Who can and can't a JW sit next to at the hall?

by JH 38 Replies latest jw friends

  • Quentin
    Quentin

    I can't belive what I'm reading, seating is dictated? I know I've been out a long time, but I don't remember anything like that. All of us sat were and with whom we pleased. At the hall, conventions, didn't matter. Where was I in the Land That Time Forgot? How can anyone live a life like that? What a joke...

  • blondie
    blondie

    2 DF'd people cannot sit together unless they are husband and wife, or parent and child, etc.

    But 2 unrelated DF'd people must sit separately and cannot talk to each other. Otherwise the elders do not think they are repentant and are serious about being reinstated.

    In the 50's they asked too if it were all right for the df'd person to ride in the same car. I knew of one single DF'd brother with who was required to take the bus and then walk 2 miles to the KH in the dead of winter until an elder realized how it looked to the non-JW neighbors and had a brother and sister pick him up, but no talking.

    Remember these are UNWRITTEN rules.

    Blondie

  • JH
    JH
    I can't belive what I'm reading, seating is dictated?

    Now you know why I stayed single. There were too many man made laws...way too many.

  • ballistic
    ballistic

    Once again blonie has it completely right. Spot on.

  • damselfly
    damselfly


    When I was first disfellowshipped, I received a ride to the hall with a relative, who I sat next to. They were informed to stop giving me a ride.

    Then they would drop off their second car to I could drive it alone to the hall. I was still sitting next to them at the meetings. My relative was informed to stop allowing me to sit next to them ( I was not told anything ) I still drove the car alone to the hall but now I sat alone.

    When my relative was told by the elders to stop allowing me to use the car to attend meetings, I was left without a ride to the hall. The reasoning was that " our brothers and sisters in foreign lands would walk for days across rivers, fending off crocodiles etc to attend a meeting " I should do the same?

    That was the last straw for me. They were expecting me to walk 15 kilometers one way to attend meetings with winter quickly setting in. I stopped going to meetings and with the exception of 2 memorials and a funeral haven't been back.

    These are unwritten rules but very much in effect and enforced by intimidation from the elders. They threatned my relative with disfellowshipping because we "exchanged a look" at the meeting and they allowed me to use the spare car.

    Dams

    *edit* If I had know about who I could and couldn't sit next to as a D'fd person then I would have done it. I felt sick that my beloved family was threatned with expulsion because I sat next to them at a meeting.

  • ballistic
    ballistic

    Dams that sucks. Are you glad to be part of the biger "world" now. People who love you without questioning how you got to the hall?

  • damselfly
    damselfly
    Dams that sucks. Are you glad to be part of the biger "world" now. People who love you without questioning how you got to the hall?

    Yes! Who cares how I got there if I am there?

    Dams ( worldy lover of other worldy people )

  • Quentin
    Quentin

    Now you know why I stead single. There were too many man made laws...way too many.

    I hear ya….

    These are unwritten rules but very much in effect and enforced by intimidation from the elders. They threatned my relative with disfellowshipping because we "exchanged a look" at the meeting and they allowed me to use the spare car.

    True. The written or unwritten df’d rules have always been harsh. That is evil enough. But seating arraignments? Car arraignments? We had some freedom, but now, got to be a brain dead zombie to live a colorless life like that. I feel bad for those who continue as JW’s…so sad…your treament says it all Dams

  • damselfly
    damselfly

    You think that it would be okay for a d'fd person to sit next to the people who love them the most. To separate them and alienate seems counter productive to encouraging someone to come "back to the fold"

    Come back to what? no one should even look you in the eye, let alone smile or act pleased to see you. Who would want to return to that?

    Dams

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