Do you have a peephole in your front door? If you're not expecting guests and peek out and its the Men in Black, just don't answer. That's what we did when the CO and elder came to our house. There's nothing cowardly about it at all. They are uninvited guests. You don't have to answer the door. I strongly recommend against opening the door or having any discussion with them. If you must, tell them you will call them when you are ready.
LennyinBluemont
JoinedPosts by LennyinBluemont
-
46
C.O. is in town, the harassment begins...
by PeachRose ini haven't been to meetings in a long time (trying to fade).
ever so often i do run into a witness or 2 who are friendly, but reserved (after all i am considered in active).
anyway, my hubby & i are currently working on a letter to send to the society that will more then likely get us df'd or disassociated (same thing i guess).
-
-
-
23
Posting an image
by Quentin inwanted to see if it worked for me.... .
nope back to the drawing board....
-
-
LennyinBluemont
Yippee! It works!
Thank you everybody!
-
23
Posting an image
by Quentin inwanted to see if it worked for me.... .
nope back to the drawing board....
-
-
LennyinBluemont
Wahhhhh!! I want to post some pictures here too. Where's the instructions? I've tried copy and paste and nothing shows up. Do I need to load the files to another site and then point to that site? If so, what site do you recommend?
-
4
Thank you & update
by Ralon inhi friends,.
thank u all for all the loving comments and encouraging words in reply to me post "visiting after 4 years".. as requested here is a short update of what has happened since i left:.
during the search of my son and up to about a year later my wife took the jws side, more or less,she continued going to meetings.however,the treatment she received from the congregation was unbelievable !!!
-
-
LennyinBluemont
Have you already posted somewhere what it was initially that caused you to begin to see the truth about the witnesses?
-
68
Name the Books That Impacted You The Most.
by XJW4EVR inanything by raymond franz is a given.. 1984. siddartha.
lord of the flies.
grapes of wrath.
-
-
LennyinBluemont
The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life (Definitely the greatest impact as it resulted in 30 stolen years of life)
Trout Fishing in America - Richard Brautigan (not really about Trout Fishing)
In honor of 9/11, my favs in its aftermath:
Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them - Al Franken
Against All Enemies - Richard Clarke
Imperial Hubris - Michael Shoyer
-
9
Where Else Would I Go? The LONG Answer
by jwfacts inthe following is an article i have just posted at http://jwfacts.com/index_files/where.htm i have collected the information from a number of discussions on jwd.
i welcome any comments and suggestions.
?in the long run it is far more dangerous to adhere to illusion than to face what the actual fact is?
-
-
LennyinBluemont
THE SHORT ANSWER:
When JWs pose this question, it is because, in their minds, to leave means to step out into nothingness, which is unthinkable, because it translates into non-existence (read: "death"). The real issue is, if we are in a toxic environment, the main thing is to exit, not to worry about the next environment, and whether there will be problems there. To illustrate: If you are in a cave breathing toxic gases, should you worry about what the conditions are outside the cave, before leaving? What if it's raining? What if there's a hungry bear waiting? No condition imaginable can trump certain death. Whatever it is we will deal with it. We will not continue to breath that which is slowly killing us. The problem is, JWs don't recognize it is toxic. To help them to see this reality is the real challenge.
Lenny
-
3
Watchtower apologist website for UN issue
by LennyinBluemont inhttp://www.jehovahsjudgment.co.uk/watchtower-un-ngo/ .
i'm sure i'm not the first one here to "discover" this site.
there's probably a thread here somewhere responding to it.
-
-
LennyinBluemont
http://www.jehovahsjudgment.co.uk/watchtower-un-ngo/
I'm sure I'm not the first one here to "discover" this site. There's probably a thread here somewhere responding to it. (Any direction?) An XJW friend told me about it last night. It is extremely lengthy, and I read 80-90% of it. For starters, here are some of my reflections:- He never once addresses the fact that the Society has remained as silent as death on this topic. If there is nothing to be ashamed of, why are they letting free-lancers like this guy, do their defending for them. After all, they are, in fact, one of the largest publishers in the world.
- He accuses critics of saying the Society had secret "back room deals" with the UN, and was really positioning itself to form some sort of alliance. I’ve never read anything from critics of this sort of thing. I won’t deny that someone out there might have, but it was zev on the JWD board who initially broke this story and did a good bit of the research back in August of 2001. I’ve never seen him or anyone else on the JWD board, (which, to my knowledge is the most active board of its kind) suggest anything like that. But he brings it up, I think, to try and make the apostates™ look ridiculous.
- He tries to make a big deal out of there being two kinds of NGOs. But the letter from the head of DPI makes no such distinction.
- He tries to overturn the weight of the letter from Paul Hoeffel (Director of UN DPI) which states that the Society DID agree to these things, by saying that he is being misleading in his letter. So, let’s see. The apostates™ are lying. The UN is lying. Only the Watchtower is telling the truth?
- He never deals with the fact that this letter has been on the UN website for years and apparently that’s OK with the Society? If it is so inaccurate and defamatory, why has the Society not petitioned them to remove it or amend it? Why has the Society not presented it’s case, the real truth™, in it’s magazines, which go to tens of millions of people?
- He addresses the fact that the Society submitted magazines, notably the Nov 22, 1998 Awake! as evidence of their compliance with this formal agreement to be a publicity agent for the UN, but stating that this was a reasonable requirement to prove that the Society was not advocating Nazism or racism. Say what? Even if they were advocating these things, would any thinking person suppose they would then submit these to the UN?
- He represents that the application the Society submitted did not require a signature or a statement to support the UN and submits as evidence a blank form that he says is what the Society submitted. Are we to take his word that this is the form the Society used and he has not altered it? Why does the Society not release their completed copy (surely they kept a copy) to the public so we can all see it for ourselves? Better yet, why does the Society not ask the UN to post it on their website for all to see? That way we could see a copy from the official source, and unbiased at that.
There is so much secrecy surrounding this whole affair, for so many years. How can anyone regard it as anything other than suspect? I had some more thoughts, but that's all I've got time for right now.
Lenny
-
25
Letter to Elders/Family
by JimWood ini know a lot of this has already been hashed out before, but for my own personal mental health i feel compelled to post this stuff.
who knows maybe someone out there can use it towards their freedom.
so here is the last letter my wife and i submitted to the elders: .
-
-
LennyinBluemont
"Any that are still debating leaving and just poking around here please remember, you will end up where your going if you don’t change direction."
By the way, I appreciate that this isn't such a simple matter to those who have family and friends still in, and so hesitate to take action for fear of the effect on their relationship with loved ones. But should this not be counter-balanced by recognition of the fact that any who continue to show this organization even tacit support (by even attending the occasional meeting) share in some way in the suffering of those who stand up for principle? Is it really the most loving thing to provide tacit encouragement to those you care about, to remain loyal to their captor and abuser? I do not judge any here, because I have not stood where you stand. I'm only asking the question.
Lenny
-
25
Letter to Elders/Family
by JimWood ini know a lot of this has already been hashed out before, but for my own personal mental health i feel compelled to post this stuff.
who knows maybe someone out there can use it towards their freedom.
so here is the last letter my wife and i submitted to the elders: .
-
-
LennyinBluemont
Hey Jim,
You may have seen my recently posted letters to the elders and friends on the UN topic and the Judicial Committee™ that was formed for me. I believe you have exceeded any standard set by me. The depth of reasoning contained in your letter is compelling. No wonder they cannot respond! I love the way you explored how merely asking a question about what appears to be a gross hypocrisy is sufficient to label you as Apostate™ and the resultant treatment. That spirit is so purely reflective of the Spanish Inquisition, or any dictatorial regime. We mailed out a letter with 8 pages of documentation from the UN to 45 of our JW friends. One of my oldest and very closest friends returned the envelope unopened as "refused". When I brought it home from the Post Office and showed my wife, I said, "Let the shunning™ begin!"
Lenny
-
14
SHOW ME DA MONEY!!!!
by conoroberst ini always like to come back here and see those who are still in (but faking it, like me), those who are about to be out, and angry, those who are out and angry, and those who are out but sanguine (sp?
anyway.. despite all the undoubted and unargauble arguments about the wbts i just think its funny when y'all talk about the watchtower people being in it for the money...honestly, the bethel people, the elders (i know quite a few in the us and uk bethels), honestly, have you seen, their houses (if they have them), or their cars, or their suits, or their watches, or their shoes?
) even the branch people and the gb, honestly, these guys are not in it for the money, for the security maybe, a distasteful realisation many years ago that they have chosen the wrong path, that maybe they should have gone to university after all, but are stuck working as postmen (or overseers of packaging depts)..
-
-
LennyinBluemont
I agree with the comment that power over others is a far more powerful motivation than money or material benefits. But there are definitely the material benefits. I was talking the other night with an old friend who used to be up at Watchtower Farm. He said when Sydlik married a sister 30 years younger than him, he thought, "Allright, dude!" But then, when he noticed Sydlik and his new wife coming to the farm with their riding clothes, so she could go riding on her horse, this Bethelite thought to himself, "Why can't I have a horse?" Then he thought, "We're all supposed to get $80 a month allowance. I know I couldn't afford to feed a horse on $80 a month." So they do have an apparently unlimited "expense account" by being on the GB, which in fact is a material benefit not enjoyed by any other JWs, but paid for by them. And where is there any accounting of all this? In addition, due to the fact that there is no public accounting of where all the billions go, how does anyone know there are not any off-shore entities where much of this money is put aside, as tax-free charitable donations, which could be dipped into at any time, and especially if the shit hits the fan?
Lenny