Posts by oldskool

42

Feeling Sad After Uncovering TTATT

by pale.emperor in

my initial pangs of unease and doubt led me to research some things.

well, a lot of things really.

i've never felt comfortable using the bible to try to calculate dates (1914).

oldskool

Make a list of things you've always wanted to do for yourself, and do them.

What I wrote on this thread might be some help. I was in your exact same situation when I left.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5125313847623680/keeping-your-sanity-while-stuck-active-jw

Based on what you've written its seems clear you are in the early phases of understanding what happened to you. It takes a while to go through it all. If you haven't caught up on Steven Hassan's material, now might be the time to do so.

Base your approach to your wife not around doctrine, but around empathy. It's easy to trigger JWs in to fear, and then they act more irrational than usual. Empathize with her, be a good husband. It will work out but take your time. You're not in a battle, your in a process. It's easy to get worked up about the moment. I had good success thinking beyond the day to day.

21

Could we use the new shunning guidelines to our advantage?

by Island Man in

according to new, officially published guidelines, jws can now shun a person who has not been disfellowshipped from the congregation.

i see this guideline being abused by many jws who have an axe to grind with a fellow jw.

for example, let's say sister peinindiass rubs sister sensitive the wrong way.

oldskool

Nothing new. I feel the latest info demonstrates the JW org appears interested in decreasing the chances for faders.

With so much talk about fading on the net, its no big surprise.

8

Has any of the GB members ever had a job?

by Crazyguy in

just wonder since that video about a child giving up his dreams of being a great musician do to competition .

i had to give up all my dreams and now work in a very competitive industry just to get by.

how many people not work in a competitive job?

oldskool

Samuel Herd began pioneering around the age of 23. By 1965, seven years later, he was in the CO/DO work. Room for odds jobs as a young guy, but no serious career.
Stephen Lett was 17 when he started to pioneer and 18 when he went to Bethel. Doubt there was much real world work.
David Spaine was 19 when he started to pioneer in 63'. Around 65/66' he attended gilead's 42nd class. Early 20's, not much career again.
Gerrit Losch Began pioneering at 20. His bio says he worked at a restaurant. In 63 started with CO/DO work.
Anthony Morris III had a more conventional life and probably had a career but his bio doesn't say what. He served in Vietnam. Got married in 1971 and raised children.
Mark Sanderson began to pioneer in 1983 and went to MTS in 1990. I cannot locate a date of birth for him, one reference says 1965. That means he was 18 as a pioneer. With the MTS, he probably was doing odd jobs. His bio doesn't say he is married or has kids
Geoffrey Jackson started pioneering at age 15 in Tasmania. He spent most of his time as a missionary.

The common theme is that with the exception of Morris, most of these men got involved full time with the JWs full time from their teens to early 20s and never looked back. By their mid 20s most had scored an "assignment", probably organizationally supposed during the boom years of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

I find it interesting. I knew a guy whose situation was similar to Sanderson. Remained single, attended MTS in the late 90s early 2k. I think he continues to work lousy part time gigs with the hope he will get a better assignment, but he never has. He was assigned to a congregation about an hour from the one where he grew up and has remained there the past 10+ years.

I know for a while he was trying to go to Gilead with his wife, who he married about 5 years post MTS. He really wanted to work at a branch, which he described to me as "resort like". Freudian slip!

12

Article: Witnesses Portfolio ‘Better Maintained Than The White House.’

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/commercial-real-estate/what-makes-the-jehovahs-witnesses-portfolio-special-and-what-the-latest-property-to-hit-the-market-could-become-60632 .

“i’ve never seen any properties kept in better shape,” tim says.

“anyone who buys them will be happy that they did and they won’t need to spend a dime on upgrades to infrastructure.” tim, who tells us he attended a breakfast at the white house about a decade ago, goes as far as to say the buildings are better maintained than the presidential residence..

oldskool

Barbara, you might be able to confirm/refute a rumor I heard years ago. Basically, that the WTS expected all of their real estate to transition into the new system after Armageddon. I always assumed this might be JW leader's mental excuse for why they focused on real estate investment so much. It was as if the rebuilding work had already begun, in their minds anyway.

The destruction of Kingdom Halls during the great tribulation and Armageddon has never been mentioned inside WT literature, has it?

14

The more things change, the more they stay the same

by OutsiderLookingIn in

oldskool wrote on another post that "the 'truth' is an experience, and the 'beliefs' are designed to get you to behave as a member of the experience.

" i've read a lot here about the many changes to the wtbts in recent years.

but this got me thinking about the practices or, for the most part, non-practices that make someone a jw.

oldskool

Misery loves company.

agreed

14

The more things change, the more they stay the same

by OutsiderLookingIn in

oldskool wrote on another post that "the 'truth' is an experience, and the 'beliefs' are designed to get you to behave as a member of the experience.

" i've read a lot here about the many changes to the wtbts in recent years.

but this got me thinking about the practices or, for the most part, non-practices that make someone a jw.

oldskool

I had an interesting conversation with somebody who faded from the group that was faced with requests from active ones to "please come back, we miss you".

First point, this person hasn't moved, and is still available to these Witnesses. Simply a phone call away. Access is not the problem.

Since none of these people have reached out personally, and because JWs have no group sponsored social functions, we know they do not miss genuine friendship or social activity in any conventional sense.

So what exactly did these people miss?

They missed the person actively participating in group sponsored function. The group does not worship using ritual, lots of song, or other more worship/praise oriented activities. Instead, they sit through hours of group teaching sessions.

Now bring it all together. What these folks really were saying is that "we miss you sitting through the teaching sessions with us". And also "We missed you publicly demonstrating your dedication to the group". Just think of the words JWs use so often:

- Dedication

- Imitate

- Be Like

The group experience is to emulate whatever is "current" with the organization. Part of the groups experience is to actually anticipate what new changes there will be that people need to emulate, or "imitate".

5

Church of Christ, Scientist

by lrkr in

we were in boston this weekend and stayed at a hotel in the back bay, close to the hq of the church of christ, scientist.

these guys have an impressive cathedral and an hq setup that includes a "library for the betterment of mankind" as well as a walk in globe that represents the scope of their religion.

they have similar origins to jws- 19th century mysticism mixed with literal reading of the bible, heavy central control and "democratic" church structures.. but, for some reason, they really annoyed me.

oldskool

Not sure. Their membership base is bigger.

I imagine them possibly turning out like the worldwide church of god, or seventh day adventist. At some point, the WTS will crumble and out of that a combination of extreme and mainstream factions will probably arise. The most mainstream will probably do the best, and the others will forever lambast it for selling out.

87

The last video in the 2016 convention...

by problemaddict 2 in

...is an epic triumph is emotional manipulation.

bringing together all of the stories they told thus far and placing them int he "new world" complete with the little boy who was killed in a car accident coming back from the dead.. i have a good friend who is stuck in with family and plays the role.

he said everyone was crying, and the people next to him rated the videos by how many tissues they needed to dry their eyes.

oldskool

Congratulations Watchtower, you mastered the art of mixing 3.5 minutes of stock video with generic stock audio.

In your next film school assignment you will learn about writing a script.

16

JW.org videos....look like....

by Anders Andersen in

.... i just looked through some videos on the scientology and the mormon youtube channels.animated whiteboard animations, bad acting, compelling music...it's all the same as jw.org...or the other way around.the similarity is very striking to me.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghjomvjadbghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxf3pwvjoka.

i wonder why that is....

oldskool

All created in the United States of America baby!

All of these faiths have a capitalist like approach to faith and religion in general by developing authoritarian like top down organizational structures, large real estate and investment portfolios, aggressive marketing techniques, and unpublished financial information.

They are in the business on conquering and becoming the best religion they can be utilizing the capitalist modes of production with the added benefit that wage labor is absent and volunteer labor is utilized accordingly.

42

"Just don't overthink the truth"

by stuckinarut2 in

jw
friends

so after almost a year of complete inactivity and non attendance, i ran into a nice brother from the local congregation.. after some nice chit-chat, he says "we really miss you and your family...etc...you were always the kind and supportive one, the approachable and encouraging one in the congregation.

your absence has confused so many".

i thanked him and said "oh no, no individual has stumbled us.

oldskool

YES!

The "truth" is an experience, and the "beliefs" are designed to get you to behave as a member of the experience. Doesn't really matter what the beliefs are, which is why, when pressed, lots of JWs just throw up their hands and say they don't care.

"Just come back and act like one of us, it's uncomfortable when nice people leave for no apparent reason, and you don't want us to feel uncomfortable about our faith do you?"