Posts by Londo111

24

Further CO Leaks

by wifibandit in

believe inspired truth, not inspired error (s-341a-16-e).

instructions for the circuit overseer’s meeting with the pioneers and field missionaries in conjunction with the circuit assembly (s-312-tk16-e no.

circuit overseer meets with pioneers and field missionaries program for september 2015 through february 2016 (s-335-16-e).

This Could Be Good... Hulu’s ‘The Path’ portrays family life inside a cult

by freemindfade in

this looks great for people who are both cult survivors and aaron paul fans!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/slow-but-emotionally-creepy-hulus-the-path-portrays-family-life-inside-a-cult/2016/03/29/43840c46-f2c5-11e5-a61f-e9c95c06edca_story.html.

slow but emotionally creepy, hulu’s ‘the path’ portrays family life inside a cult.

JW marriages: “They” looked good on paper.

by Londo111 in

i applaud anyone, male or female, who overcomes shallowness and looks at a person’s deeper qualities, especially in regard dating and marriage.

the movie and fashion industry does much to institute shallowness to the point that, in my opinion, it promotes outright discrimination and judgmentalism even as they give lip service to tolerance..

on the other hand, among jehovah’s witnesses, there seem to be a preponderance of incompatible marriages.

Londo111

Yes, due to "marry in the Lord" interpreted to mean marrying only JWs, there has always been a lack of choice. Not just for women, but for guys as well.

Years ago a friend of mind who was looking only saw "mismatched pieces" and that is quite an apt description for the JW dating pool. There are far too many marriages made of "mismatched pieces" and no honorable way in the cult to correct the mistake. It becomes a train wreck.

The “cream of the crop”, that is, the pioneers could be quite nutty. It is a stressful lifestyle that brings no true satisfaction. It is not good for mental health. Many end up on antidepressants so they can get by.

16

A Brief History of MONEY and the Watchtower religion

by Terry in

watch tower corp has changed a long-standing policy in regard to donations which had been in place a long, long time.

to appreciate how drastic these changes have been, you'd have to know how it was from the beginning.. .

watch tower corp has changed a long-standing policy in regard to donations which had been in place a long, long time.

Londo111

There could likely be an entire book on this subject.

26

Jehovah’s Witnesses are Taught to Lie but to then Lie about Lying

by Terry in

jehovah’s witnesses are taught to lie but to then lie about lying.

first off, let’s define what it means to tell a lie.

i prefer the definition offered by aristotle way back in 4th century b.c.e.

Londo111

As a JW, I believed as most JWs, that this was reserved for life-and-death situations. For instance, in a time of persecution where JWs are being put into concentration camps and tortured to death, not to betray the location of fellow JWs. In that light, it actually makes sense.

However, in practice, it is apparent that the upper echelons use this statement “may want to bring harm to Jehovah’s people in some way” in a very broad fashion.

What is “Jehovah’s people”? It is Mother Organization, not rank and file individuals.

What is “harm” “in some way”? Not unjust physical harm (life-and-death), but anything that is harmful to Mother, financially, legally, in terms of publicity, potentially losing members by being exposed (example UN NGO scandal).

Of course, rank and file JWs practice a form of theocratic warfare without even being conscious of doing so, partly because of loaded language redefines many words in such a way that is misleading. “No we are not at the door to convert you…” “We are not soliciting…” And back in the day, “We are not selling anything…”

JWs learn to practice omission not bringing up certain teachings that would scare people away. They learn to the art of spin and whitewash and downplay any insider doctrine that a householder might bring up.

Of course, most JWs apart from religion are pretty honest. But then so are members of other groups.

39

JW marriages: “They” looked good on paper.

by Londo111 in

i applaud anyone, male or female, who overcomes shallowness and looks at a person’s deeper qualities, especially in regard dating and marriage.

the movie and fashion industry does much to institute shallowness to the point that, in my opinion, it promotes outright discrimination and judgmentalism even as they give lip service to tolerance..

on the other hand, among jehovah’s witnesses, there seem to be a preponderance of incompatible marriages.

Londo111

Yes, the dating rules became an ill foundation.

It was drilled home that I could not date before one was “ready” for marriage, especially financially ready to be a family “head”. On the other hand, college was a big no-no (up until the early 1990’s at least). Thus, in my early 20’s, I was between a rock and a hard place.

At the same time, there are strict rules for interacting with the opposite gender and the Young People Ask articles drummed this constantly. One cannot be “just friends” with anyone of the opposite gender. Even frequent calling (nowadays texting or emailing) is viewed as dating. But if you are not “ready” for dating, that is ready for marriage, then that rules that out. However, this is how young people learn to converse and interact with the opposite gender. Thus I did not go on my first date until I was 29 and that ended up being the person I married.

In reality, dating when young is a learning experience, full of trying and failing. Along the way, people learn to social and talk both with platonic and romantic intent. Eventually this equips a person for a long term relationship.

39

JW marriages: “They” looked good on paper.

by Londo111 in

i applaud anyone, male or female, who overcomes shallowness and looks at a person’s deeper qualities, especially in regard dating and marriage.

the movie and fashion industry does much to institute shallowness to the point that, in my opinion, it promotes outright discrimination and judgmentalism even as they give lip service to tolerance..

on the other hand, among jehovah’s witnesses, there seem to be a preponderance of incompatible marriages.

Londo111

I applaud anyone, male or female, who overcomes shallowness and looks at a person’s deeper qualities, especially in regard dating and marriage. The movie and fashion industry does much to institute shallowness to the point that, in my opinion, it promotes outright discrimination and judgmentalism even as they give lip service to tolerance.

On the other hand, among Jehovah’s Witnesses, there seem to be a preponderance of incompatible marriages. Of course, this may be impossible to quantify and among those mentally in, this would be heavily disputed, but I am convinced based on personal observation that this is indeed the case.

This is mainly due to a type of disguised shallowness. The main qualities that this environment promotes, in order to be of marriageable material, is:

(1) Being a baptized Jehovah’s Witness

(2) Not be marked or under reproof or restrictions

(3) Hours, hours, hours. Meetings, meetings, meetings. Comment frequently. Underline your magazine.

If a man is a ministerial servant or elder, or a woman is a pioneer, they are automatically viewed as a good potential mate. This has been reinforced by the words of Anthony Morris III at the US Branch visit: women should not marry a man who is not at least a ministerial servant. It was implied the marriage is doomed otherwise.

In some cases, the ONLY thing the couple has in couple is their religion and their standing in it. Women might gain status or prominence vicariously through their husbands…if he’s been appointed. If her husband is giving public talks, especially on assemblies, then she can point in pride and say, “That’s my husband.” To herself, she might feel, “He’s important. Therefore, I feel important through him.” Obviously, I can never speak from personal experience as a spouse of an elder, but I project this from being a son and grandson of elders. Lipservice is given to not being position-minded, but, in reality, it often does not often work that way.

There is no other way for a conscientious Witness to gain any sort of prominence. He cannot gain it through non-religious activities, say higher education or putting his full energies into career or other pursuits. Even though such a person might be sincere, they will eventually gain approval within the community that they cannot gain on the outside. This approval is addicting. The withdrawal of approval can hurt greatly.

But what often happens when one spouse learns the truth about the “truth”?

Let’s take the case of a man who learns the truth about the truth. He may look for ways to step back from the organization gradually and eventually fade. Perhaps, he will step down from his position and get few hours, skip an occasional meeting.

If he is an elder or a ministerial servant, this might well be difficult. Even if he is just a rank-and-file publisher, he cannot do this without notice from his spouse. Already, the one thing they had in common, the “zealousness” for organization activities is out the window. The JW mate now feels stress that her mate is not “putting the Kingdom first”. She may grieve at the loss of prominence. And she may be genuinely concerned about his “spiritual” welfare. Here, this man, who she married because of his organizational activities, is not “taking the lead spiritually” for the family. In the Witness mindset, this is the most important quality for husbands and now this most important quality seems to have disappeared. Sometimes it has truly proved to be “tribulation in the flesh” as the Witness mate lashes out at the one attempting to fade.

It goes without saying this is IF he keeps what he knows to himself. The moment he utters the slightest bit of TTATT, he has crossed the Rubicon. In most cases, the spouse rings the aposta-alarm, the elders are called in, and a storm erupts with the kind of fury that can never be undone. Too often, this results in the “spiritual endangerment” card being played and the marriage coming to an abrupt end.

Conversely, the Witness mate is not always the one that ends the marriage. In the course of being the organizer of an Ex-JW meetup group, I encountered those who left their Witness mate, or were in the process of planning to do so. I was merely the organizer of events, and not a trained marriage counselor, therefore it is beyond my scope to try to fix the situation or try to stop them. At most, I can offer what I know about the “truth about the truth” or point them to the work of licensed mental counselor Steven Hassan. Even though these situations were beyond my bounds, it really made me sad, especially because it brought up feelings from having gone through the end of my own marriage.

What drove former Witnesses to leave their mates? Once they came to the conclusion that the organization was not the truth, they realized they’d nothing in common with their spouse anymore. The SOLE basis of their marriage was the religion. It didn’t matter anymore if their husband was an elder or a ministerial servant or how many hours he put in every month.

One young lady I sat down with frankly said to me that the reason she married her husband was because “he looked good on paper”. Once she married him, she quickly found that he wasn’t the person she had expected.

The bottom line is that hours in field service, congregational activities, and a person’s standing in the organization has NOTHING to do with whether or not a person would make a good marriage mate. In fact, these things have to do with whether or not a person has a good heart or true spirituality.

I wish there was a silver bullet solution that would heal these marriages. Unfortunately, the bad advice from the organization has created slews of incompatible marriages for which there is no easy remedy. This might be especially so if the mate in the organization is resistant to marriage counseling.

Optimally, both the husband and the wife would learn the truth about the truth, but this is not often the case. Thankfully, some, who have a mate still in the organization, have been able to weather the storm. Some have helped their mates further down the road, through gradually dropping tidbits and seeds of thought that enabled the waking process. But perhaps it is the case that these couples had more in common in the first place besides loyalty to a religious organization.

26

Hashtag "BESTLIFEEVER!!"

by Lostwun in

is it just me or does it grind your gears when you see #bestlifeever hashtag after every damn jw post on fb and instagram?.

i rarely get on instagram anymore because i dont want to deal with the jw propaganda but i swear sometimes i just want to comment on one of those pics 'jw life is the worst life ever wake up already'.

does anyone else know what i'm talking about?

Londo111

Maybe we should co-opt this hashtag.

It is my experience that leaving this cult indeed results in the Best Life Ever.

9

The word “BROAD” and the Australian Royal Commission

by Londo111 in

perhaps i am making too much of this, but was anyone else struck with the number of times the word ‘broad’ and ‘broadly’ were used?

sometimes i wondered if it was due to coaching, in particular when the questioning put a person in a tight spot.

for instance, from the testimony of bowditch:.

Londo111

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/145224/barbara-andersons-paedophilia-cd-watchtowers-chocolate-cake-defence

I thought this topic was pertinent:

For every single case, every one, they employ the same stock answer - to each request, they say over and over again, that it is “overly broad, vague and ambiguous”; the information requested is “irrelevant” and will not “lead to the discovery of admissible evidence”. They don’t even bother to vary the wording, it’s just what lawyers call “boilerplate” language, there’s no attempt to argue each point, it’s simply stonewalling.

32

Self-Driving vehicles and delivery robots - why?

by FadeToBlack in

i saw a 'news' article today about pizza hut (i think) delivering pizzas via a robotic vehicle in nz.

also another article headline saying it is not a question of if, but when.

my immediate thought was, why?

Londo111

"History has shown that there will always be work for humans."

Unemployment has been a very real issue and as machine learning could mean that no segment of employment is untouched. Jobs classified today as "white collar" could one day be done by AI. And I worry too that the pace things are changing will be faster than I or most can humanly keep up with.

Again, the fundamental structure of the economy would have to radically change so that everyone could benefit as equally as possible from machines doing most of the work. If so, then it would be positive for all humanity.