i remember knowing that jcs would ask very personal questions about sex activities.
this article addresses this: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15074595 .
Yea Blues, but what the "Shepherd" Book says, and what really happens, are two different things, in many Congregations. Yours obviously had a responsible and moral group of Elders.
I remember several J.C's in our Congo. where the Elders had to make sure two Elders in particular were not on the J.C, as they were pruriently Pervy. One of those Elders was DF'd later for getting a very young, very vulnerable young sister pregnant.
the difference is now blatantly obvious, older ones who went against direction of the gb and planned for retirement have relatively more comfortable lives.. those who trusted and followed gb direction never got further education or training, pioneered or spent most of their lives knocking on doors for free, making just enough to get by in a part time job.. if you followed direction from the gb then you thought the end was just around the corner so no need to plan for retirement.. now these ones have indeed got old which they were given the impression they never would.
they are a burden on others.
the state has to pay for them in their old age.
LHG, I am glad I am long out of the org. too, but you and I DO pay for the poor deluded J.W's who followed the G.B's nonsense, we pay through our taxes.
I had to endure criticism for starting a Private pension, was told my faith was weak, because "you will never draw it you know", well my timing showed I didn't swallow the bullshit, as Satan's World was supposed to end in October 1975, I started my private pension in August '75 ! oohh ! how weak my faith was
I have been drawing on it for a few years now, and really would struggle on the paltry State Pension alone, but because of that income, I pay a few hundred £££ Tax each year, which the J.W's who didn't do as I did benefit from.
It amused me that about 15 years or so after '75, all of the "older" J.W's, who were looking at only a few years before retirement, started obsessing about Pensions !
it might surprise some to find that john the baptizer's (jtb) death is described a number of ways in the traditions of the gospels, josephus and the mandeans (jewish gnostic sect that followed jtb).
first g.mark says john was reluctantly killed soon after he baptizes jesus by "herod".
this herod is described mark 6:.
I agree fully with your post above, I think it is a pity that many XJW's do not get in to this kind of Scholarship and Thinking.
So many have vestiges of "belief" that leave them in a painful Limbo, once you see how the O.T and N.T were put together, all of that goes, and you are free to appreciate the literary value of the Bible. And of course extra-Biblical works, and Ancient South West Asian literature too, which of course is the basis of much of Scripture, the O.T. of course, but the N.T too, as the incomparable Leolaia pointed out years ago !
did rutherford have any "prophetic" justification for 1919 as the date that jesus declared him (ahem, the wt organisation) the fds?
such as some calculation attached to 1914?
that in 1919, jesus would come looking for his true organisation?.
"Please read '' The Gentile Times Reconsidered'' by Carl Olaf Jonson.*
It puts the WT theology of 607 BCE,,,to bed."
A contributor on here Jeffro had a Web Page that was very easy to understand, plus a good number of Threads and comments on here.
It is vital to appreciate the error and nonsense of 607 BCE, as then the whole Tower of Lies falls, like a House of Cards.
No 1914 = no 1919 "choosing" = Today's G.B are self-appointed Charlatans ! Which means their opinions on anything are just that, the opinions of deluded fraudsters.
* When I was just "waking up" I used to long for 1914 to be totally debunked, I was shocked to read C.O.Jonson's Letter to the Org. from before he wrote his Book, explaining the 1914 error in such detail they could not mistake the import of what he said, I thought to myself "They knew all along it was wrong ! They still know, but carry on conning the J.W's and the Public ! What Liars !".
it might surprise some to find that john the baptizer's (jtb) death is described a number of ways in the traditions of the gospels, josephus and the mandeans (jewish gnostic sect that followed jtb).
first g.mark says john was reluctantly killed soon after he baptizes jesus by "herod".
this herod is described mark 6:.
JTB has always been a figure who interested me immensely, even when I was a believing J.W, I found him mysterious, other-worldly.
As you rightly say, confusing ! a number of Scholars rely too much on the Gospel and other N.T. info, not only with JTB, but with things like dating events.
I wonder if JTB has become so entwined in pre-first Century expectational Myth to unravel who he was, and when he lived ?
i had a day off today and needed to get some errands done in my local town.
2 carts have allocated here but i never ever see anyone out, even on very nice days.
70% of the congregation don’t work.
I was astounded they made this move, no more hours to report for most J.W's, but it moves even further away the legal liability of J.W's being Agents of the Org.
But it may hasten the demise of the Org. What incentive is there to try to make converts in any real way ? what incentive for young men to "reach out" ? and how do they signal they are doing so ?
May the Org. wither and die soon.
if you once were fully pimi and truly believed jw doctrine to the core like i once did, when you come to the reality that it is not the truth at all it can be extremely devastating.. i think only other ex jws could ever understand.
i wasted my entire life i thought the real life was yet to come to wasted the best years knocking on doors.
now i’m so angry.. i can understand why so many top themselves when they realise it was all lies..
I was never truly happy until I ceased to believe. The adjustment period was hard, and as the Thread Title says, nobody understands if they have not left a lifetime of Indoctrination.
I found that researching, properly Fact Checking, and using Critical Thinking Skills enabled me to eradicate any vestige of Indoctrination.
There then followed a lot of time spent coming to terms with my mortality and other things, but I ended up a very, truly, Happy Humanist Atheist.
it feels like the change in reporting of hours becomes a fundamentally bigger deal every day.
the weight and importance placed on quantity was enormous, and now it's just gone.
even tho most witnesses really didn't keep "accurate" records so to speak hehehe.... this could very well be a precursor to even bigger doctrinal changes, like 1914. damn, would would happen then?.
" Other things they can change but not this, if they were wrong about 1914 they everything else with fall apart."
Exactly, the Doctrine is the very Foundation of the religion, take that away, and their "building" really is "built upon sand".
They will continue shackled to the 1914 utter nonsense, but will rarely mention the actual year, and will just present what they have always said as surrounding that year as a "given".
They are on dodgy ground indeed, more young people these days are less likely to accept at face value a "given".
it feels like the change in reporting of hours becomes a fundamentally bigger deal every day.
the weight and importance placed on quantity was enormous, and now it's just gone.
even tho most witnesses really didn't keep "accurate" records so to speak hehehe.... this could very well be a precursor to even bigger doctrinal changes, like 1914. damn, would would happen then?.
If they drop 1914, then there was no 1918/19 choosing of an FDS by Jesus, which means the G.B of today have no authority.
No 1914 = no "Choosing" = Today's G.B. are self-appointed Charlatans.
were the works of homer, aeschylus, sophocles, etc.
acting blasphemously when creating their works of fiction because they included the gods in the stories?
when homer placed dialog into athena's mouth, was he wrong to use his creativity to make her come alive for an audience?
