Midget-Sasquatch

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Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

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  23

  Research Data Wanted: Married to a JW or child of one parent in and the other not

  by Lady Lee in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am looking for information from several groups of people.. people who are no longer jws but have a spouse who is still in.

  never-been jwswas a jw (baptized or not) but left after marrying and spouse remained indfed, daed or faded and still have a spouse who is inchildren (now grown) who were raised with one parent a jw and the other never beenchildren (now grown) where one parent left the jws and one stayed in.if there are categories i have missed let me know.

  i need this to be pretty inclusive and focused on couples where one person is a jw and the other is not.. i will be asking questions re:.

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  Midget-Sasquatch
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  66

  That “C” word – CULT

  by Lady Lee in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  dear lee week 64 friday.

  this is my blog today for freeminds.

  thaoulgt i would post it here for you too.. .

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I wish I didn't lose the reference to an article in a sociological journal that I read (oh at least 15 years back). It compared the JWs with a few other groups like some protestant evangelicals. The authors concluded the JWs were a high control group but not a cult because its members lived relatively independently and there wasn't a clear "guru" or human leadership that was worshipped.

  If the authors saw the self aggrandizing of the GB in this last 5 years or so, I think they would recategorize them.
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  66

  To Dissassociate or just Fade into Inactivity ? Your Choice ? Reasons ?

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this has been asked before, however i thought it may be good for newer members of the board to read some of our reasons on how we decided to exit the jw cult and why we decided to do it the way we did.. first off - i have been faded for almost 8 years.

  essentially i decided to fade into inactivity and not da because i have elderly jw parents who would shun me if i did get dfed or daed myself.

  also- i like keeping open the possibilities that some of my many jw relatives may in time start doubting and have questions and reach out to me in my inactive state.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Slow fade. In the early part of it, they deleted me as a ministerial servant because of poor meeting attendance and inactive field service.

  I chose this mainly to keep my immediate family talking to me. Once I was freed from the tasks of a MS, I just started moving about to make the fade even more complete but my persistent family keeps telling people where I'm at and the sheperding calls are continual.

  I may just decide to simply DA myself just to end that horrid bother.
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  90

  Best way to step down from being a servant

  by RayPublisher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hey i'm wondering if anyone can give some good advice on how to step down in the safest way.. i have served as an ms for a number of years, but can't do it anymore.

  i know too much i want to fade in the future when i get some family things straightened out.

  i can't move right now so that's out unfortunately.. what should i tell the body?

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  DesirousofChange

  I'd say standards were lowered about 9 years ago, in that you diddn't have to excel at anything in particular (like pioneering). But there's also been a resistance to cede ground on a couple keys "standards". Namely: Field service hours have to be at the same level as the congregation average, and meeting attendance has to be better than average.

  Similar to what you said, whatever is bad optics cannot be overlooked by the BOE. It just drags down the numbers of the rest of the dubs.

  I'm pretty sure that the overworked and drained dubs would love to point to slacking MS and elders to justify their wanting (a very deserved IMHO) some down-time. While the self-righteous overly zealous dubs would love to look down on and criticize on the slacking servants.
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  16

  Simon... has the WTBTS ever tried to hack this site?

  by Alfred in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i've only been on this site for 10 months or so and i've already received 2 pms from members of this site (who have no posts)requesting my friendship and providing an email address where i can request a photo of the person... i happen to know that i am "marked", so i wonder if this is just a ploy to match my personal email address to the one the elders in my congo have... this also makes me wonder if the wtbts is behind some theocratic warfare strategy to obtain proof for judicial committees.

  i realize this is purely speculative, but i would be interested to know if the wt or any other party has ever tried to hack this site for the purpose of obtaining members' personal email addresses...

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  Midget-Sasquatch
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  40

  Question for the Athiests/Agnostics

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some people feel they need a religion, and need to attend a church.

  if such a person starts questioning the watchtower and they asked you "where else to go?

  ", what would you recommend?.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I agree with the suggestions of few posters like Talesin, to replace the need for community and the impulse to help others by volunteering first. They'll immediately feel they're making a positive impact and then they can slowly study up on different religions to sort that out.
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  90

  Best way to step down from being a servant

  by RayPublisher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hey i'm wondering if anyone can give some good advice on how to step down in the safest way.. i have served as an ms for a number of years, but can't do it anymore.

  i know too much i want to fade in the future when i get some family things straightened out.

  i can't move right now so that's out unfortunately.. what should i tell the body?

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  From personal experience as a ministerial servant, there's never a quick clean way of leaving the job except by moving away. They need to keep worker bees. If you want to give a letter they'll try to focus on how they can help you stay on.

  Initially, moving wasn't feasible for me when I was serving, so I basically just slacked off. They kept me on for quite some time though. I'm sure because nobody else wanted to do the accounts. They overlooked the fact that I never auxillary pioneered or stepped up for campaigns etc.

  Since the whole sham is about keeping in the drones and keeping up numbers, you'll have to be substantially less than the congregation average for field service. Up to you how close to inactive you think you can get before it upsets family.

  Again by experience: even with a combo of ~ 6 hrs per month and missing about half of the meetings ( in particular ones where you have parts), that'll get noticed. People will talk like they always do. The BOE will have to "delete" you, if you do that for a period of time spanning at least 2 CO visits. You're not helping with the load.

  Be prepared for about 3/4 of the self righteous dubs to treat you like you were marked when they make the announcement. \

  After that just move from congregation to congregation for different meetings (sporadically) and the fading should be on its way so long as you don't have persistent family nagging you.
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  31

  We have all fallen for a FRAUD(s)

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  any of us who were jw's fell for one kind of fraud.

  (faithful and discreet slave/governing body).

  we were perfectly sincere.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I'm familiar with most of the things in that list. I'm not exaggerating to say well over 90% of it. Now, that doesn't mean that I actually fully believed any of them 100% but was I was definitely fascinated with those sorts of things and tried to weigh out the arguments of both sides.

  Ufology was especially interesting to me. News clips like the recent one about a new book on the Roswell Crash still gets my attention. But they make me laugh now. Is it just me or are these kinds of things getting more outlandish?
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  26

  To All Elders/MS's/ Publishers Who Come Here

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the past, you were told that you have the opportunity to prove the devil a liar.

  this is a nonsensical claim, given that about 2000 years of martyrdom by christians has already passed.

  there's nothing left to prove or disprove.. however, you have the opportunity to prove that the watchtower society is lying: that their organization is unclean and overrun with corruption - as proven by an endless stream of elders/ms's and publishers who come here, wishing that they could leave.. you also have the opportunity to prove that their published statistics are false - by reporting fake hours and placements.. if they don't like it, too bad.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Trust me, as a former MS, its best to be totally honest about how very little time you put into the ministry. You're guaranteed to be offered sheperding calls, and multiple attempts by "friends", elders etc. to arrange times to go out together in service. But these people aren't blind to who is really there or not. Made up numbers are not something they'll approach you with directly but you're then watched much more closely on all you say or do.

  With the clear stance as inactive, you definitely can stem off getting even more work loaded onto you for congregation and schools parts AND better still likely get your decision to step down accepted with little or no hassle.

  Edited to add: I don't think we should underestimate the malaise that a once well respected MS or elder can have on the publishers as a whole if he/they slow down with service etc over time. Much more long lasting negative impact on the flock than just fudging the numbers.
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  149

  "Overlapping generation" explanation - TRANSCRIBED EXTRACT from Friday's talk (DC 2011-12)

  by AnnOMaly in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i thought this would be easier to examine if written down:.

  god's kingdom will soon come.

  so we know that god's kingdom will soon come.. .

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Are they saying that the age differential of children in grade school (say kindergarten to grade 8) is comparable to the age differential of the supposedly annointed from 1914 and those annointed of today?

  Yeah you might get by with saying that a range of children with ages within a decade of each other could be part of the same generation. In the other case though we're talking 1914 to 2011!!!

  They're trying to force the meaning of a "class" onto the word generation. Maybe its a lingering influence from the very old distinctions they made in the late 1800s between "this generation" and "the regeneration".