Posts by ambersun

22

The Governing Body and the Sept 15, 2010 WT

by Ultimate Reality in

there have been a few threads on this magazine already.

but i cannot recall a wt that has so many references to the gb and its authority throughout the articles as this one.

the grip of authority and control is tightening.

ambersun

Thus, what is taught is not from men but from Jehovah.—Isa. 54:13. - page 13

I don't know what is more scary - the thought that 8 men sitting in Watchtower HQ are so brainwashed themselves that they actually, quite possibly believe all their plans and schemes are put in their heads directly by God to be obeyed by the masses, relieving them of every last shred of concience about the affects they are having on the lives of the R&F, or that the R&F absorb every last crumb of 'new light' and act in complete obedience en masse like a load of Stepford Wives without putting their brains into gear and realising how far-fetched or unlikely it all is!

Also, how can JWs reason that it is wrong for Catholics to glorify the Pope as being (in their eyes) God's representative on earth, being a mere mortal man, but it is OK for JWs to glorify 8 men in Watchtower HQ for the same reason! Let's face it, if they are to be obeyed unconditionally, with everyone hanging on their every word, what is the difference?????

150

Most Ridiculous Thing You've Ever Been Counseled On

by MrFreeze in

i'm sure topics like this have already come up but they tend to get hilarious with the absolute absurdity that goes on in the kh.

i was once counseled for not shaving after two days.

i was also counseled by a sister for eating lucky charms cereal.

ambersun

Allowing my new born baby to make baby noises while brothers were trying to concentrate on the meeting. Even though I always sat right at the back of the hall, everytime he made a little sound the whole congregation would turn round and glare at me and one of the brothers would guide me and baby outside to sit in the book room with no sound system. Oh, happy days! That was such a lovely congregation, full of Christian love. How I miss them all !!!!!

A few years later at an Assembly, my husband was councelled for allowing our little boy to play quietly on the floor at our feet with a toy instead of sitting bolt upright in his chair for hours on end. My husband told the brother in question what he thought of the suggestion and we started fading very soon after that. Our now grown up son is eternally grateful!!!

50

JWs pretended to be someone else at my door.

by myusername in

this is probably in the wrong section, but i couldn't decide where to put it.

i was raised a jw and i still suffer effects from that kind of upbringing.. anyway, they said they were local community volunteers and they wanted to give me something related to the community.

i didn't open the door but they put a jw tract through it.. i don't think it's right to be so devious about recruitment.

ambersun

Ooooh, sorry djeggnog, I didn't spot it was your first post. A big welcome to you too!!

50

JWs pretended to be someone else at my door.

by myusername in

this is probably in the wrong section, but i couldn't decide where to put it.

i was raised a jw and i still suffer effects from that kind of upbringing.. anyway, they said they were local community volunteers and they wanted to give me something related to the community.

i didn't open the door but they put a jw tract through it.. i don't think it's right to be so devious about recruitment.

ambersun

Welcome myusername! I am fairly new myself and I hope you find the site as enjoyable, helpful and informative as I am finding it!

I totally agree, I think it is deceiptful and wrong for JWs to hide their identities when out in the preaching work. It always made me feel uncomfortable when I was a JW even though I realised it was usually the only way to trap people into entering any sort of discussion with us.

I usually blurted out the fact I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses as soon as the householder opened the door, and it was amazing how fast I could cover the territory on cold, wet, windy days

58

Generation 'New Light' is Actually Working

by zoiks in

jw
friends

as ridiculous as it seems to me and most of you, the infamous 'generation' update has every jw that i know in a tizzy.

they're all worked up about how 'exciting' it all is.

i just received a letter from my mom (she only communicates through letters now), and she brought it up - how they carefully explained it at the convention, and how it shows that we are so close to the end.. unbelievable.

ambersun

For the rank and file it doesn't matter anymore what the GB says. They have learn to accept blindly whatever comes out from Brooklyn...if the GB changes the 'light' next month still JW's they will be happy with the new explanation...

I totally agree with you, JustHuman14. I bet if any one of us had suggested to the rank and file ten years ago what 2010's 'new light' would be, we would have been either laughed at or told to stop making apostate remarks designed to stumble the brothers. Yet the GB can say almost anything and the masses will lap it all up joyfully without question! Even to suggest ten years ago that this old system would still be here in 2010 would be an apostate thought as we all know that to the average JW armageddon is, and always has been, just three years away!!

51

I'm glad my children don't have to grow up being afraid of cupcakes

by Ilovebirthdays in

yesterday, i brought a batch of cupcakes to my son's school.

in passing them out, i started to give one to one of the children, who was a jw.

he immediately started freaking out and screaming "no thank you" over and over.

ambersun

I am so glad me and Hubby completed our fading when our children were still young enough to experience at least part of a normal childhood. Having gone through it all ourselves we knew only too well what they were going through. I can remember so clearly the huge smiles of relief on the teachers' faces when I went into our son's school and told them we were no longer JWs and that from now on he was free to join in all activities. We received a lot of support from the teachers as many of them knew how difficult it was for us.

Our son's class teacher told me some heartbreaking stories of what some JW children had to endure, including the distress they experienced whenever a child in the class had a birthday. She wondered if their parents really understood the pressures such young children were under.

She also told me a tragic tale of a previous year when two 6/7 year old JW children had to sit in the corner of the classroom watching all their classmates enjoying the Christmas party because their parents forgot to come and fetch them before the party started! The teacher felt awful but there was nowhere else for them to go without being under supervision and they were too young to be left in a room on their own. Therefore, not only were they forced to watch the others having fun but I can imagine they would also be terrified that somehow they were involved in the pagan activities by being in the same room, wondering if Jehovah would punish them for it. Goodness only knows what lasting affect this would have on the poor little kiddies.

The GB has a lot to answer for!!!!!!

24

I think its a good thing nobody gets or even notices the generation change "new light"

by cognac in

jw
friends

no matter what the society does to try to attempt to fix this generation debacle, there is no way they can ever get it in jwa minds that the end will come past 2014.. nobody even gets or understands the change.

nobody cares.

generation will always mean to them up to 100 years!

ambersun

Black Sheep thanks for the welcome and yes, it sounds like our families are probably very much alike. Lovely smiling people devoting their lives to obeying every passing whim of the GB with their minds full of thoughts of paradise.

Heartofaboy, regarding elderly people my own mother in law was totally thrown off balance when her husband died in the '80s and she realised how old they had got with no signs of armageddon. I remember her saying to me that if armageddon didn't come soon it would be the biggest con of the century. However, she somehow managed to overcome these feelings (cognitive dissonance?) and died of old age last year having attended her last meeting the previous Sunday.

Thanks for that info Blondie, it explains a lot!

44

My Grandfather.

by The Finger in

my grandfather fought in the first ww.

he was in the trenches in france, he was gased and survived we always thought of him as one of the "generation" when we were kids.

he lived to almost 90, died in 1979.. he was always against the "truth" he mocked, he referred to my parents, his son, as a bible basher/thumper ect.

ambersun

This is a fascinating thread. I think a lot of frightening experiences among JWs are a direct result of being constantly brainwashed into believing that anything outside the safe realm of the Watchtower Society is under the influence of Satan and second hand items were most probably posessed by demons. I can remember personally throwing things away that had been given to me just in case.

On one occasion I had been given some make-up by a colleague at work. The lady had told us she was a Spiritualist but she seemed nice enough and the make-up was brand new and good quality so it seemed a shame to refuse it. However, that night I woke up feeling as though my bed was being shaken and I was terrified. I can remember doing what we were told to do in those circumstances and shouted out "in the name of Jehovah go away". The shaking stopped and I eventually went back to sleep. The make-up was disposed of at the first opportunity. However, did that really happen or was it just my vivid imagination working overtime? In retrospect I am inclined to think it was the latter.

However, I would never for a second ridicule or disbelieve anyone claiming to have had a bad experience, especially if several members of the family experienced it together which must have been very frightening and unnerving. It makes me think there may be powers beyond what we know, but not necessarily demonic. Some kind of quantum energy perhaps?

Just out of interest, over the last few years I have helped out working in antique centres packed with all things imaginable, often spending many hours alone amongst them, but never once experienced anything unusual.

24

I think its a good thing nobody gets or even notices the generation change "new light"

by cognac in

jw
friends

no matter what the society does to try to attempt to fix this generation debacle, there is no way they can ever get it in jwa minds that the end will come past 2014.. nobody even gets or understands the change.

nobody cares.

generation will always mean to them up to 100 years!

ambersun

Even if they got some sorta gist that it might mean a "time period", there is NOTHING the society can do about the promise they made. Millions now living WILL never die. They can't go back on that.

Oh Cognac, I do hope you are right!!!! I was among the JWs who lived through the 1960s when we were told as a FACT that we would all survive into the New System, with many selling their homes and giving up work and career prospects to devote their time to knocking doors. Many of them are dead now, and I can't understand why the rest, especially ones who are now old and frail who were lead to believe they would never get old at all, just seem to happily accept this ever extending dangling carrot the way they do! Maybe this new overlapping generation idea will be the last straw for some of them at least!

45

The official "how did they react to the new light" thread

by PYRAMIDSCHEME in

jw
friends

for those that went to meeting what was the general response to this "new understanding" of "this generation"?

at my hall i don't think anyone really got it or cared.

swallowed hook, line and sinker.

ambersun

I am constantly amazed how my highly intelligent family appear to absorb all this 'new light' without a flicker of doubt. Being the kind of person who lacks confidence in my own abilities, I used to think my ever growing doubts were due to my youthful inexperience or a shortfall in my I.Q. and constantly tried harder to understand it all, thinking that I would eventually develop the deep faith I envied in the rest of my family. Then I started to feel exactly as Gayle put it - thanks Gayle, I sometimes have difficulty expressing my thoughts but your comments said it all for me. And this was back in the 1960s when I started to question the continual (convenient) 'new light' being received since Russell's death.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but JWs were told to remove any of Russell's books from their bookshelves back in the 60s as 'new light' had been received since he wrote them so his doctrines were out of date. Most of the JWs I knew were too young to have purchased any of Russell's books personally and had certainly never read them. However, I found and read several of Charles Taze Russell's books on an elderly brother's shelf whilst visiting him and was totally thrown by the changes in the Organisation since Russell was in control. However, any questions I raised fell on deaf ears, nobody else shared my concerns about these changes. I concluded I would 'get it' in time, but the seeds of doubt had already been set and they were to grow as the years progressed, whilst the rest of the family's faith and total dedication to the Organisation continued to grow.

I know there is absolutely no point trying to discuss this overlapping generation issue with any member of my JW family as they will have already soaked it all up, being the true loyal JWs that they are, never questioning anything coming from the wonderful GB