I spent two nights at the Australian Bethel a few years ago and never put another cent in the donation box afterward. The whole setup just shocked and disgusted me.
MrMonroe
JoinedPosts by MrMonroe
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63
Walkill Bethel Recreational Facility
by dontplaceliterature inmy wife and i just visited some friends over the weekend from another congregation.
these two are both full time pioneers, and also participate in various construction projects around the country.
the husband just got back from a 3 week trip to walkill, new york to help with construction on a new residence building at 'the farm' (does anyone call it that anymore?)..
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Credit Card Donation terminals are currently being installed in JWs Assembly Halls...
by AndersonsInfo ini received the following email from a former jw that i thought to share.
note: i retyped the boe letter that was sent from the christian congregation of jehovahs witnesses to all congregations in the us.
the letter is authentic.
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MrMonroe
Tank full of fuel to get to the convention: $80.
Three days of parking: $24.
Buying Jehovah's favour with a generous donation on MasterCard: Priceless.
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Circuit Overseers What do they do?
by Marvin Shilmer incircuit overseers what do they do?
today i uploaded to my blog an article showing documents circuit overseers send to each congregation in preparation for their upcoming inspection.
quite a few have never seen these, and they go a long way toward understanding the place and operation of these watchtower appointees within the organizations structure.
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MrMonroe
Gluten free diet. Of course. I think a dietary problem must be a prerequisite for appointment as a CO or COW.
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AWAKE! Nov 2011 - They Love Pointing Out The Shortcomings Of Others But Never Do They Look In The Mirror!
by 3Mozzies inawake!
nov 2011 - on page 29 'watching the world' section.. they love pointing out the shortcomings of others but never do they look in the mirror!.
an extensive new survey by the pew forum on religion & public life details statistics on religion in america:http://religions.pewforum.org/reports.
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MrMonroe
Excellent point, Mozzie. In their mind the only ones who leave "the truth" are those who are seduced by the world, fall prey to immorality or lose their faith in God. The one elder who has spoken to me since I found the exit door broadly hinted that he thought I was being swallowed up by materialism. Between them they don't consider any of them count or warrant further thought and back that up with an out-of-context use of a scripture that says "They went out from us, but they were not of our sort."
The fact that those leaving make up such a big slice of their congregation seems to escape their notice, so they gleefully point out the failure of other religions to keep their flock.
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JWs relieved when judges decree their kids must have a blood transfusion
by MrMonroe indanny haszard tweeted the following story from the flordia sun-sentinel: state butts in to give kids a life.
it's a fascinating story that shows the real attitude of many parents of young children who become seriously ill. though ordered by their religion to refuse transfusions and simply accept that their child may die as a result, some parents willingly accept the right of the state to decree that a transfusion must take place if doctors so decide.. no parent wants their child to die, and it would simply tear them apart to know that a reasonably simple and routine medical practice could save their life ... yet they would be shunned by their family and friends if they accepted.
the solution is to hope like hell the state steps in, allowing them to say to their congregation, "well, what can you do?
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MrMonroe
Danny Haszard tweeted the following story from the Flordia Sun-Sentinel: State Butts in to Give Kids a Life
It's a fascinating story that shows the real attitude of many parents of young children who become seriously ill. Though ordered by their religion to refuse transfusions and simply accept that their child may die as a result, some parents willingly accept the right of the state to decree that a transfusion must take place if doctors so decide.
No parent wants their child to die, and it would simply tear them apart to know that a reasonably simple and routine medical practice could save their life ... yet they would be shunned by their family and friends if they accepted. The solution is to hope like hell the state steps in, allowing them to say to their congregation, "Well, what can you do?" The relief of state intervention must be immense.
The blood doctrine, and the enforcement of it with the threat of shunning, is a terrible thing, like something from a totalitarian government, based on a perverted scriptural basis and junk science, reinforced with skewed, selective information through their literature that exaggerates the dangers of transfusions and never mentions the benefits.
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Am I on thin ice with my friend?
by cedars ini'm a former mts graduate, and it's a long story but i recently became inactive after realising it was all nonsense.
the problem is, i've noticed that my mts background makes it almost impossible for people to accept my new status as an "inactive" one.
people think that, given the amount of knowledge i have, there is surely no excuse for me to reach this preposterous decision.. a friend from my mts recently began emailing me to find out my reasons.
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MrMonroe
When I left, I told no one my reasons. When a good "friend" interrogated me about why my wife and I had left, we told him we had made a personal decision and we didn't want to discuss it with anyone.
Suggesting you're depressed is telling the JW you're mentally unwell, which confirms in their mind that they are right and you are, well, nuts.
Telling them you made a conscious decision and don;t wish to discuss it leaves you with dignity and them with unasnwered questions. They can do wondering, unless in the next few years you reach a point where you feel you can tell them the truth.
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How many meetings does a JW attend in a week?
by jwfacts in.
i always found it a bit deceptive to say we attended five meetings a week, when in reality it was only 3. now that there are meetings only twice a week, do witnesses still claim to attend 5 meetings a week or four?.
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MrMonroe
I suppose you could call them overlapping meetings. Maybe there'll be a part on it at the next district convention.
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Rutherford grave
by django inhi everybody.
i would like to know where is the grave of joseph franklyn rutherford?.
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MrMonroe
Things had changed by the time the old bastard died. When CTR died the Bible Students were dumbstruck, wondering what the hell they'd do next.
When Rutherfiord died there was probably a huge collective sigh of relief. The Wikipedia article on Rutherford quotes a Watchtower in which a Bethel worker recalled: "It was at noontime when the family was assembled for lunch. ... The announcement was brief. There were no speeches. No one took the day off to mourn. Rather, we went back to the factory and worked harder than ever."
From memory there were about four people at his funeral, and I'm not sure even his wife and son were there.
By the time he died he had knocked all humanity out of his followers. No one dared grieve, because that was seen as being just like the world, and failing to have faith in the better life to come. Even today Witnesses are very stoic about death, holding back from any real show of emotion for fear of being viewed as lacking faith. Funeral services limit the comments about the departed individual to how much they "loved the truth" and looked forward to the new system, and then they cut straight to the recruitment section of the talk.
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How many meetings does a JW attend in a week?
by jwfacts in.
i always found it a bit deceptive to say we attended five meetings a week, when in reality it was only 3. now that there are meetings only twice a week, do witnesses still claim to attend 5 meetings a week or four?.
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MrMonroe
(That's weird. The box for a reply doesn't appear; I had to use the "Post a reply" tab at the top).
I recall the wife of an elder ticking her husband off after a Memorial talk because when he did his usual recruitment talk at the end, he said they held five meetings a week and cordially invited newcomers to them. She told him it made it sound like they were at the KH most nights of the week and would put people off.
It always was a stupid concept because the expectation was that you would arrive at the start and stay till the end. I, towards the end of my unhappy career as a JW, took the thing literally and would choose for myself which of the two "meetings" I would attend on a Sunday and would leave after the first "meeting" on a Tuesday night.
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Any Tourettes syndrome in your congregation?
by fade_away ina huge number of jws have mental illnesses.
i knew someone with a schizophrenic disorder and he would occasionally forget/refuse to take his pills which made for some very embarassing moments at the meetings and on service.
he would come to our house claiming he is jesus christ in the flesh and would get upset with anyone that didn't believe him.
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MrMonroe
In one congo I was in, a woman insisted on bringing her elderly, wheelchair-bound father along to meetings. The poor old bloke had Alzheimers and was a bit of a handful at the best of times because he was a big old farmer, but she probably figured he might learn something from the meetings and therefore be saved at Armageddon.
One time we had the CO at the congregation giving the Sunday morning public talk. The old bloke started muttering loudly and his daughter tried to calm him down. But suddenly he bellowed out, "I CAN'T UNDERSTAND A F***KING WORDS HE'S SAYING!"
The CO paused and you could have heard a pin drop. No one knew quite what to do, and I doubt there was anything in the elders' training manual about what to do when someone yells the F-bomb at the top of his voice. Pops was promptly wheeled out of the hall.