they don't want you bettering yourself.
they hate college education.they applaud you if you quit full time secular work and instead, "pioneer".
they cry that they have money problems.
Minimus - My Wt. experience is that the Organization could easily change ANY of their beliefs and write off anything that was previously taught if they so desire and the majority will accept it as more new lite.
End- times is part of their foundation. Remove that, or shunning, busy work, and other authoritarian control mechanisms, and the whole thing falls apart.
d4g
the following is a paragraph from the new february study watchtower article "learn from jehovah's loyal servants.".
7 a conflict of loyalties may arise when a close relative is disfellowshipped.
for example, a sister named anne [1] received a telephone call from her disfellowshipped mother.
Yes, the WT has always held to these positions. However, that is not the focus of the OP. There is some serious loaded language in this article, almost brazen. For those of you that point out this is a more disturbing article than usual, it is not your imagination.
Providing an example of what to write in a letter to a dis-fellowshipped relative or friend and how to handle a non-JW funeral is not only over the top, these are deliberately placed control mechanisms. As reprehensible as the WT is, this was not the norm not too many years ago.
Reading that WT brought back some painful thoughts of a similar communication I received from a friend, and the verbiage as was written to me was not nearly as cutting.
Sick. Fucking. Bastards.
d4g
they don't want you bettering yourself.
they hate college education.they applaud you if you quit full time secular work and instead, "pioneer".
they cry that they have money problems.
Simon, you may be correct that they are trying to mainstream in some respect, but they would have to give up end-times. I don't see how they can do that. As long as they teach we are in the "last days", they will end up chasing their tails with that any effort to mainstream. It will always come back to having to control folks in such a way to keep them "barefoot and pregnant". The Mormons, (no matter how strange and ultra-conservative), don't have a similar end-times theology, which is why they can have their own universities, political groups, etc. They are not dependent on the same level hopelessness as the end-times groups are.
d4g
they don't want you bettering yourself.
they hate college education.they applaud you if you quit full time secular work and instead, "pioneer".
they cry that they have money problems.
It would have, but it is too late for that. Nothing about them is close to mainstream, nor could it be at this point.
The WTS is a an end-times religion, they made that bed a long time ago. For an end-times theology to work, certain things need to be in place. All of those things center around high control, (including the end-times theology itself). The control is needed because people will not remain believers in that type of theology very long once they experience a sufficient level of success in life. End-times theology is about hopelessness.
Successful JWs stay in because they have acclimated to the social environment, and the cost of leaving is too high. The control mechanisms are what keep that cost high, since loss of one's social environment in the form of lost friends and family is very expensive, no matter how successful a JW is. Take away the control, (which includes the social price of leaving), and most successful JWs would walk overnight.
d4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.
Definitely Orwellian.
Blows my mind sometimes how anyone with working brain cells can still fall for this, but I know better.
d4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.
I would say "unbelievable", but we knew this was coming...Did we not?
d4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja4z2-sf4ky.
Just watched that...Calling it puke worthy is an insult to puke.
d4g
i remember a good friend when i was in and active who was d'fd.
when he started coming back, for me at that time is was gut-wrenching not to say 'hello' or at the very least encourage him to continue.
i thought even at this time, does this act of shunning really effective?
Shunning tends to comes in degrees. I don't think I ever shunned anyone hard, however I do know that I made the awful mistake of ignoring friends that left, which was more than bad enough. It never sat well with me, but knowing that does not make me feel any better about it, nor should it.
I tried reaching out to some of those folks after I left, and I can tell you the relationships were never the same. I deserved that.
Funny thing was, when I left, being shunned didn't bother me all that much. It took the loss of a very personally meaningful friend years later to experience that kind of immense pain. It was then when I finally understood why I stayed away all those years after leaving, and also how incredibly hurtful shunning is. Talk about karma.
I tell myself now that they cannot help it for the most part, just like I could not when I believed. Evil fucking cult. No one should ever be made to dehumanize themselves to that point.
d4g
so i was watching clips from the annual meeting.
i must say i do miss the jersey city assembly hall.
i loved going to that place as a kid.
I remember working on the large addition they put on the building in 1992 or so. I was working on the roof at the time, when another crew was redoing the concrete steps to the roof. I somehow missed the announcement that was made that the stairs were going to be closed off for the remainder of the day...meaning climbing onto the scaffolding, which had no planks at all...just an overgrown set of monkey bars...all the way down to the ground!!!
Nearly shit myself over that and never was so glad to be back on the ground.
I do miss the ice cream, however...
d4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja4z2-sf4ky.
They wouldn't care about "apostates" if the people in question were not winning the war...albeit ever so slowly.
Their paranoia tells all you need to know.
d4g
