dirty trick at the meeting re facebook

by Aussie Oz 63 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  troubled mind

  I just think it is funny that the Society is failing so miserably controling it's members from using modern social networks .

  Before I left, Myspace was the big scary network all our children were warned not to be on ......A young twenty year old sister came to my house after a meeting with the Elders on the service committee They had told her she would not be approved as a pioneer until she deleted her myspace account ! She boo hooed on my shoulder ,but finally gave in to them ....now ELDERS in that very same congregation have Facebook accounts !!!

  I always hated it when they would pose questions to the audience like they did as ozzie quoted about . Usually it was about some movie we had seen or book we have read ,then they would offer ,'Well no TRUE Christian would be proud to admit that ...." Just a way to embarrass or manipulate .

  As far as theshepard is concerned ,he seems quite young and naive as to how the organization has operated over the past . What he has been privy to, and what I grew up with in the organization are two worlds apart !
• 

  No Room For George

  That's BS. They don't want to know who your having a conversation with. It's not like they're asking everyone to turn in their list of friends, for god's sake. You are so obsessed with crying "controlling cult" that you don't know what you're talking about. Privacy is a real issue and if you don't realize that, then you're a fool. Does the organization tell us not to associate with non jws? Actually, they don't prohibit it, but encourage us to only have necessary dealings. Is that really so wrong? That's exactly what Jehovah told the Israelites, so your problem is bigger than the organization. You're problem is with Jehovah himself.

  Actually, I agree with you on some of this. I highly doubt any elder was in the audience jotting down the names of those who raised their hands, and yes I'm under the impression that some on this particular thread are a little trigger happy when it comes to seeking an issue worth criticising the WT/JWs on. The brother probably requested those with FB accounts raise their hands for illustrative purposes to emphasize just how prevalant(not necessarily in a negative way) online social networking is.

  I will say however that when you say the WT doesn't prohibit association with non-JWs, and only encourages necessary dealings, you're not taking into account how that gets interpreted by their audience, and that's not an unintentional result either. One of the more recent WT Studies included after school clubs & sports as being tantamount to underreporting one's taxes, or being a liar. For the life of me I'd love for you to demonstrate how such a conclusion is scriptural.
• 

  Stealth

  If facebook can contribute to bringing down totalitarian governments. It can do the same to a minor totalitarian religion. god-speed.
• 

  shamus100

  Exactly, stealth. ;)

  HOWEVER, people in these totalitarian regimes are being repressed and want nothing to do with it. J-Duds like to close their eyes, plug their ears, and scream "LA LA LA LA LA". After all, where else can you feel so important wearing a cheap suit thinking that you are better than everyone else. (everone else being "walking corpses")
• 

  undercover

  Then I used the illustration in the Awake about driving a car and how many are irresponsible drivers, even endangering other drivers. But, I said, it doesn't make it wrong to drive a car if we are wise and careful drivers. I applied this to social networks and told the congregation we were not there to prohibit their use, but only to discuss logical concerns about privacy and associations.

  I like your driving illustration. Just because there are bad drivers doesn't mean we avoid using cars and the highway system.

  But ya know what I've never heard from the platform or assembly? Counsel on the logical concerns on the safety vs the dangers of using automobiles and highways.

  So why the need to point out the obvious about Facebook... that there are dangers in any kind of social contact with people we aren't that familiar with?

  Control. That's why. They know they can't stop people from using FB anymore than they could the Internet. And they're smart enough to not outright condemn it. So they continue to harp on the 'dangers' of it. Keep demonizing it so as to scare their followers... those gullible enough to fall for their propaganda anyway. It has nothing to do with so-called "spiritual endangerment" and has everything to do with free flow of information that isn't screened and censured by the WTS.
• 

  sir82

  They don't want to know who your having a conversation with.

  Poppycock. Of course they do.

  Or does your personal copy of the "Study edition" Watchtower somehow have all the warnings about "apostates" and disfellowshipped family members removed?

  Pull your head out and think for more than 30 seconds.

  Are these 2 developments really coincidental:

  1) Internet / e-mail / facebook makes it possible for virtually any 2 humans on earth to communicate with each other while no one else in the world, not even elders or governing body members, are aware of it

  2) Warnings and "counsel" on the dangers of apostates, avoiding all DF members (including & especially family), and thinly cloaked condemnation of "technology" being made virtually monthly, if not weekly, in WT articles, KM articles, assembly talks, DC talks, CO talks, etc.

  The JW growth curve in the first world has hits its inflection point. Within 3 or 4 years it will be flat once more. Without another 9/11 level event or a global economic meltdown, this time it won't recover. You'll start seeing consistent "negative growth rates" by no later than 2020.

  Once that happens, the warnings against technology will become even more shrill and hyperbolic.
• 

  wallsofjericho

  You are so obsessed with crying "controlling cult" that you don't know what you're talking about.

  now THATs BS

  TheSheppard, I am an active JW mentally out for 5 years now. Don't lie to me. I know this cult all too well. You are in serious denial my friend.

  Typical dichotemy of cult mind control. You are only validating our point
• 

  LongHairGal

  TheSheppard and NRFG:

  You are entitled to your opinion that they (whoever they are) are "not interested" in who you talk to on social media.

  While a particular elder or elders in any one congregation is/are not necessarily actively interested in who anybody in the congregation talks to on social media (and may be on it themselves), the RELIGION is most definitely interested in who people are talking to, associating or communciating with. They do not want anybody to talk to people who are out of the religion and they do not want anybody to find out the dirt on the religion.

  It IS and always has been about control of information and people.
• 

  MinisterAmos

  "Does the organization tell us not to associate with non jws? Actually, they don't prohibit it, but encourage us to only have necessary dealings. Is that really so wrong? That's exactly what Jehovah told the Israelites,

  I thought JWs were Christians? Oh that's right, today must be Monday so they follow Mosaic Law. right? Do you eat shellfish?

  You don't know what you believe until they tell you...
• 

  wallsofjericho

  "Does the organization tell us not to associate with non jws? Actually, they don't prohibit it, but encourage us to only have necessary dealings. Is that really so wrong? That's exactly what Jehovah told the Israelites,

  so your saying that imperfect, non-inspired, sinful humans (Gov Body) telling the rank & file JW to not use social media is analogous to Jehovah directing the Israelites on their social behaviours?

  so the Gov Body = Jehovah?

  wow. Typical cult mind control at its best