sir82 has it exactly right. It drove me nuts to do this since it cooked the books so much. Some pubishers would give me 12 months of records. Some years I would report more publishers for August than we had in the congregation!
RealElder
JoinedPosts by RealElder
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10
Year Report for New Zealand out - 2% increase.
by skin incan some one tell me why the last month of the service year (aug 07) has an almost 10% increase over the other months of this year?
july 07 had 12868 pubs, whereas aug 07 had 13852 pubs.
the same increase happened in the previous service year in the last month.
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Watchtower and Awake Subscriptions
by RealElder inwe just had a letter read in our cong.
informing us that the society will no longer be sending out the magazines by subscription.
the letter said that this brings the usa in line with the rest of the world.
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RealElder
We just had a letter read in our cong. informing us that the Society will no longer be sending out the magazines by subscription. The letter said that this brings the USA in line with the rest of the world. Is this accurate, and if so, how long ago did they stop subscription service in your country?
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Special Meeting Canceled
by RealElder inthe special meeting in san diego has been canceled, does anybody know if the other two have also?
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RealElder
The special meeting in San Diego has been canceled, does anybody know if the other two have also?
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77
Conditional love
by noidea inbeing raised a jw sometimes you feel you only know conditional love.
you are only loved if you tow the line.
i only have one thing to say,.
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RealElder
Richie, there is discussion going on between elders. I would venture to say that as a percentage of the JW population, DF'g is down. I have no figures to back this up, only my communications with other elders tells me that not as much is going on. More people are simply "fading away" as this seems to be the path of least resistance than are DA'g themselves. Our cong. has seen 2 families take this path this year.
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77
Conditional love
by noidea inbeing raised a jw sometimes you feel you only know conditional love.
you are only loved if you tow the line.
i only have one thing to say,.
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RealElder
seven006, I have no delusion as to my ability to help people on this board. I am simply making personal comments regarding how I feel we (JW's) should treat people. You have been hurt by the attitude of your parents towards you. Since I have no idea what the story is I'll have to assume that the breakup was very severe in nature, I don't think you simply said "I don't want to be a witness any more" and never spoke about your decision again. If that is all you did I have no explanation for your mothers behavior. I will tell you that there are many active JW's who have a relationship with their children who have left the organization because they no longer believe. I also know that there are parents who can't get past that. As a parent all I can tell you is my wife and I would never do that to our children. Most of our friends who are active JW's also fel the same way. Perhaps there is a new generation of younger witnesses out there who are making up there own mind about these things??? Part of my motivation for posting now after lurking for so long is to see if there are other active JW's out there that share some of my views, are there?
You asked [Do you immediately revert back to the watchtower societies tool of discipline at that point? Have you read one single thread on this board that you would have to say the poster deserves a life sentience of being exiled from the love of their mother and father?]
No I don't and none of the men on the body of elders that I am on are that way either. Discipline is tough to administer and tougher to take, I always loose sleep after a judicial meeting. I have read some posts that would indicate the individual posting has some serious issues and an attitude that would probably keep me from associating with them, yet at the same time if they were close to me I wouldn't completely abandon them.
I'm sorry but I know that nothing I say here will make you feel any better about your situation.
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77
Conditional love
by noidea inbeing raised a jw sometimes you feel you only know conditional love.
you are only loved if you tow the line.
i only have one thing to say,.
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RealElder
Richie, I never heard about Ed Dunlap, but it must have been quite a scandal at Bethel when that happened. This is a good reason why I would never want to go any farther in the org. than I am now. I was PO for a while and went back to Sec. because I didn't like all the contact I had to have with CO's and DO's.
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77
Conditional love
by noidea inbeing raised a jw sometimes you feel you only know conditional love.
you are only loved if you tow the line.
i only have one thing to say,.
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RealElder
noidea, sorry I got you confused with Shaneliza, it is tough keeping track of all the posts. I must admit I'm a little surprised by all the responses to my posts. To answer your question [I heard that if a person read apostate material (like Crisis of Conscience by Ray Franz) that 95-98% would leave the org. Why do you think that is so?] I read this book, (found it fascinating) but it didn't shatter my faith in God or JW's. I know others who read it as well and other books. One that sticks in my mind is a book "Armageddon Around The Corner" written in the early 60's. You should read that one especially the chapter on witness's in 2000. I'm afraid that many in the organization are not enough like the Beoreans, real students of Gods word. That's what I try to be and that is what I've taught my children (both in their 20's still JW's). I disn't necessarily raise them to be Pioneers but rather functional adults capable of taking care of themselves financially and spiritually. We had a lot of challenges getting there but it was worth the trip.
I think if somehow the average witness was to express themselves to you, you would find that they are more "normal" in their thinking than this forum paints them. Remember, there are probably 2,000,000 people in this country that have been or are active witnesse's, most are pretty normal productive people. If they were not, there would be an incredible amount of media coverage about this "cult".
But I think I'm rambling. Later.
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77
Conditional love
by noidea inbeing raised a jw sometimes you feel you only know conditional love.
you are only loved if you tow the line.
i only have one thing to say,.
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RealElder
Noidea, thanks for your patience. You seem like a reasonable, thoughtful person, I wish I could speak with your mother and find out why she has not, at the very least, kept in contact with her grandchildren. Your mother needs to do some research into the latest publications where she will find out several things:
1. She can associate with you when it comes to necessary family matters. The birth of your children, the care of your children, sickness etc.
2. She has absolutly no restrictions on her as far as seeing her grandchildren (unless you put them there). In fact, she has a responsibility to try and teach them about God (if you allow her to).As far as your questions:
[We are suppose to have the true faith.] Yes we are, and since we feel we do it is up to us to live up to that responsibility. The fact that some feel we are "crackpots" is really predjudicial. Some JW's are but most are not.[They cut their families off if they don't become Witnesses themselves.] They shouldn't, in fact they should try to set the best example they can without compromising on doctrinal issue's. That is admittidly hard for some and some have not done things correctly. I don't know how long you have been "out" but things are changing in this regard (but not in print)!
[We are told to go and make disciples. I find that hard to do.] So do I. In fact, I think the way we "do service" now is a terrible waste of resources and we should look to another method to get the bible's message out. This could get me in trouble :-)
[I can understand "New Light" if it's in learning deeper thing about a subject.] This is a big problem for me as well, but not so big that I can't get past the fact that no other religion even comes close to exlaining the bible to me in a way that seems to make sense. I have studied other religions and what they teach and the "truth" still makes the most sense.
I hope this helps, I'll reply tomorrow if you want one.
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77
Conditional love
by noidea inbeing raised a jw sometimes you feel you only know conditional love.
you are only loved if you tow the line.
i only have one thing to say,.
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RealElder
noidea, good questions. I need some time to reply to you, I dont have much time to spend on the internet (so I probably should have stayed off this forum your thinking). You raise a lot of legitimate issues, if I could leave you with one thought; don't give up on Jehovah and don't feel that if you are not associating with JW's you are going to be singled out for punishment by Him. There are a lot of us (elders too), that feel this way and are convinced we have a loving God that judges us by our heart condition.
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77
Conditional love
by noidea inbeing raised a jw sometimes you feel you only know conditional love.
you are only loved if you tow the line.
i only have one thing to say,.
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RealElder
"How dare you try to preach unconditional love.." I think it's clear that I am not trying to preach unconditional love. If it isn't, let me say it again. Unconditional love is not true love, it is an excuse used for selfish reasons. Someone may feel that they are able to love unconditional but at some time in their life they will find themselves in a situation that challenges that belief.