SnakesInTheTower

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Posts by SnakesInTheTower

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  31

  "Historical" Announcement This Week?

  by headisspinning in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my daughter asked if anyone has heard anything about a 'big announcement' being made sometime this week in congregations in canada and possibly beyond... in her words "it's like a biggggg long thing, they cut out part of the book study for it and people heard it was a historical thing"... any ideas?

  could it be the mexican branch closing or the theme of the convention?

  or something else?

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  SnakesInTheTower

  If you are a local dub, you cannot just "show up,'" you have to be assigned or invited to International Conventions.

  BUT, if you are just John Q. Apostate, you could just show up as an interested visitor. LOL.

  Snakes
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  12

  Posting reunion photo soon with my granddaughter

  by Nancy K in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  dear friends, i am relatively 'new' on this website, but i have been posting about not being allowed to see my granddaughter and the 'shunning' thing..i was just going to start a court proceding(my husband is an attorney)to try and get visitation, then my dad passed away..many of you wrote to me and showered me with much needed support.

  thru my dad's 'passing', i had to contact my daughter and we had a long 'talk' and she wasn't 'shunning' me after all..my sister, who is a "double-life" witness told my daughter some terrible lies about me which were ridiculous, and my daughter at that time was being treated for depression, so she didn't know what to think(as my sister is a witness, and she naturally assumed she was being truthful)..i have a damaged neurological system from 8 months of very high-dose chemo, at times i use a cane, i have chronic pain, etc.,but it is all from my illness..my sister was telling my daughter i was on drugs, and yes i am on medication, but not medication that gets one 'high', this is medication i must be on for life.

  so, thru my dad's passing, a miracle has happened, after 2 years of missing my granddaughter, in a few weeks i will be spending an entire weekend with her and my grandson whom i haven't seen, so my daughter and her husband can have some 'alone' time!!

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  SnakesInTheTower

  It would be interesting to know how the now 16 yr old grandchild and family are doing. Sometimes resurrected threads can be fun.

  Snakes
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  21

  Living Vicariously Through the Sheep.

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  when i got baptized as a jehovah’s witness in the summer of 83, my honeymoon period lasted about two years before i began to wonder if the society and its adherents were all it claimed to be.

  no of the things i encountered for the first few years was really faith shattering, they simply just made me pause and think.

  after a short while, i would file those issues in the back of my brain files and move forward.. .

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  SnakesInTheTower

  No, I believe the OP. We had an elder who asked the most inappropriate questions in sexual cases.

  I was chairman on a JC of a single sister who was involved in sexual conduct with a worldly man at work. Despite being single, as an MTS grad and an outsider, she trusted me to "confess" to. Our pervert elder (former PO), wanted to chair and me not be on the committee at all, allegedly because I was single. The other elders agreed she had come to me and I had the details and I was chair.

  This other elder insisted on being on the JC. Couldn't figure out why he wanted to so badly. The reason was apparent when he started to ask very innapropriate questions. I asked the sister to give us a few minutes. When she left, I ripped him a new one. I took over the questioning, carefully, asking for only the bare minimum of details. I made sure the notes also only had the same. I tried to help her maintain her dignity.

  It was after that I began to really examine the scriptural foundation of JCs, which we discussed in horrible detail in MTS. Of course there was none.

  Not long after this the same elder finally succeeded in having me removed for unrelated "unreasonableness," starting my departure from the Borg.

  So, all that to say, I have no doubt of the veracity of the OP details. I do question the need to detail it here, just my opinion

  Snakes (Rich)
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  30

  Is it morally wrong to put Watchtower behind?

  by Darkknight757 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  with our latest and final run in with the elders, the wife and i had a very long talk about what's next in our life.

  do we try to help others see the light as it were concerning watchtower or do we just let it go and move on with our life?

  we have made it perfectly clear that we will never go back to watchtower and we are finally happy.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  Dark knight, move on and be glad you have your wife along with you. This board has been a great support. I probably still come here because I see stories of older JWs leaving WT and it gives me hope that my 73 yr old JW mom will leave it behind.

  For me, I cannot take on the role of ex JW activist. If someone comes to me, knowing my exit story, and asks for my help, I will. Once my mom either leaves the cult, dead or alive, I'm done too

  Enjoy your freedom.

  Snakes
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  7

  My Son's Science Project "What Causes Leukemia"

  by azor in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm putting the below information on this forum first to get your input.

  so my 9 year old leukemia survivor wants to do his science project searching for the cause of leukemia in children.

  the data required to put together a semblance of a cause is vast to put it lightly.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  Don't know where you are located. Check with local Children's hospitals and pediatric cancer centers. Also teaching hospitals with a strong pediatric program. Maybe your child, as a survivor, will illicit a positive response from researchers in these programs. Social media is a good place, but be careful, you might get TOO MUCH unusable info. Keep it simple.

  Good luck, one never knows which mind the cure will come from.

  Snakes (Rich)
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  26

  My presentation (new one here!)

  by Skepsis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i registered in the board and i wanted to present myself.. i used to visit this forum some time ago and even register an account but then i tried to convince myself all was ok in the congregation.

  now, i'm coming back :).

  i live in a southern european nation, i'm a young jw, a good example in the congregation serving as a regular pioneer and ms. for all in the congregation i'm the good guy, one of the best examples in the area i live.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  Good plan, quit pioneering, take the job, save up money, stay out of debt, move out on your own, switch congos....fade. The treadmill in WT never stops.

  Do you know what foie gras is? The way a goose is raised for that is horrible. That is the way I felt growing up in the cult...force fed with goals...pioneer, ms, elder, mts...all of which I did...in the end ...the goose is still cooked, with a horrible life until then.

  Good luck with your new life and freedom.

  Snakes (Rich)
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  27

  Do you still go to meetings?

  by NikL in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as i was sitting in the meeting last night i thought about this question.. sometimes it feels really lonely because i don't connect with most others in the congregation and i have to be so careful with the ones with whom i do associate.. quick rundown on my life...got baptized at 17...married at 20...became inactive at 28 wife still active though...came back to meetings with her 20 years later just to keep her quiet and see if they had changed (for a while i actually thought they had)...now i am still inactive and haven't gone out in service or anything.

  i just go to meetings with my wife who is happy as a lark to have me there with her...just go to meetings and think...and think...and think.... anyway, i just wondered if there are any out there like me who are going to meetings and nothing else?.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  It has been 10 years this month, Christmas week to be exact, since I was removed as an elder during the CO visit. Best gift ever. Moved congos, circuits, states without physically moving away. Started to fade. When the new elders figured they couldn't reappoint me, an MTS grad (read: dump their work on me), as an elder, the new car smell faded almost as quickly as I did.

  When the KH went through a total renovation, everyone scattered and I left for the summer, coming back for the first Sunday back in the shiny new hall. Listening to the visiting speaker, a friend, I had the same type of thoughts as the OP. I knew I no longer fit in. I stayed only through the talk and left.

  Never stepped foot in a KH in over 9 years since. No funerals, no Memorials, no CONventions. Been to 2 JW weddings held at a banquet hall. Same elder (initials RC) gave both talks. Both times the worldly people attending scratched their heads with a WTF look. Bad even by witness standards. I won't be doing that again either.

  Friendship in the Borg is CONditional.

  Snakes (Rich, of the "never being CONNED again Sheep Class")
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  9

  Speculation? What would Watchtower be now if it had fully embraced the internet / technology 20 years ago

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this has probably been discussed before so please feel free to include links as well.

  so what would wt be now if it had encouraged it's members to use the internet or technology for spreading the good news.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  G O N E. Let's hope it doesn't take 20 more.

  Snakes (Rich)
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  11

  Kingdom Hall construction -- Counting time and reporting travel, meals, and lodging expenses

  by FatFreek 2005 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i have two questions.

  1. if you work on kingdom hall construction, are you allowed to count your time in lieu of field service?

  an old thread here indicated that if you are pioneer, you can count your time.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  I often got credit slips from the assembly hall overseer for working the literature depot, special projects at the AH, feeding students at MTS. Of course quick builds. Did I mention I HATED the ministry, yet I was a pioneer? Go figure, you did what was expected.

  Now I do whatever the flip I want. And the only "credit" I want is a paycheck.

  Snakes (Rich)
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  33

  "You Can Do Just Enough Ministry To Dislike It"

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  when you were "in" did you ever actually enjoy the ministry?

  and i made no secret about it.

  instead i would joke about me feather knocking, and made sure i had my bible in hand so as they come to the door they know what im about so they can shut me down before i even start.. i always wondered how or why there were people who enjoyed it.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  I gave a public talk as an elder and admitted from the platform that I couldn't stand FS. I even said that as a visiting speaker. I usually warned the PO about it ahead of time and gave him context, so they didn't think I had gone off the rails. Fun to watch the other elders, in the dark, drop their jaws. I almost always got invited back. I couldn't do talks the way it is regimented now. And the cart work? SCREW THAT! So glad I can work weekends and make OT now.

  Snakes (Rich)

  Ps..edited to add...esp. shocking since I was, by all appearances, an all in Org boy...elder, pioneer, MTS graduate. Too bad for them that, even in 2002, I was already having doubts. I went back to college in 06, and FS started to decline rapidly. LOL