It seems to vary but I have noticed a change in more recent times that funeral talks tend not to follow quite so tightly the Society's script. This is especially true if there are likely to be a number of "wordly" people , especially close relatives , at the service.
Posts by dozy
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30Thoughts on JW funerals
by Syme ini recently had the sad opportunity to attend 2 jw funerals.
the first was a few months ago and the second today.
the first was my grandfather's and the second of an old friend back from my jw days.
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31
Who was it who ''rescued'', or ''saved'' you?
by Beth Sarim infrom the borg?.
i point to none other than cal lehman and the towerwatch ministries.
towewatch.com.. the years following the collapse of the ussr and the 1995 generation left a bad taste in my mouth for a long time.
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dozy
A lot. This website ( thanks Simon! ) then called jw.net. On the JW Wikipedia page there used to be live references to a few chapters in Ray Franz's books which I then purchased and downloaded. JW Facts. The references proving the Society had copied pictures from booze adverts and even Christendom's books https://www.watchtowerlies.com/plagiarism_by_the_watchtower.html . The Atheist's Book of Bible Stories.
https://www.box.com/shared/uclytd91jd
But really above all it was the Society with its numerous flip flops , a particular Kingdom Ministry article in 2007 ( approx ) that told JWs not to research Hebrew & Greek and the rampant hypocrisy and nepotism that I observed in the Organisation that killed it for me.
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34
Are there more Bethel layoffs in the immediate future?
by LongHairGal ini just saw a post on reddit: ‘wt are prepping the r&f for changes in the march/april meeting workbook’.. in the post the person noted what they read (for march 8) and it mentioned bethel adjustments and reference was made to 2015 when bethelites were let go.. if this happens (yet again) another bunch of people are being sent home to fend for themselves in the big bad world at an advanced age with little to no preparation.
even though this doesn’t surprise me, it could not come at a worse time with a global pandemic and massive job loss everywhere..congregations are already in turmoil because of so many who reached retirement age totally unprepared because they were told armageddon would be here before they reached that age.
this is in addition to all the other ‘needy’ and troubled types in the congregations looking for as$istance.. i hope any bethelites there have a plan and some people they can contact.
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dozy
From a UK perspective , I also wonder about the new UK Bethel - they have 584 apartments there housing up to 900 people. I am still in touch with a PIMO JW who has worked on the site & he is baffled as to what exactly the 900 workers will do , bearing in mind that no printing is taking place - a question also raised ( but not answered ) at a planning meeting with the local authority ( below ). He asked a member of the UK branch committee who said that "Jehovah will show the way."
https://www.whpc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/MINUTESOPENMTGMASTER25.11.19-4.pdf
My friend reckons as a distribution hub for German produced literature and a film studio they could probably get by with 300 maximum very comfortably - probably less.
He reckons that in a couple of years a lot of these Bethelites will be getting kicked out - it would be very easy for the Society to sell off the accommodation blocks which are some distance from the HQ ( they also own 200 acres of non developed land and say they have "no current plans at the moment" to develop it so could build new accommodation blocks there if required ).
584 studio style apartments would easily fetch over £100K each - that's upwards of $100 million from a build cost a fraction of that. The Society are already selling off the 18 flats in Wood Street , Chelmsford that supposedly was long term additional accommodation https://ibsaproperty.com/
Increasingly nowadays the Society are basically a real estate development and trading company using free labour to develop property & free of capital gains tax to flip. It's such a simple model.
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44
Nurses are unwilling to take the COVID-19 Vaccine
by adjusted knowledge ini work at two separate hospitals and most of the rns i work with have stated they won't take the vaccine.
i've read a report that 1/3 of rns will refuse the vaccine.
for those in other countries do you see this being an issue or is it more an american phenomenon?.
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dozy
A friend of mine says she is reticent about taking the vaccine yet she happily gets botox injections every 3 months and takes her 2 dogs for their annual vaccinations every year. It's a bit weird - even she admits she is thinking irrationally. Thankfully this is the UK where probably the take up will be sufficient (85%-90%). In the USA where the anti vax conspiracy theories are much more prominent and the disgraced fraudulent UK doctor Wakefield is regarded as something of a hero by many, I'm guessing they might struggle to reach the threshold.
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15
Shepherding visit
by donnye ini cannot seem to find any information on which elder/s are assigned to do a shepherding visit on a congregation member.
does one of them have to be the member's field group leader?
can any elders do a shepherding visit at a member's request?
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dozy
One of the elders is normally the field group leader as he ( in theory ) is supposed to know the individual. Normally another elder comes - sometimes from the service committee ( CBE / Service overseer / secretary ). A MS will tag along if it is a genuine "encouraging" shepherding call ( but these are very rare - most visits are for counsel purposes).
I was a JW for 40 years and had one shepherding call on me all that time and that had a counsel element. Conversely , I was an elder and probably made only 2 or 3 genuine no counsel shepherding calls during my 10 years.
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5
2020-December--Announcements Etc
by projecthydra in2020-december--announcements and reminders.2020-december--audio/video guidelines for those giving public talks via video conference.. download link https://www.filemail.com/d/yfmnczlhgjzhwqq.
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dozy
Thanks
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14
how do spouse's treat their partners if they leave the cult?
by mickbobcat inso i was fortunate enough to have a wife that listened and saw what i was saying was true and that the cult is bs.
but i wonder how bad it is in a relationship that one goes out of the cult and the other stays in.
i can see that being a real issue for a marriage.
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dozy
My ( now ex ) stayed in for a couple of years after I left & it put enormous stress on the marriage.
In fairness it isn't great for the partner who stays a JW. In our case - one minute she was married to an ( ostensibly ) strong elder - next minute she is married to an "apostate" and constantly , every meeting , she gets faux sympathy from the other sisters and told "how well she is doing" etc. Her status changed overnight from being part of a successful JW family to another "single" sister with an unbelieving husband ( pretty much the lowest level in the congregation ) and she would come home from the meetings resentful and angry. Its a hugely divisive situation.
Eventually it all fell apart & she left ( and then left the Org after finding a replacement "worldly" guy. ) Unless both partners leave together - it's not a great scenario for a happy marriage as so much of our lives as JWs were built around the Org.
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36
What useful piece of literature have the JW produced?
by HowTheBibleWasCreated inseeing on another post here about former jws throwing away literature.
i am curious as to the various opinions on there value.. for me i have been inactive for 3 years almost 4. i still have alot of books and of course all their bibles ever produced (except a few from the 1800s.).
in my opinion i think there are four books the jws produced that are useful:.
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dozy
Some of the publications produced by the likes of Ray Franz and Ed Dunlap in the late 70's are quite good such as the original Happiness book , Life does have a Purpose and ( especially ) Commentary to the Letter of James. I actually enjoyed studying these books in the congregation book study without realising that they were written by real bible scholars ( ironically now regarded as apostates ) as they had a much more "Christian" basis instead of just banging the drum for the Society.
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27
Circuit overseers wives.
by stan livedeath inor..as i remember the title..circuit servants wives.
but then i left 40+ years ago.. any recollections of those females that led such an unnatural existence?.
those that i recall seemed such aloof creatures..
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dozy
For twenty years we had the CO & his wife staying with us during their visits. Some of the wives were very nice - others a bit aloof - a couple were arrogant b**tches. But to be honest , I always felt sorry for the CO's wife. They had to spend the whole week working on the ministry with sisters listening to their complaints and multiple issues. It is a pretty miserable existence and you could see the relief on a Sunday afternoon when the week was over and they could return to their flat and have the Monday off before the Societies hamster wheel re-started on Tuesday.
I remember one younger ( late 30's ) CO wife confiding in tears to my wife about how unhappy she was , how she would have loved to have a baby and how she couldn't wait for the day they left the CO work. She was on prescribed anti-depressants and numerous bizarre alternative medicine treatments ( which seems to be something of a theme with COs wives ). Last I heard they were still on the circuit.
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15
Was 2019 the last convention ever?
by joey jojo inin a recent feel-good instagram post about the 2019 international convention, a jw remarked, "was it the last convention we will have?".
there is no doubt jw's feel they are truly special and that world events revolve around them directly.
there is also no doubt that whether we get a vaccine for covid or not, and at the moment, its looking very certain that we will, that the world will continue to spin and life will go on, regardless of the beliefs of the jw's.. once the pandemic is over i'm wondering if some jw's will realise that even though they lived through a notable period of time, life kept sailing on, and maybe they aren't that special after all?
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dozy
I have a friend ( somewhat PIMO) who does some freelance software work for the Society in the UK & Germany and he says the hotel commission the Society gets from conventions is incredibly lucrative. He told me to think in terms of a minimum of 1 million hotel rooms - 3 nights - $100 per room 15%-20% commission - that's close on $60 million alone annually tax free- and every year the Society grows this as they further develop relationships with the big hotel chains like IHG & Hilton and the likes of Expedia.
Add to this all the additional international convention income - my sister went to Canada a couple of years ago and I was astonished how much she paid for flights and excursions. ( Check out this brochure from 2009 - prices have more than doubled since then. ) http://www.wegieltours-wcs.com/parjw/parisbrochurewegieltours.pdf The Society , with its big building programs continuing and with a lot of legal expenses and child abuse payouts simply can't afford to give all this up.