Things that the WTS could never get away with putting in print but have free reign to say verbally
Here’s my summary of the DC after recently having the veil lifted from my eyes RE the WTS
Look for the alcohol talk. It’s a keeper!!!
Part 2/6
Jehovah’s Glory Revealed to Humble Ones
The whole talk can be summed up in two sentences. We have to be meek. Humility takes the sting out of reproof.
A great illustration was given of how a good Father doesn’t try to intimidate his son into obedience, but rather, the father deals lovingly with his son. The hypocrisy of the WTS saying this instead of actually following this advice is just to apparent to me now.
Symposium: The Prophesy of Amos, His Message for Our Day
All three parts were rather boring, especially since I was waiting for some "new light" to be revealed to us. All three talks focused on scriptures in Amos.
A couple of highlights were:
during the talk it was mentioned that at Amos 7:13 it says how BETHEL was the center for false worship of calves. I would like to think that I would have picked up on this great line even before my awakening. I wonder how many others in the audience picked up on this.
The last two lines in the third part of the symposium were the best.
"The society would never encourage Reg Pio’s, Traveling Overseers, or missionaries to quit their full time service and go back to the ‘normal life’."
I wonder if by the WTS mentioning this that some elders are giving just such advice to Reg Pio’s. Hey, many are having a hard time making ends meet, can you blame them?
And the last guilt trip of the talk; "Jehovah has set us free from Babylon the Great. Are we using our freedom to further God’s work? Remember, we are accountable before God."
The WTS then has the gaul to apply the following scripture to the audience:
*** Rbi8 Amos 3:2 ***
2 That is why I shall hold an accounting against YOU for all YOUR errors.If I was still a faithful R&F JW, this would make me feel so guilty for only turning in my 10+- hours a month. It is never enough for them. NEVER! I can see now how Jesus, in saying that the "truth will set you free", or that "his yoke is kindly and his load is light", has absolutely NOTHING to do with the WTS’ yoke. The WTS are a bunch of slave drivers cracking the whip on us every chance they get. The WTS quite likely has more laws than the Pharisees did.
Avoid the Snare of Alcohol
Oh, this had some quotables! It was nice too because I wasn’t expecting the WTS to give up so many goodies in this talk. I thought it would be rather boring.
"Alcohol abuse can manifest itself without all of the typical signs of drunkenness."Oooohhhh, what a great line. So just because you are not throwing up, or you don’t register .01 on a breathalyser test, or just because you don’t have a hangover the next day doesn’t mean we can’t DF your weak ass out of the organization for being drunk.
"Our heart can deceive us as our tolerance gets built up in BORDERLINE drinking."Yes, our heart may be deceived, but the elders will not be so easily fooled I guess.
And here comes the trophy quote boys and girls:
"Where is the line between enough and too much alcohol? Here is a guiding principle. Any drinking of alcohol that impairs your practical thinking is too much." "This will differ from person to person."And that says it all. The WTS now has publicly stated a rule that can now be used to DF people. And who decides if a person’s practical thinking has been impaired. Well the final judge isn’t the individual or even Jehovah. It will be three men in a JC. To me this is as being grounds for DF’ing is similar to a case of "whiplash" as being used to sue for money in courts. It’s impossible to prove or disprove, and your are always guilty until proven innocent. It’s impossible to prove someone doesn’t have whiplash. And it’s impossible to prove someone hasn’t lost their practical thinking ability in many cases. It’s really subjective. But now this rule will be used in JC’s to kick the unwanted out of the organization. Great, isn’t it?
You know what, we hear that the WTS has rules on movies, hair dye, denim, TV, etc, because these things were not around in Jesus’ day, so we need guidelines from the WTS. WTF about alcohol? It’s been around forever. Nowhere in the bible were such guidelines regarding alcohol ever given as the WTS sees fit above. What gives the WTS the right to add to the bible? "Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom." Enough said. Stop adding to the Bible!
And the WTS didn’t stop there. We were told that we should "avoid open bars because it’s too much of a temptation for some." And we are not to have any alcohol before a theocratic gathering. So if you have a nice pasta meal before a Thursday meeting, pass on the wine, go for the Kool-Aid. I have heard the latter before, but it still makes me mad.
But the winner quote is; "Total abstinence is not too high a price to pay for life in God’s New world if we have a problem."
And who decides that we have a problem with alcohol? Apparently, the WTS does.
It is interesting to note that the above guidelines were never ONCE applied specifically to Alcoholics or those who have an Alcohol Addiction. I’m sure these too are a problem to the WTS. But anyone can have a problem with alcohol if they only have a busy body in the congregation and a trigger-happy elder body.
"Oh, Brother X had three beers at the my nieces’ wedding. And later that night he was dancing out of control. I think he was drunk."So long Brother X. I hope you have been in service, at the meetings, and commenting regularly. Otherwise your ass is out the door because no one wants to put their neck on the line for a borderline JW.
Sad.
And I have been guilty myself of shunning some friends of mine because they were silently "shunned" by the elders. It was known to shun these even though they were regular at meetings. And they were not DF’d.
"Big Brother is watching you."The last two talks were uneventful. One was the map release, the other was:
Relying on Jehovah in a Time of DistressThere was one very sad experience in this part.
An older sister was giving an experience of her trials. I believe she was Reg Pio’ing. She has health problems. She has no kids [probably because of the WTS previous "encouragements" to not have kids because the "end was very soon"], She’s had surgery, then she went through depression. Her husband Jack is dead. But she thanks Jehovah in prayer for his beautiful EARTHLY organization.
OMG! Loyal to death. She still thinks that the "end is very soon." And all I could think of was this;
"To bad she won’t see jack..." , pun intended.End of day. I’m wired to the hilt. I want to share all of my newfound observations, but to who? My loyal wife, who has no idea that I’m "apostate", and I talk while driving out of the DC for the first day. She had a hard time concentrating she said, and she’s usually pretty attentive at DC’s. Maybe’s there’s hope yet...
It was interesting comparing my take on this first day compared to my past attendances at DC’s. Not to pat myself on the back [or to point too much blame at myself, however you want to look at it] but I was usually pretty good about paying attention and taking notes in the past. But man, this year I must have taken more notes than I ever have in the past. And I had almost full attentiveness throughout the 3 days. I just couldn’t believe as I sat there that I have never really picked up on all the BS, the lies, the scare tactics, the morbid way in which the WTS without hesitation looks forward to everyone who isn’t a JW killed at Armageddon, the teaching of hate of other people, and the outlandish comments from speakers while on the platform at DC’s. I guess in the past I have thought that some things were odd, but this time around the veil had been lifted.
You know how we used to say as JW’s that being in field service was good for, if for nothing else, if only to prove to ourselves that have the truth. For me I feel that by going to that DC only solidified the fact that the WTS DOES NOT have the truth. It was sad though to see faces of friends who by this time next year will have turned on me because of the policy of hate by the WTS towards anyone who doesn’t fall in line with their every changing teaching.
I’ll post more on Day two and three later this week. If you made it this far in my novel, thanks for reading and for letting me vent, it feels very therapeutic.