JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  I would like to help, I have to think about my schedule. I have a lot on my plate just now, but this appeals to my inner researcher.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  My wife and I stopped attending meetings in 1988 and DA'd in 1989. We were doing our research in the interval between those dates. There was no internet, no Lloyd Evans. I spent hours in the library, my wife was going through bookstores. We joined a support group. We spent a lot of time with Crisis of Conscience but there was a lot of other information out there as well.

  Looking back, I can see that the Watchtower's own words; the falsehoods, the hypocrisy, false prophecy etc condemned them. Our research was a matter of confirming what we knew to be true. It is true: by the time you're looking at apostate Youtubes you're standing in front of the exit door.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  I just fell down a rabbit hole looking at old threads regarding AAWA.

  It is interesting looking back from a distance and seeing the birth of all the problems we now see. The legal matters are probably minor, the manipulation of membership numbers seem to have damaged a lot of people. That is tragic.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  AAWA = (in its first iteration) Association of Anti-Watchtower Activists. That sounded too extreme so they quickly changed the actual name but kept the AAWA initials. I can't remember what it stood for in that second go around.

  When they wrote up and filed the corporation paper work Evans signed it with his "John Cedars" screen name. He also stated that he was a resident of the state in which they incorporated, I think it was either Arizona or New Mexico.

  Those two things are problematic. There was no such person as "John Cedars" it was a made up name. Signing a legal document with a fictitious name is the same thing as signing somebody else's name. Certifying that he was a resident of the state of incorporation was also a false statement, and would have invalidated the incorporation.

  I assume that when discovered they went to the state and pleaded ignorance or some such and dodged a bullet with the legal system. At best, the whole thing showed poor judgement.

  Edited to add, I looked at an old thread. The second entity was Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  I would love to take a look at the AAWA legal paperwork. I could apply my accounting background to an analysis of what happened there. I was initially interest in that project but quickly lost my enthusiasm for AAWA when I found out he was forging the signature of a non-existent person to the state filing. I'm surprised somebody didn't end up in major legal trouble. That incident, and his doxing of a lot of people who weren't ready to deal with having their names in public spoke volumes about how he operated.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  JW's are conditioned to believe they need somebody (the GB) to explain stuff to them. Lloyd tapped into this when started up his youtubes. Now they've been conditioned to believe they need Lloyd Evans to explain stuff to them.

  I think this is a real disservice to those leaving the Watchtower. Learning to sort out what you believe for yourself is a huge step, one that people won't take unless they have a teacher who is more interested in helping them strike out on their own, than gathering followers for himself. Or better yet, no teacher at all.
  
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  32

  Sanderson’s “Young People” convention talk

  by FFGhost in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so did anyone else have the misfortune of listening to sanderson’s talk corresponding to the saturday morning convention program?.

  full title is “young people - choose a path that leads to peace!”.

  the basic idea is, hey you teenagers, you ought to be pioneers, wt construction workers, and/or bethelites.. i tried to put myself back in time an embarrassing number of decades…if i were in this talk’s target audience, how would i respond?.

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  JeffT

  The talk was virtually identical to every “Hey you kids, forget about college” talk given for the past 50, yes, 50 years.

  It was a talk like this at a circuit assembly in 1988 that started my personal investigation that led to DA'ing a year later. My focus was my two older children who were just entering their teenage years. They were clearly college material and I wanted them to have a decent life.

  I had already defied the elders and went back to school in the early eighties. I guess they are right - going to college and being a JW doesn't work.
  
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  13

  Mega Millions Jackpot…

  by Biahi in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  in the us, our mega millions lottery jackpot has reached over 1billion dollars!

  what would you do if you won?

  i think i’d run public service announcements on television, alerting people of the dangers of the wt cult, among other things.

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  JeffT

  In 1990 my parents came into some money - $900K not all that much in comparison to what we're talking about here. For those wanting to know that don't remember my history, it was half the Nobel prize in medicine.

  People poured out of the woodwork asking for money. We got letters, phone calls, you name it. One lady wanted us to buy here a trailer. We got at least one request for help with rehab (that is at least a good use of the money). Some one else offered to give Dad the cure for cancer for some money.

  In the end, Mom and Dad gave the money to their team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. I don't know the details, knowing my parents I believe they weighted the money to give more to lower paid employees at The Hutch. My boss at the time was flabbergasted that some one could have their hands on that much money and give it away.

  Based on that history, I say Blondie's got the right idea, disappear from the face of the earth, every nutjob on the planet will be trying to find you.
  
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  9

  Employee "Preaching " to other employees.

  by Foolednomore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have hired a new employee, he is a good accountant.

  has never experienced jw's but i have three employees who are.

  one elder, two ms.. the new employee came to me an asked questions about jw's that the elder employee has been preaching to him.

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  JeffT

  The problem is when you work in a place where the management are jws and you are not.

  Actually, at least in the United States, the way out of this one is rather simple: call your state Dept of Labor and/or Unemployment agency. Tell them your employer is harassing you and has created a hostile work place. They will contact employer and tell them to knock it off. That letter will probably include a note that the only reasonable company policy is to enforce a "no politics or religion policy." If they fire you, you can make a good case that it was retaliatory.

  I was on the sidelines but had a good view of two such fights (no JW's but similar issues). One employer lost about $100K, the other $250K.

  At my last employer (a 28 day rehab facility) I had a co worker who was a JW that didn't know I was an ex, as I respected the company no religion or politics policy. When I heard him preaching to patients I reported him up the chain of command. He left shortly after, I think HR made it clear he could shut up or leave.
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  13

  Anyone else heard this?

  by BoogerMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the other day, i chatted to an elderly woman and her daughter who was about 45-50. total strangers.. we were discussing covid when the daughter said, "my neighbor studies with jw's, and the jw's told her 3 months before the virus started, that they had to stop going from door to door because something was coming.".

  i've never heard anything like this before - have you?.

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  JeffT

  the JW's told her 3 months before the virus started, that they had to stop going from door to door because something was coming.

  "Something" is a big word. I'm predicting that "something" big will happen this fall. If the Republicans win big in the election I'll say "see, I predicted this." If the Democrats win big I will say "See, I predicted this." If the Mariners win the world series, everybody in Seattle would agree that was something. Maybe Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr announce a reunion tour. See how that works?