i'd like to start off by saying that i will be very vague in everything i say.
i am fairly "high up" in jw land and have to be somewhat careful how i word and say stuff.
sorry in advance if any specific details are left out.
We have often heard on here that the GB are now "rock stars". I have witnessed this first hand.
It's hard to imagine how it's gotten any worse. I remember sitting at an international assembly 15 years ago or so and the flash cameras that would go off when a GB member walked by were blinding, people literally running to the front row to grab a better picture. You would have thought it was a Taylor Swift concert.
perhaps some of you remember a new understanding of the sheep and the goats in the epic march 2015 wt study edition - specifically the article "loyally supporting christ's brothers".. while this article was studied many months ago, it was instrumental in helping me wake up.
during my study of the 2015 article i recalled that we had just revised our understanding of the sheep and the goats a few years ago and this caused me to research the real progression of the jw understanding of this parable.
i put the results of my research in an excel spreadsheet.. .
I read this article with interest back when it was released. I wasn't baptized yet, but I had recently embraced the religion I was brought up in and read every magazine as soon as it arrived in the mail.
For me it was incredibly exciting. New light! I couldn't wait to tell everyone at the KH, but the response I received was surprising: lots of blank stares, abrasive and judgmental questioning, and people assuming I was stupid and misunderstood what I read. Not a single person had read the article.
It turned out to be just the opening act. Two weeks later the following Watchtower contained the generation change and nobody seemed to pay any attention to the sheep and goats change anymore. Kind of got buried by the follow-up.
my middle brother called me a couple of hours ago.
our youngest brother, josh, who was 38, was found by his friends in his apartment.
he hung himself.
Absolutely terrible news. I've always appreciated your contributions to the board, and as is this thread confirms, you have a lot of people here who feel the same.
Best of luck in these trying times.
hello first of all to those that remember me.
i'm doing well, 10 years since my missionary trip to cameroon.
i've met a couple of goals.
Nature abhors a vacuum. If the GB aren't leading, there must be an underclass who take care of the day-to-day details of running a multi billion dollar entity.
A leadership coup/black swan event is very much in play, possibly within a decade or two.
hey, i'm looking for a certain image.
it's one of the more dopey series of images from about five years ago.
about a "sister" who goes off the rails and she gets counseled and she's dressing all "immodestly" which is really just a streak of color in her hair.
Sad thing is, lots of JW girls I grew up with ended up in this exact situation.
I've come to think that a lot of them consciously or subconsciously seek it out. It's kind of like how women in abusive relationships repeat the cycle (end up with deadbeat after deadbeat) because deep down they have low self-esteem and think that's what they deserve.
These JW girls end up in these situations because they've been taught all their lives that's what happens when you "leave Jehovah."
hey, i'm looking for a certain image.
it's one of the more dopey series of images from about five years ago.
about a "sister" who goes off the rails and she gets counseled and she's dressing all "immodestly" which is really just a streak of color in her hair.
I dig the box of Newports on the table.
i don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .
org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.
instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.
Putting GB members on the videos at jw . org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men. Instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of Lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.
There was a Spanish-language international assembly in my hometown around 12 or 13 years ago. I grew up in a Spanish congregation, but the younger generation (I was in my early 20s back then) mostly spoke both English and Spanish.
In any event, I was good friends with a Witness who like me had grown up in the religion but had not embraced it until late in his teens (I was baptized at 16; He at 18). There were two or three governing body members in attendance. If memory serves, they were Carey Barber, John Barr and Gerrit Losch. Losch spoke Spanish, the others gave their talks in English and used a translator.
I was still "in" enough to be somewhat in awe of the GB, but this friend was visibly upset. He told me in confidence he thought one of the GB members was disrespectful in the way he delivered his talk. I remember his exact words: "It sounded like he was reading from Winnie the Pooh." His faith had visibly been shaken.
In hindsight, I think a lot had to do with the fact that he was listening to a talk in a different language. We'd grown up immersed in Spanish-language meetings so the rhetoric was second-nature to us. Listening to it in a different language was like revisiting the religion altogether and experiencing it as a person off the street would.
This friend is still a Witness. I believe he's been an elder and pioneer at various points over the past decade. Unfortunately, the experience of "seeing behind the curtain" wasn't enough to wake him, but that may not be the case for others, especially since GB 3.0, and Lett in particular, seem to be wackier in a more visible way than their predecessors.
i don't follow the board nearly as closely as i did years ago and i've only seen scattered and seemingly contradictory threads on construction delays and bethel layoffs.. anyone care to briefly summarize the latest for those of us who haven't closely followed the various threads?
it'd be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance..
Interesting. It's stupid to keep notes on JCs anyhow.
If I were inclined to put together a legal strategy to combat the WT, I'd start suing individual elders left and right, maybe bankrupt a few along the way from mounting legal defense costs.
It wouldn't "bring down the WT" but it'd send a chilling message to the rank and file and force the governing body to show its hand.
i don't follow the board nearly as closely as i did years ago and i've only seen scattered and seemingly contradictory threads on construction delays and bethel layoffs.. anyone care to briefly summarize the latest for those of us who haven't closely followed the various threads?
it'd be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance..
Valid point. You're perfectly right! My apologies.
Apology accepted.
i don't follow the board nearly as closely as i did years ago and i've only seen scattered and seemingly contradictory threads on construction delays and bethel layoffs.. anyone care to briefly summarize the latest for those of us who haven't closely followed the various threads?
it'd be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance..
documents are being shredded everywhere.
How did this come up?
