so i joined very recently and began posting and commenting without a formal intro.
been reading for a while, decided it was time to jump in.
mentally i am completely cleansed of this thing, but still have to maintain a minimal involvement for spouse and family.
Welcome. Seems a lot are coming out of the woodwork in the last couple days.
Still with a free mind able to rationalize, question, and just think in general, sitting through a meeting is agony.
Yeah, I thought I hated meetings before I woke up, now it's a whole new level. I'm one of the many here stuck in for my wife for now. Sounds like you may be in a similar situation. If you ever need to talk/vent/whatever but don't want it to be public, feel free to PM me.
i heard form a reliable source that a kingdom hall consolidation is going to be happening in the us.
currently they are looking at every kingdom hall to see if they could and should sell it.
any kingdom hall that has not been updated and is in a bad location (long driveway, not in a visible location etc...) will be sold.
Based on the LDC talk that's been going around, I kinda expected this. I would've expected them to go the other way with it, though - sell off the recently remodeled KHs for the income stream, then pack everyone into the most outdated halls. That way once the new ones get built everyone will be so relieved to be out of the old crappy building they'll be less likely to question things.
There's a definitely a noticeable thinning out of late. Last year's memorial was the first one I can remember where we had seats for everyone in attendance, and this time the back rooms were probably only half-full. only a few years ago, the memorial would mean that about 20-30 people would be standing along the back wall.
when i was a jw we had a 60 minute public talk - interval - 60 minute wt study.
60 minutes on a tuesday and 2 hours on a thursday.
apparently every single meeting was essential.. we also had to get to 2 circuit assemblies every year that consisted of friday evening, morning, afternoon and evening on a sat and morning and afternoon on a sunday.
- it's amazing to track the confusion and stupidity contained in wt articles.
- in only one watchtower you can find multiple contradictory statements, and representations of truth that are simply lies made up on the fly.
- as an example the nov,15 2014 wt has the following quotes : -.
hi simon, i can't send any pm's thru the sites email system.. please help!.
kim.
i don't want to turn in my token time anymore.
it's only a few hours counting what we do with the kids.
i don't want it counted for their skewed statistics- or to just for the sake of doing it.
From what I've read on here, you'll probably get a call from your service group overseer or the secretary requesting your time, and depending on how much "fear of man" is in 'em they may press you to make something up even if you're insistent that you've not done anything ("aww, surely you've had a few conversations about spiritual things with your kids that would add up to at least an hour?"). They might do this to avoid the lecture from the CO when he finds that they have a new inactive person upon his next visit.
Like I said, though, that's just based on what I've read on here. If it was me, I'd wait until the move, then never give the new elders any contact info (or inaccurate contact info) and stop reporting then. I guess a lot of it will depend on what your husband's situation is at that time, too. hopefully you'll be able to wake him up before the move and make a coordinated exodus from the cult.
the title says it all.
list a scripture that is way over used.. it could be a scripture that the point is completely missed by how they use it.
it could also be one that they use so much it's as if the rest of the bible didn't exits.. my two favorite are proverbs 4:18 and ezekiel chapter 1 +a few verses.
I think the aspect of the indoctrination that kept me mentally imprisoned for so long was the notion that you can't trust yourself. Usually they're pretty subtle about this, but sometimes they're pretty up front about it. So while it's not the most overused scripture, it's certainly up there:
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?
Feeling like your life would be better outside the cult? It's just your treacherous, desperate heart fooling you.
so i have gotten into arguements with my wife in the past about this cult.
now a days after reading steve hassan books...i just try and avoid anything jdub with her.
try to keep her in authentic mode..(not sure she really has one).
fresh from the "press":to all bodies of elders in the united states branch territoryre: local design/construction department broadcastdear brothers:the work of constructing and maintaining theocratic facilities throughout the unitedstates branch territory is indeed great!
(1 chron.
29:1) with this in mind, we are pleased to informyou of a special meeting to be presented on saturday, january 31, 2015, at 3:00 p.m. easternstandard time (est) to all elders and circuit overseers in the united states branch territory.the meeting will be approximately two and a half hours in length and will includepresentations by members of the local design/construction department, the united statesbranch committee, the worldwide design/construction department, and a member of the governingbody.
This is nuts. Do the cult leaders think that "worldly people" are going to be drawn into the Kingdom Hall because they are going to go out of their way to drive into the parking lot, get out and look in the window?
Yeah, that's why it seems fairly clear that this change is solely meant to increase resale value for when the property matures. They're in the final stages of the transition from a literature-based ponzi scheme to a real-estate based one.
