WT Says O.K. To Visit With Disfellowshipped Family Members...Discreetly!

by JW GoneBad 48 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  baltar447

  I think the OP got his wires crossed. Thought it was to far fetched...
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  baltar447

  I think the OP got his wires crossed. Thought it was to far fetched...
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  AlphaMan

  The Governing Body will ease up and allow JW's to associate discreetly with DF'd relatives only when they can come up with a scripture to support making money off the loving arrangement. Now matter what they do or say now......it's a cult.
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  Bobcat

  Since this thread has run its course, I'll make a comment about Friday's program:

  It was interesting to see how they wove several thoughts into the whole day's program -

  • Pioneering - every experience, skit, etc (bar none), had pioneering as its end goal. In every case the experience or skit ended well when the participants either got back into pioneering or started pioneering. And any drama or setback experienced threatened one's pioneering. Everybody interviewed was a pionner.

  • The Kingdom's 100th year of operation & 1914 were woven into talks & comments throughout the day. Yet nothing was said to prove or backup the chronology related to 1914. (Not that they can.) Once or twice it was mentioned that the 20th century was a century of warfare (mentioning 100 million or so killed in warfare during that century). But no proof offered that this was anything different from past centuries.

  • The Governing Body. This was interesting how they did this. There were, of course, comments throughout the whole day about how "the slave" has done this or provided that. There were also a couple of talks via tie-in by GB member David Splane from East Rutherford NJ. (There was also a tied-in talk by a brother introduced as a 'GB helper.' His somewhat un-fluent or halting speaking manner gave me the impression of a man who was part of a harem, or a professional brown-noser. Maybe that's not the best way to describe it. But there was something about him . . .) But anyways, there was a part on a talk about "thrones" (God's, Jesus', and "the anointed's"). Part of this talk was about how we could trust "the anointed." There were a couple of interviews where brothers remembered how they knew various GB members and what down-to-earth and loving brothers they were. There were no other examples of "anopinted" except for GB members. And of course, it was assumed without doubt that they were "anointed." There was also an interview with a CO's wife late in the afternoon where she recalled the July 2013 WT "new light" about "Feeding the Many by the Few" and she plainly stated that "the slave" was the GB and how we must accept that, and how these eight (or seven?) were responsible for feeding 8 million JWs and the rest of the world (spiritually).

  Like I said, just from a propaganda standpoint, it was interesting to see how they wove those three ideas into the day as a whole. Obviously, the individual parts are analyzed to bring about or achieve an overall goal that is bigger than any individual part. As some have mentioned elsewhere, there was also some crass emotionalism in some of the video presentations and the afternoon drama. (Yes, there was a short live drama in the afternoon.)
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  jgnat

  "We need to take a stand towards ... relatives who are pressuring us to miss meetings for family events"

  That's right. Like weddings, funerals, and parents in the hospital dying. These are all examples where I've seen Witnesses "take a stand".

  I call on all Witness mothers - and fathers - to be bold and overtly love their children.
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  Quarterback

  Bobcat, that was very good listening skill. So, JWGonebad is right. The word discreetly was used at your location. I missed it, apparently. It would be interesting to see how the GB interprets this.
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  Quarterback

  Oh...my mistake. The "Discreetly", word was used in connection to the Non-Witness relatives. (I reread your comment to get that straight). Oh well, that's good clarification, and always good to get a 2nd set of ears to hearing what was said. Thanks....Good thread.
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  the girl next door

  The symposium made no reference to DFd or DAd family members.
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  Captain Obvious

  Wasnt mentioned at mine. Well it could have been, but I wasnt listening much. Just passing the time
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  Bobcat

  Quarterback said:

  Bobcat, that was very good listening skill. So, JWGonebad is right. The word discreetly was used at your location. I missed it, apparently. It would be interesting to see how the GB interprets this.

  It helped that I was tipped off by this thread. My wife and I sat in the upper regions of the arena (due to size of the crowd). The lighting up there was very poor. More suited to watching a game than following along in one's Bible. So I concentrated on analyzing the program and where it was headed rather than try to look up the verses they often asked you to look up. Many of the verses they used I already knew (and often was able to tell my wife which verse to look up before the speaker said). I think I pay attention and analyze what I hear at the KH and assemblies far more than the average JW does. Of course, my form of critical analysis is not WT approved. It takes some effort to try to listen and not get mentally annoyed at their propaganda methods.

  It was also interesting to watch the program on the big screen TVs. Once you got used to that you rarely looked at the actual stage. This arena had two big screens on either side of the stage and also big screens on the score-board(?) that hung directly over the ball-court.