Posts by Gordy

63

Disfellowshipped

by LadyCCC in

jw
friends

iam now as what was announced at a recent meeting that iam "no longer a jehovah's witness" all of my family and friends are witnesses so this will ailenate me from all of my friends and family.

but i feel like i don't want to go back.

i really hate the feeling of isolation and shamefulness while iam sitting in the meeting, what's the point of it all.

Gordy

In 1996, I had to face a Judicial Committee because I had depression and attempted suicide. I was "privately reproved" and removed from being a Min Servant.

The JW's attitude changed, people I knew for 25 years became distant. I was told to leave the family home because I was a "spiritual danger" to my family. The Elders weren't big enough to do it themselves they left it up to my wife.

Anyway to cut a long story short. It was the total lack of love and support that more than anything else that started me to question WT teachings. I eventually disassociated in 2001. Since then my wife and two daughters have not had contact with me.

Their whole attitude on how they treat those who need help, seems in contradiction to what the scriptures say. Christ always put those who need love and support first. The parable of the shepherd going to look for the lost sheep, leaving the rest to do so. The JW attitude is if you are lost you can find your own way back, without any help from us. Then they say that is showing love????

44

Suicide attempt and I am heartbroken

by Iforget in

jw
friends

my younger brother tried to kill himself today.

i am sick inside....sicker then i ever thought possible.

my mother told me the news in the cruelest of ways and i am now in a fog.. i blame the jw's and all the bullshit they put on children who are df.

Gordy

Been there done that.

Give him all the love and support you can. You can be sure he won't get any from any JW. That I know by experience.

23

My Witness Sister Asks Me For Her Inactive Daughters Phone Number ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

amazingly enough my jw sister ( very self righteous ex-gilead graduate ) called me for the first time in 3 years asking for her own 32 year old inactive daughters phone number .

her husband's mom died last friday , my brother -in -laws mom , and she said she had not talked with her daughter, my niece , in 5 years.

my sister dissapproved of her daughter getting a law degree at a university in california and shunned her for 5 years because her daughter stopped going to meetings to get an education !

Gordy

When I disassociated in 2001 my JW wife and two JW daughters stopped having contact with me. We were separated at the time, still are, because of the Elders interference.

Anyway two years, February 2005, ago my oldest son, also DA'd, was taken into hospital with appendicitis, and had to have operation. His non-JW wife and I were there. When he went down for the op, we went to waiting room. Sitting there was my wife! She said "Hello, How are you?" to me. That was it, after 4 years of no contact. She then proceeded to speak to my sons wife as if they were old friends, yet it was probably only the second time they had met. Anyway my sons op went ok. His wife offered to take my wife home. Never once during the journey did my wife say a word to me. When we got to the house its was "Bye" and she was out of the car and gone.

Next day sons wife and I in hospital cafe. My wife arrives. She says "Hi" to sons wife. Not a word to me, in fact sits so she has her back turned to me. Chats away to sons wife. I could see my sons wife looking at me as if to say "Whats going on?" and looked embarrassed. My son had given her some idea about JW's and shunning etc. But she now she was seeing it first hand. Later she said she would not have believed if she hadn't seen it happen.

That also was the last time I saw my wife we have had no contact since then.

20

Pro Trinity

by David Macabee in

i have the following comments to make.

the first 4 are rebuttals and the last 5 are arguments from my own.. .

1st comment:.

Gordy

He could be under the impression that we are all Jehovahs WItnesses on here.

Maybe he doesn't realise what a motley crew we are

Ex-Jw's, some JW faders, Christians, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists. etc.

Where else could you get such a mix ..... thats what makes this forum so good.

41

Here's the reason for the 3% jump in publishers for the past year

by sir82 in

jw
friends

it is immigration that explains the vast majority of the increase.. who is it that immigrates?

the poorest of the poor, the desperate ones that would be dead from starvation or execution by gangs/guerillas within 5 years anyway.

these were not the ones being converted in their home countries - when you have to work 14-18 hours a day, 7 days a week just to feed your family, there is no time to "study", attend meetings, go out in field servce, etc.. so, they go to their new country.

Gordy

Seems not only JW's could have increased because of migrants.

Catholics overtake Anglican congregations

Catholic churchgoers now outnumber Anglicans for the first time since the Reformation partly due to the massive migration from Catholic countries, according to new research.
Church of England services are no longer Britain's most popular form of worship and have been overtaken by Catholic mass, a study by the organisation Christian Research has found.
The large number of EU nationals from Eastern Europe who have immigrated to the UK in recent years have swelled the numbers attending masses across the country.
Estimates for church attendances in 2006, based on previous years' figures, reveal 861,800 Catholics attended services every Sunday compared with 852,500 Anglican worshippers.
Peter Brierley, former executive director of Christian Research, who helped compile the data due to be published in the new year, said: "Part of the reason for the increase is you have got large numbers of immigrants coming in from Catholic countries especially Poland.
"There's been a substantial number of Poles coming in and 85% of them are Catholic so that's going to boost your numbers."
The study comes as former prime minister Tony Blair announced he has converted to Catholicism following a ceremony where he was welcomed into the denomination by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor - leader of the Roman Catholics in England and Wales.
The Church of England said in September that church attendance figures had been relatively stable since 2000.
Previous figures suggest that around 1.7 million people attend Church of England church and cathedral worship each month, while around 1.2 million attend services each week - on Sunday or during the week - and just under one million each Sunday.
Mr Brierly added that explaining the decline of Church of England congregations revealed a mixed picture as the pronounced drop in numbers over recent decades had slowed in the last few years.

<http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=7073741>

10

December 25th for Christmas from Paganism?

by cabasilas in

i know i've heard this a lot...that the december 25th date for christmas was borrowed from paganism.

i just came across this article which argues against that:.

http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v. personally, i have no problems with the idea that it could have been borrowed from paganism, but found this alternative explanation intriguing..

Gordy

I think instead of sending a reader to some other place you should give an explanation in a nutshell what that article is about and then Im could decide should I go there or not.

Typical of a person who wants us to read his turgid posts and false prophecies. But who himself can't be bothered to read anybody elses.

10

do elders in england have to report abuse ?

by looloo in

is it the law in england for elders to report child sex abuse to the police ?

i think teachers and others in a position of trust have to .

if not i dont understand why the elders themselves dont think it is wrong, if a brother confesed to the elders that he had murdered someone would they report that to the police ?

Gordy

As stated above I don't think there is any legal reason that a JW Elder has to report any abuse. I'm not sure but I think it is a requirement that if a person works in a "position of trust" that is anyone who works with children, teacher, nursery staff, sports coach, etc do have a legal obligation to make anything known.

If you are going to be working with children you have to be checked by the Crinminal Records Bureau (CRB). In the church I attend even if you are only a volunteer for the Sunday school, who have to have a CRB check. Though even this is not foolproof, as can be seen by past cases in Britain.

But that being said how many times have we read or heard in the news about when a child has been abused, usually after they have died. That you get neighbours, or even relatives of the family, saying they "thought" something was going on but didn't like to say anything.

In Britain a person can call the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) this can be done anonymously. They will send someone round to check out the situation.

We also have "Childline" which a child can call free, and tell people what is happening to them.

111

New Yearbook stats for 2007 now out!

by Dogpatch in

the report is out!.

http://www.watchtowernews.org/2007report.pdf.

cooking the books with 3% increase??.

Gordy

An interesting point is that the number of Memorial partakers has again increased by 347 over 2006.
2006 increased 234 over 2005

That means that in 2 years 581 JW's now consider themselves of the "anointed".

I remember when even if the number increased by 2 or 3 there was a big debate about it. After all in my day the "anointed" where supposed to be getting less and less as "the end" got near. A sure sign it was close.

59

Just talked to Witnesses at my door for Hour about Watchtower Child Abuse

by flipper in

it happened again like in july when i talked to an elder and his wife about child abuse, but this time i got a hold of rank and file members who fortunately i was able to play like a fiddle as they had no idea what they were up against here.

so brother middle age ex-hippie convert ( as he told me later ) and sister middle age hair in a bun offered me the awake on death or our view of death.

i graciously accepted gaining their trust saying yes, i had close loved ones who had died over the years but didn't know if i believed in a resurrection or hereafter.

Gordy

Flipper

Nice way you handled the situation. Just enough information to make them think and wonder. You may have caused a little crack in their thinking. A crack we hope which will widen and grow.

The trouble is that many JW's like those two are so in the dark about what goes on within the WT. That when someone brings something like the pedophile issue up they immediately go on the defensive. Using all the JW stock answers, "thats not true" "its media lies" "it was a one off case" and of course "its apostate lies"

Many years ago, in the 1980's, there was an article on child abuse in an Awake magazine. I was with a group of JW's getting ready to go on field service. A sister remarked it wasn't nice that the WT print and article on such a subject. The Elder taking the meeting said the article was for people in the "world" where such things happen. "Nothing like that ever happens in Jehovahs organisation."

For some reason that occasion has always stayed in my mind.

110

Well, The Elders & Circuit Overseer Came By Tonight To See If We Are Celeb.

by Lady Liberty in

jw
friends

hello dear friends.... well..the saga continues!!

as many of you know last new years the jws attacked our "frosty" and egged our home.

" the co said, "so you are both not willing to meet with the elders..?".

Gordy

Don't they just hate it when someone stands up to them. Especially someone who knows a few facts about them.

Elders, CO's etc are all so used to having their own way with their meek and timid JW brothers and sisters.

They can't get over the shock that someone actually talked back at them.

They wouldn't care how many Christmas lights or trees you had.

Its that you showed them "disrepect" as "Jehovahs representatives" that gets to them.