what would you think if i told you "last thursday i went to the service meeting at the kingdom hall to hear the presiding overseer give a talk from the platform.
most of us here know that to mean "last thursday i went to church to hear the head pastor give a sermon on the door to door ministry from the pulpit", a pretty common and straight forward event for a jehovah's witness.
i asked my pennicostal wife what she thought the phrase meant and she guessed it had something to do with slavery and human sacrifice.
In any group you are going to have terms that are unique to that group... but the one that really bothered me was calling it "THE truth" like the ABSOLUTE truth. Not the "maybe truth" no, THE truth. It just isn't right.
I started calling the KH a church when I talked about it outsiders. I was able to finally call it a "church" even though I was always told it wasn't... changing the terms actually helps in your recovery because you realize it's just a stupid label given.
my husband and i started adoption proceedings over a year ago so he could adopt my 2 sons from my first marriage.
well today we finally had the court hearing and guess what.................the adoption went through!
my hubby is now the boy's father!
CONGA-RATS!!! Yeah! for you and your family.
in it's own harsh way, bethel taught me some vital lessons about life.
work hard,.
play hard, drink hard and don't trust the goons in charge.. one of the scenarios that would replay itself over and over again concerned a subclass.
Very interesting post.
I think all the restrictions place unnecessary burdens on the people in Bethal. The ultra righteous might be sad people who are looking for validation in this world. You can't blame them for wanting to follow the rules and get acceptance, after all they are promised that God himself will favor them if they do this, this, and this. Then even after 20 years if they realize it's not right, what are they going to do? They've never held a real job, don't know the real world... they are stuck unless they have the a real survivor deep inside themselves.
I remember one of these guys, he took a vacation and stayed with a PO and his family. He wore the tacky hand me down clothes, he studied and read all the time. He was in his mid 40's and been in Bethel a long time.... and he looked sad. He looked worn out and sad. I can remember wondering how this guy lasted that long without having sex, and now looking at him, not that many girls would be attracted to him. No outside interests, pasty white skin, didn't work out, that robotic depressed state he was in.
there was a very well respected elder in my cong that i will call mr. r. this elder was a very zealous and pious jw and the po.
mr. r was of cuban descent and had extremely conservative veiws.
mr. r being the upstanding jw and elder had a very attractive wife and two cute kids.
This is EXACTLY what I was talking about the other day, when I said this organization BREEDS HYPROCRISY.
They lay out all these rules and people jump through hoops and many have secrets or lies they tell because they are just human. He hides he wants to look at porn, and since when is this grounds for a DIVORCE???? I thought only adultry was grounds for divorce, if it's on the screen how is it possible for his wife to get a "scriptural" divorce? And they DF'd him for this too. It just doesn't make sense.
They can't have their members not following every rule, yet many can't seem to be able to fit into the mold and do it all.... The honest people get DF'd while the people good at hiding and lying stay in "good standing"
It's all just craziness to me.
the mj case is predicted to last 6 months.
this time frame can have a very crucial impact on the jw org.
and their mishandling the pedophile problem.
You also have to remember his defense is that he's NOT GUILTY at all of doing anything. He's not trying to explain WHY he did do any of the crimes, he's actually saying he didn't do them.
Sometimes a guilty person tries to use mitigating circumstances, explanations, etc as their defense. In a case like that I can see his attorney using his childhood as part of the excuse. I don't see it being used in this trial though.
it's been so long since i've been here.
hmmm...suppose that warrants a new introduction, which will conveniently lead to the subject of my post: ahh the freedom.
i am twenty years old, with my twenty-one run fast approaching.
Not FAKING who I was anymore, I actually wear skirts that are short if I want to, I watch R rated movies if I want to, I drink what I want to, I have dated and lived with who I wanted to.
Keeping in mind I have never broken any LAW that is in place, I have never done ill to anyone. In fact I live a pretty decent, moral, kind, life.... and how wonderful it is to have the freedom to do that!
i had forgotten how much drama it is to deal with an elder who refuses to answer a direct question.
this isn't even bible related yet still he refused to answer my question.
first a little background.. last week my daughter missed detention.
Being ignorant is just plain old being ignorant. You're not crazy, he was out of line, whether you are a JW or not, you are the PARENT!
my wife is getting baptized on the 19th.. i wrote her a letter today.
basically i asked her why she isn't coming to me to find out my concerns.
i am the person who has the most invested in her.
http://www.nextwish.co.uk/1975.jpg
check out that link. It has a scanned copy of a Watchtower from 1968 predicting 1975 as the end of the world. They have had numerous false preditions, proving the are FALSE!
from the syracuse new times, 2/23/05:.
"no person left unpestered .
jehovah's witnesses in dearborn, mich., have been learning arabic as part of an effort to convert muslims.
I really wonder how Muslims are going to react to these people with a few "presentations" memorized in Arabic? I mean seriously, isn't this a bit much?
Why do Muslims have to convert to Christianity anyways? We don't all have to be the same, it's like saying everyone should wear green polyester. We are different, maybe the JWs need to take a class in cultural diversity and tolerance.
my wife is getting baptized on the 19th.. i wrote her a letter today.
basically i asked her why she isn't coming to me to find out my concerns.
i am the person who has the most invested in her.
Is there any possibility you could ask her to wait 6 months? Is there any way you could beg and plead and tell her to please wait 6 months, that you both need to talk about this, that baptism is like buying a house, or getting a 30 year mortgage that you need to be OKAY with the decision together as a family.
Buy yourself some time, offer her a vacation to Mexico, a cruise, something where the two of you can talk without constant interruptions and bring some REAL literature with you. Make her read Crisis of Conscience, ask her to read the book and if she still feels like she wants to get baptised that at least you will feel like she's informed.
Please buy yourself time.
