i would like to know if anyone has started a named and shamed site.
its that i know so much bad stuff thats happened in so many congregations involving elders, ministerial servants and others.
it would be great if someone could put them up ?
You may want to talk to some people who have acutally "named names" before. I know that at least one person on this site did so. They said that they were threatened with a law suit. Even if you have "proof", the legal costs involved in defending yourself in court can be enormous.
Those are just my two cents.
a few days ago my wife commented on a letter sent out to all congregations (in the u.s.a.?
) regarding donations.
se said it was long and boaring, but in the end there where a few points she remembered.
I know there has been talk about a lawsuit and the WTS's liability when it comes to retired worked and overseers. What was the lawsuit and how is it effecting things. Could you guys put me in the right direction? Thanks
I have read about two lawsuits. One of them was filed in the state of New York by a sister who was injured while at Bethel. I don't know of all the details, but it has something to do with the Society not contributing to Workers Comp because all of the workers are volunteers.
The second one that I read about is in Germany. It involves former C.O.s and D.O.s suing for retirement benefits being that they never had anything contributed toward any kind of pension. As far as I understand, these cases are still being litigated. If the Society loses either one of these cases, it could result in serious financial burdens.
arthur, .
in a thread on another post you asked the question quoted below.
i thought that it deserved a thread of its own.
Hello Hillary_Step,
I appreciate your post. I'm not quite sure of what to make of it though. I had trouble understanding the point you were trying to make. If you found my post to be offensive in any way, I sincerely apologize.
Let me explain the context of my post. That particular thread was pretty heated. My post was just an attempt to show a little bit of humor in asking posters to be kind with one another. I never anticipated that it would be analyzed as an attempt to make some sort of political statement, or some sort of critique of others views.
I guess the point that I am making is this: It was just a little joke. Something that I've noticed quite a number of others doing on this site. (including the particular thread you wrote about) But, I must admit that sometimes jokes can be misunderstood and sometimes people can erroneously read more into it than it really says.
I would never want to disrespect other people's sensibilities or views. I certainly respect the fact that people on this site have many different views.
Again, I never attempted to show disrespect, I just was trying to show a little sense of humor. For any of you who found it to be disrespectful, I am sorry, and I sincerely apologize.
Even when I was a JW, I still would have found that funny. It just amazes me how some people are such politically correct hand-wringers, that they just have no sense of humor at all.
This thread reminds of a post that someone on this site made a while back. I can't remember who it was, but they said how one time, they played a joke on the local Witnesses who kept comming to their door. One day, they put up a note on the front door that said "front door broken, please come to back door". On the back porch, they had a chalk outline of a body with Watchtowers and Awakes laying around it. I died laughing when I read that.
Does anybody here remember who wrote that?
perhaps as a jw you experienced events in the ministry or elsewhere that convinced you that jehovah through the angels was directing you to people..or situations.....??.
like for instance, to the house of a suicidal man or to a person that was praying for someone to help them spiritually.... do you have any opinions about this?
i'm just curious...... .
I remember Steven Hassan wrote about this in his book: "Combatting Cult Mind Control". As you may know, Steven Hassan was a member of the Unification Church; otherwise known as the "Moonies" cult back in the 1970s. Hassan wrote an entire chapter about his introduction, indoctrination, and conversion into the Moonies. He explained that inside the church, he met several people who had been praying for guidance from God shortly before meeting a Moonies recruiter. On page 42 of his book, Hassan writes:
"It was always amazing to me to realize how many people in this category told us they had just been praying to God to show them what He wanted them to do with their lives. Many believed that they were spiritually led to meet one of our members."
i was just introduced to a new flick and thought that you might want to check it out.
i'll not give any review as i don't want to sway your interpretation.
i will say that i found it interesting and could be appropriate based on some postings i've read here.
Isn't that the big black rapper who keeps bustin caps in other rappers' asses?
As if there were any rappers who are different.
the thread title is a reference to how i hope this thread will evolve, rather than my own pretentious aspirations.. for many of us, perhaps especially if we were raised as jws, the whole world was pretty black and white.
we knew what we were doing, why we were here, where we were going, in the midst of a chaotic world we had a stability that others envied - or so we thought.... for most of us reading this site our eyes have likely at some point been opened to realise that many of our previous strongly-held beliefs were dust.
if we have left the wts or been forcibly ejected then we have also experienced shunning.
If we have attempted to keep up a facade, for the sake of family, or other personal reasons, then we have the continual battle of cognitive dissonance and living a double life of disparate thoughts.Many here have expressed feelings of anger, depression, or in some cases even a desire to commit suicide, dealing with an often subconscious grieving process that includes the whole range of human emotion.
It is indeed a horrible emotional roller-coaster. It can feel like being a ping-pong ball, bouncing back and forth between emotions of rage, depression, and intense fear.
Thank goodness for this website! Thank goodness for the support of all of you out there.
what is the best book i can give to a jw to convince her its all a big con ?
maybe she will read it maybe she wont but at least i said i tried my best.
Just ask them to study the Bible in depth without using any Watchtower publications to interpret it for them.
i came home today to find my wife crying whilst reading the 'when a loved one leaves jehovah' article.
its been a good few months now and i can appreciate how she feels.
but it just irritates me how my disagreeing with this religion has such a catastrophic effect on our everyday lives.
Boy, its hard. Its hard being a good dad and husband and yet in their eyes, I am a dead man. This is what hurts the most. Despit all my good points, I deserve to die an abrupt & violent death.
Yes, isn't it unbelievable that in the minds of JWs, anyone who simply disagrees with the org, or has different spiritual beliefs deserves to die. No matter how kind, compassionate, loving, and benevolent a person may be; they and their children deserve to be "eliminated" at Armageddon just because they are a Baptist, a Lutheran, or a Buddhist.
Yet, I can never forget that I too, used to think this way. This makes me feel a sense of guilt and shame. How could I have held beliefs like this? How could I have been so blinded by dogma? I don't know. But hopefully, it will move me to be more compassionate to those who still hold this ideology.
ok, i am now guilty of feeding into the "big announcement" frenzy on the board!
another poster made an interesting suggestion that the "hypothetical" big announcement may be the elimination of the d.c.. i think this is a real possibility.
its been cut down to 3 days from an original 8 days over the years.
They will never get rid of the DC.It is one of their primary fund raisers and control mechanisms. Every year they use it to whip the JWs into a "Loyalty to the Organization, the End is Near" frenzy. Without it they will loose too much control over the rank and file.
I totally agree. They would never get rid of the D.C. because this is one of the biggest and most effective indoctrination tools. It is a very effective tool in maintaining conformity and control over the r&f. In the minds of most JWs, the information that is presented at the D.C. is considered just a sacred as the Bible itself.
