Posts by Spiral

35

Female JW parking "attendants"

by neat blue dog in

i was shocked recently to see on social media a couple pictures of jw sisters at a convention working as parking "attendants".

i put that title in quotation marks because they still don't get the official attendant badge like the male parking attendants do, only the reflective vest.

has anybody else heard of this .

Spiral

That must be the new thing having sisters help the elderly out of cars.

Kidding aside, what a sad state of affairs in the 21st century.

35

Female JW parking "attendants"

by neat blue dog in

i was shocked recently to see on social media a couple pictures of jw sisters at a convention working as parking "attendants".

i put that title in quotation marks because they still don't get the official attendant badge like the male parking attendants do, only the reflective vest.

has anybody else heard of this .

Spiral

My reaction, for years, is that its a totally unnecessary job. People park every day without someone pointing... its amazing

Yes, or even with four brothers pointing every ten feet...... that always irritated me......

Anyway, I have heard recently of sisters being "allowed" to do menial work (not enough attendants) BUT ONLY IF THERE'S A BROTHER CLOSE BY TO SUPERVISE.

Seriously? Yes, because, we're just dumb women after all.

When I heard that I thought, even if I was still in, I wouldn't volunteer for that.

29

looking back on my two decades as a jehovah’s witness, i’ve come to realize how the constant theme of endurance is playing a detrimental role on the individual's psyche.. jehovah’s witnesses have become far too good at keeping going.

they’re experts at surrendering to the demands of the watchtower, living up to what’s expected of them, and getting on with the priorities that those in power have defined and imposed upon them.

they keep showing up, presenting themselves a dutiful pioneer or ministerial servant.

Spiral

Great post.

I have observed that spending a life waiting (on the new system, on Jehovah, etc.) has made the JWs chronically "depressed" - their word. You have explained it much better. After decades of being JWs, they are still waiting for Armageddon any day now. The burden of this has caused so many to suffer, or to just live their lives in an inert fashion, no goals, no plan, no real reason to live. I'm afraid many will never have this "crisis".

But until they are ready in their own minds (and most will never get there) you can't say a thing. Many will live and die this way.

20

I watched some of the Regional Assembly

by Sour Grapes in

i watched about 2 hours of the regional assembly and these are my thoughts.

the video's and songs did stir my good memories of when i was a jdub elder and very happy in the religion.

i can see how these two things would make it difficult to leave the borg because of the emotional buy-in.. now getting into the talks, the cults true colors show and i wonder how in the hell was i a part of that for over 40 years.

Spiral

I left before videos became a thing and I make a point of not watching them. (My mom's caregiver watches them with her.) But it makes sense that the bOrg has realized that videos could be a key emotional hook to keep people in. Let's face it, the literature is pretty dry, and the music used to be just awful. (Probably still is, but again, I make a point of being elsewhere on "video" day.) Perhaps they have experts in Cult-ology help them craft especially "catchy" videos?

10

Remember when

by blownaway in

i remember when paterson was built.

the so called training facility.

we were told it was to teach elders what their job was after armageddon.

Spiral

Did they sell Patterson too?

12

Something that really ticked me off about seeing the video of New Head Quarters of J.W.s (Warwick)

by StoneWall in

jw
friends

when i was a jw it was always emphasized that we should trust in jehovah completely.

jah will protect his people do not trust in man, throw your burdens upon jehovah etc.ok now if that's true wouldn't it mean that if jehovah was going to protect anywhere it should be his world head quarters right?.

we were told to not trust in ourselves (such as guns,walls for defense and protection) but to leave it in jehovah's hands and he would provide a means for escape etc.so as i'm watching some pro-wt vid's about the facilities in warwick i noticed something they didn't show on them or focus on and only reason i know about it was because of the w5 newscast as well as the vids the protesters shared.they conveniently leave out the parts of them putting walls/fences and gates as well as a "guard shack" at entrance instead of relying on jehovah to protect them.the guard house even has a "no trespassing" sign in the window.

Spiral

Drearyweather, growing up in the 60s or 70s we were always told to "rely on Jehovah". Guns for personal protection, classes in self defense, or anything like that was considered not relying on Jehovah. When persecution came you'd be totally out there and vulnerable (no bunkers expected in those decades) but Jehovah would send an angel to protect you. Of course like all things JW, there exists what is in print and what the rules REALLY are (and everyone knows what the rules REALLY are).

I agree with StoneWall that it seems a contradiction that the facilities in Warwick have so much security. (I saw this first in the A&E show about Cult Belief, when they went to the headquarters to try to speak with someone). Never having visited Warwick, I didn't know. It really looked like a secure corporation (or cult) campus.

It makes practical sense to have security, but coming from a grown-up-in the bOrg perspective, it is not what you'd expect.

114

The biggest news of the year for Mr. and Mrs. Totally ADD

by Still Totally ADD in

jw
friends

this is bigger than christmas and birthdays wrap into one.

thanks to the australian royal commission our youngest son has woke up.

we received a e-mail from him tonight where he apologized to us for shunning us all these years, how bad he felt for doing this.

Spiral

Also he has sent us pictures of our grandchildren. Two we have not seen since December 2012 and one we have never seen. They are growing up so fast and are all so beautiful to see. It just makes me cry.

This makes me want to cry too! I am so happy for you both!!!!!

21

This Week CLM Meeting

by zophar in

so, this week on the clm there was an interesting comment at our kh.. under the "apply yourself to the field ministry" portion this week, there was the bible study assignment based on the publication: who are doing jehovah’s will today?

published in 2016. the material was from lesson 28 "what can be found on our website?

there is a footnote at the bottom that reads: .

Spiral

@Zophar: That is definitely NOT corporation policy! He must really be awake or soon will be.

Did anyone in the audience show a reaction to that, or comment on that? I would think some would be shocked by that comment.

39

This year’s convention

by lastmanstanding in

two things i noted at this year’s rc.

1) the new teaching with respect to matthew 25:45 which was applied equally to the rank & file jw.

this teaching is also found in the watchtower study for last sunday.. then he will answer them, saying: ‘truly i say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of these least ones, you did not do it to me.. 2) the new armageddon video which was a big shift.

Spiral

Longhairgal: The other thing about rank & file JWs getting “equal salvation” by “doing good” and helping other JWs in the hall tells me they are looking for caretakers (women, of course) and suckers to give money to people (needy and deadbeats) in the hall. (This of course specifically referring to fired bethelites- of which there will be more, no doubt.) I would not be surprised if at some point kingdom halls become places where JWs bring canned food, etc.

Interesting observation! There are so many elderly and/or poor people that need "caretaking" just in my area, and the elders certainly aren't doing anything on a congregational, organized level to "care for these needy ones"! Someone busy who can least afford it ends up helping (a lot!) with no acknowledgement or financial help from the congregation. It's not sustainable because pretty soon most (and I really mean most) of the congregation will fall into the "needy" category. (Hardly anyone has any retirement savings, just a few sisters like my mother who had hard working "worldly" husbands.) The bOrg created this crisis, but it's typical of them to bully other people to take on the burden. And promising a little guaranty of salvation.

I was asked the other day what the JWs do to help support their elderly. Many churches here have all sorts of programs, activities, and food banks to help. It was a shock to those with me when I said "absolutely nothing".

22

Teachings/beliefs that fade into oblivion without explanation.

by smiddy3 in

"millions now living will never die" that teaching persisted for a number of years from the early 1920`s ,sad to say that their would not be anywhere near millions alive today.and with another few years their won`t be anybody alive .. the year 1925 was supposed to see the resurrection of faithful men of old such as abraham issac and jacob and noah who were to be princes in the earth.

of course no such thing happened and we don`t here anything more about that prediction anymore.. the time period between adams creation and eves creation was an excuse why armageddon was delayed in about october 1975 because they didn`t know how much time had elapsed between the two.

that`s all forgotten about now.. six thousand years of human history was supposed to have ended in about october 1872 according to studies in the scriptures vol.2 1906 , the "time is at hand" page 11 (forward 1916 ) puts the start of the one thousand year reign of jesus christ as of the year 1873. so in 1906 they the i.b.s.a.

Spiral

Oh yes, women are still subordinate in the new system. I'm guessing they'll be scrubbing those toilets in dresses!

allornothing:

I was shocked with the implications of the types/ anti types abandonment because so many of the jw beliefs were built on that and with one annual meeting talk- poof gone- I was like does anyone in the cult slumber understand what that means?? Hello?? Anyone? Lol

I wondered this too! The type/antitype doctrines were integral to the JW belief (it was proof of their "special" status before God, after all), and if you could "understand" it all you were considered super spiritual. And then, suddenly, it's gone, and no one even questions it! What?