Don't want to stumble anyone! (page 2)

refiners fire

Hey Beck.
I had the dubious honour of bein the first in my congo to get "publicly reproved". The new ruling on public reproof had just been revealed. Guess they wanted to test it out.
anyhoo, later they decided that my case didnt warrant public reproof after all.
THe elders wrote a letter of apology to my FATHER.
Meanwhile...refiner is an ostracized PARIAH. NOone said a word to me for months!
Aint it lovely??

I was at a party once at the Hoag and Bosch residence where an elder took his teenage kids home because a Fleetwood Mac record was on the stereo.
Would you classify him as a turd?

cellomould

I was told by a friend at a beach bbq that this would have been a farewell party for me.... but as I was going away to a university, nevermind!....Don't want the friends to think its ok to attend college....

Oh he's been appointed an MS? How nice! Maybe he didn't learn anything useful in college after all!

cellomould
Servant responsible for subscriptions to Scientific American

"In other words, your God is the warden of a prison where the only prisoner is your God." Jose Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

ozziepost

What about weetbix...sanitarium is owned by SDA...we were supporting babylon the great...UNLESS...we changed over to vitawheats! Pathetic!

Oh yes! I'd forgotten that! LOL

Cheers,
Ozzie

"If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

- Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress

TheStar

I once had a pioneer tell me that she didn't attend most gatherings because most always played The Twist and it was in black and white in an old watchtower that The Twist was not a "clean" dance. She even pulled out the watchtower for me. I remember thinking "how absurd". She brought it home by saying "I just can't see Jesus doing that, can you?" The funny thing of it all is that at the gathering in question, they didn't end up playing the twist so as not to stumble her but they did play the long version of the Macarena. hehehe.... The elders of course heard it from her later when she found out what the Macarena was about. She came around weeks later with her newspaper clipping and such explaining the song.

Stumbling business is crazy. Anyone can get offended about ANYTHING! You never know what to do around new JWs you meet, for fear of stumbling... It's always something that has made me uncomfortable... You can't really be yourself until you know that this person will not get offended or stumbled by who you are.

Shear craziness.

Xander

After our meetings...we weren't even allowed to listen to the radio on our way home..we had to reflect on the talks blah blah...not when I was a kid either...this was when I was a grown up lol.

HAH - yes, I remember this. Didn't really help. 'Reflect on the talks' indeed! *retch* It did give me and my brother a lot of time to fight in the back seat, though!

We even got a 'special needs' part on it. They put four chairs up on the stage in a 'car' arrangement and had one of the elders families sit on them pretending to drive home (dad was driving, of course). They demonstrated how easy it was to discuss the highlights of the meeting, and how upbuilding and *EXCITING* it could be. *retch*

And, yeah, stumbling....uggg...

Sometimes, I swear, the elders hired a group of people in the hall whose sole purpose was to run around and be stumbled at EVERYTHING, so that if an unexpected need to DF someone came up, there would be already available JC ammo.

A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana

out4good3

Stumbling.....Yeah stumbling....

Another catch phrase JWs use to exert complete control over everything you say or do. I once went to a formal gathering a single pioneer sister had organized. Everyone who went was asked to pay a fee to defray some of the cost for setting up what turned out to be a great evening gathering. A week later I was called by that sister and she asked me if I wanted my money back at which point I declined and thanked her for organizing such a nice evening. I often wonder how many people actually took their money back thereby putting that sister in a financial bind. It seems that someone was "stumbled" because they thought it was inappropriate that only those with the financial means could attend and how those without the money were left out in the cold. I think it was more likely that this was initiated by someone who did or did not go but felt that a night of expensive entertainment was somehow due them for free. This was the very last time I'd heard from that sister. Apparently the Elder Police, who attended the gathering BTW, saw fit after to come down on her for "stumbling" others.

Just another of one of the many reasons I left the borg. Tired of the constant guilt tripping and the walking on eggshells around everyone so as not to "stumble" and be "bloodguilty".

Kep

Far Out, I thought this was something unique to us Kiwi's.
I was a musician in the borg and would play at many gatherings through-out the area.
One small town we were preparing to play a waltz and the clown running the evening said that anyone who wanted to dance had to be with either their hubby/wife or a family member as it was inapproriate for unmarried couples to be that close together.
Another time I played we were counseled for playing an instrumental with the tune from the "Benny Hill Show". The music was fine, but as it was associated with a rather debauched TV show it was frowned upon.
It was difficult to please everybody.
Some people spend all their time looking for faults in others...
By the way Beck, I do have some bandcamp stories lol.

Scully

When I was 17 or 18, I bought a copy of "Glamour" magazine because I wanted to get my hair cut and liked one of the photographs. I thought it was better to pay for the magazine and take it to the beauty salon so the stylist would know what I was talking about, and even better than ripping the picture out of the magazine on the rack.

One sister, well known for her propensity to verbalize her opinions, saw the magazine on the kitchen counter because I had been showing the picture to my mother, who happened to like the hairstyle too. The sister, not even considering that there might be a valid reason for purchasing a magazine like that, told me that it was a tool of Satan and that if I didn't stop buying those magazines, I would end up leaving The Truth™. I told her to mind her own business.

The magazine also had some nice recipes in it. So next time she visited, I made a lovely dessert with one of the recipes in the magazine. When she paid me a compliment on the recipe and asked me if she could have the recipe, I took out the latest copy of "Glamour" and showed it to her. She couldn't have looked more horrified than if she realized I had just given her a bowl of blood-pudding to eat. ROFLMAOOOOOOO it was priceless!!

Love, Scully

Beck_Melbourne

Hey Ozzie...what about the Salvos...heaven forbid if you were ever caught walking into babylon the greatest's second hand mart lol.

Kep...yeah those married couple only dancers...*retch* as Xander would say...speaking of congregation orchestras...I knew a young brother (approx 18 yrs old) who used to play the piano at the Kingdom Hall...and he stumbled some individuals because he jazzed up the kingdom melodies...they thought it not the time or the place for him to be playing with a bit of a 'tading ding' at the end of the song LOL.

Xander...the 'Stumbling In' patrol exists...they usually consist of new ones seeking a perfect world here on earth...elders wives (i can see them now with hand on hips, finger shaking)...people who don't have enough to do except scrutinise other people's choices...and people who are doing more in service then u are...usually they are walking from door to door talking about other people in the congregation!!

refiners fire..yup I would call them turds...in fact I would call them the finest grade...still warm in fact! I was one of the first to experience the shunning before you get baptised...ohhhh yes...they used to do this. I was NEVER a publisher as a kid...I left (thrown out of) home and moved in with my boyfriend. We were 'disassociated'... he was also raised in the truth. Apparently they used to disassociate ones growing up in the truth if they didnt become witnesses...and we were shunned and treated as though we had been baptised. How about that!! Only 16 yrs old...kicked out of home..forced to move in with my boyfriend...forced to get married so that my family would love me again...it sux! Some years later new light dissolved the disassociation before baptism practice...TURDS!

TheStar..I agree...I feel that most of us are on this forum or have left the borg because we have been discouraged so many times...for such petty things. And the twist was one of many songs that zealots would make a big deal about. Rock n roll was another one...and the worst case of all was when a sister asked us to insist that if anyone was to participate in a dance that they be asked "NOT" to shake their hips....especially the sisters...unbelievable!!

Beck

Simon

My brother-in-law actually got up and left during a wedding reception because they had a guy (actually a brother) who did a comedy act like Tommy Cooper (magic tricks going wrong)

He complained that he was "practicing magic and using the power of Satans Demons"

Stupid wanker.

Don't want to stumble anyone!

"If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

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