Posts by FatFreek 2005

9

My worst nightmare, a speaking assignment last night. I've been OUT for 38 years!

by FatFreek 2005 in

every five years or so i have this vivid and recurring dream, tho you'll probably surmise it's more of a nightmare.

i learn somehow that i am scheduled for this theocratic ministry school speaking assignment, the instruction talk (do they still have those 15 minute drone-athons?).

i become racked with tension knowing that i haven't even prepared for an assignment that is only 30 minutes away.

FatFreek 2005

You have a point there perhaps because my exit was rather bizarre itself. I had forgotten that the next Sunday following my announced exit from the body of elders I was scheduled to deliver the public talk in Ames Iowa. I had no intention of ever setting foot inside a Kingdom Hall again.
The presiding overseer, a nice fellow, did not yet know my inner feelings and how strong they were and he approached me and asked me, he even begged me to go ahead with that assignment in Ames.
I can't even remember the subject of that public talk but I do remember that it didn't offend my conscience at the time. As I looked out over the audience during the discourse I felt pity for the folks in those chairs. I also pitied myself, in a sense feeling like Judas Iscariot. It was the very last meeting I ever attended.

9

My worst nightmare, a speaking assignment last night. I've been OUT for 38 years!

by FatFreek 2005 in

every five years or so i have this vivid and recurring dream, tho you'll probably surmise it's more of a nightmare.

i learn somehow that i am scheduled for this theocratic ministry school speaking assignment, the instruction talk (do they still have those 15 minute drone-athons?).

i become racked with tension knowing that i haven't even prepared for an assignment that is only 30 minutes away.

FatFreek 2005

Every five years or so I have this vivid and recurring dream, tho you'll probably surmise it's more of a nightmare. I learn somehow that I am scheduled for this theocratic ministry school speaking assignment, the Instruction Talk (do they still have those 15 minute drone-athons?).

I become racked with tension knowing that I haven't even prepared for an assignment that is only 30 minutes away. I'm in my casual clothes, no coat and tie, and there's no way I can make it home to change and get back – much less, prepare the material for that keynote address in the school.

I look around the Kingdom Hall to see if I can offload this talk to someone else but no one even looks at me cuz I am disfellowshipped and am being shunned like a leper. This confuses me, the fact that they even want to listen to something I have to say from the podium. It's ironic that I actually want to do good on this challenging obligation, imagining that they may double-disfellowship me if I blunder the task. This will be, for them, reinforcing proof that apostates are evil.

I look again at the outline, a dog-eared sheet of scratchings that I can't begin to decipher, and I want to scream “not fair”, but I know nobody would listen to one disfellowshipped piece of fecal matter – me.

Hey, why am I going through this torment – this anguish, I ask myself. I haven't even believed this crap for the past 38 years, contradictory nonsense which has even become less and less credible as time marches forward. Go ahead, I mumble to self, get out of this joint and nobody will even notice. Go ahead and wake up from this nightmare – and I proceed to do exactly that with an enormous sense of relief.

But, I must confess, for several minutes this morning, there was also this pervasive feeling of guilt because I hadn't honored that bizarre school “assignment”.

Len

7

Anyone have the video of explaining the new understanding of 1914?

by average joe in

theres was a mention about it in the september 23rd boe .

where can i find the video explaining 1914 or at least the new explanation of 1914 from the wt society and not you trying to remember bits and pieces :) ?

thank you

FatFreek 2005

Does the following help?

September24,2014

TO TIm BODIES OF ELDERS OF ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING CONGREGATIONS 1N TIm

UNITED STATES BRANCH TERRITORY

Re: Video for the Service Meeting

Dear Brothers:

The instructions for the Service Meeting during the week of October 20,2014, call for a

seven-minute demonstration of a publisher explaining our beliefs about 1914. We are pleased to

inform you that a prerecorded video is being prepared in English for this demonstration. Therefore,

English-speaking congregations in a Kingdom Hall equipped for video presentations will

not need to prepare and rehearse a live demonstration. If the Kingdom Hall is not equipped for

video presentations at this time, please consider what can reasonably be done to arrange for this

video presentation. The jw.org Web page containing the link to this letter will be updated when

the video becomes available.

Below are revised instructions for the Service Meeting part for the week of October 20.

Please be sure to pass these along to the brother who is assigned to present this part.

15 min: A Tool to Help Us Explain Our Beliefs About 1914. Begin by playing

the prerecorded demonstration. Publishers should have on hand the chart on page

11 of the November 1, 2014, Watchtower. When the video is finished, invite the

audience to comment on why the demonstration was effective. Conclude by

reading Revelation 12:10, 12 and inviting the audience to comment on how our

knowing that the Kingdom began ruling in 1914 motivates us to preach the good

news with urgency.

We send our warm Christian love and best wishes.

8

Federal prisoner, child of active JW, could be my grandchild?

by FatFreek 2005 in

i recently learned of the possibility that my son has a love child and that this child is in prison.

the child was born in the early 80s.

i learned that my ex-wife and her parents may have paid a large sum of money to the young mother (and others) in order to keep this scandal out of the press and perhaps out of earshot of the local elders.

FatFreek 2005

"You have a right to know. Call your son. He may lie to you. Remind him he is an "active JW" and must be truthful in all things."

I'll have to think about that one.

You say you are still on good terms with your ex-in laws, I would call them up and ask them if they are aware of this, I suspect they would know.

As I mention above, "My ex in laws with whom I remained close over all these years" are the ones that made me aware of this situation some 11 years ago. At the time I had the feeling that they were bent at fostering dirty gossip. I just recently saw a bit of evidence that nudges me to explore more closely.

"If you get the feeling that they are aware of this child call your son up and confront him with this news, this is a grandchild that has been deprived the love of a grandparent."

You make a good point.

"Furthermore, your son needs a nice moral slap in the face for his holier then thou attitude for shunning you all these years while he may have a skeleton in his closet."

Another good point. He effectively shunned me, then his own son for a third of a century.

8

Federal prisoner, child of active JW, could be my grandchild?

by FatFreek 2005 in

i recently learned of the possibility that my son has a love child and that this child is in prison.

the child was born in the early 80s.

i learned that my ex-wife and her parents may have paid a large sum of money to the young mother (and others) in order to keep this scandal out of the press and perhaps out of earshot of the local elders.

FatFreek 2005

My ex in laws with whom I remained close over all these years

8

Federal prisoner, child of active JW, could be my grandchild?

by FatFreek 2005 in

i recently learned of the possibility that my son has a love child and that this child is in prison.

the child was born in the early 80s.

i learned that my ex-wife and her parents may have paid a large sum of money to the young mother (and others) in order to keep this scandal out of the press and perhaps out of earshot of the local elders.

FatFreek 2005

While I think I know her name and that of her family from a distant state, I've never met the mother or her family. I'm not really comfortable about contacting them in view of the possibility they may be under some type of gag order.

8

Federal prisoner, child of active JW, could be my grandchild?

by FatFreek 2005 in

i recently learned of the possibility that my son has a love child and that this child is in prison.

the child was born in the early 80s.

i learned that my ex-wife and her parents may have paid a large sum of money to the young mother (and others) in order to keep this scandal out of the press and perhaps out of earshot of the local elders.

FatFreek 2005

I recently learned of the possibility that my son has a love child and that this child is in prison. The child was born in the early 80s. I learned that my ex-wife and her parents may have paid a large sum of money to the young mother (and others) in order to keep this scandal out of the press and perhaps out of earshot of the local elders. Let's keep the org clean by all means. Also to keep my son's name off county's birth records.
I also just learned of this love child's JailMail.net page where he describes himself, his term of incarceration, his interests -- also his appeal to anyone who wishes to communicate with him.
Before I attempt that (out of pure curiosity) I wonder how I should go about this. I'd like to somehow verify this child's lineage (DNA, RNA?) and I realize that would be no small expense. Call my son who as an active JW has been shunning me since the early 80s? Call his mother(my ex), also an active JW. This action would, at the very least, reveal that I know about their dirty secret?
Any tips?

6

Danish crime series begins with apparent shunning of a young mother, returning home after two decades

by FatFreek 2005 in

i began watching a well-reviewed crime series -- dicte -- in streaming netflix last night.

although it is compelling, the audio was in danish and was close-captioned into english.

i didn't complete the first episode because watching cc is too laborious for me.

FatFreek 2005

Thanks, Virran, for your first-hand observation. Hmm ... I might change my mind on watching. After all, I watch and love many of the BBC series and I always use CC for those because there are some phrases and words that I need a bit of help on.

Len

6

Danish crime series begins with apparent shunning of a young mother, returning home after two decades

by FatFreek 2005 in

i began watching a well-reviewed crime series -- dicte -- in streaming netflix last night.

although it is compelling, the audio was in danish and was close-captioned into english.

i didn't complete the first episode because watching cc is too laborious for me.

FatFreek 2005

I began watching a well-reviewed crime series -- dicte -- in streaming Netflix last night. Although it is compelling, the audio was in Danish and was close-captioned into English. I didn't complete the first episode because watching cc is too laborious for me. I thought, however, that some here at our forum -- especially those who understand Danish -- would probably enjoy it.
The series opens without dialog in a scene from a hospital room where a young woman gives birth while her un approving mother looks on. In short time the child is wrested from the mother's arms and taken away. The next scene shows this mother years later approaching what appears to be a Kingdom Hall where a stream of people are entering, this woman calling out to an older couple, addressing the woman as "mother" (in Danish). The couple turns to her, but quickly turn away in true shunning fashion and enter the building and latching the door. The young woman, dicte, emotionally torn, is shown tearing off some of the lettering on the building's outside -- lettering which translates into Jehovah's Witnesses.
Dicte, now a professional journalist and an impulsive, temperamental and the loving mother of Rose, her daughter, who is almost 18, grew up in a community of Jehovah's witnesses, but ran away from home at the age of 16 after being forced to give away her newborn son for adoption. Today her existence is ignored by her parents whose religious upbringing has had huge influence on Dicte.
As more sides to Dicte are being gradually revealed, a completely different aspect transpires to have had a massive effect on her life – the son she was forced give away for adoption. When Dicte moves from Copenhagen and returns to her hometown Aarhus, it is not only to get as far away from her ex-husband as possible. She is also driven by the wish to find her son.
Dicte Svendsen is played by Iben Hjejle who graduated from The Danish National School of Performing Arts in 1996.
The above is a loose paraphrasing of a document written by Dorte W Høgh and Ida Maria Ryén in 'Dagbladet', Tuesday 18th December 2012. The paper was especially made for the Danish premiere of Dicte.
It appears on the internet at http://www.visitaarhus.com/ln-int/aarhus/who-dicte
Len miller

20

The Largest BOE File Ever Compiled!

by Atlantis in

watchtower body of elder letters:.. this pdf file is the largest boe file ever compiled.

it has been downloaded at least 30 times with no virus issues.

the file is from 1905 to 2015 updated, and includes all the elder manuals from 1961 to 2010 at the bottom of the bookmarks.

FatFreek 2005

To clarify, these are LETTERS to the BOEs, not a listing of the elders. (If I'm missing something here, please correct me.)

Page numbers start at 10511 in my Adobe reader.

Len

ps: Great work, Petra!