Posts by Truth2Me

12

Disfellowship article-Make them squirm

by good2bgone in

jw
friends

the august km disfellowshipping article will be discussed the weeks of aug 19 & 26. i'm thinking of explaining the shunning policy to a reporter or some friends.

they could go to the meeting that night and explain before the meeting that they are interested in listening and learning what jw's believe and see how they treat others.

would it make the elders squirm when the article is discussed?

Truth2Me

Yeah Good2bgone, great idea!

Awesome idea! I say go for it!

Truth2Me

10

The Downward Spiral

by Farkel in

almost twenty years ago jim penton mentioned that the wts was losing its brightest and best members in far greater percentages than its not-so-brightest and not-so-best .

this malaise was jump-started with rutherford's attack on "higher education" and in recent years has backfired on the society.

the wts has promoted low-tech education and employment in a high-tech world and is reaping the very whirlwind it has created.. most recently we've seen another whirlwind the society has created: it is hunting down and executing its best examples of caring, concerned christians: people like joe and barbara anderson, bill bowen and a whole host of unnamed others who are trying to be exemplary christians, even if it means standing up to the unchristian policies and doctrines of the watchtower.. successful watchtower recruits are unlikely to be educated people simply because in the pre-indoctrination process, educated people are likely to spot the doctrinal inconsistencies, the fallacious reasoning and the double-standards that are a part of watchtower life.

Truth2Me

I remember reading in one of Raymond Franz's books that the only member of the Governing Body who had any formal training in the scriptures, was his uncle, I think that was Fred Franz? Fred Franz being considered the "scholar" of the Society......he was also the ONLY memeber of the New World Translation Translation Committee who had enough training in the ancient languages to do a little translating.

SO......It was a big shock to me to find out that the guys running the show in Brooklyn knew less about the Bible than a 21 yr old fresh out of Bible College.....SOOOOOO SAD!!!!

Another thing....

I knew a sister who went to Bethel on her own, having been raised in the World, and becoming a Witless when she was an adult and working as a chiropracter.....Funny how the Society discourages post-high school education...yet they want educated people to serve at Bethal. I've seen the form applicants fill out to apply for Bethal Service.....and unless you are a brother whose healthy and fresh outta highschool...you probably aint' gettin' accepted unless you have a degree in something they need you for, like a doctor etc.

When I met the Witlesses I was about to start my senoir year of highschool. I was very depressed at the time. I was very venerable. Well, because of the Society's feelings about school...I didn't even graduate...and I didnt care. All I wanted to do was pioneer....which I was never able to do. I struggle very hard to get where I am, and it's been a few years and I've got a good job....but it's been a battle to support myself. If only I was encouarged to focus on my education more back then...but alas...God took care of me anyway.

That's my two cents,

Truth2Me

7

Baptism

by joannadandy in

just some thoughts i had...it creeped itself into poem format...i hate when that happens...lol.

there was light on their wings as they stepped into the water.. there was gold on their hands as they pushed me toward the stream.. the thick black of the swirling water went un-noticed except by me.. the thick black smoke they breathed was choking me.. i stepped back afraid.. i stepped back to flee.. they called to me in a siren song that was slightly out of tune.. they pounded words from dusty books into my ears.. the words became pleasurable for a time in the numbness they brought.. there were hundreds all around me.. there was love in their words, and faces filled with indifference.. yet still no wings for me after these long years.. there was gold on their faces, but i saw the red reflected in their eyes.. i sat on the bank and cried gray tears.. the light would never reflect the same.. ashes in my lap,.

dust within the air.. i am made of nothing, .

Truth2Me

When I got baptised as a JW..it was a special time, because it was a public declaration of my devotion to God.

But, I had already been baptised as a born-again Christian, before I became a Witless....so I had a hard time accepting that I need to be baptised yet again.....but I was told that my previous baptism didn't really count because I "Didn't really know Jehovah" then.......I resented that. I didn't really know my Bible---true, otherwise I never would have become a Witless to begin with...but I DID have a personal relationship with God/Jehovah/Yahweh...whatever his/her name is.

A few of folks have mentioned the facade of smiling faces.....I actually bought into the whole thing when I was a Witless....I was genuinely happy in the borg....and I knew many who were too...and we smiled 'cause we were happy.....but after awhile I got to know many who smiled to look okay to everyone else, hiding the pain inside because the "happiest people on earth" couldn't possible be misrable inside.....hahaha....SO sad. I stood out because I didn't play that game. I'm a 100% who I am and I don't play those games. If I'm thrilled to pieces everyone else knows it and if I'm depressed then everyone else can see it in my face. I've heard that in the Borg, before my time, they actually called it "Face Crime" if you didn't put on a happy face. Rediculous!!!!

It Ain't-

Truth2Me

33

Who are the 144,000?

by EXJWBrit in

i swallowed and believed such much shit when i was a jw that i have a few more questions to ask anyone who has the answers.

the 144,000 is a big gripe of mine........ right, i was told that the 144,000 found out they were one of the anointed when they had a flash of "revelation" at some point and truly believed it or they had known since they were a child.

what a load of shit!

Truth2Me

DSGAL, I asked a sister why the yearbook actually showed an increase in the number of "annoying" ones and she told me that was because some of the annointed had been in prison and stuff like that so because of persecution they had not previously been counted, so it just LOOKED like there was an increase, but really there wasn't....makes sense to me.....but I don't buy the whole WT junkola about the 144,000 anyway....especially after reading Raymond Franz's "Crisis of Conscience."

Truth2Me

9

field service when df'd?

by teejay in

from what i've read (and heard) over the years, the society says you can.

you can even go up to the literature and magazine counter and get your weekly allotment and the brothers at the counter will treat you like everybody else.. i hafta say... when i was df'd, i never did.

the thought never occurred to me.

Truth2Me

Hummm this is interesting...I ran into a Df'd brother at Walmart not long after I had been Df'd....he told me that you can still preach on your own.....but I found this hard to believe because I know that the year before, when he had been Df'd his calls were assigned to someone else to follow up on. Then he was reinstated....but I can't recall if he got his calls back....then he was Df'd again.

I have a secret to confess.....I never felt comfortable making donations at the KH....so I never did. Once, I had saved up a jar of change, and I dumped that into the box because I felt guilty for all the literature I had, but that was it. Unless someone gave me a donation while out in service..then I didn't contribute. When I first started studying, and the sister who was studying with me got me a subscription for the mags, I wrote a check for $24 for them. I had just got my first checking account, so I was just getting the hang of writing checks. I think that check was the first one I ever wrote....and I forgot to sign it!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I dicovered that months later, when I found out they never cashed it...but noone wanted to say anything about it to me.

I remember in the KM one month they listed "suggested" donations for certain items...for CD's and CD-ROM they wanted some ridiculous amount of money. I cannot remember exactly what the amount was, but it was several times the cost to buy a music CD or CD-ROM from a store.....rediculous!!!!!!! and where is this money going?

Truth2Me

37

WT literature in the trash can

by Nordic in

i am born in the truth.now i am 40 years old and have thrown all my wt literature in the trash can.i am ashamed that i have been in the watchtower orginazation and in my prayer to jehovah i have said that i only belong to him.

Truth2Me

Though I hadn't been in the Borg for very long, I had inherited a sizable collection of books and bound volumns from other Witlesses. So, I tried to donate them to a local University...figuring they'd be good for classes on high-control groups like the JW's or for studying about mind control and manipulating people with false arguements etc. The University wrote back to me saying they didn't want any of the WT stuff....so I ended up putting most of it in the trash....I still have a few things, and the WT Library CD-ROM so I figure I can research stuff if I want to. I can't decide though if I should cancel or renew my mag subscription. I've heard that in New Hampshire, USA, they now only hand out mags at the KH....you can't even have an individual subscription there anymore. I live in Rhode Island....and I have a subscription...but if they stop doing subscriptions everywhere I can see that being a problem for those who want to keep abreast of the junkola the Society is feeding the minnions.

Truth2Me

53

Who are animal lovers here??????

by LyinEyes in

jw
friends

and no i don't mean the man, the poster animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!

although he is loveable............... i love animals, i have two dogs, a black lab named snoopy and a pug, named pug.

sometimes we call him pig, or dig, or mama's little baby.

Truth2Me

Hey gumby....I here 'ya...after losing all my friends when I was Df'd, then losing my Grandparents in death and having to put the family dog I grew up with to sleep...all in the same year....I had had enough loss and couldn't bear to let myself love another animal just to lose it.....so I got my parrots...they can live long enough to outlive me....life long companions is what parrots can be.

Hey Valis, your hedgehogs are cute :) not exactly a cuddly pets though eh?

Truth2Me

31

WT Speaks Out On Apostasy

by stevieb1 in

jw
friends

the following quote is taken from the september 15, 2002 edition of the watchtower, p.16-18:.

"in the first century, such individuals as hymanaeus, alexander, and philetus, were advocating ideas that did not fit "the pattern of healthful words.

" (1 timothy 1:18-20; 2 timothy 2:16,17) how could the early christians avoid being led astray by apostates?

Truth2Me

I find the article very amusing....the reasoning they use is really hysterical....they've got folks so conditioned that what the Society says is "God's word" to the point where they can say just about anything and though it may defie all rational thought and scriptural reasoning...millions of people believe it as if God came down and said it right to them......so very sad. SO very sad. And yet I believed it, trusting soul that I am, for several years.....but I saw the contradictions mounting.....until I could not deny that "The Truth" was not what it claimed to be.

When I was in the Borg...widows over 65 could apply for monitary support from the congregation...I don't know much about it, as I'm in my twenties, but that's what I was told...but I don't know if that was a new thing or only down in the USA or what.

Truth2Me

53

Who are animal lovers here??????

by LyinEyes in

jw
friends

and no i don't mean the man, the poster animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!

although he is loveable............... i love animals, i have two dogs, a black lab named snoopy and a pug, named pug.

sometimes we call him pig, or dig, or mama's little baby.

Truth2Me

I LOVE ANIMALS!!!!!! I've had pets and I've been fascinated with creation my whole life. Over the years I have many animals....my family had horses, rabbits, dogs, cats, lizards, cockatoos, parakeets, hampsters and gerbils, and later on I had at one point ten ferrets......but now I've just got my two macaws.....and they are the love of my life. They love my unconditionally...unlike those in the borg.....welll....I won't go there right now.....

I have a mini-hahn's macaw, and a HUMONGOUS Harlequin. Her cage is so big I can walk around inside it....heehee....but because she is sooooo big, and has inch long talons.... (her toes are as long as my fingers) I get red marks on my arm from holding her.....I have to tell people when they first meet me that I have parrots, so they don't think I'm a drug addict or mutilating myself or something.

My fids (featherd kids) speak english like a young human child...and it's rather amusing....they even try to get their two cents in when I'm on the phone with someone.

I was encouraged to get rid of my animals when I was a Witness.....I didn't know anyone at my KH who was into animals like me....anyone else relate to this?

Truth2Me

55

The book that will bring Ethics to the GB.

by Bleep in

the governing body may be too old to teach sex education.

but they are wise in other matters.. i have made a new topic since i slaughtered the book in the last topic of raymond franz.

do not forget that he made a mistake in being a 100% governing body thinker.. no organization at its early stages can live up to jehovah's expectations and no one is perfect.. please list some good ideas, ethics that the governing body has done here.

Truth2Me

The Governing Body makes decisions of behalf of Jehovah God, as "his channel" of communitcation to the millions of believers who seek to follow Jehovah through the WTBTS. Therefore, the decisions they make should, be Ethical and in harmondy with the Bible, seeing how they are deciding how millions of people seeking to follow God will live.....but....

When I was active in the Organization I, like just about every Witness I knew, ASSUMED that the Governing Body memebers MUST spend much of their time on careful Bible Study...especially when it comes to making any major decision for judicial proceedings or Bible interpretation. BUT that is NOT the reality. I base that statement on the documentation recorded by Raymond Franz's personal eye witness account...how Governing Body members are on a busy schedule of speaking and such, that they have no more time, if not much less than the average JW for Bible study...that the writing department has put out changes in doctrine without the Governing Body's perusal on occaison etc. They don't base decisions not on Bible study and prayerful consideration. I've seen with my own eyes brothers given appointments supposedly from the Governing Body themselves....brothers that were harbouring serious sins secretly....they never deserved to get those appointments....yet some brother in Bethel saw that the elders recommended him...so he got the stamp of approval....and that is suppose to be God's active force at work?

When the Governing Body makes a decision that brings hardship, heartache/and or devastation to families and the brotherhood worldwide....do they come out and appolijze? NEVER. How is that ethical?

When the Governing Body, who claim to be God's ONLY Channel of communication....claim to be GOD's organization....don't seek God constantly in prayer and in Bible study.....and then they do not go out door to door....yet they insist that the rest of the brotherhood do so....is that ethical?

Is it Ethical to for the Governing Body to preach one thing and then do another?

I use to have the same awe and respect and adoration for the Governing Body that most JW's do....but now that I know the truth about The Truth I can see them the same way again. I'd like to think that they mean well. That they are a bunch of grandfatherly-like old men who are seeking God the ownly way they know how...and that they are sincere in doing so....but I seriously question some of the things they do, how they do them, and the consequences for the millions who follow them.

I do not believe Jehovah God only goes through a small group of old men in Brooklyn, to spiritually feed millions of beleivers worldwide. God has taught me much since I've been out of the Organization...and I didn't have to go through a group of guys in Brooklyn. I pray in Jesus name, not "in the name of the Governing Body."