visiting a nearby town during his thursday night service talk mentioned how poor meeting attendance is in the english-speaking u.s. congregations.
he said that when the gb reduced the weekly meetings from 3 to 2, there was a brief surge in meeting attendance percentages.
after a few months it began to slide and it hasn't stopped sliding.
At least the women/families that shared this horrid experience can take comfort in the fact that they were part of a 'large army' - unfortunately not appreciating it at the time.
Sunday was our worst day. That was the ex-husband (and at that time ex-elder's) manic day. My son used to call it "Bloody Sunday". In fact it was sitting in a restaurant after meeting/field service one Sunday that I decided enough was enough.
i'm sure by now you are all aware of the feb 15th, 2012 study edition of the watchtower, and its outrageous experience depicting domestic violence.. as you may know, i have been looking into the matter in some detail.
i decided to contact the uk domestic abuse charity "refuge".
they indicated their concern towards the article and offered to help in any way they could.
I had a conversation with a CO a few years ago (the only CO I ever found to be a lateral thinker).
He told me (as part of our conversation re my separation from my ex husband) about a woman in a smaller city (in Victoria I think) that he had visited in hospital who had survived being stabbed numerous times by her unbelieving husband. He told me that the local elders had told her she had to return to her husband, but he told them that was insanity - a woman doesn't have to die for 'the truth'.
I wonder what would have happened to her had he not been there at the time.
one of the things that has always irked me is the society's position on illegal aliens.. paraphrasing a us boe letter (can't remember the date, not a recent one though), elders were instructed that they are not "policemen", not responsible for enforcing "caesar's laws".
so, if there are any illegal aliens in the congregation, elders do not report them to any authority.
no (congregational) disciplanary action at all is taken against them.. however, illegal aliens are not "exemplary", in that they are knowingly breaking caesar's laws.
I know a woman who was a primary school teacher in North Carolina. When the subject of JW's first came up her immediate response was to roll her eyes and say that JW's are seen as quite a force in harbouring illegal aliens. This was her first response to the subject of JW's. I was quite surprised when she said this and asked for clarification, but she insisted this was true - suggesting that they actually encouraged people to stay and were knowingly breaking the law. This woman is not anti JW and quite liberal in her thinking. She is also not prone to exaggeration. She worked with these children a lot so would know the situation well.
i'm sure by now you are all aware of the feb 15th, 2012 study edition of the watchtower, and its outrageous experience depicting domestic violence.. as you may know, i have been looking into the matter in some detail.
i decided to contact the uk domestic abuse charity "refuge".
they indicated their concern towards the article and offered to help in any way they could.
If it is not off-topic I would like to comment on the experience of the sister in Korea who stayed with her husband in spite of the abuse and won him over. I can't recall all of the details exactly, but this is an example of the society taking a situation out of context (in this case cultural) and putting their own spin on a situation that may well have had a negative impact on readers who did not understand certain constraints within the society from which they drew this experience.
Even today Korean women in general (not just JW"s) tend to put up with more spousal abuse due to poor infustructure and outdated ideas re a woman's place in the home and society. This is slowly changing with support groups now more numerous than before, but even so, abuse is not uncommon. It is virtually always linked to two other things - alcohol and women.
It is very much a part of the culture for men to socialise after work (often necessary to keep a job) and this always involves drinking an prostitutes - in one form or another. To suggest that the husband of the woman in the experience absued her because of her religion is misleading - he would have been doing it anyway. It is also wuite common for Korean women to belong to a church as a social outlet - more so than men - and it probably would not bother the man all that much which church it was - although this cannot be factored into this particular situation - it is a real consideration.
It is the usual course of events for a lot of such men - when reaching their 'use-by date' which is quite early - to tone down and for the woman to take more control in the house. This would have been the life-stage when the husband decided to lessen his abuse...nothing really unusual here.
Also - due to poor social infustructure (menatl health etc) there would have been absolutely nowhere for this woman to go and it would have been seen as a neglect of her duty to even attemp to leave. As said - while this is changing, there is still a stong social attittude in gereral that makes change slow - depending on the area/age/education etc.
Given the amount of women who have suffered needlessly in such a male-dominated society I'm sure the women (and men) who are working to change this would not appreciate such inane examples of social retardation.
The writers of such nonsense need to look into the other factors that go hand-in-hand with abuse and educate themselves as to the underlying causes.
(4) emotional control.
behavior control
emotional control
There is a PhD in here for any linguist interested in research re discourse analysis.
I guess the writers need to keep the same tone to achieve their objective, but I always found it
amusing (in a sad way) that any "outsider" making a positive comment on anything JW, without fail, used the same
'voice' - almost the same words, in their comments. A bit sinister when you think of the implications.
i remember the whole process of selecting a host city for australias last international convention.
the australian bethel played the nsw government against the victorian.
it was so similar to choosing an olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game.
The South Korean government is not fussy about who they get into with. The tourism industry is next to hopeless so I 'm sure they were happy for a few extra tourists. I remember one international convention trip - all the Bethel folks travelled first class. I remember thinking that they had a 'superior' attitude. Looking back that was the beginning of my long road out.
the rise and rise of paul gillies?.
here are a view details about the 57-year-old paul stuart gillies.. .
2011: appointed as a director of international bible students association (ibsa) on 2 november having resigned as a director of watch tower bible and tract society of britain on the same day.
If this brother's wife is named Judith ( assuming this is the correct Judith) then as the saying goes - behind every successful man.....
a friend from australia's first "ministerial training school" was excited to go to asia as a missionary....only to return in disgrace!!!
the government lets them stay if they become "english teachers" and except a part-time job for a salary {which is generous}.
bethel told him that the money he earns on the side while a missionary belongs to them!!
When the ex and I were special pioneers we moved to a new assignment and lived in a house which had been built by the previous pioneers on land donated by local brothers. We did additional work to the house. We also paid rent to the society.
I find it funny now, that in the midst of recent family events I was blown away by the blatant greed and dishonesty of some elders (acting on society's instructions) and yet when I took the time to look back at my own experiences and read past history of the society, I should not have been surprised at all.
had an interesting chat with my ex re the current debate over working with children checks - of which she has one due to her volunteering at our childrens primary school.
i remember when she had to apply that i made the comment elders & mss should be having background checks due to the history of abuse in the borg and covering up (these discussions normally dont go down well as she is well and truly blinded, well meaning, but blinded).. anywho, she told me about the recent letter that was read to all the victorian congregations, she couldnt tell me verbatim what it said, though the gist was that is no real need for elders to get this check, but rather they are complying with what has been asked legally.. now i dont know if what she said next was based on the letter read or the after discussions at the k/hall, but she made the comment the elders do not need the wcc as they are not strangers, they are our brothers... i tried reasoning that another elder who moves in from interstate is certainly a stranger, until you get to know him on a personal level.
didnt matter how i reasoned or what incidents i bought up, the view amongst her and the other mums that she hangs around in the cong is that the elders getting a wcc check is totally unnecessary and that the jws are being picked on.. next week, i am meeting up with a mate who is an elder here in victoria and trying to step down, so will pick his brains and see if he can get a copy.... .
Quite a bit of molestation is conducted by friends/relatives, so there goes that theory.
All of the situations I have known of over the years within the organisation would also fit into that category.
hola guys,.
currently, i am in barcelona for a two month project.. not sure if there are many residents of barcelona on this forum, but in case there are some or somebody is planning to visit this beautiful city, i propose to organize some gettogether for a drink or siteseeing.
if anyone is interested, please, pm me or leave message on this thread.. best wishes,.
Would love to be there - great place. Just love Gaudi's architecture.
