The meetings at the Kingdom Hall now are positively scary

by BonaFide 42 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  BluesBrother

  I liked your answer too.

  Even when I used to conduct the WT , I would still have liked it and commended it..(perhaps that's why I am no longer doing it)

  I would love to find some day the reference to an experience that was (I think ) in an old yearbook. It was in a concentration camp either in WW2 or Eastern Europe. The group of Witnesses were isolated and certain ones took the lead but were deviating from "the Truth" . This one Witness stood firm by his conscience for what he believed to be right. The rest of the group (his congregation) disfellowshipped him for his views.

  After they were all released, the others were themselves censured and disciplined for wrongdoing and the one lone Witness who followed his conscience rather than the congregation was reinstated and exonerated.

  The point is clear....
• 

  Quirky1

  I liked your comment but I doubt if it will get them thinking. I would almost have to agree with waffles that you might have just put a big bullseye on your ass.

  BTW, welcome waffles.
• 

  journey-on

  The last time I went to a meeting, my eyes had already been opened. As I looked around the KH, the movie, The Stepford Wives, came into mind. Everyone seemed so surreal like they could see and hear, but not with "seeing" eyes and "hearing" ears. It was if they were blind and deaf to what was really being said and taught. Yes, it was positively scary.
• 

  Robert7

  This level of submission was one of the BIG dissonances I had as I was mentall leaving. I knew better than to trust ANYONE blindly. We are thinking individuals, and ultimately decisions are mine, and no one else's.

  I remember thinking during meetings "blind devotion is dangerous" and "YOU are NOT telling ME whether my kids can go to college or not".

  This was probably during the last few months before I finally left the faith, so the dissonance was piling on.
• 

  villabolo

  "As I looked around the KH, the movie, The Stepford Wives, came into mind."

  A neighbor of mine, who never went to their meetings but lived in a neighborhood full of them, made the same comparison based on how they acted in the neighborhood. I responded by referring to the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

  You got to be careful around them as the GB increases their hatemongery. There's no telling what certain unstable (Most of them) Jw's could do under that type of influence.
• 

  MidwichCuckoo

  Maybe they couldn't understand your comment, BonaFide - far too 'deep' lol. Well done for having the nerve to speak up - keep us up to speed on your punishment
• 

  civicsi00

  I applaud your effort in speaking up.

  But in reading your past posts, you were doing well to keep your "underground work", well, underground.

  This may have repercussions, especially if the elders want to sit down and question your motives for answering the way you did.

  If you attended the Sunday meeting last week, and paid attention to the EXTREME devotion JW's have for the "FDS", then you know just how blind they really are. I went, and I still can't believe that they believe God is using these crazy false prophets.
• 

  wobble

  Bones,

  I think what really upset them was the "We are not robots" bit of your comment ,they were all thinking "Yes we are!!!, otherwise we would have to do our own thinking,instead of leaving thinking or exercising my own conscience right out, and letting the GB and Elders do it all for me"

  "I like not using my brain or listening to my conscience,what is wrong with Bonafide ?"

  Love

  Wobble
• 

  flipper

  Your quote " In a rare case the counsel is not based on the Bible. " Problem is - it's not just a RARE case that the elders counsel is NOT based on the Bible. It happens all the time unfortunately in the organization. That's why I brought this very issue up to my older elder dad several years back that there needs to be a check and balance system in that the circuit overseers don't just check field service statistics when they visit every 6 months - but they need to check documentation of JC meetings and counsel given to the rank and file members to see if it is being done correctly.

  The scary thing about this is they DON"T have a check system in place because they really think holy spirit from God appoints these men. So- the WT society feels the elders can essentially regulate themselves actually. Which is dangerous when men get that power and abuse it without any questions asked or their authority challenged. And the rank and file will continue to be controlled in a dangerous way until the governing body ends up telling them to drink cool-aid at the Memorial instead of wine. And the rank and file would do it - no questions asked. Extremely dangerous ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
• 

  BonaFide

  I think I better be more careful then, I don't want to be outed.

  When I served as a C.O., and an elder later, I always had conversations with other elders about certain elders that gave wrong counsel. Or we would talk about how to counsel a certain brother. Even sitting on judicial committees, I remember many mistakes made by the elders. I tried to be fair, but JW fair is not really fair.

  I am getting that urge to stand up in the Kingdom Hall and yell.

  BF