i know many here who have had good and bad jw social experiences.
some went camping, hiking etc, went to the beach.
some had no social life at all in the org and some had congregations where nothing ever happened socially.. i know of one sister, who has since left, who complained that the only thing witnesses did when they got together, was share a meal.. now, there's nothing wrong with sharing a meal.
My Mom told me that one of the new fundamentalist right wing elders in her cong is clamping down on any social events and has suggested that the association recieved at the hall is all that they should need....
Now wonder the young ones are leaving in droves....
each year name badges are handed out at the kingdom halls for those attending the upcoming district convention.
i have always refused to wear one but this was not a major issue as i would say only about 50% wore them anyway.
however i noticed that as the years went by more and more 'brothers' were wearing them including during the lunch break in the city centre concerned.
What about disfellowshipped people? I couldn't wear badges for the three conventions I went to as a DF'd person.
They should have got you to wear a sign and ring a bell, "Unclean,.... Unclean" in case anyone accidentally spoke to you.
I visited the British Museum the other weekend and the place was teeming with Witnesses all wearing their ID badges, being herded around the same exhibits I went round on a cong trip 12 years ago. The guide asked one group a question and the entire group answered in unision.
Quite a bazzare experience, dont think I have been that close to such a large group of JW's for years.
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i have just heard a whisper of an incest scandle in the congregations in leicester uk.
does anyone have any information on this?.
I have just heard a whisper of an incest scandle in the congregations in Leicester UK. Does anyone have any information on this?
A
i have been talking to some friends of mine both in and out of the "cult".
and the one thing that no one can come up with is how many of the socalled 144,000 are left, i would estamate there to be atleast 145,000 still kicking today.
if any one out there know's of a number and not the number put in the watchtower, i mean realy do you belive all you read.
Neither did we count the schizophrenic brother who was a bit delusional one year and took the emblems thinking that God had called him
Hmmm whearas any other brother that believes that god has called him and that when he dies he will be transfigured into heaven and sit before the throne of God with 143,999 other ones is not delusional I presume.
ask, and ye shall receive.. i will herewith post my notes from the km06 elders school i recently attended.
i will post this in 6 parts, to give people a chance to read smaller chunks and comment on them.. a couple of introductory notes: i wrote an awful lot of stuff, and will not post everything.
for each talk, i will post 3 sections: (1) general synopsis, (2) personal thoughts & observations, (3) particularly egregious quotations.. the primary speakers, who delivered more than 1/2 of the talks, were a circuit overseer and a guest from brooklyn bethel.. to protect anonymity, we will refer to the sadly inane circuit overseer as brother sico.. and the old-timer lifelong brother from bethel, completely out of touch, as brother bethel-coot.. one more introductory comment: it seems the main points the society wanted to send to elders were:.
Egregious quotes: "Some say the end is a long way off. Some friends are saving money for retirement, as if they were going to (chortle) retire in this system of things. Can you imagine what that would do to someone's zeal for the ministry? It would kill it."Egregious quotes: "Satan plays a role in the production of violent video games"
My parents, as with many of that witness generation became witnesses just prior to 1975. I understand that some of the witnesses I knew are facing a real problem as retirement looms and they have no pension plan.
I have a friend in the Video Games industry. I shall have to ask him if he has an employee called 'Satan' and exactly what role does he play. Does Satan clock on and sit at a workstation cubicle? I can picture the scene.
i have recently got involved in politics and was out over the weekend canvassing.
i found it an interesting contrast with being on the ministry.. first of all i found it easier to actually talk to people about something i actually believed in rather then recite the same old stuff that had become so dry to me.
the biggest contrast was when i rang a door and after a few moments it was clear no one was in, i instinctively reached for the door bell again, the witness way being to string out a 'not at home' for as long as decently possible so as to 'get your hour in' without having to talk to too many people.
Interesting comments.
We had very few really negative people yesterday and even if they clearly supported one of the other parties were happy to discuss issues they felt were a problem in the area.
The Ministry is all about telling people that there are loads of problems in the world, that we are all doomed and that only God can sort it out and that you have to change the way you live your life to benefit.
I feel that is the difference, Political work is discussing real issues that affect real people, listening to them and encouraging them to get involved.
I suspect this is why I got interested in Politics some years after being 'out'. Once I stopped believing that God was going to sort out the problems of the world it became clear to me that it is up to us to make a difference. Even in a small way, protesting about something we feel strongly, helping a Charity, standing for office, signing a petition. This is how Democracy is supposed to work, if there are enough people who just make a little bit of a difference that can add up to a huge change.
From the point of view of God, (if there is one) I am sure God is going to be more inclined to help mankind if he can see we are trying to help ourselves. I fail to see how an organisation that restricts thinking, forbids involvement in Political affairs, discourages charity work other than their own which only consists of peddling journals that no one reads is helping anyone.
Anyway, enough of my soap box.
who else has been told that the month of october is a special month because in the past jehovah has fulfilled many prophecies in that month.. we have been told this twice in the last 2 book studies.. examples are: hand writing on the wall in daniels book happened on 5/6th october 539 bce, .
jesus was born in october 2 bce,.
kingdom rule started in october 1914, but the most interesting one is that ww1 started in october of that year.has anyone else been told this?.
I left the JW's on the 4th October 1994... 11 Years and 5 days ago.... Not that I am counting.
BTW, I thought WW1 started in August, not October, so how come the war started a few weeks before the 'end of the gentile times and the second coming sign of Christs invisible presence".
the listener said on an earlier postyou've been out for awhile, perhaps your insight will help some of us who are still in the exiting process.
which was a lovely thing to say, and made me feel 'valued' (thanks listener!).
but, you know, 14 years on, and there are times, when i feel like i just left.. i took the children to the pictures yesterday (to see 'wallace & grommit').
I know exactly how you feel.... I have been out for over 10 years now and in my everyday life have really moved on. Sometimes though you are faced with a situation that really throws you. Its like your whole past is thrown back at you.
The simple fact is that you have moved on and lead a relatively normal life. The way the Witnesses treat you is NOT normal and yet having been like that, having that mind set ourselves it is scary.
The best way I can deal with it is to hold your head up, its them that are not normal, they are just blinded to it.
A
i have recently got involved in politics and was out over the weekend canvassing.
i found it an interesting contrast with being on the ministry.. first of all i found it easier to actually talk to people about something i actually believed in rather then recite the same old stuff that had become so dry to me.
the biggest contrast was when i rang a door and after a few moments it was clear no one was in, i instinctively reached for the door bell again, the witness way being to string out a 'not at home' for as long as decently possible so as to 'get your hour in' without having to talk to too many people.
I have recently got involved in Politics and was out over the weekend canvassing. I found it an interesting contrast with being on the Ministry.
First of all I found it easier to actually talk to people about something I actually believed in rather then recite the same old stuff that had become so dry to me.
The biggest contrast was when I rang a door and after a few moments it was clear no one was in, I instinctively reached for the door bell again, the Witness way being to string out a 'not at home' for as long as decently possible so as to 'get your hour in' without having to talk to too many people. I surpressed the instinct, remembering that I was actually out to talk to as many people as I could before the rain set in. I noticed that we all walked round faster and were more efficient, no one was counting time or looking at watches, no hanging around on street corners or classic time wasting techniques. We did not work in pairs, no long chats as we went round. No pioneer plod.
Soon a few drops of rain start and instead of heading for shelter in the nearest coffee bar we carried on until it really was raining.
Interesting contrast though, I was called on by two witnesses the other week. To pass the time, I asked them what they believed, hoping they may mention 1914 and I could get them to explain it to me. The one Witness (looked like an elderette) spouted a whole lot of stuff really quickly to me with a liberal dose of witness buzzwords, like propitiatory sacrifice, annointed, millenuim reign, gentile times, kingdom etc... even I found it difficult to keep up and I wondered what chance anyone who had not had a witness upbringing would have of understanding the meaning of what was being said. It could have been in a foreign language.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050902/cm_csm/ekatrina .
read it and see that the pres actually was on the ball and had the machinery turned on and ready to operate.
if a dummy like clinton (gore or kerry as well) had been in charge, who knows what would have happened!
If a dummy like Clinton (Gore or Kerry as well) had been in charge, who knows what would have happened!
Well I am sure that Clinton would have stood over the Levee like king Canute and held back the waters until the storm had subsided.
Did not really want to get dragged into another post attempting to educate some of our less free thinking American cousins over the pond, however this one takes the biscuit for uninformed comment.
Bush has the backbone to take the war on terror to the enemy in Afghanistan
Are these the same Afghan's that in the 80's were trained, funded and armed by the US government?
and right to the doorstep(s) of the murderous brute in Iraq,
Is this the same murderous brute that was trained, funded and armed by the US government in the 80's?
Bush has backbone, democracy is starting to free people in the middle east
Democratic in the American sense as in the case of the election rigging by Bush in Florida or Democratic in the Ukranian sense in that they protested against their rigged election and got the elction declared void.
Free as in the sort of freedom enjoyed in America whereby you cannot go outside for fear of getting shot, or free as in the European sense where in most places you can safely let your kids play outside unattended.
Bush is a Christian in a mostly Christian country, which is responsible for the freedom of millions while socialism and communism has killed hundreds of millions in the 20th century alone.
Christian as in the case of Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, General Franco and all the South American military dictators that were trained, funded and armed by the US government in the 60-70's.
Capitalism (as opposed to Socialism and Communism) has found a nifty way of getting around those inconvenient anti slavery laws dating back from the civil war. Why not export the slavery.
1/ Lend a third world country money for development in exchange for lowering of trade barriers
2/ Export cheap rice to the third world country
3/ The bottom falls out of the subsistance rice gowing economy
4/ Hike up the rice prices just a little
5/ Wait till the country is on the verge of starvation
6/ Farmers mass migrate to the towns in search of food
7/ Open up a Nike Factory to take advantage of cheap labour
8/ Provide housing for the grateful employees, who under the banner of freedom, democracy and capitalism have the luxury of a small room to house their entire family, a toilet for every 20 families, their own light bulb and an 18 hour working day in conditions that would be illegal back home.
How I look forward to the day when we here in Europe can enjoy the sweet joy of freedom and Democracy American Style.
