Posts by exwhyzee

28

Why Did Ray Franz Still Go On Field Service?

by BroMac in

jw
friends

in his book he says he still went out on field service.. why would he do that?

i'm finding it so hard to go out, i only take my bible.. .

bromac.

exwhyzee

There are many times in life when one has to "go through the motions" until one figures out what to do or until there is no other choice but to make a big change. Looking back it seems to me that many JW's are in that state. They are in agreement with enough of the teachings, or believe they should be in agreement with all of them and feel they are to blame because they aren't or their life is so intertwined with it that leaving is just not in the cards for them. Only when there is some crisis or when they are seriously wronged does the house of cards collapse and change is unavoidable. Ray Franz was ousted. I don't know if he continued in the preaching work after that, but if he did it was likely because it was a way of life for him and he still felt compelled to spread God's word. I don't know where he would direct those who showed intrest. Perhaps he would have just encouraged them to read their Bibles or studied it with them and left it in God's hands to take it from there.

For him to have been reinstated he'd have had to acknowledge some wrongdoing on his part and admit his actions were those of an Apostate. Because of his former position, they'd likely have required him to make some sort of public apology. (example) We had a Bethelite who was made by the GB or whomever, to fly to the west coast to apologize to our congregation for breaking off an engagement with one of the sisters there.

234

Suicide - How many do you know within the JWs

by Lady Lee in

thw wts likes to play games with their statistics.

one interesting but truly tragic is the number of jwhovah's witnesses who commit suicie.. now i suspect that if a person commits suicide shortly before or after they are disfellowshipped then the elders would say that person wasn't a witness or that they had done something so terrible that they were too guilty to admit it and by their action of committing suicide they pretty much declared they were no longer a jw.. yup fancy talk to make sure any crap didn't fall on them.. so my question.. do you know of cases like this?

if so then can you answer a few more questions.. had this person been dfed or in real danger of being dfed or whatever the equivalent is if they were never baptized?.

exwhyzee

6 JWs (myself included) vs 1 incest survivor.

This is what happens when amatures dare to dabble in what should be handled by highly trained professionals.

Sorry Lady Lee that you were among the scores of victims who could have been spared this experience had they been treated adequately.

234

Suicide - How many do you know within the JWs

by Lady Lee in

thw wts likes to play games with their statistics.

one interesting but truly tragic is the number of jwhovah's witnesses who commit suicie.. now i suspect that if a person commits suicide shortly before or after they are disfellowshipped then the elders would say that person wasn't a witness or that they had done something so terrible that they were too guilty to admit it and by their action of committing suicide they pretty much declared they were no longer a jw.. yup fancy talk to make sure any crap didn't fall on them.. so my question.. do you know of cases like this?

if so then can you answer a few more questions.. had this person been dfed or in real danger of being dfed or whatever the equivalent is if they were never baptized?.

exwhyzee

Good comment Fernando...you nailed it !

234

Suicide - How many do you know within the JWs

by Lady Lee in

thw wts likes to play games with their statistics.

one interesting but truly tragic is the number of jwhovah's witnesses who commit suicie.. now i suspect that if a person commits suicide shortly before or after they are disfellowshipped then the elders would say that person wasn't a witness or that they had done something so terrible that they were too guilty to admit it and by their action of committing suicide they pretty much declared they were no longer a jw.. yup fancy talk to make sure any crap didn't fall on them.. so my question.. do you know of cases like this?

if so then can you answer a few more questions.. had this person been dfed or in real danger of being dfed or whatever the equivalent is if they were never baptized?.

exwhyzee

Many of us here have been spared from the utter aloneness and isolation one suffers when leaving the Organization for whatever reason.(I faded) By visiting this site we managed to bolster our fragile psyche and gained strength from the experieces of others here that mirrored our own. One can only imagine what it would have been like to loose your entire support system without the help of anyone as thousands before us did. No one in the world understands what our experience was like better than another former JW. How many of those visiting this site were spared from going the route of suicide? Hard to say but you know there were more than a few.

The only JW I knew who chose suicide was also the only actual "new" person I knew who was baptized in our hall in the 25 years I was there. The rest were young people who grew up in JW families. This guy married a former JW girl who had been DF'd and when she returned, he followed. Try as he may, he just couldn't live the JW life long term. He became a MS and tried very hard but left after a few years. His buisness failed after that, he suffered a few setbacks in his health. He felt like a failure on all counts and took a lethal dose of pain medication. I can't say for sure, but knowing him, I'm sure part of the guilt from dropping out of the TRUTH, played a part in his downward spiral.

I often think back and cringe about those who I was supposed to shun over the years. Thankfully I never felt the need to punish anyone like that but I went along with the practice just the same.

18

An educated persons perception of the watchtower magazine

by Aussie Oz in

the other day (australia day bbq actually) i somehhow got to discussing jws with some of my wifes extended family.

one of them, quite well educated and academic mentioned she was given a wt (no awake to go with it) when they called.. she commented that as she read some of it, it struck her how it was going on about pedaphiles and homosexuals a lot and secondly how every thing they said was not backed up by any legitimate research nor data, just random % this or that to support the flimsy arguments.. her comment was that this was the most un-academic, poorly written journal she had ever read and without going any further, threw it in the trash!.

the sheeple migh lap up the recycled vomit in that rag, but the public aint fooled.. the family laughed heartily when i informed them of the jw belief that the wt and awake!

exwhyzee

The public magazines and other literature serve a couple purposes, one of which is to provide the JWs with something to occupy their time with

by peddling it to the public.

Very true...in fact I've heard it stated from the platform that the Ministry was as much for OUR good as it is for the good of the public.

When you think of how many decades they have been printing Bible based literature you'd think they'd have covered every conceivable topic by now and could have a dozen or so Bethelites churn out copies of what they already have written. They wouldn't need millions of dollars worth of properties to house factory workers and a farm to raise food to feed all of them. The Bible hasn't changed....why do they need to keep updating the way it is explained ?

2

Readers of the simplified edition will not live forever!

by processor in

jw
friends

isn't that what the covers are indicating?.

the regular cover:.

the simplified cover:.

exwhyzee

They have to reel them in one step at a time. No sense scaring them off by introducing the concept of living forever until you've first hooked them with the notion that they are God's mouthpiece.

Full Fledge JW's bought into the idea of living forever and don't know how to function without that hope even if they on some level know it's not going to happen. They need constant reminders to keep the fantasy alive.

16

Another encounter with JW at my door this morning.

by jam in

i posted an encounter with a elder a few months ago.. we had a lengthy conversation.

he knew i was once.

a elder, served where the need was great , etc.

exwhyzee

I forget to mention, she was A JW in 1975, so when she said friends moved ahead in the preaching work at the time I stop her and told her I was there. We preach what we was told to preach, you know that. Then she said. yes wehad to adjust our thinking.

Yes...we did indeed have to adjust our thinking only because we were thinking that what they told us was accurate and true. We trusted them and banked our entire future on the premise that they were being instructed by God. It's difficult if not impossible to move ahead in the preaching work with the same courage of ones convictions after you've been duped so badly time and time again. Think of the countless hours and millions of pieces of literature spread throughout the world (much of it is still out there ) containing their old and incorrect teachings and all the people who were turned away from God and religion after reading the Watchtower literature and recognizing it for what it is....more man made dogma masquerading as the ultimate truth of the world. More individuals willing to sacrafice their lives and the lives of their children to prove how right they are.

15

Conquering A JW Fear

by EmptyInside in

jw
friends

i'm watching a creepy movie.

in my jw days,i would label it demonized.

don't ask me how a movie can be demonized,but it can.. but,i must confess,i am still superstitious about such things.

exwhyzee

I grew up in the 80's where it was the Witness past time to tell "demon" stories.

Seems to me the "Demons" (if they even exist) would love nothing more than to hear a bunch of JW's sitting around talking about all their scary misdeeds. What's the difference if you watch a movie that shows what demons supposedly are capable of, or if you sit around listening to stories about what they did?

As a Kid, I used to question the reasoning that if I watched a scary movie, I'd be inviting demons in, yet all the kids in my school used to dress up as monsters and celebrate halloween every year or play with Ouija boards and never had a problem.

7

If the whole world was disfellowshipped

by Quarterback in

jw
friends

just think about it.

if the whole world were df'd ....the preaching work would stop..

exwhyzee

In order for the whole world to be DF'd, the whole world would first have had to have been baptized . One only has to read a few of the magazine articles to realize that the whole "world" has been "Publically Reproved" but are are considered to be in better standing with God, than someone who once was a Witness but left for whatever reason.

18

That one good friend

by ballistic in

recently i have an obsession with past times, i guess it's called middle aged or old aged, anyway.. i'm sure anybody out there remembers people from their childhood or growing up and thinks not a lot about it.. i remember some good jw buddies and here's an ode to them.. i met one outside a local cafe, and we stopped and looked at each other for 45 seconds, or what seemed like forever.

because we lived in each others pockets and we got on so well.

we would sit at our ibm 286 pcs and play wing commander to the late hour, and there was no internet.

exwhyzee

It's great to run into an old friend such as the one you describe. You sort of just pick up where you left off as if the years were just a comma in a long running conversation.

You aren't often able to make friends like that as you get older. Theres only a certain number of years when you are an open book and have time to invest in forming close relationships. More is the pity (for me anyway) that our opportunities to make friends was limited to whomever happend to be in the same kingdom hall we attended. More often than not, there were very few to choose from....and anybody we liked from say, school or work was off limits and we certainly didn't know anybody from a sports team or club.

Most people I work with have a lifetime of friends they've gathered from school, work, clubs, sports, church or friends of friends, that stuck with them through all their liffe's changes. They weren't required by the authorities at their old school, job or club or by their mutual friends, to drop them because they changed their view of religion.