Posts by james

48

When did you realize that you were part of a cult?

by JH in

jw
friends

.

as a jw, i never thought that i was in a cult.

i thought that other religions were a cult, but not us.. what made you realize that the jw's is a cult?

james_woods

it was Jonestown...Jim Jones - the suicides...

I had known they were off track on armageddon, blood, bad translation, memorial two class system, etc. for several years. But when Jonestown happened I did the logical comparisons. They were not just wrong doctrinaires; these were dangerous control freaks who were perfectly willing to have you go to prison, get massacred by hostile crowds or governments, or die from their weird medical superstitions. They also cared nothing about moving you off into a sort of "self imposed jungle of isolation" to be cut off from all society. They believed in God-like society presidents and star chamber committees and would not accept outside viewpoints. THEY (WE) WERE A CULT!

There was a TV interview in Okla City of a young woman who had just got up and left Jonestown a month or so before the koolaid party. The TV lady asked her how she knew to get out...she replied that it all came to hear after Jim Jones had been ranting on during one of his sermons about how sick he was and how the hard he worked to sacrifice himself for his ungrateful people, blah blah...She then saw a TV news program that showed the Oklahoma Sooners had just won the Orange Bowl and were the NCAA champions. She said, I just got so homesick to hear about the team. Then, she said "I got to looking at coach Switzer, and thought about Jim constantly whining. I just thought - you know, your not god, your not Jesus Christ, your not even much of a MAN!"

I know for a fact that this event shocked quite a lot of "good" witnesses; but most just blocked their own senses and kept on drinking the koolaid.

3

Draft / Selective Service

by james_woods in

jw
friends

tried to enter this a moment before, but i think i lost it.

i wanted to get some comments on the draft issue.. * did anyone else here face the issue or know someone who did time for the wt?.

* where did they go (i.e.what prison facility).

james_woods

Interesting - I do remember my attorney telling me that there were certain "soft" federal judges who would either give a suspended sentence or else actually "sentence" you to do consciencous objector jobs. This was OK I think so long as you were sentenced but did not volunteer for it. I hear its ok now to just volunteer for non combat duty.

One of my friends actually paid the real Hayden Covington to represent him for 10,000 and he blew the case. The poor guy got the full 5 years and Covington went off to defend Muhammed Ali instead of doing an appeal.

This is probably a forgotten issue now, but you can bet I was hot-red-ass when I read about people in Mexico being able to bribe themselves off in the Crises of Conscience.

My case was a lot like yours; I finally got a 4a but when the Nixon draft lottery came in my number was so high that I got eliminated right away and then the war ended. Well, at least something happened back in 1975!

3

Draft / Selective Service

by james_woods in

jw
friends

tried to enter this a moment before, but i think i lost it.

i wanted to get some comments on the draft issue.. * did anyone else here face the issue or know someone who did time for the wt?.

* where did they go (i.e.what prison facility).

james_woods

Tried to enter this a moment before, but I think I lost it. I wanted to get some comments on the draft issue.

* Did anyone else here face the issue or know someone who did time for the WT?

* Where did they go (I.e.what prison facility)

* What happened to them after they got out? Did it harm them mentally? Did the congregation appreciate their sacrifice?

* Do we know how many were convicted during Vietnam and other eras?

* Did anyone else consider running away to Canada or actually joining up to avoid prison?

* Does anyone remember how the Society strictly told us not to mention them; this had to be OUR OWN DECISION!!!

My comment - for a lot of us younger guys this was just as invasive to our lives and sanity as the blood transfusion thing.

James

15

How the heck does this work?

by Sunnygal41 in

try this and see if you can figure out how it works~~~

http://www.funnyjunk.com/pages/mindreader.htm

james_woods

If you think about it, only so many numbers can come from that excersize...each time, it rescrambles the number table so that only ONE symbol is next to each valid number.

57

How Suicide Will Increase Among Jehovah's Witnesses

by metatron in

jw
friends

i'm not a psychologist but a little logic tells you that somethings got to give.. i see too many witnesses who are falling into the "escalating commitment" trap.

your life is a mess, so you find the "truth"!.

next, you commit yourself further by dropping college.

james_woods

I think I saw a news article (maybe on MSNEWS internet) that it is now believed that only a small handful of veterans who saw service in WW1 are still living. Wonder if any of the younger folks in CTR's weirdness back in 1914 ever thought they would be statistically certain to die of some normal cause rather than see the end?

I think if the WTS ever did admit they blew it on all the prophecy - there really would be some ready to put a gun in their mouth.

33

My Sercuit Overseer is a JERK!

by stillAwitness in

jw
friends

well my sercuit overseer visit was this week and this guy is a real a-hole.

apparently our mic handlers are pretty slow.

they always take forever to give the mic to the hand-raiser and sometimes even forget to turn the stupid things on first.

james_woods

It might be fun for you folks to know that in my old congregation (late 60 time frame) there was quite a debate on the subject of even having an electronic sound system. They were afraid that it could electocute us or scare the guest speakers who came to do the hour talk!

Anyhow, my little part time business to get myself through school was to fix electronic guitar amps and keyboards for the local R&B and rock bands, so I got to be the guy who bought the equipment and installed it for the very first time. It was just for the speaker; the comments from the back were strictly acapella.

So, one friday night during the transition from KM school to service meeting, some radio interference broke into it. It was Tanya Tucker singing "Del--ta DAWN----------Whats that FLOWER you have on?????"

As posted before on "stupid things you got counseled for" - guess who got blamed for that one? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?

64

1975 - serves you right. No extra brownie points sycophants

by Spectrum in

this issue came up with my jw nephew(17).

i jumped at the chance at using it to prove that the org is a fraud but then the focus changed slightly.

i said, "do you know how many people's lives were disrupted by this event.

james_woods

Ms. Swan has hit it right on the spot. While I was in my late teens or early twenty years then and did not feel quite the same terror, the fear factor for most of us was quite real. One million people do not hallucinate the same thing without probable cause.

Those of us (including ESPECIALLY those of use who are now 17) who cannot clearly remember our history are certainly destined to repeat it.

Maybe this is why the hydra has raised its head at least 5 times during the past century.

29

Circuit Overseer Pensions and the Implications

by AlanF in

i just learned that the watchtower society has instituted a pension plan of sorts for circuit overseers.

this is a big change.. previous to this new plan, the various kinds of "traveling overseers" were pretty much on their own when they retired from the traveling work.

in a few cases, such men were invited to live out their lives in bethel, but in most cases they simply went back to being normal rank and file members who had to fend for themselves financially.. i can only speculate that the reason for this change was that the society has been having difficulty getting elders to become circuit overseers.

james_woods

As an aside to the pension (& remembered due to the mention of the parsonages)_

When I was around it back in the 65 through 80 time frame, practically every one of these guys that I knew (maybe 20 in total) had some kind of travel trailer and a buick, olds or caddy to pull it. They were actually living in pretty good style for the time. And, the green handshake was in fact alive and well back then. (along with the special dinner parties, etc.) I do remember a little controversy over whether they really should have these travel trailers, though.

But, this thread being really about what happened after they got too old to be of any benefit to the WTS; and I never really saw one retire. However, there was a weird rumor among some of the C.O.s that I could talk too that the circuits were given out partly according to political favor; for example - Tulsa or Oklahoma City GOOD; anyplace in SE or SW Oklahoma (little Dixie) BAD. Actually, the older C.O.s seemed to sort of gravitate toward being "sent out to the farms"...maybe it was a way to take them off the scene slowly.

And in a final thought - we actually had a C.O. when I was just a young guy who got disfellowshipped while he was right in the middle of our weekly visit. He told the elders (or more correctly the committee servants) that he had to go back to his former circuit in Missouri for a special committee action. We didn't know that the accused was HIM!!! Anyway, trouble came from a young pioneer sister who spent a little too much time in field service alone with the guy.

But my point here was that he did not get put out of his circuit very much worse than all the old faithful servants and wifes who just got old!

54

Anyone here have access to deer meat or sausage?

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

.

i haven't had access to deer meat for awhile and i'm hoping to find another source.

i'm hoping one of you might like to go deer hunting, or might know someone who does.. thanks!

james_woods

Some of the PETA people snuk in to a compound of captured deer which were due to be released prior to the first day of season. They had been found in semi-urban neighborhoods and needed to be culled.

These idiots strapped on orange hunter safety vests on each one and let them go ahead of time. The theory was that the hunter crowd would be afraid to shoot at them because they might be shooting at each other.

Predictably, every single one was bagged with 24 hours. (pretty easy to see with that vest strapped on).

So, did you ask Ted Nugent - I think he has a big stash.

49

Stupid "Bible" Prophecies The Watchtower & "Slave" Fed Us

by minimus in

jw
friends

bible writers must be rolling in their graves if they saw how their writings were taken apart and mangled by the "spirit directed organization".

the watchtower prides itself in getting ones 'tasteful spiritual food, nutritional", even!

what stupid understandings have the witnesses believed in over the years that show you they certainly do not have the "truth"?

james_woods

When the judicial committee came to ream me out about apostacy, they made a big deal that there was ONE lamb in Rev. That ONE lamb was literal! So, the 144,000 must also be LITERAL? Simple, No?

I pointed out that perhaps use of the term LAMB was far from being literal...

On another issue from this thread came a memory of that first moon landing. We were at a convention in Kansas City, Mo. at the time. There was a lot of talk about whether there would be any acknowledgement on the moon shot from the platform. Finally, one of the keynote speakers mentioned it in the tone of a put-down - how it was a pathetic worldy attempt to be God-like, blah blah blah, etc. They also speculated that there could be "BLOOD ON THE MOON" if the nations got into a sort of star-wars for this territory. What a great understanding of the technology of that day...we were doing good just to get there and back, let alone shoot lasers at one another. Besides, all the Russian attempts blew up on the pad!

james_woods

Posts by james_woods