Posts by pale.emperor

25

Work Colleague Went To a JW Funeral - His Experience

by pale.emperor in

so the guy in my office on the desk next to me has just got back from the funeral of his wifes sister.

this was his first time in a kh and full on exposure to jwdom.. bit of background: the deceased jw was not a born in, she was a convert when she was in her teens.

she died last week at the age of 82. the poor old dear was still zealously knocking on doors while in ill health.

pale.emperor

I remember being on the sound desk for a funeral. Some big-shot elder that everyone who wasn't in his clique remembered as being a massive c*nt. He wasn't even in our congregation but we held the funeral there because our KH was a nicer building.

The widow handed me a cassette tape and asked me to record the talk. Which i found odd, and also this was 2008 and we didn't use cassette players in the KH anymore, we used CDs or mp3.

I tried to explain but she just kept holding it out to me, and saying "oh, go on, just record it" and her son (an elder) appeared and commanded that i record the talk.

We dont have a cassette player!

He insisted that i take the tape and record it.

So i just took the tape, did the sound as normal, and handed them back a blank tape.

Never did learn what happened after that.

But what made me chuckle inside during the talk was that the speaker said the following about him:

"Yes, he was a hard man. But Jehovah's holy spirit appointed him as an elder. And what a fine elder he was. As Presiding Overseer no brother in our congregation wore pink ties, the sisters kept their nails trimmed and his boys were all appointed as elders. All seven of them".

Sounds like a dictatorship.

I said to my then-wife next to me "isn't nepotism is a funny thing?"

34

Strange

by Jrjw in

a couple of times at the meetings this year we've been told that in the future we might get some strange directions from the society that might not make any sense to us.

then they've said will we show our loyalty to jehovah by still obeying?

seems a rather unusual thing to say.

pale.emperor

I have family members that would not only drink the kool aid, but would dish it out too and lick the spoon afterwards.

25

Work Colleague Went To a JW Funeral - His Experience

by pale.emperor in

so the guy in my office on the desk next to me has just got back from the funeral of his wifes sister.

this was his first time in a kh and full on exposure to jwdom.. bit of background: the deceased jw was not a born in, she was a convert when she was in her teens.

she died last week at the age of 82. the poor old dear was still zealously knocking on doors while in ill health.

pale.emperor

What a complete disrespect to the person who died - to use someone's death as an "opportunity" to witness. Is nothing sacred to these people?

Who else remembers the When Someone You Love Dies brochure being released at the convention? It was announced as something to always have in your ministry bag for when you meet a greiving relative.

Sick cult.

Personally, when someone loses someone in death i don't talk about any afterlife or "hope" but instead of the person, and the memories we have of them.

30

Unprivileged

by Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho in

something just dawned on me today as i processed my assimilation into the real world (thanks to our new poster, @jester, giving me a major throwback to my first post).. when you're a jehovah's witness, you really are in some sort of la la land.

things which are perfectly normal are acts of eating from the table of the demons.

things which are horribly grotesque and extremely unjust are branded as "righteousness".

pale.emperor

@pale.emperor You know how you disarm JWs with their jargon by calling it "the religion" instead of "the Truth"? From here on out, we should start referring to these so-called "privileges" as "rights".

Haha! that's brilliant, i think i'll start doing that as well.

So far i've used these alternative words, it interrupts their thought pattern:

The truth - the religion

The world - the real world

Apostates - former members

Disfellowshipped - excommunicated (they dont like the Catholic connotation)

The Governing Body - your leaders

Armageddon - The mass genocide

Paradise - post genocide world

A great way to run their brains into a confusing loop is to ask about "new light".

"So what you had before this new light came out wasn't the truth then?"

"So before this new light was announced, if you believed it already before the GB did you were an apostate? But now you can believe it because the GB got the memo after you did?"

"How do you know it's new light and not apostasy from the GB?"

Read Galatians 1:8 "So did Paul already believe in 1914 and an overlapping Generation?"

Stick to the subject and dont let them change it. They give up.

30

Unprivileged

by Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho in

something just dawned on me today as i processed my assimilation into the real world (thanks to our new poster, @jester, giving me a major throwback to my first post).. when you're a jehovah's witness, you really are in some sort of la la land.

things which are perfectly normal are acts of eating from the table of the demons.

things which are horribly grotesque and extremely unjust are branded as "righteousness".

pale.emperor

This is a wonderful post. I never looked at it like that before.

I always likened it to North Korea. Even haircuts are monitored.

25

Work Colleague Went To a JW Funeral - His Experience

by pale.emperor in

so the guy in my office on the desk next to me has just got back from the funeral of his wifes sister.

this was his first time in a kh and full on exposure to jwdom.. bit of background: the deceased jw was not a born in, she was a convert when she was in her teens.

she died last week at the age of 82. the poor old dear was still zealously knocking on doors while in ill health.

pale.emperor

Pale - what state was that in?

ttdtt - Me and Paley are in the UK. I would image it'll probably be in up north part of the UK.

The funeral would have been in the Formby area of the UK.

25

Work Colleague Went To a JW Funeral - His Experience

by pale.emperor in

so the guy in my office on the desk next to me has just got back from the funeral of his wifes sister.

this was his first time in a kh and full on exposure to jwdom.. bit of background: the deceased jw was not a born in, she was a convert when she was in her teens.

she died last week at the age of 82. the poor old dear was still zealously knocking on doors while in ill health.

pale.emperor

So the guy in my office on the desk next to me has just got back from the funeral of his wifes sister. This was his first time in a KH and full on exposure to JWdom.

Bit of background: the deceased JW was not a born in, she was a convert when she was in her teens. She died last week at the age of 82. The poor old dear was still zealously knocking on doors while in ill health. I wont disrespect the poor woman, she was a victim of a vile cult that taken so many precious years from her, not to mention her time and energy when she should have been taking it easy in her old age.

Anyway, so my colleague tells me, her will stated that she be buried rather than cremated due to "the resurrection". This is new to me, I was born in and never heard of this being a JW teaching.

My colleague went to the KH and said:

"I was surprised. It was more like a conference hall, i was expecting them to put a powerpoint presentation on the wall or something. They talked about her for about 5 minutes but even then it was about her being a JW. They didnt mention anything about her. The rest of it was talking about resurrection and loyalty. Which didn't seem to make sense. Loyalty?"

Then he said the speaker said something shocking then quickly moved on. I asked what it was, he said "that her soul is dead now?". I explained about the JWs not believing in an immortal soul. Apparently this shocked/upset some of her never-JW relatives who's only comfort was that she was in a better place. Anyway, the elder quickly moved on.

Back to the womans house for tea and buffet. He said he couldn't discern who the JWs were because he hadn't met most of her family before. Their introductions were very formal but they seemed nice enough. "However..." he laughed "...they did like to give me literature. I just took it to be polite".

Then he takes from his pocket 5 JW.borg business cards, 2 leaflets about life after death and the latest Watchtower magazine.

Really? At a funeral? Who brings literature to a funeral?

28

So here is my long winded story....

by GTSfromSY in

thanks for the warm greetings all.

wow!

i am very moved, really.

pale.emperor

I too had no JW friends despite being born in. Also, not close to my family so i didnt really lose anything or anyone when i left.

I like your writing style. Great story Gabe.

Are you in the UK?

18

little acts of kindness.

by zeb in

jw
friends

just had a coffee on way home when two young mums with babys in strollers came in with the usual bags and stuff for the little ones needs.

i recall our days of little ones and the times we rarely went out.. i bought a coffee voucher for each mum and gave them my best wishes.

i delight in doing random acts of kindness.. i wish everyone here as well a safe and happy christmas/ new year time.

pale.emperor

My daughter and I have personally been on the receiving end of Zeb's kindness all the way from Oz! So thanks again Zeb. Her toy Koala is still pride of place (she actually put it on the Christmas tree a few days ago instead of a bauble).

Just reading here on this forum, I've noticed that ex JWs seem to be more giving than when they were in as well as current jws. I've noticed a pull in this direction for myself as well. Any ideas or theories as to why exciting the bORG seems to make people more giving?

I find myself a lot more outgoing and friendly. I cant believe i used to look down on these people and see them as not real people. I think in all cases, as soon as one group dehumanizes another group it makes it easier to treat them with disrespect, easier to not empathize with them and easier to think of them being destroyed without a care.

The Nazi's did it with the Jews.

The Japanese did it with the Chinese.

And Jehovah's Witnesses to it to everybody else.

Once you're out and see the world as a wonderful, exciting place you appreciate it more because you've missed so much. So you jump in with both feet and want to get involved.

That's my take on it anyway.

19

Greetings everyone! Newly signed up but not new to the site.

by GTSfromSY in

my (very fake) name is gabriel syme or gabe for short.

i have been lurking in the shadows for many years and i want to give all here a heartfelt thank you for all your indirect support.

this website, as well as youtube, and eventually reddit, were all key in me finally accepting the “truth” being not that at all.

pale.emperor

Welcome Gabe

I kinda wish i picked a better name now after seeing yours.

I look forward to reading your future posts.