by lovelylil 73 Replies latest jw friends
I was offered an assembly part once. An Elder from a neighbouring congo called me and asked me about doing a part relating to any FS fears I've conquered. I said 'sorry, no'. He asked if I was sure and I said that yes, I was sure. I could swear it was like he was grasping at straws. I never got offered another assembly part again. LOL! I could've made something up if I wanted to, but I didn't. It blows my mind that it's so common and that it's even expected of people.
V665
You and Ray Franz have a lot in common. He felt immense pressure to lie about 607.
wasblind
Yea Sweets,
especially scince some could have been saved by blood fractions
that were not allowed back then, but are allowed today. It wasn't
the Governing Bodies fault, It was that darn Holy Spirit that messed up big time
My sweet, faithful JW mom died one year, no blood transfusion, (WT Food at Proper Time) ...then, the next year, a few mere months later...haemoglobin was "allowed". (Ahh...more WT Food at the Proper Time)
I've posted this before but a district overseer was not impressed by an experience for the district convention. In frustration, he told us to polish it. Aussies would remember him, A Mason. Funny how his name popped up just now after all these yrs...
A lie is a lie. Unless you are doing it to prevent an even worse problem or to protect someone from a first strike offensive act from someone else, it is wrong to lie (and, preventing an even worse problem does not mean lying to get out of deserved trouble for a problem you already created).
It is bad to lie to misrepresent the organization. You are inflating the value of your "experience" by embellishing things. If you leave out the part where the study was discontinued or that you became destitute or very sick because of your "experience", you are inflating the value of the organization by leaving out the cost. This is every bit as bad as your broker lying about Treasury bonds being the safest investment when China is poised to dump trillions of them on the open market. It is as bad as being told that the stock market is about to explode to the up side 4 weeks before the broker knows a huge stock market crash is coming.
But, at least with a broker lying about your investments, it is only money (and hopefully money you can afford to lose). When it is the Washtowel Slaveholdery, they are lying to get you to invest your whole life. More people can afford to take a bath with "risk capital" (that is, money they can afford to lose) than they can to take a bath with their lives. Most of those people that invest their lives in the Washtowel on this "advice" are going to end up destitute, stagnant, with very few meaningful good experiences, very shallow (confined to whatever is in the rags or what they did in field circus) personalities, and having loveless (or no) marriages. Children will refuse to go to college even with fully paid scholarships (and, with a paid scholarship, they should go whether or not tuition is in a bubble). Which to me is the ultimate bath to take.
These are all maniupulation tactics used by the tower to keep people in. I can't tell you how many times I myself in 12 years in the Org. felt encouraged by a story I heard from the platform and felt as is God must be blessing the Witnesses. To find out they were at the very least embellishing the heck of of them was devasting.
A lot of the friends in my hall heard I would be on the platform at the assembly and I didn't have the heart to tell them I wouldn't and why I wouldn't so I pretented I was ill the week before and made them think I just didn't have the time to practice so they couldn't use me. I never said anything about the other sister I knew to be lying. Lilly
Wow.....sometimes all you can say is wow. Thanks for sharing.
Good morning, lovelylil:
Enjoyed your "experience" or non experience.
A so-called experience that could never be altered to suit the stage, IMHO, is one of mine in informal witnessing. The lady to whom I spoke said her grandfather was a leader in a youth-oriented-crusade-for-Christ-type denomination. He was called on at his home by a young Witness who was not too certain of her beliefs, even confessing to him her doubts. She continued to call and eventually became a member of his church.
Platform material?
CoCo
I've done assembly parts as well and know first hand that many of the stories are "modified to encourage the flock" and some are just plain made up.
When at rehearsal for a part with multiple experiences, the speaker basically told folks what to say to punch up their story. I would not go along with it and so he let it go. Then he attempted to put me on the spot on the stage during the assembly part. I gave the first part of my experience. He stated (or misstated) the next part of my story and then asked my to share what happened next. I started off with saying "Well, Br. Speaker that's not quite how it went" and then corrected him and continued with the experience.
LOL...I got a talking to from the speaker and circuit overseer when we all went backstage after the part. My reply was "Did you want me lie like the other Sisters did in their experience? What, CO, you didn't know? Several of us were asked to change our stories to the point of lying. My conscience would not allow me to go along with it and I told Br. Speaker that at the rehearsal."
I was never asked to do a part, on the assembly or at the local congregation, again.
BTW, its not just limited to assembly parts...many experiences in their literature are also twisted beyond what actually happened.
I have/had a good friend who refused to lie from the assembly platform, as well. They tried to spring the changes/lies on him on Saturday morning (The CO was fine with what was planned, the DO wanted specific OTHER things said).
The dumbass DO had to scramble to find someone else to lie for him with just a few hours notice because he just couldn't handle the fact that this guy was already prepared with what he had to say and wouldn't lie for the Borg. This is an important point, I think. Rather than just say, "oh go ahead with what you have, then. I'm sure it's an encouraging experience as it is," this power-mad geezer gave my friend a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum and my buddy walked off the set. It was MORE IMPORTANT to the DO that someone be willing to lie for the Borg than it was to have a good, solidly rehearsed, polished experience given.
I think the jerk is dead now. Sad what kind of tool the Borg made him into.
