freddo

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Posts by freddo

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  55

  Another Scotsman reporting for duty :)

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi all, its time i stopped lurking around here.

  i've been posting at jws for just over a year, i know a few names here and it looks like there is lots of good banter going on.. i am a second generation, born-in who grew up in west-central scotland.

  i pioneered in edinburgh and later married and settled in berwick just south of the border.

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  freddo

  Hello Cofty!

  I'm on JWS from time to time too - when I resigned as an elder in 2004 I too wrote a letter to bethel, London (funny isn't it - you think you're going to enlighten them and be exonerated or entertain the possibility that they won't accept your resignation and tell your BoE you were right all along!)

  I got some "this is nothing new, this is what we believe, follow it" woffle back and was dumb enough to write back again! This time I got a verbal bollocking shot across the bows from my P.O. "kindly" warning me that while he had much sympathy with my point of view I was on the point of being perceived by the branch as causing divisions. I was variously on the service committee and school overseer for over fifteen years and so my resignation shocked the congo.

  I'd been around the block enough to know what that meant and so like a coward I shut up and "attended for family". (I still take my elderly father from his nursing home to the meeting on a Sunday) My wife knows my heart isn't in it but with the new meeting schedule I can cope with half a dozen meetings a month (I allow myself one "sickie" and a "too busy" per month and increasing) and a once a month ministry reported as 4 hours so I can fly under the radar run a mic in the Watchtower study and keep boredom at bay! So I bide my time and wait for the "right" time to leave.
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  12

  Is It possible for a GB member to ABSTAIN from voting a proposed doctrine into 'law'.

  by african GB Member in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  would that member be hunted down and removed from the 'board' for fear of apostacy?.

  how discreet is their vote?.

  is it conducted like 'worldly election' with secret voting booths?.

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  freddo

  I think that the GB operates just like any body of elders except that it is made up of old elders with little direct experience of parenting. So if you've ever been an elder remember your elders who were 70 plus and imagine 9 of them in a room with their 1950's outlook and their haughty chosen by Jah, self willed ways and you will get:-

  1 strong-willed, sharp minded, iron hand in velvet glove alpha type who rule the roost.

  1 as above but who smiles a lot and shows mock humility while waiting his chance.

  3 yes-men who always agree with the above two. One of whom is of an ethnic minority.

  1 who salivates and drools "post-stroke" in the corner.

  1 who thinks differently but won't rock the boat because "where else would he go?"

  2 who are on the point of a nervous breakdown.

  Now filter their decisions through the legal dept. and watch them go nowhere fast and only change things when they are low on money or are doctrinally painted in a corner.
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  29

  A conversation With A Jehovah's Witness

  by freetosee in

  1. social
  2. humour

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-fvqzcziqe&feature=related.

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  freddo

  Did you get the house number?

  607! Nice touch ...
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  11

  2009 service report grand totals only

  by alanv in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  branches 118. .

  lands reporting 236. .

  total congregations 105298. .

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  freddo

  10,857 memorial partakers! The 1935 door is prised wide open - hallelujah!
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  107

  1975 For Deniers

  by Farkel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  1975 for deniers.

  most of today's jws were not members in 1975 or in the 9 years prior to 1975, so they were not eyewitnesses to what really went on during that period.

  i was a pioneer in that period, and i was an eyewitness to what went on.. those jws who are still active today and who were around in that period will typically say it was the "brothers" who "ran ahead of jehovah" and "read more into" the 1975 prediction than what was actually stated.

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  freddo

  An ocean away it happened here too - all whipped up by CO's, DO's and at conventions. It happened, my parents and I lived through it, father still believes he can outlive this system, mother died waiting for the "generation that saw 1914 (to) pass away".
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  9

  Proof that children being baptised at WT conventions

  by moshe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the wt had an international convention in trinidad this past week and here is a picture of a young boy being baptised- get them early before they can undersatnd what they are getting themselves into.

  how old does this boy look?

  for story: http://guardian.co.tt/features/life/2009/12/30/keep-watch.

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  freddo

  We had an 11 year old girl baptised at our last circuit assembly in this large city in the UK!
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  33

  The Diary of an Armageddon Survivor

  by RAS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am not sure if anyone ever posted this but i thought it was worth sharing: (can anyone relate?).

  the following is not fantasy, this is what we were taught to expect when we were jehovah's witnesses.. michael pendley .

  day 1. well, the big a is over and i survived.

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  freddo

  Read it before and love it.
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  20

  Bethel Layoffs

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  could those who know about these lay offs give some clear evidence of what has happened, when, to who, any experiences of people effected and to what extent?.

  i want to talk to a really good friend about the situation.

  he is a young guy who feels he should be doing more for the organisation, and is thinking about giving up a very good career to make a more of his career in the "truth".

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  freddo

  The prob here in the UK is that Mill Hill is expanding it's printing on the back of the Spanish/Italian layoffs. London is picking up a lot of their work. I know a dozen bethelites who are fairly young and "low-level" and there is no "redundancy" fear in the UK - far from it.

  They even joke how the "accommodation" watchtower - you know the one about living arrangements where they imply that people will think everyone is ready to jump each other's bones when someone's back is turned - should start being applied in London Bethel first because so many singles and marrieds are sharing flats, kitchens and bathrooms!
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  21

  What will the elders think?

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a week ago my wife and i ran into a jw nephew and his wife at the supermarket.

  despite knowing that my wife and i are no longer jw's, he was very gracious, giving his aunt and i a warm hug and introducing his wife to us.

  he casually mentioned meeting with the elders and their decision to disfellowship.

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  freddo

  I'm pretty sure that tattoo = no MS or eldership if you have it done after baptism.
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  15

  help with parenting ?

  by creativhoney in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  for those who are now out and we can't use the 'what would jehovah think' method any more, has anyone struggled with discipline since leaving?.

  my parents were so strict and laughter and silliness was frowned upon.

  - especially by a militant stepfather.

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  freddo

  Love it Aunt Bee - I can't match eight but I agree I know less now I'm on my fourth teenager than when I was on my first!

  Yup, it all comes to a head when I can't see the bedroom floor for junk and the reins are pulled in for a weekend and a month later and they try it on again - but overall they're lovely kids even though the eldest is 24 and married now. Wait 'til the grandchildren come along - I'll be full of wisecracking "told you so's"