Posts by Terry

28

JWs And Superstitions

by NotFormer in

prompted by a mention in a different thread.. cracks in the sidewalk, a pinch of salt over the shoulder, black cats🐈‍⬛; do jws have such superstitious beliefs.

are they allowed to?

would they be counselled if the elders became aware?.

Right around the time of the release of the movie, THE EXORCIST, JW's suddenly went batshit crazy
with wild stories about demons and the boys at Bethel took full advantage of pumping up the articles and fomenting a crackdown on "objects" that could be "demonized."
Garage sale items were particularly suspect.
I think the Bible Students in Russell's time were more grounded in the traditional superstitions.
They even celebrated Christmas.

Memoir of a Pioneer Janitor JW

by Terry in

jw
friends

how to end a career as a jw janitor.

(a brief memoir).

there were ten of us on that crew.

Terry

HOW TO END A CAREER AS A JW JANITOR

(A brief memoir)

There were ten of us on that crew. Janitor duties.

Nine black men and yours truly

(six feet four inches and weighing one hundred sixty pounds).

The Crew Chief was not black. He was sleepy and named Ed.

Ed never took part in the cleaning.

His was a supervisory function.

He would spot-check and make sure we didn't steal anything expensive. Ed was not very competent in that capacity.

Ed mostly slept.

The building we cleaned was the local hometown newspaper,

THE STAR TELEGRAM.

(Remember newspapers? No, of course not - you are too young.)

_____

What now follows are three incidents leading to my "career change."

But first - a clarification.

1. I was an ex-convict fresh out of Federal Prison

(Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector).

2. I was a full-time Pioneer minister working part-time at a buck sixty an hour. I worked Midnight to eight a.m. shift.

3. Intelligence and artistic talent were not fungible in Fort Worth Texas for people like me.

Now - back to my story and the three incidents...

___________

Incident #1

____________

The first incident I'm pretty sure I've written about before.

There was a huge Wells Fargo safe in the Editor's office in a walk-in closet behind the desk. The door to that closet was kept locked except for this one occasion. It stood ajar revealing the magnificent locked safe.

It may have been locked - but - it wasn't safe!

Remember this story?

If not - you really missed out!

Briefly, here are the highlights ...

When I was in grade school all students had a locker and a combination lock. The unbreakable rule was this: ALL lockers must be kept locked! Always. Break the rule and they break your ass!

Well, okay.

However...the distance between my last two classes was three flights of stairs!

I had very little time to open the locker, switch out the textbook, lock up, and (don't) RUN up the crowded stairs to the last class.

So what?

So I - and most other students - worked the combination right up to a half-turn toward the last digit.

In the frantic mad dash process, we could run over to the lock and give a tiny twist and CLICK! Open! A sweet shortcut, eh?

Now - back to my Star-Telegram janitor sees Wells Fargo's safe story... (I know you're ahead me on this.)

As I was sweeping, dumping ashtrays, emptying trash cans - what did I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE - but - a combination lock and the instantaneous memory of my high school locker!

Yes. I simply hypothesized that ...maybe...the editor of the newspaper was once a lazy schoolboy using the same shortcut. Possibly?

You know how it is when you've been around convicted criminals a couple of years? Yeah - your mindset becomes polluted.

Cut to the chase...

I tried it. I HAD TO.

It would annoy and nag me forever had I not tried.

I had a 50/50 chance IF the shortcut was to work.

I tugged at the lock with gently pressure while s-l-o-w-ly turning the combination dial to the Right.

YIPES!

The impregnable Wells Fargo solid steel, six-inch thick safe door swung open. WOW!

Back in the 1960s employees preferred being paid in cash and the Star Telegram did indeed abide by this policy.

And yes - there were stacks of cash just like it is in the movies!

Payroll cash.

No checks - just cash.

Oh - and there was a bottle of Vodka too.

How did I feel? How would you feel if you were painfully honest??

It scared the crap out of me for about a dozen reasons.

I didn't wish to go back to prison. No no no.

I also didn't want to stand there eyeballing stacks of $$$$$$.

The gulf between honest and not honest is not as wide as you might imagine.

I quickly shut the door and spun the tumbler and rubbed my cleaning rag all over the door.

My heart was pounding like crazy.

My sense of outrageous guilt was overwhelming - and I hadn't even stolen more than that tempting glance!

That was incident number #1.

___________

Incident #2

__________

One night my boss Ed , the sleepy supervisor who often spent his shift snoring in a dark office, pulled me aside and spoke in a whisper.

"I work another job during the day and I'm so tired - I just need to get some rest or I'll fall down. I need you to keep an eye on Tyrone while I catch my Z's. I don't trust him. Okay - go to it and don't wake me up for ANY reason."

OH GREAT. Who needs that?

There was no way I was going to do that. I ignored his admonition.

Fast-forward a couple of hours and Tyrone had stabbed one of the other crew members. You know, as one does when bored.

It was nothing malicious. Just guys with knives messing about.

Should I wake ED and inform him or not?

What would you have done?

Personally, I have a hard and fast rule I absorbed from my prison experience. DO NOT SNITCH!

Consequently ...

Ed slept through the blood, the ambulance, the police part of the evening.

The next night, Ed pulled me aside with a peculiar look on his face.

What would you guess Ed was going to say to me?

Go on ...make your guess.

Okay. Time's up. You're wrong - whatever you guessed.

Ed said this to me:

"Thanks for not waking me up. I'm glad I missed all that shit."

Yeah. Amazing.

____

Incident #3

____

On my last night of work at the Star-Telegram building as a janitor

I found the Entertainment Writer, Elston Brooks, dead drunk at his desk.

At first, I thought he was just dead.

But as I got closer I could smell the "drunk" part of it.

Elston Brooks was a larger-than-life personality figure who wrote columns in a witty, off-hand manner and he hob-nobbed with all sorts of celebrities in his capacity as interviewer covering movies, actors, actresses, directors, etc.

Every city has a local celebrity like Elston Brooks, right?

I know I should NOT have spoken to him - but - I wasn't absolutely convinced he wasn't dead.

I followed my natural impulse.

I jostled his arm and spoke aloud:

"ARE YOU OKAY?"

Instantly, Elston sat bolt upright like a Army Private snapping to "Attention!" when a Sgt. walks into the barracks.

I won't ask you to guess what he said to me.

Nobody could guess in a million years.

Not even a million monkeys typing on typewriters random sentences could produce the words that came out of his mouth.

Here for the very first time, I will reveal it.

He spoke these words to my wondering ears:

"Steve McQueen and I -- in London -- watched a naked woman wrestle a panther in Raymond’s Revue Bar."

He then leaned to the side and hurled chunks onto the floor.

Noticing the mop and bucket beside me he squeaked,

"Clean that up."

Then he passed out face first on the desk.

Well - I did not "Clean that up."

I had had enough. My black mood about where my life had ended up had suddenly turned darker than midnight.

This was what my life had come to.

Mopping vomit.

I straightaway marched into the dark office where ED was snoring and shook him awake.

"ED, can you hear me? I quit."

He sat there blinking and not at all surprised.

He just sniffed and rubbed his eyes and told me:

"I could never figure out why a guy like you would do a job like this until I read your application. Go on. Get out. You gotta step down to step up."

And those words rang true.

Shortly afterward, I packed my wife and three very small kids into our car and headed to California to get a job as an artist instead of a vomit mopper.

"You sometimes gotta step down to step up."

Thanks, Ed.

70

Beards are now allowed - New Light

by Listener in

lett has announced in the latest video update that jehovah has dignified the brothers by now letting them to choose for themselves whether they want to have a beard or not -.

https://www.jw.org/en/news/region/global/2023-governing-body-update-8/.

this applies worldwide and to all brothers in any position..

Terry

HO HO HO?

10

The Strange Case of Jim and Sandra Melgar

by Terry in

jw
friends

by the time you reach the nine minute and forty one second mark you will know why i posted this.this may be old news to you - but i just discovered it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74s7jg1fdf4&t=582s.

.

Terry

In Texas we have OPEN CARRY (own a gun and wear it in public) and it's crickets all the way.
Nothing unusual in having a friend with many guns as collectibles but kept loaded in the house.
It's a "man" thing for the most part but not always.

28

Lawyers release survey on alleged Jehovah's Witness child abuse

by Tahoe in

a team of lawyers has released the results of its survey on alleged child abuse by members of the jehovah's witnesses religious group in japan.. the team held a news conference in tokyo on monday.

it provides legal support to former members of the group as well as to children of its members.. the lawyers conducted the survey, following the publishing of the health and welfare ministry guidelines last year about child abuse related to parents' religious beliefs.

a total of 560 people responded.. the survey shows 81 percent of the respondents said they had cards indicating they desired to refuse blood transfusions.. the ministry's guidelines state that parents' refusal of medical treatments for children on religious grounds amounts to neglect --- a form of abuse.. the lawyers said investigations are necessary to find how many people died from refusing blood transfusions, and how many of them were children.. the survey also shows 92 percent of the respondents experienced whipping, 96 percent were banned from school activities, and 93 percent were forced to limit their human relations.. the lawyers said many of the children experienced physical and mental abuse, which afterward led to problems such as loneliness, sense of alienation and a lack of self-esteem.

Terry

Fat Chance any active JW will ever lay hands or eyeballs on any of this...ever.
They live in a parakeet cage with the door open but do not fly out.
The public zoo here in my city has a "Rain Forest" with exotic birds, dripping water and vegetation but the surround access where patrons stand to watch remains in darkness. Those birds easily could fly out. They don't.
Ironically, the captive birds shun the darkness of freedom for the safety of imprisonment in the light!

9

GOVERNING BODY: the role of CONSISTENCY in identifying malpractice and malfeasance

by Terry in

jw
friends

consistency plays a crucial role in determining the inherent truthfulness of statements and sources.

reliability of information: if a source consistently provides accurate information, it builds trust and is considered reliable.

inconsistent information, on the other hand, can lead to doubts about the source’s credibility.. .

Terry

Here is a link to the entire compilation of Flip Flops compiled by ?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6a8Sp5_PSf-LWNoYWpNNjhwYkU/view?usp=sharing

another link to a different document
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2s6siGYikWHMGlhQk5FcmxWZWc/view?usp=sharing

9

GOVERNING BODY: the role of CONSISTENCY in identifying malpractice and malfeasance

by Terry in

jw
friends

consistency plays a crucial role in determining the inherent truthfulness of statements and sources.

reliability of information: if a source consistently provides accurate information, it builds trust and is considered reliable.

inconsistent information, on the other hand, can lead to doubts about the source’s credibility.. .

Terry

Beth Sariman hour ago

They claim to be Gods mouthpiece. Then exclaim to be neither inspired nor infallible.

And do not wish to apologize for anything whether people have been hurt or killed for their erroneous policies.
_________________________

TAKE ONE STEP BACK AND LOOK...
What do we see? A statement given by an attorney for the GB to mouth as often as possible.
To wit: We are NOT responsible for anything and therefore we cannot be HELD responsible for anything.

Therefore: DO WHATEVER WE SAY if you are dumb enough to believe God is using us to tell you what to do.
But don't blame us if it goes disastrously wrong for you.

9

GOVERNING BODY: the role of CONSISTENCY in identifying malpractice and malfeasance

by Terry in

jw
friends

consistency plays a crucial role in determining the inherent truthfulness of statements and sources.

reliability of information: if a source consistently provides accurate information, it builds trust and is considered reliable.

inconsistent information, on the other hand, can lead to doubts about the source’s credibility.. .

Terry

Soon (if not already) this religion (which began - ironically - anti-organization and anti-religion) will
avoid disfellowship of PIMO by a neat trick it has already begun to use:
IF YOU DISAGREE you have DISASSOCIATED yourself.
The GB avoids being the bad guy. The "My way or the highway" authoritarian stance attracts
condemnation in several nations and loses them charity status and (worst of all monetary stipends.)
POWER always multiplies itself in governance. How this is revealed is usually in the multiplying
of RULES. The more rules that appear, the more opportunities to exert Control.

Abuse of power creates ugly mental health problems for the underlings/true believers.
The more intelligent members can only cope by believing two opposites simultaneous
and consequently living two lives (one hidden).
Self-worth in a society of slavery is achieved through service. Approval is sought by obedience.

The GB is like that Sci-Fi Head with tentacles :

MERELY THINKING UP RULES and COMMANDING COMPLIANCE while those enslaved carry them out.
Shameless as this is they publicly declare for themselves AMNESTY by saying "We owe no apology for getting it wrong - this is how Jehovah does business."
Oh - okay - if YOU say so.
ALL THE EMBARRASSING BELIEFS we all believed will be REMOVED one by one.
BLOOD - for example. Watch it disappear from contention. It is happening right this minute.

Like a snake shedding its skin - what is emerging is a new kind of serpent much larger, much more cunning.
And completely without shame or blame but with the same old game.
DO AS WE SAY - WE ARE THE CHRIST. (Actually, they are the blushing bride.) :)

9

GOVERNING BODY: the role of CONSISTENCY in identifying malpractice and malfeasance

by Terry in

jw
friends

consistency plays a crucial role in determining the inherent truthfulness of statements and sources.

reliability of information: if a source consistently provides accurate information, it builds trust and is considered reliable.

inconsistent information, on the other hand, can lead to doubts about the source’s credibility.. .

Terry

Consistency plays a crucial role in determining the inherent truthfulness of statements and sources.
Here’s how:

Reliability of Information: If a source consistently provides accurate information, it builds trust and is considered reliable. Inconsistent information, on the other hand, can lead to doubts about the source’s credibility.
Verification of Facts: Consistent information across multiple independent sources can help verify the truthfulness of a statement. If there are inconsistencies, further investigation may be needed.
Logical Consistency: Statements that are logically consistent (i.e., they do not contradict each other) are more likely to be truthful. Logical inconsistencies often indicate errors or falsehoods.
Temporal Consistency: If a source’s statements remain consistent over time, this can indicate a commitment to truthfulness. Sources that frequently change their statements may be seen as less reliable.

It’s also crucial to be aware of the potential for consistent misinformation, where false statements are repeated consistently to give the illusion of truth. Critical thinking and fact-checking are always necessary when evaluating the truthfulness of statements and sources.

EXAMPLES

Here are some of the doctrinal changes in the Jehovah’s Witness interpretations from 2017 to 2023:

New Light Doctrine: The Governing Body (GB) discusses questions and if unanimous, they announce it as new light 1.
Imperfection of the GB: The GB are imperfect and sometimes make mistakes. They are not to apologize or even admit they were wrong 1.
Resurrection Doctrine: It used to be that if you were disfellowshipped and died before Armageddon you would be resurrected unless you were really bad. Now, they are saying pretty much everyone will make it through and then during the 1000 year reign everyone can decide if they want to live in paradise 1.
Reporting Ministry: No more reporting ministry only that you participated in some form 1.

Please note that these changes are based on the information available and there might be more changes not listed here. For a more comprehensive list, you might want to check out resources dedicated to tracking changes in Jehovah’s Witness doctrine 2 3.

_________________
(Note: last updated back in 2017)

https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive

3

Governing Body as an UNRELIABLE AUTHORITY and the Consequences of its Misjudgments

by Terry in

jw
friends

i've been experimenting with artificial intelligence as a research tool and for its lightning quick ability to summarize and convert information about the watchtower org into an essay.

the following is the result of 2 separate text prompts.

the first is in the form of a final argument before a jury.the second is a breaking down of the analogy between legal liability in healthcare and tying it in with religious authoritymalpractice.

Terry

Speaking of Malpractice:

The Maya Kowalski lawsuit vs John Hopkins is a medical malpractice case that involves allegations of false imprisonment, battery, negligence, and emotional distress. The lawsuit was filed by the family of Maya Kowalski, a 17-year-old girl who suffers from complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a chronic pain condition that affects her limbs. The family claims that Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, wrongfully separated Maya from her mother, Beata Kowalski, who later committed suicide, and mistreated Maya during her involuntary hospitalization for three months in 2016 and 2017. The family also accuses the hospital of sexually abusing Maya while she was under their care.

The lawsuit gained public attention after a Netflix documentary titled “Take Care of Maya” was released in June 2023, which chronicled Maya’s journey with CRPS and her family’s struggle with the hospital. The documentary showed how Maya’s health improved after she received an unconventional treatment in Mexico, where she was given a high dose of ketamine and induced into a coma. However, when Maya experienced a flare-up of pain and was taken to the emergency room at Johns Hopkins, the hospital staff suspected that her mother was suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare mental disorder that causes a person to fabricate or induce illness in another person, usually a child. The hospital then reported the family to the state authorities, who removed Maya from her mother’s custody and placed her in foster care. The hospital also subjected Maya to various forms of abuse, such as forcing her to strip down to her underwear, putting her under video surveillance, and kissing and touching her inappropriately.

On November 9, 2023, a Florida jury found the hospital liable on all counts against it and awarded the Kowalski family more than $261 million in damages, including $211 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages. The jury also found that the hospital intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Maya and caused her mother’s death. The hospital has denied the allegations and said that it acted in the best interest of Maya’s health and safety. The hospital also said that it initiated an internal investigation and contacted law enforcement as soon as it became aware of the sexual abuse claims. The hospital is expected to appeal the verdict.