Vidiot: Spot on. Most JWs are simply trapped and don't have a clear path to freedom that does not involve jacking up your whole life. That is the problem with being mortal beings, you many time won't live long enough for a do-over to make sense/work out.
Posts by JWTom
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77A question about the contemporary generation teaching following a conversation with a JW apologist
by Giles Gray ini would like to ask the ex-jws on this site to put their ‘apologists hat’ back on for a moment, so that i can go through the overlapping generation teaching in an attempt to make sense of it.
i apologise if these points have already been addressed on this site.a quick background for the reason for my request… having never confronted a jw apologist on the topic, i recently engaged with a jw regarding the official understanding of a ‘generation’ and unfortunately he didn’t have an answer to the points i was making.
i was left a little confused as to what the official jw response would/should be.so i was hoping that my thoughts below might be considered from an apologist’s perspective.the point in question relates to this section of the watchtower article below from 2008, as well as the jw.org video explanation of the overlapping generation:---:w08 2/15[box on page 25] can we calculate the length of “this generation”?the word “generation” usually refers to people of various ages whose lives overlap during a particular time period or event.
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JWTom
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44
Leaked WT Elder Training Video
by Vanderhoven7 inhttps://youtu.be/2nacvosx8n0.
good to see the caring brothers help establish depth of guilt..
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JWTom
As has been said, do not tell the body of elders anything unless you want your personal life ruined.
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Do Jw's Dress up in meeting clothes for Zoom meetings?
by jeremiah18:5-10 ini am just curious if anyone knows whether the "friends" still are required to wear "meeting clothes" for attending meetings through zoom?
such emphasis on dressing in a godly manner over the decades, would be interesting if some attend in pajamas or their work clothes, no makeup, etc....
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JWTom
As commented in another thread, 50-75% on our Zoom meetings never turn on video and many are even commenting with no video - problem solved. Everyone that has video on is dressed up including many brothers with suit coats on.
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I wonder how many jw's will be doing this
by newsheep inhttps://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/coors-light-clone-machine-zoom-video-calls.
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JWTom
Our Zoom meetings easily have 50-75% with no video. New thing is people that are commenting with no video on now.
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Weekly Meeting Importance Being Reduced - Your Thoughts?
by JWTom ini am pimo, but now have 40+ years of being a jw as i was raised in a 3rd generation family of witnesses and continue to fake my way through things - fading as i can.. for the vast majority of my time as a jw, the meetings were the central focus for all jws to get teaching, association, information and so on.
nothing was more important than being at the meetings!
over the last 20 years starting with the elimination of the weekly book study in homes and continuing down to today - my opinion is that the value/purpose of the weekly meetings continues to be diluted or minimized.
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JWTom
Interest comments all. Thanks for the great thoughts.
BluesBrother: Can you send me a DM?
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Weekly Meeting Importance Being Reduced - Your Thoughts?
by JWTom ini am pimo, but now have 40+ years of being a jw as i was raised in a 3rd generation family of witnesses and continue to fake my way through things - fading as i can.. for the vast majority of my time as a jw, the meetings were the central focus for all jws to get teaching, association, information and so on.
nothing was more important than being at the meetings!
over the last 20 years starting with the elimination of the weekly book study in homes and continuing down to today - my opinion is that the value/purpose of the weekly meetings continues to be diluted or minimized.
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JWTom
Another thought, that has also been discussed recently in the light of Zoom Meetings during the pandemic.
What will it take to make the transition away from meetings? Again, for 20+ years the meetings have been specifically made less important by the org. As Millie210 mentions, what you hear is that the meetings are very important - hard to rationalize the distinctly different messages/realities.
To me it would seem like organizational suicide to stop the meetings....
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Have you ever known elders who were more into being and elder than really being a believer?
by phoenixrising ini have known many elders who were much more into the idea of being an elder and getting all the old ladies to tell them what wonderful talks they give and the power then really being a believer.
i had one elder tell me that when he became an elder he was on top dog on top of the heap.
i knew some who were really all about the religion and following the cult.
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JWTom
cofty
They look out for the congregation by caring about individuals in need of encouragement or practical help. They try to lead by example and encourage others to exercise their own conscience. Elders of this type often end up burned out and disillusioned - as do their long-suffering families.
Many of these are still in the org. but are no longer appointed men. Having realized that doing what you described well is simply going to leave them ground up in the gears of the org. I would put myself in that category and as I commented above - there are simply too many others that could care less about helping people in a practical way.
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Elders complaining
by asp59 inhave you heard many elders complaining about selling out of kh and having a online religion?
i mean many elders have put years of visiting meetings and sitting there to have it all taken away now.
reaching that position of elder for nothing .
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JWTom
I have only heard elders saying they are happy for the break they are getting during the coronavirus pandemic. Sad to say that it took this for them to get a break. You may want to check out the thread on meetings being reduced in importance, similar topic.
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Weekly Meeting Importance Being Reduced - Your Thoughts?
by JWTom ini am pimo, but now have 40+ years of being a jw as i was raised in a 3rd generation family of witnesses and continue to fake my way through things - fading as i can.. for the vast majority of my time as a jw, the meetings were the central focus for all jws to get teaching, association, information and so on.
nothing was more important than being at the meetings!
over the last 20 years starting with the elimination of the weekly book study in homes and continuing down to today - my opinion is that the value/purpose of the weekly meetings continues to be diluted or minimized.
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JWTom
Great comments. As some have suggested my life is a spaghetti bowl related to being a JW all my life. Even though I am fading my life is still largely entrenched within the pasta bowl.
A PIMI elder friend who is very astute and gives attention to policy/direction made the comment about all of the online content being created and why there is so much being produced, how could you possibly consume all of it, etc. The PIMIs realize that the meetings are a thing of the past but can't bring themselves to realize what has happened.
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Weekly Meeting Importance Being Reduced - Your Thoughts?
by JWTom ini am pimo, but now have 40+ years of being a jw as i was raised in a 3rd generation family of witnesses and continue to fake my way through things - fading as i can.. for the vast majority of my time as a jw, the meetings were the central focus for all jws to get teaching, association, information and so on.
nothing was more important than being at the meetings!
over the last 20 years starting with the elimination of the weekly book study in homes and continuing down to today - my opinion is that the value/purpose of the weekly meetings continues to be diluted or minimized.
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JWTom
I am PIMO, but now have 40+ years of being a JW as I was raised in a 3rd generation family of witnesses and continue to fake my way through things - fading as I can.
For the vast majority of my time as a JW, the meetings were the central focus for all JWs to get teaching, association, information and so on. Nothing was more important than being at the meetings!
Over the last 20 years starting with the elimination of the Weekly Book Study in homes and continuing down to today - my opinion is that the value/purpose of the weekly meetings continues to be diluted or minimized. If the meetings are so important (which is what we have been told for years) why are they no longer the go to place for information? Why is much of the "important information" now shared online in hours and hours of video presentation and the same information may never be shared at a meeting. Or if it is shared only in very brief forms or by reference. It would seem that if you want people to value the meetings then they would remain the place you get all your information (mostly) but that is no longer the reality.
Not looking for a solution obviously, but curious as to what some others may think on this. Like many things related to current org. structure and actions there is no logic, no plan, etc. This one seems like a big one given the central role of meetings in the orgs. history.
NOTE: I am starting to notice a great deal of replies and comments on this site that are simply one-line "JWs suck" or the "Borg is bogus" type of posts. I have been coming on here for a number of years and this site has been very valuable to me. There didn't seem to be as much troll-like behavior in the past. Sad to see a lot more of that now. If all you have to offer is a one-line joke or snide remark that is of no value - definitely not what I am looking for here.