Bungi Bill

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Posts by Bungi Bill

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  27

  Awake!: For Idiots - Or Just Written By Them?

  by metatron in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  good grief!.

  how dumb can this future landfill waste magazine get?

  take a look at the march issue, "five keys to better health".

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  Bungi Bill

  Reading of the Awake magazine is said to give a person the equivalent of a university degree;

  - this could well be true, if that degree happened to be a Bachelor of Stupidity.

  Bill.
• 
  84

  Being honest with yourself, could you have reasonably adjusted your attitude and continued on as a JW?

  by miseryloveselders in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i ask this question in harmony with deedub's swan song thread which i linked below.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/205902/1/time-to-say-good-bye.

  to some degree, i think i understand where she's coming from.

  just speaking from my own experiences since stepping into the world of anonymous apostacy, i went through a few different phases of personal outlooks.

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  Bungi Bill

  That is the same as asking me if I was prepared to continue to try and defend the indefensible:

  - I broke with them when I was no longer prepared to forever live in their fantasy land.

  As regards a JW congregation doubling up as a de-facto social club, its membership fees proved very costly!

  Quoting Stevenson, in his 1975 - Year of Doom? "No religious group would demand as much from its members, in return for so little."

  Bill.
• 
  43

  Is it just human nature to gossip or are JW's worse? Feelings are hurt....

  by mamalove in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it is so strange how once you distance yourself from your kingdom hall and friends, that they find it necesary to discuss and contemplate your departure and put out all kinds of statements that simply are not true.. i am licking my wounds today because some kind of nasty things were said about me to a friend of mine who is df, from her ubber righteous sister.

  it was via text, so it was there to read.

  the thing i can't figure out is i have nothing to do with this woman.

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  Bungi Bill

  Gossip is very much accentuated in a small community - this from having grown up in a small and quite isolated place!

  The JWs, being only a small - not to mention rather exclusive - minority, form what is in effect a small community.

  As such, they are no more or no less prone to engage in gossip than members of any other small community.

  Bill.
• 
  38

  Did you have higher ed when you were in? If so how were you treated as a result?

  by highdose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i went to both collage and uni when i was a jw, i got marked and shunned as a result.

  it seemed like every week there would be some dig made from the platform about " those that chose higher education" , my so called "freinds" were constandly on at me " why don't you pioneer highdose?!!".

  i even had the ciruit overseer denounce me from the platform as being "spirtualy weak" never mind that most of the peers i grew up with had got themselves reproved or disfellowed and that i was the only who had been good!.

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  Bungi Bill

  In the hyped up JW world of the years leading up to 1975, they thought I was going slightly too far in even qualifying for University Entrance - which I did at the end of my last year of high school. (During those times, most Witness parents I knew took the WTS's instructions all too literally about only needing the bare minimum of "secular" education - and pulled their children out of school as soon as it was legally possible to so).

  At the end of my final year at high school, a large organisation offered to sponsor me through the Engineering Degree Course at university (something I was very keen to undertake):

  - but at that point, the elders had enough clout with my father to get that canned.

  Instead, I took on a job with a Telecommunications company, in the which trainees studied part time for the Engineering Diploma Course. This was not good enough for the elders, either; after twelve months , they got me to throw that job in. This led to an almighty row with my father, in which I was obliged to use physical force in order to defend myself from violent attack (something I still have bitter memories about, some 40 years later).

  Six years down the track, I found myself married, a family on the way, and not a marketable skill to my name. Fortunately, I managed to get into an adult apprenticeship, eventually learning the electrical trade.

  Many in the congregation - whom I can only describe as narrow minded - had the daggers out for me even for doing this. However, I had learned enough of what was what by then to mentally give them all the famous "Two Fingered Salute"!

  At the end of the apprenticeship course, my employer offered to sponsor me through the Engineering Diploma Course. The elders, and others in the congregation, were down on me for even thinking of doing that! However, it was family considerations that put a stop to any further academic studies for me (Three children under the age of five, plus an invalid wife!)

  It was my experience amongst the JWs that not only was university education strongly disapproved of, but many - certainly a large minority - thought that even undertaking trade qualifications was inappropriate:

  - i.e. tying up four years of your life in an apprenticeship, when "Armegeddon is just around the corner" etc. etc. etc.

  Little wonder a disproportionate number of them are forever stuck as window cleaners - until they get so old that they practically fall dead on the job!

  Bill.
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  86

  Are you a fader, Df'd, DA'd, or Still In?

  by brotherdan in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i thought this would be an interesting poll that would show everyone the backgrounds of all of us when we left, if we have.. for myself, i am not df'd, but i am attempting a fade.

  i still go to some meetings with the wife to help with kids, but that's it.

  no commenting or field service.. what about everyone else?.

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  Bungi Bill

  I was well and truly "Sent to Coventry" some sixteen years ago, and have made sure that I stayed that way ever since!

  Bill.
• 
  31

  How Many Of You "Reached Out" For Extra "Privileges"?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whether you are a male or female, the organization was always making you try to reach out for extra privileges whether it be pioneering for a month, year or a lifetime, going to bethel, or becoming a "servant" in the hall.. did you feel compelled to "reach out" or did you want to do more for "jehovah god"?.

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  Bungi Bill

  Yes, having rather felt compelled to (I know - bloody fool!).

  As others have noted, the "reaching out" phase was not too bad. What followed afterwards was another story - and after making ministerial servant, I lost any interest in becoming an elder.

  Bill.
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  27

  As a witness, what view of the world did you have? Heres my story

  by stillstuckcruz in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so heres my story:.

  i just turned 20 years old.

  like many i was raised as a jw.

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  Bungi Bill

  Seeing things from only a JW perspective does give you a very distorted view of the world:

  - somewhat like looking at it through a surveyor's dumpy level, after firstly being reflected off one of those trick mirrors!

  There was a time that I swallowed the WTS's line totally that the Witnesses were different from everyone else. Then for a long time afterwards, I desperately tried to keep on believing that this was the case.

  In reality, the JWs are no different to any other religion - despite what they would have you believe.

  There are some good people amongst the JWs, but no more than there are amongst the population in general. Furthermore, such ones would most likely have been good people either before they became Witnesses, or if they had never ever been JWs in the first place (as in those "born in"). Certainly, there is absolutely no basis for the claim (as discussed in a recent post on this forum) that, only upon being baptised as JWs, do people then become "productive and law abiding citizens."

  Some four to five years ago, I made a point to reconnect with people that I had been very close to before the Watchtower Madness took hold. This served as a reminder to me just how many pleasant, decent people there are in "The World."

  For sure, I knew any number of good people over the years amongst the JWs:

  - but I knew none, absolutely none, amongst the Witnesses who were any better than these that I had known before "coming into The Truth."

  - these same people that I had swallowed the WTS line about as being "evil", "wicked", "immoral"; and one or two other most unpleasant adjectives!

  These same persons were even obviously happy to have me as a friend once more, despite the fact they must have thought that I had taken leave of my senses some forty odd years ago!

  (Conversely, my first introduction to domestic violence was just after I began associating with the local congregation - quite a culture shock to a boy of 17, who had already been indoctrinated with the idea that the JWs are somehow "different"!)

  What else is there to say, but best forget everything the JWs taught you about "The World" (or anything else, for that matter) - unless it can be corroborated by other sources.

  Bill.
• 
  38

  Has anyone knocked on your door recently?

  by dysfunction in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i am a housewife, and no one has knocked on my door to spread the "truth",not even on the weekends.

  question, has anyone experienced this... or has the preaching work slowed down?

  or are the witnesses less active, zealous?.

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  Bungi Bill

  They have actually been fairly regular callers in at my place - several times a year on average.

  Not that they display any enthusiasm or spirit in what they do!

  One is left with the distinct impression that the JWs these days are merely going through the motions, so as to have some figure to place in that column marked "Hours" att he end of each month!

  Bill.
• 
  27

  Forget what they say, most JWs do not believe the end is near...

  by drew sagan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was a baptized jw for 7 years.

  during that time i repeatedly vocalized my belief that "the end is near.

  " however, what did this cost me?

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  Bungi Bill

  KM 6/69?

  - I think you will find that these superlative words of guidance were uttered in the Kingdom Ministry sometime during mid-1974 (May of 1974, I seem to remember).

  Anyway, many publishers were frantically selling off property, then using the proceeds to "pioneer", during that year before 1975. Not surprisingly, though, few of those same individuals were still in the pioneer service two years later (when I was). In fact, many of them were no longer "In the Truth" by then. (A lot crashed spectacularly - getting DF'd for the Trifecta of smoking, drinking and sexual immorality- this according to the then Branch Overseer).

  After this particular Kingdom Ministry praised these persons for selling everything and plunging into full time service, an article in a 1976 Watchtower article severely criticised them for what they had done. That WT article was all about "Serving with Eternity in View" - not serving until a date.

  Maybe that is why the present day JWs are not all special pioneers - i.e. they are just following the WTS's counsel to "Serve with Eternity in View."

  (Says Bill, with his tongue deeply embedded in his cheek!)
• 
  30

  Content is King- Why the Meetings Fail

  by LostGeneration in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  one of the big sayings for those that run websites is that "content is king" it makes perfect sense, as sites like this one have entertaining content for the targeted audience.

  even better, more content is added everyday bringing users back repeatedly.

  poptular tv shows and movies are loved because they entertain customers for a low cost or free.. on the other hand, you have the content provided by the watchtower bible and tract society, delivered though the pages of the watchtower and through weekly meetings.

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  Bungi Bill

  The ability to put your audience to sleep is the hallmark of somebody who has no idea about how to teach. While learning the electrical fitting trade at Trade School, we had an unforgettable instructor in mechanical theory. 32 years later, all the apprentices in my intake can still vividly recall this character!

  He was dealing with a subject that could easily be "dull as ditchwater", yet he was able to present this material in such a way that all of us actually looked forward to when Charlie Crawford was giving the lecture.

  I learned much from him about the art of teaching, tried to incorporate as many of his methods as I could when giving a talk at the KH - and was largely successful (going by the feedback I got from the brothers and sisters afterwards, anyway):

  - It would seem now, though, that even this latitude has been taken away from speakers at the Kingdom Halls.

  As for the WTS's written material, more than a few used to remark that - right or wrong - they still knew how to tell a good story!

  Never use just one word when you could use a dozen to say the same thing.

  And some of the words they used! I can recall at least once when the term "revivified" was used to describe something inanimate being brought back to life. (The dictionary was actually consulted upon seeing this, just to confirm that there really was such a word!)

  Popular belief had it that such a writing style was the trade mark of Freddie Franz. Whoever the culprit was, the term "verbal blockbuster" must have been invented just for him!

  Bill.