during the height of the pandemic all elders had to report to the co anyone who was struggling with bills or who couldn’t pay the rent.
the co reported it to the branch.. i don’t know what happens next.
do the branch help at all?
A CO instructed us to discontinue the purse of money that we (as a body of elders) contributed personally to help publishers who legitimately needed financial assistance. I think he thought we would send it to the Branch but we kept records so we gave back to the contributors.
Over time, it became obvious that WTC did not want us helping those in need. I think it made them look bad because WTC WAS SO TIGHT-FISTED.
i came across an xjw post on redditt from a rn.
she states that nearly every jw she ever treated was on anti-depressants or anti-psychotic drugs:.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/f35vaa/just_about_every_jw_i_come_across_is_on/ i once read somewhere that 1 in 5 jw's were on anti-depressants, but i couldn't find any documentation.
LongHairGal - I think you pegged it: "so much mental pressure to live up to".
In the JW world, I have heard CO's say 65% are on meds for depression/anxiety. I don't know where WTC got that number but I don't doubt that it is more than half. In my own experience, over half the cong was on meds. In addition to that, alcohol was a popular crutch as well.
It is amazing to me that so many are suffering but no one active seems to be pointing at the internal problems of the org as causation.
Without water, the grass withers. The same is true in JWland. There is no spiritual or personal water that refreshes so the enslaved suffer emotionally and mentally. I recall that Soviet oppression was blamed for the high degree of alcoholism, yet few blame WTC for the pressure they exert on their followers.
At Bethel, alcohol was a SERIOUS problem. We knew it and so did the GB - they mentioned it at least once a week in morning worship. Ironically they were heavy drinkers also.
I see great value in medications that help those who are pre-disposed to depression or other mental/emotional problems. On the other hand, if the problem is due to pressure from the religion you are in.... LEAVE!!!!
https://youtu.be/jxumoix1rew.
“and in revelation chapter 6, the ride of the fourth horseman includes mention of deadly plague.
so the events unfolding around us are making clearer than ever that we’re living in the final part of the last days.
I am embarassed that my family takes Stephen Lett serious - and incredulous that anyone else does.
i'm a believer.
believe in blessed or cursed.
what is happening to watchtower is my question.
Balaamsass2 - SPOT ON!
And...Russell was a profiteer posing as a religionist. His treatment of his wife was reprehensible (just read the court transcripts of the divorce proceedings). Rutherford proved to be even worse as an adulterer, drunkard and bully, Knorr was a mean-spirited administrator, Franz was wrong about every prphetic understanding he devised, and the leadership only got murkier leading up to the deity of the GB today.
They certainly have brought reproach on the name of the god they claim to represent.
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.
Redvip2000 - you may be onto something. Perhaps a cryo facility will accept a JW and it can be said that the person is not truly dead but in stasis. You cracked it !!!
The overlapping generation teaching is so nutty (and unscriptural) that I am still amazed that anyone sound in mind would consider it a serious teaching.
In 1994, WTC was backed into a corner on the generation teaching and needed a filler teaching until they could wind the old one down and out of memory. Eventually they settled on the Overlapping Generation teaching after many whiteboard/dartboard sessions.
The Bible is not ambiguous. Matthew 1:17 says "So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations."
That is 42 generations. Abraham was thought to have been born around 2056 - 1996 BC. (Estimates vary so lets take the earliest to get the greatest years why don't we)
2056 years divided by 42 generations equals 48.9 years. This would be an average that one could use as supported by the Bible.
Of course generations do overlap (since fathers don't die as soon as their sons are born) but the Bible never mentions that as a consideration for determining the meaning of Jesus words.
Jesus prophesied in 33 CE - the Jewish system of his day ended in 70 CE - well within the lifetime of the generation he spoke to - only 37 years. You may not believe he existed and prophesied, but WTC does.
Any attempts to twist the meaning is to support an unscriptural narrative.
The generation of 1914 passed away long ago. Are there individuals alive who are at least 109 years old? A small number - yes. But in no way does a small group of elderly ones represent an entire generation. Some refer to them as outliers. Understanding Jesus words require intellectual honesty - something that WTC lacks in large degree.
i'm a believer.
believe in blessed or cursed.
what is happening to watchtower is my question.
Barbara Anderson has batted close to a 1000 on her synopsis of JW current situation. She does not sensationalize and I respect her for that especially. She has a thumb on the pulse of WTC that can only be explained by exhaustive research and contacts who provide unvarnished information.
Like EF Hutton, I listen when she speaks.
I hope EF is still dispensing good financial advice also but I don’t hear much from him these days.
this has been announced on the jw's official website, in the "jw news" section.
this is not a joke.
anthony moron da turd is out as a gluttonous body member!
I have wondered myself as to why he was removed but honestly, I am a little sorry to see him go. His harshness was proof positive to me what the GB really are. So back to why he was kicked off the GB - it has to be something pretty bad or the secret would have slipped out by now.
Here are a few theories I came up with after talking to David Splane a couple of beers:
1. He was Grand Master of a coven of Pedos and the truth got out. (Not likely)
2. He was smoking so much weed watching 'Apocalypse Now' that the Housekeeper got high when she entered the room to clean and turned him in when he wouldn't share. (Annnnhh - probably not)
3. He was so inebriated after watching 'The Bachelor' that he walked down to the lobby in his birthday suit to pick up a delivered pizza. (a stretch since he probably has someone else pick up the pizzas when they get delivered)
4. His laptop was hacked by the IT guy supporting the GB when the hard drive got so full of porn that it would no longer save anymore (possible but most hard drives will compact data before they refuse to save)
5. His name came up in the PA investigation related to obstruction of justice so he was served at the front desk and the judge considered it sufficient for contact due to his position and the efficiency of the Bethel system to deliver messages. (Oh come on! It's just an outlandish theory all you apologist!! Lighten up!)
.......do you still believe the organization's false teaching that romans 6:7 refer to a person's literal death?.
watchtower may 15th 1982, pp.
8,9 - "the bible explains that at death a person is set free or released from any sins he committed.".
I find it beyond belief that WTC speaks authoratatively on what is actually mere speculation regarding micro events over 1,000 years away but cannot get their own house in order NOW. Geoffrey Jackson once said that "If the Bible does not say it, neither do we". Riiiiiiight Geoffrey.
Unfortunately most JWs do not perceive when WTC is 'going beyond what is written'.
“1975” still marks 6000 years from the creation of adam in wt calendar.
according to “all scriptures inspired” book, there is a gap between the creation of adam and the creation of eve and her marriage to adam.
it was at that point in time when eve was created that marked the end of the 6th creative day and the beginning of god’s rest, the 7th day as recorded in genesis.
The old green-backed NWT showed the length of the creative days as 7K each. See the Table, "Books of the Bible" and look at the time period covered for Genesis)
I recall JWs disputing that WTC ever taught that. When I took my old green NWT off the shelf and turned to that Table, they just stared. Not a single one EVER acknowledged that it was a flip flop on teaching. I pointed out that it was hard to find a published explanation but the green bible was proof positive that the teaching had changed. Crickets....
https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/video/pittsburgh-woman-testifies-for-grand-jury-investigation-into-jehovahs-witnesses-and-sexual-abuse/#x.
pittsburgh woman testifies for grand jury investigation into jehovah's witnesses and sexual abuse.
kdka investigator andy sheehan interviewed a woman from pittsburgh who's cooperating with an ongoing state investigation into the jehovah's witness church, testifying before a state grand jury about being sexually assaulted when she was 12 years old and how she says church elders told her she was to blame.mar 6, 2023. .
Thank you for the excellent reporting on the progress of the PA investigation!
The 2-witness rule is applied arbitrarily in the JW system depending on who they are trying to shield or prosecute. How does anyone take WTC seriously anymore? They have brought shame and reproach on the god they claim to represent.
