Posts by Perry

disfellowshipping is a "loving" provision.. when the wtbts want their accolytes to swallow another bitter pill, another restriction, another rebuke, another demand on time, the buzz word is "loving".. the "loving" word, is, to the average jw, the same as the mccabe nod is to the salesman.

the mccabe nod is used by salesman all the time to get the prospective customer to agree to something that he doesn't care for too much.

Perry

Let's face it folks...WBTS is a secret society. It's anominity always made me mad.... like a bad dream from some nightmarish Orwillian tale.

They even have a name for all the 19th century Fredillian phrases. It's called - "pure language"

Then there is the mind numbingly oxymoronic phrase "obeying God's Laws and Principles". It's too dangerous to allow people to simply follow "principles"....memo to writing dept...always insert 'laws' when discusing principles".

"finely rewarded" ... as opposed to... un-finely rewarded???

"steward" .... when I was a kid I wondered why they had flight attendants back then when there were no airplanes.

"rondeveau"... more prevelant in 60's and 70's for describing a covert action by which all secret agents will convene at an unsuspecting Dairy Queen for "food at the proper time".

When trying to show authority over you it's , "the brothers" feel, have said, encourage us, (insert command here)

When getting ready to slam a thought or attitude it's always, "many people" have wondered, have asked, pondered, (insert stupid question you want to destroy like ... Is it wrong to celebrate birthdays?)

"Running ahead" - I learned all about "running ahead" when I got the crap beat out of me as a kid after assemblies for running in the hall.

"Spiritual Paradise" - more prozac please!

"appropriate" - a fixall thought stopping weapon

"gird" - you figure that one out

"so-called" - great for intimating hypocrisy to others. Simply add the word you want to destroy after that phrase.... like Christians, faithful ones, brothers, enlightenment, etc.

"walking according to" - (insert command here)

"taught by Jehovah" - great for equating the Org. with the Almighty

"strong in the truth" - describes a catatonic state of unyielding devotion to the organization

"weak in the truth" - see result of running ahead above.

"pray about it" - an outstanding tool to free yourself from absolutely any notion of emotion or empathy

"How's your field service time" - illustrious wisdom to cure any ill and a prelude to the best sleep medication an Elder has:

"Let me know how it works out"

These last three are most effective when used together

EX. Brother - "My wife attacked me with a huge hunting knife and was screaming at the top of her lungs that she was going to kill me. After getting the knife from her she checked herself into a hospital and called several sisters and told them I beat her up and put her in the hospital. I never laid a hand on her".

Elder: "Have you tried praying about it? How's your field service time? Let me know how it works out.

45 minutes later - Elder is sucking the paper off the wall with loud obnoxious snoring sounds punctuated by occasional air sucking. Elders' wife is in bed with a half gallon of ice cream and a diet coke reading about the latest weight loss method.

4

Wilson's Nails

by gravedancer in

jw
friends

wilson runs a nail factory and decides his business needs a bit of advertising.

he has a chat with a friend who works in marketing and he offers to make a tv ad for wilson's nails.. "give me a week," says the friend, "and i'll be back with a tape.".

a week goes by and the marketing executive comes to see wilson.

Perry

Wasn't this story already ignored on a previous thread?

:-)

16

My Response To J R Brown

by silentlambs in

jw
friends

my response to j. r. brown.

i am writing to follow up with information concerning j. r. browns response to comments i made to the media regarding watchtowers policy hurting children and protecting pedophiles.

in the course of the last year the jehovahs witness public information department headed by j. r. brown and local elders have repeatedly offered misinformation to the public.

Perry

1. If a pedophile were to move into your congregation, would you be informed?
2. If a pedophile molested your child, would you be allowed to warn other parents in your congregation?
3. If a pedophile denied he molested your child, and you could not produce two witnesses to the act of molestation, would the church discipline him/her in any way?
4. If the state where you reside does not require reporting a pedophile that has molested a minor, will church officials report it?
5. If, as an adult, you charge a pedophile with molesting you when you were a child and he denies it, would he discontinue serving as an elder?

It seems to me that policy should fall into two catagories. The confirmed pedophile and the alleged pedophile. When viewed this way many questions seem to answer themselves. Even in emotionally charged issues, reason must rule. A Salem witch trial is one possible result when reason is replaced with hysteria.

The question of establishing guilt seems to me to be a matter for Ceasar to handle rather than a congregation. It appears to me that the burden of proof would fall upon the accuser, or in the case of a minor, upon his/her guardians.

Sure, their is the scripture against taking your brother to court. But doesn't the grave consequences of this alleged crime with its implications of safety for other children together with the fact that a congregation is not trained in the skills of criminal investigations weigh in the favor of mitigating this biblical counsel. Even Jesus did things for people that he was not specifically authorized to do because to look the other way, and uphold a "law" would have violated the principle of love which is clearly superior. At Matt.15:21...Jesus did something that he three times said he would not do. The plantiff in this case sucesfully argued that a principle of love superceded a directive of supposed law. Jesus agreed and granted her request. If we don't like the current laws in our particular country then we could simply get busy in voting in law makers that will respond to the will of the majority if we live in a democratic country.

In the case of confirmed child molesters:

Policy makers in the Society should take the lead in providing justice and protection and not merely obey the current law of Ceasar. It could be church policy to list all confirmed pedophiles in a public notice board. Then each parent could simply check their sphere of contacts to see if any familiar names appear. Perhaps the age at the time of offense occured and the age of the victim could also be listed so as to leave it to each one to decide whether or not the 19 year old boy who had sex with the 15 year old girl would constitute pedophilia or not. The # of victims would also be helpful information. The society would not need to relay on Caesar's law to uphold Christs' principle of love if it was operating according to "Christ's mental attitude".

The issue of what a confirmed pedophile would and would not be allowed to do is also made more clear with the existence of a public information board. The true pedophile, in my opinion will never be able to change his sexual orientation. What do we do with them as a society (secular)? Do we lock them up forever? Do we make them wear a sign? Do we shoot them? While I personally prefer the ladder for repeat offenders, what about the pedophile who learns to choose to ignore his orientation? In the recent movie, " A beautiful Mind" the genius schzophrenic learned to ignore his delusions and went on to lead a near normal life which included winning the Nobel Prize. It was a true story.

In my opinion, an organization as large as the Society, should take a multi-disciplanary approach and include psychologists, criminolgists, sociologists, theologians and law enforcement into the formulation of policy. It appears that they have approached the issue from a standpoint of self interest and are consulting only lawyers which by nature are mostly reactionary and typically have little to do with policy advocacy.

What a sad legacy of legalism the Society has left us with:

Matt. 15:6b - And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

4

The difference between JW's & EX-JW's

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

you can go to this thread for context: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=19598&site=3&page=1 (page 3).

i think that this post by namewithheld sums up, to my mind at least, the biggest difference between an exjw and a current jw: a flippant attitude about past (and current, for that matter) wrongs.

when you can no longer glibly pass over other peoples pain at the hands of brothers, is when you can no longer be a part of god's one true (not) organization.

Perry

Six,

I wished I could say I was smart enough to have had a problem with some the doctrines....... sadly I didn't. For me, it was the outer-space-vacuum-like-lack of love that often left me so dizzy that I wondered if I was even on the right planet, much less the right religion.

12

JX's in the Mexican Army!

by Ivor Hope in

jw
friends

one of the many things that totally amazed me when i first read ray franz's first book was the way in which jw's bribed the authorities to get their "pink slip" to say they had completed military service.

not only that, they were also listed as reservists for the mexican army.. does any one know if those jw's are still listed, and if so, shouldn't they be d?a's by their actions?

?

Perry

I dawned on me recently that the reason this policy was allowed was because decades earlier the WBTS had lied about being a religion and only claimed to be a cultural organization. This allowed them to own the property the brothers bought.

Just like the "Oh what a tangled web we weave" nursery rhyme taught us, things only get more complicated when built on lies. If you're a cultural organizion, you can't have a bunch of zealot nuts flooding your courts on religous conscience matters can you? Oh no, Jehovah wouldn't want that would he? You might lose your non-religious staus and have to obey Ceasar or something...maybe fork over the property you fradulently own no, no, no, no we'll have none of that.

Since the money thing isn't an issue anymore and religions can own property, it wouldn't surprise me if the WBTS isn't seeing the glimmering of new light on the matter coming up on the horizon. Jehovah may want them to "educate the brothers consciences" down there by serving up a heapin' helpin' of "food at the proper time".

74

I'm another Newbie

by MyMy in

jw
friends

hey peeps, how are you?.

the name is mark, i've been hanging around here from time to time.

i read about the elders meeting with officer danni.s.

Perry

Thanks for your take on things MyMy. I share your revulsion of the WBTS. I'm 4th generation witness. My family acts like a bunch of emotionaly shut down drones. I truly wish that one day at least one will leave them borg and get into some serious christian living and family life.

The illusion the WBTS has created is very large and penetrates to peoples souls. Be prepared for a long fight. I'm placing my best chance for getting some of them out with the child abuse court fights. My gut tells me it will be absolutely devastating to the society both in terms of credilility and financial loss.

Good Luck and best wishes.

Perry

40

QUESTION: What religion are you in now? ...

by terafera in

jw
friends

this got me to thinking.... now that most of us have left the wts, i notice some have taken other belief systems.

some have come to a peace with their own ideas.. my question is are you involved with another religion?

has it brought you more peace or happiness?

Perry

After several years as agnostic, a non-denominational christian church works for me. I was determined not to let the WBTS jade me...but it took a long time to clear out the biases. I found real christianity to be very simple and really just good ole' common sense.

14

I Attended a Christian Convention last weekend

by Prisca in

jw
friends

when i was a jw (born and raised), i was lead to believe that the clergy class of christendom was some elite class who ruled over the meek and mild sheep of the congregation; that they wore fancy robes to do their services in, and generally were every bad thing the wts told me they would be.. they lied.. i attended a christian convention just this last weekend.

it was a non-denominational one, meaning you didn't have to be of a certain faith to attend, neither were some of the speakers who participated.

however, the organisers were from the anglican (church of england) religion so the communion on sunday was conducted according to anglican tradition, but i'll get to that later.. one of the things that hit me first was that you were allowed to wear what you liked.

Perry

Prisca,

I experienced the same thing when I went to a convention of 30,000 in San Antonio last year. Everyone was happy to be there. The quality of the programs were outstanding and it was so encouraging to see so many families together.

The singing, activities for yougsters, hip music for teenagers, and general love I experienced drove home to me what a complete crock we were all served about Christendom being a harlot.

Seing how the convention was structured with something for everyone, together with just plain biblical encouragement, made me stare aimlessly in stark amazement remembering how I sat through so many witness conventions listening to braggarts who took self glorification to heights probably never even imagined by the NT writers.

If I live a million years I will never forget the tragedy turning my mind over to mere men.