Posts by djmac1031

20

Does the WTS smell the blood in the water?

by djmac1031 in

jw
friends

im sure im not the only former jw here who is noticing the subtle, and not so subtle changes in wts policy, and their attempts to make life easier for their rank n file.. .

combining the book study meeting with the service meeting / ministry school meeting and giving their members a "night off" so to speak (although they are of course encouraged to use this night as an evening of "family & personal bible study") is surely a sign that they understand their current r&f members can only take so much more of the wts complete control over every waking hour of their lives.. .

they have also shortened the public talks, cut down on the length of assembly days...i remember the 8 or 9 day assemblies as a kid myself, and over the years they have gotten shorter...a week...4 days...now generally no longer than 3 days.. .

djmac1031

"They are in no way mainstream if they continue the practice of extreme shunning"

Oh I never said they were going MAINSTREAM lol....but its obvious to me that they ARE making attempts to ease up on the R&F just enough to hopefully keep them in line.

The WTS will soon be between the proverbial rock and hard place: By their own admition they can NOT simply CHANGE their teachings since this would be seen as an admition of failure on their part to corectly interpret "Gods Word" but at the same point if they do NOT change their teachings they soon run the risk of being exposed as the complete "false prophets" they are as every years slips by without their "prophesies" coming TRUE.

so yeah...."they dance" around the real issues, and make "new light" announcements and adjustments....how long they have until even THIS is not enough will be interesting to see....

20

Does the WTS smell the blood in the water?

by djmac1031 in

jw
friends

im sure im not the only former jw here who is noticing the subtle, and not so subtle changes in wts policy, and their attempts to make life easier for their rank n file.. .

combining the book study meeting with the service meeting / ministry school meeting and giving their members a "night off" so to speak (although they are of course encouraged to use this night as an evening of "family & personal bible study") is surely a sign that they understand their current r&f members can only take so much more of the wts complete control over every waking hour of their lives.. .

they have also shortened the public talks, cut down on the length of assembly days...i remember the 8 or 9 day assemblies as a kid myself, and over the years they have gotten shorter...a week...4 days...now generally no longer than 3 days.. .

djmac1031

Im sure Im not the ONLY former JW here who is noticing the subtle, and not so subtle changes in WTS policy, and their attempts to make life EASIER for their rank n file.

Combining the Book Study Meeting with the Service Meeting / Ministry School Meeting and giving their members a "night off" so to speak (although they are of course encouraged to use this night as an evening of "Family & Personal Bible Study") is surely a sign that they understand their current R&F members can only take so much more of the WTS complete control over every waking hour of their lives.

They have also shortened the Public talks, cut down on the length of assembly days...I remember the 8 or 9 day assemblies as a kid myself, and over the years they have gotten shorter...a week...4 days...now generally no longer than 3 days.

There have also been adjustments to the amount of hours needed to be a "Pioneer" or "Auxilary Pioneer."

WHY would the WTS make these adjustments after YEARS, DECADES of teaching the R&F "Not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together" (IE make EVERY Meeting, associate ONLY with JW's) and that "This Good news MUST be preached through out the entire earth and THEN The End will come" (IE JW's have to preach to EVERYONE, the more hours you put in = the better Witness you are) unless they WTS is smelling blood in the water and fearing mass dissention among the R&F, and are making last ditch efforts to try and EASE UP before the mass exodus of the R&F begins.

Then of course we also see the change of policy on Blood and how they have gone from a strict "NO Blood or any variation thereof" to "No Blood...but use of any and all FRACTIONS of blood, in any combination, is a PERSONAL decision."

I expect to see a LOT more of these changes in policy over the next few years, especially as we get closer and closer to 2014 and the complete exposure of their interpretation of "This Generation" as a laughing matter.

33

" Millions Now Living Will Never Die" Ray Franz Thoughts from " Crisis of C "

by flipper in

jw
friends

of course this has been hashed and re-hashed as all of you know the feb. 15th wt is re-directing jw's to read the title of rutherford's talk as " millions now living may never die.

" however in reading crisis of conscience a second time - i found it interesting to see what ray franz said about this quote.. remember he wrote this book in 1983 , so keep it in mind when reading his quotes about this " millions " quote.

on pg.

djmac1031

I disticntly remember when the WTS started changing their "interpretation" of "The Generation that would NOT pass away" and realizing how they were making these adjustments because their 1914 date was starting to look down right SILLY as the decades wear on.

Its just a matter of time before they change it again, and its also just a matter of time before they change the 144,000 interpretation too, or do they think no one among their ranks can do MATH and see how the number of 'annointed partakers" at the Memorial is actually INCREASING?

33

Serious advice needed... being df'd without the brothers hearing my side???

by edlewiese in

jw
friends

ok i have asked several of my friends and they have never heard of being chased by a committee before.

so i am hoping someone has some insight.. .

i'll give you background and yes i am not innocent in the situation but what i was raised to believe is being contradicted by the actions of the elders.. .

djmac1031

I agree with the several who have stated that your signed letter can and will be used as "evidence" againt you...if you have moved in with this new man in your life, they can and will assume 'adultery" and thats all the charges they need for a DF.

They can do this with or without meeting with you personally.

That being said....visiting this site HAS opened my eyes to the idea of using legal tactics such as the letter posted above as a way to thwart any public announcements against you; this is something I wish Id been more aware of myself BEFORE I renounced my membership and wrote them my DA letter.

Bottom line: NO public announcement means NO disfellowshipping, means friends and family can still talk to you.

if that it your concern, remaining in contact ith fellow friends or family, then by all means pursue whatever means necessary to keep them from making any public announcements.

if you dont care, and have no one within the congregation that you wish to remain in contact with, then its not worth the effort, let them DF you.

27

JW's a RELIGION based on PERFORMANCE! How dangerous is that???

by freewilly01 in

jw
friends

i have come to realize that this religion is based almost solely on performance and that is the most dangerous.. i always felt that as a person or jw (while an active witness)that i was always just as good as my last assignment, comment at the watchtower meeting, feild service report.. this left me with a huge identity crisis in the borgorg......... i really didn't know who the hell i was?.

did any of you feel similair?

.

djmac1031

As a new member here I havent had the chance to share ALL of my story, but part of the reason I eventually left for good was exactly this idea that it was ALL about what "privilidges" you had, and if you didnt have them, were you "reaching out" for them?

several years before I eventually left, the elders approached me and informed me that my "privilidges" of such things as running the microphones, reading from the platform, and representing the congregation in prayer were to be REMOVED because they felt that my job, being a mobile DJ who played music at parties such as birthdays and holiday parties besides the obvious weddings, was "innapropriate" and that my performing at such parties made me guilty of participating by association.

Even a soundly quoted biblical example that I provided them of a prophet who served a pagan King and was not punished for it couldnt sway them.

I refused to quit my job and "rely on Jehovah" as they implied I should in finding another career...and that was the time that I finally realized just what a JOKE it all was.

I immediatly stopped going in field service, I was told it didnt matter how many hours I put in now anyway, as long as I still held my job I would not be allowed to progress any further in their little organization...like I wanted to at that point anyway LOL.

I wasnt celebrating Christmas. I wasnt celebrating birthdays. But because my job brought me into direct contact with those who WERE, and I could STUMBLE someone who saw me at one of these events, I was JUDGED and found GUILTY by appearance.

13

A Hypothetical DA Letter for Faders

by DT in

jw
friends

i feel there are some weaknesses in the legal defenses that the watchtower society uses when enforcing shunning on former members.

one is that they claim that getting baptised makes someone a jehovah's witness and implies that they are willing to live by watchtower rules.

however, they don't use baptism as the criteria for counting their members.

djmac1031

interesting approach, but I see a few minor flaws:

First; while as you said people do not have to be baptized to represent the JW's in "field service" they are differentiated from the baptized members by the lable "Unbaptized Publisher."

Second: With the changing of the public announcement statements, the wording has been altered enough so that the WTS can avoid the lawsuits threatened by just such a letter. Now instead of announcing that "So And So Has been disfellowshipped from The Christian Congergation" which of course implies the shunning techniques the enforce among its members, the now simply announce "So and So is NO LONGER one of Jehovahs Witnesses." This announcement has no implication against the individuals morals, no mention of asking its members to "disfellowship" with the individual, and yet of course ALL the members who hear the announcement know what it REALLY means anyway.

and third: personally, I truly DOUBT The Edlers who recieve these letters read much past "I request that my name be removed from all records of this congregation and of the Watchtower Corporation"....once they get the gist, I doubt they continue to read on for fear of being exposed to "Apostate" reasonings.