Posts by dozy

35

'church elders are told to report any allegations of child sexual abuse to the authorities immediately'

by was a new boy in

'the spokesperson also said that church elders are told to report any allegations of child sexual abuse to the authorities immediately, even if there is only one complainant.'.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/rebekah-vardy-sexually-abused-child-jehovahs-witnesses/.

is this true?

dozy

There were actually at least 3 untruths / misleading statements given to Ch4:

(1) Constant use of the term "so-called shunning" despite the fact that the Org has often used the work "shunning" in connection with how to treat DF/DA people eg Thus "disfellowshiping" is what Jehovah's Witnesses appropriately call the expelling and subsequent shunning of such an unrepentant wrongdoer." Watchtower 1981 Sep 15 p.22. This Watchtower is regularly cited as recently at 2021 / 2022.

(2) Reference that elders are instructed to call the authorities on any case of child abuse. This isn't true ( see phone call to branch above)

(3) Implication that shunning of DF/DA is an individual action. It isn't - it is insisted by the Org. The elders text book makes clear that anyone associating with DFd people / family members will be treated judicially.

362

Just read that Carl Olof Jonsson died yesterday

by slimboyfat in

for newbies, who was carl olof jonsson?

he was a jw in sweden who was challenged by a householder in the 1960s, who pointed out to him that secular history books don’t agree with watchtower that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, but instead place the event 20 years later.

the reason the date is important is because it is the starting date for jw chronology which leads to 1914 as the end of the gentile times, and the beginning of the last days, as jws understand it.

dozy

For me it was when the Society realised (in 1943) there was no zero year that to keep 1914 they simply changed the destruction of Jerusalem from 606 to 607, with absolutely no evidence to support either year.

362

Just read that Carl Olof Jonsson died yesterday

by slimboyfat in

for newbies, who was carl olof jonsson?

he was a jw in sweden who was challenged by a householder in the 1960s, who pointed out to him that secular history books don’t agree with watchtower that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, but instead place the event 20 years later.

the reason the date is important is because it is the starting date for jw chronology which leads to 1914 as the end of the gentile times, and the beginning of the last days, as jws understand it.

dozy

Sad to hear.

Copies of some of Jonsson's correspondence with the GB is here https://www.mentesbereanas.info/en/letterscarlolofenglish/

Initially they seemed reasonably responsive , but as the correspondence developed they became increasingly dismissive and even somewhat aggressive in anybody daring to question the "Faithful Slave". A pattern any of us who have written letters to the Branch will be familiar with.

42

Young "Elders"

by XBEHERE in

jw
friends

ever since the annual meeting last october and the letter to bodies of elders stating that "exceptional young men perhaps in their early 20's could qualify for appointment as elders.." it even states this in the updated elders manual!

have any of you pimo's, pimq's, or those on here with family/friends still in hear of any young men being appointed as elders yet?

i am talking 21, 22, 23, 24 etc.

dozy

I was reading on anothet forum about a 22 year old being appointed as an elder. It does seem a bit ridiculous.

29

Been years since Ive gone - should I bother with a letter?

by BeaverEater in

jw
friends

sig other is half assed still in, one family member is in... its been years... wondering if i should just let it be or just call up hq and say i resign... i will be pissed if they announce shit at the kh, though i dont even remember the last one i went to... lol.

for me, its none of anyone elses business... thoughts?.

dozy

Unless you still have some tangible connection with the congregation ( via family or whatever) then I wouldn't bother and just pat yourself on the back for having faded without being DFd.

Congregation personnel does change surprisingly quickly. I went to a funeral recently in my old KH (left about 10 years ago) and only recognised less than 25% of the congregation. Most of the people I knew had died , were sick or elderly, moved out or left the Org.

I remember when I was in and an elder we received a long , rambling letter from a guy who apparently had used to attend 15 years or so before. Only one of the elders could vaguely remember him. As hardly anybody knew him we just decided to "file" the letter (essentially in the bin) and decided not to make an announcement unless he followed up or attended as what was the point of announcing a DA from someone who nobody basically knew.

19

Christmas Decorations at the Kingdom hall

by Simon in

i can't remember if i've told this story before .... but back in the day, in irlam congregation (northwest england, uk, cheshire #1 circuit i think) we used to rent a kingdom hall for many years before we eventually built our own.. preston hall.

ah, the memories .... it was primarily used as a community hall for old folks, but we had it friday night and sunday morning.. there was a loft and fold-out ladder and we used to store the chairs up their.

every meeting, there would be an assembly line of all the "lads" to pass the chairs down and set them up, then collect them up and pass them back up at the end of the meeting.

dozy

Back in the day three day elder and MS schools were usually held just after Christmas or New Year ( for all I know they still are).

Anyway - ours was scheduled for 26th and 27th Dec and was located in a hotel with a large function room and we arrived to find it totally festooned with Christmas decorations. There was some rather heated discussions going on with the rather skeleton holiday hotel staff. As somewhat of a token gesture , a large inflatable Santa and reindeer were eventually wheeled out (to a few ironic claps) , but the rest of the decorations stayed - including a massive Christmas tree. it was a very large and high room and logistically it would have been impossible to remove everything - and the hotel staff just weren't having it - you could hear them quite rightly saying that no request had been made in advance to remove the decorations.

So we had the rather surreal setting of a two day elders meeting discussing the importance of "following theocratic order" held with lots of Christmas bunting and supposed "pagan" symbols everywhere. I was already somewhat PIMO and looking back , the hypocrisy and irony of the situation was just another stage in the awakening process. It was the last elders school I ever attended.

25

New convention video: Do you see what I see?

by neat blue dog in

.

dozy

The guy does have a beard - it is standard stock footage. I guess he is supposed to be a "worldly" guy in contemplation - just ready to transform his life by attending a convention. For all of their studios , the Org still use a huge amount of bought in "wordly" material in their content . The opening shot of cars on a freeway is from Moscow - again , stock footage.

https://stock.adobe.com/uk/video/at-sunset-waking-guy-through-the-beach-side-beside-the-sea-he-have-a-meditation-time-alone/384957819?prev_url=detail

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1039103963-beautiful-top-view-autonomous-cars-self-driving-on

45

Ramapo

by Mit123 in

how much is ramapo going to cost?

my daughter in africa meets in a cow shed for her meetings.

i wonder how many khs in africa they could build if they dropped ramapo?.

dozy

The $160 million figure is for the residences only. The total figure would be much higher , but remember that most of the cost is done by virtually free labour , which is the highest element of most building costs , so the value is much higher. The whole point of these projects is to build tax free with "slave" labour , hold for a few years , sell , repeat.

16

Almost got caught lying about listening in to yesterday's Memorial

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

i have not attended any kingdom hall meetings in 10 years.

the elders gave up on me a while ago.. the last 3 years i get phone calls to listen in to zoom meetings.

listened in several times... nothing has changed!

dozy

It seems a bit strange that the Org puts so much emphasis on passing the emblems even to the rather theatrical method of serving the servers , yet they are comfortable with people dialling in via Zoom for the memorial.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

dozy

Am I missing something? if he has 500 patrons paying (on average , lets say) £10 - £20 a month plus a bit of income from Youtube ads and occasional live streams - how is that so bad? As a side hustle - in addition to a job - it seems a pretty good income to me - even if you have to pay Tibor to edit the videos (which is hardly rocket science these days).