We Are Dying!

by WeAreDying-Ophelia 70 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  BlackPearl

  Ophelia,

  I was soo pleased to see that you were comforted here. We, most of us have been Witnesses. I was an MS and worked so hard for the congregation, but felt very little love from the brotherhood. It felt more like I was contributing time to to a corporation, I don't feel that Jesus meant for it to be that way. He was so warm and loving to his fellow man, the congregations are lacking that terribly. Your notions of "something doesn't feel right" are very real, something is in fact wrong, trouble is, noone can put their finger on it since the Society is so tight lipped about everything.

  It's no use complaining about the organization so I don't engage in that, I still respect the people there and what they're trying to accomplish. I just think there's a little to much of "pay no attention to the man behind that curtain" (- Wizard of Oz), going on. Who's at the helm, running the ship? Trouble is, noone knows.

  I too wish the world could be what we all wish it could be. I too wish we could all be good friends. I too wish there were no wars and everyone had enough food and a good home to live in. I too.....wish many things! Most of all,....I wish you love and peace.

  BP
• 

  bikerchic

  Shawn10538:

  Get a hobby, but don't enjoy it too much. Try scrapbooking maybe. Something it's impossible to get too passionate about.

  That's so cruel!

  Welcome to JWD Ophelia!

  Anyone here still in and wondering like I am? If so, have you heard anymore about this from the elders in your hall? Several of us are feeling that the Society is out of control. What that means we don't really know except that all we can do is wait and hang on to one another.

  My congregation is dying and we are not the only ones.

  Sit back girl, kick your shoes off and READ!

  You are right about one thing the JW's religion as you've known it is dying, but that's not the bad news and the good news is that you won't die in some make believe Armageddon right around the corner.

  Hey it was right around the corner when I was 17, just getting married, then it was coming in 1975 when I was way pregnant (woe to the pg woman), then it was right around the corner when my kids were graduating HS and it's still right around the corner and my granddaughter is in HS.

  Still waiting.......I suggest you get informed and get on with your life before you waste it waiting on Jehober. Have fun life is for the living not the waiting to live in a paradise new earth™.
• 

  bikerchic

  There's an older sister in our hall who is like a grandmother to me, she's in her eighties. I trust her and confide in her all the time. I told her I was thinking of coming here and she told me to go ahead and try it. She said I might be surprised. She was right. I held my breath for a couple hours now just waiting to see what would happen all that did happen though was that I received a welcome and some fellow feeling. Thank you.

  She did say though that the best thing was to taste and leave. I wish the world could be what we all wish it could be. I wish we could all be good friends. I wish there was no wars and everyone had enough food and a good home to live in. I wish many things!

  I wish the Society would give us more food and spiritual clothing to cover ourselves. I wish I were a man and maybe then I could make changes for the better.

  Well, good night everybody. One last wish! Wish I could meet some of you! My "grandmother" would say though, "enough wishin' girl time to get some sleep."

  May Jehovah's blessing be upon everyone here.

  Surprised and comforted,

  Ophelia

  Fairy tails can come true they can happen to you if you wish real hard......

  *bump* %#%*! hey stop that I was just a wishin'..........my granny used to say "child nothing comes of those who don't get on with it and make it happen"..............and now real life begins.
• 

  under_believer

  Threads like this are the biggest reason I keep coming back to this forum.
  
  Ophelia, you've touched my heart and caused me to pour out some stuff I've never really articulated before. I know how you feel. We're all in this same boat together--you, me, people who have already left, people who are still in. Many people at Bethel, many, many elders and ministerial servants, many pioneers, many circuit overseers, many missionaries are all feeling the same way you and I are right now.
  
  I think, for all the stupid mistakes the elders make (how could they not? They are utterly untrained for the position they're being asked to fill free of charge) and all the flak they catch from people on this board, much of it deserved, I think that those elders might have it harder than anybody else. At least, those elders who are thinking, feeling, caring people, and there are many of them. Quite a few current and very recently former elders post here.
  
  They have it harder because they know more than the rest of us about the many crazy things the Society is asking of them today--they are literally being turned into mindless automatons, loudspeakers, organ grinders (that might be the best description I've ever heard.) All of the individuality and talent and spark has been removed from their jobs. They literally are supposed to be Society mouthpieces that parrot back the exact message the Society wants them to. It must be agonizing to have the skills, ability, and desire to help and inspire and encourage people and yet be prevented from doing so, by letters from the Society (Dear brothers:) and by haranguing, pushy Circuit Overseers. Remember when they used to be Circuit Servants? Well they're Overseers now. Kind of a different tone, isn't it?
• 

  JWdaughter

  Welcome Ophelia! I understand how so many of the changes are confusing. Some are just day to day things-cheaper magazines-that don't really matter. But then you start adding up some of the 'less' significant things to the different version of WT for JWs and the door, practically pointless Sunday talks, changes in the ministry school and it seems like a trend that must be going somewhere. Those are things that the org. has made direct decisions about. Some of the fallout is the lower attendance, lack of interest and enthusiasm. THEN we add in the changes in teaching that are more than changes in understanding-the generation change, the blood change, the change in alternative service-all those things are very material to the JW teachings and culture. The generation change totally threw many here and those still inside-for a major loop. Add to that the scandals and more importantly the way such things are dealt with-and there is an integrity issue that the organization can not fix in a "letters from readers" column.

  I understand your feelings. I am admiring you for coming on here, and for your 'grandmother' for suggesting it. Wise woman, perhaps! I hope you keep reading, and know that many who are here now started with many of the same questions. Blessings to your and your family. I recognise how much you love them all so you are already blessed and a blessing to them.
• 

  ThomasCovenant

  Hi

  Thank you Ophelia for your comments and thank you too under_believer for putting in words how I feel.

  Hope to hear from you Ophelia again.

  Thomas Covenant
• 

  JH

  We are Dying !

  When I first read these words, I was thinking of the people of the 1914 generation who are almost all gone by now.
• 

  Scully

  It's the difference between individualizing a talk to the audience or just doing the outline.

  Ophelia - I think you've nailed it in that sentence.

  I believe that this move is designed to force the Elders and Ministerial Servants who give Public Talks to stick more stringently to the outline, and not dabble too deeply in local needs, personal research or experiences.

  It will also allow meetings to be spaced closer together if several congregations share the Kingdom Hall.

  If memory serves, most people welcome the idea of an extra 15 minutes not devoted to KH stuff. I'm from the era where Public Talks were a full hour and the move to 45 minute talks made people in my congregation quite happy.
• 

  JH

  Also, for those who liked to leave after the 1st meeting, they will find it harder to do it from now after only a half hour meeting.
• 

  jgnat

  I wish the Society would give us more food and spiritual clothing to cover ourselves. I wish I were a man and maybe then I could make changes for the better.

  This wish, I just can't bear to let go. Ophelia, I'm a strong and intelligent woman, who in the secular world, manages a large staff and a large budget. I'm a natural leader and an experienced presenter. We live in a society where women of child bearing age can take on this added responsibility without her household falling apart. Yet, because of Paul's instructions to a society 2,000 years ago, I am considered unfit even to speak to a crowd of thirty. Heck, I am considered unfit to publicly pray. At the Kingdom Hall, I am largely ignored.

  There's nothing about your sex that makes you unfit to implement change. You are obviously an intelligent and sensitive woman.

  I personally think that Blondie's reviews here have had an impact on the way the society presents it's information. Blondie conducts a weekly review of the Watchtower study. I suggest you read one before you go. Blondie's style is called a critique, which you don't see much of in the society. But I believe any good organization must be brave enough to face it's own failings, in order to grow and be strong.

  Then there's Mouthy (Grace Gough) our own board grandma, who never fails to speak up to the injustices she sees and personally experienced.

  And Barbara Anderson, retired Bethelite, who blew the whistle on the Watchtower's pedophile database.

  And Kerry Louderback-Wood, a lawyer who wrote up a treatise in a well-respected legal journal to show how the society misrepresents facts on blood, and how they can be held legally culpable for their actions. She did this after losing her mother from lack of blood.

  And then there's Kimberlee Norris, who has dedicated her career, at great personal cost, to represent victims of abuse.

  http://www.lovenorrisattorneys.com/jehova.html

  All these women have effectively forced change on the society. In my opinion, they have made the society more accountable for their actions, and cautious in their instructions. More power to them.