Posts by Phizzy

I NEVER use the word "Cult" when talking to, or about J.W. Org, people have different ideas about the definition of "Cult", and you get in to a pointless discussion on the meaning.

I always say: " Authoritarian Mind Control Group." Authoritarian", because of the hundreds of Rules, and Mind Control is self explanatory.

I have never had anyone come back to me and deny that definition of the Org. is in any way wrong.

42

My Most Memorable Circuit & District Overseers

by MillennialDawn in

jw
friends

i would love to hear from anyone who may have encountered the following the traveling overseers:.

david wesley - an incredibly kind and humble man.

just the most down-to-earth co you'll ever find.

Phizzy

Going back to Big Jim Buckingham, a couple or three of memories have come back to me, one favourable , one maybe not so much !

My first sight of him was when he arrived at our family business to pick up a car we were lending him, as there was no Circuit car then, this is the late 1960's.

I saw Big Jim and his wife get off the 'bus, and thought "That is definitely them !", J.W's are always identifiable by their strange garb, no matter what year it is.

We were lending Jim a nearly new red Mini, the original, tiny, Mini, seeing him squeeze his large frame in to that was fun !

Another memory was him doing his Congo visit a month and half after I stopped Regular Pioneering, he took me aside and had a word about the fact that while pioneering I had done 110 hours or so a month, the month after I stopped, I reported just one Hour, he kindly asked me to get a bit more regular. I didn't argue, but could have pointed out I went straight back to working 5 and a half days of hard work and long hours.

The other , now I realise, unfavourable memory was a talk he gave stressing the imminence of 1975, I clearly remember him gesturing expressively how Jehovah's judgement would come down on the Wicked " Swish, Swish, Swish" in that year, just about 6 years away then.

A couple of years after '75 an Elder asked if I still had the notes I had taken of that Talk, so he could use them in a Letter he was writing to the Org. about that 1975 debacle, I had taken Notes with it all in, but sadly, had disposed of them by then.

Apart from that, Jim was a good guy IMO.

42

My Most Memorable Circuit & District Overseers

by MillennialDawn in

jw
friends

i would love to hear from anyone who may have encountered the following the traveling overseers:.

david wesley - an incredibly kind and humble man.

just the most down-to-earth co you'll ever find.

Phizzy

Yup, John Blaney was one hell of a character, who came over as sincere, but full of fun. There are many stories about him, some I would estimate to be apocryphal, but maybe not ?

He ended up in the London Bethel, with dementia, but played tricks on the lads tasked with looking after him ! He never lost his sense of fun !.

He started out his adult J.W life as a young man on a bicycle, with his literature strapped on the back, cycling in to parts of England where no J.W's were ! In the 1920's I think. He certainly had done his time as a preacher !

42

My Most Memorable Circuit & District Overseers

by MillennialDawn in

jw
friends

i would love to hear from anyone who may have encountered the following the traveling overseers:.

david wesley - an incredibly kind and humble man.

just the most down-to-earth co you'll ever find.

Phizzy

Thanks George, yea, Dotty by name and nature ! The Austen 7 must have been an old car even then !

42

My Most Memorable Circuit & District Overseers

by MillennialDawn in

jw
friends

i would love to hear from anyone who may have encountered the following the traveling overseers:.

david wesley - an incredibly kind and humble man.

just the most down-to-earth co you'll ever find.

Phizzy

I remember Graham Carmichael, he did have a sense of humour ! and not the practiced/scripted jokes the C.O says at every Congregation, and his poor wife has to force a snigger !

I never got to have a drink with him, but did with a couple, one who stayed with us when we were young was Albert Broad,C.O and then D.O, he was an O.K guy, and as long as I stocked the fridge with his favourite Bulldog Ale, and he was allowed to watch Cartoons on T.V, he was as happy as Larry ! His missus, forget her name, was bit strange, sweet enough, but always wanted to do the washing up ! she said it was because she didn't have her own kitchen.

60

Is There Concrete Evidence That The Org. Has Covered up Child Abuse?

by Vanderhoven7 in

i hear of a plenty of personal testimonies of abuse but it is harder to prove organizational complicity.

.

Phizzy

I am pleased to see this result in Court............ Elders take note ! Always do the Morally Right thing, do not try to circumvent the Law, or YOU will pay !

Even if the law where you are does not lay down Mandatory Reporting, it is your Moral Responsibility to report even a hint of Abuse, the Authorities are qualified to decide on the accuracy of rumours, qualified to protect and care for Victims, YOU are not !

Your first concern should be protection of the vulnerable, not the Org.

YOU are not the Police, or Qualified in Social and Mental care.

9

Meetings were bad back then.

by Rattigan350 in

jw
friends

meetings have always been bad.. if paul had to "command" people to not forsake the gatherings, the meetings must have been really bad.. considering that jesus said in matt 18:20 "for where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there i am in their midst.”".

and then in matt 11:28-30: "come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and i will refresh you.

take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for i am mild-temperedi and lowly in heart, and you will find refreshment for yourselves.

Phizzy

Way back in the 1980's I remarked to an Elder that 25% of our potential attenders were absent, EVERY Meeting, (not the same ones, they took turns, must have had a Rota !) apart from C.O's visit, when miraculously even some we hadn't seen for ages were there, the Elder replied to my observation, "That is because the Meetings are so boring" !!! That was THEN ! I cannot imagine what they are like now !

Back then the stuff to be presented was puerile, and the whole thing left me feeling "There is nothing spiritual here ". I know now how right I was !

32

Sagely advice of a CO

by Vidqun in

“a circuit overseer started out by saying that on this last round of the circuit, the one thing he noticed the most...is that everyone is physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually drained...and that cuts across all barriers and demographics within the truth.

he then said that the one common thread that ran among nearly everyone was this: we feel guilty for feeling bad.

he said because we are told to endure with joy, our minds can cause us to feel enormous guilt over feeling this way...and then, my dear brothers and sisters...he proceeded to blow our collective minds.. he asked us to turn to daniel 8:27….

Phizzy

The Irony of "Jehovah's Happy People" !! it is a miserable religion, all joy was wrung out of it decades ago, hence the huge quantity of obviously depressed J.W's, but I think nearly ALL J.W's suffer a hidden depression.

They are told that non J.W's are not happy, a M.S who came to visit me some time after I left actually said to me "But you can't be happy" !! What a Twat, leaving gave me a true, lasting happiness I had NEVER experienced in my life before !

Phizzy, a Happy Humanist Non-theist.

11

A registered sex-offender became a ministerial servant; he’s now in prison for assaulting child

by Tahoe in

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-registered-sex-offender-became-a-ministerial-servant-for-jehovah-s-witnesses-in-springfield-he-s-now-in-prison-for-assaulting-child/ar-aa1h4vjg.

a level 3 sex offender who moved to springfield and secured a role with the jehovah’s witnesses religious organization is now in prison.

jay aaron smith, 62, was sentenced recently in hampden superior court to 15 years in prison for several counts of indecent assault and battery on a child.

Phizzy

The Org. itself is responsible for this, they refuse to take on the Moral Duty to do a Criminal Records check, and then appoint known offenders !

Small Clubs and Associations here in the U.K, and of course the larger ones, do this. No one is appointed to a position of Authority and therefore power, who has any kind of Criminal Record.

If the Org's claim that they " do not allow members to be alone with someone...... blah...blah.... it is the parents responsibility ..blah ...blah..." was something that worked they could continue to hide behind that nonsense, but NO IT DOES NOT WORK ! or these things would not keep happening.

I hope another huge Law Suit goes their way over this. Maybe, just maybe, then they would then live up to their Moral Responsibility to make sure the vulnerable members are protected.