john.prestor

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Topics Started by john.prestor

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  7

  "Governing Body Procedure," a secret rulebook

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in crisis of conscience, raymond franz reproduces a letter sent to him from someone representing the governing body in which they thank him for returning the text, governing body procedure.

  franz says nothing about this text any other place in the work, but i've been trying to track it down, because it sounds like another confidential manual like shepherd the flock of god.

  i doubt it's been leaked (i'm shocked, pleasantly, that we even have circuit overseer guidelines, the confidential manual used by circuit overseers) but you never know.. is anyone else familiar with this work?

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  33

  Door-to-door preaching as surveillance

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i wanted to share some thoughts about jehovah's witnesses and their door-to-door preaching.

  door-to-door preaching is supposedly about gathering converts, but in fact, as we frequently discuss, doesn't actually bring that many "sheep-like ones" in.

  i want to suggest that a second meaning (what we call the latent meaning in academia) is facilitating surveillance of the congregants who attend some congregation.

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  11

  The future of young Witnesses

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there's a convention being held near my hometown, and as i was passing by i saw a father taking his young children for a walk outside.

  and i wondered what would happen to those children, what they would experience at school and in their adult life.

  i wondered if they would grow up repressed and anxious and fearful and full of guilt like i did, although i was not raised a witness.

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  Western MA Regional Convention: anyone attending?

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm considering attending the regional convention in western ma at umass amherst's mullins center in two weeks, both out of my typical curiosity and to see the degree to which they've increased security.

  the convention is going on from friday to sunday, that being august 3rd to august 5th.

  is anyone on here planning to attend and/or protest?

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  18

  The Repression and Expression of Anger Among Jehovah's Witnesses

  by john.prestor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  something which i always found surprising when i attended the kingdom halls i studied was how angry, even vicious, many jehovah's witnesses could become when a watchtower study featured some persons and/or institutions the organization disapproved of, say, higher education and educators, christendom and its clergy, apostates, etc.

  many seemed to sadistically enjoy denigrating these persons or institutions when the watchtower study conductor called on them and they were handed a microphone.

  i wondered for a long time where this anger came from, and i've developed a hypothesis for explaining this.. according to a book i'm reading by alice miller called "for your own good: hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence," children who are strictly controlled and abused (whether emotionally or physically) typically go on to unleash the anger they inevitably felt at their parents, but were never allowed to express, at their children or those around them.

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  7

  The transition from Faithful Slave to Governing Body

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what i'm about to describe may have some bearing on the question of motives in the organization and the degree to which the governing body or the high-ranking men beneath them are self-aware.

  a few months before the organization began teaching that the faithful slave meant the governing body and not the 144,000, so around early 2013, a circuit overseer visited one of the congregations where i was gathering data.

  he introduced this teaching subtly in two of his three talks (the extra midweek meeting, the midweek meeting, and the weekend meeting).

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  32

  Jehovah's Witnesses: shame and domination

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i want to suggest something that i've been ruminating on for a while now.

  that involves the possibility that when jehovah's witnesses look for "sheep-like ones" what they're actually looking for is this: those who will allow themselves to be dominated (get rid of things that god "hates," accept the movement's beliefs without protest, not check into the movement's history) and those who are willing to be shamed (letting jehovah's witnesses into their homes when doing so is looked down upon in secular society, talking with them on the street when everyone else avoids them).. i say this because from what i observed at the kingdom halls i attended in the course of gathering data for my research i saw:.

  -frequent shaming: jehovah's witnesses must do more to be acceptable to god, they are "good for nothing slaves," they are spared through armageddon by jehovah's "undeserved kindness," etc.

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  17

  Antiwitnessing: cowards

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  so i'm downtown and i see two jws hanging out on a bench by a cart.

  i approached them and said, i saw you guys on the news, there was a child abuse cover-up in philadelphia.

  they don't respond and just look at me.

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  30

  Bethelite statistics

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hey guys, i'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst jehovah's witnesses ( i'm also preparing a book about jehovah's witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about jehovah's witnesses and discrimination against women).

  i'm trying to calculate as exact figures as i can concerning how much bethelites are paid.

  does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now?

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  14

  JWs studying with a neighbor: what should I do?

  by john.prestor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so let me introduce myself first: i've lurked here for years because i'm working on a long-term research project concerning jehovah's witnesses and i've collected data from this site (seriously, you guys are awesome, i've learned so much from this forum i never would have learned otherwise).

  i've also collected data at multiple kingdom halls and read scholarly works on jehovah's witnesses and non-scholarly works as well (e.g., crisis of conscience).

  so i have a pretty good sense of jehovah's witnesses even though i was not raised in this faith nor did i ever join up.

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