i've been a member here for approx 4 months now.
i've made all of 68 posts.. on the otherhand, i visit the site daily and try to read every thread.
unfortunately i travel alot for work.
Bugger - Welcome!
Jeremiah - I understand the feeling. I'm pretty new here too, but I was a JW for 32 years, and it took me awhile to get my bearings once I was out, so I didn't look for forums for a few years. Having a large number of posts isn't important. It's like Abraham Lincoln said, "It's better to be silent and be thought an fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
first of all let me say that i choked!
i choked because i told myself if they came back that i would have a field day!
didn't happen.
Chicken Little - LOL! That is perfect!
I don't open my door to strangers, unless they're bringing me pizza.
how long were they able to stay?
what conversation or other things did you do together?.
We had the CO stay with us a couple of times. One of them actually came outside and tossed the Frisbee around with us.
Had them over for a meal many times - usually a very nice time.
One time my family was away for the DC (at a time when you could pick which one you wanted to attend, so half of the congregation went to one and the other half went to another) when it was time for the CO visit. They stayed at our house while we were gone and, looking over our phonograph records, found a "Bert and I" album (a duo who specialized in Maine humor) that had some naughty words on it (like "damn" and "hell"). When we returned the PO took my Dad aside and mentioned what they'd found. Needless to say, when we got home Dad smashed the record to pieces and threw it away. Mind you, we were still pretty new.
i started pioneering the month i finished high school, and never stopped until i awakened, 17 years later.
it seems like the entire time, there was so much emphasis on pioneering.
every field service meeting seemed to have a part that communicated the message that jehovah would zap us at the big a. or people would die because of us if we didn't have extenuating circumstances (i always translated as bad health or kids, but even then, there were always "examples" of the mom with 5 kids that was pioneering).
I used to "temporary pioneer" (75 hours for the first month, 100 hours for each consecutive month thereafter) one month each summer while I was in school, but then I got married right out of high school. By then it was "auxiliary pioneering" (60 hours a month), and I kept doing that for the first year and a half of my marriage. I felt guilty for not regular pioneering, but I couldn't stomach 100 hours of FS every month, especially with the harsh winters we had in Maine.
I had to get a full-time job after a while, and then I couldn't pioneer at all. Felt guilty, guilty, guilty, especially during those service meeting parts that gave the example of the blind sister with the unbelieving mate, 5 kids, and a wooden leg who regular pioneered. Or the parts that mentioned the fanatical zeal of the brothers in Japan where apparently there were whole congregations of pioneers.
Guilt got me to try auxiliary pioneering while working full-time. It nearly killed me.
Guilt got me to try regular pioneering twice, both times a miserable failure (because I loathed FS). Then I got to experience a different type of guilt.
So, yes, I felt guilty.
Pioneering, A Misnomer at Best
Scottleblog - The Odd Life of Jehovah's Witnesses
according to the bite model, mind control groups keep their members busy, tell them they are special, have special lingo, etc.. doesn't that make "full-time ministers" into a deeper level of mind control?
it's a "special privilege" to be among those "ranks", there are extra meetings "anual pioneer meeting", "pioneer school", and a whole other level of guilt/indocrination/control for keeping pioneers/bethelites busy.
as "examples", they shouldn't socialize too much, they shouldn't miss field service groups, they should start their time early, they should study all the publications, etc.
The cult like attributes of being a JW are definitely more pronounced at Bethel.
Amen to that. My brother was a Bethelite for 18 years and even got to get married while in Bethel. I visited him there many times, and got to see it first hand. There are rules about every stinking thing. One time I was eating in the Bethel dining room and absent-mindedly used the butter knife to spread it on the bread. Audible gasps around the table and a stern look from my brother. Later I got a lecture from him. Jeepers! And I'm 2 years older than he is.
My parents worshipped him and were always urging me to encourage him and his wife. "They work so hard at Bethel." Yes, dammit, and I have a full-time job, work my a$$ off in the ministry and in the congregation, but nobody cleans my house for me or cooks my meals or does my laundry.
Oh, and every word that dropped from his mouth was a holy nugget. I remember telling my father about some piece of news I'd heard from a visiting Bethel speaker and him poo-pooing it. Then a couple of days later he called me with the exact same piece of news, except he'd heard it from my brother. Now it was official.
the broadcaster, july 16, 1925. .
the broadcaster was a four-page, second-class publication, that hoped to reach hundreds of thousands of persons through the mails.
later, this publication was discontinued, because so many failed to reach their destination.
Those old magazines were such sensationalist rags.
it's clear to me now - more than ever - that the wording in the watchtower is full of mind-manipulation.
one that is glaring is how the wording always suggests that following the wts [watchtower society] is synonymous with listening to god/jehovah.
so, if you pursue an education, you must be saying in your mind, i want to prepare for the future, just in case jehovah doesnt bring the end in my lifetime.
I'm trying to remember how I got to the Kool-Aid stage when my family joined the cult. I guess it was the reasoning that since Big J was blessing the organization it had to be God's agent on earth. Of course, the same argument could be made in favor of some soulless corporation. Oh, wait....
"i do not permit a woman to teach, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence.
" -- paul.
okay, so this means that a sister has to speak to a householder when on the platform, so she isn't addressing us herself and teaching us something.
I remember listening to virtually illiterate brothers give the worst talks imaginable and thinking about all of the capable, intelligent women I knew who could have run circles around them. What a waste of minds!
from http://www.jw.org/en/news/events-activities/annual-meeting-report-2012/.
when does jesus appoint the slave over all his belongings?.
in those verses, jesus is referring to his coming as judge during the great tribulation.matthew 24:30; 25:31, 32.. jesus appointment of the slave over his belongings, then, must also be a future event.
If I were still a JW I would be so freakin' confused at this point. They're changing core beliefs. How many bricks can they take out of the foundation before the whole structure collapses?
[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser /> </w:worddocument> </xml><![endif].
i know an elder that sprinkles this one into a lot of his talks and comments:.
ifn the society tells us to plant turnips upside down then we should.
