Assembly experiences that strech the truth

by karter 39 Replies latest jw friends

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  FedUpJW

  A recent JDub TV show experience was given by someone whom I have known personally for many decades.

  The experience was nothing like what actually happened. I cannot give too many details at present, but suffice it to say that 90% of what was presented as fact was in fact untrue!

  Just yesterday enduring the circuit assembly an older fellow gave his "experience" about how they gave up his job, sold out, and went to pioneering full time. While living in a camping trailer behind their KH he needed $XX.XX to pay his ----- bill for the month. He only had the $ .XX and needed the $XX.00. He prayed and lo and behold some travelers just happened to stop by the KH for a tour of the property and when they left shook hands and after they were gone he finally looked in his hand and there was the exact $XX.00 to make up the difference!

  I had to swallow several times to keep from vomiting. God gave him money? Yet some poor schmuck that works hard for his family but doesn't buy into the pioneer sales pitch maybe has a child die from illness and his prayers for the child to recover go unanswered!

  Sounds as fair as holy spirit and mens appointments!
  
• 

  sparrowdown

  WT experiences = Fake testamonials.
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  ttdtt

  Ok - as an Elder I saw on a number of occasions - and was made to myself "ALTER" the experience of an INTERVIEW to make it what the CO wanted.

  Literally changing something that actually happened and made people LIE about their OWN experiences.
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  StephaneLaliberte

  When I was about 10 years old, a CO came to our hall and asked who had read the bible from back to back. At the time, I had read the first 5 books of the old testament and had just completed the Greek scriptures (except for Revelation). Somehow, I felt this was the majority of the bible and raised my hand.

  So the brother saw me, the little kid and after the meeting, asked me questions on my reading schedule, etc. He then went on and told other congregations about me. How spiritual I was and a fine example for all other kids.

  Yeah, I had stretched the truth right there.
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  cognisonance

  needed $XX.XX to pay his ----- bill for the month. He only had the $ .XX and needed the $XX.00. He prayed and lo and behold ... in his hand and there was the exact $XX.00 to make up the difference!

  I remember hearing similar experiences from the District Convention years ago. In fact, I also remember my Elder Dad (who to this day still shuns me thinking it's the moral thing to do) admitting he has a hard time with experiences like this using the same logic you did (why did god give him money but lets brothers and sisters live in abject poverty in Africa or lets brother X's wife die from cancer, especially when they are likely praying for better outcomes too!). So he views these kinds of things as specious but somehow still believes this is the truth. To him these are just imperfections of the most prefect, imperfect organization known on earth. So strong is his belief this is the truth that he maintains "integrity to Jehovah" and shuns me for leaving.
  
• 

  punkofnice

  ttdtt - Ok - as an Elder I saw on a number of occasions - and was made to myself "ALTER" the experience of an INTERVIEW to make it what the CO wanted.
  Literally changing something that actually happened and made people LIE about their OWN experiences.

  Yep! Saw this myself. A mundane boring story was tweaked and embroidered until whole continents were said to have bec0me JW's just because someone did some jobo stuff.

  As a popular recent saying goes, 'fake news'.
• 

  pale.emperor

  One that really annoys me when i think back about it:

  The story on the platform:

  A dear old elder from my congregation was being interviewed. His wife had left him. When asked why he said "she used to be a JW but lost her faith. She told me i'd have to choose between her and Jehovah." "what did you do brother?" asks the interviewer. He replies "well im still here" (round of applause). Then he relates the story of how his daughter tragically died after leaving the witnesses. But he hopes in the resurrection. (Round of applause).

  The REAL story (which all of our congregation knew):

  He's been beating his wife and daughter up for years. His wife would come to the meetings with black eyes and the occasional arm in a sling. His daughter was an alcoholic by the age of 15 due to him knocking her about. My dad saw him punch his wife in the stomach in the 2nd school and reported him to the elders. He denied it and nothing happened. My dad was a marked man after that. His daughter leaves home (and the witnesses) first chance she gets at 18. She rebuilds her life and marries my uncle (also an exJW). One day his daughter takes a shower in his house and is electrocuted and dies. It turns out this elder had fitted the shower himself and the wiring was shoddy. He covered up the evidence before the police inquiry started and some poor electrician who had fitted his previous shower got investigated.

  This was the last straw for his wife and she finally leaves him and at first lives in a rescue center for battered wives. I have no idea where she is now but he told the BOE that she's mentally ill and makes things up. They believed him!
  
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  undercover

  Being that I'm relating this experience on 9-11, it would be fitting to tell a little story heard at a special assembly talk right after the towers fell.

  The Bethel elder told the story of a JW who had for years tried to get a job at a company headquartered in one of the towers. He had been hired over on several occasions when finally he was offered a job. But - he had a problem, he had also agreed to attend some special pioneer school (don't remember the detail of the school). It coincided with the same week he was to start his new job. What to do, what to do...

  He prayed (of course) to Jehovah, and decided his spiritual education was more important than his dream job, so he turned the job down in order to attend the school.

  Now the speaker used this to show how putting spiritual things first safeguards you from peril. I called bullshit then, and even now when I think of it, it makes my blood boil. Because 13 (I think it was 13) JWs died that day, one of them a firefighter with the FDNY, who rushed to the towers to try to save lives. I had met him personally, and though we weren't friends, he was friends with friends of mine. To have this self righteous prick stand up there and imply that a JW's life was saved because he turned down a job at the towers was an insult to any other JWs who died that day, especially the guy I met who lost his life trying to help others.

  I was already questioning things, struggling with the cognitive dissonance, but this bullshit story used to try to scare us into more service pushed me even further away. It was my last time ever inside that assembly hall.
• 

  ToesUp

  "Now the speaker used this to show how putting spiritual things first safeguards you from peril. "

  When JW's are spared a timely death or a situation goes their way, it's a "blessing from Jehovah."

  When JW's are not spared or things don't go their way, it's a "test from Jehovah or we need the new system."

  I call BS on it as well.
  
  
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  respectful_observer

  Young people who choose to pioneer instead of higher education. I knew they did not even finish high school.

  I always laugh when I hear experiences where gifted Jdub students turn down "full scholarships" to Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc. I'm I the only one who realizes that these institutions do not offer full scholarships to students out of the blue? These universities require that students APPLY for scholarships. So if they truly were offered a full scholarship, it was because he/she applied for it...and if they didn't apply, then they're likely lying about the whole situation.