i thought you might enjoy a video on this topic...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfic9peynmm.
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This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. If people want to reach others about the Org., this is not the way to do it. I found it very tasteless and disgusting. Nobody will listen this way. They'll say this is someone with nothing else to do with his life and it's probably the product of an envious and lower than dirt soul.
That is how I see it.
GROW UP!!!
just came across this.
www.jw.org.
just listening to the over enunciated contents gave me the dry boak..
Well, this actually surprises me!! I thought this website was not authorized by the Society. But it clearly says it is. Amazing they will do this, isn't it?
i walked away from the jw religion nearly 9 years ago after "waking up" to the lies & mind games.
since then i've learned the full extent of the manipulation (thanks to websites such as this & the coc book)and have successfully overcome the emotional & spiritual crisis that i experienced the first few years after my departure.
i can say that i am at a place in my life now where i am happy, spiritually fulfilled and religion-free!
I've thought about doing this myself. I like how you put it, to clear my aura of any ties with the Org. and start over fresh. I can't seem to do that because of my mom. I will inflict a really hard blow if I do. I don't want to hurt her. My sister died in 2006, and if I do that, she will take it the same way.
That they will read the letter, no they won't. They will of course make the announcement from the platform, but will not read your letter. I agree with the person that told you, they might not even read it. They will probably get to one point of the letter, but will skip most of it to the part where you say Dissasociate.
Sometimes I get so tired of all the non-sense, that I really have contemplated sending in a letter and just get it over with. We'll see what happens in the future.
this is not to take away from the hardship a lot of people had due to abuse and other things inhumane people had to suffer as a result of growing up a witness that i have never have had to deal with.
however, nearly all of the bad experiences i have had growing up that i can recall are a direct result of doing the wrong thing against "jehoober" and the guilt that goes along with it.
man made rules, forced confession, missing meetings, not good enough, natural experiences growing up a dude - all bad/demonic, etc etc.
How much different would I be?? Weaker? Stronger? More balanced? Less Emotional? More Emotional? Funnier? Less sarcastic? More Sarcastic? Less Sinistic? More Sinistic? More/less loving? Would I be the same with less hang ups? Less interesting?
At the end of the day I guess we are what we are, so we have to do what we can with what we have....
I guess...
I like this thread. Today, and for the past week I've been thinking about who I am, where I am heading. My experiences within the org., have been bitter/sweet. I can't say everything has been bad. I enjoyed the good moments. But reaching my 40's I could no longer continue to be something I was not. I respected and still do, the basic teachings, the good morals I was taught, but my personality clashed against the strict rules that were persuasively taught at the meetings. I was born and raised within the Org., so I didn't know anything else. I always went along with everything that was said. But coming to an age where I have matured and struggled with my inner self, I came to perceive the subtle ways of the Organization to make us feel guilty about ourselves and what we do. We may be feeling that we are doing our best, but there will be a talk that will expose that "our best" was never good enough.
I got tired of that. I will go to the meetings depressed and angry, and I will come out feeling even worse. "Jehovah's people" are suppose to be a happy crowd, no matter how many problems came to our way. I never felt completely happy, never felt content, never fulfilled.
That's who I am, and I have to accept it. In another thread somebody commented on a well know saying among Witnesses, "You can leave the Witnesses, but the Witnesses will never leave you." I find that to be true in my case. It is still with me, and I think it will always be. Somewhere, somehow I will always feel guilty I left, but I have learned to accept myself; that maybe that is not for me and never was.
I had to get that out of my chest. Thanks for the thread.
graven images are so thoroughly criticized in the bible....totally forbidden.
yet any idols made where powerless...just a piece of wood you can also cook on.
yet god sent out zillions of vipers (thanks dude) to bite everybody....and actually has a scary viper impage made an put on a pole....with some serious power attached.
The caduceus is the symbol of medicine. This is a serpent wrap around a pole.
[2] The Staff of Asclepius (Æsclepius, Asklepios)
[Personification of Medical or healing Art and its ideals] 
Professional and patient centred organisations 
(such as the NZMA, in fact most medical Associations around the world including the World Health Organization) use the "correct" and traditional symbol of medicine, the staff of Asclepius with a single serpent encircling a staff, classically a rough-hewn knotty tree limb. Asclepius (an ancient greek physician deified as the god of medicine) is traditionally depicted as a bearded man wearing a robe that leaves his chest uncovered and holding a staff with his sacred single serpent coiled around it, (example right) symbolizing renewal of youth as the serpent casts off its skin. The single serpent staff also appears on a Sumerian vase of c. 2000 B.C. representing the healing god Ningishita, the prototype of the Greek Asklepios. However, there is a more practical origin postulated which makes sense [See Dracunculus medinensis].
And the Lord said unto him [Moses], What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand. Exodus 4:2-4
 The Brazen Serpent [Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld 1851-60)] |
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten [by a sepent], when he looketh upon it, shall live. Numbers 21:8. The etching "The Brazen Serpent" (to the right) by Schnorr von Carolsfeld shows this as only one snake, suggesting he interpreted this as a medical rather than mystical or magical symbol.
Apparently an Israelite cult subsequently formed worshipping Nehush'tan, the serpent Moses made (apparently twin snake images were inscibed on standards of the time) but the cult was eventually suppressed (over 600 years later) by King Hezekiah - "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4).
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
John 3:14-15
Now just in case you thought you had it all sorted out about which was the "good" symbol.... nothing is that simple, take a look at this interesting painting of Adam & Eve.......
Not in the real sense Karma is. Karma is that you receive back what you gave when you reeincarnate. If you sinned, if you did wrong to someone, you will pay when you reincarnate, or vice versa.
Remember these scriptures? "You reap what you sow". "Do not judge, because in the matter that you judge, you will be judged in return",? We can call that Karma, but the Hindus believe that Karma is what happens to you when you reincarnate.
in paragraph 16 of the first study artice.
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they are being very vague, but it is obvious that they are trying to stir up speculation/excitement.. the entire magazine appears to be about the house to house ministry.
"But we can be sure that, before the "great tribuliation" is finished.."
So, are we to understand by this statement that they believe that the great tribulation has already started?
i have been searching on this website for a topic about the study watchtower of july 2008. did anyone notice the changes?
they have some new light on jesus' illustrations.. some interesting ligtht....
Maybe I am not a detailed oriented person, but I didn't see a change. Who did?, and, What's it about?
You see, all my life I read and studied but not intensely. I will do it just to have the Watchtower marked for others to see at the Hall. I never got into the deeper things, so I can't recall this illustrations explained any other way. Maybe they did, but I don't remember.
thanks again for all the advice.. had the big meeting and things actually went really well.. i wanted to avoid attacking the society at first and focus on my discouragement and burn out.. quoted the wt from sunday and told him this is exactly how i feel: "i have grown numb and become crushed to an extreme degree; i have roared due to the groaning of my heart.
my own heart has palpitated heavily, my power has left me, and the light of my own eyes also is not with me.
38:8,10.. to my surprise, all he did was quote a few things from the article and a few scriptures and asked if there was anything he could do.. it seemed that he was pleased that i didn't express 'truth' issues but that it is just emotional issues so i figured why mix it up now and bring crap up.. he left asking if i can at least try to hit one sunday meeting a month but he'd still like to see the girls try to go!
Quoted the WT from Sunday and told him this is exactly how I feel: "I have grown numb and become crushed to an extreme degree; I have roared due to the groaning of my heart. My own heart has palpitated heavily, my power has left me, and the light of my own eyes also is not with me." -Ps. 38:8,10.
That was a great scripture. I know how it feels. The same happens to me. I try to place my missing the meetings on discouragement as much as I can, dodging all the questions that might lead them to know I just don't agree with the Org.'s teachings. I don't like to call myself apostate, I think that is too big of a word for me.
But, I support your decision of not coming out completely.
please visit the blog: http://governingbodyletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/bethelites-viewpoint-on-recent.html.
a bethelite's viewpoint on the recent organization changesto me the most obvious reason has nothing to do with control, or money.
it has everything to do with the serious shortage of qualified brothers who can (or who are willing to) be used.
This is what i suspected from the beginning. Burn-out is a huge problem in my area. In my hall the publisher to elder ration is 1/35. In another hall it's 1/55 (only 2 elders). Not to mention work, family, household responsibilities and personal study time; it really is too much. Add to that the occasional “the elders aren’t doing enough” attitude/comments from publisher and the CO; it makes you wonder if it’s worth-it. I tried voicing my concerns to another elder and I got the boilerplate remark of "I don't trust in Jehovah enough, I need to pray more etc..." Similar comments from the CO. Glad to see the word is getting thru to the big wigs. Future streamlining wish list... 1) Eliminate the "Pioneer's Assist" program (huge waste of time) 2) Eliminate the "Pre Service Meeting". 3) Allow shepherding to count towards service time. 4) Allow women to perform some of "mechanical" tasks (PO assistant, Secretary Assistant... etc).
I can't imagine the pressure they are going through. They have to preach at least 10 hours each month to qualified to be an elder. Shepherding, preparing for the meetings, caring for their families, work. There are not enough hours in the day for all that, and to tell someone that they don't trust in Jehovah enough, is outrageous.
I actually think that this ideas are great:
1) Eliminate the "Pioneer's Assist" program (huge waste of time) 2) Eliminate the "Pre Service Meeting". 3) Allow shepherding to count towards service time. 4) Allow women to perform some of "mechanical" tasks (PO assistant, Secretary Assistant... etc).But you know that's not gonna happen.
