thought this would be good to discuss for the newbies and others just getting out of the witnesses, so they can have their thinking and appetites whetted of things they never knew coming out from under the witness organizations spell.
i know for myself, after reading this book, it totally clarified what the reasons were for all the control in the organization.
and i was informed of things i never had a clue that were going on behind the bethel scenes.
I appreciated the facts revealed in CoC.I have a great deal of respect for Ray and what he went through.
However, I found it a little disturbing the attitude Franz displayed while he was being jerked around by the society. I kept asking myself why he didn't get a lawyer and tell the society to FU. It almost seemed that if Ray was treated a little better he might be part of a congregation somewhere in GA as a very humble elder or ms.
5go had a thread here - the service overseer nearly cried from the podium that mentioned something i never realized, elders having to chip in from their own pockets to cover expenses.. how many elders here had to do that, and what was the average amount and frequency that you had to make up the shortfalls?.
bb.
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My father was an elder, I was an elder. While a ms, I was account servant for approx 10 years. I never seen or heard of this happening. It would never occur to me or my fellow elders to do such a thing. We had a few months that were pretty close, but never heard of the suggestion of contributing to make the cong even.
two years sober today.
it feels good.
actually i get to celebrate being alive as i tried to kill myself a couple of weeks before i went into treatement.
Congratulations on your success. Keep up the good work.
Drinking is a common witness problem. I was a heavy drinker during my witness days. My drinking increased during my fade, primarily because of the stress associated with living a lie.
While, I drink occasionally, I have cut down by probably 90%. My drinking now is an occasional beer or glass of wine.
ok so this was told to the entire congregation by the circuit overseer.
"the society knows the tract work brings hardly any new disciples in.
we get a few good experiences out of it and a few start studies and attend a few meetings.
What the CO failed to mention is that the Tract work generates activity within the congregation AND is really cheap.
It is easy to print a billion one page tracts and tell the r&f to go do Gods work. Much more expensive to print special mags or other multipage brochures.
The society sees tracts as a win-win situation. Remember the goal is to keep the minions busy. Tracts fulfill this goal on the CHEAP.
so i am not going to meetings, but am a fader.
the wife and i get invited to a wedding.
by friends from years back.
Interesting thread. Most within the organization do not understand anything beyond the basics. The congregation is a social network. The society is clearly worried that the current witness population has no depth and barely believes the crap.
it says they have "just heard"...... brownstoner.com has just heard that real estate investment fund glory capital has purchased a 42-unit apartment building at 6-10 clark st. in brooklyn heights from the watchtower bible and tract society.
a correspondent notes the opportunity presented there: a whole building delivered empty in brooklyn heights!
brownstoner is asking what the property sold for: the answer, as reported in the brooklyn eagle on june 1, is $12.5 million.. .
It is new news to me. Thanks for the info. I used to live accross the street from this property. Knew a few of the bethelites who lived there
hey, i'm finishing up my last year in undergrad school and am considering pursuing grad school.
i am hoping to chat with individuals privately, who are attending grad school or have a graduate/advanced degrees for advice about the practicalities and expenses relating to attending grad school later in life (mid-30s +).. i'm not pursing medicine, law or business, so i'm concerned that the effort and expense of grad school may not be worth it.. thanks,.
nyckid.
I have an advanced degree in management and accounting.
I worked through my degree even while I was a witness. The expense was no problem because I capitalized on the education reimbursement policies of the several employers I had over the past 20 years. I spend well over $30K of their money on my education. Thank you very much
i am white, my husband is black.
he is not baptized but goes to all the meetings and is in the school.
a few months ago i read the following info which i just copied from vinny's thread.
I am going through a divorce with a hardcore witness (my choice). I could not continue with the verbal and emotional abuse. It is a very painful and expensive process. But, it is a process that I have to go through to get on with the rest of my life.
So, my kind word to you is, congratulations for your courage. Good luck and stay strong.
long before we 'figured it out', i think we were tiring of the whole routine and demands, though we could not admit such openly, even to each other for the most part.
but i recall occasionally 'oversleeping', and in some cases i had woke early enough but just intentionally let time go by and got up 'running late'.
our family 'tradition' was to stop for breakfast at a local restuarant on the way to the kh.
While I played my share of wt hooky, it was not enough. I clearly could have increased my hooky threashold. There were more than a few times where the best thing for my sanity was to play hooky.
in the may wt questions from readers they did away with the 1935 cut off date to be part of the original anointed class.
they taught any anointed after that date were replacements for those who had "fallen away".
over the years that doctrine has slowly fallen apart.
The easy answer to the delema of the wt is to quit reporting partakers. Once that statistic is removed, it doesn't really matter to anyone except a very few.
