Posts by sparrowdown

12

Sanderson Patronises Ex-Bethelites

by konceptual99 in

don't normally waste time watching these but this one caught my eye as it was obvious what the subject matter would be about..... http://tv.jw.org/#en/video/vodprogramsevents/pub-jwbmw_201604_2_video.

mark sanderson: accept change with faith and confidence (heb.

basically sanderson is giving a pep talk to all those that have new assignments changed.

sparrowdown

Yet, they are still selling the idea of Bethel as a career to the very young children.

Shameless, these men are shameless.

52

AGREE? or DISAGREE? Popular Music

by Terry in

jw
friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip0wuwjbdmi.

"from 1955 till present, popular music has declined to the point where it is now consistently "stupid" and homogenous.

".

sparrowdown

80s and 90s probably my favourite eras for music but some good songs were around in the noughties as well.

52

AGREE? or DISAGREE? Popular Music

by Terry in

jw
friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip0wuwjbdmi.

"from 1955 till present, popular music has declined to the point where it is now consistently "stupid" and homogenous.

".

sparrowdown

There is plenty great music around today but you have to look outside of mainstream, once you do you are spoiled for choice. Mainstream is the generic pre-prepared, easy to digest fast food of music for the dumbing down of the masses. Alternative is where the all good stuff is at, you just have to dig a bit deeper to find it.

35

Going to meetings to "save face."

by Darkknight757 in

going to make this short and sweet but i need some advise again and i kinda need to vent a bit so sorry.😢.

so it has been weeks since the wife and i have been to meetings.

it has been nothing short of wonderful!!!

sparrowdown

Just arrange a weekend away at a romantic B&B, or a sunday of brunch and markets and tell her it's important to strengthen yourselves as a couple first before attending another meeting. The prospect of not going has to become more appealing than going, so if she can compare how she feels after a relaxing sunday of sleeping in, then brunch and a stroll around town or the beach OR a sunday of white knuckling it at a meeting filled with guilt, fear, obligaion, and orwellian mind control propoganda techniques.

45

Three elders show up "to encourage me" after 10 years!

by Wasanelder Once in

"hey brother wasa, come on back to the meetings.

" (after 10 years) so i respond that the situation with pedophiles is out of hand.

they tell me "we" elders have received tons of training on the subject, its not like it was 10 years ago.

sparrowdown

Irish Dame - yeah, it sounds like trap.

25

Resolutions at Kingdom Hall

by sieborg in

anyhow i got to thinking today about my days in the borg and the resolutions that would intermittently be made in the announcements for co visit expenses, sending a donation to society www fund etc.

my point is that while i was in (almost thirty two years) i never once saw anyone put up their hand to vote against a resolution that the body of elders proposed.

on a couple of occasions i heard a few hushed murmurs but i never saw one person vote against.

sparrowdown

I was counseled for abstaining from voting. The last year or so of meetings was particularly tough and couldn't bring myself to participate in the farce, the brother counting the hands ratted me out.

24

Embellished assembly interviews/"experiences"

by ab.ortega in

oh how wonderful those experiences at assemblies and "schools" are - not.

at times it seemed as if these "experiences" were scripted.

the speaker gets criteria in the outline regarding what the experience or interview has to be about.

sparrowdown

I recall a pioneer sister I knew being very distraught after a rehearsal for a part she was in in which she was supposed to relate her experiences as a pioneer.

You know the story, marriage broke down because she was a faithful sister and her husband was a bastard, demanding boss who didn't respect that she was a pioneer and needed time off for meetings/assemblies etc, loneliness, health problems, yada, yada, yada. Anyway she started going into her tale of self inflicted woe and the CO cut her off mid-whinge saying (her words) " the brothers don't want to know all your problems be more encouraging." She changed her story to sound more Jehovery but she was really cut by the CO's dismissal of her story in it's raw form.

20

I have tried really hard to be worldly, for ten years, tried to get worldly friends, and get back with family.

by Sledracer in

i am so bad at being worldly, it's not like i gave it a good try, we are just not good at it my husband and i, i see him light up as he has started to read the bible again.

i'm good at being a witness, i am accepted, and hold the same beliefs, i have tried to find somewhere else, if there is a place, why hav'n't jehovah and the angels directed me to it?

thank you for all the loving posts, some of them have been just what i needed.

sparrowdown

I don't think it's being "worldly" you're having problems with, it's being a non-jehovah's witness.

The JW belief system "kills" off the natural person (the old personality) and replaces it with a constucted one (the new personality). This WT personality is held in place by a scaffold-like belief system that causes the person to believe that if the belief system were removed they would fall down. This is not true, unless you have a serious emotional issue or brain damage, you are strong enough to stand alone, but many don't want to.

Being in a high control group can be like cozy blanket of group-think or rather non-think that many are just simply more comfortable with.

50

Australia Branch to end magazine printing

by no-zombie in

jw
friends

just one week from the zone overseer's visit is the announcement that the magazine production by the australia branch will end in a few months.

the task being transferred to the japan branch.

while i'm not 100% certain, i understand that this effectively ends all major printing bar perhaps tracts, handbills and other loose items.

sparrowdown

Going.......going........😂

17

I need food for thought..

by raven in

hi friends,it has been 20 years that i've slaved for the wt and through out the past couple of years i could feel myself fighting an urge to accept that something was not right.

i fought it off for so long only for it to resurface frequently throughout my years of pioneering, assembly/convention parts, & speaking with people about the "truth", slaving and giving to try to be a "spiritual person" but in reality i was not spiritual because spirituality (according to the org) is doing all of the things they want you to do.

which then will label you as spiritual... no !!!

sparrowdown

A systematic approach is best, break it down into bitesize pieces otherwise you will become overwhelmed by it all. Remember the only way to "eat an elephant" is one bite at a time.

Pick a topic that interests you and type it into google.

Start with what you already know to be iffy, for instance you have already noticed how the org equates spirituality with blind obedience to them. You have rightly recognized this as false and that slaving for WT has nothing to do with, as you say, true "spirituality" or "getting to know" God or Jesus.

There are plenty of ex-jw websites and YTers. There is also plenty of info on cults and mind control techniques.