oldskool

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Posts by oldskool

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  45

  RC Was Worse Than I thought...

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was visiting with my family and it seems the rc was worse than i thought.

  now they all seem to think that "we are so close to the end" and that the "brothers are really preparing us for the gt".

  some even saying that soon our message will change to a judgement message for mankind and talking about how we need to improve "everything we do".

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  oldskool

  How can they say they we so encouraged by a convention that was basically a threat not to leave JWs or else.
  

  Because they have to be.
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  27

  Old Relative Not Happy About Push To Use Ipads Etc

  by disillusioned 2 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was in a close relatives house yesterday and she was having angry and resentful at the push to use electronic devices at the meetings.

  she was talking to another relative of mine who has just got an ipad to use.

  this relative of mine is very elderly and obviously prefers to use her bible and other books.

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  oldskool

  My mid-80 year old (45 years a JW) mother has been spoken to by the elders why she continues to use the paper literature, rather than an iPad. Crazy!

  Just sad.

  10 years ago she probably would have gotten a standing round of applause at a DC (yes DC i'm oldskool) if she described her love of the magazines, reading the books, ect. Now she gets the shaft.

  Sad to hear the religion is filled with more pretentious assholes than when I walked out 12 years ago.
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  50

  Does the governing body know what they are doing?

  by Gefangene in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  what do you guys think?.

  are they only some uber religious zealots or do they pursue hidden agendas beyond religiosity?.

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  oldskool

  To answer this question another one needs addressed first. What exactly should the governing body be doing instead of what it is doing? If we play outside consultant, with only the JW orgs best interest at heart, what would be the advice moving forward?

  The first thing you do is go on an info hunt. Top down and bottom up. Financial, but also current values and attitudes present in leaders and members. You identify major problems by speaking with those in leadership roles in addition to current and former members. You assess the limitations, the mistakes along with the strengths, to figure out the most valuable lessons. You run the data and see what it tells you.

  I have a gut feeling that this was done, but on the cheap. A generic plan was built for the future without any consideration for the past. I'm not very confident they came up with the JW.org strategy top to bottom on their own. They got guidance from "professionals". Whoever they hired to assist (anybody on the inside find this out?) probably was paid a good bit, but didn't have access to everything they needed for a full comprehensive strategy. The leaders felt desperate, and just went with the plan without consideration to the past.

  At this point I think we should all work to find out who they hired to build this strategy for them. Of course they could have come up with this on their own, but on the chance they didn't determining which firm was hired would be an interesting fact to score.
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  30

  JW Broadcasting reeks of desperation

  by oldskool in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  again, i'm a decade removed from the faith.

  i'm catching up now, and can't believe what i'm seeing.. i get that jw leadership faced a dilemma.

  there is no intellectual apparatus within the faith.

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  oldskool

  Magnum,

  First of, excellent avatar my man. Greatest movie of the past year, and completely underrated. Moving on.

  JWdom used to at least appear to be intellectual and scholarly. Your post indicates that you became a JW in the 90's, so you might not be familiar with the seemingly scholarly period of JWdom.

  When I first joined I quickly moved through all the 'current' literature at the time. I ordered every odd book you could still order, including bound volumes diaglot, king james bible (they printed that!), concordance, ect. The hall was still stacked with older books from 70s/80s in the lit counter. I read the James commentary, not knowing the origin of course, and wondered why they didn't have more books like that. Regardless, the older style of JWdom is what I gravitated to and in retrospect my main disappointment which led to me leaving was seeing how that part of the faith was on the way out.

  It has become wimpy. The strong confidence of former times is gone. JWs of times past used to relish deep doctrinal discussions and even arguments, but no more; they now run from such.

  Correct. Each successive generation of JW has become more tame. Gone are the sandwich board signs and picketing. This was to be expected. I believe that the strong focus on John 17:3 i.e. "taking in knowledge" combined with a reduction in the complexity and depth of that knowledge created a situation where repetitive and dull recycled material became a monotonous norm driving apathy especially among youth.
  

  think that now they're not really wanting people like us to join. They no longer want intelligent thinkers. They want only people they can control - people who will unquestioningly follow.

  My guess is that they want to sell off NYC property, build a compound that will last for decades, and transition away from expansion. The JWs put themselves in a pickle when they proclaimed for so long that the org would expand to the end. The built in anticipation for growth means they have to keep up appearances of growth, which in some respects might be costing them lots of money. What the return they see on every dollar of missionary work anyway?
  

  I really think they want to weed out people like us because they know we see through them and would only cause problems.

  The downside is that we were their biggest advocates. They may not want the risk of intellectuals within their faith, but the leadership vacuum going on has to be terrible.

  
  At this point, I essentially think the JWs are morphing into one of these non mainstream infomercial groups but without the flair. A lot of white bread that is appetizing to nobody but vein smart asses. The JWs don't have the guts to proclaim the radical end times junk as much as they used to. Total wimps. Just compare to these other radical dips, who probably have more of a connection to the Witnesses of old than the JWs themselves:

  
  http://www.endtime.com/
  https://www.thetrumpet.com/key_of_david
  http://www.jvim.com/
  
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  30

  JW Broadcasting reeks of desperation

  by oldskool in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  again, i'm a decade removed from the faith.

  i'm catching up now, and can't believe what i'm seeing.. i get that jw leadership faced a dilemma.

  there is no intellectual apparatus within the faith.

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  oldskool

  I can't see the reason for some of the videos being inserted into the talks except to break up the monotony of the already boring pablum they're throwing at the audience. Instead it's like the monkeys at the zoo throwing feces.

  Do kingdom halls have screens now? Or televisions?

  How is this technology push going over in poorer countries? Is the print operation supporting a cash drain for the WTS?
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  30

  JW Broadcasting reeks of desperation

  by oldskool in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  again, i'm a decade removed from the faith.

  i'm catching up now, and can't believe what i'm seeing.. i get that jw leadership faced a dilemma.

  there is no intellectual apparatus within the faith.

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  oldskool

  When the monthly special video broadcasts were first introduced they said that they would be presented monthly by a GB member, a year or so later they have now decided that only every second broadcast will be presented by a GD member. No doubt, they've realised the damage it is causing. Also, they were showing their names and titles on the earlier videos and they've stopped that too. Flag Dislike Like

  Very interesting observation.

  We know who and where the clown are don't we?

  After over half a century the wizard decided to step out from behind the curtain and take credit, and without question it is to their detriment.
  Ever since I left the group, I've believed that Watchtower leadership yielded tremendous power over the rank and file by remaining anoymous. It was a powerful tool that excused the GB of dealing with the direct fallout associated with personality based religious movements. Nobody had to take the blame for a failure. In fact, the followers could eventually be blamed for something the leadership encouraged. Not anymore.
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  36

  I was helping a Mature Sister with her tablet for downloading the meeting and then noticed ...

  by Quarterback in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this sweet older sister needed help and while trying to download the clm on her tablet, the history showed some porn pictures.

  how does someone overlook that and carry on?.

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  oldskool

  She googled Jehovah's Witnesses.

  Rule 34 was invoked.

  She didn't look back.
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  30

  JW Broadcasting reeks of desperation

  by oldskool in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  again, i'm a decade removed from the faith.

  i'm catching up now, and can't believe what i'm seeing.. i get that jw leadership faced a dilemma.

  there is no intellectual apparatus within the faith.

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  oldskool

  Again, I'm a decade removed from the faith. I have not kept up with any of the changes. I'm catching up now, and can't believe what I'm seeing.

  I get that JW leadership faced a dilemma. There is no intellectual apparatus within the faith. No scholars or universities, theologians or full time clergy. The requirements to being a minister for the group are minimal, and mainly rest on having a generic public image and repeating JW dogma. So to grow from within would be tough, I guess too tough.

  So rather than building anything useful, they latch onto the governing body producing videos as their way forward. I never was actually ashamed to have been part of this group. Irritated, upset, and frustrated are words I might use, but never ashamed. These videos change that. If somebody sees these videos and thinks I was part of what is being portrayed, its embarrassing.

  I feel as if their entire faith has been turned into a circus.

  We live in a media saturated culture. Unless you are sophisticated at what you produce, people can see right through it.

  Bottom line, you cannot produce content as poor as what is contained on JW Broadcasting and think it helps anything. It's doing more harm than good. I cannot believe this project of theirs is yielding tangible results. It is down right awful stuff. There is a part of me that reasons the WTS knew that people on the internet were destroying their religion, and they decided they should just destroy it themselves instead.

  Being on video is a performance. There are those that are good at performing, and those that are not. Poor Mr. Stephen Lett was so awful I couldn't believe it. To speak into a camera in the same condescending tone those magazines are written in results in an entirely different meaning. His tone is a book on tape. His facial expressions as insincere and as forced as they can get. On paper, those words feel commanding because of the voice in your head saying them. From his mouth It's a Colbert sketch.

  Had this group been producing media like this back in the 90s when I joined, I never would have. A guy like Stephen Lett asking for money? No way.

  Same thing goes for the kids videos. I will add that back in 2010 the mormons did a series of videos for kids called Matt and Mandy. Not saying its a copy, but if you compare the two the difference in approach is staggering. Hint, even LDS didn't sink to guilting kids to give them money, and instead focused on their typical generic stuff.

  There are also whiteboard videos. You know, those shitty amateurish "animation" videos they use to sell erection supplements and get rich quick pyramid schemes? They have one 5 minutes long that tells people how to act at conventions. Talk about beating a dead horse.

  After 10 years and stopping back to take a look, what they've done with broadcasting is showcase what a joke of a religion they have. Their appearance is on par with any other crappy tv religion paid advertising.

  This religion is desperate. The videos reek of it. I never thought the WTS would actually go away in my lifetime. I assumed it would find ways to adapt. Now I'm not so sure. They are stupider than I ever imagined.

  
  
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  13

  Keeping your sanity while stuck as an active JW

  by oldskool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i pass along this advice as a new topic, to get it past one off comments that may not get as much attention.. i exited the jehovah's witnesses about a decade ago.

  like many, my personal situation felt to restrained to act on my impulse and get out quickly.

  i took about a year and a half to two years to leave via da.. i empathize with anybody leaving the watchtower who finds it difficult to falsify dedication, interest, and belief in both their personal and public life.

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  oldskool

  Another important thing about field service:
  
  Just about every JW hates it.

  If you have the power to fill it up with a bunch of time wasting bs all of the "True believers" are going to be right there to support you.
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  38

  Please sum up the last decade in JW history

  by oldskool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i used to be a member of this site, but jumped off a good number of years ago (08?).

  i don't have access to my old email, so i'm using a new account.. anyway, i was baptized jw in late 90's.

  da'd mid 2000s.. when i left there were three meets a week plus field service.

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  oldskool

  The prominence of the JW.org logo is striking, as if they are attempting to tap into current tech startup branding tricks.

  It is also striking because the prominent iconography for the Witnesses for decades was the Watchtower itself. That seems like it is on the way out.

  Watching JW tv right now.....starting another thread....can't believe how insane it is....