WT Elders school: The WTS has progressed from just plain stupid to dangerously stupid

by sir82 111 Replies latest jw friends

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  ÁrbolesdeArabia

  The Watchtower elders are as capable as Job's three comforters, they were at their finest before they opened up their mouth. In ancient times it was very common for your friends to sit back and show solidarity in sack cloth and ashes. Job's friends screwed up once they opened their mouth, could they listen without making harsh judgements or speculated why "God has left you and how you can become God's friend again?"

  Job was absolute he was in the right, and nobody (even God) was going to prove him diferent. Job's friends were poor with soothing words, Job brings that up frequently "Oh how much help you troublesome people are!"!

  The Watchtower through elder's meetings has made it clear, we were not to become overly involved with "mental" ones! I am surprised the Org allowed this video, our CO was trying to get the message across, "depressed and inactive ones burn up to many resources, much better spent on highly product publishers and pioneers, and potentail recruits with mental illness", Sorry, that's the way it is!
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  whathappened

  This video is crazy. This woman is so terribly distraught that she wants to kill herself but, is easily placated by a couple of verses from the book of Job. This organisation thinks we women are just run totally by emotion and have feathers in our heads where the brains should be. It's disgusting and an insult to womankind.
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  featherimiss

  I think this video is very dangerous because it make the elders think that 5 minutes of scripture will heal 1 years of grief....or many years of grief, depression, marital problems, etc.

  I know this type of thinking was the reason why I suffered from depression. I carried so much guilt and shame because reading the WT, going out in field service and never missing a meeting did not instantly make me feel better.
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  daringhart13

  They are literally the dumbest people on earth
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  ÁrbolesdeArabia

  If you want to be cynical, you could use the facts that most people who are thinking about suicide don't feel their thoughts are irrational. The pain they are suffering is real, and downplaying their thoughts as irrational is not the right approach. Job was not irrational by any means, his sharp remarks with deep insights into the humanity of his time, are by no means irrational. We need to accept that life can be ugly at times, and I myself have wondered what it would be like during my low points, if the world would be better off. I did not share these thoughts during my happy period of elderhood, I was too busy helping others to worry about my life as I allowed my family to dwindle spiritually at the expense of "users".

  I had a chance to discuss Job's remarks with a frequent graduate from Moody's Bible School, the area we both agreed with about the Book Of Job, is how smart Job was, how well he handled losing everything that mattered, and we both concluded Job was not insane or irrational!
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  Scott77

  	And you would just blow such a remark off to the winds if YOU were the pastor? People don't really threaten suicide all that often in my experience...I take it seriously when somebody does.
  	james_woods

  If someone threaten to commit suicide or hurt self, some states have law that states the counselor must report to law enforcement authorities with immediate effect. I donot know if JWs are tought to do that.

  Scott77
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  Aussie Oz

  Without hijacking a thread, to me, this illustrates that the WT and JWs will go to ground and get more controlling in the years to come. They will shut up most of the public front and control the flock by the drones who will mimick the sick little instruction data they are fed.

  It's beyond big brother, it's turning into ''stepford elders''...

  oz
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  ziddina

  "... However, the "gallant" elders, showing the "Society approved" way to handle such a shepherding call, handled it something like this (not direct quotes, but the gist):

  "We know how difficult this is. When we are upset, it is easy for irrational thoughts to occur. Did you know that Job experienced wild thoughts when he was suffering? Look at Job [chapter][verse] (something about how his life was detestable to him). Also Job [chapter][verse] (something about how he wished he had never been born).

  "So you see, even Job had these irrational thoughts. Yet he was determined to be an integrity keeper, and you can do the same."

  There was a lot more "filler" in there, but that's the idea.

  The "gallant" shepherding call ends with the sister drying her tears, realizing she forgot to set out cookies for the brothers, and going off to get them. I.e., all is wonderful and back to normal now." Sir82, OP

  Isn't it amusing? Technologically they're trying to catch up with the latest methods of communication and indoctrination [videos, DVDs, downloadable magazines from their re-designed website]...

  But mentally they're still back in the 1950's....
• 

  ÁrbolesdeArabia

  Zid, "

  But mentally they're still back in the 1950's....

  They still don't know how many JWs suffer from depression, one shepherding call with a very depressed sister.

  Brother (Pseudo Shrink) told this sister who was suffering badly with her high point of hypomania "Just think about something else, don't think about the bad things in your life! Read the Bible and pray more, brother told others he was a self-made shrink! She told me later she had sat by some cliffs after our visit thinking about driving off the cliffs into a lake. Brother Shrink was so proud of his advice, he jokes saying "I should send her a bill, how much do shrinks make, "$300-$500 a hour depending on how good and rich your client base is!" That would work!

  Back to hypomania's high points, it's when the brain goes into a repetitive thought mode, the person experiencing this eurphoric state just craves someone to talk to, even if this means "hooking up with a stranger at a bar for sex, it's not the sex they desire, it's the companionship to sit back and talk all night with anyone, just to get their thoughts into the air. Silence drives suffers crazy, they need their medications and a listening ear (counseling, a good friend who can sit back and listen for hours of weird thoughts)
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  ziddina

  Wow, ArbolesdeArabia...

  Back when I'd just exited the cult and was seeing a therapist who unfortunately hadn't had much experience with cult survivors - it was the early '80's and the Jim Jones tragedy had just awakened peoples' awareness of destructive cult craziness a few years earlier...

  Anyway, she wasn't being as helpful as I would have liked, so I started making suggestions TO her about possible ways to re-program cult-mangled brains.

  One of the suggestions I made, was to have the person get a tape recorder, sit down and write down all the good things about themselves that they could think of, and then TAPE their own voice saying those good things, over and over - my hope was that the sound of one's own voice saying GOOD things would help over-ride the negative "parent" tapes - and cult-leader 'tapes' - imprinted in the cult-survivor's mind.

  I wonder - could that help a hypomania sufferer??