Posts by life is to short

16

Taking Elders Out of their Comfort Zone; The Little Room

by TMS in

jw
friends

in the mid-90's my wife faced a bogus charge of gossiping.

the charge was based on a fleshly sister of a jw easedropping on a conversation.

we fought the charge with the elders unable to produce any credible report of the actual conversation.

life is to short

OTWO I know that elders are not to talk to sisters alone and I knew it then also, I kick myself for going into the room alone but it happened a lot to me and I truly thought that it was God's true religion and I had nothing to fear.

I was so wrong, the elders loved to get me alone and say hurtful things to me which when I brought up to others what the elder had said to me the elders quickly denied everything. I look back now and am amazed at what all happened to me. Even my husband allowing it as after the huge battle over the pedophile and my being told I had to accept him as a brother in the truth or ELSE I went to talk to the than PO COBE at his home this was just in 2010. This guy was OLD in his early 90's but his mind was sharp. He sent his wife out of the room so it was just him and myself. He just started LYING. Telling me I was making up everything from my own abuse, that he knew my father and he knew my father never abused me. Than he went on to the fact that the pedophile never raped kids. He was saying that the pedophile deserved a chance and I was causing divisions in the hall by my dislike of the child molester.

I had brought my Bible with me and I was showing him scriptures from the Bible which ticked him off to no end as I was just a women how dare I.

He finally starting shaking and told me I was a woman who needed to know her place in the hall and I was stepping out of LINE.

Why I allowed myself to be lead into the backroom alone and why I went with them I cannot answer now. Never in a million years would I allwow myself to be treated that way now. And why my husband did not flip seeing me crying my eyes out over how horrible they talked to me is mind boggling to me now why did he not throw a fit when he saw me alone with these elders? I just think we were both kind of blind sided by it all. My husband could not and still is having a hard time seeing the reality that they hid pedophiles in the hall even through it is right in front of him. We just got into a fight about it again last night in that they have reinstated the pedophile and he is back going door to door, but it is in the next hall over and my husband is swearing to me that NOW the pedophile is going flanked by three to four elders. I was so flipped out last night fighting with my husband over it, how stupid can my husband be. I told him it never happened in our hall but he said the other hall is different. Yeh right. And why does a pedophile need to go door to door flanked by three to four men????????????????????????????????

I was just such a true believer that I never thought something like this would happen. My husband thought he knew these men they were his fellow elders and they way they turned on him also was amazing and why my husband still goes to the meetings and puts himself around this sucm drives me crazy. These elders could care less about my husband when he had his heart attacks they still kept dumping on him all of the stuff that they as elders would not do. All the ones in the hall who had problems my husband was the one who the elders gave these people to because these elders needed to spend time with their family's and they just did not have the energy to handle the crazies in the hall they can only help the pedophiles.

What I cannot understand is why the elders put themselves to be alone with me. They were the ones who initiated talking to me alone. I never asked to speak to any elder alone. They were the ones dragging me into the backroom and the friends in the hall saw it and yet said nothing! Then they said I was crazy and I was mentally ill and I was insane.

I truly felt I was going crazy as they denied, denied, denied, denied, denied everything they said to me alone, it was so crazy making I could not wrap my mind around it.

I really think in my heart that they were trying to drive me insane or to have me commit suicide but for what reason I do not understand.

LITS

16

Taking Elders Out of their Comfort Zone; The Little Room

by TMS in

jw
friends

in the mid-90's my wife faced a bogus charge of gossiping.

the charge was based on a fleshly sister of a jw easedropping on a conversation.

we fought the charge with the elders unable to produce any credible report of the actual conversation.

life is to short

I have had experiences very similar to your wife's. When the pedophile first moved in the hall I attended my husband was an elder, the school overseer. Yet it did not stop the other elders from talking to me alone in the back room and unlike your wife I went along with it, oh how I wish I had not gone along with the elders in talking to them alone. I will never forget this one time when the attorney elder we have in the hall got really mad at me and told me to come with him. He yanked me into the back room alone and started to yell at me telling me that my husband and I made him look bad and he did not like that. He felt he had egg on his face and NO ONE EVER MADE HIM LOOK LIKE HE HAD EGG ON HIS FACE AND WOULD GET AWAY WITH IT!!!

Now mind you I was alone with this elder in the back room, it was now my word against his of anything he said. I started crying as I was so blindsided by his anger and he was PISSED AT ME!I was really a true believer and I never thought in a million years this could be happening. I went home that night and tried to commit suicide by taking to many sleeping pills. I never told my husband that I took the pills.

My husband walked in and asked what we were doing alone in the back room together and this elder glared at me, told my husband he was washing his hands of us and stormed out of the room. But this elder wasn't done his goal was to destroy me and drive me from the hall so he could keep the pedophile in. Which he did.

LITS

29

Hate Crime against Members of a Congregation

by cantleave in

jw
friends

i recieved this email from an active witness regarding "hate crimes" against members of the congregation he/she attends.

it is interesting as to how the elders are dealing with it.. .

for some time our hall has been suffering minor vandalism.

life is to short

It happened to me when we were first married there was a MS who was DF'ed and he threatened to come over and kill my elder husband. I truly believed he meant it. My husband down played it and said the guy was all talk but my husband did call an elder in the next hall over to try to calm down. The other elder called back after being on the phone with this DF'ed MS and told us to get out of the house as he thought the guy meant it. My husband would not leave and so I spent a sleepless night worried sick. The next moring at field service this guys wife said he had guns loaded and he was walking out the door with the other elder called him, he was going to come over and kill us both I have not a doubt.

That morning my husband called Bethel and asked what to do. The first person my husband spoke to at Bethel told us to go straight to the police so as we were walking out the door to go to the police station the phone rang just as I was locking the door, oh how I wish I had not answered it. It was Bethel calling back and a different guy at Bethel told my husband under no way were we to get the police involved. We were to leave it in Jehovah's hand.

The MS went on to stalk me for the rest of the time we lived there over two years. Threatening to kill me and my husband, calling when I was home alone while my husband was at elder meetings, telling me that he had killed my husband, etc. This guy came into where I worked and threatened to kill me and even my coworkers were scared. Everyone in the hall told me I was the one who was crazy and that I was making a big deal out of nothing including my hsuband.

LITS

140

WT Society holds EXTREME Responsibility for 1975 and False Expectations

by flipper in

jw
friends

however- many jw's who have come into the jw organization from like 1985 forward virtually may have no knowledge of the wt society's 1975 debacle and false predictions of the end times or armageddon predictions.

just like in in the book 1984 by george orwell the wt society has a way of not only erasing it's history so no newer witnesses will be aware of their false predictions, but also they are re-writing their history as if those false predictions never happened.. so for those of you here who may have never read or heard of how whipped up into an emotional frenzy witnesses were in the years just before 1975 by the wt society claiming the end was any day now- this threads for you.

to see the pressure that was put on jw's by the wt society to get rid of everything before " armageddon " .

life is to short

I totally remember it. "Stay alive till 75" It just makes my blood boil when I hear ones like the PO COBE's elder son who was born in 1978 say it was all made up and it never happened. He is now in his mid 30's and is saying to all of us who remember it are making it out to be more than it was and his COBE dad just sits there and lets him do it.

I was going to be 12 when 1975 was supposed to come, I was scared out of my mind. I thought Jehovah hated me because my parents hated me and I could not please Him anymore then I could make my parents happy. I guess I was like Calbe trying to not make Jehovah sad. I remember thinking when I was 9 years old that I had three years of life left then when I was 10 two years of life left I totally counted down the months to the end of my life at the age of 12. When the fall of 1975 came and went I was relived in so many ways but some ways I wished that Jehovah had just killed me as parents still hated me so much. Yet Jehovah gave my my parents and he would be so sad to know that I did not like them.

It just still makes me so mad to hear ones say that it never happened, I remember some of the JW's not going to the doctor when they were sick or this one elder who bought a set of tires for his car and he called them his Armageddon tires the last set he would ever have to buy in this system. Oh how I remember that time in my life and to be told that I made it up when I was just a child is so crazy making.

LITS

46

Candace Conti v. Watchtower | March 11, 2013 | Watchtower Society Appeal Dismissed For Failure To File Opening Brief

by jwleaks in

edit correction:.

the court web site lisiting reflects the following below, but we have been informed that the watchtower society has been given yet another extension until march 26, 2013.. the below post will be left as is, for those who may have wondered what happened.. .

congratulations candace conti.

life is to short

That is what I was thinking March 26th is the Memorial. Maybe they are waiting on Jehovah!

LITS

32

Part 1 of the 2013 Conti and Simons interview now on YouTube (questions posed by JWN members)

by cedars in

a while back we ran a "competition" whereby people could pose questions of candace conti and rick simons for them to answer in a video.. there were so many questions that we needed to do a series rather than just one video.

this first instalment is now on youtube.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhvfefpig4a.

here are the questions that were answered.... (to rick, asked by "exwhyzee") is there a possibility that part of the ruling, if you overcome the appeal, will be that the society must make an announcement outlining the details of the case to its members, as well as an apology to candace?.

life is to short

Thank you so much it really means a lot to have people like you Cedars on this board that are doing such a great job in letting us know what is happening.

I cannot express in words how much your posts and insight have meant to me, the way you reason and come to cconclusions on matters helps explain things so much easier for me and it has really helped me to reason with my husband, in fact he just watched this YouTube with me and thought it was very well done yet he is now getting ready to go to the meeting. Not that long ago he would never have even thought of watching something like this.

Just thank you so much for all of your hard work. I know you are helping people to see the TTATT better.

LITS

25

The Time is More Important than Results

by OnTheWayOut in

on my way in to work this morning (saturday), at 6:05 am on a commercial business street in chicago, i saw two sisters and a brother bundled up in winter clothes and doing "street work.

" it wasn't that cold, so i guess they started even earlier when they needed their scarf and gloves.

there was absolutely nobody else walking and all the businesses were closed.

life is to short

That is what I truly hated about service. I really bought into it being a life saving work and I thought everyone else in the religion did too. I remember right in the middle of my awaking because of the pedophiles in my hall and I was still trying desperately to believe it was the "truth" I went out in service during the CO's visit and he used the illustration of our preaching work would be like our seeing a house on fire with people inside not knowing that their house was burning up. The CO said we would do what ever it took to wake up the people inside, to get them out, to save their lives. This is what we are doing by going door to door we are telling them this world is on fire and they need to wake up. This was in 2009. I remember thinking finally a CO that gets it. Oh how stupid I was it was all just hype.

Now looking back at all the times I went out in service it was just wasted time like you mentioned and I totally knew it and I tried to get the JW's I was with to do more but I was was helpless, no one wanted to really talk to anyone. I was always so frustrated.

I remember street work. It got so bad in the city I live in that the shops downtown started to complain as there were so many JW's just loitering around that the JW city overseer had to put a stop to it and assign congregations a day or two to do street work.

But the worst was when I pioneered. We lived in the country because a CO had asked my husband to go where the need was great. It was so much just a waste of time, gas, etc. We would meet for service pile five if not six people into our small Honda Civic which would be bottoming out at ever bump because of the weight. We would make a call in the small town we lived in to start our time then travel 70 to 80 miles over to the river where we would work the rule territory. I would be lucky if I got out of the car two times in the day and I was always stuck in the middle of the backseat because everyone was so huge and I was the smallest one. I just hated it with people pressing in on me from both side, and this one "brother" who would insist on sitting in my front seat would crank the heat up as high as he could. My husband did not want to offend him by asking he to keep it cooler. I would just be so sick to my stomach. We would spend five to six hours beating the heck out of our car then we would drive back home make a call and be able to count 8 to 10 hours. We burned through gas like it was water no one gave us a dime to help out. We put over 30,000 miles on a year on the car and I worked 30 to 35 hours a week just to pay for it all. I begged my husband to help change things but I was told it was the way it was at least the Angles saw what we were doing even if we never talked to anyone.

I was totally going crazy. I am a very active person who needs to fill full-filled in what ever I do and wasting my money this was was not full-filling in any way. When more elders moved into the hall I went to them and then the CO begging them to talk to the grocery store or anything to see if we could do a sort of street work in our small town but they thought that it would look silly. I was like and having five to six people in a small Honda Civic driving aimlessly looks sane???????????? And plus how are we saving lives???????? When we were not talking to anyone???????

I know realize that it is all just hot air, just talk about their thinking it is a life saving work. That CO in 2009 was just as much of a time waster as any of the others. His speach about the burning house was just a stupid ploy to make him feel better. He loved his coffee breaks more they trying to get people out of that burning house.

They just fool themselves and pat themselves on their backs thinking they are special when they are making total fools of themselves.

LITS

44

Evil Elderettes, the true Hounds of Hell!

by Bubblegum Apotheosis in

my wife was told a brother was going to be disfellowshiped, "how do you know this is going to happen?

" sister so-so said "he was not repentant or humble to the brother's kindness.

" instead of engaging into a heated debate, she knew who the leak was, so-so's husband.

life is to short

It was the same for me Magwitch. In many ways I was glad as the last thing I wanted was to no all the dirt, but it hurt because it was like he had this whole other life that was more important than anything especially me and I knew nothing of life which he spent a huge amount of time with. Our marriage was second, I was second. If he was needed he went no matter what our plans were or if I needed him, the congregation came first always.

It was like living with a man who had another wife and I was the second wife lesser on his priorities. And it really hurt when others in the hall assumed I knew everything and would try to get the dirt out of me or they would make snorky remarks about elder's wives gossiping.

LITS

55

The CO asked for money tonight at the meeting.

by life is to short in

i was shocked i do not know why as i have read that the co's were doing this but to hear it with my own ears was unbelievable.

i do not go to the meetings but my husband still does and this week is the co's visit.

i decided that i would listen in to his talk; i swear i have lost some brain cells by doing it but anywho.. he started out by talking about the old story that has been in the wt many times about a little boy who was seven and raised a chicken and gave the money to the society.

life is to short

Sorry Jeffro about the mistake of "three quarters of a million dollars per publisher per month." is what I meant. I was trying to put this up before my husband got home and I made a mistake. I meant only three quarters of a million per month not publisher.

Splash: The CO also used the 'widows two coins application' but it was kind of drowned out by his penny, dime and chicken story.

But what amazed me the most about last night was when my husband came home from the meetings, I brought up how I had never heard such pleading for money from the stage and my husband said he did not get that at all from the talk.

I then brought out that the CO kind of made a fool out of himself about the chicken story as the little boy was happy that the chicken was a rooster as it brought in a dollar and then the CO joked that rooster must be worth more and thus Jehovah let it turn out that way. Roosters are never worth more then hens as the hens are the ones who make you the money by laying eggs. Roosters from what I remember as a kid are usually used for stew meet and not that valuable, but Jehovah made this chicken a rooster. My husband did say he caught that mistake.

OK so I went off the subject but it was just so stupid and clearly the CO was pushing for money. I am thinking maybe its always been this way and I just did not notice while I was in but now that I have stopped going to meetings when I do listen in it hits me harder in the face how they do plead for money.

I have unknown to my husband been going to a local church with a friend of mine and never once in the eight to nine times I have been to the church have I heard them plead for money like I have at the KH. I even went on a woman's retreat with my friend and it cost $150.00 for three days, $50.00 a day but we got a place to stay and wonderful food so really it was not as much as an assembly would cost. The interesting thing was that if you could not afford it you could still go, the church picked up the bill for that women. I had never been offered even a ride to go to the assembly when I was single and very poor. I had to save and take the bus one time over 300 miles while the older elders drove with only their wives in the empty cars.

The church I have went to has been overly kind to me when I have ween people even are starting to know me by name. And I know also they help their memeber when they are in need. Also on a side note when my husband and I first moved into the congregation he is still attending there was a MS who would go to the local store and get all the day old bread then he would take it to the KH and "give it away" from his car only you had to pay him for his gas that it cost him to drive to the store to pick up the bread which he was asking about $5.00 per person if you took anything from him. The elders did put a stop to it as they felt he was using Jehovah's house to make money. One elder totally flipped out over it, funny this same elder said nothing about pedophiles going door to door yet he flipped out about bread. OK I am digressing again.

So the first time I went to this church they had the same day old bread that this brother used to get sitting on a table in the commons room where they also serve coffee and cookies after the service. So I asked my friend what was up with the bread and how much did it cost to get it as I saw many family's taking it. She told me NOTHING. I said what about the gas it cost to go get it. She said it does not cost that much to go get it and one of the members of the church goes to the store to get the bread to help the members of the church who are poor or need some help it's all free. I was just shocked.

That MS really had a gig going at five dollars a person he was making about $20.00 a meeting. I only took the bread once or twice as he would try to make you feel guilty if you didn't take it as he had went out of his way to get it, I am sure that was why the elders stopped it but still it is amazing the differences between the JW's and this church which by the way is just three blocks from the KH.

LITS

PS please forgive my spelling Jefffro or anyone else as I am not that great of speller especially after not posting much for awhile sorry.

55

The CO asked for money tonight at the meeting.

by life is to short in

i was shocked i do not know why as i have read that the co's were doing this but to hear it with my own ears was unbelievable.

i do not go to the meetings but my husband still does and this week is the co's visit.

i decided that i would listen in to his talk; i swear i have lost some brain cells by doing it but anywho.. he started out by talking about the old story that has been in the wt many times about a little boy who was seven and raised a chicken and gave the money to the society.

life is to short

I was shocked I do not know why as I have read that the CO's were doing this but to hear it with my own ears was unbelievable. I do not go to the meetings but my husband still does and this week is the CO's visit. I decided that I would listen in to his talk; I swear I have lost some brain cells by doing it but anywho.

He started out by talking about the old story that has been in the WT many times about a little boy who was seven and raised a chicken and gave the money to the Society. The CO went on and on and on about how wonderful that was and how we here in the US have so much and how that dollar that little boy gave could have feed his family, etc but no he gave it all to Jehovah. How we here in the US throw away stuff that the little boy would love to have. Plus what we have really is Jehovah's anyway right? So why should we hold back from giving to Him.

Now if that was not bad enough he does stop. He goes on about our giving our time in field service etc, but then he went back to the money part and he said when he was a little boy a CO told him to pick up every penny if he saw it while he was in service and put it in the contribution box. He then laughed and said that a penny is really nothing to day and he was dating himself, but if we find a dime on the street and there always seems to be money that people just throw down out in the streets, so if every publisher would just put one dime into the box each month it would add up to three quarters of a million dollars per publisher per month.

He went on and on about how many publisher there were 7 plus million. What I was thinking is what about the publishers in the country's where they are supper poor and they cannot afford to give a dime, and there is not money just laying on the streets like we have here in the rich US.

It was all just a huge guilt trip. It was so amazing they have to be hurting for money to have the CO's giving this talk.

LITS