Posts by HalfWayThere

22

Are some people better off staying in the WTS?

by HalfWayThere in

jw
friends

i read this forum alot.

though i don't post very often, i thought i would share the following thoughts.

my mother is 70, and lives alone (my parents separated and divorced about 23 years ago).

HalfWayThere

earthtone:

Unfortunately I don't think my sisters would listen. Two of them rang me on Saturday to tell me their decision - they are stuck in JW mentality. There is no 'compromising Jehovah's standard for our own conveniece' as one of them said. They're not liberal JW's and as far as they are concerned there is no room for compromise.

No, my mum doesn't ask about the society's failings, but its hard to keep my mouth shut when she says that armageddon is 'so close' and hopes that one day I will come back. But I will try harder to bite my tongue in the future.

Highlander:

I can only wish! But considering no-one saw the light when my dad DA'd, I don't see anything being different if my mum did it. And besides, I often get the impression that my sisters feel the need to 'help' my mum see the right thing to do as she can be quite liberal at times, so I don't think they would have any respect for her opinions of the org is she left it.

parakeet:

I don't blame you for being afraid of being cutoff from your family. I sometimes wish that I had kept my mouth shut and just gone inactive so as to not tear my family apart even more. I think you did the right thing.

22

Are some people better off staying in the WTS?

by HalfWayThere in

jw
friends

i read this forum alot.

though i don't post very often, i thought i would share the following thoughts.

my mother is 70, and lives alone (my parents separated and divorced about 23 years ago).

HalfWayThere

I read this forum alot. Though I don't post very often, I thought I would share the following thoughts.

My mother is 70, and lives alone (my parents separated and divorced about 23 years ago). She is still active (especially in mind) and able to look after herself, but her health is failing and she has had a few "mini-strokes" of late and is likely to suffer more severe problems in the near future. My three JW sisters do well in taking her to hospital and doctors appointments (which I can't do as I work full-time). She is a social creature and enjoys hosting the book-study in her home on Thursday nights and the field service meeting on Saturday morning, though she can no longer go out door knocking due to her bad health. She occasionally babysits my sisters' children and enjoys being close to her daughters and their grandchildren.

So all in all my mothers entire life is the WTS and her family. I left the religion 6 years ago (I have 2 brothers who were never baptized and despise the religion too) and from time to time my mum and I end up debating my choice to leave, and I'm always open as to what I really think. Since announcing to my family that I had proposed to my non-JW girlfriend of 2 years, my mum has been under alot of pressure from my sisters to not attend the reception, as they had decided not to, because my DA-ed father will be there. Now my sisters have also decided not to attend the ceremony either because of some point made at the recent DC (something to do with the fact that I'm living with my fiance and could have 'corrected' the situation along time ago), and are now trying to convince mum that she shouldn't be going either, though she is standing firm in her decision to go.

All this has really brought my opinions of the religion to the forefront again, resulting in a lively discussion on the phone with my mum last night. After the conversation ended I began to think what would happen if my mum was ever to see what a load of crap the WTS is. Her whole life would crumble around her and even though my mum is a strong woman, I don't see her surviving that - losing social contact with her daughters and grandchildren, losing her JW friends. She doesn't drive, so she would have no life.

It pains me that she is being put through the wringer just because she wants to attend her sons wedding and enjoy the day, but on the other hand I now feel like I shouldn't express my opinions to her anymore - I'm afraid that maybe one day a crack might appear in her tough shell and she'll actually listen to what I'm saying. And then everything in her world would fall apart.

So my thought is: Maybe some people are better off staying in the WTS, despite all the crap, because its just not worth putting them through all the pain of leaving. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

Has anyone else faced a similar situation, where you wish a family or friend could see the light, but know that they wouldn't survive coming out of it? What do you think?

Owen.

10

The Exclusive Brethren: JW's on steroids in Oz

by HalfWayThere in

jw
friends

heard a story on the radio (triplej) about a religion in australia called the exclusive brethren.

when the story was being introduced i thought they were talking about jw's, but then it all sounded much worse:.

link: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/s1594232.htm.

HalfWayThere

Heard a story on the radio (TripleJ) about a religion in Australia called the Exclusive Brethren. When the story was being introduced I thought they were talking about JW's, but then it all sounded much worse:

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/s1594232.htm

The Exclusive Brethren are a religious group who forbids their members from voting... but are taking out ads in the Tasmanian newspapers telling non believers how to vote. 'Rob' told Steve Cannane that the exclusive brethren talking about the greens destroying the social fabric was the ultimate in hypocrisy. He claims that the Exclusive Brethren destroys people and families, have no respect for women and absolute contempt for anyone not in their religious group, and do all this while enjoying the benefit of charitable status from our government.

MP3: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/mp3s/brethren.mp3

....And follow-up on the original story:

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/s1625880.htm

Recently on Hack we heard about a group of people who'd been trying to get people to vote against the Greens in the last Tasmanian election. Now a lot of people like to have their say during political campaigns... but what was different about these guys is that they don't vote. In fact they belong to a group called The Exclusive Brethren, a religious sect which believes in living apart from the rest of the world. That means they don't mix with non-Brethren, they don't use mobiles or watch films, and they think that the internet, like the media, is filth. Since then we've received lots of emails and phone calls from people who used to be in the Exclusive Brethren, telling stories of a secretive and strict religion which punishes people if they disagree by isolating them, or even worse, separating them from their families.

MP3: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/mp3s/breathrencontinued.mp3

Kind of made me realise that even if we managed to bring down the WTS, there will be similar, if not worse, religions like the above popping up anyway

- Owen.

10

Interesting show on Australian TV last night about religion

by HalfWayThere in

jw
friends

i haven't posted on here in ages, though i read the board quite often, but i thought the following was worth meantioning..... .

there was a show on sbs last night called "insight".

i didn't catch all of it, but it was about churches such as hillsong (www.hillsong.com) that, in their teachings, encourage their members to acquire wealth and financial success.

HalfWayThere

I haven't posted on here in ages, though I read the board quite often, but I thought the following was worth meantioning....

There was a show on SBS last night called "Insight". I didn't catch all of it, but it was about churches such as Hillsong (www.hillsong.com) that, in their teachings, encourage their members to acquire wealth and financial success. The report mentioned how that church had just completed a AU$25M convention hall, and how the head pastors all live luxuriously because of the church's success. One disturbing scene was footage of the Australian Prime Minister John Howard opening the convention hall, and the Head Pastor thanking him for taking time out of his busy week to visit them (blah blah blah). Its sickening to hear churches suck up to politicans like that. (Pictures --> http://www.hillsong.com/church/building/bin/view.pl?sitename=building&page=opening&showbuilding=true)

The most interesting part of the program was a comment from a researcher who is writing a book about churches that gain finanically from their tax-free status without giving anything back to the community in the way of charity. He said (paraphrasing from memory here) that there are churches that have been operating in Australia for quite some time, with members numbering in the 60 to 70 thousand, whose collected donations remain tax-free, and that the wealth of these churches will only continue to grow, yet they do nothing to put that money back into the comminuty by doing charitable work. To me it almost sounded like he was speaking of the WTS in Australia, as they have around that number of publishers. It was quite a good observation for him to make and I think it would be an effective way to hurt the WTS by getting that info out to relevant government departments here in oz.

Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to catch the name of that researcher, or the name of the book he is writing. Perhaps he'll make meantion of the WTS in it? The show is being repeated at 4pm today (Friday). Maybe someone in oz can watch/tape it and get that info, as I'll be stuck at work.

Owen (HalfWayThere)

22

2002 District Convention Schedule

by proandcon in

jw
friends

1050 song 151 and announcements.

205 song 92.

205 song 158.

HalfWayThere

Can anyone tell me the venue and dates for the Brisbane (Australia) District Convention this year? Thanks!

10

conscious

by msil in

blown around, swept across and tossed.... where do i look?

why do i feel so lost?.

i dont even know..... will i know the answer when it arrives?.

HalfWayThere

Where is the storm?
Look where you have not looked. Go where you have not been.
Because you have no home.
That which you do not know. How can you know it?

You will know it when it comes.
Up is not down. Down is not up.
Yes it is. Yes thats confusing too.
No, you're dumb. You're a clown for asking all these questions.

Yep, I think so. It's all relative really.
When you no longer feel sad. By doing whatever makes you happy.
Pain is a combination of mind and body - one would not feel pain if it weren't for the other.
Die.

25

to all who were DF'd

by somebody in

jw
friends

hi folks,.

i'm doing some interesting research on the procedure of reinstatement back into the org.. if anyone here can relate how many months/years passed by from the time you got df'd, till the time you got reinstated, it would be very helpful.

also include how often elders met with you, if you attended meetings regularly during the time you were df'd, and if you approached the elders for reinstatement(and how many times you approached them), or they approached you.

HalfWayThere

somebody,

Thankyou for those kind words. It's so true what you said about how every JW feels that they can't measure up. When I began missing meetings at the beginning of this year an elder and ms came to visit me, to try to 'encourage' me. I told them honestly how I felt, about feeling bad about myself all the time, and not being able to live up to being a Witness. The elder replied by saying: "that's a little simplistic don't you think? There must be more to it than that". The kind man (lol) must have thought I was making excuses, which I wasn't. He suggested I do some bible study to build my faith, which I did...and here I am, after doing alot more research than he had in mind . I should go back and shake his hand (lol)

HappyHeathen,

No, I'm not attending the meetings at the moment. The memorial was the last one I went to. After that I wrote my family a letter explaining to them how I felt about the society and why I wouldn't be going anymore. One of my sisters passed it on to the elders in my congregaton (I had moved congo's since I was reinstated) and they called me saying they were 'concerned' (lol) by some of the things in the letter. I refused to meet with them and told them I needed to be left alone as I had alot of things to sort out in my life. I haven't heard from them since.

But I keep thinking about going back in a small capacity, cause with everything I know now, I could have some fun lol. Plus maybe my sister who dobbed me in will start talking to me again

Owen.

(edited to fix spelling mistakes )

25

to all who were DF'd

by somebody in

jw
friends

hi folks,.

i'm doing some interesting research on the procedure of reinstatement back into the org.. if anyone here can relate how many months/years passed by from the time you got df'd, till the time you got reinstated, it would be very helpful.

also include how often elders met with you, if you attended meetings regularly during the time you were df'd, and if you approached the elders for reinstatement(and how many times you approached them), or they approached you.

HalfWayThere

I was df'ed in January 1996 at the age of 19 for commiting fornication with my fiance at the time. We both confessed before one elder who had known us both for a long time. I moved in with her that same night and despite a phone call from one of the elders on the JC (3 elders on JC, including the elder we confessed to) to try to convince us to meet with them, we refused and were announced as df'ed two weeks later (to the complete shock of the entire congregation). I let my fiance make her own desicion about meeting with them but my refusal was because I had no intention of telling them detailed accounts of what happened or of getting others into trouble who knew it had let it happen.

It didn't work out with my fiance and so I moved back home 3 months later and began attending every meetings without fail (I still believed it was the truth at that time) I applied for reinstatement about 6 months later by writing a short note to the body of elders, They met with me (same 3 elders that were on JC), telling me that I had 'used' my ex-fiance, but declined my application because I hadn't "righted my wrong", though they didn't tell me how exactly I was supposed to do that.

After a while I worked out what I had to do, so after having located my ex-fiance (not an easy task) I apologized to her for 'using' her (she was surpirsed to hear from me and didn't think I had anything to apologize for - go figure). I then reapplied for reinstatement in January 1998 and the announcement was made at the meeting the next month. The congregaton clapped when it was announced, even though they weren't supossed to (lol), and the elder that made the announcement also detailed what my restrictions were, which I had never known to be the norm (has anyone else heard of this?)

The funny thing was that after my reinstatement, my book study conductor was assigned to study key chapters of the Knowledge book with me, though nothing we studied had anything to do with what led up to me sinning in the first place (i.e. giving up on doing the right thing because I always felt bad about myself and could never measure up to the Witness I thought I had to be), nor was I asked what I needed help with. I could tell the elder was abit bothered to have to study with me and not surprisingly after a couple of months he ased if I felt that I still needed the study. I didn't want to take up any more of the guy's time so I told him I was fine.

Wow, this turned ou to be along post (lol), sorry guys :)

Owen.

19

Some WTBTS.ORG e-mail addresses and more

by Kent in

jw
friends

please fill in more!.

mark leigh or paul gillies .

public affairs office for jehovah's witnesses .

HalfWayThere

i just subscribed all those email adresses to free porn email. HAHAHAHAHAHA

66

What I heard the JW's say in light of this tragedy

by Bridgette in

jw
friends

okay, i know (or want to believe) that not all jehovah's witnesses are this calloused.

at least i hope not.

there are some good, caring people, but here are some stark contrasts i've observed today that remind me of how glad i am that i'm not part of such an overall unloving group of people.

HalfWayThere

An excerpt from a news story on an Australian news site.....

"Officials across the world condemned the attacks but in the West Bank city of Nablus, thousands of Palestinians celebrated, chanting "God is Great" and handing out candy."

Hmmm. Is it just me or does that sound alot like the JW's saying "praise Jehovah"?

Owen
Of the "lost my appetite for candy" class