so our congregation is full of hardliner elders, 3 of them, who are not gentle, kind or loving.. people have either moved away or quit trying because one elder inparticular was going to drive them crazy with all his rules and nit picking and being righteous over much.
(and he is pissed that he hasn't been accepted to the school.
hmmm, i wonder why!).
No such thing as a good "elder." Just good men trying to be WT elders while remaining loving and kind, but, because you cannot be a good WT elder and exercise your own conscience something has gotta give.
Meaning, either you give in to the peer pressure and become a typical psychopath elder or you get axed for being too soft.
a new video is up about the commencement of moving to warwick.shawn bartlett tells the viewers that jehovah has said, through the governing body, ‘it’s time to move out of brooklyn.
‘ then helper robert lucciona says ‘ the governing body, these brothers, as soon as they see god’s direction, they just move, it doesn’t matter if it is long held, cherished ideas, this is the way it has to be done, as soon as they see jehovahs direction.
he just kept nudging imperfect humans, he knew where he wanted us and then we end up where we are supposed to be.
Moving to the Warwick hideout is proof that Jehovah has got their back for sure.
I mean, when the wild beast turns on Babs The Great, destroys religion and the police arrest the asses of JWs right out their own homes and basements they will never think to look for the GB at Warwick!
lets imagine you're a jehovah's witness elder.
you have zero theological training aside from what you've read in the watchtower and the currently still approved watchtower publications, you have zero counseling skills, and no medical training.
a recently bereaved sister approaches you in tears and tells you she just wants to die.. what do you do?.
Any counselor or even a good friend would consider the person's situation.
Questions like
"What 's going in in your life right now?"
Most JWs don't consider that's it's their religion (and if their spouse and family are in the same religion) then every emotionally influential person in their life that is inducing in them feelings of chronic invalidation and self-doubt.
The sort of long term toxic self-doubt that erodes away a person's ability to trust their own judgement, perceptions and feelings.
WT as a religion and belief system is the cause of many JW's depression - cause and effect.
Especially the women who are bullied into believing they are crazy, or depressed if they feel anything other than joy at being deemed by the men in their lives as being useless (except for wifely or motherly duties) and voiceless, powerless and inacapable to make even the simplest decisions for themselves without the approval of the group.
Of course JWs are depressed and suicidal, to be otherwise would mean you have a adjusted to very unhealthy situation. The depression is sign there is part of you that knows something is very, very wrong in your life as a JW that you need to fix.
i just received the following message from a friend this morning.. barbara.
eloise dupuis, 27 years old, died at the hotel dieu hospital in lévis, quebec, canada, wednesday, october 12th.
she died because of her religious principles.
Another blood sacrifice to WT.
This organization is pure evil.
this was first said in 1918 and adjusted to "will never die" in 1920. of course, the wts taught that the anointed had to die to go to heaven; but there was no great crowd teaching then, so they were talking about all non-anointed people on earth.
the wts members were known as bible students then and had been expecting the end in 1914 and it was adjusted.
one date that was stressed at that time was 1925. so i think they idea was that people living in 1918 would be alive to see the end in 1925, which of course did not happen.
Judge Rutherford "I'm a big fan of Satan's original lie, it was an excellent marketing strategy"
David Splane " I'm a big fan of the "overlapping generations" business model myself"
'in order to extend mercy, the committee must be convinced that the wrongdoer has a changed heart condition and that he has a zeal to right the wrong and is absolutely determined to avoid it in the future.'.
shepherd the flock page 91. i remember this is one of the first things that concerned me as an elder because it seemed to sound like a person is guilty until proven innocent rather than 'love believes all things', especially given the word 'convinced' appears in bold.. then in a training video one elder said something like 'unless we are convinced of repentance the shepherd the flock book says we must disfellowship'.
that was the begining of the end for me as i thought surely true christians would reason the other way round and show mercy wherever possible.. any thoughts?.
The fact that the elders are trained to believe they have the right and authority to both decide and then judge what another is thinking and feeling says it all really.
so i ask because of all the books, mags and testimonies that the wts promotes.
not only the wts, but many other christians attempt to speak about the bible with authority.
how do we measure who is an authority if we don't know that much?.
My take on this question is this.
The bible is a book, read it if you like and make of it what you will.
But, never ever give over your right to think critically and for yourself on the thoughts, observations and accounts contained in it. And, never ever give authority to any person or group to make personal life decisions for you based on what they think the bible says. And never ever give money to any person or group who claims to have authority from God to think for you.
And finally NEVER EVER believe any person or group who claims to speak for God.
another leak from my collection of talks that i was ordered not to share.
an elder gave me a ton of talks from bethel and special assembleys to put on his ipod.
of course i copied them to my computer and will share them for all of us.. depression is a part of this life by brother nathan fuel.. this talk also touches on the subject of family members being disfellowshipped, feel depressed?
Shunning, victim blaming, depression shaming.....WT could have written the instruction manual on GASLIGHTING!
They absolute fricken masters at it.
They could have called it "Gaslighting for Jehovah" but they called it the elders manual instead.
from the front page of jw.org.
same view on google street view .
https://goo.gl/maps/b9wnsnxzu2r.
Wing Commander - After armagedon the Princes (elders) will have first dibbs duh, but, they will assign a team of privileged sisters to clean up any bodies or worldly mess leftover in the house first.
jehovah's witnesses have never come to my door but they have come to my girlfriends door.
i have coached her as to what to say or ask but it appears that they always seem to come when she's not there.
.....just curious would you get into it with a jehovah's witness at your door especially if it was someone you did not know?.
If it was someone I didn't know then yes I would play dumb (easy for me) act interested and pose some innocent widdle questions about the structure of the borg, qualifications of the leaders, what other community work they do - if any, what happens to donations, if their leader's speak for God, if Jesus died for everyone in the whole world..........
Oh God, how I would enjoy tying them up for hours and their heads in knots.
