stuckinarut2 - The first KH is super ugly. The second looks like a horse barn. The third like someone hired cheap labor to make an addition, so sterile.
I don't think anyone but a JW would believe what they wrote.
i live in a very rural part of the northeastern united states.
after 9 years of waiting, the local witnesses are getting their new kingdom hall.
it is being built on a back road next to a sandpit.
stuckinarut2 - The first KH is super ugly. The second looks like a horse barn. The third like someone hired cheap labor to make an addition, so sterile.
I don't think anyone but a JW would believe what they wrote.
does everything happen for a reason?
i hear this from so many people without any explanation as how this is so.
what do you think about this belief?
There are two thoughts going on here.
One is that people are using it to explain "fate" or direct manipulation from some mystical source that provides a "lesson" or makes an example of you. "I was born deformed so that I could learn to be humble or inspire others" etc.
The other is the cause and effect.
I thought the topic involved the second. My mistake.
i did for many years even if i had doubts that i would put on the back burner.
but i thought the majority of witnesses believed, even if they were “weak” in the faith.. obviously, we have elders , pioneers and ministerial servants that are here and they are not true believers.. do you think many jws simply do not believe what they are preaching?
?.
My sister said, while I was packing up and leaving her and the crap WT behind, that the GB was a bunch of men with dementia. She knew that 1914 was wrong. Yet, she gets to go to a foreign language group, hangs out with the gossipers and takes little trips with some at the hall and believes she has the "truth". I asker her "if the bible says one thing, and the WT says something else, which one am I supposed to believe?" She said "it doesn't matter what the bible says" An hour later, she called up to say "don't tell anyone I said that"
She has the most convoluted thinking possible. I don't even think she's honest with herself. So there are those like that. Whatever makes it possible to stay in it, she'll think it up.
Then there are those that are more like "worldly JW's" They do many things that I would never have done while I was in JW land. So I don't think they are affected as much by "new light" that contradicts previous "light".
The true believers plod along with the blinders on. They lift there heads up every once in a while and wonder how they ended up in the opposite direction. But it is a habit and a duty to go back to plodding. After all, God is directing the GB and they would never lie.
Young ones may grow up believing it but are increasingly tempted by all of the easy ways to be "worldly" Phones, computers and fun everyday things school mates do. They get messed up more if they leave the "truth" by having fun but still believe.
a report produced 50 years ago by a psychiatrist at a west australian mental health facility ("asylum"l reported that the mental illness rate among jws was 3 times the norm of society.
other similar studies at the time concluded the rate was much higher.. i wrote to the psychiatrist at the time, asking whether the wts attracted people who were already susceptible to mental illness or if the situation was created after the person became a jw.
he responded that they did not know.. being myopically focused on the wts at the time, but more importantly belonging to an alternative eschatological apocalyptic body at the time, i did not think more broadly.. i think that today i would like to know:.
These are just a few of the people I knew joined the Witnesses.
One was in high school when the cuban missile crisis was going on. She was terrified. The idea that God would prevent that from ultimately happening/or resurrection if it did, was what she needed. She is very childlike to this day and totally dependent on JW land.
My mother. Didn't want to grow old, remains childish and petty to this day. Depends on the WT to tell her what to do.
The real mentally ill/hampered:
A man who's father was mean, strict and crazy. He definitely has some problems and takes meds. Nice but ...
A born in who had an JW alcoholic father and a witch of a JW mother(who also had mental problems), has a personality disorder. She wouldn't leave because she believes she is anointed.
Old sister that I saw at a restaurant. She had a stack of napkins 6 inches high. Eat a bite of food, wipe mouth, throw napkin away. She also complained about others jewelry. The elders try to placate her so why would she leave?
And I believe that the WT's own twisted logic, encourages others to try it out also. An elder who instead of helping his wife with postpartum depression, convinced the elders to swoop in and take her child from her. Divorced her after he got her to sign away the properties that they both had bought. Dated while still divorced, got demoted when it was found out. Hid his money from the exwife. Hired illegals and transacted real estate by "giving" it to his father so that it would be hard to track it to him. (or something like that) When his sorry ass was finally hauled into court again to up his child support, one of the excuses he couldn't afford to pay more, was because he had bought his new wife a corvette and had to make payments.... I'm not even sure a classification of a sociopath would be correct since he doesn't feel remorse for any of it.
I also think the way the WT has articles on how the nice witnesses are always supposed to forgive the stubborn, mean, rude, witchy and gossipy people in the hall, teaches them to be a "doormat" and that causes mental distress too.
2016 hong kong branch meeting [1 of 9].
https://rutube.ru/video/d8ccb9410edfbc95542b252bc67c173a/.
2016 hong kong branch meeting [2 of 9].
Part 7 - Those amazing and encouraging coincidences of cart witnessing. See, those carts are worth every penny.
i cant spot one to save my life, so i wanted to now if any one could me figure out how..
I would say it's very difficult. If they are with family, they'll be going thru the motions of reading etc. Even if you saw someone looking at entertainment on their tablet, they still could consider themselves a good JW.
At the place where I work, except for the JW in the office wanting to tell everyone that the world is horrible, the other two - you wouldn't be able to guess that they are JW's. But they all consider themselves to be a "good" JW.
And of course, you have to be careful about approaching someone and hinting that you might not belong to the hive.
Hahaha that brother in the vid, just about said what Lett did about Apostates. "They're spreading lies"
And "Whatever financial, personal records we have published we can share them. But we are like any other religion, we aren't obligated to share anything with them."
i would like to think there was some good that resulted from our being a witness at one time..
eyeus2badub - But being a jw as a teenager in the 60's probably kept me from using drugs and fornicating.
There is that. But it also set me up for low self esteem, depression, anxiety and hopelessness. On top of that, I didn't take care of myself physically.
yesterday, i had an epiphany.
i realized that the jw religion made my experience in school awful and i hated school because of this.. yesterday, my kids had an activity where the whole school was out at the park, playing baseball, soccer, other pic-nic games and even swimming pools.
during the day, i had conversations with the teachers and saw the kids out, playing having fun.
I went thru school feeling embarrassed and out of place because of the religion. While my older sister snuck in activities, I would just accept things as they were.
I think of all the people that have school friends to this day. Robbed of those early connections, it makes it difficult now. A pox on all the minions and leaders of the WT.
the org's fear theme has really been emphasized recently- the bunker video and now the convention video with jws being pursued by guys with assault rifles.
this image comes from the watchtower july 2017 questions from readers: would it be fitting for a christian to keep a firearm, such as a handgun or a rifle, for protection against other humans?.
the caption for the image is this: during the great tribulation, christians will rely on jehovah and not try to defend themselves.
I'm always surprised when they show "brothers" with bulked out arms. Isn't it "worldly" to concentrate on getting a great bod at the gym? Spending hours on your body instead of out in service? or studying or praying etc.