i posted in another topic a few hours ago.
it is my first time on here or any website like this, ever.
i was dfed back in september for adultery.
The fact your mother is willing to go under the radar and associate is a huge bonus. Approximately how old are you? Is the man you had a relationship with around or in touch?
Not being nosy just trying to gauge the situation. Don't answer if you'd rather not.
with the book crisis of conscience detailing the turbulence at bethel during the early to mid 70's, the transformation from autocratic rule to governance by committee or a body of men, many of us can speak to how that felt among the rank and file of the local congregations during those years.
we learned new concepts based in large part to research done for the aid to bible understanding volume, then we were asked or coerced into unlearning those principles, going back to the old ways.
some of us never readjusted, finding ourselves very different from our more hardline compadres.. the inertia for the changes that eventually were initiated in the congregations came from the discovery that the greek words episkopos and presbyteros were used biblically to refer to all qualified men in a congregation, not just one.
I can vouch for TMS's feel of the congregations in the mid-late 70's.
Here in the UK one of the elders in my hall who is in his 70's now actually gave a circuit assembly talk as a young up an coming elder sporting a beard. Unfortunately he is still deep, deep in but has no beard largely I suspect because he likes his "high profile" and assembly items.
It was great - we late teenagers wore loud check sports jackets, wide ties, wide-collared, coloured shirts, flared trousers, big clumpy shoes and hair over our ears! And there was that article about women wearing "pant-suits" too. Though no-one did.
And of course the "generation that saw 1914" doctrine ruled as king.
i have been thinking, it is a lonely place in the real world knowing ttatt but if we have a phrase we can unite, support and help each other.
the question we will ask is:.
what's your favorite bible verse?
well, well, that was quite a heartfelt welcome on this site four days ago.
thank you all for the encouraging replies.
one of them was this one from magnum: "hey now, don't just pop your head in and disappear.
@broke the chains
Something doesn't add up. At the time I posted this you had posted twice. Once three months ago and once about an hour ago. As far as I can tell the description of yourself varies greatly between these two posts.
This last post of yours intrigued me so much I thought I would look at your post history to read more.
Care to explain? Or am I overlooking something obvious?
me and my wife are still "in".
we had the "talk" a couple of times, but shet is not ready to leave yet.
while a couple of years ago she started crying on the thought that i am an "apostate" and even gave me an ultimatum until she would rat me out to the elders (never happened), now i sense that she might is a little bit more open to the the thought to leave one day .... anyway, all out friends and family are still in the truth and whenever we are meeting with other witnesses topic #1 is always the recent changes to the meetings / conventions (reduced to one day) which always lead to the changes to the magazines and the recent lay offs of the special pioneers and bethelites.
I have had "very interesting conversations" in the last two months with two elders I used to serve with and one who is a relative in a different circuit. They are all in their 60's - about ten years older than me.
Elder 1. "We'll probably die before Armageddon" was one comment I got in response to my ""I don't know if I can follow this "overlapping generation" stuff ... ""
Elder 2. "Strange that they need all this money when there is all that property to sell off in Brooklyn and London and they've (he said "they" not "we") stopped building."
Elder 3. "My son got out of Bethel just before this cull (he actually said cull) began; he's so glad he did. He told me he was talking to one of his mates up there (London) who said that the atmosphere was awful."
I tell you - if you know one of them well enough to put a drink in their hands - they don't stop blabbing ...
In vino veritas!
follow the smell of the "service department".
that's where the power rests in the watchtower.. do a little research on wikipedia about the psychological traits.
opennes and conscientiousness (big five personality traits).
Jackson - if Jackson believes he is accountable to the almighty, how does he sleep at night after that ARC debacle?
Either he must believe that "following orders" (of the GB as a whole) gets him off the hook with Jah or he doesn't believe at all and is in it to retain his position and authority.
ever noticed how co's and ex-do's never say thank you for the hard earned money they get from the friends?
they truly believe they are entitled to live an easy life at the expense of others.
this makes my blood boil!
Suavojr - there are many irritating, mind-blowing and downright cowardly things CO's have done over the decades. Occasionally they may not thank someone who has given them money.
Usually - probably mostly - they do.
Sweeping statements and over generalisations do not help.
lets pretend two things:.
1. god (yhwh) exists.
2. the bible is his word.. now we follow genesis to judges ok... judges resets at chaper 17-21 but for the purposes od this posts lets ignore that.... ruth we are told lives in the time of the judges... ok no problem/ until the end.
while attending a week long training class for elders in patterson, bro losch gave the concluding talk about loyalty to the borg, which i was in awe of(i went more in detail in a recent post about a s.a.d.
where losch was the speaker).
at the end of his talk, here's what he said: .
i have this poor friend that has so much to do.as an account servant.
i recently noticed that he got additional work loaded on his back by the secretary who told him that it was his responsibility to fill this register charity form return.. i remember from long ago that this was a job that the secretary had to do, but can't find it in writing.
does anyone have anything in writting on it?.
OK here's how it goes.
Each of the Service Committee has responsibility for things in "their" department.
Service Overseer oversees territory, mags and literature depts and usually has MS's and assistants helping out. Oversees "Trolley/Cart" ministry although the actual schedule will be done by a MS or another brother. Any of them might fill out forms but it is the responsibility of the S.O.
CoBE oversees Hall Servant and Sound Dept - now audio-visual (besides organising elders meetings, CO visit and most of the meeting schedules.
Secretary oversees Accounts (often done by another elder or a MS and he or the Sec can sort out charity tax reclaim forms), oversees (through group overseers) reports and sends "hours" to the branch. He looks after all the judicial records and child protection files and the policy (letters) file. Much of this is on line now anyway. Keeps minutes of elders meetings.
