...if a group of worshippers gets too large, it takes a bad direction.
Ain't THAT the truth! I think that applies to virtually any type of organization.
Confession
JoinedPosts by Confession
-
12
Elders manual
by emptywords inwould appreciate if anyone knows what is in the elders manual that is so secret, (hand book) i have asked this before, but had to have certain key to have permission to open the guts of the manual.. would appreciate if someone could help with this..
-
-
Confession
-
12
Elders manual
by emptywords inwould appreciate if anyone knows what is in the elders manual that is so secret, (hand book) i have asked this before, but had to have certain key to have permission to open the guts of the manual.. would appreciate if someone could help with this..
-
-
Confession
It's true that the substance of the info found in "Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All the Flock" can also be found in other fully available WTS publications. But there are a few reasons that (I think) they keep it confidential.
1) Much of the information concerns how to establish the supposed level of "seriousness" of a congregant's sin and how to determine whether someone is (to their way of thinking) legitimately repentant. Placing this book in everyones hands would be like publishing a blueprint for "How to Navigate Through a Judicial Committee." They'd know exactly what to say, what not to say, and how to act.
2) Most WTS publications are written in a certain "voice." One that conveys that the organization is drifting along on a spiritual breeze of Holy Spirit, guided personally by Jehovah. But the voice of this elder's manual is a bit different as it teaches elders how to nitpick, poke and pry into others lives in a very "earthly" way. No doubt the boys in Brooklyn have satisfied themselves that such things are necessary to "keep the congregation clean." But they probably know that, if everyone read it, they'd begin to see the organization as less "theocratic" and more "human."
3) The information in this book--especially the marginal notes Circuit Overseers have elders write in--sometimes deals with very sensitive issues, including blood transfusions and pedophilia. The WTS (I'm sure) sees no point in providing anything to the general public that could be used against them later in a court of law.
-
67
Caught Wife Cheating
by roflcopter inso i posted a while back about my marriage problems.... whole new gambit thrown into the mix.
i've had suspicions all along that something like this might be happening... but only just not confirmed that she's been cheating on me... with another jw that she works with!
she could have been more discreet about it rather than leave all the text messages on her phone.
-
-
Confession
I only want to comment on your expression that you feel you've wasted the last 2.5 years. I understand the feeling and can't blame you for feeling it. But among those I've known who've experienced some of the most painful "lifequakes," I find that many of them have come to embrace these events as invaluable contributions to their personal wisdom. They wouldn't trade them for anything.
There may be even more sad things life brings your way. Try to understand them, use them, and your life will be richer.
-
33
The Village - Similar to the JW's?
by Good Girl or Bad Girl? ini just watched m. night shyamalan's the village, http://imdb.com/title/tt0368447/.
i've seen it mentioned here before that this movie reminds people of the jehovah's witnesses.
what things are similar?.
-
-
Confession
Could the forbidden shed = anti-JW material?
No one was permitted to look inside...
I'd say that, since the shed could be accessed by the elders--but no one else, it was more like the library filing cabinet and/or private "Shepherding the Flock" elders' manual.
-
33
The Village - Similar to the JW's?
by Good Girl or Bad Girl? ini just watched m. night shyamalan's the village, http://imdb.com/title/tt0368447/.
i've seen it mentioned here before that this movie reminds people of the jehovah's witnesses.
what things are similar?.
-
-
Confession
It was not long before my full awakening regarding the WTS that I saw this movie with my daughter. The similarities to the organization struck me right between the eyes.
One other parallel (I believe.) The "elders" were convinced they were doing what was right for the people of the Village. These things can start out with the best of intentions. But if, in the end, these good intentions create a world of lies, deception and manipulation, it is an evil thing. And those intentions do not redeem the evil.
-
9
TERRY IN SUNNY CALIFORNIA...
by Quentin interry has been in san jose, california this past week...below is an e-mail i got the first day...it's a hoot.
why is it that more often than not the beginning of a trip is so hectic and disorgainized?
1.where the luggage is.
-
-
Confession
I notice at one point Terry calls it "San Juan" instead of "San Jose." Which is it?
-
21
Crisis of Conscience
by sexyk ini ordered crisis of conscience a few minutes ago !
i've heard many great things about this book for people who have left the jw religion and were having a hard time, like myself.
for those who read it, has it changed your life in any way ?
-
-
Confession
For me, the level of indoctrination and mental enslavement found among lifelong, active JWs is demonstrated in the actions of people like me while reading Crisis of Conscience. I was a perfectly intelligent 38 year old man. When I began to "awaken" about the organization, I contacted a few people over the phone. Just to talk.
One of the people I spoke to was Outaservice--who started shipping me book after book, brochure after brochure, cassette after cassette. This included both Crisis of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom by Franz, and a slew of other books by M. James Penton, Carl Olof Jonsson, etc. He must have spent quite a few hundred dollars on me. (Of course, when I insisted I repay him and asked how much, he calmly replied, "Two thousand dollars." He wouldn't take a cent.)
I lived alone. But, since my 17 year old daughter would spend time with me during the week, I hid every tidbit of "apostate propaganda" in an extra large leather duffle bag of mine, stowing it deep in my closet. I was also concerned that the ladies who came to clean my apartment once a month might notice these books. Although neither of them were JWs, I worried that they might mention having seen these books to someone else who was--and that it might get back to the congregation.
Occasionally I'd take CoC out with me, but was so fearful someone would see me with it, that I'd hide it under other things in the car. I remember once being intensely paranoid, taking it into the waiting room of my doctor's office. Here I was, an otherwise normal adult, actually trying to hide the cover of this book with a magazine while reading it. Just in case. Having served as an elder, I knew how serious this organization was about apostasy, and though I already knew it wasn't The Truth, I still suffered from a strong, residual fear that merely reading a book was something to feel shame over. It took time to escape this institutionally implanted "fear of man."
For another account of an elder, beginning to read CoC, read Amazing's story here... http://www.exjws.net/pioneers/part1.htm
-
21
Crisis of Conscience
by sexyk ini ordered crisis of conscience a few minutes ago !
i've heard many great things about this book for people who have left the jw religion and were having a hard time, like myself.
for those who read it, has it changed your life in any way ?
-
-
Confession
I did not need Crisis of Conscience in order to see that the WTS isn't what it claims to be. But, after reading it, this fact became overwhelmingly confirmed.
You will never forget many of the things you read in it.
-
15
Do You Agree With This Quote?
by Confession inand, if so, why?.
"there is nothing that makes us feel so good as the idea that someone else is an evildoer.
" robert lynd (1879-1949).
-
-
Confession
Can you remember what it was sometimes like when a disfellowshipping announcement was made in the congregation? Faces were a bit more pious. Husbands spoke a bit more respectfully to wives, wives showed a touch more "submissiveness," and teenagers played the part of little angels. After the meeting, conversations had a decidedly more "appropriate" tone, although peppered with hushed expressions of self righteous shock over the announcment.
People were sooo glad it wasn't them.
It's not that you want people to be bad. It's just that--when people do something really bad--we feel very thankful we're not in their shoes.
-
89
Is WTS chronology flawed?
by cultswatter inhistorians agree that jerusalem was invaded by babylon in 586/587bce.
the wts discredits most historical records and says that jerusalem was invaded in 607bce.
the wts start with 587 and add the 70 years that jerusalem lay desolate to obtain the 607 date.. if jerusalem was invaded in 587 then it lay desolate for only 50 years (587-537=50).
-
-
Confession
Celebrated WT scholars have never held to a so-called 'flawless chronology...
Scholar, what of the WTS writings regarding 1925? Rutherford asserted that this was when Satan's empire would fall and when the Messianic Kingdom would be "fully established." About the certainty of this we read...
"This chronology is not of man, but of God. Being of divine origin and divinely corroborated, present-truth chronology stands in a class by itself, absolutely and unqualifiedly correct...." [Watchtower 1922 July 15, p.217]
These things did not come to pass as written, yet they claimed this chronology was "divine." And isn't "absolutely and unqualifiedly correct" another way of saying "flawless"?