Posts by freddo

106

Just Heard Some Shocking News

by jookbeard in

a predatory jw paedophile micheal porter (uk) who has a 15 year record of abuse including the rape of his own baby but somehow evaded jail now is a member of my old congregation;wimbledon.

words fail me, to think of the years of shunning that these idiots have heaped upon me even by my own family and this piece of shit was seen a this years memorial laughing and joking with the congregation.

strange that this news story slipped passed me when it was broadcast by the british media in 2007..

freddo

Podo - you claim to know all about this case and yet you persist in saying we need to await the outcome of the second trial. You say the case was tried not half a mile from where you live - which case? The original Magistrates one, the Crown Court one or the Appeal?

There was a second trial - I'm staggered you don't know about it and it raises huge question marks about your credentials in my mind - Porter was sentenced to 18 months and was out after 9 as is the norm in the UK when you "behave" behind bars.

Why do you suggest approaching Avon and Somerset Police? What are they going to do in London over a 100 miles away?

Something doesn't seem right Podo - you seem to suggest you have some medical input with the victims? Yet you left "the Truth" in 1982? And your father is a Bristol elder since 1972?

Please convince me.

31

Time to go from Ministerial Servant to Elder

by garlic81 in

jw
friends

what is the shortest timeframe you've seen for one to go from ministerial servant to an elder if he:.

is on good terms with all elders and the circuit overseer.gives the co a green handout to help out with his expenses on each visit.has the co over for a meal each visit.has phone number and email of co and communicates at least every other month - just to chat about how things are going, good service experiences, etc.

(as any other friend would.

freddo

I knew a guy recently who resigned for "health" reasons about 5 years ago, stayed "off" for three years and was made MS at one visit and made elder again the next

7

Have you read/seen Harry Potter since?

by highdose in

jw
friends

just wondering if it lives up to its jw hype.

i remember direct consel from the platform about this, has anyone since seen it?.

freddo

I watched it when I was an elder and still watch it now. As EoM says - just fun fantasy!

51

Ex-Elders please advice on my first Public Talk as a MS.

by african GB Member in

the topic is- "young people: serve jehovah wholeheartedly".. i'd appreciate various points that would make this talk appealing to my cong.

youths, but please keep it within jw boundaries because i don't want to give my elders any hint of me being an apostate yet.. i have to say that i am still enjoying my newly given "priviledges'', and am still so surprised that holy spirit has'nt pointed me out yet.. agbm.

.

freddo

Don't feed the troll ...

29

What happens if you are unbaptised publisher for many years?

by XPeterX in

jw
friends

are they going to kick you out of the congo if you don't get baptised?what is going to happen?.

freddo

At one point an unbaptised publisher was called an "approved associate" and could be dealt with and disfellowshipped as per a baptised individual. Then the noolite arrived (probably by legal pressure) and it became that an approved associate was now an unbaptised publisher and couldn't be df'd but could be removed as a u/p. They are then viewed as of the world and thus bad association for social purposes, especially by the rightwingers.

But ... if the u/p is consider a danger then marking and words in ears goes on and they can virtually be ostracized depending upon who they have upset.

Now if you just don't get baptised and do nothing "wrong" you get to about 18 (in England) and people start to wonder why you've not jumped into Jah's ark and as you reach 20 the gossip machine goes postal and you are viewed as unworthy by the righteous overmuchies but still befriended by the rebels and the faders and the eccentrics and your family splits into two camps of "pharisees" and "weak ones" and they treat you accordingly.

If you are hardnosed about it you can tread the fine line and fade from this fence sitting position or stay in it unscathed but you only need a couple of nazi elders on the body to apply pressure and/or formally boot you into touch and make life difficult for your jw relatives.

32

Circuit Overseer's Callous Remark

by snowbird in

i was just thinking about a co's closing remarks one sunday after the watchtower study.

he stated that he had heard that ray franz was dead.

he didn't call him by name, of course.

freddo

>snowbird

Perhaps in the same way as many on here responded to the news of Ted Jaracz's stroke?

36

Is the Tide Turning For the Watchtower Organization? What Do You Think?

by mentallyfree31 in

i would like some thoughts on this issue.

as we well know the wts has been going strong for 130 years.

and they are still making large increases.

freddo

I think dropping the group study has bought them time. So much pressure off the dubs by doing this.

Think about the average western world congregation of say 80 publishers with 8 elders.

Elders - no one has to conduct a group anymore - just 25 mins at the KH in a mini WT style study in a meeting that is no longer overall than it was. Take the field ministry twice a month and train your asst to to take it every other time.

Let's say you don't beleive it and you're one of the "in for family and social" types. What do you need to do to stay in "good standing"?

Be visible; enough will be:- go to 5 meetings plus per month. (not feeling well or "visiting away" takes care of the other three) Answer twice a month. Do a ministry school item every few months. Go in the ministry twice a month and report 5/6 hours (actually do about 2 hours tops).

The WT will do just enough to keep people coming and a 2/3% increase shown (not actual, just shown).

In ten years I predict shorter WT study, reduced Pio Hours and less literature. Sadly unless there is schism the hardline treatment of d/f will be continued.

17

Lots of Pauls on Here from UK

by snowbird in

jw
friends

just an observation.. eom.. syl.

freddo

I guess Paul Gillies isn't on here? ... Thought not!

140

I HAVE JUST BEEN APPOINTED AS A MINISTERIAL SERVANT.

by african GB Member in

after being reinstated in 2008, i was finally appointed ms last night.. i am so excited now that i have a certain measure of 'power'.. ex-ms's/elders, what types of challenges come with this priviledge?.

what will be expected from me?.

freddo

Reinstated in 2008 and MS in 2010 - as said by posters above - yeah right!

Rules/guidelines - at least 5 years from reinstatement to MS (3 years guideline for reproof)

Here's the kicker african gb - what 3 questions (yes it's three now) were you asked when the elders asked if you'd serve?

35

How did 1975 effect your family? here's mine...

by Aussie Oz in

i just spent a few days with my dad.

i asked a few questions about the time when mum became a witness which i know is still, 38 years later, a painful thing for him to talk about.

in the course of it, he also learned some stuff that he did not know about the pressures of the times.. as i expected, mum and dad have different versions of this time, and it is pretty hard to find the real truth in it and in some ways it does not matter anymore.. mums version: she first was contacted in echuca late 1960s and dad put a stop to it.

freddo

I was 14 in 1975 and remember well the hype through my childhood from about the age of 5 onwards. I remember that 68 Awake and the buzz about 75 and how I wouldn't leave school. I was scared of demons and wet the bed until I was ten, but none of us realised the major cause of my anxieties. What a croc - I was only a kid and my gullible parents either sang 1975 from the rooftops and in the neighbourhood (my mother) or went a long with it and provided no alternative direction (my father). It was driven from the travelling overseers and it came to them from Fanatic Freddy and was efficiently managed by Nutter Knorr and his underlings.

Then it was "the middle seventies" and "we may be out by a year or two" because "we don't know how long Eve was created after Adam and the 6000 years starts from when they were thrown out of Eden but Eve hadn't had kids so it could only be a year or two at most".

And the "backstop" of the generation - so 70 or 80 years from 1914 might mean 1984 (and later 1994).

And then the generation change of 95' (by then mum had died and taken her irrational zeal to the grave). And I had the glimmerings of an awakening further fuelled by the wonderful internet and lurking on this site from 2003 which helped me realise I wasn't alone in my thinking.

So my UK town was no different from your Yankee city or your Aussie street or your German neighbourhood or your Italian piazza - and the current leadership tries to say it was a few brothers that ran ahead. Yeah right!