frequently asked questions.
if i accept a bible study, will i be pressured to become one of jehovah’s witnesses?.
jehovah’s witnesses love teaching people about the bible, but we never pressure anyone to join our religion.
RULES & REGULATIONS:
As far as I was concerned, JWs didn’t have true bible studies. What they HAVE with potential recruits are really ‘literature’ studies.
It was a study of the Do’s and Don’ts of their religion..Their bible was picked up now and then and a scripture would be read to supposedly ‘back up’ whatever teaching they were highlighting!
i listened to geoffrey jackson’s latest talk “assisting our brothers materially “.
jackson presented some arguments, one of which was….jesus did not stop the widow from putting money in the contribution box in the temple.
basically saying regardless of your financial situation you have to donate.
ROAD TO NOWHERE:
Interesting that you point out ‘they look for some with the means to donate’. Well, isn’t this the truth?
These Witness hypocrites knock college/ careers and anybody with a decent job is criticized as ‘materialistic’ and ‘not spiritual’. This is why I’m glad I’m not sitting there now because I would refuse to be targeted to give money to anybody there. I know I’ve said this a million times and I can’t stress it enough.
I always said, even years ago, that I didn’t want to be anywhere near JWs when reality hit them. I meant it.
I got criticized and shunned for having a full-time job! Thankfully, I held on to this job until Retirement. If I had listened to JWs I would be in a very bad predicament now. I would be, as the expression goes, ‘Shit Out of Luck’. Therefore, I’m not in the least bit interested in anybody’s hard luck stories there.
Good luck to them but I don’t want these idiots coming anywhere near me.
YOMAMA:
Maybe yes in the circumstance of disfellowshipping. In this instance, the religion thinks it has a right to interfere with people’s free moral agency.
In other minor things though, when ‘dominant’ 🙄 people in a congregation decide they don’t like something or someone, anybody SEEN going against their opinion will become the object of their petty revenge. It’s the same in the world.
Even if somebody is not announced as Df’d they can still be shunned because somebody in a dominant clique said so. I had this happen to me and I knew where it was coming from. I ignored it. The problem with the shunning routine is that it only works with an audience. So, by my ignoring what was happening and not running up to somebody and saying ‘what’s wrong’, I deprived the shunner of their audience. Sure enough, it stopped but I was past the point of caring at that time.
Maybe I didn’t react or care about these Witness charades because I had no family in the religion and (thankfully) had my secular job and an acquaintance or two outside. Who can say? All I know is it was easy to ‘Fade’ when the time came.
I see you have made several threads and posts on ‘Shunning’ so I assume this has hurt you deeply and for that I’m sorry.
actually you can hear it from the governing body himself (jehovah's witnesses leaders) and visualise it with this video… .
welcome to jehovah's witness paradise!.
https://youtu.be/ssd0kymdzt8.
HOSER:
Good thought. That is a good fictitious description of the mindset behind how the whole thing would presumably work! All based on Fear, of course, because JW is a Fear-based religion.
Someone would ‘purchase’ the so-called warranty with their lifetime, meetings, $, recruiting new people to do the same thing, etc. and ‘maybe’ they can avoid that terrible fate and get ‘everlasting life in a new system’. The problem is (as you pointed out) there were so many past warranty periods the religion went through. Many people are dead and gone. But, yet the religion wants desperately to hang on to that ‘devotion’! They never really got any from me though.
PUNK OF NICE:
Yes, I can see there are some true believers on the forum.
a small incident happened to me today that has triggered me to say this.. how many of you have seen that jw are fairly hopeless and being anywhere on time.. an obvious one is the families that never miss a meeting and never miss arriving late with resultant fuss.
.
but in day to day things as well.arriving late for a paid job.. leaving early, ditto.. not turning up for a bbq without even a phone call.. being in all things disorganized.. and, how many of you have seen the above become the norm in people once they become jw that were not that way before....
HOSER:
I can certainly believe these nervy bastards would try to tamper with the lives of younger people there!
I remember the person who I studied with having the nerve to once say: “well maybe now is a good time to get fired”. Sure, what the hell did THEY care? It wasn’t their life.
They were old and collecting a pension from THEIR younger days in the workforce like other older people there!..But, yet these hypocrites tried to push poverty on ME. Different rules for thee but not for me? But, I would not be manipulated. They couldn’t stand a young woman who made her own way in the world..There was also a ‘misery loves company’ mentality or even a jealousy there I detected. I minded my own business but certain people there resented me anyway.
I am so glad I resisted these older Witnesses and their controlling nerviness!.. They made sure I wasn’t invited anywhere, but so what? I’m Retired today.
as the title says, we are nearly at the end of the 2nd year of the 2020’s, and already jw org is not only a car crash, but an absolute train wreck.. i’ve watched the annual meeting 2021 already, and it seems the gb are in fighting, morris openly disagreeing with lett, that is massive, and it’s something that has largely not been commented on by this community.
covid-19 is not going anywhere, any trial meetings will surely be shut down, now omicron is doing the rounds.. it looks highly likely we will see a second negative growth year.
“young ones” are waking up by the masses.
SLIMBOYFAT:
Yes, I’m sure it’s true that other religions also have people among them who may not truly ‘believe’. But, I do not believe it’s quite the same comparison to Witnesses who do not truly believe.
These people in other religions still attend or associate because some aspect is desirable to them. They can come and go and not give it a second thought..It is NOT the same with JWs because they are Compelled to ‘fake it’ because of the shunning, losing family and possible loss of business connections and in some cases employment - even if they are marginal (as I was but I didn’t need these idiots since I had a full-time job). JWs are under duress in a way. There are very real financial and other life consequences for them!
Also, people in other religions probably have worldly employment and can navigate their way through society. In contrast, not every JW can - especially if born-in. So, they Must make it look good and be a halfway decent actor.
Many JWs are waiting for the minute they can disappear or ‘Fade’ as it is known - in some cases changing phone numbers and not answering their doors!
as the title says, we are nearly at the end of the 2nd year of the 2020’s, and already jw org is not only a car crash, but an absolute train wreck.. i’ve watched the annual meeting 2021 already, and it seems the gb are in fighting, morris openly disagreeing with lett, that is massive, and it’s something that has largely not been commented on by this community.
covid-19 is not going anywhere, any trial meetings will surely be shut down, now omicron is doing the rounds.. it looks highly likely we will see a second negative growth year.
“young ones” are waking up by the masses.
RESERVATIONS:
It’s a train wreck for the JW religion for another obvious reason as well.
As you state, you are a PIMO elder. This means that if somebody were to do a headcount of professing ‘active’ Witnesses, there is No way of knowing which of them are secretly PIMO (physically in mentally out). Too many JWs are faking it for the sake of family, business connections, etc.
Therefore, the TRUE number of real believers is lower than what anybody really thinks. This number is always bound to go down by the deaths of older ones “dying off by the shed load” as you say.
It’s all very interesting..I also think the religion will change form and Father Time will tell.
would someone in the know please clarify for me some alleged comments given from the governing body at the recent/yet to be streamed for the rank and file annual meeting?.
it is my understanding that samuel herd basically tells the rank and file that old light is new light and the new light of july, 2013 is now old light.
to be specific, herd states that the official stance on whether or not the annointed remaining on earth, to include the governing body, will all be in heaven prior to armageddon.. at this same annual meeting tony morris iii tells those in attendance that stephen letts' statement that "we're living in the final part of the last days, undoubtedly the final part of the final part of the last days!
MAC HISLOPP:
It wasn’t my intention to point that out and I’m sorry!..I sent you a PM. Yes, it was surely a lifetime ago and many older JWs today are suffering if they heeded that advice!
Some think it’s old light, but is it really since they still say similar things?
OVERRATED:
I always felt they were parasites on society and shameless at that!
would someone in the know please clarify for me some alleged comments given from the governing body at the recent/yet to be streamed for the rank and file annual meeting?.
it is my understanding that samuel herd basically tells the rank and file that old light is new light and the new light of july, 2013 is now old light.
to be specific, herd states that the official stance on whether or not the annointed remaining on earth, to include the governing body, will all be in heaven prior to armageddon.. at this same annual meeting tony morris iii tells those in attendance that stephen letts' statement that "we're living in the final part of the last days, undoubtedly the final part of the final part of the last days!
MAC HISLOPP:
Thanks for posting the contents of that infamous 1969 article (52 yrs ago)..telling young JWs they will ‘never grow old in this system of things’.
Any young JW back then who based their LIFE on this article and did Not get a decent job/career and plan for their retirement are poor senior citizens today. Maybe this article is part of the reason I was treated so badly when I joined in the late ‘70s and was severely criticized and shunned because I refused to quit my full-time job. (Meanwhile, all the older people in the congregation were collecting THEIR pensions, because they were in the workforce!)
It can’t be lightly dismissed that my situation in later life would have been a hardship and disaster if I listened.. I’m Retired today and grateful I resisted all the criticism back then.
i was in the cult for years about 40. fourth gen born in cult member or for me ex cult member.
i have seen so many cult members who don't seem to really care if the end is near or not.
they are much more concerned with the idea that this is their social network and they need and or want it just the way it is.
MICKBOBCAT:
So, yes, I believe affluent JWs do not care if the end comes and Do see the religion as a social network.
However, if JWs aren’t doing well they definitely are wishing and hoping for Armageddon. There is an excellent thread on Reddit:..’Work Part Time and Pioneer, Jehovah will Provide For You’. There are so many tragic stories on there! One particular post is something I have heard:..JWs now pioneering, working part time crappy jobs and not putting anything into retirement who KNOW they are not going to be able to make it come retirement but STILL won’t do anything about it..hoping Jehovah will bring about the End so it won’t matter.
Yes, they want the system to end because they know they won’t be able to support themselves.
I always had a theory some JWs aren’t just lazy but really don’t want to hack it in a worldly environment. They like the controlled environment of the congregation and service groups where people are ‘polite’ to them whereas in the real ‘world’ people aren’t necessarily polite and a person has to ‘pull their weight’. Some of these JWs do not WANT to pull their weight so they take the gamble to be in the ministry and hope the End comes so they don’t have to deal with the consequences.
If I were around JWs now I would be walking a gauntlet of deadbeats with their hands out. No thanks!
