respectful_observer

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Posts by respectful_observer

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  31

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

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  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
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  7

  Radiolab Episode: Blood

  by enigma1863 in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  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
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  23

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

  by NVR2L8 in

  1. jw
  2. 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?

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  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.
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  23

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

  by NVR2L8 in

  1. jw
  2. 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?

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  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.
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  48

  watchtower tones down apostate talk at august 3rd convention!

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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!!

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  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.
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  31

  Baffling comment by my JW parents about non-witness funeral

  by joyfulfader in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  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.

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  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.
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  22

  Telling my wife that I would accept a blood transfusion

  by Daniel1555 in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  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.

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  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
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  40

  The more time I spend with "worldly people" the more I realize...

  by confusedandalone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ... that they actually have more of a desire to get to knoww you then jehovah's witnesses.

  for years at the kingdom hall although i was an elder everyone "knew of me" but no one knew me.

  i realized that i never really had a friend who knew anything about me as a person or my background.

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  respectful_observer

  Interesting observation, confusedandalone. I'd have to agree. When I saw your Topic line, though, this is what I expected to see (a bit of a derail, sorry):

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

  The more time I spend with "worldly people" the more I realize....

  ...that JWs are uniquely expert at putting in too little money on a group check at a restaurant. Go out with JWs...ALWAYS short, and not by a dollar or two. Go out with a group of non-JWs and everyone has kicked in WAY too much money. You practically have to force money back in people's hands.
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  37

  When "The Persecution" Comes - What a Let Down that turned out to be!

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  when i was young there was endless speculation about "the persecution".

  i have very clear memories as a child sitting in the old kingdom hall in coatbridge hearing it talked about from the platform.

  it was a frequent topic at home.. sometimes there was lurid detail about what sort of torture "they" might use against us to make us betray others.

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  respectful_observer

  I remember my father having two copies of the oh-so-precious Congregation Contact List (only elders were permitted to have it), listing all the friends' phone numbers and addresses. We were under strict orders that, if persecution were to suddenly break out and he was at work, it was our job to tear them up into little pieces and flush them down the toilet so the police would have a harder time tracking down the friends.

  I also recall having a reversable coat when I was young. I remember speculating how it would be that much easier to escape from the police out in service now that I had this fancy new coat.
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  42

  Why do all the COs have food intolerances/allergies/special dietary requirments?

  by Julia Orwell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's a well known phenomenon i've observed from jwn, my own cos. a new co we had once who was fresh from being a normal elder and after a couple of visits he said, "well i've finally become a true co...i now have food intolerances.".

  i mean, only once did my husband and i ever have a co around for dinner and they couldn't eat this, he couldn't eat that, she couldn't eat this...it was so hard to cook something with none of the zillions of things they were 'allergic' to.. and then after all that the wife couldn't come anyway because she had a naturopath appointment or something.. why do all co's seem to have weird dietary problems?.

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  respectful_observer

  I've been told by more than one CO that it's the only way they can have some semblance of control over their diet. When left to the their own devices, the friends TM will typically make that "special meal" with rich cream sauces, or will make the "budget" meal, which is typically some type of pasta dish. If they didn't give the friends some type of guidelines, they'd be putting on 20 lbs a year and need bypass surgery by 45.

  I can sympathize somewhat. When I have lunch meetings and conferences, they turn into carb fests. I've seen colleagues ask for a special gluten-free meal, only so they can take a break from the carbs.

  R_O