Posts by lancelink

25

Nobody from her church visited her - Jan 2010 WT study experience

by truthseeker in

i find paragraph 20 quite interesting in the jan 2010 study article.

http://download.jw.org/files/media_magazines/w_f-st_e_20100115.pdf.

"prove to be a real follower of christ".

lancelink

My Mom died a year ago, and she was a jwl for 25 years, then my parents moved out of Illinois.

When she died NOT ONE person from the Illinois hall (which my parents and current family attended since 1977) stopped off to visit me, no phone calls,only 4-5 cards from some of her older friends.

The really scary thing was when I was visiting my Dad out of state, we returned home one afternoon after getting something to eat and there was a paradise earth tract stuck in his door. He pulled it out, laughed, and said "oh, the friends must have been here"

I found out that weekend that nobody stopped and visited my Mom for over one year from their local hall.

They had been attending for ten years before she got sick, her illness prevented her from going to any meetings.

My Dad hired a nurse to come over pt to help,

friends from the hall,,, completely non-existent. Even tho they knew my parents, and they attended the meetings quite regularly before the illness.

They even had a book study in their home for two years !

One of the major headblows all within one year that made me ditch this religion like a hot potato

16

Horseshoes - baaaad

by iMARX in

hey did anyone ever not buy items or clothes with horseshoes on because they're a symbol of luck and jws don't believe in luck?.

hahaha i totally remember my mum seeing lovely greetings cards but as soon as she saw a horse shoe on it she would put it straight back on the shelf.

the same with necklaces and bracelets.

lancelink

when I got married, my Mom made a photograph of us in a sort of heart - shaped frame.

One elder saw this and came right out and said in front of everyone.

"did you know that the heart shape such as in this frame has a pagan origin"?

I felt like slapping him across the head right then !

My Mom, wife to be, and sisters were all in the same room.

12

My own example of how kind 'worldly ' people are ....

by troubled mind in

jw
friends

last thursday i posted about a woman in my town that was being held hostage at gunpoint by her ex-boyfriend.

(she is the mother of my son's girlfriend ) the first news story is here :.

http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=470723 .

lancelink

wow, what an amazing story, and the bit about the jw's was icing on the cake.

I felt the jw way for years, but there was always something deep inside that rebelled when they had their sarcastic, or caustic remarks about worldly

people having trouble.

Thanks for helping me see that everyone outside the org. is not inherintly evil !!

11

Getting Your "Time" in On Time

by OnTheWayOut in

i spoke with a fellow ex-jw whose wife is still a jw.

she was missing some meetings, but had to get to her first meeting of the month.

she needed to turn her "time" in.

lancelink

I just told them that I didn't go out,

end of story.

17

Something I never thought of when I was in

by doublelife in

jw
friends

witnesses use the term 'publisher' instead of 'preacher' to describe their position in the congregation.

that should be a dead give away that they are salespeople working for a book publishing company verses preachers who are working for god.

i can't believe i never saw something this obvious.

lancelink

Good point

21

Did you Have One " Power Controlling " Elder in your Congregations ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i believe many congregations had one, if not 90 % of the congregations i attended.

there seemed to always be one elder that dominated over the other elders and incredibly - in spite of the arrangement being called a " body of elders " many times it seemed that one elder would arise and take control over the other elders.

the other elders would roll over and bow essentially to these power elders.

lancelink

"At least it appeared that way in the congregations I was in. I saw a lot of abuse of power by not only P.O.'s but other prominent elders committing injustice by appointing only their friends to elders or MS positions ."

Ah yes,,, the ever popular "good old boys club" It is very much alive and prospering in crystal lake, illinois.

How else could jeff renfrow be an elder ? For years he tried to move ahead at his old hall and they kept looking past him.

He moves into cl, become business partners with the po and bam! he becomes an elder almost overnight. And boy did he use the power given to him !

Support and nurture all the teenage girls, slam down all the teenage males. He had (or is it has) a reputation as a complete pedophile. And he is

married to a girl who is just about as clueless about reality as he is !

45

As a JW Did you Feel " Guilted " to go to Meetings /Service if Injured /Sick ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

many people in the jehovah's witnesses , older ones, younger ones have been expected to pioneer, go in field service with physical disabilities and are even considered "martyrs" if they push themselves to their physical capacities beyond reasonableness .

thus many witnesses feel sick, exhausted, tired, and essentially fight depression due to high expectations to " burn out " for the wt society.

have any of you experienced this while in the witnesses ?.

lancelink

Mr. pirate-flipper,

I really appreciate your thoughts and insightful comments !

Yes there were many times I put attending the meeting above everything else. The weirdest thing I did was when my oldest son was a baby.

He had a rattle that was attached to a large suction cup thing, (so it could be attached to a high chair and not fall off). And while playing with him

I stuck it to my forehead in order to get him to stop crying. It worked, but I had a #4 talk that evening and I had a ridiculous round- red welt right in the center of head ! (it looked REALLY bad)

I was going to cancel,(4:00 pm) but my "trained conscience" made me go through with the talk, by the time the meeting rolled around the mark was almost purple , but I gave the talk and stayed for the entire meeting. What an idiot I was.

Another time we had a new co coming, and my two young sons were sick with the stomach flu. it was the middle of january and we were in a really deep freeze.(-20 f) My wife was feeling guilty for not being more supportive during the week, (for christ sake , the kids were sick)!

Saturday evening the elders called on the phone, hoping to see us all there Sunday morning.

So we decided to take them out into the freezing weather while they were still sick, ice and blowing snow all over the roads, but hey we were supportive !

Sometimes I look back and wish that God had hit me with a lightning bolt, and make me aware of how I was living my life and affecting my childrens lives .

32

Visiting brother gets fed today...

by garyneal in

i suffered through 3 hours of jw-dom by going to the meeting with my wife because my daughter wanted to go and my niece was being carried too.

a part of me feels a bit obligated to go when my daughter goes out of protection for her and a part of me feels like i should go since my wife had two small girls going with her and my daughter alone is a handful.. a visiting brother in the neighboring city of suffolk, va gave a talk today and some of the people wanted to take him out to dinner.

my wife was invited to go along and she was real excited about that.

lancelink

The Spanking Room TM

A Priceless, and true observation

17

No natural affection? Jehovahs Witnesses fulfill this scripture

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

anyone who can turn their back on their flesh & blood sons and daughters, mothers and fathers fulfill this prophecy perfectly.. people who do this are utterly unloving & cruel.

it has lead thousands of people to feel issolated, alone & in many cases suicidal.

how can such a thing originate with god?.

lancelink

Thank you for this great thought !

It seems that I have felt and known this for years, but I never "connected the dots" like you did.

12

Dealing with reality after leaving the witnesses

by lancelink in

jw
friends

this afternoon i was reading newsweek, and smithsonian magazine online, and there were two video's on the sites that really caused a massive conflict in me.. one video was about the 3rd and 4th generations of children living in viet nam who had grandparents, and great-grandparents who had to deal with agent orange back in the 1960's.

sorry i can't find the video now.

then i was reading the smithsonian magazine and there was a vidoe about illegal wildlife trade in the world:.

lancelink

This afternoon I was reading newsweek, and Smithsonian magazine online, and there were two video's on the sites that really caused a massive conflict in me.

One video was about the 3rd and 4th generations of children living in Viet Nam who had grandparents, and great-grandparents who had to deal with agent orange back in the 1960's. Sorry I can't find the video now. It was so horrible looking at the young children who never will have any type of a decent life because of the problems they inherited from this stuff.

Then I was reading the Smithsonian Magazine and there was a vidoe about illegal wildlife trade in the world:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Wildlife-Trafficking.html

Watch the video "African Ape smuggling" about halfway down the page

So needless to say, I was slightly disheartened about life after watching these two videos. A part of me wanted to do something such as send in some money, to help the kids and animals, but a little voice kept nagging me while watching that said "don't get involved, god will take care of these problems WITHOUT your help.

After being a witness for 30 years, I remember the mantra of focusing on the new system to end all the problems. Getting involved in any way would be a total waste of time. Don't send in money or get involved because jehovah will soon wipe away all types of problems like these.

Yet now I wonder what I could have done in other avenues of charity work if I had a bit more of a backbone in my earlier years.

No doubt I would have gotten involved in other areas such as local food pantries, big brother, and more animal welfare areas.

But even though I have been out of the jw religion now for around two years, that little voice from the wt organization still raises its ugly head when I think about helping someone/something in a charitable way.

I realize that I need to "break" the mold and move on, yet I am curious,,,,, how long did it take you to finally move on and be able to freely do something out of the feeling found deep within your soul and not have the wt diverting all of your thoughts and energies into what they wanted you to be focusing on ??