Reefton Jack

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Posts by Reefton Jack

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  31

  How Were You Affected By Elder/Ministerial Servants/Pioneer Appointments?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  were you ever affected by seeing a man or even a teenager being made a ministerial servant or a young man being appointed an elder-----knowing that the person is not really qualified?

  you could be thinking, "i can't believe he gets to be an elder when my husband (or brother or father or friend) is doing everything but headstands for the elders!

  " when such appointments were made did you see to it that you would not go to that person for direction or counsel?

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  Reefton Jack

  Forscher's experience with such matters could have almost been my own:

  - I looked after a Remote Group that was 160 km from its congregation.(Took the Watchtower study, the Book Study, some of the Service Meeting and Ministry School parts - amongst other things).

  - The Body of Elders told me that "nothing was disqualifying me from being a Ministerial Servant."

  - The Circuit Overseer said repeatedly that he "liked my teaching methods."

  Despite this, I was never appointed an MS:

  - somewhere, I must have managed to get into someone's Bad Books. (Either that, or I failed to kiss the right arses!)

  Soul Destroying was the feeling I had at the time.

  Now, I look on it as being a sad situation to be in when the most you can look forward to is becoming a Ministerial Servant or Elder.

  Jack.
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  37

  Do you not care anymore?

  by Pleasuredome in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  has anyone here got to the stage where they just dont care about the wts anymore?

  whether they exist or disband, whether its about doctrine and dogma, attitudes, flip-flops, what they think of you, scandles etc.

  would this be the end goal of recovering from the jws?

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  Reefton Jack

  I would describe myself as now being close to not caring a rat's ##se anymore about the WTS and their lunacy.

  When I get to that happy state of being 100% unaffected by my 28 years of WTS madness, I would then anticipate not caring anymore one way or the other about them.

  Jack.
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  23

  JW's and sickness

  by Honesty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did it seem to you that a lot of congregations had more than the usual sick people in them when compared with their worldly neighbors?.

  could it be a common problem among jw's?.

  do you think it may be mold?.

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  Reefton Jack

  In the circuit that I was in 16 years ago, 5% of the "publishers" were suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

  These included my wife, and my (then) 12 year old daughter.

  Conversely, since I broke with the JWs 12 years ago, I have never even HEARD of anyone suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

  It did indeed seem that JWs were more prone to these more obscure illnesses than others.

  Jack.
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  50

  Is There Anything That Would Make You EVER Go Back?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...."to the truth"?

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  Reefton Jack

  No b-----y way!

  Jack
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  30

  What is now the most accurate Bible to buy??

  by WingCommander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  now that i've read ray franz's part about how his uncle and others with little actual greek or hebrew training translated the bible into the nwt, i've been interested in finding the best bible out there is correctly translated by people who know what the hell they are talking about.

  niv?

  i've also been looking at other religions lately, ones that are "somewhat" close to the jw's teachings to an extent, and have been interested in seventh day adventists.

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  Reefton Jack

  You would not want to get the idea that the King James Version of the bible is without error.

  (As an eighteen year old "pioneer", I remember getting drawn into debates with some who were quite rabid in their belief that the "James" translation was the only one to use).

  For example, the KJV makes reference to a mythological animal, the unicorn.

  See Isaiah 34:8, Psalm 92:10 and Psalm 22:21 - amongst many others.

  (Incidentally, the King James Version translated the scriptures into what is now referred to as "Archaic English" of 400 years ago - not the "Olde English" of Geoffrey Chaucer's time, some 250 years before that).

  As for King James 1st himself, he was referred to as the "Most Learned Fool in Christendom." Dearth of scholarship in the biblical languages may not necessarily be confined to the WTS!

  Some of my observations anyway,

  Jack.
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  19

  Did your reading skills suffer from your JW experience?

  by Maryjane in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was a staunch jw and rarely read anything other than the wt/awake and newspapers (reading level - 6th grade maybe?

  ) prior to becoming a jw i could easily read a book a week...now it takes me forever just to get through one novel.

  has anyone else lost their reading attention span?

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  Reefton Jack

  If anything, I think that my reading skills were enhanced by being a JW.

  They certainly did not suffer in any way: - I was an avid reader before ever meeting up with the JWs, and I remained an avid reader afterwards (That was actually my undoing, I had to read anything I could get my hands on, including the stuff put out by the WTS).

  I agree with others here who note that ones writings skills tend to suffer from reading a diet of largely WTS written material. Particularly during the time of FW Franz, these were badly written.

  As my work (nearly said "Secular Work" - old habits die hard!) involves much report writing, I have had to de-train myself into a clear but concise writing style.

  My thoughts anyway,

  Jack.
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  129

  What are your most hated JW words and phrases?

  by Low-Key Lysmith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  mine are, in no particular order:.

  "the friends".

  "glean".

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  Reefton Jack

  "Immature" - that term used to be bandied around liberally when I first started attending their meetings.

  "The Work" - enough already said about that one!

  Jack
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  40

  How many here put "wrong information" on their profile?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just decided that i was a 36 year old female from kenya

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  Reefton Jack

  Mine is entirely correct - even my alias is a close (within 80km) geographical pointer.

  Jack.
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  62

  Do you have a good job, a crappy job or are you self-employed (happily?)

  by seesthesky in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi - just curious about how you all are making it - you working some shitty job?

  - a pretty nice job?

  - a damn rocking job?

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  Reefton Jack

  I, too, have a BS:

  - only trouble is, in my case that means "Bachelor of Stupidity"; and I gained it from 28 years of reading every word in every Awake magazine I could get hold of!

  My present job is crappy - at times in the most literal sense - as in last week when I had to pump out the septic tank in the power station.

  (Although being employed as the Power Station Foreman; in the remote Southern Highlands region of Papua New Guinea, you have to be ready to do just about anything.)

  On the plus side, for someone without any university qualifications (the BS excluded!), the job pays well.

  We also get flown out to Australia for continuous 12 day break every month - whereas I have had other just as crappy jobs where you virtually had to work 24 / 7.

  So, if you can handle the usual Third World countries' threats to your health - not to mention the dangerous law and order problems of this part of Papua New Guinea - the job is almost tolerable.

  This comes, though, from trying to find a decent job when you haven't got a university degree.

  In my case, as with all too many others who correspond with this discussion board - that situation came about courtesy of our beloved WTS:

  - All I can say to them for that is "Thanks a b____dy lot!

  Jack.
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  22

  "Neutrality" is Nonsense

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have observed some people drifting away from the watchtower who will acknowledge that most witness beliefs are false.. however, they may still cling to "neutrality" as a means of assuring themselves that "it's still the truth".

  the witness idea of neutrality is naive.

  as entire nations now mobilize for wars, the idea that you are somehow 'not part of it'.

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  Reefton Jack

  Some good points, Metatron:

  If you belived the WTS, the JWs were the only religious group that defied Hitler.

  According to them, ALL the others in Germany (without exception) collaborated with the Nazis.

  In fact, that was not necessarily the case.

  (This is aside from the fact that Rutherford initially tried to suck-up to Hitler).

  Jack.