Posts by tim3l0rd

37

What’s the deal with all the Smart-Educated JWs?

by John Aquila in

we talk a lot about most jws being uneducated, uninformed, and that they lack critical thinking skills, but in my area there is a lot of jws that went to the university, medical school, law school, and came back to the organization.

in my circuit, that i know of, we had two electrical engineers, one computer engineer with a ph.d. eight teachers with a bachelors degree and three of those with a masters in education.

we had two medical doctors, one was a pediatrician who closed his business about 3 years ago and went to bethel.

tim3l0rd

Cult indoctrination and cognitive dissonance.

As far as those that went to Bethel or became elders, I think many are affected by the big-fish-in-a-small-pond syndrome. In the real world, most would never get the recognition that they get in JWdom. They may not even realize that they crave this recognition, but it serves to cement them into the org. Also, most of those that went to college and university in previous decades did not have access to all the information that kids today have. Now that they are older they are set in their ways and, unless something disturbs them, they will never start questioning, looking outside the org, or using their critical thinking skills on JW doctrine.

6

Thoughts on "Our Christian Life and Ministry" meeting

by Saved_JW in

i just watched the sample meeting corresponding to the new release of "our christian life and ministry" and i have a few lingering thoughts.

1- meeting layout simplified to match level of publishers.

when i grew up in the watchtower, the only real positive takeaway i have is being forced from a very young age to have the skill for public speaking, this has directly helped me with my confidence and gave me a skillset that is valuable in my current job.

tim3l0rd

It is so a sales meeting. I've tried pointing this out many times. Especially the more recent parts about "successes" in the ministry. The "successes" I've heard recently would make me depressed if I was still believing. Very little success, but they always end with "Jehovah is blessing the work!" They remind me of the Amway meetings I went to many many years ago.

8

Need list of scriptures that Jesus is only means of salvation

by Bonnie_Clyde in

i remember a thread not long ago with all the scriptures.

also one that we have to be witnesses to jesus.

.

tim3l0rd

Saving. Thanks.

21

Do they notice who no longer gives donations?

by onightdivine in

because i haven't put in a single dime for over a year now in the box at the kh.

the usual custom is to put money in there right after the meetings.

but heck, i already spend so much in car fuel just to attend - i don't care really if the gb starves and dies.. oops.. anyway, do the elders take note who's donating and who's not?.

tim3l0rd

Never donated by check. Only once in my life did I have enough deductions to itemize, so I never needed a receipt for tax reasons and always donated by cash. They would probably notice if someone stopped donating via check, but have no way of tracking cash donations. I've heard of elders watching the box in some congregations, but that has never been my experience.

16

JW Sister: raped, pregnant what does she do?, abortion or adoption?

by Olivia Wilde in

this question came out frequently from a situation known to some of us who knew of 2 cases.... if a single or married sister gets rapped by stranger or incest, a pregnancy results, she is not allowed to have an abortion but neither is she allowed to give it up for adoption?...i always question why not up for adoption?...

no you will be blood guilty because the child won't be raised in the "truth"... hmmmmm does anyone heard of that?

is it a matter of consciousness?

tim3l0rd

Gotta love people with made up statistics! The fact is that current laws limit how late a woman can get an abortion. While I understand some of the reasoning behind this, the truth is that most pregnancies that make it to 20 weeks or past are wanted pregnancies. Very few women would wait until their 20th - 24th week to decide that they wanted an abortion. Most abortions that happen after 20 weeks are done because there is something drastically wrong.

I recently read an account of a couple where the woman's cervix would not hold the child in. After multiple consultations and procedures it was determined that there was no hope of saving the child. Because of the laws in her state, Texas, no abortions were allowed after 20 weeks even when medically necessary. Even inducing labor was seen as an abortion because the fetus would not survive.

Instead of being able to end their's and the fetus's suffering quickly, they had to wait for the fetus to slowly, over the course of 2 days, to fall out. It was torturous for the couple. That's the kind of thing that happens when government imposes laws without thinking of all the consequences.

94

What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?

by John Aquila in

its been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.

in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.

carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .

tim3l0rd

Conventions will go to 2 days but will somehow cost more.

Doesn't matter what they "cost" nowadays because the don't announce the costs or donations for the 3 day RCs anymore. At least, they haven't at any of the ones I've been to in the last 2-3 years. They simply make an announcement that you can donate if you appreciate the convention.

If the GB do encourage this then they could also deal with issues re. married couples doing oral and having sex for pleasure by saying that 'New Light' shows us that sex should only be used for procreation.
I'd better stop now ... I don't want to be giving them ideas

Please do. They actually covered oral and anal at an elders training just a few years ago. What they covered in the training got back to my wife and caused some.... uh.... problems. Had to do a lot of additional research to make those problems go away. I'm glad that they haven't covered it with the congregation in a WT since the 80s.

94

What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?

by John Aquila in

its been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.

in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.

carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .

tim3l0rd

Oh by the way, the recurring donation was announced last year in a letter read to all congregations. I believe there was always some website where you could make credit card donations but now you can create an account in jw-org and setup a one time or recurrent monthly donation via credit card.

I must have missed that letter. I knew about the online donations. I've seen that several times when logging in, but I missed the recurring donation ability. Oh well, it doesn't matter to me as they'll never see another dime of my money.

94

What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?

by John Aquila in

its been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.

in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.

carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .

tim3l0rd

One time we had over $30,000 and the assembly overseer said; "if we tell the friends we've gotten this much, they will stop contributing" So we picked a number a few hundred dollars below actually costs

How did you justify that to yourself? I think that would have woke me up right away.

94

What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?

by John Aquila in

its been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.

in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.

carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .

tim3l0rd

As far as I understand it, the "cost" of an assembly is not based on actual costs incurred for using the assembly hall, but it is a per publisher dollar amount that they are told to use. So if you have 1,500 publishers in a circuit and WT tells accounting that the cost is $10/publisher to use the assembly hall, then $15,000 will be added to the "costs" for that assembly plus any other actual costs incurred like office supplies or something.

94

What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?

by John Aquila in

its been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.

in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.

carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .

tim3l0rd

I definitely see them suggesting a per publisher rate that the congregations should donate to WT each month similar to what they do for assemblies. I also see them setting up jw.org to allow publishers to setup automatic recurring donations.