Posts by Billy the Ex-Bethelite

My dad (elder) asked me about a year ago why I kept telling the elders in my cong. that I didn't want to be named an elder. I said that the Judicial committe arrangement is a deal-breaker for me.

I've made my dad promise that if he ever hears of a case of child molestation that he will call the police first, not WT Legal Department. As long as WT insists that elders call Legal Dept rather than call the police, I made it clear to my parents that I don't want anything to do with WT. Then if WT would change that policy, there are a list of others that also need to be changed.

37

My mom unfriended me on Facebook...

by dazed but not confused in

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Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Awake! July 2009 p. 29. "No one should be forced to worship in a way that he finds unacceptable or be made to choose between his beliefs and his family."

To keep the peace with my mom, I never bring up religion. Much of the time when she brings something up, I can ignore it. But if she makes an issue of it, I'm always armed to the teeth to defend myself. My family dynamics are that Dad is still an elder, but very disillusioned and rather glad that I'm getting on with life "outside" the craziness. My siblings are also faded, and we get along much better now than we ever did when we were "in". The rest of my close family is "in", must most are also disillusioned.

33

How to tell family why you are no longer attending meetings?

by El_Guapo in

jw
friends

so it has been over a month, maybe closer to two that i haven't attended a meeting.

my stress level has gone way down, and my life is pretty good right now.

well as you know, there are tons of nosy witnessess.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

The reason I gave was that the nearest KH is in a very dangerous neighborhood.

But the reason they could perceive was that I was miserable, unhappy, and depressed when I was attending meetings. But when I stopped attending meetings, I was cheerful, happy, and leading a productive life.

I still keep in close contact with my parents and some of my relatives. I really can't tell whether the other JWs are shunning me because I ignore them anyway.

86

My wife just told me to move out...

by nolongerconfused in

because of "religious" differences, she now wants me to move out and "separate"...i said what biblical grounds does she have for her request?.

she couldnt respond...she said she'd rather be beaten up by me than have an "apostate" in the house.... this org definitely encourages conditional love.... i don't know what to do...by the way, we dont have children.

.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

"I don't know what to do."

Rather than do as I suggested in my earlier post, I'd suggest taking her out on a date. Identity Thief is freakin' hilarious, unfortunately it is rated R. Maybe you can think of something else that she'd enjoy more than getting beat up by a JW husband.

20

Pulling the rug out from under the "apostates"

by konceptual99 in

would anyone agree that recent comments and changes to wt doctrine are designed to try and pull the rug out from under long established counter reasoning put forward by those the wt would consider apostates?.

the section in the recent wt, whilst not an apology, is apologist in it's tone and suggests that the wt society has just been doing the right thing by setting expectations.. apostate: "you keep saying the end is coming and it still hasn't.".

wt - "well, our zeal in following jesus may have prompted us to raise expectations too much but we are only doing what we are asked to do.".

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I agree with jgnat, this is just reactionary. And rather than pulling the rug out from under "apostates", it's effectively pulling the rug out from under themselves. These are conversations I've had with my parents. Rather than giving WT any credibility, these points undermine their own authority. Here's my analysis, point by point:

1 - Wrong expectations. The section in the recent WT, whilst not an apology, is apologist in it's tone and suggests that the WT society has just been doing the right thing by setting expectations. When discussing that mini-article with my mom, I took the approach that I was an idiot to allow them to set expectations for me. I wanted an education, marriage, family, career, but based on their direction, I pushed that aside and did what they advocated because the end was soooo near. This wasted many years in unhappiness in expectation of something that hasn't happened. Finally they admit that those expectations were wrong. I was a fool to follow them then, and I'd be a fool to follow their "expectations" now. They say the end is "near" now? What does "near" even mean to them? 10 years? 20 years? 50 years? These are the promises they made to my grandparents when they were all young... now my grandparents are all dead. I can't trust any WT predictions. And any "advice" they give, I'd do well to do the opposite! Mom couldn't disagree with what I was saying.

2 - Generations. The current teaching along with a reduced emphasis on dates suggests that the WT can easily argue that it is not setting a time limit on things even though it constantly preaches the nearness of the end. But that isn't really a point well established. Rather, it proves that WT teachings are built on a foundation of sand, not rock. Their old generation teaching is still in the Reasoning book and has been changed 3 times since then, with the Reasoning book still not revised. So publishers are still carrying the "old light" from door-to-door. And the entry for "generation" in Insight, directly counter-argues the current WT teaching. And if you go back to older publications like the "Truth" book, that generation teaching was a foundation. The end HAD to come in the 20th century. Now it has eroded to sand. So if there is a point to be made about "generations", it's that any WT teaching that looks like a rock today, gets washed away and replaced with new gibberish that nobody really understands or explains. Certainly, don't get excited about any of the generation teachings because it can easily be replaced in one sentence in an upcoming WT study farticle.

3 - F&DS definition. The change to the doctrine about who the F&DS are reduces the impact of the growing number of anointed ones. And yet the number of partakers continues to grow. Are those other partakers any less anointed than members of the GB? The only proof any of them give is that they nibble crackers and sip wine one a year with a straight face. And since I knew most of GB 2.0 personally, I can tell my parents that I wouldn't buy a used car from any of them. There is no way to convice me that these men are any channel to god.

4 - F&DS appointment. The doctrine that Jesus did not appoint the F&DS over his belongings in 1918/19 means that all the false teachings at that time are irrelevant. The FDS is completely irrelevant. I belong to Christ. The head of man is Jesus. Anyone that tries to wedge between Jesus and his servants is a false Christ and a new clergy class. As far as the argument that "God has always had an organization," just take a look at the OT. The kingship and the priesthood were complete failures. Anyone that reads the Scriptures can see that organizations lead away from God. It has always been individuals outside of "organization" that have been the prophets and servants of God. And we need to have a personal relationship, not based on following some "Jehu class". Read the Bible for Christ's sake. As soon as Jehu became king, he went right to calf worship, not worshipping Jehovah.

Jesus didn't set up a publishing company and build assembly halls. So if you think salvation comes from following a corporation that claims to be a FDS, you can be pretty certain that they would follow the course of the Sanhedrin if Christ were to return to earth. And this is usually where I would attack the current WT policy that elders are to call WT Legal Department FIRST when they hear of a child being molested, when ethically they ought to call the police FIRST. The so-called FDS isn't adequately protecting children, how can we really think that God would entrust them with anything at all.

5 - 607. Tricky one this as the evidence is overwhelming that it's the wrong date but they have recently published an updated rebuttal which is convincing for those who want to believe it. Which is why I go straight to things like the Noachian flood and show that WT is completely unable to defend their literal interpretation of Scripture.

33

December 15 Watchtower --- A New Low in WT Anti-Intellectualism

by Room 215 in

i wonder whether any of you took note of the article in the 12/15 study edition wt "the simplified watchtower .. why introduced" i couldn't believe they actually had the temerity to put such tripe into print and onto the record.. i was flat-out astonished with its put-down of vocabulary building and self-improvement:.

one egregious example: " the time spent looking up words and explaining expressions (ostensibly from the "smart people's" watchtower) is now spent gaining an understanding of the scriptures and how they fit into the lesson.".

one jw cited in the article actually blames her college education for causing her to fall into the bad habit of "speaking and thinking a way that was more complicated than necessary.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

The only WT litteratrash I read is the study articles with Blondie's commentaries and a few other postings here on the forum.

And as I read WT rubbish or listen to clips from WT talks or videos, I can actually feel synaptic damage in my brain as their writings and teachings actually make me dumber.

12

I could see myself following this Jesus

by EntirelyPossible in

http://www.hulu.com/watch/457671#i1,p0,d1.

it's a slightly less violent version of passion of the christ.

djesus unchained.. .

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

That's a pretty impressive Djesus!

56

Whats your opinion of the WTS. apologizing now for its past wrongful teachings ?

by Finkelstein in

something happened recently by the wts.

that doesn't rarely often and that is the wts.

executive editors apologizing for the organization's past mistakes and proclamations.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

As mentioned, they put the blame collectively on "Jehovah's Witnesses". The WT clergy didn't accept responsibility by stating that Watchtower publications and representatives, such as COs, DOs, and elders, were the ones taking the lead and building false expectations.

Rather than admitting that their false prophecies have caused many to not prepare for the future, enjoy a family, get a productive career, and save for a comfortable retirement, they argue that it was beneficial for the sheeple to be misled by lying prophecies.

110

Tim Tebow to address Anti-Gay Anti-Semetic Mega Church

by designs in

quarterback tim tebow is scheduled to address the 11,000 member first baptist dallas congregation april 28th.

first baptist dallas and its outspoken pastor robert jeffries in recent times have called islam and mormonism coming from the 'pits of hell' and you can't be 'saved being a jew', although he clarified that being a jew is not the same type of hereticalness as being a mormon.....huh?.

pastor jeffries called the election of obama 'the rise of the anti-christ'.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I'm sure this church would also welcome Marcus Bachmann and his beard wife, to come and tell them about how prayer "fixes" homosexuality.

Of course these people have the right to free speech. That's how they earn the privilege to have their "clinics" glitterbombed and lose government funding because they're quacks.

Edit to add: Freedom of speech would also allow others to sketch penises into the above image and repost the picture.