please share your experiences..
They didn't take it very well and it cost me my marriage. One day I was a respected elder in the congregation, and the next day I was a non-person.
But that was their problem. So I went back to college, got my degree, got a great job, made new friends, and married a wonderful non-JW woman. Sure there was some pain to endure at first, but it didn't last and the rewards were far greater than anything in the Borg.
with all the money grabs and shady things going on, you wonder how can they actually believe they are representing god and even believe in god and still be doing these things.. then i thought, what if a trend started awhile back, people who gave up everything and got high in the org, but also since they got high up, they were privy and learned things that convinced them it was a lie.
now if they remained believers, they may end up like ray franz, a true believer wouldn't want to deceive people seeking god, they would be afraid of god's wrath.. since as is shown on this board many also become athiests, some could have become so while still in and in high ranks.
at this point they think of their options, a. leave, screwed, welfare, older they are the harder to adjust and everybody turns on them or b. kind of shady but the org and everyone put them in this position and they will turn on them in a heartbeat with no remorse so he is going to beat them to it and insure the rest of his/their lives are well taken care of and going to get rich off it.. so those higher ups who turn athiest opt for option b since they don't believe in any god and since the whole org will turn on them for disagreeing and not believing and leave them with nothing, they will instead keep working their way up, start companies for the things wt already buys, turn it into a big cash cow for themselves.
Being a retired accountant, I feel that your theory has merit, EM. Moreover, I've suspected that this has been going on for a long time. But until we can get a hold of the Watchtower's financial statements, it must remain just a theory. Perhaps that is why the Watchtower refuses to release their financials to the public. If the Watchtower's financial dealings were honest and above board, they would have no reason to withold them from the public.
While it's not illegal for the Watchtower to pay a JW owned company twice as much for supplies as it would to a non-JW company, if this became public knowledge, the rank and file JWs might think twice about paying $20,000 for the one day use of a building that the R&R JWs built and paid for.
I agree with some of what the OP said, but differ as to his analysis of GB 1.0. Having been an elder during the 1970s, those years were labled by some as Watchtower Vatican II. The JW disfellowshipping rules were reformed and liberalized. You could even greet a DFd person. Locally we even had independent Bible studies and didn't fear being brought before a JC for studying the Bible. It was after Ray Franz was purged in 1979 that the repression began and the reactionary GB members like Ted Jaracz enforced their authority.
When the GB began repealing the reforms of the 1970s I resigned as an elder in 1984 and quickly faded. But through the years I've talked with refugees from the Watchtower Gulag and things have gotten steadily worse in JW land since 1980. Perhaps the 1990s were less repressive for JWs than they are today, but when one looks back at 1970s JWdom, it is almost like examining a different religion.
i was baptized at the age of 11. like most of us, my commitment wasnt to honor god but rather i was gang pressed into the service of the wtbts.
and, at such a young age, it was impossible for me to appreciate the enormity of my actions.
honestly, how could i possibly have known any better?
Born in, so my JW mother insisted I get baptised. Was only 9 years old when I got dunked. Though I knew another born in who was only 6 when he was baptised.
this was the last sentence my dad wrote to gb in his letter explaining why he is disassociating from jws.
it seems gb did not send copy of the letter to the body of elders!
sometime later two elders visited him to encourage him to rethink his decision.
Wonder if Freddie Franz was one of those who was afraid to die.
A former bethelite once told me that Mrs. Knorr said their marriage was never consumated.
ok, at the risk of getting flamed, i have been out for over 20 years, and still love kingdom melodies.
i remember them for the good times, the conventions and assemblies, hearing the orchestral versions, imagining the orchestra playing.
some pieces were really nice.
I left the JWs in 1984 just after they got the new "baby sh_t brown" song book. But I remember the lavender coloured song book which still had a few Christian hymns. We were told that all the new songs were written by JWs and that anything that had originated in Christendom was deleted.
My grandmother had and old Bible Student hymnal and it was similar to any hymnal that you would find in a traditional Christian Church.
some years ago, i upset some crypto-watchtower apologists by stating that the organization must eventually either abolish the co arrangement or radically change it because it creates a direct chain of liability by chain of command and makes them a hierarchy (without catholic level assets or influence to support such a structure).. i would make a similar argument with regard to judicial committees.
i do not contend that the watchtower would get rid of these repellent anachronisms simply because they are unethical in form and use but rather that they represent an increasing liability/obstacle to the organization's survival.. why?.
1) such committees tend to open up all sorts of legal challenges and dangers.
Isn't the CO still appointed by the GB? If this is still the case, then the Borg would still be legally liable, as the CO is their appointee. However, if the CO was elected by the elders of the Circuit he would be their man. Any problems that would result could be considered a local problem, and not involve the Watchtower Corp.
It's doubtful that the GB would relinquish their power by giving the local elders the opportunity to choose their own CO. It could even lead to the local congregations electing their own elders.
this is what i found at anointedjw.org.
i don't know if it's true.
on august 25, 2014, we received the following comment and inquiry: .
While it's possible that several members of the WT writing department resigned, I seriously doubt that any members of the current GB have any pangs of conscience. The new GB members are hardcore party hacks, groomed by Ted Jarecz and selected by him. Any conscience, if they had one to begin with, was left behind when they were appointed to leadership positions in the Borg.
i got woken up by a very strong quake at 3:30 this morning.
it was 6.0 centered about ten miles from my house, up in napa, ca.
we had no damage, but it definitely gets you it of bed!
We live about 40 miles west of Napa and we felt the quake. At first we thought a large animal had jumped on the roof as the noise woke us up. Fortunately there was no damage.
My wife's family in San Francisco also felt the quake.
