Posts by man in black

14

Can you recall the event, the time when you boldly proclaim, I,am not taking this anymore.

by jam in

jw
friends

in my case, i was df, my nephew from bethel was in town,.

he came to visit my family.

he knock at the door, i answer.

man in black

a sister had a teenage daughter who was in a car accident, and the hospital she was in was about a two hour drive away.

The po wanted to go and visit the daughter, but he had no idea how to get to the hospital, since my wife had been there several times already and told me the route I volunteered to drive him there one evening.

After the looong drive (, ) we got there, and when we walked into the room, this sister literally jumped over the bed to give the po a hug and to thank him profusely for making the effort to come and visit her daughter.

She then turned and looked at me and said "Hi" and walked away.

I Sound like quite the touchy beggar huh ? Believe me, it was so obvious that she wanted to make such a good impression on this guy

Well that was one of the major episodes that slowly started to steer me away from the jw's

40

Did you fake underlining the WT?

by shepherd in

jw
friends

i read on another topic " i remember when i used to carry microphones years ago in the jw cult- only about 30 % had their wt's pre-studied, the rest just wing it i truly believe" and it reminded me that people will assume you are not familiar with the material if you have not underlined, and that there will always be those who observe the lack of ink and consider you must be unprepared (and so 'weaker' than them).. many times i used to fake prestudy just for that reason.

its easy to do, underline a random sentence or 2 in each paragraph or the sited scripture.

you can wizz through an entire article in 3 minutes....did anyone else do that?.

man in black

for years I did it honestly, then after attempting to reach out and being overlooked for around two years I started to develop

"jw burnout syndrome". I did fake it for several months then asked myself "why bother"?

Since we had younger kids, we would usually sit near the back of the hall. One Sunday we were in the back row and one of the uber-elders was doing

one of those quick-darting glances at my wt.

Later during the week, he called my wife and asked her why my magazine was not studied on Sunday? She made some comment about my burnout and he said " well, if he cannot study for even the Sunday wt study, then perhaps he is not ready to assume the position of ms.

When I heard this, I quit underlining everything, and was honest with myself, d*m these guys for policing how spirituality should be shown

aka : underlining answers so people can see them .

48

Have Jehovah's Witnesses (The WTBTS) taken the Best Years of your life?

by Hairyhegoat in

jw
friends

having been a born in for 44 years i can say yes to this question.

my 2 sisters and 1 brother and my dad have nothing to do with my family now we have made our stand against the jw's.

i was always downtrodden at school for been a jw.

man in black

let me try posting again.

I had an opportunity to go to veterinary school, and my boss at the time was going to pay most of the costs.

But because I was a good little jw, I did not accept this offer.

And boy was I praised over and over for "rejecting higher education".

I think about this almost everyday, but I am going to college although I realize that I will not ever become a vet at this point in life.

48

Have Jehovah's Witnesses (The WTBTS) taken the Best Years of your life?

by Hairyhegoat in

jw
friends

having been a born in for 44 years i can say yes to this question.

my 2 sisters and 1 brother and my dad have nothing to do with my family now we have made our stand against the jw's.

i was always downtrodden at school for been a jw.

man in black

2

parenthood the movie

by man in black in

last night i was watching this movie and during the last scene it hit me how much the jw thought process hinders honest emotion with family members.. yes,,,, i know that there are hundreds of reasons as to why families do not get along / together, but being a witness for several decades showed me how much this religion makes an effort to "throw a wrench in the works" of family relationships.. there is no sound in this link, but just watching the interactions between everyone says volumes, imagine how different it would be if someone was "bad association or df'ed .

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ojgl2ubj-i.

man in black

Last night I was watching this movie and during the last scene it hit me how much the jw thought process hinders honest emotion with family members.

Yes,,,, I know that there are hundreds of reasons as to why families do not get along / together, but being a witness for several decades showed me how much this religion makes an effort to "throw a wrench in the works" of family relationships.

There is no sound in this link, but just watching the interactions between everyone says volumes, imagine how different it would be if someone was "bad association or df'ed .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OJGL2uBj-I

41

Thanks for your support JWN!!! Dad dies monday, JW family goes to convention on thursday

by Coffee House Girl in

jw
friends

coffee shop guy directed me to his thread...thank you so much everyone for your thoughts of support, it means a lot to have people who understand and show genuine sympathy.

here's my experience so far.... my father dies monday night & my brother (nonjw) calls me to come home, when i arrive my father is still sitting on the couch- all the jw family is sitting in a semi-circle around him, my non jw brother is standing in the next room.

no one is crying, no one is talking.

man in black

OMG, I started to cry while reading your post, I'm so sorry that you had to deal, with the jw mindset during such a sad time.

49

Elders who conduct judicial comittees are creepy & perverted

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

why can't people in jw congregations see just how utterly creepy this whole arrangement is?.

a girl about 20 years old commits an indescretion of a sexual nature.

three middle aged/old men 'interview' her in a room.

man in black

yes, I agree that they are perverted.

I never had to endure this procedure, but a good friend of mine was df'ed for adultery about five years ago.

We got together several months ago, and he told me the whole episode .

It seems that there is an elder by the name of Redman (a PO) who asked him the most personal-humiliating questions imaginable.

"Did you have oral sex?, how did you do it? where did you do it? How did you feel about it?How did she feel about it?

While I was hearing this story, my skin actually started to crawl. It was a very creepy thing for me, listening to these personal questions that were asked by a man who actually believes that his position is "appointed by God".

There is also another elder by the name of Jeff R., who actually had pictures of some of the young, attractive sisters framed, and sitting around his house. The young girls were the only ones who had any respect for this well known perv. From what I hear, he is still an elder .

24

were you made to feel guilty if you missed a meeting / service ?

by man in black in

going along with the last thread ( great subject matter) .

i'm sort of hitching along here.. we had a bookstudy at our home for several years, every week we were prepared, and we handled service arraingements every saturday morning, even with two young children.. one saturday morning, ( in the middle of winter) one son had a bad cold, and our furnace konked out around 8:15 am.. i was running around trying to get ready for service, calling a repair man, and help my wife get ready for service.. the group comes in at 9:00, and i'm on the phone talking to the repair man who wants to come out between 10-2.. so i'm not going out this morning, and i'm staying home with my sick son, wife and son #2 are going out in service.. conductor comes downstairs and looks at the furnace ( he is a school teacher, no mechanical experience at all, check out my earlier thread video under friends, page 5827 titled "elder makes a video,,,, this is the same guy ) and gives me the classic guilt trip because i'm not going out in service for at least an hour this morning.. i remember thinking just who is this guy, trying to make me feel bad because my family is #1, service is not my focus today.. after all of these years, i cannot help but think of this comment now :.

"nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent", e. roosevelt.

man in black

Going along with the last thread ( great subject matter)

I'm sort of hitching along here.

We had a bookstudy at our home for several years, every week we were prepared, and we handled service arraingements every Saturday morning, even with two young children.

One Saturday morning, ( in the middle of winter) one son had a bad cold, and our furnace konked out around 8:15 am.

I was running around trying to get ready for service, calling a repair man, and help my wife get ready for service.

The group comes in at 9:00, and I'm on the phone talking to the repair man who wants to come out between 10-2.

So I'm not going out this morning, and I'm staying home with my sick son, wife and son #2 are going out in service.

Conductor comes downstairs and looks at the furnace ( he is a school teacher, no mechanical experience at all, check out my earlier thread video under Friends, page 5827 titled "elder makes a video,,,, this is the same guy ) and gives me the classic guilt trip because I'm not going out in service for at least an hour this morning.

I remember thinking just who is this guy, trying to MAKE me feel bad because my family is #1, service is not my focus today.

After all of these years, I cannot help but think of this comment now :

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent", E. Roosevelt

Being made to feel guilty because of not putting meetings or service 1st seemed to be a speciality of the elders, and particularly this one from my old hall.

Is this a common aspect everywhere, or is it an aspect of control that only specific elders are cocky enough to continually work on ?

30

assemblies and alcohol

by pedal power in

our dc coming up this weekend, i hated them and the only thing that kept me going ,was the reward of booze at the end of each day.my then wife,zelous judgemental pioneer, you know the type,not only droned on about my drinking, but about everyones drinking, a real barrel of laughs not.

anyway, one year we went to another dc, in newcastle, all seemed to be going well, until lunch.we went over to a hotel for lunch,i ordered my fresh orange and food, a few minutes later, the local jw,s arrived for lunch, they had all pr-ordered drinks,alcoholic drinks, and not one drink but many !!!

they were buisy getting boozed up for the afternoon session,way to go, i was about to join them, when my wife told me " dont even think about it ", anyway she was outraged, but there they were ,with thier little convention badges, men and women, young and old, getting merry, they dont even do that here in scotland, !!!.

man in black

back in the late 70's we would attend the Janesville, Wisconsin hall for our circuit assemblies. Since my friends and I were early mid teens and we hung out with many who were 19-20 yrs old. They would get several bottles of scotch-JD and hide them in the cabinet of their hotel room.

We all got a key to their room ( security at the Midway Inn did not exist then). And we would all stay up and watch Saturday Night Live and drink until around 1:00 am.

Then afterwards we would go back to our parents room, and since they were all sleeping they never knew what we were doing.

Many of my friends from back then became hardcore alcoholics, and several graduated to really heavy drug use.

Yup, those assemblies really were encouraging to them !!

21

What was your experience of working at an assembly hall build?

by Heartofaboy in

jw
friends

i volunteered to help out at an assembly hall build about an hour away from where i live.. i thought it would be an amazing experience & was looking forward to it very much.. when i went to reception i was asked if i had any trade skills, it was just about then i began to realise because i had no 'blue collar' trade skills i would be treated as a lesser person.........maybe even a slight nuisance.. as all the 'brothers' busily carried out their 'manly' tasks it became quite a discouraging experience because i found other 'unskilled' jw's guarded their jobs very closely & said they did not need any help.. if it was a place of christian joy i did not find.. .

.

man in black

I was working for a brother in the construction trade and working for a FULL day - week was very important to me since my wife just had a baby ($$$).

One day this bro. is driving the crew to a job, and we pull up to a quick build and he proceeds to tell us that we are going to work here for two days. Since this whole jw building thing was new to me I went along,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Well, he did not pay anyone on the crew for those days, he said is was our offering to God. That really hurt, summertime in construction is for making money since the winter is pretty bare for work.

Perhaps if he had let everyone know ahead of time what to expect it would not have been so stressful later on.

Years later I worked in the first aid trailer at several sites, that was not bad, but at one the overseer would not allow any sisters to be alone in the

trailer with me . Yea right, like I'm some kind of molester.