Posts by nugget

9

Friends who are not JW

by dgp in

jw
friends

i understand that a good jw must not be friends with anyone who is not in the society.

however, i am under the impression that in real life that gets sort of swept under the rug and jw's have friends outside anyways.

is my impression correct?

Never had so called worldly friends. I was friendly to people outside the organisation but even though I was invited out occasionally to parties I always kept work and home seperate and never went. The organisation tells you that people who are not JWs can never be real friends, they also tell you that the organisation will provide new friends but in reality neither statement is true.

It is a control mechanism, it reduces your support network to fellow believers so that you are in fear of being left alone should you ever leave.

In truth congregations can be the same as any other group. Upwardly mobile people stick together as do those with similar interests. If you don't fit in comfortably with the popular uber spiritual set you will still be marginalised. Kingdom halls can be very lonely places if you are not one of the beautiful people.

37

MY LYING MOTHER IN LAW

by iknowall558 in

jw
friends

this is not a thread to gain sympathy.

my life has changed dramatically over the weekend.

my husband (hoboken) has just left me and my two boys.. i'm not going to divulge all the details, but needless to say things are very tough emotionally for all of us.

nugget

Lorraine the situation is so unfair and you are being treated dreadfully by some. The advice to surround yourself with those who love and support you is good advice. Let these bad relationships go if you can they are harmful to you and your boys. You do not exist to them perhaps they shouldn't exist to you either. That way if they don't contact you it ceases to have the power to upset you.

I agree with Happyguy shunning is unscriptual and is used far too frequently by JWs. After all Jesus was still associating with Judas right up until the moment when he left to betray him. If Judas wasn't shunned for his actions what possible justification is there for the way JWs behave to others.

I can see you are a lady of action but do take time to think before you act and review how much involvement you want your sons to have in your one woman crusade. I know you wouldn't want them tho feel they were taking second place to a campaign. This is probably unneccessary advice as your posts indicate how much you love them but sometimes grief can make us do crazy stuff.

I feel for you this would be a hard situation at the best of times made so much harder by insensitive people. Have a fabulous Christmas with your boys we'll be thinking of you.

41

I just feel like crying... I'm so fed up of the hypocrisy!

by cattails in

i was very disgusted with the wt study for today.. towards the end of the article it refers to matthew 15 (see quoted scripture below).

this is a beautiful passage where jesus says his followers need to be hospitable, care for sick, hungry and imprisoned brothers.. they turn it around and say that for jw's this means they need to support the "faithful and discreet slave" by going in door-to-door witnessing, making monetary contributions to support the worldwide witnessing work, and following the directions and counsel of congregation elders.. and the worst part of it all is that there were several commenters giving almost word for word answers to that effect, they didn't even seem to listen to previous comments, they just repeated mindlessly what the paragraph said... i was ready to burst.

mom knew i was about to have a fit right there and then.

nugget

I know where you're coming from I sat through the same study (only because my daughter had arranged a play date with a friend from the cong). It was as if they were blind to what they were reading.

When they talked about Jesus rejecting Judas, one sister stated that this showed how we had to be careful with who we associate implying shunning and DFing. But the scripture cited plainly showed that Judas wasn't shunned, he was right there up to the point when he left to carry out the betrayal. Jesus obviously hadn't shunned Judas despite his flaws since when he said "one of you will betray me," they all asked if it was them. They didn't say it must be Judas since the master has been a bit off with him lately.

They talked about how people are rejected by family but find true friends in the congregation. It was all totally self congratulatory. I had a study who came faithfully for months and very few made the effort to get to know her better.

As you said the interpretation of the scripture was bizzare. What I took from the paragraph was that it is the faithful and discreet slave who were given the commission to preach not me a mere belonging. If I help out I am doing them a huge favour. I too felt the lack of direction to charitiable works was a clear ommission. Besides as far as I am aware none of the GB are hungry, lacking shelter or clothing so the potential to help least ones is more significant. Didn't Jesus have a poor box and don't the GB show Judas' attitude when they take all funds donated to the society to make themselves more comfortable. When they do some rebuilding they ask for the insurance cheques from destitute brothers and sisters.

Sorry for the vent but if I didn't then like you I would explode.

33

A@G is baaaaack!!!! Plus a new video about the GB!

by Awakened at Gilead in

too busy with skool... i've been out of commission for a few months... did my last bits of homework today, and i am freeeeee!!!!

(for a few weeks at least... but my master's is getting close!).

anyway, worked on a video today.

nugget

Thank you! The Rank and File are being urged to show their loyalty to nothing more than secular institution masquerading as God's spokesman. Your video is so clear, great piece of work.

8

My husband accepted a Christmas present from me.

by doublelife in

jw
friends

i know it's not christmas yet but i got my christmas bonus from work and took him to the mall.

i had him pick whatever he wanted and told him it would be his christmas present and he still let me buy it.

as we were leaving the store i looked at him and said,"merry christmas!

nugget

It sounds like you've been having a lot of fun. Take it slow though you don't want your husband going into shock and cracking down before Xmas. There may be signs of a thaw though which is fabulous for you.

41

Hello to everyone!

by redredrose in

jw
friends

brand new here, haven't even picked out avatar yet.

but i feel the need to reach out and touch someone (smile).

my situation is a little confusing to me, i am definitely on the way out and have been fading for quite some time, however my decision to leave has just been made very recently.

nugget

The roles were reversred for us Hubby found out first and I discovered that things were not the way I thought they were a little later.

It will be shocking to discover how much of what you once believed is a lie, that things you felt were divine light were actually a response to political in fighting at the GB. You go through a bereavement of sorts so take it slowly with your husband.

One book that helped me was surprisingly the 19th wife which is the story of the early Mormon church. I read this and couldn't believe why anyone would be a mormon if the history was as scandalous as the book indicated. My husband then showed me from historical evidence that our early leaders were just as bad. It is easy to see flaws in other cults first and helps start the thought process.

Welcome aboard.

41

Posting links to downloads of R. Franz' books CoC & ISoCF

by Lady Lee in

recently i removed a link to a copy of ray franz's book crisis of conscience.

it has been and continues to be the policy of jwd/jwn to not post download links to this book unless they are from http://www.commentarypress.com, ray franz' publishing company.. i wrote ray about the illegal posting of his work on the internet and have received a reply from him this morning.

i won't quote his entire email but will use the pertaining parts.

nugget

Using the argument that the link should be used by people who have the book and don't want to pay twice for it is spurious. Copywrite law is clear and unabiguous you pay for each copy you possess. If I wanted to keep a book but needed a second in an alternative format I would expect to pay for it. I could scan it myself but my time is worth more to me than the cover price.

It is a matter of principle not a matter of economics. Ray Franz is a man of principle if we are using his book to break free from a despotic organisation then we should be no less.

15

Researching an artist...anyone know how?

by coffee_black in

jw
friends

my daughter used to own a small antique business.

someone in her town was going to demolish an old house, and ali was given the chance to take the remaining items before the demolition.

among the remaining items was a stack of perhaps a dozen or more original pastels.

nugget

There is a Blanton Museum of Art in Texas it may be worth contacting them to see if there is a connection.

9

How accurate is the Worldwide Report

by nugget in

i was talking with the cong secretary the other day and he told me that all reports are rounded up before they are sent to the society.

i was just starting to think about how all this rounding up has an impact on the overall totals.. some publishers may round up or guesstimate their figures reporting additional time, congregation secretaries round up the cong report anything from 15 minutes to 45 minutes.

when you start extrapollating that across all the publishers and all congregations the margin of error becomes enormous.. the report becomes less meaningful each month by the end of the year we are potentially millions of hours adrift of the actual number.

nugget

Thank you for your responses. It is a shame that something that is used to determine privileges and spiritual health is so arbitary., I cannot believe that publishers are told they can count time in 15 minutes but the society can't process figures to 2 decimal points.

9

How accurate is the Worldwide Report

by nugget in

i was talking with the cong secretary the other day and he told me that all reports are rounded up before they are sent to the society.

i was just starting to think about how all this rounding up has an impact on the overall totals.. some publishers may round up or guesstimate their figures reporting additional time, congregation secretaries round up the cong report anything from 15 minutes to 45 minutes.

when you start extrapollating that across all the publishers and all congregations the margin of error becomes enormous.. the report becomes less meaningful each month by the end of the year we are potentially millions of hours adrift of the actual number.

nugget

I was talking with the Cong secretary the other day and he told me that all reports are rounded up before they are sent to the society. I was just starting to think about how all this rounding up has an impact on the overall totals.

Some publishers may round up or guesstimate their figures reporting additional time, Congregation secretaries round up the cong report anything from 15 minutes to 45 minutes. When you start extrapollating that across all the publishers and all congregations the margin of error becomes enormous.

The report becomes less meaningful each month by the end of the year we are potentially millions of hours adrift of the actual number. Why do Jws report at all?