Service Meeting Week Starting May 9, 2005 (page 4)

heathen

LMAO@gumby --- dude you are such a cretan ...... Well l can say that I walked in on a kid masturbating in the toilet during the meeting , I guess he got wood while listening to some crusty old guy giving a long boring talk . LOL

gumby

Well l can say that I walked in on a kid masturbating in the toilet during the meeting , I guess he got wood while listening to some crusty old guy giving a long boring talk

Eeeeeeeewwwwwwww!

You sure it wasn't a # 3 talk?

Gumbater

steve2

JW Ben lands again: Not quite completely at home with the JWs - his presence on this site proves that - yet not too far removed from their predictable orbit either, he goes round and round and round and round. Every now and then he tentatively lands and delivers an earnest but grammatically-challenged defense of Watchtower "Suggestions" and off he flies again. Bye until next time, "JW" Ben.

wiegel

semantics issue - they really need to define "family" - those related to you who are also witnesses is what they mean, and only what they mean.

Invite audience to comment on how they keep other activities from interfering iwth congregation meetings.

they certainly don't mean your actual fleshly relatives, because they make no allowance for caring for them. one elder who had served as a CO for many years told me in confidence (when i was on the water slide out of the borg) that he had been screwed by the big guys. he was serving in area near his aging parents. asked if he could stay there for his next assignment to continue to care for them. they said, go where we tell you or youre out. he opted out and lost any/all financial benefits due him for his "service" because he was 2 years away from age requirement (not sure what the bennies are, but some financial assistance like retirement). now, what the f* kinda love is that??? and him? oh, he is still pioneering and going to school and starting a new business and heading for a heart attack because he can't let go. or as he said: "If I stop pioneering, I would be saying that my whole life has been a lie."

This was soon after 911, and I told him "you are a suicide-pioneer", be careful. amen

family, schmamily.

trudy

Purza

I found it interesting that they list Monday night as Family Study night.

That would never fly in my household during the Fall/Winter. Monday Night Football is on -- we can't miss that!

Purza

integ

#1 - I am dyslexic.

#2- [deleted].

Mystery

I agree with the "guilt" reasoning. I still have an occasional glimpse of "guilt" occasionally. It may just be my personality but guilt is one of my shortfalls.

The WTBTS absolutely fends on the trait.

cruzanheart

I am dyslexic.

JW Ben, that took a lot of courage to say. Thank you for explaining, and I hope that you will not let a few rude remarks keep you from posting. My father was dyslexic and he once said that he'd rather give an extemporaneous public talk than have to read the Watchtower out loud. It was very difficult for him.

I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses from birth to age 46, and I believed it heart and soul. Ben, the feeling of freedom from guilt that I experienced once I left was absolutely amazing. It was like a rebirth! However, when I was "in" I was incapable of feeling anything except guilt that I wasn't doing my best. Even when I was pioneering (and I was a regular pioneer for 13 years), I felt that I wasn't doing my best, that I should be trying harder, studying more, etc. This schedule may be a "suggestion" but it is also a very subtle guilt hook.

Integ, please refrain from making personal remarks about other posters.

Nina

LyinEyes

#2 ---- The WTBTS has a way of making these "suggestions" that can be taken to mean you either do it or you aren't a good dubby and will be treated as spiritually weak

I totally agree with this statement.

Things were a suggestion in print, but within each congregation,,,,,,,these "suggestions" were to be followed as if it were a direct commandment from Jehovah God Himself,, at least in my experience.

steve2

My experience is that it is not the WTS that can make some JWs feel they arent good JWs but individual congregations. and they way they interprite what the WTS says. SOme are very good at notmaking you feel bad and some are very good at making you feell bad and most sit indetween.

Firstly, my apologies for my earlier post in which I criticised the way you phrased your post; it was uncalled for regardless of whether or not you have dyslexia.

Secondly, your above comments may reflect your experience and observations, but it suits the Watchtower Society to never themselves comment on the variation in the way Watchtower "suggestions" are applied. So, things remain pretty much the same. It's like the extreme things some JWs do to avoid ex-JWs, even to the point of callousness. The fact that other JWs don't take it to such extremes, misses the point. The Watchtower is very quick to point out undersirable behavious and, to my knowledge, it never admonishes JWs against taking an extreme position regarding the treatment of ex-members. To the contrary, it uses subtlety to "hint" at a continuation of an extreme stand.

Contrast this with the Watchtower article in the mid-1970s that urged JWs to take a more compassionate view of ex-JWs, citing disapprovingly brothers who had let an ex-JW struggle with putting a tire back on her car and never offering to help, even thought she had been returning to meetings. You'd never read anything like that in the current literature.

Service Meeting Week Starting May 9, 2005

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