by FusionTheism 88 Replies latest jw friends
I want all my wasted life back! I want the education, that I wasn't allowed to have, so I could have had a good job, and a landing pad, when I retire, instead of wondering, in the shap I find myself in, how am I going to make it another 11 years, before SS will kick in! I already know the answer, I am losing the feelings in both feet and legs! None if this would have been a problem, had it nit been for the jw world!
Dwain
Here is what Eric Hoffer said about the so called religions that the True Believers believed in:
"the effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from it's meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine however profound and sublime will be effective unless it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth. It must be the one word from which all things are and all things speak."
There in a nutshell is the power of an organization like the WTBTS.
The Society have been master's of 'certitude'............... they say it and the thinking is done. Until the thinking has to change.
By shunning they have coerced their followers into obedience. Instead of love they use fear.
JW's have had their families torn apart and their private medical decision,s corrupted by a GB with a HS education.....if that........ and bible scholars who were and are a laughingstock.
BTW, if you ever find yourself in a Judicial Committee, I suggest you try demonstrating your "repentance" using the language the WTBTS uses when it "admits its mistakes." See how that works for you.
Oubliette, you have an unforgettable way with words. The above excerpt from your earlier post on this thread is one of your most compelling statements ever!
How anyone can look at the GB's so-called "improvements" and see humility astonishes me.
The GB invariably uses pompous language and niftily distances itself from its own role in having promoted the very "truths" it now deletes, spinning statements so that it emerges as truly humble.
Even if people allow a spiritual fulfillment of the slave mentioned in Matthew 24:45 - 47, that slave as embodied in the members of the governing body, is neither "faithful" nor "discreet".
I get what you are saying, but you have to understand that many people here have been hurt by this religion, and when I say hurt, I mean our lives were changed forever in a very negative way. We gave years to this religion, years we will never get back. We have lost our families and friends and we have been treated as "diseased apostates". Then we realized everything we believed was a lie. This religion lied about their history of failed date predictions, they covered up child sex abuse and they broke up families with their practice of shunning.
What you see as changes for the better we see as phoney attempts to appear to improve, and only because they are losing members, and more importantly the money those people contributed. When this religion acknowledges that they covered up child sex abuse, when they admit their failed date predictions, when they stop treating women as second class citizens and when they stop breaking up families by their shunning, then we might have a discussion about improvements. Until then it's all just window dressing.
FusionTheism - "What exactly is it that you WANT the Society to do?"
Come clean and apologize, renounce their claims and authority, and pack it in.
Fusion Theism, there have been some very clear answers to your thoughtful questions. I guess it is a bit on the unfair side to tar everyone posting here with the same brush.
Many of the answers to your questions in the OP acknowledge the changes in the organization but appear to differ with your view that they these changes are always "improvements".
Of interest to me is what I hear being said within the organization itself - but at a very muted level - regarding these changes. Unlike on this forum, the rank and file Witnesses are not free to comment - unless it is 100% supporting their GB.
steve2 - "Of interest to me is what I hear being said within the organization itself - but at a very muted level - regarding these changes."
Ditto.
fusiontheism
here are some more changes
no more two day circuit assemblies - all one day nowadays
when the CO visits only two meetings a week instead of three
more leg room at kingdom halls and wider aisles (toilets have become really tiny though - this is quite funny if you have big boobs or a large arse at some KHs - make sure you do all your toilet stuff at home)
I believe one of the major problems with the WTBTS is its non-transparent nature concerning its beginnings and this has been kept from hidden from those who become JWs.
Another problem has been its unwillingness to REALLY be different from the rest of Christendom in pushing false images and portrayals of Adam, Eve, Angels, Jesus, The Prophets, The Apostles and others as White people. If such persons have never been seen, then they should not be portrayed in any race among the human family. Besides, Christ is NOT flesh and blood anymore. He ascended and is invisible at present.
The WTBTS is stingy with regards providing help and support for youths (especially minority youth). While the WTBTS spends millions purchasing and acquiring real estate, it does very little for those members in dire need financially.
The Governing Body is NOT racially representative of its membership and that tradition is being tightly maintained.
The "Organization" and "The Bible" has more prominence than Christ. Don't believe me! Check out the official website of JWs and count the number of times "The Bible" is mentioned as opposed to Christ. There is a link that says "Bible Teachings." My God! I did not know that the Bible was a Teacher. I thought "Christ" was our Teacher. One would think that the link would say "Christs Teachings." Yet, it is a book that is given more props than our ONLY Teacher.
The WTBTS has lied about the origin the 1914 teaching. It did not originate with the WTBTS. It actually came from another religious movement called The Second Adventist. A movement Charles Taze Russell was a member of and even a contributing editor of its magazine. When he broke away from that movement, he "borrowed" that teaching. So was the Second Adventist Movement back then "a" or "the' Faithful and Discreet Slave?
Charles Taze Russell had many writings, yet none of them are made available to JWs. Why? Because Charles Taze Russell would sound like an apostate by Watch Tower definition today.
The organization hails itself as "the truth" and those within it are "in the truth." This is blasphemous because Christ is the truth, not an organization.
The Most High God will deal with the "voices" not doing his will and teaching the truth. As the Pharisee Gamaliel said at Acts 5:38-39:
Yet, the WTBTS and ALL religious organizations claiming to speak as from God are to be tested. The problem is that the WTBTS feels that it is above such examination. (1 John 4:1)I say to YOU, Do not meddle with these men, but let them alone; (because, if this scheme or this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, YOU will not be able to overthrow them;) otherwise, YOU may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.
