Posts by OrangeBlossom

22

Re:Did /Do Elders enjoy power/control

by ladonna in

jw
friends

when i think back to being in the wtbts i can vividly remember the elders and their weilding of power.. as an adult, and in hindsight, i can now look back in total distaste and disgust at the power and control these men exercised over our lives with 'apparent' enjoyment.. i would like any former or current elders to explain the actual feelings you had when exercising this control.. was it exhilirating?

or was it painful?.

i would also like responses from non elders as to how you actually felt on the other end of this control situation.. la donna ana

OrangeBlossom

"Where it really seems to get out of hand is at judicial commities. Reports from those involved indicate that some of them have feelings ranging from sadness to despotism to titilation."

I remember a few years back, a family member committed adultery and the elders found out about it. Well, right before all of this happened a situation involving this same family member and the PO developed to where they got into a heated argument at the KH. The PO was a real horse's ass and remains that way to this day. This PO dislikes our entire family and does not try to hide this fact.

Anyway, when she had her preliminary meeting with the elders to set up a judicial committee, she specifically asked that this PO NOT be on her committee due to the heated outburst they had had with one another just a few days earlier (which several overheard, including the CO's wife)

When she walked into the kangaroo court, guess who assigned himself to be on her committee? You got it, the jack-ass himself. She was so pissed she almost walked out. But at that time, she wanted to be df'd so went through with it. It took her at least 2 years to get reinstated and I'm sure he didn't want to concede to reinstate her, but she had been to all the meetings, marked WT's, etc.

Just a classic case of elders wielding their power. This is just one of many instances that I could relate, but I will keep them to myself for now.

13

OPERATION of & Sin Against the Holy Spirit!

by Amazing in

jw
friends

when jws ask one of the anointed just how they "know" that they are anointed, they are really asking what it is that god does via the holy spirit that tells them they are chosen.

a "bolt" of lightening?

a rush of the wind?

OrangeBlossom

Thank you Copernicus and Amazing as you have touched on feelings I have had.

While a good JW, I felt a closeness to God. And on some occasions, when I was regular in field service and meeting attendance, I felt like I would survive Armageddon if it came that day. But, most of the time I felt like I would die at Armageddon because I was not measuring up. So I think the euphoric feeling is self-induced by our sub-conscience. The society tells us that we can only receive Jehovah's blessing and survive if we are doing A,B,C,D, etc. When we fail to do any of those things, we condemn ourselves to destruction. When we do everything they tell us, then we feel good about ourselves and that maybe, just maybe, Jehovah will spare us.

I lived most of my life filled with guilt, not for having some secret sin, but because I was not living up to the standards of the WTS. I use to look around at others in the hall and wonder how they could do it but not me. Anyway, once I read "Crisis of Conscience", the guilt left. But, I have to be honest, a void entered my life as well.

I feel like I have been deceived and my whole belief system turned upside-down. But your explanation, Amazing, makes perfect sense. Growing up in the borg, we are constantly conditioned to believe that we can ONLY be happy if we conform.

BTW, I have just ordered "Crisis of Conscience" (newest edition) and "In Search of Christian Freedom" to re-read again. My mission this time is to subtly bring out points to family members without them knowing where my source is. I don't know how much longer I can keep pretending. I'm going to pick up "ISofCF" today, "CofC" had to be special ordered from publisher.

This message board has been a god-send.

43

New Congregation

by Deacon in

jw
friends

ok. we ran a thread recently about starting a new religion.. how about we start an international congregation here on the board.. we need 7 elders.

7 being a sign of perfection..er....yeah.. we need ministerial servants.. appointments will be general concensus..er holy spirit i mean.. p.o.

lets start with him.

OrangeBlossom

Can I be an elderette?

32

Biology Lesson for the gals

by Francois in

jw
friends

elsewhere in the active topics list is a great post from wasasister dealing in a very wise manner with women's hormonal cycle.

the viewpoint and outlook contained in her post was to my mind very well done, thoughtful, considerate, and made a number of points that would be helpful to keep in mind in dealing with the male/female dynamic.. so i hope (and believe) that wasa won't mind if i use her post to springboard to one of my own - the mirror image of hers.. wasa makes a very good point in saying that women are jerked around by the hormones in their blood every month.

and lots of us know at least one woman whose pms reaches truly epic proportions.

OrangeBlossom

Where can I get an injection of testosterone?

28

Survey

by Vienna in

jw
friends

how many on this board are: a) christains--not a jw b) jehovah's witnesses c) do not believe in god d) have a belief in god but just not active in anything right now.

i'm new to the board and was curious as to everyone's standing.

i'm 30, a christain, i left the jws 3 years ago (after being in it for 21 years) to follow jesus and heard of, among other good things, this great thing called: grace!

OrangeBlossom

Even though I still go to the occasional meeting, to keep family happy, I consider myself a Christian. I believe Christ gave his life for ALL mankind, not just JW's. After that, I'm not sure.
Do we go to heaven when we die? Don't know!
Will we be resurrected back to earth? Don't know!
Is God a trinity? Don't think so but who am I to dispute!
Is there a burning hell? Don't think so!

I guess I will find out the answer to all these questions when I buy the farm...or maybe not!

3

Concept of the future

by OrangeBlossom in

jw
friends

growing up in the borg, planning for the future was never thought of for me or my family.

for instance, i heard things like, .

"you'll never go to school" .

OrangeBlossom

Growing up in the borg, planning for the future was never thought of for me or my family. For instance, I heard things like,
"you'll never go to school"
"armageddon is right around the corner"
"you'll never graduate"
"you'll never get married"
"you'll never have children"
"your children will never go to school"
etc, etc, etc.

Now that my whole concept of life has changed and here I sit in my 40's with no retirement plan, because I wasn't suppose to need one, it really pisses me off. I still find it hard to think about 10 years down the road. We're are trying to think about retirement now, and put some money away, investments, etc.

Does anyone else have a problem with the concept of armageddon not coming next year?

46

What Caused Your First Doubt ?

by Big Jim in

jw
friends

for me it was when i was about twelve years old and my best friends dad was disfellowshipped from the congregation.. i could not understand how a god of love would treat someone so coldly.. i used to think what if that was the way my parents would treat me if i had done something wrong, that would be so hard and cruel.. as i got older another thing that bothered me was the beard issue.

it may sound pretty trivial however the society has always refused to make a good arguement as to why they would give you the old cold shoulder if you were to grow one.. two more items; first i could not understand why all the congregations and all the assemblys would give income reports.

and the society never did.

OrangeBlossom

Mulan, for me it was the study of "the Greatest Man" but for a different reason. During the study of the Pharisees I immediately connected them with the elders of my congregation and began to wonder if Jehovah had turned his back on the organization because of their dogmatic, hard-hardedness attitude, obey the rules, follow the org no matter what, straining the gnat and swallowing the camel. Jesus said you would know his diciples by the love among themselves and I just didn't see or feel it and hadn't for a long time.

Also, during the Revelation book, I could never accept that different prophetic events, trumpet blowings, etc. were related to the different conventions throughout rhe years. I just couldn't buy it.

Then there was the money issue. Building new, expensive Kingdom Halls, Assembly Halls, Patterson when the brothers in Africa would have 50 congregations sharing 1 hall. I felt the GB was losing sight of the more important things.

Add to that about 50 other nagging doubts and pretty soon you have a full-blown doubt.

Then one night while looking for the society's web site I came across a site that talked about elder's looking for reform. That was a light-bulb moment for me. I realized at that moment that I was not alone in my doubting and that even elders saw things wrong with the org.

From there I took the plunge and read "Crisis of Conscience" and "In Search of Christian Freedom" and it was pretty much over for me, even tho I still pretend in order to keep my family. BTW, anyone that has not read those two books, I highly recommend them. It completely released me from tremendous guilt that I had carried around for years because I felt that I could never measure up.

Didn't mean to make this so long. Just couldn't stop once I got started. Hope it makes sense.

41

Elders appointed by Holy Spirit?

by LadyBug in

jw
friends

amazings justice points brings me to this point.

elders truly believe that they are appointed by gods spirit.

so when they appoint someone who is:.

OrangeBlossom

I love this subject. In fact the other night hubby and I had this very same discussion with some friends (active JW's who still believe it is the truth) at dinner. Hubby asked them if they felt elders were appointed by holy spirit. A very emphatic NO was their reply.

I have had the DISpleasure of being around too many "spirit-appointed" elders. I think Amazing posted recently about how appointments are really made. He was right on the money. I've seen it over and over again. I have seen good elders removed because their child made a mistake (child now back in good standing), never to be reappointed and other elders reappointed because they threw good parties, or were good drinkers and who's children never straightened up. I've heard of others (deserving, IMHO) never being appointed for lame reasons such as, "we considered you but your children do not record their field service, we see them out in service but they do not turn in their time, therefore, we feel you should not be appointed at this time. No lie! This guy is still not an elder, even though his son was appointed in another congregation. He remains humble and keeps plugging along.

3

Macon Ga convention dates

by joelbear in

jw
friends

i think i just want to go and wander around.

with my beard i'll stick out.

maybe some cute attendant will shadow me into the bathroom.. woofy hugs.

OrangeBlossom

Joel, I don't know when the Macon assembly is but St. Petersburg is in July (mine is around the 17th). If you are going to go as far as Macon but might as well go a little further south. You might even run into your old buddy John. Let me know if you come, I might go to it and meet you.

OB

4

Update on elder's visit

by OrangeBlossom in

jw
friends

last saturday i posted that the elders keep coming by to "encourage" us.

but wouldn't you know it, sunday morning as i am trying to enjoy a nice breakfast with the family, the doorbell rang.

pissed me off, but this time the husband was home so i told him to go talk to them and tell them that being raised in the borg, we know what we should be doing and don't need them to tell us, which he did.

OrangeBlossom

Last Saturday I posted that the elders keep coming by to "encourage" us. Well Saturday came and went without a visit. But wouldn't you know it, Sunday morning as I am trying to enjoy a nice breakfast with the family, the doorbell rang. Pissed me off, but this time the husband was home so I told him to go talk to them and tell them that being raised in the borg, we know what we should be doing and don't need them to tell us, which he did. (BTW, what we should be doing is staying the hell away from them, but I can't help how they might have understood that). I stayed in the bedroom. They agreed that there wasn't anything they could say to us that we didn't already know.

Anyway, we had already planned on going to the KH that day (only for the purpose of keeping mumsy happy) which we did. I also had gone to the Thursday meeting last week. 2 in a row, what was I thinking!!! I was shocked at how few were there. Thursday night there were only about 60 people (congregation has at least 120 publishers) and Sunday there were 90 for the talk, even less for the WT study. The CO is coming around sometime this month so I predict some ass-whoopings.

I'm going to try to go to every meeting until after his visit so they won't feel the need to bring him over for a shepherding call. After that I will ease off gradually.