having spent a couple of months in the world after a decade of devotion to the wt i have began to realise how hardly any of my friends have problems with illness.
it dawned on me a while ago that many, many witnesses have problems with health in one way or another.
how many times did you go to the hall and ask someone how they were doing to be told, 'oh, just struggling on', or 'i have`nt been too great' or 'i`m feeling a bit low just now'.
I can recall it being stated that within our circuit, 5% of the publishers were suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (that was in 1990).
Significantly, since breaking with the dubs 12 years ago, I have never encountered a single person who has this complaint.
Coincidence?
I don't think so!
when i was a kid, my parents (strong in the truth: father elder, mother regular pioneer) encouraged me to read.
in reality, they could hardly have held me back; i come from a long line of bookworms, including my father.
books were like water.
Concerning the "Jesus Eyes" bit - the territory that I "pioneered" in contained a significant number of persons who had that look.
As a callow, Witness (Witless?) indoctrinated youth, myself and others believed that such ones were "demonised" - and wanted to run like hell every time from such an encounter!
On another note; I too have always been an avid reader. Unfortunately, from the age of eleven onwards, I read every WTS book and magazine that I could get access to. (With a JW grandmother supplying the house with literature, that meant practically everything).
Growing up in a remote area, with no TV reception and well before the Internet was ever even imagined, this meant that WTS literature had a near total monopoly.
I now know why my life was screwed up so badly for so long!
i was in the first part of june 2003 that i began having serious doubts about the jw's.
at work we are given yearly performance appraisals.
i had just had my review.
These experiences are so close to mine that they could almost be identical.
During my late twenties / early thirties, my career went ahead in leaps and bounds. Whereas, in the congregation, I used to feel like I must have been invisible! This even went to the extent of instances where I was the one who initiated a conversation within a group. Once the conversation started, though, I would be left totally out of it (particularly if Elders were included in the group).
The only time this situation altered was when they needed work done on the wiring in the Kingdom Hall / Assembly Hall.(In those years, I was the only one in the circuit who held an Electricians Licence). Once that was concluded each time, the status quo was resumed - and I was "The Invisible Brother" once more.
Still, what else can you expect:
- when their sole gauge of a person's "spirituality" is the amount of time he/she spends peddling WTS products?
jehovahs (hidden) message revealed
by terry
walstrom
After a District Assembly in 1978, this question was actually put to Lloyd Barry and Ted Jaracz during a TV interview:
- i.e. If The End was so near, why was this warning not being spelled out in a sensational manner - and by using every means of Mass Media?
Another poster on this thread has already mentioned how JWs always appear as "Idiots" whenever they do appear on TV. That was just how Lloyd Barry came over when responding to that question!
He was saved by Ted Jaracz, who managed to skirt around the issue by talking platitudes about , of all things, "Freedom of Choice." (From the WTS - what a bloody cheek!)
As described by Terry, the WTS has indeed made itself " A mindless, faceless monster - with no soul to save, and no arse to kick!" (Apologies to the late Sir Henry Wigley).
- In other words, untouchable and accountable to no one.
are you pleased with your job or do you hate it, and if you don't like it then what would you prefer to do instead?
.
i work as a science teacher and i enjoy teaching so i am happy with it.
It is all-right:
- I don't mind the pay cheque
- Having 12 consecutive days off out of every 28 is certainly an attraction, too.
- Boredom is a complaint that I never have (Managing a power station in the middle of a malarial jungle; with a semi-literate, semi-mutinous workforce - you can imagine!)
It is probably about the best you can expect to achieve as a raggedy-arsed electrician, who was stopped from going to university by the wisdom of the WTS - and the dictates of the local body of elders.
Just the same, if I got my hands on half a million (e.g. winning the Gold Lotto, robbing a bank or something) they wouldn't see me for dust!
years ago when i was attending my old kh there was an elder that was very stern.
bro glen(not his real name) used to be very firm in telling students about their talks not being good, or where they needed to improve.
i know i was "terrified" of bro glen.
I knew of only one case of a "brother " beating his wife.( I know - one case is one case too many.)
However, hearing of all the other cases as described on this thread comes as no surprise :
- I can recall an instance early in my career with the borg, where one couple were having dificulties. The wife concerned did not take kindly to the WTS idea of "husbandly headship." One elder is on record as saying that, to settle the issue, her husband "should clobber her a couple of times".
If that is an example of typical JW "marriage guidance", what else can you say?
PS: As a 17 year old from a not altogether happy family life in the "world", this was my first introduction to domestic violence. So much for "Making your Family Life Happy"!
i`m new on here so don`t know if this subject has been covered, but i was wondering if anyone else experienced that overwhelming feeling at the end of assemblies, or when the c/o visited and gave his talk, there was a different feeling in the air, and i always thought it was `jehovah`s spirit`.
now i`m out and have learnt a lot about the borg, and know all their dastardly deeds, i can`t understand what that feeling was.
it can`t have been his spirit, as i don`t believe now that the borg is the `truth`.
The only emotion that I felt at the conclusion of an assembly was relief that the bloody thing was over.
Of course, you were not allowed to say that -so had to keep up the fiction that:
- It was "upbuilding"
- You could "feel Jehovah's Spirit"
- You could "feel the love"
- It was "sad that it was over"
Or the classic - "There won't be many more before the end of the System!
Jack.
someone asked a question in the "what generation are you" thread:.
were you "raised in the truth," or did you "come into the truth?".
i was raised..
Came in - sort of!
i.e. My grandmother became a JW when I was eight or nine years old. She saw to it that our house had plenty of WTS propaganda literature lying around in it. Me being an avid reader by the time of my early teens, and I fell for it!
Jack.
PS: It may sound hard to believe, but I don't resent my grandparents for this. They did believe that they were doing the right thing. (But then, didn't we all at one point?)
i am going to start this debate of by saying that those of us who were raised in the so called truth, and i being one of them, can only come to terms with our past by accepting that our parents infected our minds like a virus infects a computer.
we wouldn't categorise children according to their parents' political stance, since they are too young to make up their minds about such matters.
but they (jw) segregate them from the world.
After my experiences with the dubs - I, too, am "All religioned out"
Well said, Minimus!
Jack.
i was thinking about this, as i have a former witness friend who is showing signs of wanting to go back, even though they have expressed over the years a lot of frustration and lack of belief for the faith.
as much as i find their decision to be a mistake, i do understand why.
after all, unlike myself and family, i have never been shunned by the few family members left in and i moved on over the last decade to build new friendships and hobbies.
I got past the stage of wanting to manipulate others the day I broke with the JWs:
- Privately, I would probably take the view "It's your funeral, not mine" if I heard of anyone wanting to return.
Too many people died in two World Wars to uphold such freedoms as the Freedom of Worship. I would not want to try and interfere with that.
Jack.
