rory-ks

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Posts by rory-ks

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  9

  Ghostworld of the Excommunicated

  by rory-ks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an account of my own experience of being disfellowshipped.

  i'm sure it will be familiar to many of you.. ghostworld of the excommunicated.

  here's fun, though: please feel free to sign the ghost-wall at the end of the story..

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  rory-ks

  This is an account of my own experience of being disfellowshipped. I'm sure it will be familiar to many of you.

  Ghostworld of the Excommunicated

  Here's fun, though: Please feel free to sign the Ghost-Wall at the end of the story.
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  11

  Jehovah's Witnesses cease to exist before the year 2000

  by rory-ks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  september 1st, 2012, can be marked down in the theocratic calendar as the day the watchtower bible and tract society marched shamelessly into the 21st century.

  on that day, jw.org, official website of jehovah's witnesses, went live, and with one strike the organisation put a match to its past.. .

  seek out the society's online library, its searchable database of publications, and you will soon see that it has only made available literature published since the year 2000. inclusion of the generic work, insight on the scriptures, is of no consequence.

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  rory-ks

  September 1st, 2012, can be marked down in the theocratic calendar as the day the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society marched shamelessly into the 21st century. On that day, jw.org, official website of Jehovah's Witnesses, went live, and with one strike the organisation put a match to its past.
  
  Seek out the Society's Online Library, its searchable database of publications, and you will soon see that it has only made available literature published since the year 2000. Inclusion of the generic work, Insight On The Scriptures, is of no consequence. The fact that the Society considers the Watchtower magazine to be its flagship journal and that it only needs to offer material from 2000 onwards speaks volumes. Anything and everything you need to know about the organisation has been condensed into the last decade. Whatever went before is of no consequence. If it hasn't been written about within the last ten years it is not worth knowing. Greyed out dates give evidence of a former existence, but these hang like the ashes of an unwanted life recently cremated. Quietly Jehovah's Witnesses are obliterating their past as they re-brand themselves a religion for the new millennium. It would not surprise me if the Watchtower Publications Library on CD/DVD is phased out in favour of the constantly updated online edition, thus relieving even its own membership the burden of an inconvenient past. Covering its tracks is not something new to the Society. It is a practised art. However, never before have they been quite so bold as to wipe out almost a century's worth of material.

  These are the first two paragraphs of a longer work. It says enough on its own if you want to comment on it. If you would like to read the rest you can find it here: Jehovah's Witnesses cease to exist before the year 2000
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  69

  I left the Witnesses over 10 years ago, but finally went back

  by JakeMarley in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the entire time i was gone it was nagging at me.

  i hadn't been previously baptized, so leaving wasn't that big a deal.

  now i'm back in the swing of it, going to all meetings and field service.

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  rory-ks

  The world might well be in a mess, but Jehovah's Witnesses do not offer a solution to the world's problems, they are part of the problem.
  
  Paul's shrewd philosophy about what to look for when a society implodes can also be found among JWs. The Society never really seems all that keen on emphasising verses 6 and 7 of 2 Timothy 3, but there is really only one religion that embodies the observation, "For from these arise those men who slyly work their way into households and lead as their captives weak women loaded down with sins, led by various desires, always learning and yet never able to come to an accurate knowledge of truth." Furthermore, Luke's list of signs includes, "Look out that YOU are not misled; for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The due time has approached.’ Do not go after them." Again, this phenomenon can be found primarily in Jehovah's Witnesses.
  
  Anyone who has read Ivan Illich's essay Disabling Professions cannot come away without seeing religion (including JWs) writ loud and clear. In describing man's continued loss of autonomy, and the perview of professions to increasingly disable man, Illich states, "This professional authority comprises three roles: The sapiential authority to advise, instruct and direct; the moral authority that makes its acceptance not just useful but obligatory; and charismatic authority that allows the professional to appeal to some supreme interest of his client that not only outranks conscience but sometimes even the raison d'état." If this doesn't describe Jehovah's Witnesses, I don't know what does, and yet Illich was describing the role of professionals in general.
  
  But not only does the Governing Body adopt a professional role in people's lives, it also promotes the world's professions, and encourages adherence to them. So rather than, "Do not allow the world to squeeze you into its mold," the organisation shows a determination to squeeze its members into the mold of the world. So, there are Awake! articles praising the professions: The police, or the teaching profession, or the medical profession - even going so far as to make it illegal to offer medical advice to fellow congregation members.

  The OP might not be coming back to JWN, but if anyone else reads this post who is contemplating going back, think hard. Seek a solution elsewhere.

  Incarceration, The Sexual Jungle, and the rape of humanity.
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  35

  Prelude to a disfellowshipping: An open letter.

  by rory-ks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  an open letter to the body of elders, .

  sudbury (suffolk) congregation of jehovah's witnesses.. .

  on wednesday, april 4, 2012, the decision will be carried out to announce to the congregation that, rory sullivan is no longer one of jehovah's witnesses.. .

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  rory-ks

  There haven't really been any further developments, Quendi. Not publicly, anyway. However, I am not discounting the possibility that something in the letter might have planted a seed in someone's heart. I passed the letter on to several elders who were not directly involved in the case, so even if the chairman of the committee did not see fit to circulate the letter, others did get to see a copy...so, who knows.

  I think it has also been helpful to those who visit this site. I take consolation from your words that "others have and will take courage from the stand you have taken." I can see that is true just from the kind-hearted and positive comments on this post alone. I include you in that too, Phizzy, you have been very supportive, and I am extremely grateful.

  I have absolutely no regrets about how things turned out. I am so pleased to be outside the walls of the organisation. I feel very much at peace with where I am spiritually. I continue to write at least one article a week for my website, A Carpenter from Nazareth, and it is great to see the visitor count rising incrementally. I am happy just to allow things to gently unfold, future-wise.

  Thank you for momentarily reviving this thread, BlindersOff1. It is good to have the opportunity to update you all on how things are.
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  13

  Harold Camping- we were wrong, but God still used us for His purpose!

  by moshe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  from the family radio website last month--.

  we were even so bold as to insist that the bible guaranteed that christ would return on may 21 and that the true believers would be raptured.

  yet this incorrect and sinful statement allowed god to get the attention of a great many people who otherwise would not have paid attention.

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  rory-ks

  And this, from "The Author's Forward" in the 1917 reprint of The Time Is At Hand, after 1914 had come and gone and not entirely produced what Charles Taze Russell declared it would in the original version:

  "The author acknowledges that in this book he presents the thought that the Lord's saints might expect to be with Him in glory at the ending of the Gentile Times. This was a natural mistake to fall into, but the Lord overruled it for the blessing of His people. The thought that the Church would all be gathered to glory before October, 1914, certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon thousands, all of whom accordingly can praise the Lord - even for the mistake. Many, indeed, can express themselves as being thankful to the Lord that the culmination of the Church's hopes was not reached at the time we expected; and that we, as the Lord's people, have further opportunities of perfecting holiness and of being partici-pators with our Master in the further presentation of His, Message to His people."

  Exactly the same specious reasoning.

  (You can find it here: http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/timeisathand/title.html)
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  66

  Is the WTS and the JW's going to collapse in 2014?

  by braincleaned in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  two years to go, and an embarrassing whole century will have gone by after 1914 -- the date of armageddon.

  in no world is that a "short period of time".... .

  let's put things in perspective, since the wts claims to be the channel god has choosen.

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  rory-ks

  JWs have managed to establish for themselves a doctrine which ensures that they are never wrong.

  They form just 0.1% of the world's population, and yet still maintain that this a "great crowd" which no man is able to number. This number could double, or treble, and it would still be the "few" that are on the narrow path. On the other hand, if there is a sudden downturn in the numbers - even if this turned out to be a mass exodus from the organisation - then they would triumphantly delare that in the last days, according to Matthew 24:12, "the love of the greater number will cool off," and it is the one that "has endured to the end" that will be saved.

  It is a win-win situation.
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  61

  I too have been charged with apostasy! Stunned.

  by FinchAndWeston in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife and i got a letter sent to me stating we are being called before a judical hearing to discuss allegations of apostasy!

  we haven't gone to the meeting in 5 years.

  are the jw's on a witchhunt lately?

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  rory-ks

  Astonishing story, uninformed. But, I agree, it is a satisfactory feeling to be out.
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  406

  ex-jw-uk

  by bigmac in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm quite new to this site, & have realised some members have a union jack symbol under their avatar.

  i don't.. could we have a "show of hands" from any uk members?

  i've already found several by reading older posts..

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  rory-ks

  Sudbury, Suffolk
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  18

  Where is the Society headquarters these days?

  by rory-ks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i actually find this whole matter a bit creepy.

  i find it very hard to think of the watch tower society as a cult in the same mould as jonestown or the branch davidians, and yet their out-of-town facilities increasingly take on the appearance of a cultish stronghold.. where is the society headquarters these days?

  is it up in wallkill?

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  rory-ks

  Thanks, Barbara, that was very helpful.

  Each member of the Governing Body has an apartment in Brooklyn, Patterson, and Wallkill

  This is the sort of thing that powers the Society. How could they possibly give up that sort of financed lifestyle? That's them set for the next thirty-odd years!
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  61

  I too have been charged with apostasy! Stunned.

  by FinchAndWeston in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife and i got a letter sent to me stating we are being called before a judical hearing to discuss allegations of apostasy!

  we haven't gone to the meeting in 5 years.

  are the jw's on a witchhunt lately?

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  rory-ks

  You have not associated for five years? You had coloured lights outside your house? That's all you know? If their letter says "We invite you to a judicial hearing to discuss allegations of apostasy," then ultimately it is a judicial committee to expel you for apostasy. Allegations would first need to be investigated, and then a judicial committee formed.

  Think before sending your letter of disassociation - that is the path they would prefer you take.

  Ignore it. They will have to do better than that.