More from the June 15th WT on the Love at the meetings.

by life is to short 24 Replies latest watchtower scandals

  • life is to short
    life is to short

    This WT just keeps getting better and better, OK well the start of it was the worst the generation change but man this whole WT is really ticking me off. I must just be in some mood right now. It has taken me the whole week to listen to it. Most of the time I just fly through it to get it over but this one is just loaded with sickness.

    OK here is another point that pissed me off. On page 25 the study article is titled Find Refreshment in Spiritual things. It starts off by talking about the Law covenant being inaugurated at Mount Sinai and the weekly Sabbath arrangement. In par 2 it asked the question "was the Sabbath just a day of relaxation? No, it was an integral part of the Israelites' worship of Jehovah. Keeping the Sabbath allowed family heads time to teach their family to "keep Jehovah's way to do righteousness." (Gen. 18:19) It also provided an opportunity for family and friends to get together to reflect on Jehovah's deeds and to have joyous association. Most important, the Sabbath prophetically pointed forward to a time when true refreshment would come through Christ's Millennial Reign. (Rom. 8:21) But what about our day? Where and how can true Christians who are interested in Jehovah's ways, find such refreshment?

    OK so here is where the part comes in that pisses me off. The end of par 3 says "Likewise today, Jehovah's Witnesses find genuine refreshment through upbuilding Christian fellowship. You know from experience that congregation meetings are a source of great joy. There we find an "interchange of encouragement......each one through the other's faith." (Rom. 1:12) Our Christian brother and sister are not mere passing acquaintances, superficial associates with whom we casually meet now and again. They are true friends, people we love and respect. We receive much joy and comfort by regularly assembling with them at our meetings.-Philem. 7."

    Then in par 7 it talks about getting together with family and friends of social gatherings and at the end of the paragraph it says "Social gatherings not only refresh the soul but also strengthen our bond of love with fellow Christians as we get to know them better. To help contribute to a memorable and upbuilding occasion, it is best to keep social gatherings small and to make sure that they are properly supervised, especially if any alcohol is served."

    So what are we to the Faithful Slave. Teenagers who need rules added to our lives, that we as adults with a clear mind need to be told how to have social gatherings. And did I miss something with the meetings where is says I "know from experience that congregation meetings are a source of great joy." I have been in four major hall in my life where I have spent two or more years in them. One I was raised in and then came back to it, I was in that hall a total of about 20 years and I do not truly have one friend in it. My God I passed out once due to stress of trying to pioneer and work and also being in a hall of people who hated me. I was on a Bible study with this sister had and she heard me fall when I passed out on my way outside because I was getting sick from stress and she did not even come to check on me. I crawled out on my hands and knees to the car. It is like some sick joke. She told me latter I heard you fall. Really I felt such love at that moment. I felt the love that they just talked about.

    I have never felt love or friendship in any hall. Even being an elders wife when my husband would give talks out so many halls we went to the woman would all get in little groups and stare at me. I felt like I was in jr high school. I mean these people are truly stunted in their social skills and this shows why.

    The more I am away the more I see the craziness of this religion. It is so restrictive and controlling.

    LITS

  • Mad Sweeney
    Mad Sweeney

    It's pathetic and sad. The only reason Dubs think they're happy is because they keep telling each other that they're happy. But in a normal congregation there is always a high number of depressed people and a very low number of people who are genuinely happy.

  • sir82
    sir82
    The end of par 3 says "Likewise today, Jehovah's Witnesses find genuine refreshment through upbuilding Christian fellowship. You know from experience that congregation meetings are a source of great joy.

    I love how they always tell us what we think, what we feel, what we enjoy, what we dislike, etc. Like we're too stupid to figure it out for ourselves.

    But it really does serve their purpose - control of the masses. It's really quite masterful.

    Thus, those (probably the majority) who don't really find "genuine refreshment", "upbuilding fellowship", or "great joy" at the meetings are conditioned to think "Look, it says right there that everybody else does - so why don't I? What's wrong with me?"

    So people blame themselves instead of discerning what the real problem is - that the meetings themselves are dull, spirit-sapping, clique-filled, and depressing.

  • Hapgood
    Hapgood

    Sir82 that's exactly how I felt! I'd read those articles on how we are all suppose to be happy and I'd wonder what's wrong with me! I felt like such a misfit! I thought it was my falt that I never fit the JW mold, that something was wrong with me. What an evil cult!!!

  • Mad Sweeney
    Mad Sweeney

    That's by design. The Emotional control the Borg directs its followers toward is very narrow. It consists of mainly two emotions: fear and guilt. This particular example is a case of inducing feelings of guilt. Nothing reduces self-esteem and builds dependency like guilt.

  • heathen
    heathen

    Yah , there's no such thing as love without hypocrisy with them . They are so petty and miserable it's a bunch of fake comradery . I can't stand the very site of them anymore .

  • life is to short
    life is to short

    Sir82

    You hit the nail on the head. That is why this article made me so mad. I did everything that I could to please them. I was always out in service when I was single, got married and pioneered, lived on nothing, went to Bethel took the vow of poverty. Came back was an elders wife for 22 years, never once in all of that time did I feel part of the religion. The harder I tried the worse it became. I blamed myself, felt something was wrong with me and suffered major depression. That is why this WT is getting to me.

    LITS

  • gubberningbody
    gubberningbody

    I'm not at all religious, not even when I was a JW, but the people I found out in the field to be the most engaging, creative and fun were pentecostals.

  • alanv
    alanv

    I must say that when I was at the meetings I did feel there was a lot of love there. However as soon as I started questioning things that love dried up in two seconds flat. It is a totally conditional love.

    One really good friend wrote to me about why I had stopped going to meetings and assured me they really wanted to know why. I wrote to her telling her why I had stopped. I never heard from her again.

    Says it all

  • Old Goat
    Old Goat

    As my name implies, I'm old. I figure that I've attended about 17,000 meetings, including conventions and assemblies. (That's a rough guess and probably a bit low considering the years when we treaveled and attended more than more than our share of conventions.) Out of all those meetings, I probably enjoyed 500. Now that may seem like a lot of enjoyable meetings, but spread that out between the mid 1940's and now, and it ain't many, bub.

    The meetings fail in many ways, but the gossip, back biting, stupidity, and idiocy just leave me cold. I was raised in a congregation that thought of itself as having "high standards." The standards were set, not by the Bible, but by the personal opinion of a bunch of old women who held the congregation servant's ear. (CompanyServant way back when.)

    Love among the "brothers" is startlingly rare. Pettiness is common.

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