COMMENTS YOU WILL NOT HEAR AT THE WT STUDY: Help Them Return Without Delay!

by Mary 52 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  The Missus

  Great job Mary - thank you!
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  parakeet

  "16. One Christian elder says: "Our local body of elders is very interested in calling on those who are inactive."

  I got away (running and screaming) from the WTS 30 years ago. I was not DAed or DFed, just became "inactive." Since that time, not a call, knock, letter, whisper, or squeak from the elders. And they know where I live, too.

  I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting for any elders to come a-hoping I'll return to the fold. The article was useful in one regard, though. The WTS portrays all inactive dubs as truly wishing to come back, but for one reason or other, they're prevented -- they're too "caught up in the world," "too afraid they won't be accepted," "too [fill in the blank]." They won't acknowledge that inactive dubs may have found life very satisfactory outside the loveless tyranny of the Society. Now I know why my mom keeps telling me that "I know you really know it's the truth."

  Thank you, Mary.
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  BluesBrother

  Thanks Mary, it cannot be easy dissecting all this baloney, I appreciate your hard work, even if I would raise my eyebrow at the scenarios that you provide in para 9 & 13, but this thread is about the WT article........

  Help Them Return without Delay..Have the WT finally awoken to the fact that "Jehovah's ark of salvation" is a leaky sieve that loses so many of the ones it "saves"? We shall see how this works out in practice.

  p 2 "Christian elders have a desire and a duty to help a sheeplike one who has strayed from the flock" ..A duty?? a desire? No Way. the elders around here never bother to chase up or call on backsliders [ at least not in my experience]

  If they should be spurred into action, perhaps they would me the q's in p 5" "Are you hap­pier since you stopped attending meetings? Is your family life better?" Yes ! Yes ! I could reply...being off the treadmill of congregation responsibilities was a blessed relief, and funnily enough home life is less fraught than it used to be, when I was trying to do things the WT way...

  p6 "failure to preach the good news has resulted in the loss of joy" Oh yes? I may sometimes think of my ex brothers out in the cold ministry on a Saturday morning, when I am sitting in the coffee shop with a steaming mug of the finest, and a good book..Oh The Loss of joy! I think not !

  Interesting in p9 about 'discipline' meditation may cause him to conclude that he himself was at least partially in the wrong" So they admit that cong discipline can be in the wrong,at least largely, that is a first..

  p10 is a classic of pointlessness. Mary has already dismisses it better than I would have done...

  p13 says that a person who committed sin while out will not be d/f'd if they show true repentance.. And if they don't? they get d/fd , shunned and are worse off than before when were just inactive (Doh!!)

  NB when I was dealing with a case like that on more than one occasion, we blind eyed what had happened in the "missing years" and started afresh with no more questions asked.

  The article is just badly written , it repeats itself, has a dismissive approach to real difficulties, it trivialises genuine reasons for leaving and would only appeal to someone who wants to come back anyway...

  Perhaps that is all that their institutionalised minds can come up with. When the Iron Curtain was in place the Soviet Authorities could not admit to understanding why anyone should wish to leave ....I could not help but think of that when reading this.

  We shall see if the locals are spurred into action and concern for this inactive "lost sheep"
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  Mary

  I appreciate your hard work, even if I would raise my eyebrow at the scenarios that you provide in para 9 & 13

  The incident about the sister who committed suicide after divorcing her husband for beastiality actually happened, it's not a JW folklore and it was related to me probably close to 20 years ago by a sister in my Hall who came from that area in Toronto. I can't help but wonder how many other Witnesses went through hell because of their inability to dicipher a straightforward scripture.
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  done4good

  Thanks, Mary, and Blondie too...I know it can't be easy reading this stuff, let alone commenting on it. Thanks again, for all of the hard work.

  j
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  Sunnygal41

  So someone might leave the Organization because they could not agree with the interpretation on one or more scriptural matters, put forth by the 'faithful and discreet slave'. The solution? Simply tell the person that the very group that they no longer believe are 'God's mouthpiece', are 'dispensing excellent spiritual food.' Yep. I can see how that would do the trick.

  that made me laugh my ass off.............Mary, you did a GREAT job..........I know that the average jw was sitting there just slurping all of this crap up without any reasoning............poor brainwashed sods.

  I also want to say it's been around 11 years for me now and i have NEVER missed one moment of those horrid meetings..........25 years was long enough to waste my life..........I'm free finally and healthy mentally again and I will NEVER EVER return. My mom and I were talking this morning and she asked after a former mutual friend who was DF'd and who I get together with all the time. She wanted to know if she was making any effort to come back, and I said no, she was very happy and had no intention of returning. I know that probably hurt my mom, but, she knows how I feel and I'm honest with her about my views.
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  Sunnygal41

  oh, and, even if I decided to go back, can you imagine how I would feel, walking into that former hall, knowing that the now presiding overseer is a drunk and has spread all the details of my disfellowshipping around for everyone to know? if i ever meet that asshole face to face, i might be arrested, cuz i'd want to give him an uppercut to his jaw.............talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing? disgusting, wife abusing drunken prick.
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  Superleggera

  Mary, thanks for the analysis. You are so right in what you are saying.

  "Actually, being a 'follower of Jesus' doesn't really mean anything in this religion. Salvation depends solely on obeying the Governing Body's man made rules and regulations, end of story. It makes absolutely no difference to them that someone might want to follow Jesus and lead a clean moral life. The bottom line is: if you're not a baptized JW, you're history."

  I agree with this. Another reason why I left the organization.

  The scripture tells us that salvation depends on your faith in Jesus Christ.

  2 Timothy 3:15 (New International Version)

  "and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus"
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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Great Job Mary!!

  It's bizarre how often really big errors appear in the very first paragraph. The same thought caught my eye and is a keeper. 'Judaism had no "sayings of everlasting life"...'. So why would the Botchtower ever quote the OT? Everything before the gospels is false religious poison.

  Paragraph 2 sets the minds of the audience that anyone who has left did so because of committing some serious sin. They should have entitled it "Help Them Return to Face the Judicial Committee Without Delay!"

  Now that you know what they've just studied, what can you say that will derail them if they are naive enough to call?

  First of all, it seems practical to let them know how very, very, very happy you are... and super-joyful more than when you 'acted' joyful as a worn-out dub! You can beat them to the punch saying you're "carrying your own load" of Christian discipleship, reading the Bible, taking care of family and others in need, praying. If they mention the meetings, say that three meetings a week would be burdensome. Of course, then they can explain the new two meetings and then act shocked that they would end the Book Studies since Jehovah wasn't blessing that arrangement. You can tell them that you simply can't agree with their teaching on the "1914 generation", then see if they can explain the nooest noolite on "this generation" now starting in 33 CE.

  B the X
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  Mary

  Thank you everyone for your comments...I really appreciate it. I'd be really interested to know how many on here get a 'shepherding visit' now that they've actually studied it. So far, no one's bothered with me............

  I forgot to mention that next weeks' study article is on: Maintain a Scriptural View of Health Care. I looked it over and it's really bizarre. While some paragraphs speak pointedly about how you should chose death over a blood transfusion, other parts of the article seem to indicate that perhaps there's a problem with brothers and sisters accepting things that border on spiritualistic demonizm.