I quit and quickly I moved out of town and faded. I'd grown a beard and only kept in touch privately with a few bros. who were enlightened about the org's corruption. Then when I was visiting some of them in my old city, I unexpectedly ran into a MS I knew in a sporting goods shop. This guy was a nice chap, zealous and all, but had been passed over many times for appointment as an elder. I was concerned that he'd seen me with my beard and might report me to my fellow "friends" on the elder body and they'd come looking for me to "rescue" me. But it was quite the opposite. He couldn't have cared less about my beard. All he wanted to do was talk about the problems in the old congo, why he still wasn't an elder yet, etc. It was amazing how he opened up to me. The whole thing was quite awkward and I found myself comforting the poor guy, telling him to wait on Jehovah, blah, blah. They really do open up if you let them, far more to someone who's no longer a perceived threat to them.
careful
JoinedPosts by careful
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The wonderful things you hear AFTER you step down as an elder!
by redpilltwice inwell, well, that was quite a heartfelt welcome on this site four days ago.
thank you all for the encouraging replies.
one of them was this one from magnum: "hey now, don't just pop your head in and disappear.
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Bethel Family Matters
by WatchtowerReviewz inusing the hilarious song 142 i went ahead and created a sitcom intro about life at bethel.
this is what that song was really created for.
i hope watchtower likes my pitch!
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careful
You've labeled Sam Herd as Mark Sanderson! -
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Counsel from Bro Losch (GB Member) to the Elders about the NFL
by James Jack inwhile attending a week long training class for elders in patterson, bro losch gave the concluding talk about loyalty to the borg, which i was in awe of(i went more in detail in a recent post about a s.a.d.
where losch was the speaker).
at the end of his talk, here's what he said: .
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careful
Well, it's no wonder then that he's not a heavy among the GB members, but a wannabe! -
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Warwick Photo Gallery 4 (May Through August 2015)
by wifibandit infull set: http://imgur.com/a/djhfe.
sample:.
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careful
Thanks for the post and pix. -
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Infighting at the top?
by JeffT inwe've all been trying to decipher what is going on at the top of the watchtower organization.
clearly, the game's afoot, we just don't know what game we're playing.
item: the constant harping about money and donations.
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careful
You're right about being in the dark alright! This post makes me think of so many others here based entirely on conjecture, the same thing we all saw when we were in among the Witness R&F and elders!
So who "at the top" is involved? In one sense the GB is like any other elder body. They undoubtedly have their differences in closed meeting sessions, but must present a unified front outside their meetings, as many of us have witnessed and even participated in while we were in our local congos. But you would have to delineate just who is who on the GB, who the liberals and hard liners are, who the weak pushovers and who the alpha dogs are. Do you have some insight here?
Clearly Tony Morris and David Splane are the top dogs. But where do the others fit in? I have heard that Jackson is somewhat liberal and Sanderson too, but I don't know if that's substantial. Herd seems rather a beta than an alpha type. Lett, well, who knows? A loose canon, but probably harmless and easily controlled by the alphas. Lösch, I dunno... maybe the wannabe as someone here said once...
So where here is the power struggle? If you postulate a power grab by those below the GB, as some here really really want to believe, then you have some serious issues with their forced acceptance of the GB's power and the fact that if they are ever found out, they can easily be axed, especially in the current climate of Bethel dismissals. Hmm...
Finally, as you yourself recognize, any appearance of disunity at the top would be devastating to the R&F. As daft as the GB are most of the time, they are bright enough to recognize that fact as well, and they would likely do whatever they need to do to avoid such a perception by the R&F.
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Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., Jehovah's Witness Psychologist
by Maryo inin about 1980 i came to know of and meet one time with lawrence onoda, ph.d., a jehovah's witness psychologist [also i think elder] in southern california.
i was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the wts traditional stance against jws consulting such a person!
he had been one of jws for six years at that time, i recall.
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careful
He was a professor at Cal State Northridge, but retired some years ago. His private practice was (is?) all JWs. He is not the only JW psychologist either, though they are rare. He was mentioned in some early posts on this forum, though they do not seem to have survived the transition to the new board here. Another Witness psychologist once told me that he and Onoda were backed up with Witness patients. Now why is that not surprising?
As for him still being in, he puts faith in the org, and thus compartmentalizes his critical thinking ability. As a loyal one, he would not apply such thinking to the org. That would be playing into Satan's hands in his mind.
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Do JW's still go door-to-door?
by Dark Knight inwith the rise of the new literature cart method of preaching, i'm curious as to how the traditional jw preaching work is organized.
the other reason i ask this is that i hardly see jw's door-knocking anymore.are they still going door-to-door and tracking how regularly their territory is covered?
are they still using territory maps and keeping track of do-not-calls, ethnic/deaf houses etc?i'm also curious as to how the literature cart ministry is organized.
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In the recent 18-month period they've come to my door 5 or 6 times all the while having a cart at the local Wal Mart. Since I've gone inactive, I cannot help you with those in-house questions you are asking. -
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Elder continues serving as elder after his daughter got disfellowshipped!
by hardtobeme inthis is what is happening in a spanish congregation in our area.
this happened 3 weeks ago.
this brother conducted the school and after the school was over, another elder gave the announcement: "( name of the person) is not longer a jehovah's witness".
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careful
I saw plenty of times when elders would continue to serve after their kids were DFed and other times when the guy would get the ax. Sometimes it depends on whether the elder in question had the right connections or not, or others on the BOE who would pounce on the situation and use it to get rid of a rival. -
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Demonic art in the watchtower?
by Lost and adrift indoes anybody remember a rumour or maybe it was a truth?
?...something about hidden pictures or symbols in the artwork of the watchtower.
was it one of those urban legends?
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careful
Like jookbeard said, Darek Barebook (note the correct spelling of his first name) wrote an entire book on the matter with some convincing evidence, at least in some pictures. The book was entitled "JWs and the Hour of Darkness" but it's out of print now. He argued the hidden images were demonic. He and his entire family (parents, brother, wife, kids) were all DFed over it.
Used copies are expensive now, over $100.
http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/darek-barefoot/
There some Italian ex-JW who runs a website devoted to further examples of the hidden things in the pics since Barefoot's book. Plenty of others have also done so. See this link:
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My Bethel Experience Part 9
by new boy inthe worst thing, someone could call you at bethel, was a "jack.
" as in "that guy is a real jack, he doesn't work at all".
the other term not used very much anymore, was "pot licker" used basically the same way.
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careful
These Bethel experiences are priceless. Keep them coming please. When I need some laughs, I find myself turning to your posts. With four years under your belt there, you must have hundreds more experiences to tell!