whoknows:
"My husband and I were visiting Patterson Bethel a short time after these massive lay-offs occurred. We took a couple of Bethelites out to dinner and the subject of the cut backs came up. I raised the issue that these ones booted out were middle aged people for the most part who had denied themselves children, education, a home, a career and any sort of financial security (including social security because they never worked enough hours), and I expressed that I believed this was very bad treatment of these people by the Org. This particular guy heads his department at Patterson and feels very secure and smug and his reply to me, with a smile on his face, was "Well, they were deadwood". "
Would that have been Ken Flodin or Ted Adams perhaps? Just thinkin' of who your husband might have dealt with...
LongHairGal:
"It is interesting to read all these replies about this sad situation. I have noted that some feel sorry for these people and others not so much. I have mixed feelings about them."
Having known thousands of bethhellites, that reaction is rational I believe. I'm coming to terms with the reality that I'd love to see many in bethhell escape and get on with happy lives. Others, well, like Gregor I'd say f--k 'em.
Looking back I can now see that although I was supposed to "love" them like "family", some are pompous dip$hits, others are really good (but terribly deluded) people. Not that much different than in the congregation perhaps. There are the arrogant as$holes that you'd like to leave to their worthless delusions, and others that you would like to snap out of it... people that are kind, caring, and loving... but their brains are enslaved to a book publishing corporation.
I hope that makes sense somehow.
See See: Welcome!
Is it a friend or a phoney that hides what's in their heart from those he/she cares about?
Good questions. Okay, I won't hide what's in my heart... I don't understand the other questions that you posted.
While there is validity in being open and honest, which I try to be, there has to be a stopping point in many cases. For example, if my mom were to show me a new dress that she loves but that I didn't care for, I'd say the same as Dad... "That's nice. I don't like it as well as your blue one. But it's nice too." I won't gush and lie about loving it, I'll just drop the subject. Is that "Honest"? Well, that's as honest as I feel I need to be. If it makes her happy and isn't completely, embarrassingly hideous, do I really need to start in with... "yech, what dumpster did you pick that trash out of? It makes you look even fatter than you are! Why don't you stop stuffing your face and lose some of that lard so you can really look good in something for a change? And the color of that tent really brings out the yellow in your complexion and the blue in your hair!" I'd rather be a live "phoney" than an honest corpse. (Okay, I'm being sarcastic here... in case you couldn't tell.)
Of course, dealing with the JW religion is much more serious than an opinion on a dress. However, I'm just trying to point out that when you love someone, things get complicated. And you may not want to blurt out all of what's in your heart. I don't want to be shunned. I just want out of the JWs. They don't want to shun me. They don't want me to leave the JWs and they can't handle the truth about the truth and leave. Of course, the book publishing company wants to meddle and muddle. How do you navigate those stormy waters? Well, you do your best and see what happens. You can't turn off the storm or change the vessel. You start navigating the storm with the hope to keep everything together and make it to a safe harbor hopefully with everything, most, or at least the really valuable stuff intact. Or everything may wreck somewhere along the way and you finally hope to escape only with your life.
Uh, sorry about all the illustrations here. It's the TMS training resurfacing.