freddo

Joined

• started 77 topics
• posted 3,022 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by freddo

• 
  147

  Did You Personally Know Any JWs That Were Sexually Molested By Other JWs?

  by minimus in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  i knew of a handful (which is too many) that were molested by a jehovah's witness.

  it was not typical in my experience.

  what about you???.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  Yes. Several JW's that were molested by other JW's.
• 
  21

  How Many Elders Are Here?

  by tjlibre in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how many elders are here?.

  i dont know if this topic has been posted before.

  but after realizing that i sort of resurrected an old post from outofthebox, i thought of starting a new one with the topic above.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  Used to be but never again.
• 
  10

  A Game for the Jw apologists...

  by highdose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since its sunday and we seem to have sudden influx of jw's here who would like to defend their beliefs i thought it would be a good idea to welcome them in a fun way!:).

  so heres the game, all you have to do is name one profehcy that the wbst have got completly right!

  the winner is the poster with the most correct profehcies under their belt.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  I've got one! The seven trumpet blasts of Revelation were imperfectly fulfilled in an earthly way by being the six muffler pipes on Rutherford's cadillac. The seventh trumpet was the one he sat on to talk through.

  For the mythbusters among you - I don't know how many cylinders a late 1920's caddy had - I hope it was six but accept it could be eight - in which case the prophecy is still fulfilled in that "six have been, one is, and one is yet to come" - with apologies to the "world powers scripture".
• 
  19

  Fade rapidly OR jeopardise the fade by helping family/friends learn the truth and remain part of our lives?

  by LUKEWARM in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  can i say from the outset that i feel grief and frustration over family/friends that are not aware of the truth about the "truth".

  they are good people who genuinely believe - as we all did at one time- that they are in gods organization and that this is what he requires of them.. .

  how liberating for us to have come to know the real truth and how sad they remain guilt ridden and under mind control that fosters these conditional friendships that bother us so much.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  Tough call lukewarm...

  I've been through a whole range of emotions from dismay to anger to frustration and all three but now have some peace. Looking back I always knew something didn't ring true with the "truth" and it wasn't until several hits came at once that I began to realise that either a) God didn't care enough or B) He wasn't using JW's or C) Both.

  But what hits one person's confidence in the JW's makes another cling tighter and each situation can develop in several ways.

  For me I resigned as an elder and had my wife been on the same page as me or even had directly opposed me I would have gone in a DA/DF. But we have a tacit understanding where I often mention my negative feelings to the org in pithy comments such as "blood in the whole is wrong but the fractions I can have - all from wicked worldly people" - "Armageddy's gonna be great, bet we're put on scooping and burying the children detail the day after" "Judge Rutherford's cadillacs" "Higher education" "Flashing nu-lite" etc etc. I even managed a "Jehovah says love me or die".

  But I do admit that the local congo show great care for my elderly father who now lives with me and my jw sister on a three month turn by turn basis and I can wait the months or few years before he either dies or need the care of a nursing home. It's not the local rank and file I have a beef with, just one or two elders and the higher ups.

  I have thought about "placing" CoC but only when I'm ready to be DA/DF, because it only takes one recipient to go running to the elders, even months later when their personal crisis sends them into rather than out of the "truth" and I'm forced to go when I may not wish to.

  My long term goal is to fade out with at least two or three family/friends that will "understand me" and continue relationships. But I am getting mentally stronger and am prepared to eventually walk away with a campaign of several weeks of pointing out the errors and meanness of the org. and get a DA tag but not yet.

  I am really content being mentally free and I can cope fairly well with the pros and cons of my physical freeness or lack of it too.
• 
  50

  How Much of an Impact is Being Made by Young JW' s Leaving the Cult ?

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we have read threads where statistics show that 2 out of every 3 people raised as jehovah's witnesses eventually leave once they get in their 20's to 30's and out on their own.

  my children and my nieces and nephews are between the ages of 21 to 35 .

  out of those 8 people - 4 of them have completely stopped attending meetings .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  As long as there is a growth in numbers shown (by manipulation of those numbers) I don't think there will be any tipping point.

  I remember the exodus of 76-79 and a few apostasy leavers in '81 - I was a mid teen and a lot of my peers left or didn't get baptised but around my then congo the numbers stayed steady afterwards. The numbers at our hall in the late 70's are little different than they are now - helped by higher than average longevity, especially in women and "low quality" mentally or emotionally challenged converts.

  We still have a steady turnover, a few die-hards, with numbers staying about the same.

  And in my extended family on both sides of my marriage I would say that many of the 17-35 age group have stuck with it, sadly. And that in some form of fulltime service (tm) or MS/Elder unless they have left to have kids. Even those that have got disfellowshipped have "gone back".

  This group study change has made quite a difference - less pressure - and I think that slowly this religion will dumb down and require less effort (beyond blind obedience in lip service and money giving) - in our hall two meetings a week and once in the min each week with a bit of padded "incidental witnessing" (tm) and a report of 7/8 hrs = min.serv! Four hours will keep you in "good standing" and let you run a microphone.
• 
  16

  On a scale of 1 to 10

  by paul from cleveland in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are you at peace with your beliefs?.

  1 = very anxious / confused / searching.

  10 = complete peace / totally confident in belief system.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  9.9 here too!

  When I was a serving elder taking a group and on a service committee? About a 1.0 towards the end! (And never more than about a 5 at anytime!)
• 
  21

  WHO polices the Circuit Overseers?

  by babygirl30 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is required to 'monitor' the elders...but who monitors the c.o.?

  i ask that because thinking back to all the c.o.

  's i've had seen, each had his own personality and style.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  Yes it is a combination of the service dept and the DO. If a body of elders wants to complain about the CO it goes to service.

  As alluded to above; unless the CO goes against the organisation he is pretty safe. So if it is a matter of judgement then the service dept always backs the man with the "higher" position.
• 
  19

  Hospitality experiences during public talk trips

  by tsar_robles in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  a couple days ago i started having these flashbacks of back in the day when i was 17 or so and was a frequent outgoing public speaker.

  believe it or not back then i was so naive in the fullest sense of the word, and none of the signs that i encountered then kicked in until years later.. i obviously could go on and on about the impressions and demeanor that i received from the big shots (elders, ms's) from these halls.

  a couple that i remember were for ex., one time while visiting a congregation in southwest co i politely waited around to see if any of the elders or a head of a house hold would approach me and invite me for hospitality and tired of waiting around i decided to make that 5 hour solo trip back home.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  I can confirm that some of today's older bigshots who grew up as a jw in the fifties and sixties were given responsibilities way beyond their years due to a lack of brothers - and this in a city of half a million population and a few congregations even then.

  We certainly had a 16 year old give his first public talk, a 17 year old Assistant Ministerial Servant (as they were called in Qualified to be Ministers in 1967) taking a group study with a 50 year old doily wearing sister as his assistant - and even when the elder arrangement started in 1972 and there were plenty of brothers we had a 22/23 year old elder appointed.
• 
  28

  Watchtower says Millions Living in 1997 “Will Never Die”

  by LUKEWARM in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "in the early 1920's, a featured public talk presented by jehovah's witnesses was entitled 'millions now living will never die.

  ' this may have reflected over-optimism at that time.

  but today that statement can be made with full confidence.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  Nice catch, Lukewarm! And thanks to Nicolaou for the icing on the cake!
• 
  13

  How Broke Are They?

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the october km announces that, starting this year, there will be no theocratic school schedules as an insert in the km.

  weekly tms parts will be printed as part of the monthly km.

  this follows the experiment of dumping a pile of magazines at the kingdom hall and catch-as-catch can.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  freddo

  It could be a money saver; it could be as OTWO (changes to meetings) or Sir82 (internet-itis) suggest; I just feel the fist tightening it's grip on the $$$. Oh, And on the rank and file.