by AndersonsInfo 426 Replies latest jw friends
Great work Randy & Co getting Freeminds to the top with a search for Ted Jaracz.
A handy tool for faders and lurkers - encourage your family to Google the man.........
Very interesting insights into Bethel Life too Barbara, thanks so much for sharing. You ought to write a book!
Thanks Barbara for everything and all the time you have taken to keep us up to speed. As far as the class action law suit I agree with Mary, but there are in some ways two different ways to look at this one the shunning part and then the child abuse part. I would love to see a law suit go through on either one of them. They both are just so horrible. More people need to stand up to the cruelty of what the WT has put us victims through. Thanks again so much. vs77
I just wanted to say how wonderful Barb's comments are. I am deeply impressed by her objectivity and sense of forgiveness.
Isn't it obvious that something is 'going on' at the highest levels of this organization? It is now evolving into much more than just a shortage of funds, as they reduce meetings , cut Saturday work and quietly speculate about an end to preaching. What is happening?
For one thing, the real 'gold' of the organization, the comaraderie, the brotherhood, yes, the love for one another in a great common cause is fading away. We can thank Jaracz in particular for draining away what little good this organization had - and replacing it with coldhearted legalism. Thank is the correct word because it would be wonderful to see his work succeed in destroying this sad, sick cult - by implosion.
I continue to hold to the Soviet analogy. Their empire did not collapse because of a popular revolt - among passive-aggressive citizens. It collapsed because the leadership lost faith in the whole system and tried to 'reform' it, which merely accelerated its demise.
I often wonder why Sydlik was so ineffective within the GB. There were rumors about a scandal involving a young man, I don't know.
If Loesch is the new Boss, I can only hope he proves to be like Hushai and finishes off this offensive mess called the "truth".
metatron
Besty said why don;t they have information on their homepage - that way everyone could go there for regular updates and would cut the number of calls down.
Good point. But than again that would be a loving thing to do. Like when my husband had a serious heart attack at the meeting and the elders let me drive him to the hospital. So when have they ever done a loving thing.
In the true religion would you not expect that they would keep their members informed. Like when Hinkly died in the Mormon Church that made world news. Is that not what you should expect in the true religion. Oh wait this is not the true religion is it! I forgot.
I've been ringing them off the hook from Australia......"IS HE DEAD YET?"............{American accent} "No Sir he is not"..........OKAY......."WHAT ABOUT NOW?"
winstonchurchill said:
"To me the most reprehensible buch has to be the traveling O's. Maybe I'm biased because i was one. But these guys and their wives are on the streets, they see brothers and sisters everyday...."
The most corrupt witness I know was a circuit overseer, a real bully, liar and power player. He was bought off in our hall by a corrupt brother who was covering for his son beating his wife; the son was emboldened to send his wife off with $50 and the back of his hand. The CO covered his mistake by having the entire body removed after trumping up charges with 2 special committees. He was just the most incredibly craven person; he really opened my eyes about what gets by when you have the juice to eliminate your enemies.
The men he brought into the hall were totally loyal to him, even after he left. What little spirituality was left in the hall was crushed out of it by these transplants, real rule of law guys.
Where was Bethel in all of this? They backed him up fully, even after the DO chewed him out.
That was the beginning of my emotional exit from the witnesses; it was finished off by learning about the GB's criminal policy of silencing child sexual abuse victims.
The problem with TJ dying or being incapacitated is that his policies will live on in the next cheap suit that steps into his shoes. It is not like they have a culture in place that will develop a forward thinking leader; they have a rigid succession system, even if it is chaotic, that crushes transformational leaders and thinkers.
Barb Anderson is a good example of it; here they had someone telling them they had a LARGE problem with sex abuse and had the research to back it up, but behing the scenes TJ is doing his best to crush any change. In the end, those who really want change and know how to move the problem into the view of the rank and file are either kicked out or are moved by good conscience to leave.
The JWS or WTS. and have for many years self created an illusionary image that god is speaking directly to them through his holy spirit.
Thats why individuals who are members of the GB aren't identified individually in any of their published literature or writings, intensionally.
This way they are only perceived as a channel to god in appearance to the rest of the flock.
It helps in the indoctrination process to not stamp the articles with an individual or a group.
Thats why the majority of JWS do not know who the GB members are or know very little about them.
I WOULD EQUATE WATERBOARDING WITH DESFELLOWSHIPPING
THUS MAKING DESFELLOWSHIPPING IS A CRIME.
AS JARACZ CHENEY WOULD SAY "DESFELLOWSHIPPING IS ENHANCED TECHNIQUE TOWARD REPENTANCE"
..."come with me if you want to live ... forever" - classic! lol
Joe said I should stop hijacking this thread by putting other things on it like the class-action lawsuit statement. I told him that it's my thread and I can do anything I want to do. So there!
Here's something about Sydlik. This is what I was told. Dan was a writer in the Writing Dept. when it was called Editorial Dept. He wrote an article about baseball that went into the Awake! Later it was found out that he plagiarized the article from Reader's Digest. He was transferred to the Factory, the Bindary maybe. I could be wrong about that. This was quite a while before the directors thought of taking over the org. from Knorr and Franz. How he made it from the Factory to the GB is probably an interesting story, but one we'll never know. All that info. died with him.
I heard the rumor about Dan and boys, but that's all it was, a rumor. Yes, he had young men in his office often. Yes, he talked to young men when walking home, but Dan was in Bethel for years before he married. Running around with guys was what he did. I've been with Dan and Marina in their room and at social occasions and they seemed to enjoy each other's companionship very much. They were a neat couple together. He was very concerned about her well-being. He said being a GB's wife was difficult for her. She would get a tension headache when she had to stand with him greeting people after he gave a special talk. He told me that she had often been hurt by people who used her to get to him. She was very cautious about making friends because of this. She seemed to many to be unfriendly, but it wasn't that at all. She was on guard in public to protect herself and her husband from crafty people in "Jehovah's wonderful organization" (my words).
One time, we took them out to Long Island to Alan Feuerbacher's parent's home on Long Island Sound. We had a really good time. There was, however, one episode that occurred that we'll never forget.
There were only three couples there. Three elders two of which were Bethel elders and their wives and the conversation was about organizational stuff. Dan began to talk about how he knew Jehovahhhhh Godddd through his Holy Spirit was with elders in judicial hearings. He was sharing a story of how well a certain "sister's" problems were handled by the elders even though her life was in turmoil and she was in and out of judicial hearings. It was, he said, because Holy Spirit was there to help the brothers and as he continued to extol the virtues of judicial hearings, he began to change. It was while he was saying he could actually feel the presence of the Holy Spirit at this woman's hearing, he seemed to slip off into an outer-worldly thingy experience or something. His voice became different. Hard to describe what we saw and heard. At the time, I thought of the Apostle Paul and the 7th heaven experience.
All five of us sat there listening and staring at him for what seemed to be an eternity, but really only minutes, when his wife Marina said (I kid you not): "God damn it, Sydlik, stop that; get off your high horse and come back down to earth." He blinked a few times and returned back to normal. If that wasn't the strangest thing for the five of us to observe. Then we all mentally shook ourselves and continued on with conversation like nothing happened.
I have no commentary to offer about this experience. I'm still at a loss for words over it, and for me that's saying something.
Barb
Barb... your tales have us pinned to our seats and screens. This is most amazing and enlightening thread on so many levels.
Yes tell Joe that your hijacking is MUCH appreciated. We are all still gathered here for more! And man oh man... within what other thread would you even begin to tell these tales, I wonder? The "God damn it, Sydlik, stop that; get off your high horse and come back down to earth" quote is a sparkling gem.
