Posts by respectful

26

Did you suffer humiliating childhood experiences as a JW?

by yadda yadda 2 in

in john cedar's (jwsurvey.org) latest excellent article on his blog about a us teacher that got reprimanded for trying to force a jw boy to salute the american flag, he relates a similar childhood experience where he was terribly humiliated at school in view of his classmates.. this reminded me of a similar humiliating experience i suffered at school, when i was 11 years old.

during our school's end of year 'prom night' (not actually called that in the country i live) which was in the style of a disco night, my unbalanced jw mother came to pick me up early and stormed right into the hall and grabbed my arm and pulled me out in front of all my friends right in the middle of the dancing.

on the way out she gave the teachers a lecture about the music being far too loud and how unwholesome the whole thing was for children of my age.

respectful_observer

Ugh...where do I start.

- In grade school my music teacher HATED Witnesses and took every opportunity to announce to the class that I would not be able to sing a particular song.

- I, like many of you, remember being dismissed to the school library whenever:

- a fellow student had a birthday party

- whenever a holiday party was held

- whenever a holiday movie was watched.

The librarian and I became good friends.

- I once had a teacher practically drag me out of the gym during a school assembly in front of the entire school because I wasn't standing for the National Anthem.

A few years after I graduated, my parents (not "raised in the truth") were only ever self-employed after they coverted. After they recently both got jobs working for other companies, they expressed how "hard" it was to explain their stance on holidays, etc. to their co-workers-- they'd never really had to do that before and they were afraid of making our beliefs sound weird.

I laughed a bit (too) sarcastically and said to them, "Seriously?!?! YOU think it's awkward and hard? You DO realize that I had face at 5 years old, what you're now facing at 55, right?? As a 5 year old, I had to try to explain why I couldn't celebrate any holiday, any birthday, watch certain movies. I had to explain at 12 years old why I couldn't go to dance or play sports, or at 18, why I couldn't go to the prom. You celebrated Christmas when you were a kid, you played sports, you went to school dances. You honestly have no clue what it was like for us growing up, do you? For once, you can't sit here as a parent and say 'I was there once too', because you weren't!"

They had this look wash over them as they realized I was right. They were struggling with their first minor "test" as middle-aged adults and finally got a tiny taste of what our entire childhoods were like...and they knew it was just a tiny taste compared to what we went through as small children and it suddenly hit them like a ton of bricks.

37

WT's 2 BOE Letters Flip-Flop!

by JW GoneBad in

everyone knows about the recent across-the-board okay to use electronic devices in jw worship.

few, though, know about how not long ago it was considered a taboo.. first, there was that dc talk a couple of years back where they nearly demonized simply the ownership of a smart phone, ipads (i phones, blackberries, etc) let alone the use of them at meetings.

they brought out that they were a waste of time, expensive and that they exposed a christian to satan's world on the internet.

respectful_observer

27

Announcement: Schools for Couples and Single Brothers replaced by School for 'everyone'

by dropoffyourkeylee in

i know this was noted earlier:.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/266186/3/the-big-announcement-this-week#.uoaoe_yo5dg.

but it was officially announced today that the school for couples and the school for single brothers were being combined with the new twist that single sisters would be allowed also.

respectful_observer

The "upside" to this change is that now all the single pioneer sisters have a new place to meet a "spiritual" single pioneer brother. As long as they allow the single sisters and single brothers to attend the same class sessions, I can see this turning into one big speed dating event.

66

A new start? Watchtower renaming at HQ Columbia Heights

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

friends,.

who was in any doubt that our jw believe is a marketing model, see this pictures of the still existing hq of jw at columbia heights.. earlier comments on jwn that something is going to change in the organisation, these comments are true.. in a few years we will not talk about the watchtower society, we wil talk about jw.org.

i think the current leadership will make a transfer to a new start.

respectful_observer

This could be unhelpful to the WT. Re-branding usually makes the Public ask, "why was the re-branding necessary?"

Except for the fact that 99.5% of "the public" doesn't think about, care about, or have any awareness of what the WTS is or does!! (Much to the surprise of the GB I'm sure.)

30

My decision to openly greet df persons in the hall

by Daniel1555 in

jw
friends

at the moment i am still going to all the meetings (for family reasons).. we have at the moment 1 df person who regularly comes (already df for 1.5 years).. when i opened him the door i always greeted him but in the hall i didn't as others could see it.. now i decided that my conscience can not bear this any longer.

i will greet him also in the hall or when others are around.. if any elders notice it and talk to me, i tell them my conscience does not allow to not greet that person.. did any of you do that too and have some experiences?.

respectful_observer

We once had a situation where there were several teens/early 20s who were all disfellowshipped and attending meetings. They all sat together and gave each other friendly greetings when they arrived then stayed after the meeting ended and had normal conversations together. The elders had a mini-freak out since they weren't skulking around in silence like a repentant DF'd person is expected to, but techinically no one was breaking any rules. The elders finally decided that since visitors might not realize they were DF'd because they would be seen as acting normally with those around them, it could cause a stumbling block and raise questions about whether they were truely repentant.

15

Are JW's using different terminology for "congregation discipline"?

by booker-t in

jw
friends

i have been out for over 20 years now and sometimes i run into a young jws on the street and the language seems to be "greek" to me.

i have a hard time understanding what they are talking about.

when i was in(90s) they had 4 catergories for congregation discipline.

respectful_observer

As an aside, I always find it amusing HOW the announcement is made. Even if the person already on stage is an elder, they do this whole "dog and pony show" of saying: "Br. So-and-so has an additional announcement." followed by one elder leaving the stage and another elder coming up to make the DF announcement, then leaving so the other elder can return to the stage and continue with his Service Meeting part.

I never understood why they couldn't just have the elder who had the next part make the announcement. It seems like unnecessary dramatics.

14

why using a tablet at the platform during the meeting?

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

i can't understand why the governing body aka fds has to deside about using a tablet by the speaker at the platform.. why using a tablet anyway at the platform?.

just a toy to keep the youth inside the congregation.. gorby.

respectful_observer

I'm in the same camp as XBEHERE. It's so much easier to just bring ONE thing with you to the meeting...no Bible, no song book, no WT, no KM, no Jeremiah book, etc., etc...

EDIT: To Gorby's question as to why the GB even has to be involved in "allowing" tablets to be used is a bigger question for me. After all, using tablets in worship was actively encouraged under the Mosaic Law...even if Moses did manage to break the first couple he got.

Some might think that type of rule making is a bit Pharisaical.

27

Use Of Electronic Tablets At Meetings

by Brother Mike in

i do.. what does the soceity actually say about them?

(i know some the members of the gb use them) .

what do you think about using them at meetings?

respectful_observer

Tablets are used quite liberally in my congregation. As far as I know, the only "rule" (albeit via a branch letter to the elder body which was not read to the congregation) was that tablets are currently banned from use on the stage so that the Friends TM don't feel pressured to go out and buy one.

Example: the only time my school overseer DOESN'T use his tablet is when he's conducting the TMS.

49

Conspiracy theories.

by chrisuk in

i'd just like the opions of some of the more clear thinking member on this please:.

let me just start this by saying i don't really buy into conspiracy theories, but sometimes they seem to make sense, i suppose that's the point of them.

all this business with edward snowden seems to add a little more weight to certain conspiracy theories.

respectful_observer

If the Watchtower IS a conspiracy, it's certainly not a very successful one...considering they have only fooled less than 0. 05% of the world's population.

71

ELDERS STEPPING DOWN

by ADJUSTMENTS in

between two congregations that i know of four elders have stepped down in the last two months!

there is something really going on in this mandmade organization!

it's busting at the seams!.

respectful_observer

The long-serving CoBE of my aunt's hall very recently stepped down of his own free will. Without going into details, he's not the only appointed brother in the hall who will likely be on this forum at some point-- if he isn't already.

respectful_observer

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