytime soon, so desparation on the part of the GB kicks in as a matter of course. Once the numbers begin to dwindle becasue of it, they'll shut up for a while again.
j
i'm just curious, if you could imagine taking control over the jws.
as an acting president, what specific changes would you make to .
the organization to make it more approachable, livable and attainable for the general population ?.
Close shop.
j
and to think, it'll be the day after my birthday!
my daughter is being induced as we speak.
wish her luck!
Congrats, Min.
j
when the berlin wall came down, even before the offical dissolution of the soviet union, the watchtower was quick to back away from the idea that russia was the king of the north.
nothing really changed.
true, there is an appearance of friendship and cooperation between russia and the us but russia is the one country that can totally destroy the usa.
I would take the time to explain how an atheist like me STILL believes in Bible Prophecy if you asked...
I would really like to hear that. No, I'm not being sarcastic here.
j
think about this.. go way back...far far back in history.. go back before the internet.
go back farther.. go back before newspapers, tv and radio.. go waaaaay back before there was public education.. return to a time when there were no universities or libraries.. go even farther back in time and return to when it was thousands of years before any modern era.. people got their ideas from their families and neighbors period!.
everything was rumor.
Great post, Terry. One of your best so far.
j
first of all, why don't all of you congratulate me on 2000 posts!
in other news, the jc is over.
because of this we have an elder that lied to us and to my wife parents.
Drew, I didn't get through the entire thread yet, but you won, really you won!!! You exposed another good example of just how dishonest and unloving this evil organization is.
btw: I think leaving on your own terms is a great idea. Don't give them an inch. Bastards!
Jason
i wonder how it strikes you when you read of those facing or have faced one of your tribunals?.
as x men in charge, how do you feel reading the pain and panic here?.
r..
>>But I did shun people before and I feel horrible about that.Interesting. I've seen several threads along this line before, directed to ex-elders, but almost all of us have shunned someone at some point. (I know many of you never did, putting humanity above obedience to the bOrg -- filthy sinners!) In the same way we went along with the order to shun, elders went along with the order to DF. I feel bad about those I shunned. (Though I wasn't quite as rabid about it as some JW's are. Still, shunning is shunning.)
Dave
I agree with Dave and looking_glass on this one. Everyone plays a role of responsibility here. About the only ones that could be counted as truly "inncoent" here are maybe those that left the org by choice when they were still young.
j
as many of you are aware, i've been writing letters to many in my family telling them where i disagree with the wt; imagine how surprised i was when my cousin invited me to his kid's graduation knowing that there were sure to be many witnesses there who i assumed whoud be in the mood for confrontation.
of course i went, as i'm trying a new policy of not backing down from the witnesses; using reverse psycology to try and get them ashamed of being witnesses instead of them trying to make me feel bad about my disssent.
after the graduation, my older cousin, who's much like a real brother to me said that we needed to talk.
Basically the whole conversation all boiled down to him not having anywhere else to go; he said he couldn't go to Christendom...
Funny isn't it, that if you get someone to actually sit down to be reasoned with, and you show them by using basic common sense that the WT is nonsense, that this is the best argument they can come up with. The couple of jws that I occasionally speak to have said similar comments, when backed into a corner. It really goes to show that the average jw does not have good reasons for what they believe, do they?
j
Don't go.
Unfortunately, that won't work either. The elders are only required to make two attempts at contacting someone, (even voicemail counts). If someone "blows off" a commitee, they can, and ususally will be df'd in abstentia.
j