Thank you for joining this site. Your inner knowledge is simply fascinating. Please tell us more!!!!!
Paulapollos
by minimus 130 Replies latest jw friends
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boyzone
Yes Paul, Thank you for your input here, its much appreciated. Your words have been especially encouraging for those of us who have also been disfellowshipped for apostasy. I hope there can be an "interchange" for you too. How have you and your wife been coping since your disfellowshipping and is there any way we can help?
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jookbeard
I'll second that
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quietlyleaving
welcome Paulapollos
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minimus
From your comments, PP, it appears that Bethel doesn't talk too much about sites like these. Conversation about specific apostate things seem to be taboo. If they ignore it, it's not a problem.
How do you feel being thought of as an "apostate"?
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God_Delusion
That was the strangest thread I've seen on here.
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minimus
why? are u delusional?
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Paulapollos
Hi,
Well, I'm not sure how I feel being seen as an apostate, in the sense that the Society teaches all the Witnesses that it means I have rejected God, and I am nothing more that an evil creature, destined for Gehenna, and tring to take everyone else with me. It seems that when I came into the organisation, no-one ever told me that I was going to join a religion where f I disagreed, or even thought that the interpretation of a prophecy or something was not fully correct, I would be thrown into oblivion, socially speaking. No-one advertised that to me when they were using the Knowledge book on me!
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minimus
They don't tell you what you should know. They need to give IN WRITING, a CONTRACT, to specifically state what can and cannot be tolerated. If someone could read what the repercussions are for questioning or for that matter simply thinking outside of the box, it could save a lot of time and sorrow.
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Paulapollos
Minimus,
I actually believe that this is probably more to do with fear of freedom of expression, than anything else. At Bethel, I saw many people who dislike the idea of "conscience matters". Why was that? It was because in rules, they had security, a way of proving that they were "good", and others needed to respect, and even take direction from them. And I see no difference with the GB. How dare anyone even consider that the meaning of a Biblical passage is different to the published thought! I often had to struggle with the team I worked with, advising them of the context, them arguing with me, saying "No, it doesn't mean that" - and then I would pull out an old WT that would say "in it's original context, the writer meant..."It took a visit from a head honcho to tell our teams that they needed to show some respect to "context". And even then....well, lets just say that the teams were not co-operative. And the reason was this - who are you to tell us what it means? Pride. I honestly believe that is a primary reason behind the GB's treatment of "apostates". There is a quote I need to find to back it up - a WT quote, basically saying, "we don;t need you apostates to teach us!"
PP