donny

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Posts by donny

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  36

  Leaving the Organization but not the teachings

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when i left the witnesses in 1992 after ten years in the orgainzation, i got as far away from the teachings and mindest as i could.

  however some, like my former brother-in-law, also left, but are intent on finding ways to reform the society from within since he believes in the society as being of god, but that it has become misguided and is slowly drifting to "christendom" status.

  one of the things he cites as evidence is the wtbts become aligned with the united nations.

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  donny

  When I left the Witnesses in 1992 after ten years in the orgainzation, I got as far away from the teachings and mindest as I could. However some, like my former brother-in-law, also left, but are intent on finding ways to reform the Society from within since he believes in the Society as being of God, but that it has become misguided and is slowly drifting to "Christendom" status. One of the things he cites as evidence is the WTBTS become aligned with the United Nations. Why would someone see many of the same lies, false prophecies and other missteps as most of us here, yet still believe this organization has some kind of special place in Gods heart and just needs a spiritual spanking?
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  36

  Disfellowshipped for Beavis and Butthead

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  a friend (who no longer attends meetings) told me about an incident about seven years ago in north carline involving one of her male friends.

  this friend has ceased believing the society's diatribe for some time and was only staying in it in order to associate with friends and family.

  he had visited a friend in a town about 30 miles away and heard a sunday talk from one of that congregations elders.

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  donny

  No, this guy did not work for the CIA. My original post was somewhat unclear, but this brother was a Ministerial Servant at the time and had installed the the sound system himself and knew there was a small void space under the sound board where he could hide the cassette player. This sound board had two extra auxillery inputs and this is where he hooked the cable coming from the cassette. He said all the had to be done was pull down the slider control of that channel, but they did not know where it was coming from since they could not visibly see anything. He said one of the elders thought it was being broadcast to the system via a radio signal.
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  60

  are mixed race marriages ok?

  by Star57 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  does the bible say anything about people marrying other races???

  im white, and my boyfriend is iraqi, is this okay?

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  donny

  I knew one couple that said they were a mixed race couple because she was a sprinter and he ran long distance.
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  36

  Disfellowshipped for Beavis and Butthead

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  a friend (who no longer attends meetings) told me about an incident about seven years ago in north carline involving one of her male friends.

  this friend has ceased believing the society's diatribe for some time and was only staying in it in order to associate with friends and family.

  he had visited a friend in a town about 30 miles away and heard a sunday talk from one of that congregations elders.

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  donny

  A friend (who no longer attends meetings) told me about an incident about seven years ago in North Carline involving one of her male friends. This friend has ceased believing the Society's diatribe for some time and was only staying in it in order to associate with friends and family. He had visited a friend in a town about 30 miles away and heard a Sunday talk from one of that congregations elders. After the meeting was over he discovered that this elder would be giving a talk in his congregation in two weeks and so he set forth to have a little fun at his expense. In the talk, the elder asked the question "When is Armageddon coming?" two or three times, followed by some mumbo jumbo Society logic. Since my daughters had help install the current sound system in his Hall and he knew a lot about sound systems, he wired a remote-controlled cassette that was hidden under the sound board in a void space. On this cassette was a few "Huh huh huh's" from Butthead and a "Boinnnng!" from Beavis. When the elder began his talk, this guy had a radio remote control in his pocket and at one point the elder exclaimed "Many folks think the subject of Armageddon is a joke, but servants of Jehovah do not!" This was followed by a loud "huh huh huh" from Butthead via the cassette. The speaker just looked up at the ceiling and then continued, meanwhile a couple of elders went back to the sound room to see if the brother running the sound knew anything about it, which of course, he did not. Later in the talk the elder read a comment about a trumpet sounding which was followed by a Beavis "booiinngg" which actually drew some laughter from the audience. The elders who had went back to the sound room earlier did so again and while they were looking at the sound equipment, the speaker asked "So when is Armageddon coming?" This was immediatley followed by Butthead saying "He said 'coming' huh huh huh huh huh huh". Finally the brothers turned off the sound and the speaker has to finish his talk without the sound system. The guy who had done this got so broke up by the reposnse after the last comment that the elders told him to wait till after the meeting so they could speak with him. Needless to say, he did admit to it and was disfellowshipped because he would not repent.
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  24

  Uncaring Attitude of the Society

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i just read the account of a an elderly lady who passed out in a distict convention in canada today (06/20/08).

  it seems that as some of the attendees were trying to help by doing cpr, the "brother" on the platform a few feet away speaking did not even pause.

  when his talk ended a few minutes later and the lady was still being tended too, the platform folks just announced the next speaker as if nothing was happening.

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  donny

  I just read the account of a an elderly lady who passed out in a Distict Convention in Canada today (06/20/08). It seems that as some of the attendees were trying to help by doing CPR, the "brother" on the platform a few feet away speaking did not even pause. When his talk ended a few minutes later and the lady was still being tended too, the platform folks just announced the next speaker as if nothing was happening. This account reminded me of similar acts I encountered while in the J.W.'s that showed they had no compassion. Back in the late 80's, I was at a Circuit Assembly that was held in an old movie theatre that the Witnesses had bought and converted into an Assembly Hall. In the afternoon program part of a light fixture near the front fell and struck a man sitting two rows from the front and while you heard some gasps from the audience and some of the "security" detail went to render aid, the brother speaking did not miss a beat and even spoke a little louder as if to direct the attention to him. I was really chapped about that situation.

  Later that year because I had to work a lot more hours to support my mother-in-law and her two daughters (my wifes much younger sisters) eho had moved into our home, I had to step down as a Ministerial Servant because I did not feel like I was living up to the requirements. Even though the elders tried to talk me out of it because I was always available to work wherever I was needed, I insisted that I had to step down as my conscience would not let me continue. Two weeks later when they read my steeping down notice, I expected them to say I was stepping down by choice so it would not infer I did it because of wrongdoing. Instead the presiding overseer got up and said "This notice is to inform the Farmers Branch congregation that Donny Reed has been deleted as a ministerial servant". It sounded so cold and uncaring that I did not attend meetings for several weeks. Unfortunately it would be another 4 years before I gained the sense to leave for good.
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  4

  Strange leaders in the hall?

  by lancelink in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was thinking about an ms from my hall in the early 90's.. he worked as little as possible, never made an effort to live up to the standards that the wt states are for any ms, but his brother was the service overseer, (the good old boys club.

  in action ) and he had some of the most amazing,weird theories!.

  out in service he would tell everyone how the us government was preparing holding areas for anyone who questioned the government.. sort of like the japanese camps from ww 2.. did you just see a black helicopter ??

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  donny

  We had a looney elderly lady in our hall who I believe was finally committed. I was at her home mowing her lawn when she brought be some cold water to drink and told me that the Apostle Paul was not the bald headed man as portrayed in the Society's drawings. She said he often had dinner with her on Thursday and Saturday evenings and that he had a full head of hair. Also, just so everyone knows, he was a very humble man as the clothes he had on were made by Levi's. And I had to listen to this and say "That's very interesting sister Johnson."
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  14

  Funny experiences while a JW

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  do any of you have any funny experiences while you were part of the jw machine?

  back around 1986 i was the ministerial servant in charge of running the sound board in the kingdom hall for our congregation.

  we were the last ones to meet in the hall on weekdays (friday) and the first ones to meet on sunday.

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  donny

  Do any of you have any funny experiences while you were part of the JW machine? Back around 1986 I was the ministerial servant in charge of running the sound board in the Kingdom Hall for our congregation. We were the last ones to meet in the hall on weekdays (Friday) and the first ones to meet on Sunday. This was a convenient arrangement since my then-wife was always running chronically late and we often arrived minutes before the meetings began. As a result, I got in the habit on Fridays of looking up in the Watchtower the song that would be used on Sunday mornings and placing the said cassette in the machine and cueing it up. That way all I had to do was turn on the machine and press play. As time went on I got pretty good at this process and it saved me from trying to locate the cassette at the last minute when we arrived just as the meeting was about to begin. But alas, all good things must come to an end. One Friday I had placed the Sunday morning song cassette as I had been doing for some time, but unbeknowst to me, some Witnesses from another congregtion that used the same Hall came in on Saturday to clean it I guess one of them decided to to listen to music over the sound system while they cleaned but forgot to take their cassette out when they were done. Sunday morning we were running late again and we arrived about a minute before the meeting was to start. I rushed to the sound booth and got seated just as the Presiding Elder was about to begin the Watchtower study. I cued his micorphone and he welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Farmers Brancg congregation and said "Let's all stand and sing song number 62. Song # 62." I immediately pressed the play button on the cassette and out poured a pumping beat and the words "Rock Me Amadeus, Amadeas! Rock Me Amadeus, Amadeas!" You could have heard a pin drop as I stopped the cassette and the only thing that broke the ice was the elder quipping "I said song # 62 Brother Reed, thats #87 which is next weeks song." Needless to say, I always checked from then on before hitting the play button.
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  19

  my inactive family hates that I researched why the jws are wrong

  by sosad in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  they don't want to hear it, they think i am being hurtful having so many books about cults, jws in particular etc etc.

  i never talk about it but they saw my bookshelves in my office during a recent visit and are besides themselves.

  they want to know where the anit catholic literature is - (my husband and kids are catholic, i am not).

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  donny

  I know the feelings described here very well. After I left the JW's, none of the Witnesses wanted to know why, they were just content on accepting the Society's designation of me as an "apostate". That made it easy for them. A few weeks ago an active JW that went to the hall I was a part of for a decade read my account on the net (http://members.aol.com/gismodfw/Donreed.htm) and wrote me an email. What was his problem with me? Did he have any rebuttal of anything that I had written? No! His charge was that "I think too much." Sad to say, that is a typical response from anyone in a "we're the truth" religions. Jehovah's Witnesses are deeply afraid to engage in any meaningful conversation regarding their history and how they supposedly were chosen as the faithful and discreet slave in 1919. As Ray Franz stated in his book "Crisis of Conscience", JW's are "captives of a concept" and Don Cameron researches this concept and makes an excellent presentation in his book "Captives of a Concept." If any witness reads that book and still believes the Watchtower is God's sole channel of communication, then they are completely hopeless and are no better than the idiots who followed Jim Jones, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite and many others to their demise.
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  10

  Ex-JW's near Morgan Hill, CA

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if there are any ex-jw's in or fairly close to morgan hill, ca please drop me an email at donnyreed!yahoo.com.

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  donny

  I joined because I used to be a part of the WTBTS monster for a decade (1982-1992). I have met very few ex-members since leaving and I came across the site. For more about my JW journey see http://members.aol.com/gismodfw/Donreed.htm .
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  10

  Ex-JW's near Morgan Hill, CA

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if there are any ex-jw's in or fairly close to morgan hill, ca please drop me an email at donnyreed!yahoo.com.

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  donny

  If there are any ex-JW's in or fairly close to Morgan Hill, CA please drop me an email at donnyreed!yahoo.com