does anyone know if the society has specific policies on the handling of members with mental health problems?.
my grandfather, a brother in good standing since moses developed paranoid schizophrenia in his later years.
he got to the stage where he would knock people over in the street, place his hand on thier head and cast out evil spirits in the name of jehovah.. he was disfellowshiped and not long after he passed away.. this was related to me by a friend years later as i was unaware due to the shunning, i didn't even know he died.
Talk about having three fingers aiming back at you, every time you point a finger at somebody else!
What else can you say about the hypocrisy of a group that brands ex-members as "mentally diseased", while itself having a mental illness rate significantly higher than the population in general?
The cynical could perhaps describe it as being a case of "it takes one to know one."
Bill
i believe that in every hall there are a number of weird jws.. we had some that were (and still are) 65 year old mama's boys.
they never got married, weren't gay, just weird.. we had old brother stevenson that used to yell at everyone if they didn't accept a book!.
we had our share of weird elders that were always looking into world events and saying this proves bible prophecy--when in fact, it had nothing to do with it!.
To start with, I don't think that the JW's theology & way of life would appeal much to anybody, unless they already had some sort of emotional issues.
Then, for the reasons that outsmartthesystem has listed above, these problems are only added to once a person commences Choosing the Best Way of Life - as one of their late 1970s books described the Witness way of life as being!
Bill.
this weekend at our special assembly day, let gods will take place the final talk was a head shaker.... the bethel speaker was quite entertaining when he joked @ the shortcomings of the elders.
he also made us laugh with the comment "we were told the end of the system is right around the corner, but we've found its been more than that, we've been around the blocks a few times.
" he told the young ones to make the truth their own by researching in the wtbts publication (only).
For many years where I lived in the 1980s, we used to have to travel for half a day just to attend one of those "Special Talks."
Increasingly over the years, many of us were left feeling "did we travel all this way just to hear that" :
- but this "Special Talk" would have surely taken the biscuit!
Bill.
as most of us here are aware the wt society is using the " kool-aid " , or witness only version as i call it - to indoctrinate and intimidate jw members through fear and guilt to avoid anything that takes their devotion and attention away from allegiance to the wt society's ambitions.
so the wt society is amping up it's control methods once again in various articles in this issue as well.. first off - notice this quote from page 14 , paragraph 16 , regarding how " dangerous " allegedly the internet is.
it states, " these desires ( of the world ) involve such things as promiscuity, prominence , and possessions.
Despite what some JWs might try to say about the WTS's stand on higher education, nothing at all has changed:
- the only "freedom" the JW's R&F have in this matter is the freedom to do what they are told!
Bill.
i suppose its a little late to ask this and i never got it even as a jw, but:.
can someone please explain what the whole 144,000 thing is about?
has god only saved a certain group of people?
So much for the WTS's insistence that small children must be dragged along to all the meetings, assemblies etc.
TimothyT's experiences here only demonstrate that most of it goes clean over their heads!
Bill.
sorry if this has been asked before but i would love to know the current ratio on this forum.. i'm a believer/christian former jw for 45 years... born in .
what are you now and what were you?.
.
The expression "Totally Religioned Out" would best describe my position - although I do still try to keep an open mind toward those occurrences that cannot be explained in any other way but spiritual.
Bill.
in my interactions with jw males guarding the kh entrance or with the various males my study conductor would bring to our study (one i later found out was considered a "heavy," meaning he was supposedly really good at answering tough questions), i notice they stare intensely at me and i start fumbling my words.
in one case, i went to a different kh where no one knew me and got the same stare at the door.
is this stare deliberate, and if so, what is behind it?
The only "stare" I have ever observed amongst the JWs is the famous (or infamous?) "Thousand Yard Stare":
-i.e. the one typically displayed by those who have had to handle more stimuli than they can reasonably cope with in a given period of time.
Bill.
while cruising through the oct 1 1904 watctower i found this interesting challenge to russells 606 date.
his response in part is also pasted from the wt, but goes on to a very lengthy argument that seems to avoid all the known facts.
not being very good at understaning the issue at all, i wonder what those here more scholarly than i might make of his full reply.
Further to this, when the realisation hit that there was no "year zero", the date for Jerusalem's destruction was put back a year, from 606 to 607 BCE :
- but the date for the end of "The Times of the Gentiles" was still left fixed at 1914 CE, regardless.
Talk about creative accounting!
Bill.
21 days to go!.
whos looking forward to it?.
any kiwis here on this board?.
Ireland 15, Australia 6
In this World Cup ( or any other one, for that matter) take nothing for granted!
In many ways, this win for Ireland has been 20 years in the making:
- does anybody else here remember their 17 - 16 loss to Australia in the 1991 World Cup?:
- or am I betraying my age in saying that?
Bill.
excerpt:.
does your religion affect your income?by mari cockerell, ktxs newsabilene, texas -- the pew forum on religion and public life recently put out the results of a survey on wealth and religion in the united states.. you may be surprised to learn which religious groups in this country have the most and the least wealthy members.an infographic produced by the folks at www.good.is breaks down information gathered by the pew forum on religion and wealth.
it maps out distribution of income for the 14 major religious groups in this country, charting those whose income is less than $30,000 a year all the way up to $100,000+.. what they found is interesting.the religions whose members earn the most money are jews and hindus.
In placing the JWs at the bottom of the "socio-economic pile", this survey's results are consistent with those of any other such survey that I have ever heard of.
Given the WTS's downer on education, should this in any way be surprizing?
Just the same, I wonder how it would have come over if the JWs had scored high in one of these socio-economic surveys? i.e. would they then be under criticism for trying to worship both God and money?
- bearing in mind that there is no pleasing some people!
Bill.
