A Circuit Assembly in summer of 1991. I was treated like an untouchable, and spend the better part making a woman twice my age who was studying with someone else feel welcomed. She couldn't find the woman she was studying with, and no one was talking to her either. I was thinking of how badly this reflects on the Society. The breaking point was when I was standing in a food line to get some items for the both of us, and the young people in front of me (roughly my age at the time) looked at me like I was total trash, even started physically distancing themselves like the high school rich kid cliques. They didn't know me from Adam, and they were passing a non-verbal judgement like "Worldly" people do. AFter the assembly, I wished the (unlikely) sister-to-be luck in her town, and as I was leaving I noticed a large group of people my age (including those I encountered in the lunch line) using the bathrooms to change into "Worldly, summer fun rich college hipster) clothes - and it struck me as odd that they didn't even have the respect to go home or to the motel to change before recreation. That was pretty much the mark for me that this whole institution was nothing more than a fraternity that favors the well-to-do (those who have the luxury of time to devote to the services and spare capital to donate).
Posts by p717
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87YOUR LAST MEETING.........................
by vitty in........................at my last meeting, the elder was talking about 1975 and said "it never happened, it is appostates using a time when (some) brothers took the info in the wt wrong"...................i just blinked and finally woke up.. i had been on this site lurking for a couple of weeks, and realized thing werent right, but to have some creep say on the platform " it didnt happen"............when this ruined my and my siblings childhood, just made me snap.
on the way home, i told my hubby "that was the last meeting im going to"................boy was he pleased.. .
so if you didnt get df ......................what happened at your last meeting.?.
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Pictures of Paradise
by gringojj inmy wife made a comment today about all the pictures of paradise and how none of them ever show the inside of a house.
they are always the same pictures of people outside playing with lions and water in the background.
someone was talking in another post about how hard it is to make the simplest items.
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p717
Regarding the illustrations of "Paradise" Judging by the fashion sense, I must conclude that they'll have clothing manufacturers, blowdriers, hairspray, and dove soap. It'll be a world run by eco-friendly preppies.
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Disposable People
by MerryMagdalene insince my mom decided she needed to put full shunning back into effect again (an unconscious new year's resolution to be a better jw?
), i've been ransacked by a whole bunch of emotions which have been gradually resolving into thoughts.
the sense of being completely disposable, expendable, replaceable.
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p717
While I still have some affection for classic (paleo)JW philosphy that promotes tolerance for all poeples, one of the most difficult things to me was the concept that Jehovah God would commit a mass holocaust and leave behind only the "true" christians. It's a Jeckyl-hyde thing. Be peaceful, turn the other cheek like Christ, then see grotesqe illustrations of the destruction of this world, with people being burned alive, swallowed by the earth, etc. It seems like a "God of Love" who created us in his image, with the faculties of free will and the capacity to learn would simply "allow" us to learn from our mistakes, let us go on our path, and if it leads to our own individual destruction, is our choice. And, oddly enough, they cycle of life seems to indicate that's exactly how God behaves. This is why organised religion can't seem to explain why people "die before their time", why he allows murders, earth changes, etc. If there was too much intervention, what would we learn? Just a thought. On the shunning issue, I felt betrayed for a couple of years. I was homeless and no one in my family gave a damn. You exit into the world from being raised in the org, and the umbilical chord is pulled. Fortunately I never fit in, so I was somewhat prepared. I can barely fathom what it's like to have a faith you held without question and a pre-defined social order that kept you afloat suddenly stricken. But it's hard to come to terms with basic ideas: The comfort zone of being inculcated with them and suddenly having to face that it's simply not true. Seeing elder's exposed as perverts and hypocrites, yet being expelled - and according to the doctrine, you have no future, and they do - going through the "Where is the justice of that?" My own father was a young adult when he become one, and tried to commit suicide when he lost faith. I myself came to the conclusion that life's too short. You have to shun those who shun you, even if they are your closest relatives. I know that comes off as a bit harsh, but it's necessary in many cases. If you're still vying for the approval of someone who's clearly rejected you, then it's time to reinvent yourself and your life situation, move on and let all of it go.
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for the DF'd: did you confess or were you ratted out?
by kid-A inlooking back at the 10 or so cases of disfellowshipping i recall, i think only 1 was due to the orwellian borg spy system.
he was ratted out.. all the other cases were actually "confessions" by people that otherwise would have gotten away with it.
i am wondering is these percentages.
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p717
Being someone hopelessly inclined toward artistic pursuits, I was never officially disfellowshipped, dissassociated, or ratted out (that I know of). I just didn't fit in with the corporate culture.
As a child, I was often sanctioned because I couldn't "sell" something as the absolute truth when I myself knew that such thing were impossible in the human condition (and we were also taught that through the organisation).
As a teenager, I was constantly reprimanded because I did too much extra-curricular study on a given subject. Sometimes I was praised because "I brought information in a very interesting way", but most of the time it was a negative response. I was also sexually abused which made me "material unworthy for marriage"
As an adult, I natually married "outside of the faith" because I wasn't good enough for the pristine folk (i.e. the kids I grew up with who were known all over town for their double lives and promiscuity). I was castigated for that quite sharply, but I questioned that, since it wasn't a dissassociating offense. I also thought I'd be welcome because I was studying with my spouse.
He, on the other hand, was disgusted with how women were treated in the organisation, and voiced his concerns. I was personally attacked by the elders for his responses, as if "no man in his right mind would dare stand up for women. It must be your tramp wife giving you these notions"
For my husband's question, I was taken into a room with four elders and debriefed for a couple of hours. I myself never questioned the role of women in the organisation until after that. That was the last time I had anything to do with the witnesses. -
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MORE BRAIN-DEAD QUOTES FROM APRIL 15 WT
by Mary ini really think those in the writing dept.
should be checked over for dementia or just plain insanity.
here are some highlights from the april 15th wt magazine that i thought you'd enjoy:
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p717
My guess on the education issue is the fear of having young "raised in the organisation" witnesses exposed to the "world", and the "apostasy", then encountering questions for themselves. On the job issue, it's important to keep the lower publishers unappy with work/income, and hopeless about the world they live in so that they can see the drab kingdom services as the only viable alternative to a sense of fullfillment. I left in the early 90's, but I was always irritated on how the publications downplayed high-skill work, self employment and the like. I was an art prodigy, and thus I was constantly bombarded with messages that it was a novelty - something that needed to be abandoned in favor of doing something I have absolutely no skill in - selling vacuum cleaners (errrr--publications). A publication in the mid 80's showed an illustration of a woman in a lab coat, obviously doing chemistry work, gazing away from the book like she hated her job. The next illustration showed the same woman conducting a bible study with a recruit, and the two were smiling like they just won the lottery. I found myself siding with the chemistry lab pic despite the forced frown, but the subtext was trying to tell me that work was not fullfilling and somehow I would be innoculated with glee if I pursued a life of mind-numbing repetition of publishing. Another publication about 1988 (the pre-WWW tech boom, usenet era) was discouraging people from "dehumanising tech jobs". Ask any coder of they feel dehumanised. The only answer you'll get is "Yeah, when my whole department was outsourced to india" What about the talent needed to create the MEPS system? There is definitely an anti-education bias, favouring no-skill and mediocrity, because the unskilled are more reliant on the organisation, and less likely to pursue alternative study in spiritual matters as well as secular.
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I caught my JW parents digging in my trash + an intervention
by LeftBehind inoh where to start.
i will start with catching my parents digging in my trash.
my neighbor called me on the phone and thought i would like to know that 2 people were digging in my trash and asked if she should call the police.
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p717
My mother used to go through my stuff all the time. I don't know what it was she thought she'd find. She did find my poetry hidden in the drawers and spread it around publically behind my back, and gave away a few of my paintings without asking me, but when it came to me actually leaving the organisation, I was never encouraged to stay. I attended my grandmother's funeral in 'moderate' drag. Gee, I donno why I'm not looked at as a prized commity by the WTS:}