Posts by life is to short

8

Regional Conventions

by life is to short in

wondering if anyone knows when they will announce the regional conventions.

every year they always announced it the first service meeting of january.

i tied in last night by phone as my husband insists on going i do not and never will again but i like to book a room now and i refuse to use their list.

Regional Conventions

by life is to short in

wondering if anyone knows when they will announce the regional conventions.

every year they always announced it the first service meeting of january.

i tied in last night by phone as my husband insists on going i do not and never will again but i like to book a room now and i refuse to use their list.

Thanks sir82 and barrold bonds I am not going my husband is but it still affects me because of the money and yes I never had a problem either until that time. Since then I have learned that at least where I live it is the norm for hotels to not refund from the JW list even if you give them months notice. One couple gave a hotel three months notice and they still charged them all three nights. This couple is supper zealous and just donated the rooms to the rooming department.

One way you could get out of it would be to give a credit card that you don't use much and if you can't make it just cancel the card so when they go to charge the rooms the card would be dead.

Thanks OTWO also

8

Regional Conventions

by life is to short in

wondering if anyone knows when they will announce the regional conventions.

every year they always announced it the first service meeting of january.

i tied in last night by phone as my husband insists on going i do not and never will again but i like to book a room now and i refuse to use their list.

life is to short

Wondering if anyone knows when they will announce the regional conventions. Every year they always announced it the first service meeting of January. I tied in last night by phone as my husband insists on going I DO NOT and never will again but I like to book a room now and I REFUSE to use their list. I got burned so badly by doing that. My husband got really sick about three weeks from the convention and was in the hospital. I called to cancel the room and they tried to charge me for all three nights anyway, as the said I used a booking sight to reserve the room. I said NO I used the Watchtower list and they said that is like using Kayak or Priceline and that the hotel DOES NOT REFUND ANY reserved rooms when you book with a place like them and they would charge my card all three nights PERIOD!

I was so blown and way and stressed here we had these huge doctor's bills and now this. Anyway after begging them they finally agreed to charge us for only one night not three. Now I gave them three weeks notice so you know that they could easily fill that room, that was just free money for the hotel. Anyway lesson learned NEVER USE THE WATCHTOWER LIST.

So back to my question, I just checked out the official WT sight and I only find 2015 Regional conventions, God forbid I call them District conventions or the dreaded hateful word Assembly's which clearly shows you are apostate, because I kid you not that happened to me when I was still a very devote JW. I was in field service and I said the word assembly and I was called an apostate in the car group.

Got of love the love of the "friends" and sorry for my ranting just hate the stupid hoops you seem to have to jump through.

LITS

4

When God becomes a Drug by Leo Booth

by life is to short in

has anyone read the book when god becomes a drug by leo booth..

i read it back when i first started to wake up in 08 and am now just rereading it.

to me it is just amazing how much it parallels jws well any religion that people abuse..

life is to short

Has anyone read the book when God becomes a Drug by Leo Booth.

I read it back when I first started to wake up in 08 and am now just rereading it. To me it is just amazing how much it parallels JW’s well any religion that people abuse.

Like on page 84 he says “The too-bright, falsely cheerful expression is also a mask. Underneath it seethe tension, anger, and rigid control. God’s children are supposed to be happy; that’s the fantasy, the illusion. Don’t let anyone know that you’re not happy, for admitting not being happy in the Lord is to admit imperfection, failure, not doing it right. Such an admission courts disapproval, so you paste on your false smile.”

How many time in field service I was so miserable and depressed I could not stand it but I would never say it out loud. In fact I even made comments at the meeting that you never have a bad day doing Jehovah’s work. I said those words because I was trying so hard to make myself believe them.

On page 85 he says “You have reached rock bottom. You hate yourself and may not even know why. Or, if you recognize that you are hopelessly addicted to your religion or belief system, you don’t know where to turn for help. You can’t stop the meditating, praying, incense-burning, crusades, and obsessive scripture quoting. Your family does not know what to do. You’ve tithed away you savings: maybe you are nearing bankruptcy. Certainly you are spiritually bankrupt-you can’t sleep: your head aches; your stomach is in knots; you’re so depressed you can barely function. You may have a nervous breakdown. Perhaps you may enter treatment for another addiction-thinking your eating disorder, alcoholism, or fits of rage are causing your problems.”

I was just like that where I could not sleep, still at times I can’t we were near bankruptcy because of pioneering but I was not allowed to voice it because as my husband told me I just needed more faith. Jehovah would pick it up if I just gave it to him but I kept on working and I did not give it to Jehovah so that was why Jehovah was not helping us. I needed to stop working and throw it all at Jehovah. I thought of suicide all the time while out in service. And mostly I blamed myself for being so horrible.

On page 30-31 he says “For thousands of years, humans beings have been accustomed to living under an authoritarian theocracy in which the few, the chosen, and the called control the many. This divinely appointed power group claims not only to speak for God but insists that it is also the only way to God. – This power group can manipulate scripture to create doctrines and dogma designed to keep people in submission, fearful of error. They make the rules and say the rules are God’s, so that questioning the teachers or teachings equals questioning God.” Does that not scream what the GB have been telling us.

Leo Booth also speaks of “the lack of education among the lower classes.” It just makes me think that is why the GB does not want us to go to college. They do not want us to be educated. They only want us to read the WT, Awake, and their publications. Not to think for ourselves.

On page 77-78 He gets into black and white thinking he says “Many religious addicts, become of narrow and restrictive beliefs, often have conflicts with medicine and education. Those two disciplines challenge black-and-white thinking, the need for simplistic solutions, and the inability to think and question. Frequently we read about parents who refuse to give permission for a doctor to perform an operation or administer a blood transfusion because of their belief in a certain faith. Some of these faiths manipulate scripture to justify their dogma. For instance, some cite Acts 15:29 as the basis for refusing transfusions: “That you abstain for what has been sacrificed to idols and from what is strangled, and from unchastely.” – Those verses refer specifically to the Jewish ritual concerning preparation of meat, which is part of the Jewish Orthodox tradition and called keeping kosher. Much of the early Christian teaching was devoted to moving people away for Jewish tradition in order to distinguish Christianity as a separate religion rather than a sect of Judaism. Yet certain religions have twisted these verses to legitimize their stance against medicine or whatever it is they oppose.”

This book has just hit home with me so much. I know I totally enabled my husband, by sitting in the car for hours while he was in elders meeting. Crawling on my hands and knees in my own home because we were forbidden to go to the police over a matter. Living so poor because of pioneering. On and on. No wonder I was so depressed my whole life.

The religion of Jehovah’s witnesses sets a person up to fail if you truly believe it and try to do what you are told you must to live forever.

I look back at my life and just feel like I have wasted it. Maybe this is not a good book for me after all as I feel like I have blown the gift of life, my life.

LITS

8

Gotta love the ministry. LOL.

by Sabin in

you know how you go to the mid-week meeting & it is all about field service, how you can improve, do more etc.

do you remember how they would say things like..... "you get up brothers & you really don't feel like going out today, you look out of the window & the weathers just not good, then you look in the mirror & you say to yourself, i don't feel so good today.

you know your looking for an excuse not to go cause it's tough to get motivated on your 1 day off.

life is to short

I loved what you wrote as it was totally how I felt. My husband was an elder and always felt we had to set the example which meant we could NEVER MISS SERVICE NO MATTER WHAT!

There were no Saturday mornings of just being together as a couple, going for coffee or a breakfast out or just having a marriage, it was always met for service and than Jehovah will bless us with time together afterwords. Even when we went on vacation we had to met with the group before we headed out as no other elder would even conduct my husband's group.

My husband also felt sorry for all the mentally ill ones in the hall so the other elders in what ever hall we were in soon learned that and then they would put all the crazies in our group. I remember one time the CoBE hated this one extremely mentally ill brother and this guy was bent and determined to talk to the CoBE so the CoBE actually started to run in the hall from this guy. Now the CoBE was a fairly heavy guy and it was so stupid looking and yep we got that mentally ill person in our group also, Oh the joy.

I would come home from service so wiped out, sometime I would just sit in a chair and stare at the wall for hours trying to decompress. I always felt so crazy after spending the morning with the mentally ill. I knew that I was not trained to help them but I was forced to be with them and I felt bad not wanting to but they were so demanding and rude even at the doors and of course they had to take all the doors as they were so much better at talking to people then I was, or else I would get a car group that wanted me to do everything and they just wanted to ride around but mostly they were very demanding rude people who were all on government aid and felt the world owed them even more. They would hit me up for money, etc. The householders would look at us like we were all just a stupid crazy religion which I felt like we were.

I used to ask my husband why we sent out so many extremely mentally ill especially ones who refused to bath and smelled and I mean reeked. My husband response was always that Jehovah was using everyone because he could make the rocks cry out if He wanted and so Jehovah was using the mentally ill to weed out those who truly wanted the "truth" as it would take humbleness for people to accept the truth from people like them. It would take the three H's honest, hungry for the truth and humbleness and that was why the mentally ill went out.

I always felt bad and horrible after a day in service and if I was not with the mentally ill I was in a car group of self rightness JW's, I could not win.

LITS

25

JT & Lady Cee Why we left the Jehovah's Witnesses - Part 2

by JT-LadyC in

jt further expounds on why we left the watchtower.

why we left the jehovah's witnesses part 2.

life is to short

I loved it and for one huge reason is how calm and composed JT is. So many ex JW's may have really good points but they say it was such anger and such horrible language that it looses it's message.

This video is so well done, it something that you could show to any JW that has a somewhat reasoning mind and they might actually listen.

I agree with Cofty that anyone who truly takes the Watchtower's doctrines seriously will eventually leave. JT comes across like he truly believed it was the "truth" and now because of critical thinking he realized it was wrong.

Thank you for putting together such a great tool to use.

LITS

14

Chapter 1 My Bethel Experience First Posted 9 Years Ago A Walk Down Memory Lane

by new boy in

part 1. i when to bethel march 21,1970. at the time you had to be a pioneer for two years to apply, by the time i left in 1974 they were calling people in who had never pioneered..........average stay was 5 months (they had signed up for 4 years)..........the reason they left was......well, it was hell.. one of the reasons was, knorr hated bethelites, but he loved the gilead students and why?

because when they screwed up they were thousands of miles away!........just before i got there, they had kicked out over 30!

homosexuals (at one time) ....the would kick out 1-2 bethelites a week.

life is to short

I was there form 1992 to 1994, I loved and hated it. I loved it well over serving where the need was great, now that was peer hell so anything was better than that but now looking back it was fairly missed up I was just so glad to be around at least some people who like me. Pioneering where the need was great everyone hate me as I was just just an elder's wife and got in the way of their using my husband more.

LITS

79

The really cool feeling of community within JWs

by Phaedra in

i remember going out with other jws after the memorial.. small gatherings.. picnics at some local landmark.. the feeling of closeness, camaraderie, friendship with like minded people you could trust.. haven't experienced it since i left.. really miss that..

life is to short

I too used to love the getting together after the meetings. As a teenager I lived for it. I was not allowed to attend school as I was home schooled and had little association with anyone except my parents and sister so those times after the meeting were live a life line to me.

My parents were on the fringes of the "truth" and were avoided by most of the JW's and most of the world. I was extremely lonely as a child and a huge amount of the JW's kept their kids away from me also because of how strange my parents were.

So going out after the meetings and being with people was everything to me. So I will never forget the huge pain I felt when this sister who was in her mid 30's came to me as a 17 year old and told me to NEVER come to the restaurant again after the meetings because no one wanted my parents around and they would not let me come without them.

I went home that day and tried to commit suicide. I had no one in the world, my parents hated me, I had no contact with those outside the religion and to be told that those inside did not want me around them was the beyond painful. I felt so alone in the world.

Even now writing this as a 52 year old women, I just do not get how cruel and hateful that sister was. No one was there for me in the "truth" coming from a family that they clearly knew had problems. I had no mentors, no help, no nothing and to be told that I could not even come to a public restaurant because of my parents was unbelievably hurtful.

Yet I hung on to the religion as it was the only thing I knew and I bought into that it was the "truth" as I did know that my parents were crazy, now I realize that was what attracted my parents to the JW's the crassness of the religion.

Funny thing is I still look back at those time before I was forbidden to go with fondness.

LITS

11

Simon, How do you sustain this website?

by Wonderment in

simon,.

first, i hope you and your family are having a nice christmas.. we are at the end of the year, so it's time to ponder a bit about how grateful we should be to you and all the contributors for making this site for what it is.

i have noticed other jw's forum related sites come and go, but this one has held steady for many years.

life is to short

Yes thank you so much Simon. This sight has been such a huge help to me when I woke up. I honestly do not know where I would have been without the support this sight has given me.

Just a huge thank you for all that you do.

LITS

25

When did district conventions become regional conventions and why?

by slimboyfat in

i think it was gary and heather bottings' book the orwellian world of jehovah's wifnesses that noted the function of the habit of the watchtower organisation of changing organisational terminology periodically.

congregations became companies and then back to congregations again.

circuit overseers became circuit servants and then back again.

life is to short

Blondie I so remember when they were switched from assembly's to conventions. I was about 16 and i a car group of about 5 all older ones and I asked what hotel everyone was staying in for the assembly. I just got ripped to shreds by this older sister who was in her 50's at the time, belittling me for not keeping up with the slave and calling it the proper name convention. I mean she just went on and on and on over it it was like I had used the f bomb or something. It just really worked her up to no end.

Oh how I wished that had woken me up that something was truly wrong with this religion. It was just peer craziness.

LITS