How sad having the most private decisions in your life in the hands of other people like that. And yet when you are in the organization you come to view this as normal. It is not.
“Who are you to judge the house servant of another?” Rom 14:4
“One there is that is lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But you, who are you to be judging your neighbour? James 4:12
isn't it ironic that the governing body saw fit to produce a child's video warning about the dangers of plastic toys while trying to cover up the danger of sexual predators in their kingdom halls?.
even the theme to listen, obey and be blessed only reinforces the kind of culture that allows the abuse of children to go unnoticed for years.. the callous disregard for children is mind boggling.. i suspect that the governing body knew that there could be some expensive settlements coming up and rushed the production of the ill advised sparlock video to try to squeeze a few more donations out of the rank and file while they still have a chance.
they probably didn't take time to consider that it would only add to their troubles and expose their hypocrisy.. .
The sooner the indoctrination starts the better.
In all fairness the book learning from the great teacher teaches children to resist paedophiles, but the sparlock video is the beginning of a life of spiritual manipulation
Power.
to make attendance at my second district convention "mentally out" both a little more bearable and meaningful, i decided to take some notes of key points as if i were an outsider studying the thought reform methods of jehovah's witnesses.
at first, i was only going to share these notes with my therapist, but inspired by the "parsing the watchtower double-speak" thread, i figured i would share my amateur analysis with everyone.
here are some of the highlights:.
Breakfast for champions, thanks for posting your analysis, it is very insightful and scary.
So basically they are asking you to hand over your heart to them, as you can not handle it yourself. And you have to give them the whole of it, not half. So after you have done this, what do you have to offer to God, or to anyone else for that matter? Is this why God gave you free will? For you to be a slave not to Him but to some ass**** that tells you what to think? Who do this people think they are?
Also remember your heart is desperate, inclined to bad and treacherous, and the questions is, how is theirs?
Everything is about the organization, do not murmur, do not criticize, do not doubt, do not think, if you are not with them you are against them, as they equate themselves with Jesus himself.
They are effectively destroying people. If you destroy somebody’s sense of self, what’s left? This cult is evil and they are getting more and more radical, poor you that had to endure this program, I wouldn’t have been able to, and poor the ones that believe in all this BS.
in case anyone missed it:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/227017/1/watchtower-found-guilty-ruled-to-pay-7-million-to-1-victim-wow.
the wt has been found negligent and ordered to pay $7 million to a vistim of child abuse, plus punitive damages (not yet determined).. the punitive damages may well exceed the $7 million.
I find the graphics in the September watchtower very disturbing. I also heard from some people that is still in, that they are preparing them for persecution. Maybe now that I see them from the outside, the picture is clearer, but I find them more and more extreme and even frightening.
They are preaching the fall of Christendom for many years now, what type of privileged information do they have in regards to that? The Bible? They fit the description of Babylon the Great far better than the Catholic Church. Why do they have this fixation?
They hide behind the people of the r&f, and that’s why they need to have them so controlled.
The r&f are not even going to hear about this case, even if they hear it wont have much of an effect, this are the last days, even in the pure congregation there are ravenous wolves, etc.
Even if some people inside the organization are hypocrites, some of them are not, and my heart goes to this ones, because they don’t know what they are supporting.
i work at a very recognizable company (hint they are the father (mother?
) of the tla).
as one of the rank and file at that company i can say even my direct manager has no clue what my job is like on a day to day basis.
I think the GB are not the ones pulling the strings. They put the face, but there are many other interests at stake. They have to trust in the people they have around, and some of them are possibly working against the organization, others probably want to impose their own view and are the ones responsible for some of the most extreme policies. There are also the share of incompetent ones that every organization has, possibly the ones involved in the Sparlockgate.
If they started as r&f it means they were believers at some point at least. They probably believe in what they do at some level without necessarily believing it is the truth. In any case power tends to corrupt and they have a lot of it.
literally hundreds and hundreds of quotations like the one below have been made, to "prove" that only the heavenly -hopers are "sons of god".
(type in 'spiritual sons of god' in cd rom).
"jehovah forgives the error of the other sheep on the basis of jesus shed blood of the covenant.
I never paid much attention at the meetings when they started talking about the 144000, Babylon the Great, the scarlet Beast, etc. so I probably missed important points like that of Jesus being the mediator for only the 144000. I don’t even remember that.
They are trapped by their own lies, when they should be focusing on the weightier matters of the Law, like justice, mercy and faithfulness, rather than on dragons, wild beasts, and drunken harlots.
to brothers and sisters passing by, a note to think about:.
your elders and ministerial servants are just men, not prophets, not appointed by holy spirit, they are human beings like you.. you attribute or impute some quality to us that does not exist, we are not any close to god than you are.
the training we received did not prepare us for the kinds of situations we were thrown into.
In every congregation there are some elders that try to do their best, and there are also the big egos that put themselves above the others. Same goes for elderettes.
Unfortunately the organization promotes the differentiation of people based on their title, and on external appearances, and the ones at the bottom of the hierarchy become dependent and approval-seeking of the ones at the top, which contributes to the degradation of everyone as they become followers of men rather than followers of Christ.
Critizising the elders is like going against the holy spirit, the only unforgivable sin, so the simple sheep will think twice before opening their mouths against the arrangement. Not that many in the congregation will listen, after all nobody wants to be like rebel Korah and his followers that ended up being swallowed by the earth.
there are some major problems with the jws, doctrinally, socially, and organizationally.
from shunning to crazy elder bodies to guilt trips, there are many things that were really bad.
this thread is devoted to the small, insignificant things that just really really irked you.
Field service
Hypocrisy
Stupid comments, (also stupid conversations that lead nowhere)
Talks about headship/sister’s status
Depressed sisters
Jealousy
Being lectured by somebody that doesn’t have a clue
Local needs: do more return visits
Blackmail in any of its forms
Stalkers
Being looked at as a Pharisee for voicing a different point of view
Etc.
how can we imitate the loyalty.
in our loyalty to our marriage.
your marriage mate.
Hi Blondie, thanks a lot for this interesting study. Much deeper understanding than what we are used to hear at the meetings.
