feeling pressure to attend the memorial?.
as a former elder i write this response to hopefully help those genuinely feeling “guilt” before their god.
if you are a jehovah’s witness or an “ex-jw” (for example, disfellowshipped or lapsed), then i hope that this will be of help to you.
Thank you very much for the research. I too came to the conclusion I do not need to attend based on the Watchtower's own teaching.
My mother, however, does not buy it due to the watchtower last week saying that God will be taking note of who is there and who is not.
She is now shunning me due to my choice to not go.
here's a link to jw org to a brochure that can be downloaded that summarizes some of the doctrinal positions of the organization.
it was produced in 2012.it provides a good summary of what blood products are acceptable and those that are not.
in so doing, it also makes them look like fools since there is no basis for their views.
Data-Dog I agree 100%. The fact that the r&f swallow this without any thought is infuriating to me. The hypocrisy of being happy to take any part of blood that has been donated by someone whose death you are praying for is mind boggling.
so i got a message from my auntie yesterday .
hi normalfulla , i was hoping id see you at the memorial this saturday 😊i miss you and the family.
please dont be one of the ones that give up right at the end.
Great response.
here’s a little back story.
i met this jw girl 4 months ago online and found out she was a jw 2 months later after confessing my liking for her.
we had a long conversation about it with her explaining what exactly a jw is and the rules and what not.
There are a few questions that would impact on any advice we could give?
The main one being - Is she baptised?
The other thing that is concerning is that you met online. People can be anything on line. I would be wary.
so, as some of you will know myself and my husband are in the process of fading.
haven't been to a meeting since beginning of 2017. .
we weren't planning on going to the memorial, but last week my mother broke down and said that we have to go to the memorial even if it's the only meeting i go to this year.
Back in the 70s and 80s if you needed to miss the memorial due to being in hospital or sick in bed, the elders would come to you on the night of the memorial so you could pass the emblems too. It was very important.
This is no longer the case. Two of my family had to miss memorials due to being in hospital and they asked if they elders would come and the answer was no.
The memorial is a do or die deal only for the anointed and everyone else is just there to watch. In this case it is my opinion that for the "great crowd" it is nothing more than a regular meeting.
I am not going. My mother I devastated and has begun bullying tactics to get me to change my mind. I will not. She made her choice when she chose this cult and "hurt" her family by doing so. I will now make mine and she will either give me the same respect her parents gave her or she will shun me. That will be on her.
I have children and I will not muddy the waters for them.
it became rare, i thought, when considering last weekends study article.
it became rare, that most of the message is actually quite ok. the gist was to avoid loving oneself, money and pleasures more than god.
thats ok, if you're a believer.. this was my take until i saw the pictures, and discovered the real message behind the article.. as often, they use pictures to contrast bad and good behaviour (in their eyes at least).
Exactly sparrowdown. Bullying and intimidation are the current modes used by our family to get us to "return to Jehovah".
there are exposes right and left.
australia, canada , uk, usa.
news reports, court cases.
You are right. Ones like my mother have latched onto the idea of eternal life in a paradise and no amount of scandal and evidence that JW are just another false religion, will shake her from her resolve to do exactly as they say in order to get there.
anyone listen to the "special" talk today?
i guess it was given by one of the governing body members and shown at all the halls.
.
Wow! If I had gone and seen Terry O'Brien on the screen I would have had to leave. His outright lies and deception during the ARC can not be forgotten.
how in the hell would it ever work?
everyone is youthful, everyone is perfect, everyone's personality is loving and kind.
how would you choose somebody?
HB the answer to your question would be Matthew 22:23-30
23 On that day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came and asked him: 24 “Teacher, Moses said: ‘If any man dies without having children, his brother must marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers with us. The first married and died, and having no offspring, he left his wife for his brother. 26 The same thing happened with the second and the third, through all seven. 27 Last of all, the woman died. 28 So in the resurrection, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her as a wife.”29 In reply Jesus said to them: “You are mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God; 30 for in the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but they are as angels in heaven.
i recently made the decision to stop studying with my study conductor, due to a situation i found myself in that led to a high possibility of my unbaptized publisher "rights" being taken away from me.
i have since told my study conductor i have joined a new church (to which she dropped me like a hot rock, of course).... last time i posted on here, i was progressing nicely towards baptism, and was well into it.anyhoo, i like my new church, very hillsong-esqe.
so just wondering if anyone else has stayed the course of christianity after leaving the jws, and if so - where did you go?
