Posts by JWdaughter

20

A few more random thoughts on the new Kingdom Hall design meeting

by sir82 in

jw
friends

left completely unsaid at the meeting: who is going to be the owner of the property & building when all of these new khs are built?

in the current arrangement, in most cases, a local trust is set up to hold ownership.

of course, the most likely answer is "the watchtower (or whatever shell corporations they set up) will own the land & building".

JWdaughter

I don't think they are benefitting the folks inside-or harming them particularly. JWs will put up with the greenhouse(!).

The thing is that this is a carefully contrived plan to benefit the organization(NY Bethel/WTBTS) rather than the individual congregations-many of whom are fine now with locale and setup as they make sense to the people using them. In my mom's congregation (and a couple I know of besides) halls are in fairly residential areas, down a drive that is not readily seen from the street at all and has a park like situation with lots of trees. Off the beaten track. It serves two small towns filled with a lot of retired people. One town is rich, the other is scraping by, barely. They recently remodeled. I wonder what will become of that hall? It goes against the new guidelines in about every way, plus, there are only two congregations meeting there from about a 30 mile radius. Both towns are small and in the one that is struggling, commercial property can be found cheaper than that nice big residential area lot. Hmm. The hall I grew up in is in a borderline residential area on a main-ish road, but not commercial at all. It's been there for 50 years at least (my whole life).

90

Some screenshots from new KH meeting!

by pixel in

.

they just put up a link to watch a replay of the "new kh meeting", here some screenshots.. .

.

JWdaughter

It looks like a of 24 hour urgent care clinics that I have seen popping up lately. Think they could get a big enough lot to put in a starbucks and a Sonic or in-n-out burger? Then they could have a total monopoly on JWs discretionary income.

68

Please vaccinate your children

by Viviane in

and remember your boosters as adults!.

currently there is a measles outbreak in the u.s. the outbreak is clustered into communities where parents choose not to get their children vaccinated.

vaccination works primarily on herd immunity.

JWdaughter

My husband was a victim of not being vaccinated. When he was about 3, smallpox ripped through his village and when he was five, it did so again. The first time he and his older brother caught it. The older brother died. The second time, his sister caught it. Both my husband and his sister have horrible scars from this disease. My husband has breathing problems related to the scarring. He was infertile and the high fever for a long time likely has something to do with that. Vaccination was an option for more elightened people than his parents were, just as it is an option for everyone reading this. People do still get smallpox and the scarring is no less heinous because we live in the west or have good antibiotics.

All of my kids have had all their shots, they all were in the gifted program at school, two attended college (one has graduated so far) and the youngest is in the AP classes in high school. There is/was no autism or behavior issues beyond pretty mild teenage stuff. I don't know of anyone in my circle of friends acquaintances that have any of these issues that can be related to immunizations, though I know some that have had ill babies when they used drugs or alchohol. Avoid the stupid things, but please don't fail to get your kids immunized.

24

So my dad comes from vacation and ???!!!

by Kool Jo in

hello folks.....so in an earlier thread i started, you'd realize that my father and i are quite close, we talk about almost everything/anything.. he traveled outside the country (he's semi-retired), enjoying the fruitage of his hard labor during his younger years.

so he recently returned home after he and mum went away to catchup with some old friends in another country.. upon his returning home, and subsequently to the meetings, he was told that a decision was made to strip him of his "field overseer" role, but will still continue to be an elder.. the reason...he goes away for too long too often...you can't be away from your congregation for three months out of the year!!!???

has anyone else had this experience before?

JWdaughter

It makes sense, really. Hard to "oversee" when you are not seeing over the ones you are supposed to be overseeing. They need someone there to keep an eye on the future lawsuits waiting to happen.

How does HE feel about it? He is LUCKY they are giving hiim license to step down from the added burdens-if he sees it that way.

96

21 Years as an Elder, 5 as an MS, I will never be that guy again.

by James Jack in

i was deleted as the cobe after i let my adult child move back home and he admitted that he fornicated under my roof while my wife and i where away on a rbc project.

of course the elder mode in me kicked him out of the house.. the elders moved quickly to remove me because i was too involved in "theocractic activities", i had neglected my adult son.. i accepted this primarily because i didn't want to serve with a boe that did not want me.

i was devastated however because it was the only life i knew.

JWdaughter

Welcome! Funny how the evidence of love in the congregation is what ultimately helps us out of it! My best to you!

7

Saturday morning JW knock knock

by FirstLastName in

i was home on saturday morning, around 10:30 a.m. when i heard my doorbell ring.

i checked my security monitor and could see two jw women at my door.

i breathed in deeply.my husband works a graveyard shift and was sleeping.

JWdaughter

I don't know, TOH, when I was a JW, I was always the subordinate one and I was always nervous about the approach. Nowadays. how much more does the JW have to fear besides "I am not interested"-or the dog! There are a lot of actual opposers with information. Churches do seminars now on how to meet JWs at the door. One thing I think is a wrong approach that the WT has is the TMS. Grading and judging people on how they tell the good news? Can you imagine Jesus going through all the hoops of trying to teach his disciples how to give a proper "witness" by cautioning them about their dress, tone, modulation of their voice. . . Things that go viral are not usually carefully scripted and professional, they are totally unguarded,, unprofessional, usually sincere (or funny), heart touching kind of things-that don't come in a script. Christianity went "viral" and it wasn't because any of them were particularly skilled speakers. Word of mouth and real sincere belief did it. Nowadays JWs know to some extent that they are just fertilizing machines. They spread manure. It's nothing to do with Jesus or even with a message to the world. They are obligated.

WTs have actually said that folks responding to the message doesn't matter so much as their proving their obedience to deliver it. Jaw flapping just to prove you are flapping your jaws isn't much about giving a heartfelt message. Hard to get into that kind of thing, much.

The only time we see folks at the door is during the campaigns where they are just shoving an invite at us and are not interested in speaking. I have tried to engage them, even, and they are not interested -they wanted to speak to our spanish speaking neighbors (need greaters? They spoke English like natives, it was weird).

I haven't seen any of the carts, just the few at the doors-and they have covered our neighborhood twice in the last year which is much better than some I have lived in for years without ever seeing a JW in FS at my door-and I lived right down the street from the KH (I almost didn't buy the house for that reason)

72

Last nights meeting...

by DATA-DOG in

i know dubs are delusional.

i know dubs don't reason well.

i know dubs are a bit off, like many groups.

JWdaughter

The kid is tiny.

92

GB says, "Our way of worship will soon be altered."

by Separation of Powers in

my mom called me yesterday to ask how i was doing.

i hadn't seen her in a while, so it was nice to hear her voice.

we went through the motions of jw small talk and then she started telling me about her co visit from last week.

JWdaughter

Basements.

They are going to build lots of pretty new halls, then send you to your basements on some pretext and sell the halls. That will change the way you worship.

55

The contempt of Anthony Morris: the face doesn't lie.

by freemindfade in

i have noticed something even long before even looking into ttatt, something about morris bothered me.

i am personally very attuned to body language, facial expressions and general subtleties in human interaction.

there was something about his face that really bothered me, and i will explain it.

JWdaughter

I have worked in jail, I have worked in a drug rehab clinic and I have worked in churches. There are definitely themes that work themselves out in these groups. No stereotypes, but we start to recognize the patterns and that stereotypes exist for a reason in some groups. I think I can spot a B.S.'er(Of certain sorts) better than anyone. OTOH, I miss others. I am very instinctually untrusting or trusting of certain people. Others I may like, but I recognize that they have traits that will not serve me well in the end (not being selfish, just realizing that their personal deficiencies could and likely will come back and bite me in the backside if I don't keep myself somewhat removed). My husband is exactly the opposite. He wants to fix all the broken toys. Even the ones that no longer have parts, even the molds are broken-you know? He wants to love them and encourage them into wholeness.

This is why some of us need to just donate our goods to charity, while others have the judgement to know that a person or family will actually be benefitted by our help to move forward in the world. My husband wants to give them all a job and a place to live. I have learned from experience, for example, that most homeless people are homeless for a reason. They want to be homeless or they hurt everyone they meet (financially, physically, or just are MEAN) or even if harmless, they have very unsocial and difficult traits or habits to live with. There are some that honestly are just hurt by life and don't know how to move away from it. There are shelters that really can and do try to help the people who are stuck by circumstances that are beyond their control (to a great degree). Some folks are milking every system they come across and working in the places I have, I meet those people-they know how to work the system and they do it with impunity.

AM3 has found a system to use to his advantage(milk) and he is smarter than everyone else that supports him in it. Of course he is contemptuous. He has them all exactly where he wants them and he can say virtually anything and there will be JWs that will defend him and all that he says no matter what it costs them-life, freedom, family, finances. They gave him that authority and dang it, he is gonna use it.

50

My mother says I should just DA already.

by Julia Orwell in

cut the cord.

sever all ties.

start new.. and she's right.

JWdaughter

Julia, your mom loves you no matter what. The org does not. That she is saying this may have some merit-she knows you pretty well, I'd think! You are not getting support from any JW. You need to draw a line in the sand, perhaps, to move forward.

Whatever all the mental health issues that you are facing are, they are not entirelly wrapped in the org. I presume. See a counselor. You can find one that is qualified to help you if you seek them out. Call the society that manages those doctors and ask for a recommendation.

I am sorry about your kitty. They are good for cuddling and they seem to know us better than anyone but a dog:)

Good luck!