Posts by Half banana

i am not sure if it's true but i heard from a good source that wt has given instructions to elders to postponed disfellowshipping members from wrong doing/gross sin until further instructions given by headquarters.

i heard some jws were just reproved either privately or publically.

has anyone else heard anything like this recently?

Half banana

Disfellowshipping is a prime cult control instrument. The cult only works if the leadership has complete ability to superintend the beliefs and actions of the devotees.

To not disfellowship would allow for normal human behaviour! Antisocial behaviour is regulated in normal communities by avoiding objectionable people but in a closed society such as in a religious cult, aberrant behaviour is highly disruptive. By not disfellowshipping, the GB would hopelessly lose both their tight control and their assumed authority on which cultism depends.

@ Nicholas Kopernicus, I am heartened to know that there are as many as twelve dissidents in your cong...

183

JWs have more good points than bad

by lsw1961 in

1) many who were on the destructive path have been transformed by their teachings (this includes me who was once vicious, and presumptuous and atheistic).

2) equal monthly pay to all members of the bethel community regardless of whether they are bc members or sweepers.

this is something that still remains as an unattainable dream for the world.

Half banana

Hey Isw, if you need the sense of security given by spending your life in a Watchtower straight-jacket and wearing JW org blinkers... then please continue to enjoy it, since it is your thing.

29

Do You Think Any Of The Governing Body Are Contemplating Suicide? Over This Rather Rude Financial Reality?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

faithful and always so very discrete in many things but when it comes to the lord's money not so good.. i think as it begins to register in their minds as to what a terrible job they have done as ceos of a large corporation leading it into this condition that thoughts of suicide come from.

not to mention the shame at being a public spetical to the world by the rc.

all these things and more are creeping through their denial as they are forced to face reality.

Half banana

Just for the record, Rutherford's death was due to cancer of the rectum (according to his death certificate) which he had known about for a couple of years, no doubt his friend Al Cohol helped ease his departure.

21

Restructuring Bethel

by LaFrancia in

an announcement to all congregation in italy :.

the project of a new bethel in italy was allocated .

the number of temporary special pioneers will be reduced significantly.

Half banana

Grazie La Francia, allora questa e una buona notizia anche.

And may the tower fall very soon!

21

Restructuring Bethel

by LaFrancia in

an announcement to all congregation in italy :.

the project of a new bethel in italy was allocated .

the number of temporary special pioneers will be reduced significantly.

Half banana

The Italian bethel was "allocated" ...to what, to where?

183

JWs have more good points than bad

by lsw1961 in

1) many who were on the destructive path have been transformed by their teachings (this includes me who was once vicious, and presumptuous and atheistic).

2) equal monthly pay to all members of the bethel community regardless of whether they are bc members or sweepers.

this is something that still remains as an unattainable dream for the world.

Half banana

Isw have you thought what good is and what bad is?

Good usually refers to the things which will enhance or promote the values of the society in which we live... and bad, the things which go against our culture. In New Guinea, to have the skulls of warrior people from neighbouring tribes hung from your roof was seen as a positive thing! So it would be unfair to make a comparison of good JW things with good non JW things.

This means we have a choice of what is good or not and why we choose to be a member of a particular community. So I question the wisdom of making a list of the merits without recognising that good is not absolute but relative to the community.

We could however look at the effects of being a JW under the GB instructions and compare with those who optimise their freedom and education in a secure democracy outside of it.

To be a JW means to be beholden. Even one’s conscience is handed over to the governing body...this is a dire blow for individual freedom. To be a JW means never fully expressing one’s own desires or fulfilling personal ambitions...to be a JW is to have our lives and learning and income cramped and limited. We never mature, we remain infantilised!

Here is where we who have left can relate the experience of real freedom.We left usually not for the sake of freedom but because the WTBTS was in error. I lost my wife and two of my children to the cult by leaving yet my optimism and happiness have increased enormously. I am no longer in thrall to the seven magic dwarves of Brooklyn; I can fully enjoy my human entitlement to free expression and self determination.

I look back with pity on my kids and I have loathing for the small minded cult leaders who have caused me and my family the greatest trials in our lives but I am very thankful now to be free.

(Personally, I think the shrunken head of Tony Morris would go well dangling on a cord from the ceiling of my office... if it were pickled properly.)

29

What actually DID you learn?

by punkofnice in

my jw friends that still speak to me, tell me that they love the meetings because of the things they learn.. i wonder what they think they're learning?

it an avenue that always perplexes me because their replies are just so wishy washy or i get a blank stare when i ask.. what's you r experience?.

Half banana

Punky, these are subjects to die for...how could one live without this knowledge? But then again these choice items, prepared so lovingly by the FDS, are just the peaks in a swamp of ignorance...(gosh I'm getting very sarcastic in my old age)

183

JWs have more good points than bad

by lsw1961 in

1) many who were on the destructive path have been transformed by their teachings (this includes me who was once vicious, and presumptuous and atheistic).

2) equal monthly pay to all members of the bethel community regardless of whether they are bc members or sweepers.

this is something that still remains as an unattainable dream for the world.

Half banana

Well done Isw 1961 you have an independent mind! That is not the JW way but it will eventually allow you to realise that the WTBTS do not have a monopoly on truth...and if they don't, then they are not God's appointees.

If you are genuine about finding what is real it would be worth reading Raymond Franz's authoritative appraisal of the workings of the Watchtower in his book Crisis of Conscience. This explains the fact that for the sake of keeping a large stake-hold in the religious scene in Mexico, the WTBTS was prepared to accept that bribing officials for exemption to military service would be in their interest. However in Malawi they declared that the compulsory purchasing of the national party card would automatically be a disassociation matter and the consequences for those who did not buy had severe repercussions. This was gross hypocrisy and use of "two sorts of weights".

How can this be condoned?

Have you heard of the matter of the Watchtower joining its avowed enemy the UN as an NGO? Another case of gross hypocrisy...and why they did it is even more telling.