Wakanda: How did the topic come up of staying on Zoom until July 2020? Just curious. Have not heard anything that specific in my travels. Thanks!
Posts by JWTom
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25Zoom meetings to continue thru July
by Wakanda inco is coming and expecting to zoom it in july.
also there is no talk about starting to slowly go back to the hall.
like having 1 group at the hall and the rest on zoom, etc.
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JWTom
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US Letter Read Sunday 4/26 at Meeting - No KH Use and No Field Service Indefinitely
by JWTom inthere was a letter read sunday at our meeting that mentioned some parts of us are starting to open back up.
however, regardless of things opening up that no kingdom halls should be used for any meetings of any kind.
also, no door-to-door ministry or any form of in-person ministry is allowed.
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JWTom
There was a letter read Sunday at our meeting that mentioned some parts of US are starting to open back up. However, regardless of things opening up that no Kingdom Halls should be used for any meetings of any kind. Also, no door-to-door ministry or any form of in-person ministry is allowed. It said this is for an indefinite time period - no end date.
Does anyone have the letter to share on here?
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July 2020 Watchtower - A little observation
by Listener inthis is a comment made in the latest study watchtower under the main discussion of humility.
11 jehovah values humility more than ability and unity more than efficiency.
therefore, do your best to serve jehovah with humility.
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JWTom
What you find in each congregation can vary widely. Some congs. A) are in areas with lots of educated professionals with high paying jobs and thus many of the JWs have similar jobs/skills including elders; while other congs. B) are made up of mostly middle income people or lower income/education.
The change in the demographics of the global WT organization during the last 20-30+ years are really the most supportive of this thread (and the comments in the WT).
Including things like:
1) Most members have little education and the education they do have is poor quality or little effort expended since org. says, not important;
2) Low incomes with some in poverty or scrapping by month-to-month (in fairness this could be said of 90% of people today);
3) Extremely low standard for anyone that is appointed or given responsibility in the cong.;
4) Those that do get baptized through recruitment (not born in) are largely impoverished, uneducated and in many cases people that have significant problems in their lives.
With few productive or "efficient" people coming in that can contribute to the success and growth of the organization - you are left with a larger and larger number of takers.
Over the last 50 years, the WT leadership has cultivated exactly this outcome through messaging and policy within the org. An educated person that has been in the org. for the last 50 years (as i have) can easily take a look at all of this and realize the org. is going to continue to shrink out of existence.
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Coping/Living/Understanding
by justangel ini’m relatively new to this forum but am far from new when it comes to living life as a jw.
i wanted to throw out there my own personal experience and feelings and welcome any conversations (i’m mighty chatty and don’t have much for friends when it comes to jw’s) .
i hit the turning of an era nearly a month ago of legally becoming an adult, raised as a j dub my whole life.
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JWTom
Angel - It is definitely difficult to manage the view of someone in your household that feels like "all is good being a JW and we should be extremely happy to just keeping doing more and more in the truth" when that is not how you feel. My spouse is mostly PIMI and while I have been fading for a number of years there are still many things that come up that are difficult to manage or respond too. It slowly gets better over time and in reality there are many JWs that do not care what you do...if in general you treat people with respect, are kind and a fun person to spend time with socially.
As Vanderhoven7 says, avoiding confrontation and redirecting the conversation or ending it as quickly as possible will limit the pain of what you are experiencing.
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2 Letters Arrived--English and Spanish!
by Atlantis in2020-04-15 english encouragement for elderly.
https://docdro.id/chmzmpj.
2020-04-17 spanish .
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JWTom
Again, COVID-19 should be a wake up call that congregations and the people in them are "on their own" when anything bad happens. The idea that the org. is going to do anything significant for anyone is simply not true.
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Coping/Living/Understanding
by justangel ini’m relatively new to this forum but am far from new when it comes to living life as a jw.
i wanted to throw out there my own personal experience and feelings and welcome any conversations (i’m mighty chatty and don’t have much for friends when it comes to jw’s) .
i hit the turning of an era nearly a month ago of legally becoming an adult, raised as a j dub my whole life.
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JWTom
Hello justangel - Welcome.
I would say the feedback Desirousofchange has given is what has worked best for me as someone that realized - all is not well as a JW - much later in my life. I grew up and progressed in "the truth" almost exactly as you did - baptism at 17, pioneering, bethel for quite a few years, MS, Elder. I am PIMO now for many complicated reasons. My thoughts:
Relationships: You may have to be fake so that you don't cause a rift with everyone you know. Especially your parents or any other family that are PIMI. It is okay to do that and you may want to explore what it means to "fade" as a witness. My experience is that there are many in the local congregation that are PIMO and starting to connect with those for social interaction could be helpful during this time. As I have faded, I have found many good social connections in the cong. that are good to be with socially but have no concern about how much you go out in service, comment, attend meetings, etc. My social life as a witness has improved as I have faded. Of course that means I am less connected to elders, MS, pioneers and that is fine with me.
Fading: Fading is probably the most important thing I have learned here. Fading to me is simply continuing over time to reduce what you do as a witness - comment less, study less or not at al, field service less, stop pioneering for a good reason (such as stress), attend fewer meetings and so on. There is an art to doing this...but it can be the most important thing you do so as to not "rock the boat" too much with friends/family.
Education: Take advantage of as much of it as you can get with your parents help. It is like an insurance policy or financial investment that will pay off dividends many times over what you are spending on it now.
Counseling/Therapy: If your mom is supportive of you getting help for anxiety, stress or other feelings you struggle with I would say to 1000% definitely look into it. I have gone to counselors or therapists before and I look back on it as some of the best decisions I have ever made. Think of it as getting a sports coach or investment company to help you with making important decisions when pursuing a sports career or big financial decision. Going to a counselor to help with this for 6-12 months could be great. If you do this, you MUST have the courage to be in the conversations without your mom or anyone else present. And be adamant that you want to have the sessions on your own. Of course mom and dad can pay for this which is what any loving parent would do for their daughter that they want to excel as a person.
Happy to share more, but those are some thoughts on specific items you mention.
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Evidence of WT bad intent - How they handled changing the meaning of "porneia"
by AlainAlam insorry, long post :) i'm considering evidence that at least at some point, the gb/watchtower had bad intentions.
i would like to share the following: *** w74 11/15 p. 703 questions from readers ***do lewd practices on the part of a married person toward that one’s own mate constitute a scriptural basis for the offended mate to get a divorce?there are times when lewd practices within the marriage arrangement would provide a basis for a scriptural divorce.. based on this, some jw chose to divorce.
but then:*** w83 3/15 p. 30 honor godly marriage!
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JWTom
AlainAlam JWTom, thanks for bringing this up. First time I hear about it. As far as I know, the oldest reference to pornography and disfellowshipping is the '06 QfR. What did the elders use to do before that? Were there any instructions? I tried to look up letters to the elders online, but I couldn't find anything relevant.
During the mid-1990s to mid-2000s there was not much in print as it was the new world of the Internet. A lot of guidance was by private communications with the branch and not sent out to BoE. Which of course led to lots of local BoE concluding that "this person is doing really bad things looking at porn, we should really discipline them severly". I remember one case where the BoE Judicial Committee decision was made on a porn case and when the CO showed up he decided it was more serious and wanted to change the decision/discipline (1999/2000 timeframe). This happened since there was not really any clear direction on how serious of a sin pornography is and thus the more puritanical BoE are going to ruin your life. A more liberal BoE will give you a slap on the hand - no consistency.
It is just one example where the organization wants to make many, many strict rules and regulations.....but then thinks nothing of changing the rules/regulations down the road leaving many people that have been disciplined as collateral damage in the process. This is one reason more and more RAF members simple do their own thing when it comes to drinking, sex, porn, flirting, work, etc......and just don't tell anyone in a leadership role in the org. since you cannot expect the BoE or larger organization to handle anything in a consistent way.....
Not exactly what you originally wrote about but your thoughts and this topic are really a theme of the org. changing things with no regard for how it has impacted lives.
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Evidence of WT bad intent - How they handled changing the meaning of "porneia"
by AlainAlam insorry, long post :) i'm considering evidence that at least at some point, the gb/watchtower had bad intentions.
i would like to share the following: *** w74 11/15 p. 703 questions from readers ***do lewd practices on the part of a married person toward that one’s own mate constitute a scriptural basis for the offended mate to get a divorce?there are times when lewd practices within the marriage arrangement would provide a basis for a scriptural divorce.. based on this, some jw chose to divorce.
but then:*** w83 3/15 p. 30 honor godly marriage!
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JWTom
Another great example that is along these lines it the organizations response to viewing porn and especially Internet porn that has become easily accessible in the last 20 years or so.
When BoE first started handling cases where people were confessing to viewing porn the organization in many cases came down like a hammer and some (many?) were even disfellowshipped for this. Within a few shorts years the org. had decided...."whoa! there are way too many people viewing porn to be this strict, we need to dial back the severity of looking at porn". I was an E at the time and it was really eye opening to see how the direction was very severe at first...but then became much more relaxed. All the JWs that received more severe punishment were just collateral damage since the org. had no idea a strict/severe approach on porn would backfire on them.
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How are they handling the memorial this year with the Coronavirus?
by Mandi init’s cognac.
couldn’t sign-in for some reason so i created a new account.
just was wondering what’s going on with the memorial this year cause my kids father wants to have them during that time.
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JWTom
There was a "recommendation" that people have emblems even if no one in house is partaking. According to an elder I know well, they were to tell everyone that emblems not necessary and the elder said it was just a recommendation....I told him the problem with recommendations is that the 80 year old JWs think that means you must do it.
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How to CYA (cover your ass) Watchtower style
by eyeuse2badub intoday’s watchtower article was the ultimate cya.
for friggin’ decades all we heard was that as armageddon gets nearer and nearer, the number of the ‘great crowd’ will increase and the number of the “little flock” will decrease!
in fact, it was one of the proofs that the end was near!.
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JWTom
I am PIMO, but I have joked with friends and family (including a couple of elders that I know well) that are PIMI about what is the organization going to do when the number partaking in the 2020s gets above 144,000? Of course no one has an answer to that - other than this article that says many that are partake are likely NOT anointed....