Posts by berrygerry

25

How to cope with depression?

by make yourself in

i know its very common for jws and ex jws to deal with depression.

maybe it's a side effect of cognitive dissonance or the whole outlook on life being a jw.

but what are some ways to cope with depression?

berrygerry

Many great suggestions here.

As with any other medical situation, if the problem can be identified as well as triggers, then your battle is half over.

Meds may be necessary longterm, possibly only shortterm or even intermittently as the need arises.

The other suggestions for physical activity, diet, quite possibly supplements, work and home environments, are all valid.

As we know that our brain creates bridges from repetition, cognitive dissonance may impede quick repair of those bridges.

Personally, the last time that I talked to elders about meeting attendance and field service, and don't you always feel better afterwards, and I said No, I often feel worse, knowing that I cannot live up to what I and my family are being told that we are supposed to be doing.

120

A serving elder's take on the new "tithing" arrangement

by TTATTelder in

the gb can kiss my ass.. i'm writing "0" on the little slip of paper they pass out.. hey here's a thought:.

you know that "widow's might" stuff they're always talking about?

well i'm pretty dang sure that the lady was giving from the heart not because she filled out some dumba$$ piece of paper pledging two small coins several months previous!.

berrygerry

Does sound like they are moving the money away from the US. How many accounts in the Caymans, one wonders??

Funny, I was thinking the same.

The justification can be: "Politics is turning on religion. It would be 'discreet' to pre-emptively find a safer haven."

120

A serving elder's take on the new "tithing" arrangement

by TTATTelder in

the gb can kiss my ass.. i'm writing "0" on the little slip of paper they pass out.. hey here's a thought:.

you know that "widow's might" stuff they're always talking about?

well i'm pretty dang sure that the lady was giving from the heart not because she filled out some dumba$$ piece of paper pledging two small coins several months previous!.

berrygerry

The re-allocation of real estate and printing is not inconsequential.

Canada is printing for the US, which justifies the US sending "payment" for the mags. A legal way to launder money out of the US corps. that face liability issues. There are many legal ways for corps. to protect assets under numerous entities, esp. when they are multi-national.

5

they died because they stayed

by Crazyguy in

according to a video over at jwsurvey there was 3 congregations in the path of that supper typhoon that hit the philippines.

the government had told people in these areas to get out but the jw's stayed for thier thursday night meetings and then spent the night in thier kingdom halls to weather out the storm.

two of the 3 congregations even though their halls were destroyed they all survived but the third a hall in the worst hit area was not so lucky.

berrygerry

They refuse to cancel a boasting session, how many end up stuck in the snow or getting into accidents, usually involving innocent people that are out there because of an emergency (often one that they didn't prepare for before the storm)?

Sorry, need to disagree with this one.

Our urban cong. with an extreme CoBE, regularly cancels meetings that the weather in which I'm out driving.

37

10 Pragmatic facts why Jehovah's Witnesses can't face reality

by Terry in

jw
friends

1.the organization itself denies access to reality and substitutes its own version, interpretations and meanings.. a.only watchtower approved publications are allowed.. b.no higher education is to be pursued.. c.no non-jw friends or associations are encouraged with their "outside" points of view.. d.no free-style questioning of doctrine or criticism permitted.

curiousity is verboten.. e.threat of being "marked" or disassociated looms over them.

2.between every real-world event and the rank and file jw's mind is a roadblock.. a.the moment of identifying is short-circuited by an interpretive moment of re-labeling in watchtower-speak.. b.all things happening are forced into a narrow storyline and propagandized as end times happenings leading to armageddon.. 3.social and personal identity is expunged and replaced by a collective persona: "jehovah's witness".. a.private thinking is red-flagged as selfish and sinful.. b.personal improvement, welfare and ambition is crushed and door-to-door ministry substituted as "worthy" endeavors.. c.self-conscious obsession permeates witness awareness as each person is transformed into a public spectacle of performance for judgement.. d.since you aren't an individual you don't really have a right to fall in love and marry or educate or earn.

berrygerry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_inertia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True-believer_syndrome

120

A serving elder's take on the new "tithing" arrangement

by TTATTelder in

the gb can kiss my ass.. i'm writing "0" on the little slip of paper they pass out.. hey here's a thought:.

you know that "widow's might" stuff they're always talking about?

well i'm pretty dang sure that the lady was giving from the heart not because she filled out some dumba$$ piece of paper pledging two small coins several months previous!.

berrygerry

TTATTelder

PM sent

22

Just asked for a bible study on jw.org

by trujw in

my name was false prophet.

my address was october 1968 awake is it later than you think.

my town was this generation will by no means pass away may 15, 1984. to be honest i am going to request again but this time with my real name and address.

berrygerry

"Just keep asking for studies using bogus addresses. They will get deluged with many bad requests, and will have a miserable time trying to track them down. Each one will waste more time, so if someone really wants a study, their resources will be stretched too thinly. The more you can keep wasting their time, the better."

Send in the addresses of neighbors of your ex-friends in the KH.

The neighbors will probably be impressed.

26

The reason the Society keeps everyone busy with "campaigns"

by stuckinarut2 in

im sure that many have had an experience where we try and keep little kids "occupied" while on a boring trip, such as a car ride or plane flight.. we come up with "games" like..."lets see how many green cars we can count", or "lets try and see who can sit still for the longest time".

"the winner gets a prize!".

obviously, until they are wise enough to cotton on, all we are doing is keeping them occupied to prevent them asking things like "are we there yet?!".

berrygerry

Our territory is large - so the campaigns do not use H-H records to return on NH's, thank goodness.

However, it still seemed to me from the first one that we're simply delivering bloody pizza flyers, especially when we near the end of the campaign, and at that point, we don't even ring the doorbell, just pop the tract in the mailbox.

The 2008 YB bugged me: "A congregation of nine publishers in an isolated area was puzzled about why they had received only one Memorial invitation from the branch instead of the 500 they had ordered. They later found out that the local post office had been unable to determine the destination of the parcel mailed by the branch because the mailing label had come off. Post office personnel had opened the parcel to try to determine who the recipient or the sender was. When they saw the Memorial invitations, they concluded that the invitations needed to be distributed, so post office personnel placed one invitation in each post office box, thus distributing the entire shipment themselves. The brothers were alerted to the situation when they received, not a complete shipment of invitations, but a single invitation in the congregation’s post office box. How thrilled the nine publishers were, though, to have 42 at the Memorial, many of whom arrived with their personal copy of the invitation that had been placed in their post office box!"

I'd happily give the local Post Office the .xx cents per flyer to have them deliver instead of me.

43

DF'ed and Confused...

by Stumbeline in

so i think the title pretty much says it all.

i have a tendancy to be long winded about things, so i'll just give a general introduction and maybe tell things as i go along.

i don't even really know what i want from this site (ironically i remember jehovahs-witness.net mentioned from the platform as a site not to go to).

berrygerry

I'm not sure of your existing friendships, but my daughter had a number.

I've only been finding out that MANY MANY young witnesses see through the DF "doctrine" for what it is, and regularly ignore it (not openly at the KH, of course).

That may apply for you.

I've been reading a business book "Can't Buy Me LIKE" (referencing the LIKE button on Facebook), and the changes that the Internet, and esp. social media, has forced on corporate marketing. The story about Coca-Cola's learning of this sea-change and their EVENTUAL recognition, acceptance, and then embracement, brought obvious comparisons.

However, Ray Franz's disclosures make it seem like "The Society" (After DECADES of that term seeming so normal, it seems so abnormal to use it the way we do) will be the last to change.

He references the 1971 WT: "Hence it [the organization] is patterned according to His design for it. It is a theocratic organization, ruled from the divine Top down, and not from the rank and file up."

But, with young people as the only future, it should be interesting how things play out.

94

Another Elder

by burnedout in

berrygerry

BURNED OUT- I second LEAVING WT's opinion. Do be careful. Most JW's will not listen to reason and many of them feel they have to be faithful to the WT organization over blood relatives.

Went through the Kangaroo processs like a moron - totally blindsided, bought the friendliness at the 2-minute "investigation" meeting in the 2nd school. Not so friendly at the next. (drunkenness was the reason - KS10 reference to 1983 WT quotes, of all sources, AA, which recommends "jolting" the individual, instead of the previous 2 paragraphs which were pertinent.)

I had been inactive for too long, and attending few meetings, hence the real reason for "jolting," however, haven't been to a meeting since, although I did listen to the Memorial on the phone.

Sorry for the run-on - but throughout the Kangaroo process and trying to "reason" with my wife over the unscriptural and VERY inappropriate behavior, she said: "If I have to choose between Jehovah's organization and you, I CHOOSE JEHOVAH," and walked away. OUCH.