Posts by Reefton Jack

55

Declining Meeting Attendance-CO visit

by TheListener in

so we have our circuit overseer this week.

we're getting the crap kicked out of us (figuratively) for our meeting attendance.

we have attendance in the 70% range for some of our meetings.

Reefton Jack

This is following the comment by "doinmypart' that the "WT Hierarchy is so consumed with numbers."

The reality is that the WTS is totally obsessed with numerical increase - and cares nothing for the welfare of people.

Apparently, this is a legacy of Nathan Knorr - who took to running the "Organisation" like it was a business:

e.g. God (I'm sorry,Jehovah!) help you if you did not place your twelve magazines per month ,

-Or "Get" your ten hours in per month,

- or have the effrontery to actually MISS a meeting!

Poetic justice that this obsession with numbers is backfiring on them - and instead, is causing the numbers to fall.(Plus the fact that they talk a lot of pure s*#t to does not help matters too much!)

49

Did You Ever Enjoy Going To Assemblies and Conventions??

by minimus in

jw
friends

every january, they read the letter as to where you'll be "assigned" for the convention and then the our kingdom ministry will detail all the do's and don'ts to remember.

was going to these things ever enjoyable to you?

Reefton Jack

Unclebruce,

The character whose songbook you stole two years back could not possibly have been me, on two counts:

- I broke with THEM over ten years ago.

- One of the first things I did at that time was get to get both my NWT Bible and my songbook - then heave them both into the nearest fire!

15

Fired! -- Now what do I do?

by Inkie in

jw
friends

i was fired.

i can't believe it.

it has come as a total shock.

Reefton Jack

Further to Happydad's comment:

- Q.Where is the only place you will find a good lawyer?

- A. The cemetery!

49

Did You Ever Enjoy Going To Assemblies and Conventions??

by minimus in

jw
friends

every january, they read the letter as to where you'll be "assigned" for the convention and then the our kingdom ministry will detail all the do's and don'ts to remember.

was going to these things ever enjoyable to you?

Reefton Jack

NO!

Having grown up in a remote area, I never could (and still can't) tolerate crowds, and the feeling of being shut in.

I put up with it, though, for a long time:

- I thought that there must be something wrong with me

- That maybe there was a point that I was somehow missing.

Mind you, that mirrored my whole experience in my time with the JWs.

37

would you go back if...

by what_Truth? in

a member of the gb splits breaks away and takes a few billion with him.

he decideds to found his own church.

this church is almost exactly the same as the jehovah's witneses except for a few major changes .

Reefton Jack

Like hell!

F#*^ all bloody religion.

22

Encouraged NOT to have kids

by JustTickledPink in

jw
friends

i was just thinking about the publisher stats and the birth rate, that was mentioned.. do you all remember in the 80's at the assemblies everyone was encouraged not to have children, to spend their time pioneering, because at armeggedon and in the time of the "tribulation" that it would be difficult with small kids.... to wait until the new system.. i remember a couple that pioneered and she really wanted kids, so her husband made her a deal that they had to pioneer for 5 more years and if the "end" hadn't come yet, they could have kids.

i think they were reaching 30. i do remember 5 years went by and they had a son, that was probably 15 years ago.

can you imagine the people that followed the advice and now are too old to have kids, but spent plenty of time pioneering?.

Reefton Jack

Balsam's comments remind me of a magazine article early in 1973 entitled "Making a Success of Singleness."

We were all supposed to put off getting married, and go pioneering instead - after all, the end was coming in 1975, wasn't it!

Yes - the Society DID strongly discourage getting married / having children, and going to university (I was stopped from going to university by an elder. I also allowed the same bright boy to talk me into abandoning my apprenticeship 12 months later - yeah, the end was coming in 1975 all-right!)

26

The system of privileges in WTS - any thoughts on how it works?

by Pole in

wts has quite a few traits which are typical of totalitarian systems.

many of them have been demonstrated on this board (labeling, shunning, monopoly on truth, propaganda, indoctrination, polarization of reality etc.)..

there is one more aspect of the wts religion which can also be observed in most totalitarian systems and that is the system of granting privileges.

Reefton Jack

The "Diary of an Armegeddon Survivor" is interesting.

It reminds me of a line from one of Robert Service's poems "The Wage Slave"

- where he " .... didn't want to go to hellfire, like I' ve heard the Preacher say,"

"but didn't want to go to Heaven - not with some of the Preachers I' ve met!"

All your comments, though, give the lie to the Watchtower Society's line that all brothers who are "reaching out " for these privileges are doing so out of an altruistic motive - to "help the congregation."

20

How many of you still hope to live forever?and where,? based on what?

by ko38 in

.

call me crazy but from reading the bible ,assuming one believs it its pretty plain at least the earth will stand to times indefinate.please if you have an opinion please give the support to it.. thanks in advance.. i dont know nuttin.

Reefton Jack

We will all find out one day!

It would not be on earth, though -- for the simple reason that the sun won't last forever.

It will one day burn out into a "red giant", which would then completely incinerate the earth.

(This is a phenomenon that is observed already happening to other stars)

Admittedly, in the case of the sun, this is still a long way off:

-but remember - "forever" means with NO end.

My own feelings in the ten years since I broke with the Watchtower madness:

- I don't #*^~ing care!

15

Are U.S. witnesses still morally superior?

by spider in

from the perspective of a uk observer it seems to me that the divide between 'the world' as it is in conservative heartlands of the us, and the mindset of the jehovah's witness is getting narrower by the day.. is there really a big difference between a jw and a majority of people in such places?

in the newspaper today i read how the new film alexander was being slated for showing alexander the great as a bisexual.

the uk independent reported that one online critic has warned christians that are considering seeing the film to "speak to your pastors immediately because satan is attempting to enter your mind".

Reefton Jack

Regarding Alexander the Great:

-it is true that he had intimate male friends

- but he also married one Roxanne - and had a son to her, which surely proves he was bisexual!

50

How did you feel when you learned it was all a lie?

by what_Truth? in

bit of background.

i grew up as a jw i left the church when i was 14 because a ministerial servant who was conducting a one on one baptism study with me said that i couldn't ballance my dreams of being a professional singer with the so called "truth".

i stopped the study and told my mom i no longer wanted to be a witness.

Reefton Jack

Firstly, disgusted with myself for having been duped for so long.

(Ten years after breaking with them, I am still trying to figure out how I managed to fall for it).

I was also worried as to how to extricate myself - in the end, this cost me my family.

Of course - I remain angry as all hell for having my life totally screwed up by a bunch of old #*$^&s in Brooklyn!