Posts by JWD

22

Episodes of Craziness

by JWD in

jw
friends

over the last ten years or so i`ve seen and heard things which when.

looked at objectively can only be termed `craziness`.however, in some.

cases these episodes of craziness might be viewed as wonderful testimonies to a strong commitment to jahovah.

It`s always seemed strange to me that you can eat cake,lite candles
and give people presents 364 days a year, but not on the day they
were born. If it`s such an evil thing to do shouldn`t it be wrong
to do at any time? I mean is it okay to kill people on some days and
not others? Can you steal on certain days, but not on others? Does
real SIN change with the calender. Here in Japan it is common for
JWs to go out of their way to do something special for someone NEAR
their birthday, but not ON it!! Maybe former President Clinton joined
the Governing Body to help them decide when `celebration` is not
really celebration !!

One more uniquely Japanese episode of craziness. In Japan at New Years time people say `Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu`, which means
something like `A new year has opened, congradulations!` For several
days after January 1st every living soul in Japan says that when they meet someone, so naturally, the organization forbids JWs to say it.
They claim that it has overtones of `idolatry` hah!! (It was probably
the same brilliant Japanese scholar who massacred the Japanese version
of the NWT who came up with that idea). Anyway, since the person has
to respond when someone says ,`Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu`,they say
something which is completely out of place. They say `Kyonen Osewa Ni
Narimashita` which means I was very indebted to you last year. By
substituting one set phrase for the usual set phrase they feel like
they have been faithful to Jehovah. It`s a joke. The only thing it
does is make people feel awkward and out of place by making them say
something which makes them stand out as being a bit odd.
Just more craziness...!!! JWD

22

Episodes of Craziness

by JWD in

jw
friends

over the last ten years or so i`ve seen and heard things which when.

looked at objectively can only be termed `craziness`.however, in some.

cases these episodes of craziness might be viewed as wonderful testimonies to a strong commitment to jahovah.

JWD

Another episode of craziness.

Episode #6

Here in Japan there is a custom called `Otoshidama`.It is the custom
of giving a small envelope with money in it to children at or around
New Years. The whole New Years festival is considered by Japanese JWs
to have religious overtones, so most New Years related customs are
boycotted. The `Otoshidama` custom is avoided by most JWs. Then one
day I heard about sister `M`.She had 3 children who were of the
`Otoshidama`(envelope with money in it) receiving age, so when New
Years rolled around relatives came and gave them the little envelopes
with money in it. Normally, people reciprocate by giving the same type
of envelopes with money to the children of others, but sister `M` did
not. When asked by her non-JW husband why she didn`t give any
`Otoshidama` to the children of their relatives, she said it would
mean being involved with a `pagan custom` and wasn`t permitted for
JWs. So, the husband asked,`If that`s the case then why are you letting our children receive `Otoshidama`?` To which the wife replyed
`If others want to involve themselves with the pagan custom, it`s not
for me to stop them`. Thus she felt no qualms about allowing her kids
to receive the `Otoshidama` money while maintaining at the same time
that giving it would be a compromise...? Figure that one out. JWD

22

Episodes of Craziness

by JWD in

jw
friends

over the last ten years or so i`ve seen and heard things which when.

looked at objectively can only be termed `craziness`.however, in some.

cases these episodes of craziness might be viewed as wonderful testimonies to a strong commitment to jahovah.

JWD

Over the last ten years or so I`ve seen and heard things which when
looked at objectively can only be termed `Craziness`.However, in some
cases these episodes of craziness might be viewed as wonderful testimonies to a strong commitment to Jahovah. After much thought I`ve
chosen to view these incidents as odd, un-natural... crazy. I could
give names and dates of the following incidents, but for the sake of
privacy, I won`t. Read them and judge for yourself if you think they
represent `Normal` conduct. And if you have similar episodes to pass
along, well, feel free.

Episode#1
A young lady who was receiving opposition for attending meetings at
the local KH learned to devise ways to get to the meetings.She would
say,`I`m going shopping` and then head off for the KH before her
husband noticed.On one occasion she went into the bathroom and crawled
out the window and scurried off to the Kingdom Hall.After her husband
realized that she had gone, he followed her to the Hall and after
convincing the bros. to let him in asked where his wife was.Everyone
pretended that they didn`t know.The husband went to the bathroom
where his wife was hiding in one of the stalls.Two sisters were standing guard on either side of the stall.They lied and told the husband that she wasn`t there. Perhaps they were thinking of Rahab?

Episode #2
The husband of Sister `H`, who had been in the Truth for 18 years,
started to collect books which were critical of the WT.In the
beginning he tried to talk to the sister about the information in
the books, but she invariably refused to listen,so he gave up.One
day after work he came home to find his wife making a bonfire in
their front lawn. She had pulled out all the books and critical
literature which he had collected and piled it in front of the
house in his absence and started a fire. Perhaps it was a burnt
offering to Jehovah? Ironically, shortly before that the WT had
run an article which talked about the intolerance of the Catholic
church in medevil Europe and included an illustration of them
burning books with opposing views.

Episode #3
One Sister `Y` was confronted by her husband with a book which had
been written by a journalist exposing problems within the WT.Sister
`Y` took the book and tore it into tiny pieces and scattered the
pieces of paper like confetti all over the house.

Episode #4
When Brother `K` told his elder that his parents had made him watch
a video which criticized the org.,the elder asked him WHY HE DIDN`T
THROW THE T.V. OUT THE WINDOW!

Episode #5
The grade school daughter of one sister brought a cake home from
school.It was a round cake.Fearing that it was a birthday cake the
sister decided to cut of the round edges and make it into a square
cake! After doing so, she declared that it was okay to eat it now
because it was no longer a birthday cake ...???

Have any other episodes you`d like to pass on...? JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

Don`t know if I mentioned in but the org. has built several assembly
halls throughout Japan. On at least one occasion, they kept the plans
very secret and even listed the project as something other than what
it was so that the local people didn`t get wind of it before they got
under way. The reason is very likely the fact that on many occasions
there have been grass-roots level community movements to keep the JWs
out of their town. On one of those occasions, things got carried away
and the locals used speaker cars to `harrass` the JWs during meetings.
It ended in a law suit claiming that the locals were interupting the
local congregations freedom of religion rights. The part of the incid-
ent which isn`t spoken about among the JWs is the fact that the congregation had promised not to build a KH in that small town, but
later reniged on the promise and built it anyway.That really got the
local people pretty hot.

JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

OutNFree,

The form which you described is the same as the Japanese one I
refered to. I also received an e-mail from the Japanese doctor
friend of mine who is very informed on the JW blood issue. The
e-mail said that he has a copy of the Japanese directive on blood
in front of him and although formated to fit Japanese law, it is
essentially the same content as the one used in America.

On another totally different subject there was some interesting
legal manuvering of late. The WT brought an official complaint
before the national board for lawyers (Nichibenren). It was a
request for the lawyers to officially chastize a protestant minister
who has been heavily involved in exit-counseling JWs. At times the
families have cohersed their JW family member to stay and listen to
the pastor even when they didn`t want to. A well known university professor sided with the pastor saying that since `cultists` were
trained to listen to NO critical information, in some cases families are justified in using extreme measures to try to inform their loved one with information outside the Watchtower. The pastors lawyers
filed a counter-complaint against the WT demanding that they tell their believers to `listen to the arguements of concerned families` in the name of freedom of information. It will be very interesting to see what kind of official statement is issued by the national lawyer`s board (Nichibenren). The opinions they render carry a lot of weight here in Japan. However, legal matters move very slowly,so it could be a couple of years before any action is taken. If something happens I`ll let you know. JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

Sorry I haven`t got back to you regarding the `No-Blood` card.After
logging off last time I pulled it out of my drawer and looked over it
again.It is a 4- page 8 by 10 inch document which I believe is to be
folded and put in the case which JWs here wear around their neck.It
has a 4 page explanation accompaning it.Both of those documents contain much medical terminology.I contacted an aquaintance of mine
who is a doctor and is very familiar with the JW blood issue.He is
a Japanese man.I asked him to comment directly on this board and
trust he will in the near future. If that`s not possible, I will try
to give a synopsis of the contents. I`ll get back to this subject
later. Thanx for your patience. JWD

93

Position on College Changed?

by Maximus in

jw
friends

several have made outright statements and others have suggested that the society's negative position on higher education has changed.

'the society does not discourage higher education where i live.

' worse, 'apostates have made it all up--the society has never discouraged education.

JWD

Let me interject another thought about why the org. is down on higher
education.Without a doubt all the comments regarding learning to
think critically,etc. are the heart of the matter.But, I think there
is another facet which is much more practical.That`s the area of free
labor. Most of the work involved in running a printing operation are
skills which can be learned on the job.What the organization needs
more than anything else is young, strong, submissive, FREE labor.
Free labor is without a doubt the key to the orgs. existence.It allows
them to be financially successful regardless of what happens to the
economy at large.

For 7 years I worked in the printing field in a couple of companies
in the Midwest. By far the greatest cost is labor cost. The materials
involved in making a book or magazine only comprise about 10% of the
cover costs.The remainder of costs are labor and sales.If you could
get rid of labor costs, well, any company could succeed famously.
(In the case of the WT distribution costs and advertising costs are
virtually non-existence and sales are guaranteed.A situation which
doesn`t exist in the real world). The upshot of all that is lots of
disposable income available to be used to increase the `Kingdom`
i.e. new real estate and buildings.The growing physical presence of
the WT organization itself lends creedence to the mantra `Jehovah is
blessing us.` But,it`s not Jehovah`s blessing...it`s free labor.

I saw a very similar situation in another religious organization
which I became very familiar with.I`m not free to mention the name,
but this organization was set up structurally very much like Bethel.
They also had a large publishing/printing branch which was staffed
with communal living free labor.For years this organization was very
successful.It was always said to be `God`s blessing`.Then one day
due to tax laws and various internal pressures they changed the
system and started hiring people,setting up pension plans,etc.In
short, they began to operate responsibly towards their workers and
the result was... corporate savings were eaten up and assets had to
be sold off to maintain operations. For nearly 30 years they had
attributed financial success to God`s blessing, but when they started
to actually pay workers...suddenly the `blessings` dried up.

I personally believe that the strongest single dynamic driving WT
policy is MONEY and the thing the organization fears more than any-
thing, even more than `apostates` is TAXES and new laws affecting
operations.

Just my thoughts...feel free to comment. JWD

93

Position on College Changed?

by Maximus in

jw
friends

several have made outright statements and others have suggested that the society's negative position on higher education has changed.

'the society does not discourage higher education where i live.

' worse, 'apostates have made it all up--the society has never discouraged education.

JWD

Auntie Lindy,

It was probably one of my pieces about the situation here in Japan that you are refering to.I mentioned that the headquarters in Ebina
had developed a legal dept. lately and two of the five lawyers on
staff were second generation JWs.One of them is the son of an elder.
He is absolutely horrible as a lawyer (I`ve seen him in action in the
court room on several occasions).He sounds like an overgrown boy
reading from a pre-written WT script.The other JW lawyer is somewhat
better.
I believe these two guys are an exception and more precisely an
example of double-standards in the organization.

One elder who was in for over 40 years worked as a public school
teacher.Prior to 1975 he and his wife donated a large sum of money to
be used for KH building in view of the fact that the end was so near.
Despite that fact when he decided to send his children away to college
he was berated as a `bad example` and removed from eldership.

One other interesting incident involving the education matter here
in Japan had to do with child custody.A man in western Japan,living
in Shimane prefecture got divorced from his JW wife.They had a legal
battle over the custody of the children and the fight went all the
way to the supreme court of Japan.The final verdict gave the father
custody of the children and stated that the wife`s religion was a
detriment to the welfare of the children.It is very,very rare for a
father to win custody in Japan.

JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

I`ll get on it today or tomorrow... JWD

93

Position on College Changed?

by Maximus in

jw
friends

several have made outright statements and others have suggested that the society's negative position on higher education has changed.

'the society does not discourage higher education where i live.

' worse, 'apostates have made it all up--the society has never discouraged education.

JWD

The Japanese June Kingdom Ministry had the same insert and the same
article about higher education. Sounds like they need more free
labor to insure Jehovah`s continued blessing... JWD