Posts by JWTom

58

When did WT lose the spirit?

by Smiles in

at what time would you say that the watch tower schema lost the spirit?.

like the ancient nation of israel which struggled maintaining divine blessing due to a long series of grave errors that eventually culminated in definitive loss... how and when did watch tower lose the spirit?.

can we pinpoint a time or event?.

JWTom

Lots of good thoughts here.

As a 3rd-gen JW I would say the 1950-1975 and 1980-1990 years were likely the peaks of what the organization could become. As I posted on the recent thread about shepherding visits, what most people need is strong social relationships, friends that can/will help someone out in a difficult spot and enough money to live a decent life. As others have commented, the org. has systematically done what it can to kill off all the things I just mentioned......forget about the spirit.....many who are JWs have an awful life in general terms and the org is a major contributor to that reality.

32

Watchtower June 2020 Article, '' Return to Me''

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

the watchtower—study edition | june 2020. .

study article 26.

6 who can share in the search for inactive ones?

JWTom

As mentioned already, this is a cyclical item that was promoted very heavily beginning in the mid-1990's timeframe with new direction back then that the SO had more decision-making authority. I know since I was a service overseer back then and there was direction for the SO to assign brothers to visit inactive ones or irregular ones. A few elders would handle their assignments but most would simply ignore the direction and go about things like they had never heard of this.

As an elder and SO for many years the primary success or failure of bringing people back is directly related to the strength of the local congregation, its inclusiveness and the strength of its social structures. What most people lack today is strong social relationships, true friends that will help them in a tough spot and enough money to have a decent life. Most congregations offer lots of judgement, a constant ask for money/free-labor and lots of useless lectures on things that have little meaning to most JWs.

30

Latest move by Kingdom Hall Trust in U.K current J.W Elders BEWARE!

by Phizzy in

the latest instructions from the kingdom hall trust here in the u.k are very revealing, and current j.w elders need to beware !

i will get to that in a minute.

maybe in the usa and other countries too ?.

JWTom

LONGHAIRGAL

Agree overall. I would say more and more JWs that have been in the org for any significantly length of time are taking stock of where things are and if they can are resetting some of their life goals. Problem for many is that extracting themselves from the Org is a complicated mess and this is especially true for any that are well-known or that are currently in appointed positions.

8

Telehealth Doctor's Visits Provided by JW Drs. - Coming Soon?

by JWTom in

jw
friends

there is a zoom meeting in our area this coming weekend to educate anyone with a healthcare background about "volunteering" to be part of providing health care through online zoom doctors visits.

evidently jw doctors across the us are volunteering to do free zoom consultations that are technically real doctors visits.

don't have many details other than i saw some of the letters from petra where people could sign up for this.. wondering if this is already happening in some areas or if anyone knows more about it?

JWTom

There is a Zoom meeting in our area this coming weekend to educate anyone with a healthcare background about "volunteering" to be part of providing health care through online Zoom doctors visits. Evidently JW doctors across the US are volunteering to do free Zoom consultations that are technically real doctors visits. Don't have many details other than I saw some of the letters from Petra where people could sign up for this.

Wondering if this is already happening in some areas or if anyone knows more about it? For anyone that might volunteer there is a very real concern about any liability that a healthcare worker would have in actually doing this? Drs. usually have insurance that covers them if they are in a private practice....but most healthcare workers liability insurance is through an employer and would not cover them giving free healthcare to others if they ended up being sued.

Interested in more information if anyone has it....

25

Food Boxes given out by Society

by JustChillin in

anyone else get a food box delivered by local congregation to your door - allegedly by the society?

weird.

i looked online and found a couple of youtube channels saying the society is taking food from food banks and giving it only to their congregations.

JWTom

We must not be needy. No word of it in our area.

1

Food Distribution from the GB/Org???

by JWTom in

jw
friends

heard from a close relationship that their congregation is handing out food to some and the message is that it is from the gb.

this person is elderly but is not needy in any way and is very active/respected in the local cong.

they would also never embellish or say something like this unless it was the actual message.

JWTom

Heard from a close relationship that their congregation is handing out food to some and the message is that it is from the GB. This person is elderly but is not needy in any way and is very active/respected in the local cong. They would also never embellish or say something like this unless it was the actual message. Anyone else hear something like this?

I have not heard anything through my local cong along these lines.

30

Latest move by Kingdom Hall Trust in U.K current J.W Elders BEWARE!

by Phizzy in

the latest instructions from the kingdom hall trust here in the u.k are very revealing, and current j.w elders need to beware !

i will get to that in a minute.

maybe in the usa and other countries too ?.

JWTom

No, Truthy, the point of the Clause in my post is that KHT has NO responsibility for overseeing or administering the safeguarding of Children, all responsibility falls upon the local Body of Elders. That is why I Posted. Elders, or the Body of Elders may be Sued, and will get no help financially from the KHT, which will say, " Sorry brothers, if we help you out with this, we will be admitting liability, and you took that liability upon yourselves, please see Clause 12, Goodbye".

In the US business world, the local congregations are basically becoming franchises of JW.org similar to Subway, Burger King, McDonald's, Starbucks, etc. That is exactly what is being outlined in that letter. If the local brothers in the local JW.org franchise botch something in a really bad way.......the global JW.org is basically off of the hook since each congregation is their own entity.

30

Latest move by Kingdom Hall Trust in U.K current J.W Elders BEWARE!

by Phizzy in

the latest instructions from the kingdom hall trust here in the u.k are very revealing, and current j.w elders need to beware !

i will get to that in a minute.

maybe in the usa and other countries too ?.

JWTom

Further evidence that the JW.org is dumping all liability or responsibility on the local congregations primarily the elders and ministerial servants. Not long ago I had a discussion with a brother whose daughter left the org. due to an abuse situation and primarily the reason was that the local congregation had no idea how to handle the matter - of course it was a disaster. When I suggested to the brother that few or none of the local congregation members are qualified to handle an abuse situation - he agreed. But when I suggested that JW.org should have put some structures in place to handle this many years ago - he didn't disagree - but basically reverted to the "well, the org. can do so many good things with so few people and that these things happen". Or in other words, "its all good!"

Many, many current JW's have issues with JW.org but they are simply trapped. Especially for appointed brothers...any disagreement or questioning of things will be punished severely. Most of these witnesses would like to disagree or voice their disapproval - but there is no platform to do that without being branded as an apostate.

I agree with this thread - local elders need to be very careful on this. But most don't have the courage to embrace stepping down so that they are not in this position.

77

A question about the contemporary generation teaching following a conversation with a JW apologist

by Giles Gray in

i 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.

JWTom

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.

44

Leaked WT Elder Training Video

by Vanderhoven7 in

https://youtu.be/2nacvosx8n0.

good to see the caring brothers help establish depth of guilt..

JWTom

As has been said, do not tell the body of elders anything unless you want your personal life ruined.