Bungi Bill

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Posts by Bungi Bill

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  11

  How do I get you to Visit my house

  by I have question in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  okay simply put i am not of your faith however my faith allows me to learn and study other people's beliefs and faith's.

  now i believe at least from what i have seen that you people are humble and respectful, when interacting with me.

  and that watchtower book thing u hand out has actually helped me in the past.... taught me that resentment only hurts me and not the person i resented, that was really needed at the time.

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  Bungi Bill

  There is no need to invite these people into your home in order to learn what their religion is all about. In fact, that would not even be the best approach.

  For one thing, the typical current lot of Jehovahs Witnesses have very little idea of what it is they are supposed to believe in, beyond "Obey Without Question the Governing Body, and You Will Be Blessed." They would probably attempt more to use their literature to speak for them, but even that has been dumbed down to the level of little more than just , "Obey and be Blessed".

  For another thing, if you were to invite them into your home, they could well then become just a bloody nuisance. A lot of the Jehovahs Witnesses can be surprisingly reluctant to take "No" for an answer. Sometimes (perhaps even often?) getting rid of them can make the proverbial "bad smell" seem like a welcome guest!.

  There are various other ways of learning what this religion is all about:

  • There are their literature stands that are frequently to be found in public places, such as the approaches to train stations etc. From those, their literature is available free of charge (for what it is worth!)

  • Also, the Watchtower Corporation (their publishing arm) has its own website, www.jw.org. This is readily accessible to the public, and can at least give you their view of the JW religion.

  • Then there are a number of Ex-JW websites such as this one, from which the real truth about this religion can be discovered. (Once you delve below the surface, you will find that these people have more than just a few "skeletons in the cupboard", so to speak!)

  In your research, though, there is one thing to look out for, which I am certain all ex-JWs would agree on, and that is the offer of a "Free Home Bible Study". With somebody like yourself, the Jehovahs Witnesses would be very quick to offer to "Study the Bible" with you "In Your Own Home".

  You would be well advised never to accept such an offer, as you would afterwards discover that this is just the first stage of the indoctrination process into their cult. ("Entry Level", you might say!). Furthermore, as many of us here found out to our detriment, extricating yourself is often a surprisingly difficult process.

  In summary, this religion is a cult, and it is safest to learn about it from a distance!

  PS: Persons such as yourself are welcome here any time.
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  16

  My husband reinstated our son

  by Finally Left in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  dear friends, we were so touched by your warm welcome and all of your comments to my ballroom dancing post.

  thank you so much for your kindness.. i have more to tell you, but i wanted to share this with you.

  we have a son that has been disfellowshipped for 18 years for smoking.

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  Bungi Bill

  Finally Left,

  Terrific news that your family is reunited once again. The religion of the JWs is many things, but one thing it isn't is family friendly. This includes, but is not limited to, the cruel practice of shunning.

  Anyway, congratulations on making the break from this @>%* cult (realising that this can be a surprisingly difficult thing to do) - and also a belated welcome to this site!
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  3

  The End Will Come in 2007 ?

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  at least he doesn't rewrite his bs as updated light.. http://www.patrobertson.com/teaching/teachingonbabylon.asp.

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  Bungi Bill

  WTWizard,

  Where did you get all that from?
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  23

  How Many Here Used To Sneak Looking At "apostate" Material?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i did!

  even when i was in junior high school i would go to the library and look for anything that was about charles taze russell or millenial dawn or jehovah's witnesses..... maybe i was an "apostate " in the making..

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  Bungi Bill

  waton,

  Out of curiosity, after you had finished reading it, what were your impressions of 30 Years a Watchtower Slave?
• 
  23

  How Many Here Used To Sneak Looking At "apostate" Material?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i did!

  even when i was in junior high school i would go to the library and look for anything that was about charles taze russell or millenial dawn or jehovah's witnesses..... maybe i was an "apostate " in the making..

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  Bungi Bill

  I read WC Stevenson's 1975: Year of Doom? and WC Schnell's notorious 30 Years a Watchtower Slave before the term "apostate material" was ever bandied about - let alone put on the "forbidden list" by the WTS. Back then, I believed that as we definitely had "The Truth", then there was no harm done. After all, "The Truth" would stand up to anything, wouldn't it! (Particularly when stood up against the rather incoherent rantings of some disgruntled ex-member; which is how Schnell's work came across as).

  Also, during my early years as a JW, the congregation's territory that I was in contained a large component of what are now known as "Alternative Lifestylers". This led to some very interesting conversations while engaged in the "Field Circus".

  There were Hippies, Communists, Maoists, Stalinists, Trotskyites, Marxists, Red-Feds, Anarchists, "Born Agains" of various stripes (particularly of the more extreme variety), Draft Dodgers (perhaps even a few army deserters - the Vietnam war was still not over), Pacifists, Spiritualists, converts to the "Eastern Religions" (including Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims):

  - all working as seasonal workers for the local fruitgrowers and tobacco farmers; with most of those being either staunchly Episcopalian or of one or other of the Brethren churches.

  As far as I could see at the time, yet another person with some unconventional ideas (in this case, a former JW) couldn't be too harmful.

  However, once my doubts began to grow, I did some serious but discreet research of my own - even though by that point it had become a definite "No-No"
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  10

  So, you want to become a Jehovah's witness?

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ok your bible study wants to get baptised.

  make sure he is aware of what's involved.

  here is a checklist.

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  Bungi Bill

  Explain to them also that it would help immensely to have a certain operation in which a by-pass switch is installed on the back of the neck:

  - one that places a short circuit between the ears and the motor-nerves, completely bypassing the brain!
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  82

  How Far Up The Ladder Did You Go In JW Land?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i pretty much did it all.

  vacation pioneered as a youngster and became a regular pioneer out of school.

  i became a ms then an elder.....the organization pushes you to be somebody within the confines of their realm.

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  Bungi Bill

  I know this is slightly off-topic, but the matter of "green handshakes" has been mentioned by others.

  In some of the congregations I was in, the "green handshake" would have looked distinctly unimpressive! I doubt if the CO would have been able to even half-fill the tank on his car with it -even if he received such a parting gift at all (which would have been quite possible). During the recession of the early 1990s, our congregation would have not had the proverbial "two bob to rub together". This was in a low cost housing area (Logan City, QLD, Australia) and had more than its complement of JWS - who, being as they predominantly are in the lower socio-economic bracket - couldn't afford to live elsewhere.

  That old saying about being "poor as church-mice" comes to mind!
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  6

  COWTOWN AIN'T (In which I tell you all about my home town, Fort Worth, Texas)

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  cowtown ain’t.

  in which i tell you about my hometown, ft. worth, texas.

  question: “what do you call mexican food down in guadalajara?”.

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  Bungi Bill

  Terry,

  Thanks for this interesting bit of history.

  The closest I have ever got to Fort Worth, TX was in my dealings with a company called Solar Turbines. While never managing to wangle a visit to Solar's factory, I nonetheless did have frequent interactions with some of their company's representatives. (This during the years I managed a power station in Papua New Guinea; one that used a set of eight Solar Gas Turbine Engines).

  However, on checking Google Maps, I see that the site of Solar Turbine's factory at Mabank, TX, is actually closer to Dallas than it is to Fort Worth? That was the reverse of what I had been led to understand, and reveals some flaws in my knowledge of North American geography!
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  24

  have you noticed how the main Jw preaching message has changed?

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  years ago it was all about armageddon and getting out of babylon the great.

  then with the draw close to jehovah and is there a creator that care about you.

  it was all about building a relationship with jehovah.

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  Bungi Bill

  Interestingly, this has happened at least once before.

  During 1975, and for a year or two afterwards, the JWs took much the same line. We started hearing a lot about "Christian love", supposed "Design Patterns in Creation" and similar - but nothing at all about such matters as "hours".(Previously to that the meetings and assemblies seemed to feature nothing but "hours" and "full time service").

  This, however, did not last very long. In the congregation I was in (Newmarket, QLD, Australia), the return to a more usual "Heads Down, Bums Up" approach was heralded in 1977 by the assignment of a new CO to our circuit - the unforgettable "Cyclone Rex" Mainwaring.

  As Sparrowdown has observed, they (the WTS/GB) will say / preach whatever they like, depending entirely on their - and only their - agenda. A return to the more usual JW equivalent of "Hellfire and Brimstone" methods could not necessarily be ruled out.
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  82

  How Far Up The Ladder Did You Go In JW Land?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i pretty much did it all.

  vacation pioneered as a youngster and became a regular pioneer out of school.

  i became a ms then an elder.....the organization pushes you to be somebody within the confines of their realm.

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  Bungi Bill

  Sparrowdown,

  "One of the biggest illusions of JWland is that their is a ladder when there is no ladder only the illusion of one"

  Of all the gems that have come out of this thread, that remark is one of the best!

  The fact is the JWland itself is just one great exercise in Smoke and Mirrors.