currently we have dear old liz with her corgis but i belive she has delayed retireing because of how much her son is not liked?
she surely can't keep going much longer?!!
so i was wondering... for all you brits or ex brits here... who would you like to see as the next ruling monarch?
Unless there is an accident or terminal illness I think this is how it will go.
QE2 dies in 2027 at age 101 after 75 years as Queen
Charles becomes George 7th at age 78/79 and dies ten years later in 2037
William is King William 5th at age 55 in 2037 - His eldest offspring - male or female is the next Monarch.
1. bethel in ny suspect high level apostate, cant identify it but know its there.
2. major organizational changes about to start rolling out, one is changes to the "service committee" and titles, po to be done away with, thats all i know for now.
was told that if you are the sort of person that cant handle changes, you wont stay in the org for long.
In answer to Oracle ...
PO title has been replaced with "Co-ordinator of the Body of Elders" - this was done ostensibly to take the "presiding" = authority bit away.
IMO there is always another hidden reason and I guess this change will be due to legal ramifications from some Bro P.O. Gotmoremouththanbraincells being held responsible by an attorney acting for an ex-jw in a costly molestation/uninsured injuries claim heading it's way to Brooklyn!
"how do jehovah's witnesses view disfellowshipped ones?.
previously, this journal has detailed, from the bible's viewpoint, how unrepentant sinners should be viewed*[*footnote see also "how to treated disfellowshipped ones" in the appendix of the book "keep yourselves in god's love", published by jehovah's witnesses].
unlike apostate christendom, which unrepentantly excuses the gross sins of its members, true christians follow the scriptural admontion found in 1 corinthians 5:11: "remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
Blind PS to the body of elders
... If the accused does not voice his intention to appeal within seven days he should be immediately frog-marched into the kingdom hall parking lot and tied to a stake* (not a cross) that is kept there for such a purpose. It would be fitting if a firing squad made up of his accusers and the judicial committee were to carry out the sentence.
* (this stake should be put into the ground under the direction of the local regional building committee as health and safety and consequential insurance issues my arise if not carried out "decently and by arrangement". At no time should the Society or its' officers be mentioned in reaching your decision or executing it.)
May Jehovah bless you in your service,
Your brothers
WTB&TS
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???.
Yes. Several JW's that were molested by other JW's.
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.
Used to be but never again.
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.
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".
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.. .
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.
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 .
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.
are you at peace with your beliefs?.
1 = very anxious / confused / searching.
10 = complete peace / totally confident in belief system.
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!)
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.
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.
