i read crisis of conscience some time ago and it had a profound effect on me.
i just gave it to my ex-bethelite friend to read (he had already discovered the "truth" about the truth on his own).
he's about halfway through it and is in the anger stage.
…and boring stories that deal with himself.
The fact you’re even commenting on Crisis of Conscience as irrelevant material, belies the indication of a ruse on your part.
However, I do agree with your above quote, I was rather disappointed Mr. Franz, a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses left out all of ‘Fredhalls’ more hilarious anecdotes.
Flip
ive got a problem with my boss that is driving me nuts.
[>:(] we differ drastically in our approach to problem solving and it is affecting my everyday life on my job.
it's to the point where there are times when i wish we could part company.
Trot, is it possible for you to troubleshoot the problem on your ‘own time’, using subterfuge if necessary, in the effort to compile a record of ‘the fix’?
Armed with this corrective procedure you can apply the solution as you wish, calmly and professionally while everyone else is scrambling and looking like idiots when the inevitable problem reappears.
Flip
hi there... as you probably knew (not), i'm no longer a publisher.
however, my brother, even though he never was, and only 14 years old, stills clings to the borg.
or so i thought.. you see, only recently we went to a restaurant, and while me, my brother and 13 year old cousin were eating some good grub, our discussions fell upon *gasp* the jw's.
Don't forget these are 13 year old children and it is a big step to tell their parents where to stick it.
However, the one constant is cash ‘donations’ of WTBTS ‘study aid’ publications, week in and week out for the teenagers by their parents, will continue regardless of beliefs until they are mature enough to admit their actual feelings and that could take years.
By that time multiplied by countless similar families, the WTBTS will have cleaned up a tidy sum of cash because of the confessional delay. And if the WTBTS can keep ‘em on the ‘farm’ for as long as possible, the greater the financial return for the WTBTS.
That, my friends, is all the motivation that matters.
Mind you, the WTBTS Corporation has become such a financial powerhouse, literature cash ‘sales’ to Jehovah’s Witnesses may not play as an important part financially that it once has.
Flip
recently in another thread, dannybear mentioned jim jones and the mass suicides at jonestown.
about two years ago when the issue of cults in france was a hot topic in ex-jw discussions, i became curious about jim jones and his followers.
i had seen the news reports and horrific footage, but i wanted to understand how a man could convince 638 of his adult followers to kill themselves and 276 children.. for me, jim jones's story is also close to home.
.
my cousin, sharon, who died in september.......was disfellowshipped three years ago.
her brother is still a witness, and wrote a thank you card to an elder in the congregation here.
this elder and his wife came to visit sharon a few days before she died, and before she started to lose her ability to make sense when she talked.
Illustrates how really effective the WTBTS is at what they do, not only do they instill the behavior your brothers cousin exhibited; it attracts those who are already like him.
Flip
i have always wondered just where the speakers from bethel, and just where do the gb members stay when they are at district assassinations, er well you know and cas.
do they stay in modest motels hotels or do their setttings have to be in 5 star hotels?????.
(like in only the very best will do)just a questions i've always had.
I was led to believe, while a Jehovah's Witnesses, the GB used backpacks and hitched-hiked between 'gigs' when not flying between countries, to rub noses with Maori 'princesses' on arrival at a New Zealand airport. (I wonder if anyone still remembers that WTBTS film sequence from the 60's?)
However, my favorite District Servant and his wife drove a Chrysler Imperial and pulled his 'own' 30' trailer, while staying at my parents home where I was still living. Since I owned a sail-boat, and he was ex-WWII navy, we got along like 'peas and carrots.'
Mind you that was during the 60's and 70's.
Flip
the governing body... victims of the misinformation that has gone back many, many years?
they might not be as entirely evil as many of you have pointed out.
even hitler believed the misinformation that he so strongly promoted, an anti-semitism that stretched back centuries.
the governing body... victims of the misinformation that has gone back many, many years?
they might not be as entirely evil as many of you have pointed out.
even hitler believed the misinformation that he so strongly promoted, an anti-semitism that stretched back centuries.
…People in the organization have not hurt me to the extent that many of you have…
Preston, I hope that your statement doesn’t detract you from contemplating how people who support the organization have harmed someone other than your self.
One factor that is missing from your myopic scenario is other people, groups or organizations that have little to do with promoting the fantasy of WTBTS religious myth mongering, but otherwise have a vested interest in the financial longevity of the WTBTS.
Accumulating evidence indicates that control of the WTBTS Corporation is more diverse than simply isolating the Governing Body, who after all, are ‘so last year’.
Flip
justice #22 need for mercy in place of rigid legalism.
intro: the account is mostly about two jw men, brother jay and elder dean.
but his two-week vacation pay was under $500.
Pleased to me you Brother Jay.
But I can’t help wonder that If fine, intelligent folk like your self and your beautiful wife, Brother & Sister Good and Brother & Sister Dean can get roped into letting the WTBTS lead you around by the nose, what hope for the rest of us.
Wonderful series, ‘maz.
Flip
the subject is pretty cut and dry:.
---why did you leave the society??---.
was it one thing or several?
Why did you leave the society??
Once the age of scrutiny was reached, I finally realized that the relative return ratio between the WTBTS Corporate pursuit of materialism and demonstrative altruistic data while championing materialisms imminent destruction, was favoring materialism by a factor of zero (either actual altruism and destruction), to infinity (materialism).
Leaving only two options open to Jehovah's Witnesses, embrace the corporate lifestyle of the WTBTS or a third-rate fantasy.
So I walked.
Flip
