by minimus 29 Replies latest jw friends
I don't know if anyone has brought this point up in this forum (I bet it has) but could one of the reasons the WTS is downsizing is to reduce the amount of people coming into contact with "sensative" information ? It would seem a logical step to me.
m0nk3y
I think that many felt that they could possibly "reform" the organization. Many Bethelites are and were good people. They tried to make changes to benefit people. Ed Dunlap and Ray Franz come to mind, here. They certainly were not perfect but they weren't idiots in my opinion. They were decent God-fearing men that got kicked out of Bethel, the place they called their home. And for anyone their age to get thrown out of their homes, to lose all their friends and family, to not be able to have real skills in a modern world, well, my heart goes out to them. I also feel bad for true believers that went to jail because they accepted a belief that later would change regarding compulsory service. Many good people on this board have dealt with issues that never quite sat right with them, but they plugged along in false hope. After a while the real truth usually clicks in us.
minimus,
: Farkel, Do you think Ray Franz is an idiot?
Red herring. Anyone at Bethel can have access to the internet to verify what they are experiencing in that hell-hole is not unique, but the norm. Ray never had that benefit. He left in 1981 or so and was forced out.
I'm quite sure old-time Bethelites are well-aware that their religion is being internationally exposed thousands of times a day on the Net and elsewhere. And they've known this for years, I believe.
They could have left years ago, but they didn't. They deserve exactly what they've got.
I don't back down one inch from my original assertion.
Farkel
pisstoff,
: It had to have been before he did the research for the Aid book, as the legend goes (i think).
I don't agree. Ray specifically said that he had Carte Blanche to write it the way it is when it came to the Aid book. When Ray did all the necessary research to "verify" the 607 BC date, and found it could not be done, then another little light bulb went off in his brain. I believe that was at least ONE of his major epiphanies while at Bethel, if not the first.
Farkel
The internet. Red herring?? Bethelites and the internet. Ray never had the benefit of the internet and was forced out. Anyone that has access to internet---they're responsible now. Pre-internet = not idiot-----Post-internet= idiot....Oh, that's what you said. OK glad you didn't back down.
Those Bethelites in their 40's, 50's and older, don't have much of a choice. They are stuck. Even if they have a skill, who's going to hire an old man?
Hey!!!! I'm 47. It ain't THAT old. Beryl
I'm quite sure old-time Bethelites are well-aware that their religion is being internationally exposed thousands of times a day on the Net and elsewhere. And they've known this for years, I believe.
Well, speaking for myself, I was too beaten into submission to look on the Internet to see if the WTS was being exposed. When I finally checked, I only took a cursory glance, and ran in fear. To the liquor store.
I have to say that I allowed myself to be conned into submission.
That is not my nature. I'm usually a rebel for any cause.
Beryl
Having been there for four years, I know -- fact NOT opinion here-- that there's a lot of cynicism amongst large segments of the work force about the gap between what the Society says for public consumption and the real hidden agendas lurking behind every policy change. This certainly was true of the real reasons for the change in baptism vows and the change to voluntary donations.
Many, if not most, Bethelites sniicker contemptuously at the rank and file who swallow such fantasies as 1918, 1919, the Daniel and Isaiah books, etc. whole.
Pre-internet = not idiot-----Post-internet= idiot....
Hahahaha
Min, Anyone able to read at the third grade level knows the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation and it's private label religion, Jehovah's Witnesses, do not have access to accurate information or truth.
Most of the efforts of the Publishing Corporation and it's agents, the traveling sales managers called Circuit Servants aka, Overseers, and the unpaid local agents called elders, are directed at support and growth in spite of overwhelming evidence of un-thuth . . . . error in every level of the organization.
The sin of "questioning" is nothing more than the acknowledging that the error exists. Apostasy is speaking of the error.
Every Witness functions with awareness of the error just under the surface. The Bethel workers are aware of the error plus they have first hand evidence of the secular nature of the Publishing Corporation and the dishonesty of word and deed. They are to the Society what the SS was to Hitler.
Ask yourself . . . . Are they part of the problem? or part of the solution?
the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation and it's private label religion, Jehovah's Witnesses
lol...for some reason I found that pretty funny.
