TMS

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Posts by TMS

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  29

  Raising Kids to be Cult Members!!!

  by lisaBObeesa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in another thread, there is a discussion about young people leaving the jws at a rate of something like 88%.

  we see the rules given to the sheep for raising their children and we shake our heads saying, dont they get it?

  what is wrong with the org that it cant see how they are treating the youth?

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  TMS

  Retrospectively, we were lousy parents.

  We provided every bit of stimulation and fun we possibly could, but within JW guidelines. That was not enough. We stifled development by insisting that the JW mold was the only acceptable one.

  Stressing humility and service, we crushed ambition, creativity, competition, achievement, scholarship, recognition and leadership.

  Especially distressing, my wife and I had the resources, energy and life-skills to have done better. It was our 100% devotion to a cultish belief system that sabotaged our parenting. We were "Building A Happy Family" with defective materials.

  tms
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  33

  Are/Were California witnesses REALLY different?

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rumors and urban legends abound with respect to california .

  witnesses.

  my suspicion is that envy and the hollywood personna.

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  TMS

  Gifted, eccentric and creative people can be found anywhere but let
  me reinforce the California sterotypes.

  In 1969 I had the "privilege" of attending KM School in Pittsburg, PA
  for the two week course. School attendees were not local as now,
  but came from all over the U.S. In our class we had four Californians.
  Two were by-the-book JW's.

  One of the other two Californians was in my car group. He was very
  particular about his appearance and seemed a sensitive soul. He told
  us that he was an opera singer and commented on a few of his per-
  formances. We all just listened.

  One of the assignments in this older version of the KM School was to
  put on a Service Meeting. We were assigned the same parts in the
  Kingdom Ministry as the typical congregation. The only change was
  that everything was to be modified, slanted to appeal to a congregation
  of overseers, which we were.

  Bro. Opera Singer followed me on the program. He introduced his part
  appropriately and then, without furthur adieu burst into an operatic
  aria, pacing the stage, arms uplifted bellowing the words in Italian.

  On the ride back to our accommodations, Bro. O. Singer pressed us all
  to assess his performance, not in musical terms, but "Do you think the
  brothers understood where I was coming from?" The car group was
  silent. Finally, I said: "I think they did!"

  tms

  If this thread lives on a little, I may comment on the other Californian in our class
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  33

  Are/Were California witnesses REALLY different?

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rumors and urban legends abound with respect to california .

  witnesses.

  my suspicion is that envy and the hollywood personna.

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  TMS

  "Knorr hated Californians. The best disfellowshipping stories always came from California. Too much Californication out there..." metratron That might explain why so many circuit overseers used the California witnesses as examples of bizarre behavior, not to be emulated. Normally CO's don't criticize the brotherhood, but if they had heard Knorr say it, it was gospel. tms
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  33

  Are/Were California witnesses REALLY different?

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rumors and urban legends abound with respect to california .

  witnesses.

  my suspicion is that envy and the hollywood personna.

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  TMS

  "But lax on rules? No way!!! All of the CO's and DO's were longtimers, came to California after having much seniority. Many powerhouses down here. It seemed like information came from Bethel to California then to the midwest. More moderate in thinking instead of inbred power." simplesally

  That rings true. I suspect SoCal especially was a "perc" assignment for CO's and DO's. My peers who pioneered for years and eventually went into circuit work usually started in North Dakota. lol! A prominent district overseer, Eugene Brandt let it slip that his "discipline" was to serve us as a circuit overseer in Arkansas. He lasted one round through the circuit and went back into district work.

  tms
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  33

  Are/Were California witnesses REALLY different?

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rumors and urban legends abound with respect to california .

  witnesses.

  my suspicion is that envy and the hollywood personna.

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  TMS

  Rumors and urban legends abound with respect to California
  witnesses. My suspicion is that envy and the Hollywood personna
  have contributed to the perception that somehow Jehovah's Witnesses
  who happen to live in California are different.

  In the 60's and 70's I heard so many things about my California
  brothers, usually from the circuit overseers or other elders.

  Just a few:

  Brothers giving talks wearing gold chains or tennis shoes. Elders
  making shepherding calls in Beverly Hills, being handed a martini
  at the door by the butler. Faddish health food diets required by
  circuit overseers for their noon meals.

  Is any of this true?

  tms
• 
  157

  Where are you on the map? New Maps

  by Lady Lee in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok there are so many americans on the map now i had to split you all in half.. valis was kind enough to let me place the maps on his website until i found a new home for them.. photobucket seems to be a good option - at least for now.

  so i have uploaded the new maps which have been updated to include everyone who has asked.. so if you were wondering where we are from.

  or how close you are to other jwd posters in your area just take a look.

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  TMS

  extreme southern tip of texas

  "on the border, by the sea"

  tms
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  74

  my take...

  by teejay in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ... on the watchtower society.

  i am not one who will ever bother to waste my time heaping praise on the jw religion as though it were some kind of improvement on society.

  i have no qualms in saying that it was, is, and always will be a dangerous religion ?

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  TMS

  "I was born and raised in Arkansas." teejay

  Arkansas(1969-1996) My wife and I were sent there as a young
  pioneer couple. I replaced the Congregation Servant in a small
  town who was having sex with a 15 year old girl in the congregation.
  The overseer had convinced the society that the young girl was the
  only viable option to handle the congregation accounts. Thus, the
  two had a "reason" to get together.

  Although I was born in Renton, Washington and my wife in Texas,
  we regard Arkansas as home. It was where we sort of made our
  own life together, where our son was born in 1972.

  We had a Razorback decal on the bumper of our Volkswagen van.
  We relished every minute of the glory years of Eddie Sutton, Lou
  Holtz and Nolan Richardson. My wife frequently started her door-
  to-door presentations with some reference to the previous Razorback
  game.

  The scenery could be breathtaking: Winding Hwy. 71 to Fayetteville,
  Hwy. 7 from Russellville to Dogpatch, Cedar Falls in Petit Jean State
  Park, Devils Fork at Greers Ferry Lake, Mt. Nebo, etc.

  Surely, we have mutual acquaintances. We know hundreds of JW's in
  central Arkansas, many in the western part, Pine Bluff, Searcy,
  Fayetteville, Russellville, Hot Springs, etc.

  Wooooooooo! Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig! Souieeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Go Hogs!

  tms
  
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  3

  Reasoning

  by RosscoeX in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the scriptures we a verse that reads, " for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of god.

  ", the jws how ever replace the word " cross " with " torture stake " if you will now follow this thought thru with me, lets see what we get?

  from the verses above, if we used "torture stake" then asked, q " are you perishing or are you saved?

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  TMS

  RosscoeX,

  Do you know how the aboriginies are able to distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous roots?

  tms
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  74

  my take...

  by teejay in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ... on the watchtower society.

  i am not one who will ever bother to waste my time heaping praise on the jw religion as though it were some kind of improvement on society.

  i have no qualms in saying that it was, is, and always will be a dangerous religion ?

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  TMS

  ok, teejay

  Examples of genuine human spirit permeate the JW landscape. I
  recently discovered on the internet the obituary of Larry Ranch, the
  first congregation overseer I remember who was not my pedophile
  father. Larry made everyone around him feel like they had special
  gifts. He de-emphasized himself unlike any other JW shepherd I
  ever interacted with. The self-esteem I carried into life, despite my
  dysfunctional family, was in large measure due to him.

  But can't examples of human nobility be found in Dachau, the ghetto,
  the convent, the '93 Chicago Bulls and all the whistleblowers, para-
  medics, father figures, nurturers, philanthropists and single mothers
  throughout history?

  Did we have to live a lie? Couldn't we at least have had our shot at
  the real world?

  Just over a year ago, I attended my retirement party. I was comple-
  mented on a "wonderful" career after thirty years spent in the same
  entry level job I started with, while I eschewed promotion, attended
  assemblies, pioneered and stifled any natural ambition that surfaced.

  Do you know what hurts me the most, teejay? I passed the same lie
  on to my only son and crushed his potential just as mine had been
  crushed.

  tms
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  16

  Rear Ender

  by AlanF in

  1. social
  2. humour

  .

  the other day i was riding my new motorcycle and saw this:.

  alanf

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  TMS

  . . . commonly referred to as the "soft tail"