Posts by seattleniceguy

25

Has anyone ever personally written to the Society?

by seeitallclearlynow in

jw
friends

i've been listening to marlene mercado's audio testimony on jwinfoline while reading and posting here today; and it reminded me that i had written to the society once, years ago, and i received a response.

the response made me angry with them, although they were agreeing with me on something that i was complaining about.

what made me angry was that they made no acknowledgment that they put a lot of pressure on the brothers to reach out and even after they have attained an office of oversight, a lot more pressure is put on the elders and servants to do more, do just so, etc....they claimed that it was my elder husband's own fault that he was barely ever home, and when he was, he was in his den or on the phone with someone who couldn't make any decisions on their own.

seattleniceguy

I wrote them on several occasions. Each time, I received a reply, though it took about three months. There was never any interesting information in the letters. Mainly they just referred to WT and Awake articles. The letters I received all looked something like this.

Dear Brother Seattle,

We have received your letter dated December 12, 1998. Regarding your inquiry, the Watchtower of June 1, 1987 states thus-and-such. An earlier Awake (8/8/1984) makes a similar statement on page 23. We hope this answers your question.

We pray that Jehovah's rich blessing will continue upon you.

Your brothers,
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.

I agree with Piph - I was always excited to receive the letter, but the contents left me disappointed. It always felt a bit like a backhanded admonishment to look up the answers in the literature instead of writing.

SNG

55

sigh I think I'm staying in the borg

by SC_Guy in

jw
friends

i *can't* leave, i'm trapped.

i was talking to my twin sister tonight on how i didn't want to go to the upcoming convention this weekend because we had already been to it 2 months ago... .

i have to prepare some audition matrial for a arts event and my parents are not sympathtic to the fact i got allot to do, and we've already been.

seattleniceguy

Hello SC_Guy,

I feel for you. I gave up a large swath of my family when I left the organization. But to me, there is no more horrible feeling in this world than the feeling of being untrue to what one knows in one's heart. Just reading your words, "I'm trapped," I had the sensation of darkness invading from every side. I would be unable to withstand a life of such entrapment. The ill feelings of being part of a lie are compounded over an entire lifetime to form a very heavy price.

You have a difficult choice to make. I'll tell you from my experience, though, that in terms of peace of mind, inner equillibrium, and true friends, life is much better on the outside, even if it meant an up-front payment of extreme duress.

My thoughts are with you.

SNG

23

Sending "Love" from the Platform

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

i have never been able to understand the "the brothers from xyz cogregation are sending their love" at the end of a public talk.. it always seemed to occur when the speaker was from a far-away place.

then, we all have to clap when he rhetorically asks "do you want to send our love to them?".

they never seem to do it when it is a near-by congregation .. only one far away.

seattleniceguy

They also said that brothers giving public talks should not say "thank you" right at the end before they come off the platform because they are assuming everyone is going to clap

I guess that is a dangerous assumption. I certainly know I've been to many meetings where people just folded their arms and sat quietly, or outrightly booed after a talk.

SNG

28

I outgrew the "truth"

by micheal in

jw
friends

as the saying goes, "you only live once".

with that, after being a witness for 15 years it was just time to move on to something else.. .

yes i believe the witnesses do not have the ultimate truth as they believe they do, which helped in my decision to move on.

seattleniceguy

The week before I left the organization, I became aware that I could not picture the future. I couldn't see out a year, a month, even a week. It's like my life had come up against a black wall. It was right in front of my face, like standing with my nose pressed up against an inky black darkness. I guess my subconscious was trying to show me that I had no future in the organization.

SNG

19

Kingdom News No. 35

by Smyler in

km 10/97.

give kingdom.

news no.

seattleniceguy

The content of the tract was always kept a closely guarded secret

LOL! That's right! I had almost forgotten about that! It's funny, because there was never anything particularly different in them. I would always tear into them and then find myself wondering where the really exciting stuff was.

And they would always have these experiences like:

A 55-year-old college professor writes, "Never have I read such an accurate description of the problems facing us today. Your tract points to the true solution for these issues. I commend you for printing such inspiring material."

Even in my most zealous days, part of me found those quotes really hard to comprehend. I'm thinking, "This guy is a college professor? He must not get out much. And doesn't this guy talk a lot like the writing department guys? Did someone really say this?"

SNG

23

Sending "Love" from the Platform

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

i have never been able to understand the "the brothers from xyz cogregation are sending their love" at the end of a public talk.. it always seemed to occur when the speaker was from a far-away place.

then, we all have to clap when he rhetorically asks "do you want to send our love to them?".

they never seem to do it when it is a near-by congregation .. only one far away.

seattleniceguy

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there was a separate level of love and greetings that went just between bookstudies (intramural L&G?) in Japan. So if I were going to be at a different bookstudy next week, I would report it to my bookstudy conductor, who would announce it to the group, who would give me the love and greetings. I would take the L&G with me the next week, and the following week, report back to my original bookstudy with returned L&G.

It just got to be a gigantic process with no real feeling.

SNG

23

Sending "Love" from the Platform

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

i have never been able to understand the "the brothers from xyz cogregation are sending their love" at the end of a public talk.. it always seemed to occur when the speaker was from a far-away place.

then, we all have to clap when he rhetorically asks "do you want to send our love to them?".

they never seem to do it when it is a near-by congregation .. only one far away.

seattleniceguy

Actually, Japanese congregations meticulously send and receive love and greetings every single time someone from a neighboring congregation is attending. If you visit a congregation, you will be spotted within seconds and asked if you brought the love and greetings from your congregation. You can't just arbitrarily bring it, which means that in preparation for your planned absence from your own congregation, you asked your congregation for the love and greetings to take with you.

The long and short of it is that at about 75% of meetings, there are announcements like this:

"Sister Takashima will be attending the Neighboring City congregation on Thursday. Would we like to send our love and greetings with her?" (Allow for applause) "Also, Brother and Sister Nomura from the Other Neighbor congregation have brought their love and greetings." (Allow for applause) "Would we like to send our love and greetings back with the Nomuras?" (Allow for applause)

Honestly, it felt kind of nice at first to have all this love and greeting going around, but after about the third meeting, it started getting long and unwieldy. After about the tenth time in a month, it just seemed absurd. No one is encouraged, since it's such a mechanical thing. I think the only real effect is that since, in effect, you have to report when you will be missing your meeting (by asking for love and greetings to take with you), everyone knows who is missing for "legitimate" reasons and who is just skipping. Asking for love and greetings becomes this song and dance where you say, "Hey, I'm not going to be here on Thursday, but it doesn't mean I'm missing meeting! I'm still cool!"

I came to detest the love and greetings for this reason. They seemed much more real in America, where the Witnesses reserved them for people from faraway places. It seemed a little more special.

SNG

14

Get Fuzzy

by Euphemism in

.

the comic strip get fuzzy opines on the subject of high-control religions... .

seattleniceguy

Geez, it seems to almost directly reference Witnesses....

SNG

4

Changes

by TD in

"changes that disturb people".

just ten years ago we catholics had the absolute truth, we put all our faith in this.

just ten years ago we jehovah?s witnesses had the absolute truth, we put all our faith in this.

seattleniceguy

Very nicely done, Tom. It really is incredible how the Witnesses are willing to come down so hard on other people but never realize they are doing exactly the same thing.

SNG

27

Satanists have Longer Life Expectancy?

by shaii in

jw
friends

i'm curious about which is the healthier choice: satanism or jehovahs witnesses?

it seems to me that you hear alot less about satanists having problems, than you do witnesses!

seattleniceguy

U2K,

It's true that everyone has problems, but I can definitely tell you that I have far greater peace of mind now than I ever had as a Witness. Such relief of stress is connected with better health, greater happiness, and longer life.

SNG

Edit: That isn't to say that I'm a Satanist. I am not.