Posts by respectful

120

Why do the GB need a new Bethel compound if the end is so close? Here is the "official" answer

by sir82 in

jw
friends

as most of us know, the society is spending 10's of millions of dollars on a giant, state of the art, secluded bunker country club headquarters in very remote, isolated warwick ny.. the question that "some" have is, why?

if armageddon is coming "very soon", why go to all that time & effort & expense?

why have thousands of jws dedicating their time to this massive effort instead of the "lifesaving ministry"?.

respectful_observer

I see the Manhattan skyline, and I know that it is all going to be utterly destroyed.

That reminds me of Anthony Morris speaking at a DC a few years ago. He kept going on and on about how he looked forward to standing of the roof at Bethel and "looking out and seeing the entire Manhattan skyline in flames." He was literally cackling with anticipation and glee at the idea. My better half looked at me and said "does he realize that there are people here who had friends and relatives that died on 9/11? How insensitive can you be? And HE'S on the Governing Body?"

Why not build far away from there, and we'll have beautiful buildings which we can continue to use after Armageddon?"

Doesn't he mean "...and YOU'LL have beautiful buildings which YOU can use after Armageddon?" After all, he'll be comfortable in his new heavenly assignment by then. (I wonder how many Bethel points you would need to be next in line for his old room?)

R_O

35

Interview of a sister - Friday morning at the District Convention

by Red Piller in

from my memory and shortened for highlights [my comments in brackets.

i found the whole interview astonishing]:.

"sister x-, you've been a baptized servant of jehovah since 1972.. you must have seen a lot since that time".

respectful_observer

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.

Adolf Hitler

....................................

"...make it simple..." That's where they went wrong. "Overlapping generations" isn't simple; it defies logic and common sense.

35

Interview of a sister - Friday morning at the District Convention

by Red Piller in

from my memory and shortened for highlights [my comments in brackets.

i found the whole interview astonishing]:.

"sister x-, you've been a baptized servant of jehovah since 1972.. you must have seen a lot since that time".

respectful_observer

Yup, pretty much the same interview happened at my DC as well. The person sitting next to me leaned over and mumbled under their breath: "What is this, the 3rd assembly in a row where they've trotted someone out to state they finally understand the overlapping generation? Maybe they wouldn't have to keep doing this if it actually made sense."

I just gave them a sympathetic "I know, but what can you do" look.

R_O

31

What Is The "Typical" Elder In The Organization Like Now?

by minimus in

jw
friends

when i was an elder, most of the elders were pretty independent 40 to 80 year olds.

they had no issue speaking up to the circuit overseer.

i wonder what the average elder is like now.

respectful_observer

I had a friend who was reproved and had not heard from the elders for over a year. The CO visit was a week away and they hurried up and had a meeting and gave him back all of his privileges.

I've seen this EXACT thing happen before. The Judicial Committee ends with reproof and promises from the elders that they will work to help the person rebuild spiritually through service arrangements, shepherding calls, etc. These promises are followed by complete radio silence for a year, then....WHAMMO!...the person miraculously gets all their privileges back the week before the CO's visit. The last time I saw this happen, the person had been approached by one of the elders (on his committee no less!) who expressed how much he missed hearing his comments at the meetings. When he responded that he missed having the privilege of commenting, the elder gave this puzzled look, followed by a flash of realization across his face. At the next meeting they pulled him aside and let him know he had gotten all his privileges back.

My experience is that 60-70% of elders are actually pretty cool, work hard, sacrifice a lot to serve the congregation, try to do the right thing, and aren't uptight about a lot of stuff. 10-15% of elders are obnoxious ego maniacs, and 10-15% are so clueless and out of step that they don't know the names of half the publishers and might not be able to tell you what book is even being studied at the Congregation Bible Study.

Of course what tends to happen is that certain congregations will often "breed" like-minded elders. That can be great when they're laid back and reasonable, but a complete nightmare when they act like a bunch of self-righteous, entitled, dictatorial d-bags.

R_O

7

Radiolab Episode: Blood

by enigma1863 in

jw
friends

i was listening to an episode of radiolab on blood.

i thought the last section would be interesting to jws.

its about the big business of selling blood.

respectful_observer

1. I love Radio Lab.

2. Did they talk about what percentage of blood donations go to which uses? I once read/heard that something like 75%+ of donated blood is used for uses other than transfusions (anti-venom, vaccines, etc.). Back when this was fresher in my mind I would occassionally mention it to other JWs and follow it up with something like "does that mean JWs could donate blood if it was guaranteed your blood was being used for pharmaceutical purposes, and not transfusions?" Their response was always funny to watch, because if they say "no", they sound like a selfish idiot because they would/can except any of the products derived from all that donated blood; if they say "yes", it would be tantamount to accepting a straight blood transfusion in many JW's eyes.

R_O

23

Long serving pioneer no longer has hours quota to stay on the list...

by NVR2L8 in

jw
friends

a family member visited us this past weekend and said that my 80 years old mother was recently told she no longer has to meet the annual hour quota to remain on the pioneer list.

"what a loving provision from the brothers" were my sister's exact words.

"mom was so stressed out with having to get her hours in every month" are you freaking kidding me?

respectful_observer

NVR2L8, I did that once before too. It was some special campaign for something-or-other years back. Everyone kept asking each other "are you pioneering this month?" I always replied "no," yet was out in service almost every day. When the end of the month came, several people asked "I thought you said you weren't going to pioneer! What made you change your mind??"

"I didn't change my mind. I didn't pioneer this month."

"But you must have gotten over 60 hours!"

"Yeah, I did."

"Well then why didn't you fill out the slip to pioneer?"

"Did I need permission from someone to go out for over 60 hours?"

"Well, no but...."

"I just enjoy being out with the friends. I don't need a title to feel good about doing it."

If they tried the "it would be encouraging to the congregation" my retort was "are you saying that it wasn't encouraging to have me out in service with you this past month??"

It was always fun to sit back and watch those rusty gears try to turn that one over in their minds.

"PIONEER" The only title handed out by the WTS that enables you to do exactly what every single other JW on the planet can do if they want.

23

Long serving pioneer no longer has hours quota to stay on the list...

by NVR2L8 in

jw
friends

a family member visited us this past weekend and said that my 80 years old mother was recently told she no longer has to meet the annual hour quota to remain on the pioneer list.

"what a loving provision from the brothers" were my sister's exact words.

"mom was so stressed out with having to get her hours in every month" are you freaking kidding me?

respectful_observer

Hmmm...one might think that person is most concerned about retaining the title. And that wouldn't make any sense because Jehovah's Witnesses don't care about titles.

48

watchtower tones down apostate talk at august 3rd convention!

by nowwhat? in

no mention of them being mentally diseased or using "lies" to deceive god's people, just that they are out to attract followers for themselves!.

p.s.

i was cringing at the thought of sitting for 3 1/2 hours for the afternoon session but fortunately my one kid got sick!!

respectful_observer

The "Human Apostates" talk at my recent DC was very tame as well. The speaker did use the term "mentally diseased" once, but that's as severe as it got. Most of his points were tied to apostates trying to draw others to follow them.

Those Danish articles were interesting, especially the one where the JW statements were compared to Nazi party propeganda statements against the Jews. How ironic.

31

Baffling comment by my JW parents about non-witness funeral

by joyfulfader in

my parents attended the funeral of an elderly family member today.

being out of state i was unable to attend.

i asked how it went and was told that "worldly" people don't care enough about anyone to mention anything personal.

respectful_observer

Ugh...that reminds me of two recent funerals.

One was an elderly (non-JW) relative. After the funeral mass, one of my JW relatives got in the car and said "What a sad funeral. So impersonal! The priest only seemed to care about delivering the typical Catholic Mass." I responded "What are you talking about?! Sure, it was mass, but the priest spent almost 20 min talking about him, what kind of person he was, his family members. He spent more time talking about him than any JW memorial talk outline calls for. Aside from the mass, it was one of the nicest funeral talks I've heard!" That observation went over like lead balloon. They knew I was right, so they just clammed up and pouted all through the wake.

The other was a JW funeral. The sister died young, suddenly. Lots of co-workers attended the funeral talk, which predictably followed the JW "sales pitch". Afterward, an elder and his wife sitting next to me turned to one of her co-workers and said, "Wasn't that such a nice service?" The co-workers response: "Actually, I'm a little appalled. I knew she was a Jehovah's Witness, but what I liked so much about her is that she didn't preach to all of us at work, or force anything down our throats. I'm sure she'd be appalled that her church was trying to convert people at her own funeral! This is the most offensive funeral I've ever been to." The elder and his wife, blushed and quickly ended the conversation without disclosing they were Jehovah's Witnesses themselves.

22

Telling my wife that I would accept a blood transfusion

by Daniel1555 in

this is my first post here.. first a few details about myself.

i am 33, married, from switzerland and i have a little baby boy.

i am still a jehovah's witness and i am still attending the meetings.

respectful_observer

If you decide to go with Option #2, and you actually end up in a situation where you decide to accept blood for yourself or your son, you could always use the following line of reasoning (whether you actually feel this way is irrelevent):

"I love you/son soooo much, that I was willing to risk everlasting life for you. I realized that I wouldn't want to live forever if you weren't with me. And knowing that even if you were resurrected, we'd no longer be married was too much for my heart to bear."

and you could always tack on:

"And I couldn't live with myself if you/son died and a month, a year, 50 years later, the WTS suddenly said it was okay, just like they did with organ transplants."

Then your decision comes off as self-destructive selflessness rather than a rejection of Jehovah's the Governing Body's requirements.

R_O

respectful_observer

Posts by respectful_observer