field service for up to twenty-four hours non-stop.... it's a bit of a fad in our area with pioneers - the twenty somethings especially.
we've heard from other family members and a jw friend that it's a thing in their part of the country as well.. it sounds like a group decides on a day and then piles into a van or suv to 'work' the territory - 12, 18 and even 24 hours.. anyone else hearing of this?.
ginger.
Field service for up to twenty-four hours non-stop.... It's a bit of a fad in our area with pioneers - the twenty somethings especially. We've heard from other family members and a JW friend that it's a thing in their part of the country as well.
It sounds like a group decides on a day and then piles into a van or suv to 'work' the territory - 12, 18 and even 24 hours.
Anyone else hearing of this?
ginger
this is my first post on jwn, and i would like to take a few lines to introduce myself.. i currently am still in the organization, though my conviction in the last 1-2 years is more or less agnostic/atheist (closer to atheist).
i am an ex-elder and mts graduate, having served in another 3 congregations, apart from my home one.. the reason for the above-mentioned conviction shift has to do with science and rational, logical thinking generally, and with the grand theory of evolution, specifically.
it took me long, endless sessions of hard reading and study of serious scientific literature (plus cross-matching all the quotes and claims in jw evolution-related literature), to finally make the shift from utterly firm religious belief to doubt, and then to lack of religious faith.
It seems to be a rare thing to exit from Jehovah's Witnesses on logic alone. Non-christian behavior, abuse or other mistreatment by members of a congregation or family is often the impetus for leaving.
I look forward to your comments!
ginger
before i dive into the actual write-up of this experience, let me put some things straight.. i have thought long and hard if i should write more about my experiences during the 10+ years at different branches.
during these years i worked from financial department, service department, home office and different it assignments.
as you can imagine one sees and hears and reads a lot of stuff going through different stations in different countries.
dear forumites, i need your advise please.. i would like to write a letter to the world headquarters of the jehovah's witnesses regarding a subject that i've published an article recently.
i would like to draw the attention of the gb to said article, which i will send in print form (therefore, no attention would be drawn to the website where it was published).. naturally, because i am a jehovah's witness in good standing in the congregation and what i'll be discussing in my letter will be a dissenting view from the official doctrine/practice, i want to protect my identity and i don't want to be harassed by elders or subjected to any sort of judicial investigation.
nevertheless, i would be very interested in reading their response (if any) to my letter.. how can i do that?
Eden -
In your letter you make a great argument however it won't change a thing. You've spent a lot of time and energy explaining why disfellowshipping and the practice of shunning are wrong. However....
if you forward this in printed form to the service desk, it will be ignored. The only return letter you will receive will tell you to talk to YOUR elders in YOUR congregation. And, to NOT talk about this matter with anyone else.
They wholeheartedly agree with Acts 5:29 - inasmuch as they don't have to listen to the publishers.
Remember:
They allowed men, women and children to be imprisoned and murdered (for the sake of the 'faith') in Germany, Malawi, Korea, Russia, Poland, Chili, Canada, Greece, United States and more. They don't care that a disfellowshipping busts up a family. Period.
ginger
sorry if i'm stepping on any toes here, but i haven't seen anything positive about home-schooling...at all.
the notion is that parents are taking advantage of the formative years to inculcate more worthwhile values while protecting their kids from worldly influences.
they end up with lazy, socially inept, illiterate duds who haven't a clue.
When the shooting happened last December at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, we heard that four local JW families decided to pull their children from public school.
All these kids (9 total) haven't reached their teens. A couple of the older ones were baptized this past summer. One of the mothers, whom I've known since childhood, dropped out of high school in her sophomore year (she somehow became pregnant). She now pioneers. Her Ministerial Servant husband works for a small company owned by two JW elders. Four of the twelve children now being home schooled are theirs.
Now there's a disaster waiting to happen.
Putting the kingdom first while praying for the end of time.
ginger
sorry if i'm stepping on any toes here, but i haven't seen anything positive about home-schooling...at all.
the notion is that parents are taking advantage of the formative years to inculcate more worthwhile values while protecting their kids from worldly influences.
they end up with lazy, socially inept, illiterate duds who haven't a clue.
It's a tragedy - in most instances.
I've seen a few families work that home school situation very well. Part of their success was that the parents were balanced - and didn't turn their children into laborers in the 'family business' or spending their days in a field service car group. Home schooling often means getting the homework done asap - without any outside interaction or criticism.
It can border on child abuse.
It's control.
Home schooling amongst JW's has been very popular in our area for 25 years. These young adults consistently have a HUGE fear of the outside world, have a hard time leaving the nest to become independent and often marry other JW's homeschoolers. They tend to look (constantly) to their parents for approval and recognition.
A network of home school systems are run by individual Jehovah's Witnesses. The New System School is popular in our area. In my opinion, the "graduates" of this so-called School has a failure rate of over 80%. The poor kids don't have a chance...
ginger
over many years i have looked at jwn.
in fact barely a day goes by without my fix.. .
it is a site of contradictions.. .
When I first visited, I was very nervous. This was really BAD....
But I quickly realized that I could peer into the lives and experiences of others who were struggling with facing the truth about being a Jehovah's Witness - just like me. It became liberating in so many ways.
JWN is not unforgiving - some of the posters are.
That's like saying a Kingdom Hall is judgemental......
ginger
what do you people here on the forum think of the new jw website.
i find it strange how when i was jw they made a big deal out of the internet saying it was bad.but now they new this new website and they keep promoting on their literature..
It's part of the new re-branding efforts of Jehovah's Witnesses - happy videos, helpful articles, new construction project updates, news on how the Org. is combating persecution through the court systems, how the Org. is saving the lives of other JW's during disasters, the latest languages that are being translated into magazines & books, 'advertising' videos of the new Governing Body...
JW.org is really designed for the active Jehovah's Witness....not for the general public.
ginger
how are we able to do this.. this is not an attempt to stir the pot or cause confusion but i was sitting here thinking of all the really horrid things that the old testament god did to people.
when i was a jw i just purposely put it to the back of my mind always trying to make an excuse.
when i was in field service and someone would ask me about it i would just change the subject.. however i have been reading alot of info lately here about how wonderful jesus is and how he is a direct representation of what god the father would be.
Remember that these books and laws were written by people of a different time. Many of the horrific customs are still in place in the Middle East.
Actually the ancient 'Isrealites' enacted and lived by these codes of conduct - including mass murder, slavery, discrimination, body mutilation, etc. - and used the 'god' as their authority.
If a group of leaders can use a divine authority to justify their actions, anything is possible.
ginger
when i was a kid, it seemed like not a meeting went by when you didn't hear about jonah or sampson and other tall tales from the bible.. now though, they seem to have been sidelined.
i guess the rest of the world caught on to the fact that these stories couldn't possibly be true and were so far fetched (yeah, even by bible standards) that they are just treated as 'stories' like aesop's fables.
saying that you believe in them as genuine accounts just makes you look like a crazy zealot.. but the wts is different.
@ tootired - and there is no solid archelogical evidence of a massive, nomadic group of people living/existing on the Sinai Peninsula during that time either!
Weird Bible stories:
The people of Noah's time were so bad and evil that the solution to this problem was to cause a flood and save all the ...... animals??
Lot's daughters get the old fella drunk and then get busy with him....two nights in a row. And he has no memory of it? He is SO drunk...but somehow his wedding tackle rises to the occasion.....???
ginger