Posts by Bungi Bill

2

Exhaustion Is The Key To Witness Faithfulness

by metatron in

jw
friends

i had occasion to do some work with some loyal, zealous witnesses recently and i can tell you that there still are some good people in this organization.. i can also tell you that i pity the exhausted, blind, and last-ditch fanatical nature of their faithfulness.

really, it's that continuing exhaustion that is the very key to the faithfulness of jehovah's witnesses.. exhaustion?

the average witness i know is overwrought, broke, physically sick or drained by taking care of someone else who is.

Bungi Bill

Excellent point, Metatron!

Physical exhaustion is a technique used by more than a few cults - both religious and political - as part of the indoctrination process.

I recall one such religious group, generally referred to as "Cooperites", after its founder, one Neville Cooper.

They had similarities with the Puritans of 17th Century England, and operated a business that was very much like a Collective Farm in the former Soviet Union.

All church members worked extended hours on this farm, using mainly manual techniques. (Why invest in a $100 000 machine, when there was a limitless amount of human labour available for nothing?).

Then, as if that were not enough, a 14 hour working day would be followed by a mind-numbing religious service lasting well into the night. (Does this not sound familiar!)

Physical exhaustion also used to advantage by some of the Communist regimes, and following the same pattern:

i.e.

- firstly a long working day to get everybody utterly exhausted.

- then after that, many hours of compulsory "political meetings," to complete the numbing of the mind.

Further to this, when I was in the Truth Lie, so many of the JWs seemed to have what is now identified as "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome." In 1990, it was calculated that five per cent of the publishers in our circuit had this condition.

Interestingly, in the sixteen years since I broke from the JWs, I have not known even one person who suffers from CFS.

Talk about "Jehovahs happy people"!

Bill

48

Former Jehovah's Witnesses..... becomes a Jewish Rabbi !

by koolaid-man in

jw
friends

former jehovah's witnesses,craig emswiller is now a jewish rabbi, and is speaking up on the dialogue progam today sat.

nov,27, 2010, 7pm est.

dialouge is hosted by former jehovah's witnesses presiding overseer and watchtower historian richard rawe.

Bungi Bill

How ones perceptions change with time and experience (most of it bad):

- there was a time when I would have thought "how could you?"

Now, nothing would surprise me anymore!

Bill.

68

Are most JW's window washers?

by SlipnSlide in

jw
friends

i have read this on this site and know some that do this type of work.

if most jw's are window washers, what other occupations are considered the type of jobs that a witless would have.

.

Bungi Bill

Around here, the JWs are also heavily represented in Pest Control work.

(A few - but not many - are like me: i.e. a busted a%s electrician).

Incredible as it now seems, there was a time when cleaning work did pay very good money.

I even know a non-JW who threw in his Engineering Diploma course to take up full-time cleaning contracts. Initially, he was working part time as a cleaner, to supplement his income while attending a Technical Institute. He ended up figuring he could make more money from cleaning contracts than what they were ever going to pay him as a diploma-qualified engineer.

(For the record, this same person now makes some sort of a living as a Gold Buyer - his cleaning contracts could not have worked out too well in the long term!)

Bill.

PS: Somebody has to do it, and I don't look down in contempt on any honest occupation. What is sad is the way all too many young JWs are presented with little choice as to what they will do for a living.

Myself, I have been a farmhand, truck driver, tractor driver, factory hand, cleaner, car park attendant, crane operator, bulldozer driver, timber worker, trades assistant - before waking up to myself (and the WTS bull#hi*) and managing to get into an adult apprenticeship. (The first apprenticeship prematurely ended when the elders told me to do so, during the pre-1975 hype!)

49

Name Something Good About Being A Jehovah's Witness

by minimus in

jw
friends

i've got one!.

you don't have to wait in long xmas lines at the store to buy xmas presents.

as a matter of fact, you don't have to buy a damn thing!.

Bungi Bill

The few things that I did benefit by from being a JW could have been obtained elsewhere - and for considerably less overall cost.

(Others may disagree, perhaps: - but it does not seem to make much sense to throw away your opportunities for a college education; and donate your retirement fund to the WTS; in return for "free" training in public speaking at the Ministry School!)

There are a lot of good people amongst the JWs, but no more than amongst the population in general. Certainly, the Witnesses don't have the monopoly on good people, as they seem to think they do. In recent years, I have met up once more with friends I had before "coming into the truth." This experience reminded me of the many excellent people I knew before I became a JW, and these days I am rather saddened that I fell for the WTS propaganda that all non-JWs ("worldly people") were automatically evil.

So yes, it is true enough - as far as it goes - to say that the JW experience did deliver certain benefits:

- the trouble is, it does not go far enough!

That is how the whole experience has affected me, anyway.

Bill.

7

Their heart does not appear to be in it.

by Bungi Bill in

jw
friends

all the jws that have called at my door over the last twelve years have appeared to be just going through the motions:.

- like they are merely (and only) fullfilling their obligations to record a reasonable in total in that column on the monthly field service report entitled "hours.".

the last lot actually seemed to be relieved that they had an excuse to disengage the enemy, and flee the field.

Bungi Bill

All the JWs that have called at my door over the last twelve years have appeared to be just going through the motions:

- like they are merely (and only) fullfilling their obligations to record a reasonable in total in that column on the Monthly Field service report entitled "Hours."

The last lot actually seemed to be relieved that they had an excuse to disengage the enemy, and flee the field.

(For the record., I generally confront them with their record of failed prophecy, and how they can therefore expect to be taken seriously).

Have others noted this:

- or are there still Jws about who enjoy a bloody good spar?

Bill.

14

Rutherford, "I made an ass of myself"

by Fatfreek in

.resurrected in 1925 to rule as princes over the earth.

(millions now living will never die, 1920, pp.

89-90) they failed to show up, of course, and rutherford quit predicting dates.

Bungi Bill

If Schnell, in his For Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave is to be believed, Rutherford knew years in advance that he was making an "ass" of him self.

i.e. he knew (and admitted) well in advance that 1925 was a lot of hocus pocus - but that it served its purpose in drawing attention to the WTS.

Furthermore, he claimed that the R&F could be distracted from disappointment "by selling the literature." (In that he was wrong - going by the massive falling away after 1925)

If proof were needed that all of us were manipulated by a multnational book selling company, this would have to be it!

Bill.

20

1975, generation change and New Light - the WTBTS position

by Nickolas in

the words below are taken from the latest version of the watchtower bible and tract society's history book.

it is a response i have received from a jehovah's witness to my questions about how the watchtower bible and tract society represented the year 1975 and recent changes in generation teaching.

beyond saying there are some interesting insights into the society's position on new light, i will withhold comment until i get some feedback from the board.. the bible itself says: do not interpretations belong to god?

Bungi Bill

The expression "If you can't Blind with Science, then try Baffling with Bull#*%t " comes to mind after reading their explanation of failed prophecy.

The WTS's idea of "New Light" is this:

- just a story they have had to concoct only after a promised date has come and gone;

- and it becomes obvious to even the dimmest of dimwits that the WTS was completely wrong.

(1914, 1915, ,1918, 1925, 1975; The Generation that saw the Beginning of the Time of The End, etc, etc, etc)

- then, they can always use Psalm 43:3 as the Catch-All scripture to cover their #%s.

(Never mind all the lives they have harmed in the process - people's welfare was never high up on the Watchtower Society's priority list).

This was actually the "final straw" for me in breaking with the JWs.

I felt that I was increasingly having to try and defend the indefensible

i.e. Failed Prophecy (not just once, either - repeated failure of prophecy) and then inventing a story after the event, which people were supposed to believe as being "New Light."

Bill.

PS: Most bible scholars - i.e. proper scholars (not the WTS psuedo kind) - interpret Psalm 43.3 quite differently to what N.H. Knorr, F.W. Franz & Co. did. They would argue strongly that this bible verse refers to an individual's spiritual development.

- not the Watchtower Society's attempts to talk itself out of the consequences of having been caught out lying!

33

Is it wrong of me to think of the GB, the Writing Department, Bethelites, Pioneers, as moochers, and leeching bloodsuckers?

by miseryloveselders in

jw
friends

i'm exhausted right now.

it's been a very long day.

both physically, and mentally, althought the latter otweighted the former by tons.

Bungi Bill

When I was a young married man, and the C.O. came around trying to kick our backsides into doing more "in the service", I would have tended to agree with you. Then , during the recession of the early 1990s, when we were all broke, and they wanted our money to build an assembly hall, I woiuld have upheld you all the way!

However, in the cold light of day as it is to me right now, I go along with Grandma Jones:

- i.e. these poor mugs are just another class of victims!

Bill.

P.S: Reality hits hard when you have a young family to support - and that is where I think the COs, DOs and GB are removed from reality.

42

Why did the WTBS endorse 1975?

by jay88 in

is it not true that the leaders knew that it was a blatant lie when the 1975 teaching was propagated in the 60's?.

Bungi Bill

The scary thing about that is the hearing voices is a classic symptom of schizophrenia:

(No to mention the fact that much of the drivel he spouted would be fitting of a schizophrenia sufferer!)

Sad enough under normal circumstances :

- outright disasterous, though, when so many believed him (and many deluded fools still do).

Bill.

42

Is the World really getting worse?

by Nickolas in

a fundamental platform of the watchtower bible and tract society, from which its fearsome prognostications are launched, is the inexorable deterioration of the world.

the world is becoming a less and less hospitable place in which to live.

it seems with news of every earthquake, every natural catastrophe, every epidemic, every atrocity, and every disaster manmade or otherwise, there is the inevitable shaking of the finger and stern proclamation, "see?

Bungi Bill

Schnell, in his For Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave, probably summed it up correctly when he stated that the WTS took advantage of the mass upheaval that followed WWI in Europe . This is the origin of the WTS's "things are getting worse and worse" dirge.

(As someone has already noted on this thread, it is as if events only in Europe count for anything, when the WTS raises this issue!)

Bill.