having watched the prodigal son returns movie produced by the organization and a recent mini-clip of a brother in london who is shown jogging and doing normal everyday things while wanting to "reach out" it occurred to me that the organization is trying to normalize their bizarre lifestyle and beliefs for the benefit of non-witnesses.. what do i mean by normalization?
they try to make the witnesses look like just another christian denomination who are reasonable while their members live and enjoy normal lives that appear to be within the mainstream.. they do this by not mentioning anything to do with higher education, armageddon or the urgency of the end of the world nor is their discussion or mention of the blood issue.
these are things mentioned often at kingdom halls and in study articles.. watching the prodigal son returns, the family appears to live a normal life, going to meetings and studying.
All their videos are the same. Leave, you're screwed and nothing will go right. Stay in the org and everything will be wonderful and beautiful. All wrapped up with a pretty bow. And they lived happily ever after.
What do you expect from a bunch of men who have never been in the real world. So unrealistic!
but they don't forgive because they still shun people.
who they feel are not worthy of forgivenes.
Just another contradiction in JW land. One of many!
it was announced recently, that "bro.
z is no long the coordinator(76 years old), bro y(60) is now the new coordinator of the body of elders".. you see, bro.
z has been an elder for 43 years and 35 of them as the cobe/po.
I think most of the elderly JW's are having to face their mortality for the very first time. It is scary.
We have some older ones in our family and they are having a hard time with the iPads (technology). My spouse and I often wonder why their "loving brotherhood" does not put on some kind of workshop at the Kingdom Halls to help these ones learn how to use their devices. I guess the answer is as simple as they couldn't give a sh*t.
(that is, doubts).
in margaret atwood's "the handmaid's tale", a futuristic story of life inside a repressive, abusive big brother-style society tightly controlled by religious fundamentalists, there's a passage in which the protagonist is alone with another woman at a state-controlled centre where prayers are generated -- then printed out and read out -- by a machine.
the other woman asks, in barely more than a whisper, "do you think god listens to these machines?
it the question that i have found myself constantly asking myself the past few months.
out of all the jws i interact with, why did it have to be me that woke up from this mess?.
i am relieved that i have woken up to the bullshit, but a side of me misses that fuzzy feeling of being a 100% believer.
The only "Why me" question I have is...."Why me...why did I have to be born into this?"
I am glad I woke up while I was fairly young. We have relatives pushing 70 that have not woken up but have serious doubts. They have serious doubts but still say..."it's still the truth." WTF? How the hell can you have doubts but still feel it is the truth? Maybe I am missing something here!
what is it about making friends in the organisation am i the only one who had found it tough?
don't get me wrong there was some good people but unfortunately there was also a lot of egotism, back stabbing, jealousy and gossiping.
i could never really fit in any group, everytime i thought i had found a group it was as if i would be sidelined or ditched.
I agree with dubstepped. We also were not included too many times. Not uberenough I guess.
We have also made some evil worldly friends via our business. When we go out to dinner with them we all fight over paying the check. When we were J W's we could never get anyone to pick up the tab (even when facing unemployment).
One wealthy couple just bought a brand new boat. They took us along to pick it out. They wanted to see if we liked the seating on the boat when we come along with them. We had to pinch ourselves, we have never had kind and generous friends in the WT.
what is it about making friends in the organisation am i the only one who had found it tough?
don't get me wrong there was some good people but unfortunately there was also a lot of egotism, back stabbing, jealousy and gossiping.
i could never really fit in any group, everytime i thought i had found a group it was as if i would be sidelined or ditched.
Jordandeem
It's not you...trust me. The jw's are exactly as you described. Very few good ones left.
Keep looking for friends (non JW). There are some good and genuine people out there, they just take a little time and effort to weed out the good ones. I would much rather have a small group genuine friends than a large number of fake/phony/conditional friends.
should a teen, a child of a believing mother, cooperate in the fact-gathering of the elders into the waywardness (not sex related, hopefully) of some local teenagers?
what scenarios can you see playing out?
all teens to clam up?
it was announced recently, that "bro.
z is no long the coordinator(76 years old), bro y(60) is now the new coordinator of the body of elders".. you see, bro.
z has been an elder for 43 years and 35 of them as the cobe/po.
As one brother (Elder) said to us..."he has been put out to pasture." They no longer are of use to this cult. Just like the Bethelites that were recently let go. This is a self serving organization. The road only goes one way...THEIR WAY!
LURKERS; VOTE WITH YOUR WALLETS!
i would probably collapse laughing.
