a thought i had daydreaming while at the recent convention .
old timers in the organization often reminisce about the way the wts was many years ago.
attending a convention meant (a) getting hot meals, (b) orchestra music before and during sessions, and (c) two, three, or even four dramas.
Witnesses... now had nothing else to do but sit down, go out in service, listen to the canned music, eat the canned food, watch the canned dramas, and read the paperback novels.
Great post. Another thing, all this activity was great for meeting people (especially if you were single) and developed community spirit. Now, nobody gives a sh** about anyone else!
my friend marion, who i've posted about on here, was announced at last nights meeting as being no longer one of jehovahs witnesses.
she sent a da letter in recently, and of course the elders tried to get her to change her mind, but she insisted, and threatened to forward a copy to the uk hq, so they made the announcement.. she had a phone call from her jw son just now, and not a pleasant one at that.
he asked her how she could be so stupid, and told her that this was the last call of any kind he would be making to her, and she won't be allowed to see her grandchildren again until she comes to her senses.
Welcome and congratulations on having the courage to leave the WT. I left after 30 years, including being a regular pioneer. But it is NOT the 'truth' and is built on sand. Was I so stupid not to see it before? No, I saw lots that was wrong, as do many witnesses, but I closed my mind to it as we are trained to do, rather than go down the path of 'rebelliousness against the FDS'. When I finally accepted the GB was not appointed by God, it became so much easier to see the lies, manipulation and total lack of love there and leave. But it took 30 years! Anyway, it is NEVER too late.
this is related to my question in "entertainment" regarding "the da vinci code".
in the book and the movie, it is claimed that jesus was actually married to mary magdelene, and that they had a child, descendants of whom survive even at the present time.
so, my question is: do you think any of this is true, could possibly be true, or is just plain wrong?
no
recently ive been doing a lot of research on judicial committees, as my friend is currently going through one, as mentioned here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/118972/1.ashx
i just posted an update.
one thing ive noticed in my research, is that there is no scriptural support to back up the judicial committee system.
If this happened to my teenage daughter (if I had one of course), the elders would have had their noses broken. It terrifies me to think of the experiences some must have had at these meetings.
That reminds me of an incident a few years ago. An elder was taking too much attention towards one man's wife. He claimed he was giving spiritual help. One day the husband went to the elder's home and found him alone in a room with his wife. He broke the elder's nose!
At first, the elders wanted to disfell. the man, but he told all who would listen about it and all sympathy went to him. So next they decided to reprove them both, and remove the elder. Three weeks after the announcement there was another one - the elder was reinstated and no longer reproved! It seems the other elders had not followed all the 'procedures' correctly in announcing it.
As for the husband who broke the elder's nose - he remained reproved.
Justice for elders is a rare thing if you have the right friends!
these are just 3 things that i was shocked to learn when i was in the org.
they may not seem like big things to some, but they are to me.. 1. speakers at the d.a.
had food catered to them.
And that they don't have Gods Holy Spirit...because if you lie they don't know.
Ha Ha - very true. I was waiting to be struck down, but it soon became clear there was no Holy Spirit there.
the watchtower society's 1914 chronology hinges on a dicey chain of claims.
if any of these claims is wrong, then the chain is broken and watchtower chronology collapses.
along with it goes the entire belief structure built on it, including most importantly the claim of the leaders of jehovah's witnesses to have been specially appointed in 1919 by god over "all christ's belongings" on earth.
The Bible does not explicitly relate these events to any event that can be firmly dated to our Gregorian calendar. However, a careful examination of historical data indicates that it was Cyrus' general practice to free captives from the nations he conquered shortly after he secured his authority.
You could be right, you could be wrong. I am no scholar, so I went along with it until I got to the above quote. Hmm, 'careful examination' (not backed up) and 'general practice' - sounds like the sort of WT babble I used to fall for.
We can assume from the evidence................whatever fits!
Sorry, you lost my vote.
this is one of the saddest things i've read.
i could not help seeing parallels in jw & other 'high control' religions.
the wt even said at one time, "unfortunately, today we must obey governmental laws..." they were discussing the wonderful range of draconian punishments available under the mosaic law but, not to "christians" today.
Fact: Christian founded civilization has the absolute highest standards of freedom for all views in the public arena.
Bush: "You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Well, I don't support terrorists, but I sure do not support Bush's policies either. And I do not support US sponsored Israeli State Terrorism, or Hezbollah.
And it is true that the death penalty is practiced in Arab countries and miscarriages of justice occur. Same in the USA, where the death penalty continues to be used.
my elderly relative called me all excited about this "letter" that was read in their kh last week.
she told me that it was all about being prepared for natural disasters, etc.
and how the p.o and secretary were updating all their publisher files.
"Of course, it can only mean 1 thing----the start of the Great Tribulation! No, the letter didn't say that, but they all knew!!!!!!! Wasn't this wonderful news?"
In the country I live in, this has been done by the ORG for years. It is nothing new at all. But I can imagine, if read with enough enthusiasm and innuendo, a congregation getting excited about it. It might have been me once. But, as the years go by the 'crying wolf' takes its toll and people take less notice.
That's why the latest Convention stirred up the Witnesses again without actually saying ANYTHING new.
And they will be doing the same thing ten years from now!
ok, everyone, you know my story by now.
we da ourselves a week ago.
my mom wrote me a letter saturday disowning me.
what would witnesses do ..........
if they were treated this way for being JW's. - They would sue petsmart for as much cash/publicity as they could muster. Their lawyers are always busy dealing with 'discrimination' against them.
But you can't actually sue the Org. for this one. Although they encourage the mentality that was displayed here, they would point out that no Watchtower article specifically said dogs of DA'd people should be shunned. Behind the scenes, they would praise the actions.
Report the employee, and also say you are taking legal advise regarding suing the company for damages. Soon you will need someone else to look after your dog because they will have been dismissed!
Then they will relate their story of 'persecution' at the local Convention - how they lost their job for upholding God's standards. No mention will be made of the 'persecution' they inflicted on you and your dog, and no mention of scriptures to back up their behaviour, since they don't exist!
<div> <div> <div>we decided to leave before being pushed, these are my letters, her letters are very similar but she is still working on them, any suggestions would be more than welcome....bear in mind my dad is po, should this change anything?
<br></br> ________________________________________________________________________________________________-- brothers this is perhaps the hardest letter i have had to write, and it is likewise the letter that i least expect to have to write.
as of this letter being received, i no longer consider myself as a jehovahs witness.
Writing a letter like this is very helpful. It gets you to put in writing what you really feel.
The actual content is not so important. The few elders who read the letter will skim-read after the first lines where you disassociate. It will not provoke them to think but will probably close the thinking process off completely. After that they will make an announcement that you are not Witnesses anymore, and the Cong. will assume you were either disfell. for immorality or jumped before you were pushed if any know you DA'd. The gossip will fill in all the gaps where the facts are not known.
Write it for yourself - you will feel better for doing it.
