Most disgusting thing from Watchtower Corp.

by spectromize 35 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  circare

  Rcat

  Your right. I agree about the responsibility the WTS has for their duplicity.

  In my clumsy way of expressing my thoughts I did not make it clear that I was not excusing the WTS for their behaviour, but questioning ours.

  For many years people have had a 'payoff' for being told what to do. They have asked to be treated like children and not to have to do the thinking or research for themselves. Now that we have 'grown up' a little (which, giving some credit where it is due, the WTS has helped us to do) we want to be treated differently. Well good for us don't you think? However why waste our energy and time on nit-picking and name-calling? Or haven't we grown at all? Do we want to be content with displaying the same attitudes and intolerances as before only from the other side of the fence?
• 

  Frenchy

  Do we want to be content with displaying the same attitudes and intolerances as before only from the other side of the fence?

  
  Good point. No progress is ever made by continually going over where you have been. Salvage what you can and move on. I think this is comparable to a person that has spent many years in a prison serving an unjust term. While there he may have learned a trade. Upon his release he can spend the rest of his life bemoaning his unjust incarceration or he can use what he learned there to better his life. I'm for using what I learned.

  -Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
• 

  RedhorseWoman

  While I do agree that we all need to get on with our lives and not waste any more time nit-picking, I honestly don't see how exposing the dirty underbelly of the WTBTS is useless.

  I know I didn't choose to be spoonfed.....I was afraid to do otherwise. I tried to do some research in secret, always afraid that I would be found out and thrown out of God's organization where I would be left to die.

  Perhaps it's somewhat different growing up in the JW's. When it's all you've known, and you have been taught that to disobey the words of the Watchtower is to spit in God's face, it's very difficult to break free.

  I find it good to talk about these things because it gives me some closure....it verifies that I am not evil or insane....it proves to me that others have experienced what I have experienced and it validates those experiences.

  I also feel that openly discussing these issues and the shortcomings of the WTBTS might possibly help someone to avoid what we are all trying desperately to recover from.

  The scars are deep.....sometimes scars hurt and need attention.
• 

  Roamingfeline

  Circare,Frenchy, and RedHorseWoman:

  You all have good points in those last three posts. For myself, I believe you CAN get on with your life, learning from the past, while STILL, as RHW says, exposing the dirty underbelly of the WTBTS.

  Remember one of the things they used to tell us, that if you didn't warn others about the impending doom of Armageddon, that you would be liable for death yourself from bloodguilt? Well, I tend to think it's a bit like that now. If I don't warn others about the evilness of the WTBTS, I feel guilty for allowing others to fall into that rotting carcass of a pit!

  RCat
• 

  Pathofthorns

  LOL at your graphic use of terms Rcat. Its like I'm reading the revelation book or something.

  The way I see it, the more vocal and "disgruntled" (hate that word yet?lol) you are/appear, the more you prove the Society right and the more counterproductive to your cause you are.

  There really, from my perspective, are few coming in. Those who do, are usually the mentally ill (borderline insane), and any others are children from Witness parents and in these phantom foreign countries.

  The mentally ill are difficult to reason logically with as they think too much with emotion. The children are leaving anyway. And the foreign countries will wise up in their own time.

  The ship is sinking. Why keep firing more holes in it?

  I'm getting on with my life, and when people are ready, I'll do what i can to help them do the same.

  Path
• 

  waiting

  Hey y'all,

  I think this is comparable to a person that has spent many years in a prison serving an unjust term. While there he may have learned a trade. Upon his release he can spend the rest of his life bemoaning his unjust incarceration or he can use what he learned there to better his life.

  At the same time as he gets on with his life, he can sue the state for wrongly incarcerating him. If he chooses to sue, his lawyer will probably tell him to be quiet to not thwart his chances of winning - don't give the other side any infomation which can be used against him when going to Court. All are positive moves to accomplish his goal.

  There are different ways of handling anger and hurt for different people. I think a lot depends on a person's life experience, nationality, and personality. None of us has the right, as long as the speaking is done on a spectrum of civility, to censor another person. However, before I'm censored - that's only my private opinion.

  I know if I learn something new about the WTBTS, I tend to be angry or hurt - having no one to speak to about this unwanted discovery. How nice to have y'all. When I get over it, and am in my more natural (imho) genial mood, how nice to have y'all.

  Kinda like a family responds to each other?

  waiting - Not Big Momma
• 

  Grunt

  "Now that we have 'grown up' a little (which, giving some credit where it is due, the WTS has helped us to do) we want to be treated differently."

  Nope. I wanted to treated honestly from the start. The poor sincerely duped people I dealt with were being honest, they thought. Still they were spreading lies. Kind of like the Witnesses were when they were telling people that vaccinations were worse than the diseases they protected you from. I owe the Society nothing except a good kick in the teeth. I come on line iin various forums only to help those who have not seen the Jehovah's Witnesses for the lie they are. They are the exact opposite of what they claim. Look at the lies they have on their PR site. I love it as every Witness that reads it knows in his or her heart that they are lying through their teeth when they say that family ties are not severed and some of the other lies there. I am happy and my life is good, yet I do still those of my family that are still in were free. If they could follow the advice that the hypocrites and liars give in the Awake as quoted in other posts on this board about looking at their own religion, then they could be free. Meanwhile, I greatly enjoy seeing them chased from various forums, having their discussion boards taken over by ex-witnesses as they almost invariably are and in short getting their lies shoved up their noses in public. A lot of witnesses have had their eyes opened because of trying to stand up and deliver when their gun is empty. Like some of you have pointed out, their ship is sinking. Any group that spends so much time going out and trying to sell a product and has so little success, has a bad product and a rip-off price. Millions of hours and zero or negative growth in the Western nations???? I would just like to see more abandon ship before they die.
• 

  circare

  Hi Red I agree that there is a need "to talk to validate our experiences" and "get closure". To have the opportunity to "openly discuss the issues and shortcomings of the WTS" here on this board, (thank you Simon!), amongst what I feel is a very nice group of people, is for me a real 'boon'.

  However, criticising the WTS Corp. for acting as a business corporation does not make a lot of sense to me. They do not claim to be anything else but a business org. for the financing and organising of the publishing and preaching work of the religious organisation Jehovah's Witnesses. If I was a financial expert I might feel I could judge some of their financial decisions and offer valid criticism, but I am not, therefore I expect them to make whatever decisions they think they need to make to run that Corporation reasonably well. The fact that they make investments and have annual meetings is all within the legal realms of a Corporation. Are they behaving 'unCorporation' like?

  Whether we have been brought up 'in the truth' or otherwise we all 'ask' to be spoonfed initially to different degrees. And just like any baby or toddler we need that for a certain time until we have grown enough to 'push the parent away' and say 'I want to do it on my own'.
  
  In a way I feel that "exposing the dirty underbelly of the WTBTS" goes beyond the need to "talk and validate" to an area I'm not comfortable with - and I'm not even sure why I feel that way. Maybe I'm afraid to 'go there' because I don't think I would come out a better person - just more scarred.

  Waiting you are right I do think most here speak with "a spectrum of civility". That is why I like associating here. I did not mean to censure, I just wanted to introduce another perspective to consider. I like this 'family' and I am happy for any 'family members' to respond however they feel about what I have posted. I think it is the diversity of experiences and personalities that is helping me to heal and grow.
• 

  RedhorseWoman

  Circare, I think you are correct when you say that criticizing the WTS Corp for acting like a business corporation doesn't make a lot of sense.

  The issue I have with them is that they never come across as a business corporation to their members, but rather as God's one true channel through which the Holy Spirit speaks.

  Never is it brought out that there are shares of stock or profits or subsidiary businesses, but rather that the WTS is above all that money-grubbing stuff that is engaged in by Christendom. And fools that we were, we believed them.

  We believed that all funds were being used for the preaching work. We believed that there was no profit being made on the literature....the "donations" only cover actual printing costs. We decried those who pointed out that the WTS dabbled in commercial enterprises. After all, there were all those Watchtowers and Awakes pointing the finger at churches that DID engage in secular activities.

  We are like the betrayed spouse who finally is shown the snapshots and videos of their "faithful" mate who has been engaging in adulterous affairs for years. They said they were faithful, and we believed them.
• 

  Roamingfeline

  We are like the betrayed spouse who finally is shown the snapshots and videos of their "faithful" mate who has been engaging in adulterous affairs for years. They said they were faithful, and we believed them.

  And how does that betrayed spouse usually react, ask yourself? Disbelief, Anger & rage, hurt, pain, and finally acceptance and "going on with life". The same as in ALL grief experiences. Allow us to express ours in the way we see fit, please.

  RCat