the round of "international" conventions that started in the middle of last year in the states "wrapped" up last weekend in new zealand.
there was some media converage (from which i derived the information that follows).
(someone who knows how to copy links may be able to provide the relevant media links?).
An international convention in New Zealand and not even all of NZ JWs travelled to it?
'satallite' conventions for those who thought the trip was too far?
Remember when an international convention was ONE in the whole country and everybody would treck from Perth to Sydney for it?
Oz
keep on keeping on too.
perhaps let her have her deceptions. My wife worked for a few years as an aged care worker and has nursed MS patients who were not 'old age'. In later stages she noted that some became almost like dementia patients.
It may not be unreasonable to wonder if she has delusions or irrational thoughs. Perhaps she may not remember things from a time before...
It does not excuse lies but maybe she isn't aware of everything she is doing? A quick google lists a range of cognitive changes in MS patients beside the more obvious physical ones.
I am not able to give advice on all that stuff but maybe you can check with her doctors or carers, they may be notice personality changes too.
but, all that aside, I take my hat off you you sir.
Oz
ok ,so this is my story , this jw girl came on vacation in my country as a friend of my girl-cousin who is not a jw but were classmates at uni .
my cousin introduced her to me but she didnt tell me that she was a jw from the very first moment we flirt each other.we went on beach ,on bars ,cafes etc and she acted so wordly ,in fact i thought she could be a good one night stand with her behaviour .never saw anything weird about her that could lead me to question something, with the peak in the club where we danced together while hugging very passionatly .
i tried to kiss her that night but she kept her distance , i didnt notice any bad on that.anyway, next day we flirt again at the the beach and at night too .
Any relationship breakdown is going to hurt like hell. Not knowing your age, i suspect you are possibly in teens and if so, you need to learn how to handle these things because more likely than not it will happen again with someone else for different reasons.
Yeah it hurts that this one is so messed up. THAT is the warning sign. All relationships have warning signs that they are about to end or should have ended, we just don't seem to pay attention to them.
I think you are going to continue to obsess about this girl, i for one do get it. I was with a woman for the better part of one year, she was crazy but i loved her. I ended it to save my sanity and yet i still pined for her another two years on and off.
You have a choice, to get over it and move on, or chase her. One will heal you, the other destroy you. Your choice, you are not without hope and not helpless either.
You already know the answer, hence the title of your thread ''another sad non jw''....
You need to forget this girl, move on. There cannot be a compromise. You cannot join her religion for her and she cannot leave it for you. Wrong timing, not meant to be, whatever works, but RUN like it or not dude. She is messed up and messing you up as well.
oz
i don't know how some of you are around this time of year, but i'm just really depressed lately, more so this time of year it seems.
because it is nearing the memorial time and now that i have a son, i am totally lost as to what to do and what to teach him concerning religion.
my own youth was stolen by the wtbs and has made me a total wreck at times.
I mean, it's no longer just me, but my son's salvation I must think about
in my opinion THE NUMBER ONE thing that gets ex JWs back later in life.
This is what happens when people leave and continue to believe just enough to give them the guilts later on. Now that my two kids are out, my biggest aim is to make sure they know IT IS NOT ENOUGH to get disalusioned and leave, IT IS NOT ENOUGH to want to be 'free' to be 'normal'. IT IS VITAL that those who leave for whatever reason to LEARN WHY IT IT FALSE
although the thread is 6 years old i think the problem and comments are very relevant still
oz
this was reported in the west australian newspaper yesterday.
"victims' agreements no bar for abuse inquiry - the head of the royal commission into child sex abuse has warned institutions they will not be able to hide behind confidential.ity agreements to stymie scrutiny of their conduct or stop victims speaking out.
in his first public comments since his appointment, justice peter mcclellan said the commission wold not hesitate to use its power to compel organisations to give evidence if deemed to be necessary for the inquiry.... some legal experts had suggested that the royal commission would not be able to override confidentiality agreements signed by victims when settling claims against organisations but justice mcclellan made clear the agreements would not be a barrier.
This will take more than one and a half years.
While this is a great step and may do some good, i think it be be a lame dog. Royal commissions in our country are renowned for being total wastes of time and resources, It will cost many many millions, issue a report that will get bounced around and disected, another commision will examine the firsts report and make a few recomendations that will make complience of some new laws compulsory at best and at worst reject the findings of the first. The WT will be the only one to not follow through and will get away with it for another 10 years before another 'Unthank' brings it to the governments attention so they can declare it is not in the public interest again.
It annoys me no end that governments go through the motions of 'looking like they are doing something' while really doing sweet nothing. They KNOW there is a problem, one govt dept with appropriate powers could dig all the dirt needed to bury these institutions.
Instead we will have blah blah blah for the next 3 years while they talk about whether or not to do something about what they already know. They will bring in witness after witness, expert after expert and try to decide if they can legally do this or that. The likelyhood of them enforcing changes of religions policies is very low. Even our athiest prime minister said recently regarding our discrimination laws that the chuches were exempted from laws and could continue to discriminate against gays as they follow the bible as their faith.
sorry i am not an optomist! I hope i am proven wrong and have to eat my words, but i have seen how the various state and federal governments, police and judicial systems promise everything and deliver nothing on important social ills such as workplace bullying and various institutions rights to run amuck unchecked because of technicalities of words and loopholes. I expect the same with this. While I cannot speak for Mr Unthank, perhaps even he would have doubts about any real outcome after the way his efforts were thwarted last year in Victoria.
Oz
Oz
at the last elders school i heard from a few different attendees that the average age was easily 60+.
there will be a lot of elders gone within the next 10yrs.
there is nowhere near enough young brothers to replace these ageing elders.
"Which sisters here would like their husbands to reach out and become a elder?" Over a hundred hands popped up by eager potential women
Funny that!
It's a double reason i think. One, the idea that if said slacker husband becomes an elder he is obviously a 'spiritual' man and will lead the wifey to salvation riding on his coat tails, two, the prestige. One thing that upset my now ex wife was the lowering of her status...no longer the wife of a MS going places. And the other challenge it gave her was that now she had to stand on her own feet in front of the JWS and 'jehovah' regarding the status of her own spirituality.
oz
my best man at my wedding, twenty years ago, was someone i always trusted.
he was a friend for fishing, a friend who remained when i left the religion with my wife 15 years ago and although he was a bit issolated.
i kind of trusted him.
And what fuss will be made of the perp when he gets in good standing again, pioneering behind bars. what a marvelous god jehovah is, so loving and merciful to have allowed a lost sheep to be found.
never mind the ones he chased out of the faith.
oz
at the last elders school i heard from a few different attendees that the average age was easily 60+.
there will be a lot of elders gone within the next 10yrs.
there is nowhere near enough young brothers to replace these ageing elders.
I would surmise that the WT are fully aware of the slow death and are prepared for it.
I can see at JW world where the growth of years past are replaced by decreases, not just odd ones here and there but marked globally noticable and not denied by the GB. In fact, used by the GB to keep themselves relevant.
As numbers reverse and congregations are merged instead of split off and made to share halls, they will also have the obvious elder bleed. It would not be inconceivable for them to drop the current elder, MS arrangement with a bit of new light and go back to the old days of one person as congregation servant. One man in charge of each congregation, laying the law down exactly as issued down the line. Maybe even allowing sisiters to do a few things as they do in areas of very low male publishers.
They are getting tighter and more culty than ever with the whole obey attitude. Losses are easy to pass off to the rank and file as being cleansed from the organization. Easy to tell the rank and file that the end is so close that there is no need for more congregations, it's time to bunker down and obey even more than ever, the preaching work is all but finished to 'jehovahs' satisfaction.
I see smaller groups, tightly controlled by less men weilding greater power. The low pool of good men willing to be used will leave the bottom dwellers to rise as 'elders' to abuse the flock. Something that will no doubt suit the corrupt men at the top while they screw as much money as they can from the sheep to keep themselves in comfort.
I see them becoming less relevant (is that possible?) than ever and becoming a quaint little fly under the radar high control group with meetings in gated conventions. One that people will by and large forget about as some annoying door knockers of days gone by.
Not a pretty situation for those that remain in.
Oz
at the last elders school i heard from a few different attendees that the average age was easily 60+.
there will be a lot of elders gone within the next 10yrs.
there is nowhere near enough young brothers to replace these ageing elders.
Marked to come back to later...
my wife told me of a friend of hers who is going through a difficult time in their life.
they are what i would describe as a 'blind follower' of wt teachings, but it does give them structure that would otherwise not be there in their life.
anyhow, this person is having a tough time, the elders know about it and yet not one of them has either visited or called to see how they are!.
The elders are doing nothing because there is nothing they can do.
When elders visit the weak its to try to get them into service, when elders visit the strong it's for a coffee.
Your wife can do more than elders ever will. That may well wake her up more than anything.
oz
