Posts by neverendingjourney

15

Will the JW's get a new CEO???

by horrible life in

jw
friends

when a team has a couple or more losing seasons, they fire the head coach.

when a company starts losing money, the shareholders want a new ceo.

when a company keeps making mistakes, and the ceo, is taking the company, in a direction that the shareholders don't agree with, they get a new ceo.

neverendingjourney

Do you think, with the bad press, the continued bad stance with their child abuse policies, and financial payouts, that the JW's will try to save face by getting a new CEO, and let the big guy, Adams?, take the fall?

Adams isn't the "big guy." He's just a puppet that was put in place as president of the corporation known as the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society. The board of directors of this corporation doesn't mean anything anymore. There are several other corporations that Jehovah's Witnesses use to accomplish their work. Because of laws on non-profit corporations, there has to be a board of directors. The governing body stepped down from their role as corporate directors and put other men in charge, men that they chose. This was all an effort to diversify and protect their assets from successful lawsuits. The power still rests with the governing body. Adams is not on the governing body. From what I've read, the most influential member of the governing body is Ted Jaracz. If anyone can really be considered a CEO or a "big guy" in the Jehovah's Witness hierarchy it would be him, or at least someone else who sits on the governing body.

22

Opportunity knocked ... she slammed the door in it's face!

by Frequent_Fader_Miles in

check out this conversation i had with a "sister".

sister: the last man i loved proposed to me.

he offered me everything he had.. ffm: and what happened?.

neverendingjourney

When I had my "awakening" as a JW, I decided to end my relationship with my girlfriend. She was a diehard JW and there was no way I was going to be able to get her out. Her family was on the fast track to theocratic prominence and opposed our relationship from the start. They wanted a more theocratic type for her. Well, they got their wish. Despite the fact that I never contacted her again, she never stopped calling me every few months, and I broke up with her about four years ago. In fact, I got a phone call from her a few months ago. She told me she had gotten married and forgot to invite me. She insisted that she would have invited me had she remembered to, but she simply forgot all about me and for some reason felt the urge to call to inform me of this. I'm sorry, but who forgets all about their exes? I was her second boyfriend and she married the next guy after me. She's probably trying to fool herself into thinking that she loves the guy she ended up marrying, but I've got a funny suspicion that she wishes things had worked out with me. Oh well.

2

What happened to the new light on the generation? Has it come out yet?

by neverendingjourney in

admittedly, i spend a lot of time on jwd, but i haven't seen anything recently in regards to the new light on the meaning of the generation in a while.

there were several threads on here not too long ago regarding how this new light had been announced at the society's annual corporate meeting.

someone said that it would be formally unveiled in the new study edition of the watchtower.

neverendingjourney

Thanks.

2

What happened to the new light on the generation? Has it come out yet?

by neverendingjourney in

admittedly, i spend a lot of time on jwd, but i haven't seen anything recently in regards to the new light on the meaning of the generation in a while.

there were several threads on here not too long ago regarding how this new light had been announced at the society's annual corporate meeting.

someone said that it would be formally unveiled in the new study edition of the watchtower.

neverendingjourney

Admittedly, I spend a lot of time on JWD, but I haven't seen anything recently in regards to the new light on the meaning of the “generation” in a while. There were several threads on here not too long ago regarding how this new light had been announced at the society's annual corporate meeting. Someone said that it would be formally unveiled in the new study edition of the Watchtower. Has this been officially released yet? Any new developments? Thanks.

53

How would u respond? Reply from Elder who I let in on the pedophile cases

by What-A-Coincidence in

jw
friends

"...i can not believe that you have fallen for that stupid trick ... you know better then that how can you let that happen to you ...this how you show your love for jehovah you are a fool big time i am sorry to say that but you was a mature man but know you have been blinded by the devil think about bwhat you are thinking and talking .... i will tell you something i am going to call every brother that you were close to not to listen to your demonic issues and i cannot believe you have become an agent for the devil, so sad.

wake -up before it is to late....".

think he actually read the issue at hand?.

neverendingjourney

So ask yourself, were you brainwashed then or are you brainwashed now?

That's an easy one. Back then you were being told what to believe and what to think. Now you think for yourself and arrive at your own beliefs and conclusions. How can you be brainwashed now if you have no one dictating to you? It's not like you're now part of some organized apostate cult or something.

But I also think the parents of the kids were stupid for not going to the authorities.

So the parents were stupid for following Jehovah's directions that told them to shut their mouths and not slander the molestor for whom they were not able to provide two witnesses against?

Things are not always handled in the best way by the elders and thats sad.

This guy forgets that the elders just don't act on these matter without guidance. They were following the rules laid down by the governing body. It wasn't just "some elders" that handled child abuse the wrong way. This comment parrots the society's propensity to blame their mistakes on the publishers.

53

How would u respond? Reply from Elder who I let in on the pedophile cases

by What-A-Coincidence in

jw
friends

"...i can not believe that you have fallen for that stupid trick ... you know better then that how can you let that happen to you ...this how you show your love for jehovah you are a fool big time i am sorry to say that but you was a mature man but know you have been blinded by the devil think about bwhat you are thinking and talking .... i will tell you something i am going to call every brother that you were close to not to listen to your demonic issues and i cannot believe you have become an agent for the devil, so sad.

wake -up before it is to late....".

think he actually read the issue at hand?.

neverendingjourney

I have two thoughts:

1. As has been said here before (I think by Terry and probably others), a well-fed man is never hungry. These guys--the elders--have spent years getting to where they are. They have dozens of people that look up to them who view them as leaders and prominent ones. They have a visceral reaction anytime their precious religious organization is attacked because without it, they'd go back to being run-of-the-mill window washers and carpet cleaners. They'd have to face the fact that they've spent decades serving a simple book publishing company. They need the religion to maintain their sense of self-worth and prominence.

2. Their reasoning is fatally flawed and rotten to the core. We won't read or consider your argument because it's being driven by the Devil. We know this is so because it criticizes God's organization and God's organization tells us that anything negative that is said against them is motivated by the Devil. But how do you know this is God's organization? In the past, if you believe in the Bible, Jehovah would punish those who spoke out against his appointed leaders or prophets, but he gave them ample physical evidence that He had selected them. Moses supposedly brought upon ten plagues against the world's most powerful man and parted the Red Sea for Christ's sake! If you spoke out against him or challenged his authority, you deserved to get swallowed up by the Earth. You had it coming. What does the Watchtower have to prove that they're appointed by God? Nothing more than a path of failed predictions and prophecies along with doctrinal ideas and concepts that Russell and Rutherford ripped off of from other religions. There is nothing original in that religion, and yet that's all they have to prove that they're "Jehovah's channel?" YOU HAVE TO WANT TO LIVE IN IGNORACE TO BELIEVE THE CRAP THAT COMES OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS! I would challenge the elder to prove to you that the Watchtower is God's organization if he wants you to keep your mouth shut.

7

Engagement parties...is this becoming more prevalent?

by marmot in

i don't know if this is a witness thing or if it's just becoming more common everywhere, but what's the deal with engagement parties?

it seemed like all the young couples getting engaged were throwing these elaborate bashes that seemed just like a real wedding, and my former roommate even had a freaking gift registry for his.

totally crass, in my opinion, and they never even ended up getting married.

neverendingjourney

I guess the memo of night clubs being prohibited skipped the congregations around my area. A lot of young people could be seen at many clubs Friday and Saturday nights.

I think the feelings on this kind of thing vary from area to area, but it was definitely a big no-no where I'm from. No one that I knew of got disfellowshipped over this sort of thing, but people could certainly lose their status in the congregation over it. Nightclub goers were also informally marked as bad associations.

I also knew a bunch of folks that went to night clubs. When I was well on my way out of the org., I would go to night clubs as well. The "theocratic" witnesses tended to throw these big parties in order get their dance on and replicate the night club scene as much as possible while avoiding the stigma that came with actually going there.

7

Engagement parties...is this becoming more prevalent?

by marmot in

i don't know if this is a witness thing or if it's just becoming more common everywhere, but what's the deal with engagement parties?

it seemed like all the young couples getting engaged were throwing these elaborate bashes that seemed just like a real wedding, and my former roommate even had a freaking gift registry for his.

totally crass, in my opinion, and they never even ended up getting married.

neverendingjourney

It's just an excuse for the witnesses to have a social event to go to since night clubs are prohibited. Engagement parties, graduation parties and anniversary parties were big in my area. I'm not talking small get-togethers either. These were all-out, huge events with over a hundred people in attendance, a band or at least a D.J. They were lame attempts at recreating a night club scene without running afoul of the JW rules even though a lot of uppity JWs looked down upon these parties and those who attended them.

5

How was child molestation handled before 1996?

by neverendingjourney in

as i recall, the abhor what is wicked article came out in 1996. in it, the society outlined their new child abuse policy, namely that known child molesters could never hold any positions of responsibility in the congregations anymore.

from what i understand, there were letters to the bodies of elders and special c.o.

instructions that further clarified the new position on handling child sexual molestation.

neverendingjourney

Thanks for the info., Blondie. I've always wondered if there ever was an official policy or if elders just handled it as any other fornication/adultery case. I've also wondered if there was an official policy that mandated excommunication for those who spoke out about confidential child abuse matters on slander grounds.

My time and experience as a JW tells me that, absent the 1996 policy, a judicial committee would probably view child abuse as a run-of-the-mill fornication case. If the molester didn't confess and two witnesses weren't available against him, he would be let go undisciplined. The child's parents would be told not to divulge any information about the case because it was confidential. If they didn't comply, they would be subject to excommunication for slander. However, I don't know if this in fact was the policy before 1996. If it was, this should be the focus of news reports, not the post 1996 policy (which isn't as airtight as they claim it to be, but that's a subject for another thread).

29

funny thing about being sad...especially now of all times w/ snow & NBC

by oompa in

jw
friends

i have to get feeing better soon.

i don't mind some ups and downs, but staying low for days at a time just ain't right.

somebody here was talking about snow the other day and how the elders would almost never cancel the meeting.

neverendingjourney

It sounds like you're in the middle of a post-exit depression. I went through that myself. I wasn't right for two years. It took me a long time before I was finally able to come to terms with realizing that my belief system was an illusion. The destruction of my hopes and dreams for the future was difficult to overcome. Hang in there. Things will get better. This place can be very therapeutic. JWD played a big role in helping me get things off my chest and eventually overcome my depression.

I discussed my thoughts on this topic a while back. I think there are many similarities between what I went through and what you're going through right now. I wish you all the best.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/7/146158/1.ashx