OrangeBlossom

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Posts by OrangeBlossom

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  31

  The CO's visit

  by OrangeBlossom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this past week was the visit of our circuit overseer.

  i know what you are thinking so before i post some of his comments that i personally found interesting, i only went to keep peace in the family and not give rise to suspicion about my true feelings.

  so with that said, here are some things that grabbed my attention.. 1) his talk thursday nite was about being successful and how the world's view of success is far different than the organizations.

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  OrangeBlossom

  What about the poor CO's, DO's and Bethelites that have spent their whole life in the full time work only to find out that it's not the truth. Where do they go? They have no choice but to keep pretending. Also, those that had to leave the road due to health reasons, what are they to do? They almost have to keep putting on a front since the Org does take care of them financially. The only way they could walk away is if they had wealthy family members willing to take care of them. It's really sad. At least I'm relatively young enough and have never devoted myself to the full time work.
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  31

  The CO's visit

  by OrangeBlossom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this past week was the visit of our circuit overseer.

  i know what you are thinking so before i post some of his comments that i personally found interesting, i only went to keep peace in the family and not give rise to suspicion about my true feelings.

  so with that said, here are some things that grabbed my attention.. 1) his talk thursday nite was about being successful and how the world's view of success is far different than the organizations.

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  OrangeBlossom

  To Sam Bell,

  "Did his remarks come across like they sound here? That is, that JWs should be concerned about the “organization’s” view rather than God’s view, or the Bible’s view."

  Yes, that was another thing I picked up on, many times he used the term "organization" in place of Jehovah, or the Bible. However, he did make sure everyone understood that Jehovah was "using" the FDS to feed us. And speaking of the FDS, he never made reference to the GB feeding us, it was always the FDS class providing the spiritual food at the proper time. What a load of crap!

  "Sometime back they said that JWs should get away from the expression “the society says.” Are they going right back to their old ways?"

  I apologize for that one, he probably did not use the term, "the society", I was born and raised into this religion and old habits are hard to break. That was my rendering. Sorry for the confusion.
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  31

  The CO's visit

  by OrangeBlossom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this past week was the visit of our circuit overseer.

  i know what you are thinking so before i post some of his comments that i personally found interesting, i only went to keep peace in the family and not give rise to suspicion about my true feelings.

  so with that said, here are some things that grabbed my attention.. 1) his talk thursday nite was about being successful and how the world's view of success is far different than the organizations.

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  OrangeBlossom

  This past week was the visit of our circuit overseer. I know what you are thinking so before I post some of his comments that I personally found interesting, I only went to keep peace in the family and not give rise to suspicion about my true feelings. So with that said, here are some things that grabbed my attention.

  1) His talk Thursday nite was about being Successful and how the world's view of success is far different than the organizations. He was quite proud that many in the org are not highly educated, heck some can't even read. I kept thinking of Maximus' post on the society view of college. The CO was quite concerned, as well as the GB, that many young people upon graduating from high school have chosen to go to work or college and not pioneer. He further brought out that of the few young ones that do go into the pioneer work, most are girls. Parents of boys were strongly encouraged to place pioneering as the goal after finishing high school. "We should not encourage our children to be financially secure, but financially responsible."

  2) The society is very concerned about the number missing from the meetings. In fact, our CO said that in our circuit, there is an average of 2 to 10 publishers that have "left the truth" each time he goes back to a congregation. He visits approximately 20 congregations twice a year, so a minimum of 2(pubs) times 20 (congs) times 2 (visits per year) adds up to approximately anywhere from 80 (minimum) to 200 (maximum) people leaving the borg a year in our circuit alone.

  3) His final talk was geared toward those in the congregation called "passive attenders" and how if they had ANY doubts in their minds that this was not God's organization, they had better do whatever it takes to prove to themselves that Jehovah is using the FDS as his channel. He mentioned that more than once. BYW, I guess I am a passive attender, since I never participate and occasionally attend.

  Overall, I got the sense that the GB is trying to reach those who have had contact with "apostates." I feel like there is going to be a real push to weed out such ones in the very near future. They have to know that there are many that do not believe that it's the truth anymore but are hanging on so that they do not lose family and friends.
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  21

  Secret Posters Hedging Their Bets?

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since i found sites like this on the internet i have been constantly amazed at the great number of people who post here and yet do this in secret.. so many people seem to be trapped in a situation where they desperately want to leave the jw religion behind.

  so many people seem to be unable to do so for fear of losing their families, fearing that a da'ing or df'ing decree will separate them from the people that they love.

  some posters are even elders and ministerial servants.. so, can you guys tell me how you manage to lead a life that is so complex?

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  OrangeBlossom

  This is a very complex question. There are some days I feel like saying to hell with everyone, then other days I talk with my family members still die-hard believers and I don't want to burst their bubble.

  But you are right about the difficulty of living a lie. I've always been a very honest person so I have to walk a fine line these days.

  For me the challenges of carrying on a conversation with JW's are as follows:

  1) Referring to the borg as "the truth"
  2) Referring to the Creator as Jehovah after researching the Divine Name
  3) Pretending that I still go to meetings to my mom (actually I do go about once a month and make sure I mention it to her)

  There are many more but these are the big ones.
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  13

  "Freeness of Speech" Between Elders

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what does it mean to have "freeness of speech" between elders on the elder body?

  can they ask another elder on the body anything about his personal life and/or questions they would never dare to ask one of the rank and file?

  can't find much about it in the publications.

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  OrangeBlossom

  Sorry Blondie, never heard of it before?

  However, elders do share details of judicial matters to other elders in other congregations as a form of gossip, but are protected from being accused of gossip because they fall under the "elder confidentiality." This has happened so many times in my area that it makes me want to puke. I'm not talking about judicial cases that involve members in that elder's congregation (in which he may need to be aware of a particular situation), but rather a discussion about judicial matter and this is just pure and simple gossip. So, in that sense I guess they do have "freeness of speech."
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  11

  Info from my still-JW friends...

  by TheApostleAK in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the 1952 wt bound volume hasn't been available for 2 years.......is there a link between this and the 1952 anointed article somewhere???

  (check literature dept.

  publication index if anyones got it here.

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  OrangeBlossom

  I thought the Society's CD Rom went back as far as 1950 for WT and Awake, would it be in there?
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  81

  Nourishment for the Spirit

  by Maximus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my observation is that persons who 1) heal/adjust the most rapidly from their jw experience and 2) seem to have the most joy in life are those who read, read, read, in pursuit of what i call nourishment for the spirit.

  i've really enjoy the pithy aphorisms you use here, which suggests you've distilled some wisdom from somewhere.

  i'm going to ask your help in this thread.

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  OrangeBlossom

  Thank you Maximus for the list. I will save this to refer to later. I love to read and I am always looking for interesting reading materials.

  For purposes of your post, the only two books I have read to date were "Crisis of Conscience" and "In Search of Christian Freedom."

  I know that many posters on this board do not agree with Ray Franz but as someone born and raised a JW, these were real eye-openers for me. Reading them enabled me to take the blinders off and really see things, and I mean everything, in a whole new way.

  As far as I am concerned, they are a "must-read" for anyone having doubts about the organization and plagued with guilt.

  Some may argue that I now have doubts because I read these two books, but the truth of the matter is I had the doubts first, reading the books put them in the right perspective.
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  12

  Run, Watchtower, Run

  by Uncanny in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i watched an entertaining german film on cable last night called run.

  lola, run.

  the plot revolves around how a young woman named lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 marks or her boyfriend gets executed by the mob.. the film cleverly replays a 20 minutes running scene in which lola reacts differently each time to things which happen on her run(s).. one incident has lola nearly knocking down an old woman pedestrian as she rounds a corner.

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  OrangeBlossom

  In the movie, Blue Velvet, there is a whole scene where this guy is trying to get into an apartment so he has Laura Dern pose as a witness selling the Watchtower and Awake. I was really taken back as to how dead-on he was, my thought at the time was that an ex-witness must have coaxed the writers as to how a witness would really sound. It was years ago that I saw this movie and if I remember right, it was extremely weird.

  P.S. This was my 100th post! Hooray for me!
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  15

  Who are these elders???

  by freakshow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  having only started to study with a jw she has yet to inform me of these elders, the book she gave me says a little, but after reading this board i see there is more i have yet to learn.

  who are these elders?

  i'm picturing a bunch of old men in velvet purple robes sitting around a circular table.

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  OrangeBlossom

  Thanks Copernicus,

  You stated that the way I wanted to.
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  3

  moving

  by josephus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am planning to move shortly.

  this raises an important question for me.. should i make freinds with the local jws, or try to stand on my own.

  i am going about 3500 miles away,.

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  OrangeBlossom

  You didn't say where you were moving to but if you posted the general area, you might be surpised to find others on this board in the vicinity. Then you have a common interest.

  I would love to be in your position of moving far away and starting over. If you are going to be getting a job, make friends with your co-workers, or join a club. Expand your horizons.