Posts by Dagney

26

Suicide in the spiritual paradise all too common

by doubtfull1799 in

just heard that a young brother committed suicide this week - the whole congregation is naturally very distressed.

what a tragedy.

according to my source he'd only been married about a year and his wife found him - he’d hung himself.

Dagney

When I first came to this board I read a heart wrenching story by Makena. It turns out I had heard the tragic story from a friend who lived in the area where it happened. There are some souls too fragile to deal with the disapproval dished out by this authoritarian arrangement. You can slip up once, and decide taking your young life is better than facing a judicial committee. And this family was close and loving. You just never know sometimes.

Makena and his wife learned from the tragedy, exited the WT, and are living their best lives AFAIK.

23

What happned to the Quick Builds

by blownaway in

so the qbs were huge in the 80s and 90s, now i hear nothing.

have they stopped?.

Dagney

Ahhh quick builds. I only participated in one, my own KH rehab. It was fun for me, even beer in the parking lot in the evening.

It was quite a status symbol and feather in the cap of those on teams of "specialty" workers. Brag brag brag. I know they felt they were part of something glorious and had their own camaraderie. Some learned trades, and it was a brilliant idea from a high control group. Everybody got something out of it.

But it really was scam. I've heard so many stories from professional contractors, brothers, that would try to guide the overseers and advise them of problems or things that they were doing wrong. Those project overseers would take shortcuts,ignore the advice of the professionals and not do things according to code resulting many redoes. The society always did things back then with the idea the system was ending soon and nothing really mattered in the long run.

Sometimes things sound good on paper.

18

Even elders don’t know their beliefs

by Addison0998 in

i had a deep conversation with my elder father today about the bible.

first i talked to him about luke 16:19-31. the one where jesus makes this crazy illustration regarding the afterlife.

of course he had to look it up on the watchtower library to be spoon fed his beliefs.

Dagney

Before I left, and I'm thinking it was around 2000, I was at a gathering of pretty close friends. This group was very open about their feelings with the understanding nothing left the room; it was completely "safe."

One time a relative was there, a current elder/former special pioneer (Ireland). I don't remember what we were talking about, but it probably was a bit of groaning about the same things that are discussed here. I remember the brother was mimicking going up to the door in FS and said, "Hi! I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses and we don't know what we believe."

That just really hit home, and I never forgot it.

76

Posters You Miss

by minimus in

jw
friends

anyone that you miss from this site, dead or alive??.

i miss farkel, blondie and a host of others!.

Dagney

Actually I miss JCanon too. I totally understand the need to put a lid on him. But he was really smart and about the most colorful character ever. Wonder what happened to him.

24

I Went To My Brother’s Memorial Service at the Kingdom Hall

by minimus in

jw
friends

i have to say that the talk was very good.

instead of just repeating a jw manual , the speaker actually spoke about my brother!

there were a few scriptures with the jw hope but 80 % of the talk was actually about the life of my brother.

Dagney

What a humongous waste of time the religion produces.

This is something that angers/saddens me more than anything. Of course they continue to look forward to paradise, but the org has done a fantastic job of convincing people that "now" is not important. It's not important for relationships, personal growth, work..just anything. Lost time/years you can never get back all for absolutely nothing.

24

I Went To My Brother’s Memorial Service at the Kingdom Hall

by minimus in

jw
friends

i have to say that the talk was very good.

instead of just repeating a jw manual , the speaker actually spoke about my brother!

there were a few scriptures with the jw hope but 80 % of the talk was actually about the life of my brother.

Dagney

Well that's good to hear. JW's know how to take a gathering and make it insufferable. Glad they handled the talk with a personal point of view. Again, sorry for your loss.

76

Posters You Miss

by minimus in

jw
friends

anyone that you miss from this site, dead or alive??.

i miss farkel, blondie and a host of others!.

Dagney

It was a sentimental walk down memory lane reading the names mentioned in this thread.

Hillary_Step - wow. He was one of the most interesting posters. His discussions blew my mind, which was sorely needed. I just searched him right now and will take the time later to read some of the discussions again.

Narkissos, Leo, just2laws...oy...so many.

Crumpet, coffee black, Mary, tkjmo are alive on Facebook.

Thank you again Simon for this place to heal, argue...grow.

66

Overlapping Generations

by JRK in

jw
friends

i remember when that came out, my mother didn't catch it in the original article in the wt.

it was in one of the review "do you remember" thingies that she caught it.

she asked me if it means what she thought it meant.

Dagney

Hi John.

This came out at an assembly right? I remember a friend telling me about it, and that his COBE brother said to him after the talk, "we were duped."

The COBE still going strong, or so it seems. The friend is out, but just out 6 mths or so.

Another friend, former elder now out, said, "it's all BS. It all depends on how much BS you can stand." Although a simplistic statement, I think it's true. For us here, we couldn't take any more BS. Others seem to let more pile up.

Edited to add: I think about this all the time. I can't believe people are still in. I know all the reasons...but jeez louise...it's two thousand f**kin EIGHTEEN!!!!!!!

17

Interview with an Apostate : humbled : not-a-captive

by humbled in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. born in 1952 second oldest of the family of nine children.

as you see, my family was thoroughly catholic.

dad was in the army.. were you a born in or a convert?.

Dagney

humbled, thank you for sharing your interesting story...what a story it is. Brave to write Bethel too.

Maybe I need one of your wooden spoons!

21

Interview with Dagney

by Dagney in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. i was born and raised in southern california, with a brief stint with parents as need-greaters in central america.

my parents accepted a study in the d2d work, i believe my father was interested in the revolutionary aspect of the religion, and my mom said she wanted to learn the bible.

they were baptized in 1937 i think, and attended the one and only los angeles kh at the time.

Dagney

Hi Lois,

Seester Jaracz as I remember was a very bubbly personality. I think she had bright red hair, I was 12 so...who knows. She was nice and quite a character as was the sister that was studying with me. Big personalities. But other than that, I have no other impression of her from that period.

One of the times I was at Bethel, they put me at Jaracz's table in the dining room for 2-3 days. He was very serious and not really friendly or talkative. He brightened up when Melitta came in. I thought it was odd he had no interest in chatting at all, and he was my former CO or DO! Some of the other GB's were so nice and friendly compared to him. Sidlik, the Greek guy, Freddy, Carey Barber were so personable.

Anyway, I'm not much help. Probably DNC has the goods.

Hope you are doing well. I have some friends from the UK that are up your way right now. I hope to someday too!