Posts by apostrate

9

Offended by JW letter targeting obituaries

by betterdaze in

local father offended by jehovah's witness letter, claims its writer is targeting obituariesjacksonville, fla. a local father who wishes to remain anonymous sent action news jax a copy of a letter sent to his family's church.. the letter read in part: "sorry about your loss.

i read about it from the obituary.

jehovahs witness literature was attached to the letter.. in a time when a family is grieving they need to be surrounded by family and friends.

apostrate

LisaRose,

I'm reminded of an article I read sometime back in the 80's. There was a Playboy Playmate, I think her name was Dorothy Stratten. She was murdered by her jealous boyfriend. I don't remember who wrote the article but they were recounting some of the events that went down prior to and after her murder.

Anyway, the woman's grieving mother was at home after the murder and she got a knock at the door (guess who?). A couple of JW's. Somehow in the conversation, the JW's realized that this was the dead woman's mother (it was big news at the time).

Now, this is not a verbatim quote, mind you, but the Witnesses told her in an attempt to comfort her, See! according to the Bible, your daughter is not in Heaven! She's lying dead in a grave! (Oooh, isn't that comforting?)

The woman took the Bible from their hands and turned to a scripture and read, "And Judas went forth and hanged himself".

Then she turned to another scripture and read, "Go therefore and do likewise!"

Then she shut the door on the JW's.

Now, I can't say whether this event actually happened or not. But from what I saw in my 33 years as a JW, I have no problem in believing its probability.

53

What's the craziest thing someone INFORMED on you about?

by Londo111 in

the culture of jws as encouraged by the watchtower is one of informing on one another, reporting to either the elders or ones designated head.

whats the wackiest thing that someone reported on you?

im not talking about a black-and-white watchtower rule that would land you in a judicial committee, but some judgmental nonsense that someone thought they should turn you in about?.

apostrate

Regarding hunting,

Down here in Texas we gotta lotta JDubs who like to hunt. And if you wanna pull their string and get 'em all riled up, you just say somethin' to 'em to the effect that, "In the New System there ain't gonna be no huntin' and we're all gonna become vegetarians!"

You'll see their faces turn red and then they'll go off on you tellin' you all about how in the Bible GOD gave us the right to kill animals and, by GOD, we're gonna still be eatin' meat in the New System!!!

One "sister" shook her finger in my face when this subject was brought up and she told me, "When you've got five starvin' kids and you need to feed 'em, you'll change your mind about huntin'!"

When I have five starvin' kids, I will go down to the local grocery store and buy them somethin' to eat! And it will cost me a lot less than the price of buying a shotgun, a hunting permit, and the cost of transportation to a deer lease way out in the sticks, where I will have to stay for hours on end waiting for a poor deer to stop by!

23

What was the strangest off-the-cuff remark you ever heard from and elder or higher appointee?

by donny in

i showed up for saturday morning field service and i was partnered with an elder who had transferred to our congregation in the dallas, texas area from michigan.

i told him about a recent embarrassing moment where i had played a "worldly" song during the sunday meeting due to someone replacing the cassette i had placed in the cassette player late friday night that had the correct "kingdom melody.".

out of the blue he said "about 4 years ago i was giving the sunday talk and i kept sporting a boner from time to time which was bizarre since being horny and teaching about jehovah is typically not something one associates with one another.".

apostrate

This isn't exactly "off-the-cuff", but while attending a marriage ceremony in a Kingdum hall in Irving, TX the "brother" performing the ceremony starts talking to the couple getting married and says, "Now you are going to find that a wife isn't always going to be easy to get along with. Especially about once a month!"

The congregation roars with laughter! Now, this may not seem so risque in todays "Two And A Half Men" era of comedy, but back in 1970, in a Kingdum Hall no less, it was pretty controversial!

In fact, I was privy to some behind the scenes information, and I heard that he was asked to tone it down in his talks, by some of the other elders. On the other hand, other couples who were going to get married, were asking him to perform their marriage ceremony, specifically asking for the "menstruation period" talk!

14

How Much Does It Cost To Produce One Watchtower Magazine?

by The Governor in

jw
friends

hello everyone i had a quick question to ask.

does anyone know how much it cost to produce a watchtower magazine?

also does anyone know how much each watchtower magazine is worth?

apostrate

pronomono,

There's a lot more thought that has to go into determining the cost of printing a magazine than just the cost of printing a magazine. It seems cheap, but it's really not.

But what expenses does the WT have that someone, like say, Simon & Schuster, not have? Aside from settling pedophile lawsuits?

53

What's the craziest thing someone INFORMED on you about?

by Londo111 in

the culture of jws as encouraged by the watchtower is one of informing on one another, reporting to either the elders or ones designated head.

whats the wackiest thing that someone reported on you?

im not talking about a black-and-white watchtower rule that would land you in a judicial committee, but some judgmental nonsense that someone thought they should turn you in about?.

apostrate

ShirleyW,

Oh, absolutely! That's really the fuel that was added to the fire! She claimed that she had the right to go through my things if they were in her house. And my friend sided with her, naturally.

It's really a long story, but while I never got called on before the elders, she obviously went and told others in the Hall that I was a pervert. Remember, before the other "sister" insinuated that I was a pervert, she initially was showing the pictures of me in a dress because it was funny.

This was just another "nail in the coffin", so to speak, as regards my relationship with the WT Society. Within six months of this incident, I walked away from the Watchtower World and asked myself, "What the hell have I been thinking all these years???"

180

What is the most bizarre counsel you received as a JW, from a JW?

by Funchback in

there were many addressed to me.

for example, i once had a sister tell me i was gambling because i liked playing skill crane (the machine where you have to try to pick up prizes like stuffed animals) at the arcade.

i then fired back a her: "you saw the r-rated movie 'backdraft.

apostrate

The Watchtower practices ventriloquism. They've got about 7 million dummies!

53

What's the craziest thing someone INFORMED on you about?

by Londo111 in

the culture of jws as encouraged by the watchtower is one of informing on one another, reporting to either the elders or ones designated head.

whats the wackiest thing that someone reported on you?

im not talking about a black-and-white watchtower rule that would land you in a judicial committee, but some judgmental nonsense that someone thought they should turn you in about?.

apostrate

Well, what do you expect when you are part of a group that actually fosters this kind of mentality? The elders drone on and on about keeping the congregation clean. They encourage this type of behavior.

Here's one that happened to me, although I never actually got called on about it. When I was about twenty years old, some of the JW's threw a costume party. I think about half of the "brothers" all showed up dressed as "Fonzie". I took a different route. Egged on by my friends and with their encouragement, I dressed up as a girl. I wore a dress. No makeup or anything, didn't shave my legs, it was kind of a" Klinger" thing.

Everyone thought I must be crazy for doing that, but everybody got a laugh out of it, and some said I definitely stole the show that night. Nothing bad came from it.

Several years later, I moved to California. I was staying with JW friends for a few weeks while I waited to get into my own apartment. While I was at work, my friends wife took another friend (the wife of a MS) into my bedroom and went threw my boxes of things and got the pictures out of the costume party. She wanted to show her friend how funny I looked in the pictures.

But, her friend did not see the humor in it! She said, "Any man who would wear a dress is SICK!!!"

"No! it was for a costume party! See how funny it is!"

"I don't care if it was for a party or not! That is sick! Something is wrong with him!!!"

"You're right! He is sick! I don't want him living in my house anymore"

(My friends wife just found herself a new best friend).

Anyway, my friends wife told me about taking this person into my bedroom and going through my things. I kept waiting to get a call from the elders on this one, but it never happened. I was on my friends wife's enemy list from this point on, naturally my friend was no longer in support of me, and I ended up moving out prematurely before my apartment was ready.

14

How Much Does It Cost To Produce One Watchtower Magazine?

by The Governor in

jw
friends

hello everyone i had a quick question to ask.

does anyone know how much it cost to produce a watchtower magazine?

also does anyone know how much each watchtower magazine is worth?

apostrate

Dooh!!! Somebody beat me to my punchline!!!

14

How Much Does It Cost To Produce One Watchtower Magazine?

by The Governor in

jw
friends

hello everyone i had a quick question to ask.

does anyone know how much it cost to produce a watchtower magazine?

also does anyone know how much each watchtower magazine is worth?

apostrate

I don't know the answer precisely, but I had this conversation with an elder once. The elder admitted that the cost of printing a magazine was pennies, he said probably a nickel or less.

So, I reminded him that the "brother" on the platform told us that when donating for publications, we should compare our book or magazine to what a similar book or magazine sells for at Barnes and Noble or some such bookstore, and donate accordingly.

I also reminded him that the WT does not have the operating costs that commercial book publishers have. WT does not pay their "employees", they do not pay their writers, they do not pay for advertising, they do not pay for the gasoline that their "sales people" use to go door-to-door, they do not spend towards a clothing allowance, and they most definitely do not pay TAXES!

So I asked him why should a JW pay a comparable price for WT literature that they would pay for a commercial book or mag?

Needless to say this elder does not speak to me anymore!

As for what each Watchtower magazine is worth? (This is too easy) It isn't worth the paper that it is printed on!

62

What is the most strange action of a witness while out in field service?

by adjusted knowledge in

jw
friends

i was paired with this older "brother" when i was a teenager.

he was very very strange.

he was a nice guy but goofy.

apostrate

This message is for DwainBowman, Dwain, this college that you mentioned earlier, ummm..... where is it exactly???

Although I am no longer a JW, I'm thinking about going out in Field Service again!