Posts by LongHairGal

13

JW Ranking System

by NotFormer in

it's fairly evident to little old outsider me that the organisation has a class system, perhaps even a caste system.. from what i've read, there seems to not only be an official ranking system (m.s., elder, c.o.

) but an unofficial one.

has anyone ever sat down to figure out what the unofficial ranks are and how they affect the pecking order?

LongHairGal

NOT FORMER:

The Jehovah’s Witness religion most certainly does have a class and a caste system.

I was raised Catholic and maybe this was why I was not impressed by any of this. I did not ‘aspire’ to be a pioneer and couldn’t see what all the fanfare was about. My eyes would glaze over when people told me I was missing out on ‘blessings’ because I worked at a full-time job. Thank God I ignored them.

What the religion cannot be forgiven for is engendering hateful attitudes.

People not wanting to work is one thing (there are lots of lazy people); however.. throwing hatred towards somebody who does work is another thing entirely.. Nope. No forgiveness. This is why I have No pity for broke pioneer senior citizens in the religion and Glad I’m not around them.

25

Trump assassination attempt??

by Diogenesister in

it happened at a rally in pennsylvania, apparently.

he seems ok i've seen a photo of him bleeding from his ear.

this is absolutely nutso....if it's too it doesn't surprise me the way they constantly describe him as "far right" and that his supporters are "maga republicans".

LongHairGal

DIOGENESISTER:

Yes, I just learned this. I read that the shooter and one other person are dead. I believe that DT suffered a wound to his outer ear. I am hoping it wasn’t worse.

I guess we have to stay tuned for more news.

43

Members of congregation know it’s not true

by Mikejw in

we have lonely old folks and even some not so old.. they know the gb are not who they claim to be.. but they stay in the congregation because they are lonely.

i wonder what percentage of jws this is the case, i would guess a lot.

.

LongHairGal

VIDIOT:

That was ME who said that about ‘the incredible shrinking religion’.

While this is no concern of mine since I am long Out (and never depended on anyone because I worked).. it should be of considerable concern to Witnesses who perhaps didn’t work decent jobs and are on the needy side.. Every now and then an elder or somebody discreetly helps them.

When more elderly pass away and others leave and halls get sold, etc. these needy JWs who bought into all the religion’s nonsense hook, line and sinker.. are in trouble. The religion (or community) they depended on to have a physical presence either won’t be there OR will be far away….Just sayin’

27

Awake 1976 - Should a Pocket Calculator Be in Your Pocket?

by Ron.W. in

awake 1976 - should a pocket calculator be in your pocket?.

somehow this totally zany 'bible based' article passed me by first time around!.

anyone remember it?.

LongHairGal

VIDIOT:

You might have a point there where you say “they never seemed to particularly want overly good-looking members”.

If somebody didn’t understand the whole thing they might say this sounded ridiculous. But, in fact, somebody overly attractive, flashy or whatever would be seen as a distraction 🙄 to some morons there.. The religion got too populous and started to get choosy and arrogant about a lot of things - hence all their stupid rules.. I think they even seemed to like the idea of disfellowshipping people - thinking the persons were going to come crawling on their belly begging to be reinstated in this ‘special’ place.. Some idiot elders were probably salivating over this and ‘playing God’.

Now, they can hardly keep people in the religion as members are fed up and leaving in droves. Oh, well. That’s what faulty teachings, meddling in people’s lives and failed predictions will get you!.

Now they have to resort to special campaigns to entice people back into the religion who have been long out! .. Well, this serves them right and they deserve to have nobody there.. Hopefully the last person out of this charade will remember to turn off the lights!

43

Members of congregation know it’s not true

by Mikejw in

we have lonely old folks and even some not so old.. they know the gb are not who they claim to be.. but they stay in the congregation because they are lonely.

i wonder what percentage of jws this is the case, i would guess a lot.

.

LongHairGal

NO-ZOMBIE:

I think you are probably right.

But, that group of ‘hardcore believers’ (like the few acquaintances I have left there) are older people. They are on the younger spectrum of the Boomer category.. What happens when their older friends pass away? I don’t think they are close to any younger people.. And I doubt the younger people are going to stick around for very long anyway.

My acquaintances attend on Zoom and I am not sure if they ever attend in person. But, If the religion decides to sell off even more halls so that they would have to drive too far - it’s almost like a game of musical chairs where someone is left standing without a chair. The missing chair being the missing hall.. It just seems to me the JWs are becoming the incredible shrinking religion.

83

Lines you would never hear from a Jehovah's Witness

by Ron.W. in

a slightly tongue in cheek, but also serious roundup of jw speak and why trying to reason with them is like trying to chip through concrete with a plastic spoon.. how many can you think of??.

elder: 'yes.

i read through the material you asked me to at your judicial meeting - you're right we're both in a cult!

LongHairGal

Lines I would never hear from Jehovah’s Witnesses:

””Dear Sister Full-Time Worker, You were so right to hold onto your full-time job and resist all the criticism of people in the congregation who were just plain wrong for meddling or who didn’t know better. We realize you had to support yourself and prepare for retirement. We also apologize for our unchristian behavior and hypocrisy since the older people there were collecting their pensions. We are sorry for engendering class distinctions in the congregation. Sorry for being unfriendly and not inviting you.. We realize the religion recently dropped the hourly reporting of time (which you were judged on) and you are probably glad now you never followed this man-made rule. So many others have regretted this in their senior years. Again, somebody else’s spirituality is not something other people should be judging.””

This is a tall order and I doubt I would ever hear these words.. But, if such a weird thing should occur - I will let everybody know.🤣

19

Is There Some Sort of Campaign Going on?

by NotFormer in

jw
friends

a pair of young blokes came to my door @ 10am (ish) today (wednesday, if that matters).

i opened the door a crack to : hi!

just asking a question: do you think that the world is getting better or worse?*".

LongHairGal

NOT FORMER:

There has been a campaign of sorts going on in the recent months.

The religion has ‘decreed’ people can invite disfellowshipped persons to a meeting or ask them if they ‘want to come back’. There have been many reports of people who have been out for ages getting phone calls, texts, visits or mail either by JW relatives, elders or old friends just looking them up now because they have ‘permission’.🙄

51

Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....

by WingCommander in

jw
friends

i still read on reddit.

(though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.

it's been a long time.

LongHairGal

WING COMMANDER:

Another excellent thread!.. I also do not believe the Witnesses have 8 million members now.. Maybe at some point in the past they did!

I believe all religions are seeing a decline as the world has become more secular. . Also, part of the reason I think is many people don’t want to live by any sexual morality code!.. There, I said it.

As far as those other religions that have eerie similarities to the JWs, any Witness who sees these similarities in the religions (Mormons, SDAs, etc.) should wake up!… I know it made me angry when I first saw this years ago. I also asked myself whether they literally do use a similar playbook and who dreamed it up??

How insulting to everyone’s intelligence!

43

Members of congregation know it’s not true

by Mikejw in

we have lonely old folks and even some not so old.. they know the gb are not who they claim to be.. but they stay in the congregation because they are lonely.

i wonder what percentage of jws this is the case, i would guess a lot.

.

LongHairGal

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH:

I totally agree with your post.

The last few acquaintances I have in the Witness religion are in the younger Boomer age category. They are there because of ‘sunk cost fallacy’. In other words, they stayed at the party too long! These people also pioneered for long periods of time when younger and their income is now low. I can definitely see them asking the elders for help! They may know this and may figure they can’t leave because of this plus the ‘End is close’.

It’s sad because I remember everybody when young and so hopeful that the ‘new system’ would be here soon. NOW, they are older in a religion with faulty teachings and failed predictions!

I walked away soon after the 1995 Generation thing. I was on the ‘shit list’ because I worked full-time - and it was no loss since I had few friends there… But, I wouldn’t want to be in the religion now with all the needy people there who hardly worked.. Don’t want people coming up to me like I was their best friend…because they’re looking for money. I don’t need this.

13

JW Leaders Do Intentionally Torture Their Members

by FragrantAddendum in

that's one of the reasons they're being shut down.

LongHairGal

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH:

The OP certainly has a point and I agree with your post.

You are especially right that they use those JWs who suffered physically, emotionally or economically as examples to shame other people in the religion. This never swayed me and I don’t think it swayed the smarter older people in the hall. You didn’t see them suffering or doing without!.. Nah, that was for some other fool.

I remember the stories recounted about what Witnesses went through during WWII. These people were made to sound saintly. There was a lot of talk of being thrown in jail during the great tribulation and having to share your crust of bread! The point to all this as far as I was concerned was they were trying to get people in the congregation accustomed to the idea that they were going to have to suffer and endure things and that they had to be ready to ‘give’.

There was also an arrogant vibe that I picked up on from mostly older people there (who are gone now). They really did imagine that other people were going sacrifice for them.

Of course I observed all this but I never really took this to heart that I would ever do any of this.. I was the young person who didn’t pioneer and got knocked for working.