Posts by Joe Grundy

10

Placing Publications - The Reality

by Joe Grundy in

jw
friends

i'm not, never have been, a jw, etc.. a couple of months ago, on a mb entirely unconnected with religion a poster told of her concerns that her pre-teen step-daughter had started to study (with her mother) with jws.. the poster knew nothing of jws - her concern was because her step-daughter had asked her not to tell her husband (the girl's father) of this and keep it secret.

(apparently the mother had previously had connections with jws and the father was not happy with this).. i posted on that mb, mentioned some concerns, and later got into e-mail contact with the step-mother.

i put together a brief note about some history of the jws, some concerns i had (mainly gathered from reading jwd) and sent it to her, just to make her aware of what she may be dealing with.

Joe Grundy

Thanks, Juni!

This is what I sent in my e-mail reply:

Re the jaydubs - I was surprised to find when I started researching them that this leaving (or 'placing' as they calll it) their literature in public places (launderettes, hospital waiting rooms, etc.) is very common. The reason is apparently that JWs have to submit a return to the 'elders' every month of their missionary activity. ('Missionary' as in outreach work, not as in 'wifely due'). Too few hours means that you are regarded as 'inactive' and thus likely to die at Armageddon, or at least get grief from the 'elders'. So many JWs go round likely places and leave the magazines. They can count their hours for the visit, and if they find (or can assume) someone has actually read one they can count some more time for that too. I wonder if the repair place owner is a jaydub or one of his staff is, or whether someone just asked to leave the stuff there and he didn't object because like the vast majority of people he has no idea of what the JWs are/believe and cares even less. Certainly wouldn't be good for business if other customers realised that JWs consider all religions other than theirs the 'Whore of Babylon', etc. Might offend the local vicar when he brings his Morris Minor in for a paint job!

I had a later thought and sent this PS:

An interesting (well to me, anyway) philosophical/religious thought just occurred to me. If the owner of the repair place is a JW he must (if he's a real believer) believe that Armageddon is 'just round the corner' 'some time soon' 'any day now' etc. So why would he bother to do a lasting repair job? After all, all the rest of us are going to die at Armageddon soon. Wouldn't give a lot of confidence in his offer of a long-term guarantee on the repair job, would it? (Or am I just being mischievous?)

I really do think it's best if I don't go to any more KH gigs, don't you? Signed, the apostate of the Whore of Babylon!

10

Placing Publications - The Reality

by Joe Grundy in

jw
friends

i'm not, never have been, a jw, etc.. a couple of months ago, on a mb entirely unconnected with religion a poster told of her concerns that her pre-teen step-daughter had started to study (with her mother) with jws.. the poster knew nothing of jws - her concern was because her step-daughter had asked her not to tell her husband (the girl's father) of this and keep it secret.

(apparently the mother had previously had connections with jws and the father was not happy with this).. i posted on that mb, mentioned some concerns, and later got into e-mail contact with the step-mother.

i put together a brief note about some history of the jws, some concerns i had (mainly gathered from reading jwd) and sent it to her, just to make her aware of what she may be dealing with.

Joe Grundy

Cheers, kid-A!

I am wondering whether I should apply for inclusion as an honourary apostate!

(Me, I'm just a long-ago apostate from ordinary, boring, mainstream christendom. But wait! Does that make me an apostate from the Whore Of Babylon? Now, there's a title to cherish!)

125

FRESH OFF THE PRESS.... 9/1/06 WT "When a Loved One Leaves Jeh."

by schne_belly in

.

this just in for your reading displeasure......enjoy

.

Joe Grundy

You sound like an innocently informed outsider.

I am an innocently-informed outsider!!

10

Placing Publications - The Reality

by Joe Grundy in

jw
friends

i'm not, never have been, a jw, etc.. a couple of months ago, on a mb entirely unconnected with religion a poster told of her concerns that her pre-teen step-daughter had started to study (with her mother) with jws.. the poster knew nothing of jws - her concern was because her step-daughter had asked her not to tell her husband (the girl's father) of this and keep it secret.

(apparently the mother had previously had connections with jws and the father was not happy with this).. i posted on that mb, mentioned some concerns, and later got into e-mail contact with the step-mother.

i put together a brief note about some history of the jws, some concerns i had (mainly gathered from reading jwd) and sent it to her, just to make her aware of what she may be dealing with.

Joe Grundy

I'm not, never have been, a JW, etc.

A couple of months ago, on a MB entirely unconnected with religion a poster told of her concerns that her pre-teen step-daughter had started to study (with her mother) with JWs.

The poster knew nothing of JWs - her concern was because her step-daughter had asked her not to tell her husband (the girl's father) of this and keep it secret. (Apparently the mother had previously had connections with JWs and the father was not happy with this).

I posted on that MB, mentioned some concerns, and later got into e-mail contact with the step-mother. I put together a brief note about some history of the JWs, some concerns I had (mainly gathered from reading JWD) and sent it to her, just to make her aware of what she may be dealing with. I also gave her some links to sites, including JWD. I don't know if she followed them up or not. Later the step-mother got back to me and told me that her step-daughter had decided of her own volition to discontinue the study and have no more to do with the dubs.

Today I had an email from the step-mother on an unrelated matter. But she mentioned in it that she recently had to take her car to a body repair shop for a quote. In her e-mail she included this:

In the reception area was a big table absolutely covered in recent copies of the Watchtower as reading material! Needless to say I have not taken my car there for repair. Don't you think that is strange? I didn't ask but it seems to me that they support this group. I would have thought it was not good for business.

Just goes to show - a little knowledge about JWs goes a long way. This is also relevant to the question about the effect of information about the dubs and the internet, I suppose.

125

FRESH OFF THE PRESS.... 9/1/06 WT "When a Loved One Leaves Jeh."

by schne_belly in

.

this just in for your reading displeasure......enjoy

.

Joe Grundy

I have had no response whatsoever.

I can only surmise (based on info about WTBTS which I have picked up from JWD) that if they DID plan any response they would have referred it to the local English-speaking congregation. I attended it three times with my JW MS neighbour. The last was wearing my FBI polo-shirt, and I went outside for a smoke afterwards. I also explained to my neighbour my religious views (I am an informed atheist) and that it may be best for his JW prospects if he curtailed his association as I am, no doubt, worldly and Bad Association. (We still speak occasionally but no more invitations to dinner with him or his friends, etc.).

So, any response via the local cong would probably have been checked with him first. I no doubt failed that test. Funny, really, it wasn't so long ago that his JW wife (she's the keener one, I think) told me that 'cos I was the 'innocent' one in my divorce in their eyes, there really wouldn't be any problems in my becoming a JW and living a 'full' life in the religion. Perhaps they have some increasingly-desperate single sisters available?

356

Say You're a Bethelite & Monitoring JWD - How Would You Feel About THESE??

by Seeker4 in

jw
friends

i'm talking about the new posters, like kitten whiskers, who started posting today (hope this works: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/120817/1.ashx).

and it seems like we're getting a few like this nearly every day.

people who were raised jws, really worry that they are doing the right thing in leaving, yet who have been made to feel not good enough by the wts, who felt they never measured up, who struggled with it, but came to realize that what they'd been brought up to believe was just not the truth.. the same stories are told over and over again, and they come from sincere, good people - not whiny, fault-finding apostates like the rest of us riffraff around here!

Joe Grundy

Auld-Soul

Thanks for that. I have little doubt that you are right.

As a never was JW, etc., whose academic knowledge falls far short of that of many posters here, I don't often have much to contribute. But in this area, I do feel that I can bring long and fairly senior professional experience to bear.

More than that, I have personal experience. My own daughter was raped a few years ago when she was 17. It was not an 'unknown suspect' type of thing. I was in command of the area, and thus (in theory) of the investigation at the time. After a very very brief conversation with her I suspended myself from duty while the investigation took place and ensured that neither I nor my wife discussed any details with her pending prosecution.

Unfortunately, the prosecuting authorities decided not to prosecute the offenders for this rape nor the number of others that were discovered during the investigation.

BUT, had they done so I and she would have been devastated if the offenders had gone free because of my actions. Professionals - and that includes anyone involved with victims in a professional or organisational way, including WTBTS, or even ESPECIALLY WTBTS because of the level of control they exert over their members - need to know about this, and are IMHO especially and particularly culpable if they get it wrong.

18

Hospital ordered to give Jehovah's Witness transfusion

by Gilberto in

http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=83890466&p=8389x768&n=83890846.

hospital ordered to give jehovah's witness transfusion.

21/09/2006 - 5:28:29 pm.

Joe Grundy

I think the salient point here is that the action was taken in the best interest of the CHILD.

Well done, Eire, I say!

And can we assume that because neither the blood transfusion team, the judges or the mother were struck down by lightning or turned into a pillar of salt by the OT Jehovah the WTBTS loves to promulgate, then either Jehovah gave the transfusion his implied blessing or it wasn't important enough for him to worry about?

I'll bet this story doesn't make it into a WTBTS magazine (unless, of course, at some future time someone involved gets run down crossing the road, when it will be presented as evidence of Jehovah's [delayed] judgement).

A cynic speaks.

33

Elderly JW refused to open her Bible...

by AuldSoul in

jw
friends

okay, some of you might have read about my conversation with the elderly lady that was doing street witnessing in conyers, ga. this experience happened this morning ... just looked at the clock, yesterday morning .

i walked out of the local tag office (where we register our vehicles and acquire license plates for the cars) and there sat an elderly lady with current magazines.

being in somewhat of a hurry, i tried to walk a more direct path to my vehicle ... but she thought i was avioding her.

Joe Grundy

Poor woman probably couldn't phone Auld Soul back as she was in a JC trying to explain how she got 50 cents from a Worldly man

Reminds me of the old joke with the punch-line 'They all did'!.

33

Elderly JW refused to open her Bible...

by AuldSoul in

jw
friends

okay, some of you might have read about my conversation with the elderly lady that was doing street witnessing in conyers, ga. this experience happened this morning ... just looked at the clock, yesterday morning .

i walked out of the local tag office (where we register our vehicles and acquire license plates for the cars) and there sat an elderly lady with current magazines.

being in somewhat of a hurry, i tried to walk a more direct path to my vehicle ... but she thought i was avioding her.

Joe Grundy

BUT the Elders reminded her that WORLDLY men are only after one thing - and it ISN'T the Watchtower

EXCUSE ME!

As a worldly man, I resent the insinuation. And it's not accurate.

I am after a beer and a smoke as well.

125

FRESH OFF THE PRESS.... 9/1/06 WT "When a Loved One Leaves Jeh."

by schne_belly in

.

this just in for your reading displeasure......enjoy

.

Joe Grundy

Just to provide an update:

This is the letter I mailed to WTBTS on 29 July 2006:

Watchtower Bible & Tract Society 25 Columbia Heights Brooklyn New York11201-2483 NY, USA. 29 July 2006 Dear Sir/Madam I have for some time been interested in your teachings and doctrines and have read a number of your publications.I have found them challenging and thought-provoking. I have just seen your ?Watchtower? magzine dated 1 st September 2006,and the article entitled ?When a Loved One Leaves Jehovah?.I want to ask about some issues which this article raises and hope that you will be able to clarify some points for me. I should explain that I was a police officer for thirty years and have experienced the dreadful problems which can be caused by ?broken families?. It seems to me from this article that the author equates leaving the religion of ?Jehovah?s Witnessess? with ceasing a relationship with God and/or Jesus.I am uncertain as to whether this was the intention of the article or merely an unfortunate implication.Perhaps you could clarify this. The overall impression I gained from the article is that if someone leaves the religion they are effectively isolated from their family.I am sure that this is not correct within your teachings, and that no doubt you will wish to correct this.It may well be that I have simply misunderstood. You will no doubt agree that particularly in these days of increasing numbers of ?broken homes? the love and example of a united family and the exhibition of unconditional love is a supremely important matter, and one which is fully in accordance with Biblical principles. I must confess to having been concerned by the implications of this article.I appreciate, of course, that sometimes articles may be included in publications which fail to reflect the true principles intended.This may be what has happened here, but I would in any case be grateful for clarification. You may wish to respond to my enquiry by e-mail: my address is [edited] . Yours faithfully

I have not recieved a reply or acknowledgement. This is not a surprise.