Maryo

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Posts by Maryo

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  32

  Are the 2015 Belgium Concert for Delegates and Kingdom Hall Cowboy Footloose Videos on Youtube for real?

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0fxyk4iba.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qxdgtaskfm.

  i find these shocking.

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  Maryo

  Very well stated, Pete Zahut! It was taught the KH was a HOLY PLACE.
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  19

  Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., Jehovah's Witness Psychologist

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  in about 1980 i came to know of and meet one time with lawrence onoda, ph.d., a jehovah's witness psychologist [also i think elder] in southern california.

  i was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the wts traditional stance against jws consulting such a person!

  he had been one of jws for six years at that time, i recall.

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  Maryo

  What a totally dreary counseling session, Pete Zahut!
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  32

  Are the 2015 Belgium Concert for Delegates and Kingdom Hall Cowboy Footloose Videos on Youtube for real?

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0fxyk4iba.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qxdgtaskfm.

  i find these shocking.

  1. 
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  3. 
• 

  Maryo

  You are absolutely right, Smiddy, great description. The Belgium one is very reminiscent of a fundamentalist revival meeting, complete with worldly songs! As one of my sisters used to say, "absolutely unreal." A story from my family: in the 1980s, a pair of JWs came to my other sister's house. [She was raised around the truth but never baptized.] She brought up Michael Jackson to them and how his music, demeanor, etc., etc., was far from what we were told was appropriate for a Christian. We could not even have pictures of the Beatles in our lockers. The JWs responded that "Jehovah will judge Michael Jackson." My sister said, "Oh, I see, Jehovah is going to judge Michael Jackson ... and in the meantime you will take care of the rest of us!"
• 
  32

  Are the 2015 Belgium Concert for Delegates and Kingdom Hall Cowboy Footloose Videos on Youtube for real?

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0fxyk4iba.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qxdgtaskfm.

  i find these shocking.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Maryo

  Yes, the Old Timers I remember would be more shocked than I am ... and would add righteous indignation and outrage. I remember after I disassociated and attended a church for the first time how liberated I felt being able to have coffee after the service! Perhaps the "dislike" was a mistake? I want to be popular!
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  32

  Are the 2015 Belgium Concert for Delegates and Kingdom Hall Cowboy Footloose Videos on Youtube for real?

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0fxyk4iba.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qxdgtaskfm.

  i find these shocking.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Maryo

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0FXYk4IBA

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QxDGtAsKFM

  I find these shocking. In years past, this sort of things would NEVER have been permitted. I saw some other videos involving singing in the Kingdom Hall that are shocking too. In my day, we could not even drink a cup of coffee in the Kingdom Hall as it was strictly for Jehovah's worship. My, how things evidently have changed!
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  19

  Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., Jehovah's Witness Psychologist

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  in about 1980 i came to know of and meet one time with lawrence onoda, ph.d., a jehovah's witness psychologist [also i think elder] in southern california.

  i was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the wts traditional stance against jws consulting such a person!

  he had been one of jws for six years at that time, i recall.

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  Maryo

  I actually thought somewhere inside me that they cared about me as an individual… I guess because of the talks from the platform and articles in the Watchtower. Jehovah loves you as an individual…the elders must too – as representatives of Jehovah. It was hard for me to accept that they had no personal care about me whatsoever. But painfully obvious. It sounds so peculiar now when I hear Stephen Lett with his sweeping gestures and exaggerated mannerisms pronounce that the Governing Body/Jehovah loves you very much. I flash momentarily back to that meeting ... and feel it is all for show or something very odd I cannot put into words.
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  19

  Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., Jehovah's Witness Psychologist

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  in about 1980 i came to know of and meet one time with lawrence onoda, ph.d., a jehovah's witness psychologist [also i think elder] in southern california.

  i was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the wts traditional stance against jws consulting such a person!

  he had been one of jws for six years at that time, i recall.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Maryo

  Part Two

  So, the appointment with Mrs. Brown was canceled.

  For the next 15 years I struggled along the best I could. I came into many difficulties and extremely painful places in life and with the congregation that are too personal to here relate. Perhaps with some proper professional counseling, this could have been avoided. In about 1971, I married a nice young brother who had recently become a witness. We entered into a hasty marriage due to the Watchtower Society’s stance on sexuality. It is to be noted that the Watchtower Society [at that time and perhaps now] had no arrangement for premarital counseling. It seems to me that if divorce is not permitted except on the ground of adultery, that some premarital counseling by elders or other professionals would be advisable. We were married until about 1980. We were incompatible in some important ways… but I tried very hard to make the best of it until about 1980. My husband was eventually appointed a ministerial servant and began to accompany elders on shepherding calls.

  I relate the following dialogue as verbatim as I can remember. I am trying not to give too many details or asides. Details, however, sometimes do make things more interesting! I am using names here. I have heard that several of the individuals mentioned here are now deceased.

  In about 1980, my husband and I stopped going to the meetings. Several things about Jehovah’s Witnesses were seriously distressing us and did not seem right. We ended up separating. My husband was now gone, and I was living in our small rented house by myself. At this time also, there were several consecutive deaths in our family. Within a period of six months, my grandmother, my mother and my husband’s mother all died. I was generally in a state kind of silent “shock”… or something. One afternoon, two elders came to the door to see how I was doing, that they had missed me/us at the meetings. I cannot remember what I said. The two brothers knew we had had several deaths in the family recently. Brother Cal Currans, an old-time Jehovah’s Witness, said somewhat abruptly, “If you are thinking of leaving the truth, you will not be the first… there was Judas Iscariot.” I had a sick sort of feeling that this is what he would choose to say. Recently, I saw in an old 1930s [I think] Watchtower that any who left the group at that time were considered in the Judas Class. Interesting…

  Some period of weeks/months went by. I was “dragging” myself off each day to a dreary job as my husband was now gone and I had to support myself.

  One evening after work, the telephone rang. It was Gilbert Sanchez, one of the elders. He wanted to know if two elders could come to my house and talk to me. I was in an optimistic mood that day. I said, “Sure, why not?” [I did not understand what would happen to me and the repercussions. The policy of what would happen to one disassociating was unclear in my mind. I believe there had been several changes in the policy. In retrospect, I should not have agreed to this meeting so readily. I should have adopted a more thoughtful approach. In the early 1980s, there was no Internet and support from others available.]

  Gilbert Sanchez and another elder [Greg Dewey] came to my house at the appointed time. They wanted to know my position as to whether Jehovah’s Witnesses had the truth. I said if I thought that, I would still be going to the meetings at the Kingdom Hall. The elder indicated they would be deciding in the next few days whether an announcement of disassociation would be made. They were basically finished, and stood up to go to the door. I said something like, “Don’t you want to know my reasons for this?” It was obvious they really were not interested in the reason. [I was stunned and felt ill inwardly as I realized this was the case. Reluctantly, they both sat back down. It was almost like I had to pull on their suits and make them sit back down.] Gilbert Sanchez said, in a begrudgingly concessionary manner, “What is that you would like to say?”

  I proceeded to relate tearfully [I am not a crier] how listening to the Watchtower Society had ruined my life – I should have done what I thought was right all along. The elder asked me, “Have you ever considered that the reason these things upset you so much is that you do not have a good relationship with Jehovah?” In that moment it became obvious to me that I did not “get” Jehovah in the way that the others apparently did. I responded, “Well, if I have done everything I have supposed to have done as a Jehovah’s Witness for 15+ years [since my baptism in 1966] and somehow I have missed God, then surely I should try something else don’t you think!” There was just silence, as I recall.

  Gilbert Sanchez also said I should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. From something Barbara Anderson has written, it seems as if this was a parroting of something the Watchtower Society had instructed elders to say.

  Other things remembered from that meeting: “The friends at the Kingdom Hall love you very much – none of them want to see you die Armageddon.” I guess that is what being a Jehovah’s Witness has always been about. I was watching a Raymond Franz video lately. In it he tells about how he came into the truth. His father had told him he should become baptized and/or a more serious witness so he would not die Armageddon. Interesting…

  I mentioned in the meeting with the two elders that I was only 14 when I became baptized and did not realize everything involved. I did not realize, for example, that I would not be able to go to college. I was assured that going to college had always been a matter of conscience… Silly me, I had evidently misconstrued that. And 14 was certainly an age of understanding. In addition, I had continued many years after 14 as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I could not claim my baptism was invalid.

  This meeting with the two elders occurred almost 35 years ago. After all of the things these individuals must have heard and seen since that meeting, I cannot help but wonder how they feel about the “truth” now or felt about the “truth” at the end of their life? I believe that Gilbert Sanchez, Greg Dewey, and Charles Simonis are deceased. Lawrence Onoda is still alive. I do not know about Cal Currans.

  Now that I am almost 65 years old, it is gratifying to live long enough to see the recent developments around the Watchtower Society with the large group of “apostates,” the Australian Royal Commission, and evidently the “new” Jehovah’s Witnesses.
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  19

  Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., Jehovah's Witness Psychologist

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  in about 1980 i came to know of and meet one time with lawrence onoda, ph.d., a jehovah's witness psychologist [also i think elder] in southern california.

  i was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the wts traditional stance against jws consulting such a person!

  he had been one of jws for six years at that time, i recall.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Maryo

  Very interesting, AudeSapere! Did your friend go on to become an alcohol/drug counselor? How does she feel about the "truth" now?

  More about me: learning about and meeting with Lawrence Onoda was why I disassociated from Jehovah's Witnesses. Here is the background: I was raised around Jehovah's Witnesses and became baptized when I was 14 (in 1966). As a child, I had experienced several molestation episodes by my stepfather (when I was seven years old) and later by my mother's boyfriends. I found life in general and sex in particular very confusing. When I was about 16, I was feeling very "depressed". One of my favorite songs was by Janis Ian "insanity comes quietly to the structured mind." And, I was sleeping a lot … sometimes like 16 hours a day. So, [being the resourceful person that I am], I located a County of Los Angeles counselor [a social service provided by the county for low-income people], called to make an appointment, and took the bus over to the appointment. There I met with a counselor, Mrs. Brown. I tried to explain to her what I had experienced. She said this had happened to many girls and was not so unusual. I found that reassuring. I believe there was a second appointment with her too … and plans for future appointments and more conversations about this. I felt somewhat better already. Before the next appointment, one of the elders (Charles Simonis of the Huntington Park congregation) came to make a shepherding call on my grandmother, with whom I was living at the time. I must have mentioned something about going to see a counselor. Brother Simonis said in no uncertain terms that going to worldly counselors was not for Christians. We had God's Word the Bible, and we did not need any worldly philosophy to help with our problems. I felt unhappy/distressed about this … but nevertheless telephoned Mrs. Brown to cancel our next appointment. I said that it was against my religion. [To be continued.]
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  19

  Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., Jehovah's Witness Psychologist

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  in about 1980 i came to know of and meet one time with lawrence onoda, ph.d., a jehovah's witness psychologist [also i think elder] in southern california.

  i was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the wts traditional stance against jws consulting such a person!

  he had been one of jws for six years at that time, i recall.

  1. 
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  3. 
• 

  Maryo

  When did you and your family see him? Do you have knowledge if he is still a witness until this day? I agree with you… I do not understand how he believes at all!
• 
  19

  Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., Jehovah's Witness Psychologist

  by Maryo in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  in about 1980 i came to know of and meet one time with lawrence onoda, ph.d., a jehovah's witness psychologist [also i think elder] in southern california.

  i was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the wts traditional stance against jws consulting such a person!

  he had been one of jws for six years at that time, i recall.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Maryo

  In about 1980 I came to know of and meet one time with Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., a Jehovah's Witness psychologist [also I think elder] in Southern California. I was shocked to know there was such a thing in view of the WTS traditional stance against JWs consulting such a person! He had been one of JWs for six years at that time, I recall. He became a psychologist before becoming a JW. Upon meeting with him, he told me all of his patients were JWs. Also, that he was an advisor to the Watchtower Society. More shock. After some of the things we discussed, I wondered how anyone could think the WTS was God's channel. Does anyone out there know anything about him? I wonder if he has remained one of JWs ... 35 years later?