In the end something that appears to be totally natural and sincere is pretended, unnatural and subtly manipulative. It's all in line with the WTS character and deceitful way of dealing with the insiders.
Any "Miraculous" experience happen to you like the ones said at Conventions
by soundbox_guy 49 Replies latest jw friends
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JW83
No disease or devils curse can harm us unless god allows it so
Gee, what have all the pedophile victims done wrong?!
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Jeffro
These 'glurge' tales abound in and out of JWs. (Snopes.com (urban myths website) defines glurge as follows: "In ordinary language, glurge is the sending of inspirational (often supposedly "true") tales that conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer, and that undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering a "true story.")
When our new KH was being built a few years ago, at the dedication talk there were a few of these 'miracles' related...- That they were short of a few truckloads of cleanfill, and some trucks 'just happened' to drive by that had the exact amount needed
- That the land was purchased for an amazingly low price
- that the airconditioning system was much cheaper than it normally would have been because it had been over-ordered by a supermarket construction
- that the city council said the placement of the hall had to move a metre or so to the north, which just happened to fix a problem with the position of the electrical distribution box that would otherwise have been in the middle of a doorway
- that an 'error' in measuring the length of the building meant they didn't have to cut any bricks in half for the length of the wall
Some of those things are just silly, some are easily explained by the fact that 'non-profit' organisations are frequently given good prices, and some were simply embellished anecdotes that sounded impressive.
(They didn't spend too much time discussing the 'miracle' of the unpaid, uncompensated 'brother' who fell from the roof trusses and was ambulanced to hospital with a fractured skull.)
If a JW heard these kind of events from a non-witness, they would put the events down to co-incidence, lies, or maybe even those tricksy demonses, but on a quick-build they're 'Jehovah's blessing'. -
luna2
That's the thing, isn't it JW83 and iggy. Some have horrific things happen to them while others find $5 bills floating in the breeze just as their car runs out of gas or a bag of groceries on their doorstep when they have no money for food.
The implication is that some of his people are just more valuable to Jahooba than others....or that he's inattentive and only has his angels do the rounds sporadically...or maybe his messengers are lazy and just don't feel like tackling the hard guardian angel jobs. What a horrible thing to make people, many little children, think that they are at fault or that somehow what is happening to them serves some greater purpose (that nobody can figure out, but just wait, maybe someday Jah will reveal it...if you're real lucky).
It makes no sense and is insulting to those who have suffered.
I also knew a sis who was chosen to give her upbuilding experiences from the platform once. She was a person who lived on public assistance much of the time because, for some reason, finding a job seemed beyond her; her kids (especially her son) were the most ill-behaved in the congregation, and she took advantage of anybody who was dumb enough to loan her money or to offer her help (do not expect the money back and be prepared to be called at all hours to come fix stuff for her or give her a ride somplace). All in all, not a shining star in our KH.
I was shocked to see her on the stage relating how she maintains her home (it was a mess), takes care of her children (undisciplined), has no husband (okay, not her fault as he left), has little money (GET A JOB), but still is able to auxillary pioneer (Oh, right, that was her job) and relies on Jehovah with all her little heart to get by (only a little insulting to all those that help her out daily). If I hadn't known her, I would have thought she was just the bestest Witness in the whole wide world and, dang, why can't I follow her example? ....oh, yeah, I'm not a big mooch.
Sure was a graphic demonstration of how exaggerated or downright fake those experiences could be.
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blondie
(They didn't spend too much time discussing the 'miracle' of the unpaid, uncompensated 'brother' who fell from the roof trusses and was ambulanced to hospital with a fractured skull.)
A perfect example as to how they edit experiences.
Blondie
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Jeffro
There are also the tales of Witnesses being beaten or tortured, where they have been reported to say that they didn't feel any pain, and felt a feeling of calm come over them.
They attribute these experiences to 'Jehovah's protection'. The actual cause of this phenomenon is shock, the body's natural reaction to the overload of sensory input. -
loosie
My thoughts exactly Luna.
I hate it when you hear of a newly engaged sister (who is younger than you) say well Jehovah has bless me in finding Joe. I prayed for a husabnd and Jehovah delivered. Well I had been praying for one longer than she had. Why did she get her man first?
That is the main reason I don't believe in Guardian Angels. If they exist where are they when children die, and why don't they prevent it?
I remember one experience at an assembly where a young boy was talking about how when the rest of the "worldly" kids tells a dirty joke he just walks away. I went to school with his sister. I told her what a good job he did on stage. And she laughed, she said that usually he is the one telling the dirty joke.
So much for being honest.
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Quentin
Once at a District Convention at the Astrodome in Houston TX, I fell off some high-level seats and landed on the playing field below. What was odd was that I landed very softly and enough fish and bread spewed out of my ass that everyone in attendance had enough to eat their fill.
Wondered why the bread and fish were a little musky. Was filling though.
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mkr32208
Actually it was one of these convention "miraculs" that started me thinking! I was dozing as was my usual way to cope with the ass, emblies and this pompus janitor was up there living the dream holding thousands spell bound (well most of us were asleep or daydreaming but he didn't know that!) Then he said (no lie this is what he said) there was an assembly hall being built and the inside was finished but the roof wasnt' on yet (odd way to build a hall but wtf right) so anyway they were forecasting snow that would ruin all the inside of the building and they had to get the roof on so they worked and worked and it didn't snow didn't snow didn't snow (sun stood still) until just when the roof was done then it started to snow... Yea clap clap clap, same old horse$hit right? So I'm still dozing then I swear to god this is what senior diledo say's "We also need to be more concious of maintaining our contributions to help rebuild the kindom halls and assembly halls that were just knocked flat by the last F*cking hurricane!" That may not be a direct quote but it's pretty close!
I woke up! My doze departed! I wiped the sleep from my gritty eyes! "What did he just say" I asked my wife... I elbowed her awake and asked her again "What did he just say"? "Beats me" she responded...
I've never been to an assembly since!
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mkr32208
(They didn't spend too much time discussing the 'miracle' of the unpaid, uncompensated 'brother' who fell from the roof trusses and was ambulanced to hospital with a fractured skull.)
I'll bet he had a secret sin and jehober was punishing him!