Posts by OneEyedJoe

21

How to capitalise on recent unwise appointment with my wife.

jw
friends

a brother was appointed recently in the cong, he's got a dodgy history, doesn't really have the respect of many in the cong.

it's surprising to me, but i don't really care, good for him.

my wife, on the other hand, is angry!

OneEyedJoe

I would just try to draw her out and get her to express her feelings on the matter so that they won't be so quickly forgotten. Especially if you find that you have trouble restraining yourself when the wife is criticising the cult (i can fully relate to that). Practice restraint until you're more able to walk the line effectively.

Focus on how asking about her feelings and her thoughts. Don't give her multiple choice or either-or type questions because it will either end the conversation when alarm bells go off, or she'll be backed into a corner and forced to toe the party line. If you force her to verbally back the cult, it will cause CD and force her to change her beliefs to be more in line with the cult.

If you can get her to create a lasting memory about how she feels about this one event, that will keep getting called to mind when she sees this guy in the congregation and when he gives a talk. After he gives a talk or makes some minor (or hopefully major) error, you might say something like "you know I didn't really have much of a problem with it when he was orrigionally appointed - but you were right. I don't think he should have been appointed." This will remind her of her original oppinion on the matter (she will likely try to convice herself that she never thought that as time goes on) and force her to try and reconcile things all over again.

Of course, take this with a grain of salt - I haven't had just a ton of luck with my wife yet. It's still early though, or so I tell myself.

20

Did you expect all non-Witnesses to die at Armageddon?

by Apognophos in

apologies if this has been asked before, but i couldn't find a thread where the focus was specifically this yes-or-no question.

reach back in your memories to when you were at the peak of your faith in the religion, and tell me honestly:.

"did you, personally, believe that non-witnesses would die at armageddon, even if they hadn't gotten to hear the message at all?".

OneEyedJoe

I never believed it.

10

Will the Image Meaning Change?

by Theredeemer in

jw
friends

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/official-america-now-no-2-150936444.html.

how will the dubs spin this?.

.

OneEyedJoe

As yet another Sign of the End.

This, for a while. Once it becomes obvious that the prophesy is bunk, they'll stop talking about it (ala king of the north) for a while.

Based on the current trends, this cult is moving away from trying to construct semi-logical interpretation of prophesy, and moving towards being based solely on emotional manipulation and groundless "armageddon is comming soon" statements. So in line with that, I don't see them trying to re-interpret the prophesy so that it'll make sense.

24

I just had fun giving a talk!

by OneEyedJoe in

so, unfortunately, i'm still on the tms and had a talk tonight (in front of a co, no less) and the talk was on the subject of adultery.

in the source material there's reference to "spiritual adultery" i.e.

idolotry or when israel had alliances with pagan nations.

OneEyedJoe

Then, DO NOT actually answer the question! Just say something like "so brothers and sisters, are we prepared for such topics? Perhaps we had better research these things now, before such questions are put to us"

That's a good one...I'll have to keep that in my back pocket!

24

I just had fun giving a talk!

by OneEyedJoe in

so, unfortunately, i'm still on the tms and had a talk tonight (in front of a co, no less) and the talk was on the subject of adultery.

in the source material there's reference to "spiritual adultery" i.e.

idolotry or when israel had alliances with pagan nations.

OneEyedJoe

PoR - that's a good one. I've made it a goal to work some condemnation of the cult into every talk that I give from now on. It really helps me keep my sanity a little bit. Plus now I can honestly say that I have theocratic goals for the first time in my life!

9

Listen to Raymond Franz in the fascinating interview

by Terry in

i don't know if many of you have watched this exceedingly in depth interview in which raymond franz expounds so many wonderful.

subjects with such precision and affection.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ttdozz-chg. .

OneEyedJoe

Had Ray Franz been a different sort of man, he easily could have started a REFORM J.W. movement and split off.

There was none of that in him.

He got it all out of his system with two books and personal appearances.

Yeah, I was thinking about that while watching the interview. He's clearly a very humble man and when people kept asking him where to go once they leave he basically said "go anywhere you like, but I prefer small bible study groups"

Here he is, the highest level appostate that there's ever been, and he certainly doesn't fit the WTS' narrative of appostates who only want to "draw off followers after themselves." Indeed, here was an appostate that went from having millions of followers to doing meanial labor and living in a trailer. Even when approached by others looking for someone to follow, he turned them away and only had interest in studying the bible with a group of peers.

17

Do you think the GB ever mentions these abuse cases directly?

by thedepressedsoul in

the title says it all, do you think that the gb will ever bring up these cases in their literature or in a talk?

i'm not talking about them just mentioning "persecution" i'm talking about actually bringing up child abuse cases and trying to justify it.. or will it just remain the elephant in the room until years have passed?.

.

OneEyedJoe

Nope, at the most they'll do what they did with rutherford's imprisonment and spin it as trumpped up charges and persecution from satan's system. It's proof that we're near the bit A. They'll certainly never try to justify it in any way that would support any of the claims made because it's just so obvious that they're totally in the wrong. What's more if they try to justify it, they'll be telling the r/f that there actually are molesters in their midst, which is something that most r/f generally assume to be impossible.

26

Any elders out there? How to Local needs talks work?

by Letts Party in

so a local needs talk was lovingly given at our hall last week that i'm positive targeted me specifically.

it had to do with missing meetings for work.

they even had a demo on what we should do if our boss asks us to stay overtime on a meeting night (basically say "no" and risk losing your great job which you have no desire whatsoever to lose)... so i'm aware that there's a sort of protocol the elders follow when someone in the hall needs to work on something.

OneEyedJoe

Just shrug it off and put a marker in 1 Timothy 5:8 for when they approach you more directly.

24

I just had fun giving a talk!

by OneEyedJoe in

so, unfortunately, i'm still on the tms and had a talk tonight (in front of a co, no less) and the talk was on the subject of adultery.

in the source material there's reference to "spiritual adultery" i.e.

idolotry or when israel had alliances with pagan nations.

OneEyedJoe

Hmmm... "Fun" and "giving a talk" don't seem meant for the same sentence! Lol!

Yep, I have to say this is the absolute first time in 20 years of being on the "school" that I actually enjoyed giving a talk.

assigned a talk durning the visit of the C.O. ...... is there an appointment for OneEyedJoe in the near future?

LOL! Nope, I don't think so. My 2 hours a month in serve-us doesn't seem adequate. The school overseer is well known to be exceptionally lazy about the scheduling. He basically has an excel spreadsheet that picks people from his list and assigns them talks in sequence - I always know when I have a talk coming up because I'm after a friend of mine in the list.

A fun side-effect of this is that you sometimes get a 12 year old kid doing a talk on very adult subject matter. He doesn't bother to even look at the schedule to make sure that the talks are appropriate for the person giving them.

24

I just had fun giving a talk!

by OneEyedJoe in

so, unfortunately, i'm still on the tms and had a talk tonight (in front of a co, no less) and the talk was on the subject of adultery.

in the source material there's reference to "spiritual adultery" i.e.

idolotry or when israel had alliances with pagan nations.

OneEyedJoe

Haha, yeah, I recently realized that how well i did was inversely proportional to the amount of preparation i put in. A mild buzz helps too. But I guess that probably has more to do with my aspergers than anything else.