by choosing life 32 Replies latest jw friends
For crying out loud! I've been out for 28 years. I live on the opposite end of the country from where I lived as a JW. Nobody I know associates me with JW's. If they hunt me down and DF me, all of my "worldly" friends (the only kind I have) will have the laugh of a lifetime! Then we'll have a party to celebrate my "official, GB sanctioned" status as a free citizen.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SandraC of the "WTF" class
Officially, I think all the pieces are in place already.
They strongly discourage JWs from forming close ties with anyone deemed a Bad Association™.
They define Good Association™ on the basis of a person's attendance at the Kingdom Hall meetings and Field Service™ activity.
They stress the importance of JWs not allowing themselves to be subjected to Worldly Influences™, Independent Thinking™ and now even the private discussion and debating of Bible-related subjects and WTS publications.
It's turning more and more into George Orwell's 1984 than ever.
I agree with AK-Jeff. They can say that not coming to meetings is breaking god's command as stated in Heb 10:24. (Which they do say all the time) And that's pretty much how they got me (they added that to their YMCA case because they knew they were being rediculous)So, like someone else said, it just depends on how vindictive your elders want to be. Do you think there will be official orders from headquarters to start the crackdown?
Really, I think that this is a way to Dissassociate those faders or irregular publishers with out the the rest of the RFgetting upset and start thinking, asking questions as to the authority the borg has to act as god.
They overstep their postion with the policies they implement regarding DF and DA. Their hands are dripping in the blood of the sheep that have been batter by such policies.
they just 'tweek' the DF rules to allow elders a free hand in excommunicating anyone who does not attend regularly. They explain it with some goofy scriptural misapplication, like they always do, give a six month time frame to any who are missing the meetings and FS, and then proceed to announce that they are 'no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses'. I think this has been in the works for a while now and will likely be done at some future point.
I've heard if you threaten legal action, they sort of leave you alone. Has anybody had success with this? And with just the "fade" issue?
They can say that not coming to meetings is breaking god's command as stated in Heb 10:24.
In our recent CO visit, during the elders' meeting, the CO talked about Hebrews 10:24 & 25, then dropped down a few more verses where the scripture talks about "no sacrifice for sins left". Because the scriptures were in close proximity to each other, he presented the case that someone who "willingly" misses meetings is committing an unforgivable sin.
It was one of the most egregious misapplications of scripture I have ever heard.
Now I wonder if it was one of those "trial balloons" to see how people react, before it becomes offical policy?
It would be easy enough to do. When we signed up with the WTBTS we promised to Love, Honour and Obey them.....OOPS that was the other vow I was thinking of.
Anyway we promised to follow all their teachings, no matter how stupid, go to a shit load of meetings, assemblies,service etc spent the rest of our time studying mindless ever changing books and scrape up every last cent to give to the World Wide Whatever Fund™
We have sinned and failed them and jehobah by "Fading Away". The new announcement is " Joe Smuck is no longer one of jehobahs witlesses"
I could easily enough see them applies this DF'ing comment to anyone that just walked away from the "Truth"™
Having said that I don't think it will happen. In my ex congo alone it would affect about 15 to 20 people. The fallout would be huge and the disruption possibly beyond control.
When we signed up with the WTBTS we promised to Love, Honour and Obey them.....OOPS that was the other vow I was thinking of.Anyway we promised to follow all their teachings, no matter how stupid, go to a shit load of meetings, assemblies,service etc spent the rest of our time studying mindless ever changing books and scrape up every last cent to give to the World Wide Whatever Fund™
Gosh, if only they'd spell it out that way when we get dunked! Might give it some second thoughts...
Why can't we just get a divorce and start dating other religions like civilized folk?
sorry, double-post
It was one of the most egregious misapplications of scripture I have ever heard.
Yes, but I've heard this misapplication made many times. Hell, I even made it myself from the platform Maybe not unforgivable sin strong, but definately that having a custom of staying from the meetings was treating Jesus sacrifice as being of little value.
Sir82 - Was this a part of the COs outline or did this come up in the meeting with just the elders? Maybe your congregation has low meeting numbers (uh, that's probably a safe bet if your in an English congo) and he was trying to beat you guys so you could hammer the flock.
I just don't see the advantage to making the lack meeting attendance a df'ing offense. Yeah, maybe you get some folks back, but you could end up losing even more. I would not put it past them though.
Scully makes a good point. The framework is in place and it would be a natural progression. Perhaps smaller and more loyal is the long term plan.
