in 1954 the watch tower society released a new film,"the new world society in action,"which acquainted its "viewers with the magnitude of the society's organization,its institutions,its field activities,its large - scale conventions, its smooth, efficient functioning and the spirit by which it is moved.".
what its millions of viewers would never see was what went on behind the scenes.what has happened behind the watch tower facade, to real people, not just in the past, but in more recent years?is it a "spiritual paradise" as claimed?.
we all know of the way that the society has treated its own behind the scenes,such men as edward a.dunlap,respected registar of the society's gilead school.disfellowedshipped.raymond v.franz,governing body member,disfellowedshipped.william and joan cetnar,disfellowedshipped.william h. bowen ( silent lambs ) disfellowedshipped.. however,are you one of the "nameless others" who gave twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years and more of your life in devoted service, only to be demeaned in old age because you tired of a non - scriptural agender, or dared question the "anointed oracles" of the "theocractic organization".. behind the scenes,alcoholism is prevelant among staff members, there are the distraught wives of the headquarters staff, immoral behavior, suicides, this is kept hidden from the membership around the world.all of it is documented, yet, under threat of vilification and fear of man, many serve with mute obedience.. the new world society in action, is a facade!
THE REPUTATION OF THIS CULT IS ALL IMPORTANT AND SEEMS TO BE THEIR PRIMARY MOTIVE IN ALL THINGS. THE FURTHER I GOT BEHIND THE "SCENES" THE MORE OBVIOUS CONDUCT COULD BE OBSERVED. ALMOST NONE OF IT WAS KIND, LOVING, HELPFUL, SPIRITUAL, UNDERSTANDING OR HELPFUL..
YES, YES, YES--couldn't have said it better...This was my experience exactly...
of all the statements they make its when they make reference to them self's as jehovah.
when they discuss in the their publication about apostates rebelling against jehovah.
no rather its against some of the teaching of jehovah's witness's, but of course they don't see it that way do they.
Hate the lies--not just the religious doctrinal ones, which they may or may not believe. But mostly hate the coverups and the lying about the coverups. .
After reading all the WT and the UN stuff , I wonder if and when it becomes general public knowledge what will the average JW think? Will they be disgusted? or will they think this is it!!! The UN is turning on the JWs!!! this is one of the final signs of the end!!! Think they were be scattering in many directions, but some may totally flip out thinking the time has finally come.
well i spoke with my mom this past week.
she made sure to remind me that the memorial was coming.
she pressed me for a promise to attend.
free willy... This is the most dispicable thing about the Org is the way they tear apart families and I am so sorry for you and any others who have been through this garbage. My family is in bits and pieces now and it is just all of one sibling sister left in the Org. Two of her older children are out now , so has no communication with them and it is tearing apart my elderly non-JW father to see what is happening to his grandchildren because of their mother's shunning of them. There are 2 other younger children left and we are all worried about them too . When the first older one left I thought she might die--she grieved so hard. she told me she couldn't take losing any more chidren and then the second one left. After that I think I saw a part of her die. Sometimes I feel like we are all players in an invasion of the body snatchers type movie. I know she is very protective of her last 2 children now and I worry about the effect this will have on them. I already see some signs of their anxiety. I am worried about them, I am worried about my sis being shut down, I am worried about the older 2 who will never be JWs again because of various and understandable reasons (they are grieving too because they have lost their mother). I am sad for my elderly father who will never have another family dinner with all of us together- and now he is understandably opposed to the JW religion because of all of this. I am worried too because I am "fading" and don't want to upset my sis any more, but that is unavoidable at this point. During the last assembly I attended a year and a half ago a 16 year old girl was baptized from my then cong. Her mother was there by the pool weeping. I gave her a hug and asked her if she was crying tears of joy. she said "No, she was just really worried and scared bacause of what happened to her first daughter after she was baptized." (Her first daughter was DFd and now she has gone off the deep end and has no more communication with her mother and father and sister and brother) I know this family really loved this daughter too and continues to grieve for her. I hate this Org for sucking the souls out of people and tearing their families apart.
it's much more fun to anti-witness.
i used to hate going out in service, peddling a religion i didn't believe in.
but telling people about how the jw religion is full of shit?
Watched the Donald Trump "Apprentice" show last night and I was thinking about something along these lines...They were selling artwork and one team chose an artist that they didn't particulary like, but they thought the art might bring a higher price than some of the other artist's art. They sold one small painting. Donald's comment to them was the reason they failed because they were trying to sell something they didn't believe in or like very well, so they couldn't be honest about hyping it up. Same with the old WT field service days. I always prayed that we would do rural territory--this meant long drives in the country visiting a few homes, mostly return visits--we could be out all day and not even talk to anyone. I didn't like disturbing people's meals, waking them up, etc with our unannouced visits. Strange but true, I am definitely more inspired to un-witness than i ever was to witness to people...
sister self-rightous busy body-- always has her nose in everyone else's business.
makes a point to ask questions without really asking them like "oh we havent seen you here in a looong tiiiime" and "we miss hearing you comment at the meetings" .
brother womenizer--known for dating all the "available" sisters and dumping them .
HEY...NEWLIGHT!!!
We must've been in the same congregation because I knew Sister Alzheim and Sister dustmask too (seriously). Do you remember little sister hive body--who broke out in hives whenever she came into the hall? she wasn't real typical either I don't imagine...
but in the halls I have been too we had:
Brother Obnoxious Joker who while even in a "position" would constantly be telling over the top jokes and would even joke about someones dead grandmother if he had a chance.
Brother--what's his name?...nobody really knows where this guy is from....He hangs around for a short period of time and then mysteriously disappears--later on it is found out he was on the run and the police are looking for him.
Takes all kinds...
i am riding on the same bus carrying a butt-load of x-jw's who take exception to the lies and mind-f@#%ing of the org.
i was blasted by some for asserting that there are hidden and subliminal images in the illustrations used in the wt publications, and that is fine.
i also understand that there are more important issues than hidden images in the wt publications.
I think the NIT-pick thing is just a human trait--JW or not, but with the micro-managing of our lives in the Org we were well trained in NIT-picking that is for sure.
I think that much of the nit-picking that goes on at this site is for some comic relief--kind of a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic bend on the JW life. A bit of nit-picking does help to put it in perspective for a lot of us because life in the Org was pretty scary and many of us were damaged by it--showing it from it's ridiculous side at many times takes some of the power away from the Org and makes us feel a little sense of relief that we are no longer under their control.
exactly what does it mean to have "an elder mentality"?
i'm curious.
elders didn't exist when i left the jw's.
The elders in my last congregation were very instrumental in my leaving the Org. It was a small cong in a rural area and they were driving everyone crazy with their micro-managing every aspect of the lives of those in the cong. Certain ones seemed to be a special target for their attention...such as sister without a husband..or myself with an unbelieving mate. They had control issues and looking back I see they all had wives who were domineering or restricted them in one way or another, so I think this is the way they gained a bit of control in their lives. They played around trying to be marriage councelors, psycologists, etc and did a very bad job of it. When I questioned them on some idiotic counsel they were giving me over and over again one of them said to me "Hey were judges for Jehovah and when we make a judgement on something through holy spirit it is almost always right." This is part of the elder mentality that can become very twisted in their minds I have also found when I tried to search out help from other elders in other congregations they were very careful to not to make any judgements about the elders in my cong. Most of these other elders told me that they couldn't make judgements on the judgements made by elders in my cong, even though they themselves didn't believe those elders were doing the right thing..In otherwords they were all covering for each other. If it wasn't for the elders I may still be a drone today--I am grateful to them for showing their true colors--it was a painful slap in the face, but it woke me up--and here I am today....
from diane wilson's, "awakening of a jehovah's witness", page 265.. the society says:"rape flourishes in societies that tolerate violence and sexual manipulation.
" ( aw 3--8--93, p.4 ) what a striking parallel to "spiritual rape", which flourishes in a society that tolerates spiritual abuse and mind manipulation!.
the spiritual raping of a witness.. an organization.promises:problems are things of the past!
This is powerful stuff...I am putting this in my info pile...
The suspense is killing me...
i have been fading since the middle of last year.
if it wasn't for my wife being a devoted dub, i probably would not go to the meetings.
i go to around 65%-75% of the meetings.
According to the advice I have gleaned from others and a good therapist who is skilled in dealing with the cult experience that one of things that is healthy for some (no blanket statements here) when dealing with the elders or other JWs is to just be polite, keep your composure, don't give them any info, in fact, rehearse what you will say and say the same thing over and over again...To the elders my little speech is: Thanks , but it is really best for me not to talk right now...If they insist--I just say thank you, but please listen--It is best for me to not talk right now..Just keep doing the broken record thing until they go away, or just say it and close the door or walk away--.You don't have to give any reasons or explanations of why it is best to not talk....They will soon get tired of the game and they will become frustrated knowing they are no longer in control and nothing they can say will change your script. Now you have the power...
I have used the same thing with other JWs if they want to talk about religion in any way. If i meet them on the street and they say something like "missed you at the meetings" I just say thanks, or thank you for thinking of me and don't let it go any further a long those lines.. If they ask me some kind of a JW question I just use the old script on them...you know it is really best if I don't talk about this right now---I did say to one sister recently--you know I can't really talk about this because it involves the elders (this shut her up real quick) but this may not be entirely safe to use on some. Having this rehearsed script helped me to set up some boundaries and helped me to feel safer. I know now I dont' have to come up with any tricky answers or reasonings with them (I did this for 2 years preciously and it exhausted me and got me nowhere but closer to losing my mind). Maybe there are exceptions to the rules with some, but like I said I exhausted myself trying to reason with them. Keep in mind it remember it doesn't help to try and reason with unreasonable people.
There is an oriental martial art form called Aikido. It is just defensive-- the energy used by the one defending themselves is not their own energy, but the energy that comes from the attacker. By one small movement the attacker can be rendered helpless with very little output from the one defending themselves. Just a small twist of the wrist or a small step and a very small person can disable a giant. It can be done verbally too...
