Does anyone remember a district overseer Joe Slaiman?

by stuckinarut2 72 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  3rdgen

  This thread is "happifying".
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  jysjw

  Hi everyone,
  Thank you all for your kind expressions and encouragement I received through this forum and through my private email.

  I joined this forum two days ago to set the record straight regarding the rumours I read on the internet about me.

  Now that I have done that, I am planning to make this my last posting. I will be emailing the 20-page document to all who requested it through my private email. If you want a copy please do not request it through this forum but through my email [email protected] it's not a letter, it's a document. It has no addressee. It does not begin with dear... and end with my name and signature. One has to be careful  and "wise" when dealing with an organisation that is governed by strict rules.

  It's not anti-Society. It's a paper, a treatise or document quoting only Society's publications and the New World Translation summarising my conclusion why I could no longer accept the Bible as inspired and unerring and, hence, my reason for leaving the organisation. I composed it that way deliberately to avoid needless and unproductive confrontation.

  However, I did hand it to them personally, face to face, so there will be no doubt who it came from.

  Just in passing, I was in Sydney, Cecil Hills area at the time and I have two brothers who are still in the organisation serving as elders, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne.

  My 2 bobs worth conclusion, for my part, is that this life is all that we have and its too damn short at that! So let's not waste it in bitterness, hate groups and empty disputes. Let's move on and enjoy what is left of it in contentment and happiness.
  Goodbye.
  Joe Slaiman
• 

  steve2

  Thanks Joe, your words are well received. What strikes me about many who have left and are leaving is they do see many positive options. Forums such as this one can affirm the need some have to 'talk through' the issues that have troubled them and to make sense of whst they've been through.

  You allude to the old canard of the Watchtower that those who leave are bitter which is undoubtedly true in some cases. But it is a bit of a cheap shot at the complexity of the human response. You'll know that individuals can leave the organization but not its amorphous influence.  Forums like this one can help them but, yes, for many there is no such need.

  It was great that you were able to drop by. Best, steve.
• 

  JW GoneBad

  Joe:  'for my part, is that this life is all that we have and its too damn short at that! So let's not waste it in bitterness, hate groups and empty disputes. Let's move on and enjoy what is left of it in contentment and happiness.'

  In your many years as an Elder, C.O. and finally a D.O. without a doubt you saw more than your share of individuals whose lives were ruined in one way or another by this organization, an organization that you, sad to say, are still enslaved to.  

  Individuals and families have been crushed and/or destroyed by WT's no-blood policy, disfellowshipping, disassociation and shunning practices as well as by their dislike for higher education to name just a few.   And then there are many an individual whose only wrong was to question a doctrine or teaching resulting in discipline and humiliation.  And no doubt you probably can recall numerous members yourself who suffered and continue to suffer from WT's abuse, many under your own watch as an Elder. C.O. and D.O.

  With the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands who have suffered and continue to suffer, and the many who will suffer in the future, the many who have committed suicide, many of them our own family and loved ones, you have the audacity to ask us to bury the hatchet, endure the pain and suffering and agony and as you say...'move on and enjoy what is left of it in contentment and happiness'.

  Just remember how many of these lives were screwed under your own watch and with your approval!  You owe them!!!
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  jysjw

  This is for Simon. Thank you for providing me with the platform to clear my name, at least in the minds of those who really count.

   You are doing a great job but my time here is up. I might pop in the future, one never knows.

   Cheers!

   Joe
• 

  stuckinarut2

  All the best Joe!

  Please see that by far most on here appreciate your input and contributions here on the forum.

  Cheers!

  Stuckinarut2 
• 

  mgmelkat

  I remember them!
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  Simon

  Thanks Joe, feel free to pop back whenever 
• 

  ToesUp

  Thank you Joe. You have a great attitude. You are right...life is short. Go live it in happiness and contentment. Life IS good!!!!  
• 

  Island Man

  jysjw you said: 
  

  "That is why no judicial committee was called for and no action was taken by the Society."

  Then you later said:
  
  

  "When I left I gave the Society, out of respect, a 20-page document explaining my reason for leaving. I left because, after a thorough re-examination of the Bible, I could no longer accept it as inspired by a super natural being or diety. Consequently, I could no longer accept the god of the Bible or any other so-called god for that matter."

  So let me get this straight: rejecting the society as God's spirit directed organization while still believing in the bible and in God, gets you into a judicial committee where he you are disfellowshipped for apostasy. But a JW who becomes an atheist -  who rejects faith in God and the inspiration of the bible - is not disfellowshipped as an apostate?. ???
  What does this very inconsistent way of dealing with apostates reveal about the organization? Do they really see apostasy as christians rejecting christianity? Or do they see it as rejecting Watchtower? Which is more important to the society - faith in God or faith in Watchtower? How can a JW be acted against judicially for rejecting Watchtower but let off scot free for rejecting belief in God? I think your experience plainly illustrates that the JW organization is cult more concerned with faith in its leaders than faith in God.