i am seeing and hearing many, many long-time jws openly expressing problems with either the watchtower society itself, the publications, changing doctrine, incorrectly living their lives as a result of bad doctrine, the behavior of the boe and other related things.
i will share some of these things in several posts, because there are just too many of them.
the complaints that i hear from publishers and pioneers are many.
On occasion, JWs will let their hair down and if they feel secure will express pretty blatant criticisms. But at the end of the conversion they will “wait on Jehovah” in regard the “imperfect men” who are “taking the lead”.
These very people will turn you in if their “aposta-alarm” goes off.
what is it like to have that one true friend?
growing up in the org, i never really had friends.
i had many acquaintances, some of which were worldly.
I thought I had that "friend sticking closer than a brother". After learning TTATT, I realized that friendship was merely fool's gold.
~2300 in attendance.
one day cost of $16,900!.
this was at romeoville, which was built ground up in the 90's and was fully paid for by the illinois circuits!.
so i've thought for a while now that jj has the lowest bar to clear in cinema history.
all he has to do is make a movie that's not as bad as the prequels.
but upon viewing the recent trailers, it looks like he's actually got the "feel" of the originals down.
a while ago someone posted a link to the flame warrior guide, it seeks to define some different types of posters.
http://www.flamewarriorsguide.com/.
i thought it might be fun and lighten the current mood to reveal which "warrior" is closest to your style, in your opinion.
i called bethel recently asking a question.
the question was do you have a bible example of someone that showed pricipled love to anothet human by giving them the silent treament for months?
answer well bro are you a jw yes well we will aens the elders over to help you.
Not a new policy. That is business as usual.
It's an effective cult mechanism to eliminate those asking questions that cannot be asked or answered.
'i have prayed, and confessed my sins to my god, i'm not telling them (the elders) anything'.
.. could this be a significant sign that there maybe a small dent in the armour of an active jw?
or is it just a case of 'keep your nose out' ?
I wish I had been so smart! Instead I put my head in the lion's mouth.
According to the elder's handbook, if it turns out an elder has done something worthy of a judicial committee before his appointment, and several years have elapsed, then not only might he escape a judicial committee, he might retain his position.
If I had known this bit from the elder's handbook, I would have never come forward as a rank and file member and voluntary confessed private matters to those who in reality have no business hearing what I'd rather keep private, much less trying me for it.
no doubt we noticed the royal commission ask vin toole (and i think terry o'brien) about the expression "theocratic warfare"?.
they were asked to explain it and what is meant to witnesses.. vin outrightly lied when he said he "had never heard of that expression!".
i remember him using that term in conversations and talks many times!!
So if I understand that...lying IS NOT "misrepresenting or distorting facts", "omitting key information to deceive", or "exaggerating the truth" IF someone isn't "entitled
to know the truth".
Of course, who is not "entitled to know the truth"? Whoever Watchtower decides is not entitled. That loophole could give someone licence to lie...but redefine the word so that they are not "lying".
when i left the watchtower i realised it was best to put friendships on hold.
however i mentioned to my best friend that i didn't agree with how they handled child abuse issues and that was one of the reasons i left.. anyway as i am fortunate and own two rental apartments and he is a plumber so we have kept in contact, in that i email him when i require his services and he sends me the invoice.
anyway i am now dissociated, but yesterday i emailed him about a pluming problem, and he replied.. " sorry we missed going to the indian ( this was a comment made about us having a meal together about 9 months ago, which i backed out of because i felt he was too indoctrinated and i had not disassociated myself) anyway his email continued:-.
2 people were read out last week as disfellowshipped.
of course now the announcement is read "so and so is no longer one of jehovahs witnesses".
they read that statement twice, once for each of the names.
It might sound fun, but it can hurt like nothing else, especially if the people being DFed has any sort of belief in the organization. Even for someone awake, the pain of shunning can be unbearable. I speak from experience on both fronts.
