Posts by JWD

55

Demons / Urban Legends! Which Is It????

by Big Jim in

jw
friends

has anyone on this board ever experienced contact with demons?.

i have heard demons talked about for years, however i have never known anyone that has had any real experiences with them, i have only heard storys.. .

(some quotes).

JWD

Of course there are demons. Just because the WT uses that kind of stuff to put the fear in people and control them and just because the
WT is full of **** doesn`t mean that there are no demons. The experience which both Slayer and Doubtingsister related about feeling
as though something is sitting on them and chocking them is very,very
common in both Japan and the Philippines.In Japan it`s called `kana-
shibari`.Many JWs and many people attending churches testifiy to being
freed from the `kanashibari` when they found faith.
The problem with the WT teaching about demons is that they make them
out to be everpresent and very dangerous.If you read the Bible on the
subject you will notice that 1)Jesus was never very shook up about
demons 2)Jesus never `failed`to deliver someone 3)Jesus never used
Jehovah`s name when dealing with demons 4)The Bible teaches believers
to stand up to demons not to run from them 5)The Bible teaches that
no force earthly or heavenly can separate us from the love of God.
6)The Bible teaches us to worry about immoral actions,not demons.

As to my `demon` experiences. While I was living in the Philippines
one materialized in my room and tried to grab me.Here in Japan a doll
started to grow a beard!!(normally dolls don`t grow facial hair).
One night my bed started to shake vigorously(there was no earthquake).
I could relate many other experiences, but they aren`t important.
It`s too bad that some people bend over backwards to make every
supernatural experience into some type of natural phenomenom.Write
everything off to genetics or mental pre-suppositions.When it`s your
own experience, you don`t doubt it. It`s unhealthy to over rate and
over emphasis demonic power.It`s probably also unwise to dismiss them
entirely. JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

Hippikon,
So you worked in Japan.How many years? You seem to have a good grasp
on the pulse of the culture here. Let me elaborate a bit on the cultural dynamics and the WTS growth. Yes, you are right about the
intense loyalty which when betrayed is followed by strong rejection.
The affect that has on JWs here is that when they leave, they tend
to throw out ALL interest in religion.In other words,you don`t see
people leaving and going back to Budhism.A small percentage will seek
out a church (normally protestant) but the majority become totally
non-religious.Since the average Japanese is non-religious to begin
with, I guess that`s not so unusual. You are also right when it comes to the motivation of most housewives.To expand on it a bit; their
motivation could be broken down to 1) Dissatisfaction with their husband 2) Desire for friends which they can really trust and talk
about serious life issues with 3) Concern about keeping their kids
out of an immoral lifestyle 4) Time on their hands and wanting to
`study` something 5) An overall good image of the Bible combined with no knowledge of it`s contents makes them a good mark for a `Free Bible study` AT YOUR HOME, WHILE YOUR HUSBAND IS GONE AT WORK.The
result is most women carry on the study for a year or two or three
without their hisband ever knowing.Then one day, when they announce
that they`ll be attending a weekday evening meeting,the husband gets
angry and tells them it`s irresponsible for a housewife with small
children to go out at night.By that time,however, the wife has been
warned that SATAN will oppose her involvement in the TRUTH.So, when
the husband blows up it merely confirms her idea that what she`s
studying is the truth. It never occurs to her that it`s still culturally unacceptable for women with young children to be out of the home from 6 til 9 at night.In addition to that,by this time women are often pretty upset with their husbands over other issues anyway, so bringing the fight into the realm of `remaining faithful to Jehovah` justs gives them a sense of self-rightousness when going against the wishes of their mate.Sadly the struggle often ends in divorce.
But,perhaps the worst case senerio is when a Japanese husband joins the WT and starts climbing the WTS ladder. Most men who make it big in
the WT are those who were nothing special at their companies.So when
they get promoted in `God`s Organization` all of a sudden they think
their really something and start acting that way at home.They become
little dictators.The results are as you can image... JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

The `there are no rules` statement might also have legal reasons.Much
in the same way that McDonalds now put the `This coffee is hot!`
warning on cups.A disclaimer to avoid future legal responsibility.
As far as the `toning things down` approach here in Japan,it`s really
a two-edged sword.The older,more militant Witnesses who joined because
of the `no-compromise` approach the WTS took are frustrated with the
current trend.Recently,those leaving the WT include people who`ve been
in for 20,30 and even 40 years! By contrast, the new `recruits` are
often marginal people; i.e.socially maladjusted and emotionally weak.
Judging from recent KMs,it seems the headquarters is fluctuating
between a more broad-minded approach and a more hard-line approach.
Ultimately,they`ll go with whatever bumps up the numbers.As for now,
however,the tail spin continues. JWD

25

I Look Death in the Eye

by COMF in

jw
friends

i have always had trouble breathing.

in track i was great for a quick burst of speed in the 50 yard dash, but couldn't move enough air in and out to keep myself going for the longer runs like the 330. i had sleep apnea really bad, with the classic symptoms where i stopped breathing for a while and then suddenly snorted myself awake gasping for breath.

for most of my life, surgery wasn't an option due to my jw lifestyle and employment choices (cleaning business = no insurance).

JWD

I know exactly what your saying.Let me pass on my `looking death in
the eye` experience.
In the summer of 1969 our family was vacationing in northern Minnesota.It was August 6th.I came back from town with my dad only to
find all the trees around lake Roosevelt knocked down.As we turned to
go up the long driveway to where our cabins were,my uncle came running towards us, body covered with blood.He said ,`we`ve been hit
by a tornado.Don`t know who`s dead and who`s alive.`After going as far as possible by car,we got out and walked gingerly,trying to avoid
fallen power lines,to the edge of the lake.What had once been a beautiful lake was turned into a garbage dump filled with debrie.And
there in the middle of the floating mess was my sister`s body.She
had already drowned, but unwilling to accept reality,my father stood
there waist deep in the water trying to resusatate her lifeless form.
My sister,Becky, was one of the seven family members and friends who
were killed by the tornado.The others included my grandma,my cousin
and my friend.The sense of unreality you mentioned brought back memories of attending the funeral with 7 caskets thinking this wasn`t
really happening. One day can change can change a persons life forever.
Two years later,I faced 7 toranados in South Dakota and lived to tell about it.
Thanks for the thought provoking post. JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

Hippikon,
Thanks for the cartoon! Yes, the MTS is the same arrangement as was
mentioned.
The thing about the WTS here is that it is really a `Christian` version of an indigenous Japanese religion named Sokagakkai.In the
States I believe it`s called NSA.At one time Sokagakkai was growing
at an incredible rate and claimed 10% of the Japanese population as
members.The thing that makes them similar to the WTS is the strong
emphasis on `group-ness`.Helping each other out,giving individuals
a sense of being part of something big,aggressive evangelism, exclusiveness,threat of judgement I you leave the group which is re-
inforced by shunning when people do,etc. After WWII Japan urbanized
so fast that much of the sense of community which was a central part
of the culture was lost.People became lonely and open to the `love
showers` offered by various groups. Sokagakkai cashed in big on that
with a `New Budhist` approach and then in the wake of that the JWs
offered a `western` version of the same thing. The trademarks of
Japanese JWs have been things such as `helping each other when they
move`,`welcoming in transfer JWs from other areas`,`tea and fellowship`,`giving hand-me-down clothes to other sisters to help
them save money`,etc.Social action type of stuff which in the past
was the role of the relatives or the villagers.Another trademark of
Japanese JWs is an incredible ignorance of the Bible.They study what
is in the magazines,but very,very few crack the Bible open for them-
selves and try to read it. One sister told me that over a two year period she counted how many passages were used during meetings and found that the same 80 or 90 verses were just shuffled and repeated over and over again. Since most people have no prior biblical background their `faith` is very markedly a blind commitment to the
group with doctrine being very secondary.
Also, in Japan until recently the overwhelming majority of Witness have been first generation.In most cases they are housewives.Therefore
the number of men in the org. is extremely low and the number of
theocratic families is even lower.If a man,no matter how unfit,is
faithful in attendance and FS , he can quickly move up the ladder
and become a MS or an elder.Again,the level of knowledge of the
Bible is very low.
All of these things add up to one-time rapid growth, but a very fragile state of affairs.Now that much of the downside of becoming a
Witness has been exposed things have begun to slide.The image the WTS
has created for itself is `exclusive and anti-social`,`destroyer of
marriages`,`anti-higher education`,`medically dangerous` and
`narrow-minded`.Now the org. is back peddling trying to undo that
image and present themselves and broad minded and balanced.So far,
nobody seems to be buying the new image. JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

For those of you who haven`t been following it,the WTS is in a downward spiral here in Japan.FS hours are down,Memorial attendance
is down,Pioneers are down,Studies are down,Donations are down,Number
of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to
drop.Last year they report a minus 1% growth rate and if the current
trend continues they`ll have to report another minus 1%. So, what`s
the org. doing about it? Their Re-Orging... At first they loosened
up the rules on young people to try to convince more second gener`s
to stay in the org. rather than moving away and becoming in-active.
That doesn`t seem to be helping yet. Next they`re encouraging MORE
involvement in community activities,PTA,etc. The idea is to remove
the stigma of being a cult and to get new contacts to start studies.
(Practically no one responds to house calls any more).Also they`re
combining congregations to give declining congregations the `feeling`
of growth.Finally, they`re trying to get new hungry blood involved.
Several years back they started a crash course for the elite young
men which they call MTS (or was it MTC?).It`s said to be the Japanese
version of Gilead. The young men who train there are sent out to
re-energize congregations.You can guess the waves that`s making.
Young men with no real life experience coming in and supposedly being
the new `leaders`, in some cases replacing older men. In a culture
where age and seniority still carry some weight....well it`s not
having the intended effect yet.
As far as finances, it seems the new thing is over-priced KHs.
I project a continued meltdown for the next 2-3 years with the number
of publishers dropping to around 200,000 and then leveling off.They
had peaked out over 220,000.No doubt the number of FS hours will
continue to drop and the org. will become an ingrown sub-culture
with lots of people in it because that`s all they really know as a
way of life.
P.S. There`s also `recycling` going on these days.In the past,those
who left were left alone.These days former studies, the inactive
and even some df-ers are being approached about coming back.I guess
when you can`t get new re-cruits,you start re-cycling. JWD

19

Question from a newly DF'd chick...

by praying_mantis in

jw
friends

hello again...now that i am officially a horrible, unrepentant sinner (in the eyes of a polyester slack wearing, mini van driving, anal retentive man whore), i have a question (actually several, but i will start with one!

) brace yourselves: it is about 1975!.

where in the wt was the "prophecy" made?

JWD

Someone said,``no-one but another ex-JW can understand what`s going on in your head``. I might seem to be spliting hairs, but strictly
speaking, I don`t think that`s true. After stepping out of the TOWER
and getting a good look around, you will probably be surprised to see
how `un-unique` the WTS is. The methods of control which they use are
not really much different than lots and lots of other total-control
oriented groups.The more I look into so-called `cults`,the more I find
that most of them are very similar.Sure the vocabulary is different,
but if you inter-change certain words, you might be surprised at how
much the WT looks like a lot of the groups you are used to critic-izing. In fact, sometimes hearing the experiences of people who got
free from groups like NSA,scientology,the Mormons or the Moonies might
be more helpful in some ways. The reason being you are able to listen
to their experiences with more objectivity.The correlations between
your experience and their`s will become evident. At any rate,I think
it`s helpful to get over the idea that the TOWER is somehow terribly
unique, because it isn`t. When all is said and done it`s just another
garden variety cult. Whatever you do, don`t be afraid to ask questions. Real Truth can stand up to criticism.Lies can`t. Just a few
thoughts from the other side of the world. JWD

19

Question from a newly DF'd chick...

by praying_mantis in

jw
friends

hello again...now that i am officially a horrible, unrepentant sinner (in the eyes of a polyester slack wearing, mini van driving, anal retentive man whore), i have a question (actually several, but i will start with one!

) brace yourselves: it is about 1975!.

where in the wt was the "prophecy" made?

JWD

The 1975 `prophecy` was mentioned in many places.The more dramatic
statements were made by COs or at conventions.There were also some
very leading statements in the KMs.The WT and Awake also included
several articles about it.One of the more blatant statements,however,
was at the beginning of the 1966 book entitled `Life Everlasting in
Freedom of the Sons of God`. On page 29 it states `According to this
trustworthy Bible Chronology six thousand years from man`s creation
will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human
history will begin in the Fall of 1975 C.E.` Two pages later the book
has a `dateline` of human history which ends with the dates 1975 and
2975.It lists them as the end of the 6th and 7th one thousnad year
`days`. In other words, the beginning and the end of the millenium.
There are many, many more such statements in WT literature which no
doubt others will bring to your attention. As you search and look back
at older WT publications, you will see that the society has basically
re-written their own history. In other words,what they are now saying
they taught and what they actually taught at the time are very different. The 1914 thing is a classic case. The WTS taught that by
1914 Armageddon would END, that the annointed would be taken to heaven, that Babylon would be destroyed, that Isreal would be restored
and that the 1000 yr.reign would began. Obviously, not a shread of the
original prophecy came to pass, so they re-wrote the contents.Since
very few Witnesses have the means to research the past they assume that the WTS is telling the truth.Thus history is re-written. A recent
classic example of this is the 2000 yearbook.When talking about the
history of the bros. in ,I believe, Czeckoslavokia the yearbook states
that AT NO TIME DID THEY SAY THE END WOULD COME IN 1975.In the real
world it`s called lying. In the society it`s ...`theocratic warfare`?
Do lot`s of searching into the facts.There are tons of actual copies
of older material on the net. Try freeminds.com. JWD

36

The Pope a JW...!!!

by JWD in

jw
friends

most of the relatives on my father`s side were catholic.

i still remember the first time i went to a high mass.

it was a shock to my.

JWD

Let me throw a thought in about the place of forms and ceremonies in
the OT vs. the NT.Many of the images which we read about in the OT,
if actually carried out today (i.e.sacrifice,robes,candles,temples, etc.) would make Christian worship look very similar to many other
religions. Yet,when the NT era comes along,almost all type of `form`
seems to disappear.Why? What has changed? Reading the book of Hebrews
seems to be saying that external forms have been fulfilled in the person of Christ and been replaced by internal reality. I sometimes
think of it as the difference between having a picture of my wife in
her absence, verses having her with me everyday.When she is with me,
I don`t look at pictures of her. I believe that the invisible presence of the person of Christ is like that. The very concept of
FAITH demands invisibleness, otherwise it would not be faith, but
rather sight.It seems to me that whenever a religion places great
emphasis on CORRECT clothes,songs,methods of service,etc. it has
moved out of the realm of faith and into religion(a man made concept).
Does nayone remember the 1979 WT article titled, `Put Your Faith In
God`s Visible Organization`? What a contradiction of terms! Faith and
visible. Has the GB never read Heb.11 or II Cor.4&5 ? JWD

36

The Pope a JW...!!!

by JWD in

jw
friends

most of the relatives on my father`s side were catholic.

i still remember the first time i went to a high mass.

it was a shock to my.

JWD

When it comes to the role of organizations and the Bible,orgs. are
like paper cups,nothing more than disposable containers.The container
is only as good as the contents.The whole business of finding the right organization always seems pointless to me.There is NO right
organization.They are all paper cups.Some are older some are newer,
some are bigger some are smaller,some are prettier some are uglier,
some are cleaner and some are dirtier.But, when it comes to wanting
to believe in the Bible,it`s the contents that matter.I seriously
doubt that the God of the Bible has ever had or does have ONE true
organization.Instead he has a lot of paper cups.Some are usuable and
others are worthless.Sure the Bible has a lot of good things to say
and we would do well to read it.But the real value comes when it
begins to change our lives.That`s not the work of some organization,
but of God.If you love the Bible and let it began to change your
life you will naturally find others of the same mind.Your relationship
with them won`t be theocratic,but rather relational. I think we`d all
profit by not focusing on the right `paper cup`,but rather the contents.
Organizations are groups of people.Good people with good principles
will make good organizations.Good people with bad principles will
turn a good group into a bad one.And bad people with bad principles
will make horrible organizations....like perhaps...? JWD