dedalus

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Posts by dedalus

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  19

  Major Changes in Watchtower Land???

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  according to my wife, who is reading some other discussion board, the following changes are happening in the organization, or will happen, or have happened:.

  1. no more book study meetings.

  instead, the book study is added to the theocratic ministry school meeting.. 2. awake is published only once a month.. 3. two versions of the watchtower: one for the public, one for the witnesses themselves.. 4. shortened sunday meetings -- 1.5 hours instead of 2.0 hours.. 5. shortened hourly requirements for pioneers (this one may not be as new as the others?)..

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  dedalus

  A link would be nice. I just scrolled back through 7 pages of topics, and must have missed it. Again.
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  19

  Major Changes in Watchtower Land???

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  according to my wife, who is reading some other discussion board, the following changes are happening in the organization, or will happen, or have happened:.

  1. no more book study meetings.

  instead, the book study is added to the theocratic ministry school meeting.. 2. awake is published only once a month.. 3. two versions of the watchtower: one for the public, one for the witnesses themselves.. 4. shortened sunday meetings -- 1.5 hours instead of 2.0 hours.. 5. shortened hourly requirements for pioneers (this one may not be as new as the others?)..

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  dedalus

  Well, of course truth changes, Ninja. We're used to hearing about the light getting brighter and dimmer and brighter again. But what astonishes me is the possibility that major procedural changes -- particularly changes that reduce meeting requirements -- may come to pass, if they haven't already. Also, the thing about 2 different versions of the Watchtower -- one for the public, and one for the members -- seems like a transparent embrace of the sect's inherent hypocrisy.
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  19

  Major Changes in Watchtower Land???

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  according to my wife, who is reading some other discussion board, the following changes are happening in the organization, or will happen, or have happened:.

  1. no more book study meetings.

  instead, the book study is added to the theocratic ministry school meeting.. 2. awake is published only once a month.. 3. two versions of the watchtower: one for the public, one for the witnesses themselves.. 4. shortened sunday meetings -- 1.5 hours instead of 2.0 hours.. 5. shortened hourly requirements for pioneers (this one may not be as new as the others?)..

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  dedalus

  According to my wife, who is reading some other discussion board, the following changes are happening in the Organization, or will happen, or have happened:
  
  1. No more Book Study meetings. Instead, the Book Study is added to the Theocratic Ministry School meeting.
  2. Awake is published only once a month.
  3. Two versions of the Watchtower: one for the public, one for the Witnesses themselves.
  4. Shortened Sunday meetings -- 1.5 hours instead of 2.0 hours.
  5. Shortened hourly requirements for pioneers (this one may not be as new as the others?).
  
  Who knows more about this? Sorry if it's been discussed before -- I didn't see anything in the first couple pages of topics.
  
  And if it's true, why all the changes, anyway?
  
  Dedalus
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  50

  How Do You Deal With Stress & Depression?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know many people who are stressed and depressed.

  they feel burnt out and anxious.

  how have you dealt with such issues?

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  dedalus

  Hahahaha!
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  19

  Request for Experiences

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may remember me from a long time ago.

  anyway, i'm back now and wondered if i could collect some of your experiences.. .

  my younger brother disassociated himself this week.

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  dedalus

  Thank you, Flipper. I appreciate what you've written, and will talking with my brother about your experience in time.
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  19

  Request for Experiences

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may remember me from a long time ago.

  anyway, i'm back now and wondered if i could collect some of your experiences.. .

  my younger brother disassociated himself this week.

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  dedalus

  I see what you're saying, Unique1, and I think the imagined dialogue you wrote out is terrific -- in fact, the more I think about it, the more it sounds like the sort of thing I'd say, if I were in my brother's shoes.
  
  I'll definitely pass along what you've written to my brother. Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
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  19

  Request for Experiences

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may remember me from a long time ago.

  anyway, i'm back now and wondered if i could collect some of your experiences.. .

  my younger brother disassociated himself this week.

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  dedalus

  Can someone remove Coaster's comment from this thread? Thank you.
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  19

  Request for Experiences

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may remember me from a long time ago.

  anyway, i'm back now and wondered if i could collect some of your experiences.. .

  my younger brother disassociated himself this week.

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  dedalus

  Hi S4! I was hoping you'd pop up.
  
  Did you finish your degree? Are you teaching? Where are you located now - Boston?
  
  I finished my MA back in 2002, have been teaching at a terrific high school since then. I'm more Western/Central MA, depending on where you catch me in the commute, but we get to Boston as often as possible. Possibly, when my wife finishes her degree, we'll move eastward, but more likely we'll settle around Northampton in a few years.
  
  I went and had two more kids since the last time I was active on the board. So now it's two girls and a boy.
  
  Who are you reading now, besides Henry James?
  
  Just finished the new Michael Chabon novel. Reading Michael Thomas's Man Gone Down right now, and some Joseph Conrad, because I have to teach him in September. Read a lot of David Mitchell recently -- all of his novels, in fact. Met Marilynne Robinson some time back -- heard her give a sermon, actually. Good lord, the woman delivers. Witnesses should get a load of her at the pulpit. Hmmm, what else? Haven't read James in a while but I'm kind of itchy for a good ol' Jamesian ghost story.
  
  How's your mother doing?
  
  Good. Nothing new to report there.
  
  My son and his wife seperated a few weeks ago. They're not JW, but do have 4 kids from 4 to 11, and this is not cool on them. I was in tears last night thinking about it.
  
  Sorry to hear about that. I can only imagine, but divorce with kids sounds catastrophic. I have plenty of my own projects in which I'm invested, but fatherhood is easily the biggest project of my life. I understand that divorce becomes necessary for some couples, but it must be so painful for everyone, too.
  
  Then you add all the Witness bullshit. Ugh. Is there anyone who would stand up for him and stop that kind of talk? Maybe a truly righteous elder that they would respect?
  
  His father-in-law is an elder at his congregation, and in all likelihood was the one who called for the elders' visit that led to my brother's disassociation.
  
  The good elders, I suspect they tend to drift away. Sound familiar? :)
  
  How about you, S4? I'm interested in what you've been up to all these years. Still writing, I am sure. Happily remarried, I think? Or re-partnered? Still look somewhat like Sting in that photo from the Mercury Falling CD? :)
  
  Dedalus S4
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  19

  Request for Experiences

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may remember me from a long time ago.

  anyway, i'm back now and wondered if i could collect some of your experiences.. .

  my younger brother disassociated himself this week.

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  2. 
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  dedalus

  Thank you, Unique1 and Jankyn.
  
  Unique1, I think you offer some great logical ideas, and in my own family our children are free enough to answer questions like that. I wonder if it'd be fair to put a question like "Which religion is the true religion if they all say the same thing?" to my young Witness niece and nephew. I mean, it's not a horrible question or anything, but my nephew is going to know that how he answers will affect how certain family members view him. If he says, "I think Witnesses are the right religion," he knows that answer is not what his father wants to hear. And if he says, "These religions are the same as Witnesses," then he knows he's betrayed his mother. Know what I mean?
  
  On the other hand, maybe my brother should be assertive in this situation.
  
  Jankyn, what you wrote was beautiful. I am definitely going to share it with my brother, if you don't mind.
  
  In my brother's case, though, he's been faithful to his wife. The difference between him and your father, Jankyn, is that he will be moving out in September. I have no idea if this is the "best" situation. On the one hand, he and his wife fight constantly. No physical abuse, but lots of shouting. Awful for kids to see. One hopes that the children will come to understand that, in a way, his departure was inevitable. How do you think you would have been affected, if your father had moved out and you visited with him a few times a week?
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  19

  Request for Experiences

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may remember me from a long time ago.

  anyway, i'm back now and wondered if i could collect some of your experiences.. .

  my younger brother disassociated himself this week.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  dedalus

  Hi,
  
  Some of you may remember me from a long time ago. Anyway, I'm back now and wondered if I could collect some of your experiences.
  
  My younger brother disassociated himself this week. It was something he needed to do, for reasons that will be familiar to most of the people posting here. I guess the Society has become increasingly dogmatic in its assertion that all non-Witnesses will be slaughtered someday. My brother tells me that his CO said that visiting with a disfellowshipped person is like sinning against the Holy Spirit, and that whenever he (the CO) goes out in public, all he sees are dead people. (Insert theme music from A Sixth Sense.) It must be a happy time to be a JW.
  
  Anyway, my brother's been inactive and doubtful, and then two elders came to my brother's house and harassed him, and finally, while they were there, he got a piece of paper and wrote a letter disassociating himself.
  
  This is rather remarkable, because my brother was the meekest, mildest, don't-rock-the-boat sort of JW, and even he couldn't stomach what he saw being taught.
  
  But here's the problem, and here's where I hope some of you can help.
  
  My brother has two children, and since he's recently separated from his awful, awful wife, he only sees them a few times a week. His son is about 8 and his daughter is 5. He's a terrific, devoted father who adores his kids, and they love him too. Meanwhile, their JW mother and her parents are telling the children that my brother has sinned against Jehovah, that demons are in his life, that he's going to die at Armageddon. You know, the usual shiny happy Witness shtick. Needless to say, my brother's worried about how to handle all this.
  
  I'm wondering if any of you on the board have experiences with this sort of situation. I am particularly interested in those of you (fathers mostly, but mothers too) who left the Witnesses when you had young children. What did you do to help your children with the transition after you left the Witnesses? How did you cope with the mechanism of the congregation, the JW family, the teachings your children heard that scared them when they thought of you? What strategy did you use to help your children get through this? When they grew up, did your children remain Witnesses, or did they leave, and what kind of relationship did they have with you?
  
  Conversely, if you were a child who lived through the departure of a parent (from the religion, from the house where you lived because of separation/divorce), what was it liked? What helped? What hurt?
  
  Thanks for sharing, if you can. I'll send your experiences to my brother, who I'm sure will find them helpful.
  
  Dedalus