MTSman

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Posts by MTSman

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  33

  This Year's Memorial

  by TD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  perhaps i'm just getting older and crankier, but it really seems to me that the jw faith is deteriorating at an accelerated rate.. case in point: this year's memorial talk.

  it was one of the most incoherent messes i've ever heard.

  (and i've heard a lot of memorial talks over the last 50 years....).

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  MTSman

  I didn't go to the memorial, but I was still in a check your brain at the door kind of mood, so I saw Fast and Furious 7.
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  19

  JW going to prestigious university

  by ivanatahan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been debating this, and my mother (the spiritual head of my family, she even controls my father spiritually, who is an elder) doesn't seem to be starkly against me going to a prestigious university.

  in fact, i've been going over my chances, and i'd say i have a pretty decent chance of going to my dream university, oxford university, to study philosophy, politics, and economics.

  naturally i wouldn't tell my mother about me wanting to take the three most hated subjects of jws at a university that would bring me into bad relations with "spiritually sound jws".. do you guys know any ex-jw or knowledgeable jw who knows ttatt that went to a randall group or ivy league school?

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  MTSman

  Dude, PPE is one hell of a major. I go to one of the three Ivys that offer it. It sounded so interesting and unique so I declared the major. First semester kicked my ass. Don't know how Oxford is but at Penn, the curve on the tests are just unreal. First test got a 86. Second, 53 and the final 21 and still got a fricken A-. Once you pass the core classes the interesting stuff begins. I majored in PPE and minored on English lit, graduating with 3.45 and got a finance job on Wall Street starting at 80grand. Mts. ain't give me that! Good luck and stick with it. There will be nights you're going to feel like giving up...don't. And don't listen to your crazy family.
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  4

  The lure of reading the wt is equivalent to a college education came about

  by MTSman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been out for, god, six years now.

  it only seems like yesterday when i was before three a-holes pleading for my life.

  relecting back, i've come to realize having the ax fall on me was the best thing.

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  MTSman

  I've been out for, God, six years now. It only seems like yesterday when I was before three a-holes pleading for my life. Relecting back, I've come to realize having the ax fall on me was the best thing. If not for that dumb mistake that I was judge wicked for, I would still be a blind, idot with child like hopes and dreams. Anyway, I had often wondered where this notion of reading the publishing is the equivalent of a college education. while studying for midterms with a budy, he informed me of this collection of books called the Harvard Classics:

  The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot and first published in 1909. [ 1 ]

  Eliot had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. (Originally he had said a three-foot shelf.) The publisher P. F. Collier and Son saw an opportunity and challenged Eliot to make good on this statement by selecting an appropriate collection of works, and the Harvard Classics was the result.

  Eliot worked for one year with William A. Neilson, a professor of English; Eliot determined the works to be included and Neilson selected the specific editions and wrote introductory notes. [ 1 ] Each volume had 400-450 pages, and the included texts are "so far as possible, entire works or complete segments of the world's written legacies." [ 2 ] The collection was widely advertised by Collier and Son, in Collier's and elsewhere, with great success.

  So there it is. How the lure of reading the watchtower is the equivilant of a college education. I can see how reading Dickens, Hawthorn, victor Hugo and Mary Shelly and other literary pioneers can broaden an intellectual horizon, but reading a bunch of nonsensica, egotistical ramblings of a handful of egotistical men? Naw, I can't see that.
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  14

  Voting and elections

  by Powermetal4ever in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been thinking about the fact that jws dont vote in elections.

  the main reason for this, i guess is that they shall not be a part of this world and so on.

  there was no election in the times of jesus, so yes i understand that it needs an intepretetion, but why is that intepreted that they shouldnt vote?

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  MTSman

  I've been interning for a lawyer in a major city here in the US for about a year now, and just the other day she tells me that this February she'll be quitting her job to run for judge. Outside of her family I'm the only person she's told about this. When she did, I was thinking to myself, oh shit now I'm in a bit of a jam. But then I asked myself, why am I in a jam? I guess it was the reminants of my brainwashing seeping through. Anyway, this lawyer totally likes and respect me for going back to school in my late years, she helped me get into law school, and she is major, MAJOR, juice in the political and legal system here in the City. So here's the thing. I've been going back to the meetings pretty regularly after being out for six years. (It only seems like yesterday.) Last month I got the, "We've noticed you've been coming regularly. Whenever you're ready,let us know," speech from the presiding overseer or whatever the hell they're called now. At the time, I was like yeah maybe I will. That was before I got my acceptance letter to a top 10 law school. Yeah, I really don't want to spend another three years in school. I really, really, really, don't, but I'm doing it to piss people off. Kind of like when a girl dates the "wrong guy" to piss her parents off.

  My family doesn't know I've been accepted to law school. They know I'm finishing my BA, but I think they would all be puzzled about law school, and they would be even more outraged if they knew I was helping out on a political campain. This lady WILL win, and if I stick with her I will literarly be set for the rest of my life. Hmm, a life of poverty, or priveledge? It's not even a choice. I couldn't plan this shit if I wanted to. Some people who get df'd go buckwild and screw around till their weiner falls off, drink and do drugs until they look like they're a billion years old and their conscience beats them back to the meetings. Me? Well I've just been really pissed off. The anger that I've been harboring comes from the thoughts of what I could have done in my life and youth, however, instead of wadding in this anger I have used it to become laser focused and determined to shove success in the faces of a bunch of self-righteous people. Sigh, I think I'm going to wait until the elections are over before I hand in my letter to the elders.

  P.S. Where the hell is the spell check on this thing?
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  23

  Don't Let Your JW Past Keep You Down!

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know many who were witnesses hate their past, their decisions, their wasted time.. but you know what??

  it's not so bad now.

  at least we are out, either mentally, physically or both.. and now, we know better!.

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  MTSman

  It must have been Jehovah's holy spirit leading me to this forum. I was just thinking about how much I wasted my youth. I'm a junior at an Ivy League school, very proud of that,the first and lest likely to have gotten a college degree, however for the next year I will have to work a shitty job, and every day I clock in I fume with hatred for this fucking religion. I should've done this years ago,but I have no one to blame but me. I should've done what I wanted to have done instead of going with this mind numbing dumbed down life. Anyway, things are looking great, I've secured a satisfying job upon graduating, and most of all I have self worth and satisfaction,which is more than I had living a life of utter poverty,and pretend happiness. GOD this is going to be a Long year!
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  31

  Did Anyone Apply To Go To Bethel, And Not Be Accepted?

  by LoisLane looking for Superman in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the brother i loved, married someone else.

  at the ripe old age of 20, i thought my life was over.

  if i was catholic, i probably would have joined a nunnery.

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  MTSman

  From the age of nine, I was given the goal of Bethel service, so when I turned 18, and graduated from High school of course that is what I did, but I didn't get in. It was earth shattering. After the third try, and nothing, my parents told me, "Maybe it wasn't Jehovah's will for me to go." So what the hell was I going to do? I never showed much interest in school, I had no real marketable talents and I was working some shitty low paying security job while pioneering. So I did what all the bethel rejects did, and applied to MTS. At the age of 23, I was the youngest in my class. I priveledged, and I use that word sarcastically, to receive divine edumacation that was utterly useless. A year after, I was assigned to some god forsaken town, with some a-hole and his overbearing mother. I shiver at the thought of this story. Anyway, that's what I did. I would continue, but writting this is really draining on the soul.
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  20

  What happens before a Judicial Committee?

  by jw07 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i can't get into much detail, but i might have been caught doing something natural and fun that the gb would have a fit over.

  (i'm not sure at this point if i was seen).

  the elders have called a meeting of the entire body tonight, which is strange since they usually meet on weekends.. i've been worrying and sweating like crazy since then, which i think is the programmed jw guilt switch in my mind going off like crazy.. what i want to know is:.

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  MTSman

  An actual transcript of one of those meetings:

  The air was thick, and could be cut with a butchers knife, as the ten men filed into the third school in the back of the Kingdom hall. It was hot. The air-conditioner was off because the bills had not been paid in three months. The Accounts Servant, had skimmed funds, and before he could return them into the coffers, Brother Wipe had did an audit. It was bad, and the Elders had to appologize to the congo for being harsh on them. The common thinking among the Elders was that the members made up of retirees, living off of Social Security bennifits, were not putting the Kingdom first, and worrying about where their next can of Ensure was going to come from.

  After everyone settled, Brother White, a tall man who had a whisp of grey hair, crossed his nimble legs, and took a deep breath. "It has come to my attention that Brother Dick's son wants to go to college." Brother White said while looking cunningly at Brother Dick who slouched in his seat wondering who snictched on him, and his family.

  Brother Howard, a young strapping Brother who recently married Brother White's daughter, had it out for Brother Dick because he felt Brother Dick's son had a better life than him. Although Brother Howard had the best looking girl in the congreagtion, he was frustrated. Mary Anne, a voluptuous blonde who looked more like a porn star than a pioneer, hadn't paid her marritial vows. Secretly, she was carrying a licencious life with a married couple whom she said she was studying with. She was reluctant at first to particiapate in the couples brazen lifestyle, but her heart lead her down a slippery slope, and before she knew it, Mary Anne had turned from a selfrigteous girl into a hardcore Dominatrix. She lusted for the perverted, but still yearned for family and friend who were all in the truth. When home with her husband, she didn't want give into her sexual desires because she thought he might notice her wanton ways in bed, and question where she spent her 70 hours a month, so she used sexual power to get him to do things she wanted him to do like cook and clean. As a matter of fact, poor Brother Howard hadn't even seen his wife naked. She would only show a naked shoulder in bed, but at nght she allowed him to hump her leg. After ten months, Brother Howard was tired of jerking off and viewing porn on his Droid Razor in the bathroom before taking a shower, and his sexual frustration hieghtened and made him seem zealous for the truth and God's organization. Although, he was just angry from not getting laid. He said, "The Soicety say here in our Flock Book that no man within the congregation who has the wonderful priveledge of serving God's people in these last days, shall go to, nor have anyone in their family go to college." Brother Howard crossed his arms and nodded his head looking at his father in-law who smiled beamingly with approval.

  "But Johnny, is only going to Community College to attain, some education." Brother Dick raised his hands in the air in a gesture of frustration. He had given up the opportunity to go to a major University on a full scholarship. Instead, he started a cleaning company, and pursued a career in the full time ministry where after twenty years he had the priveledge of attending two weeks of pioneer training school twice, and added three people into the truth. However, aside from spiritual prosperity, Brother Dick had no real security in life. He lived from pay check to pay check, after his last contract didn't re-up. Apparently some Mexican's out bid him, and he and his family fell on the generosity of others within the congregation albeit him being a sickenly selfrighteous man. Dick and his family had volunteered to serve where the need was greater in the Sunny Valley, where they were the only ones of color. He thought giving talks in the tonality of J.R. Brown was sure to light a fire under the lilly white asses of those who took God's true organization for granted, but all those regurgitated talks did was alienate his family from the rest of the congo. Back home, in their two bedroom apartment in the seedy side of town, Brother Howard's daughter, Shanaynay, was delivering some bad news to her mother, Sister Dick. Shanayna was three months pregnant, and the father of the child was Brother White's son-in law. One day Brother Howard paid a visit to Dick's to see if the Elder Dick wanted to some return calls. Neither he, nor the mother or the son was there, but Shanaynay was in all her polished ghetto glory. Brother Howard couldn't resist her ample bussom and soft smooth skin. As he entered the home, all he could think of was the cousel of not entering into the home of a single sister, but his hardon was louder than the voices in his head.

  Brother Dick took a deep breath and covered his face in same, for he knew he had tested God by letting his son eat from the table of demons. He looked up and scanned the room of his fellow Older men nodding his head. He said in responce to Brother White, "I understand what I did was not in harmony with the direction of the Governing Body, and I will step down."
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  1

  New Dan Brown Book——Inferno

  by MTSman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so, i'm a huge dan brown fan, well was, i mean i still am, but i'm studying for my b.a.- english literature, and after realizing that a good book need not have a dead body, or a cop my views on good, and entertaining literature has changed drastically.

  that even goes for the wt literature, which i view as propaganda, mytholgy andwell you get the picture.

  anyway, i am excited for this book.

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  MTSman

  So, I'm a huge Dan Brown fan, well was, I mean I still am, but I'm studying for my B.A.- English Literature, and after realizing that a good book need not have a dead body, or a cop my views on good, and entertaining literature has changed drastically. That even goes for the WT literature, which I view as propaganda, mytholgy and––well you get the picture. Anyway, I am excited for this book. Dan Brown deosn't exactly enrich the soul, or serve anything outside of the context of the writing, but he does tell one hell of thriller. Sort of anyway. His last book was so good, I could only read one page a day, literaly. Geez I am so hoping this one is better, but from what I'm hearing the critic say about it, my hopes have been deflated. Why am I writing this? Oh yeah, Dante. So, Dante wrote Inferno because he was pissed off the Pope who had him exiled, and in return no one really knows much about the man of God, but Donte's words are studied, examined, and bastardized down to this day. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, use creativity to get back at the Organization that has exiled you from from family and friend. Create a world and put the GB in the center where the sun don't shine. Use God given talent, to use as a mirror to show how tyranical these men are towards people who love God, and see what happens. Sucess is the best revenge! Now, I'm getting back to the renowned author's story about a sturdy intellect.
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  5

  Question about convention speaker procedure

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i know they have someone monitoring everything that gets said from the platform.

  what happens if the speaker gets way off script?

  for example, one of our fading elders decides to just start saying what he knows.

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  MTSman

  On the congregational level if the brother who goes way off script he would be considered an oddball. When the Circuit Overseers, (or what ever they're called nowadays) comes around he compiles a list of good speakers. That's why the Presiding Overseer(Yeah I know they're not called that anymore)assigns the best in the congregation to giving talks and handle parts during the visit. From there the C.O. picks speakers who he thinks will be good examples for the Circuit Assemblies and Special Assembly Days. When they're assigned a talk it is mandatory they attend rehearsals where everyone on the Assembly is there. It's during this time the C.O. and his cronies put their two cents in on what will be heard and what will not be heard. There are a couple of these meetings during the months leading up to the Assembly day, and normally it takes place at the hall where the C.O. stays, so he won't have to travel far.

  On the Circuit Assembly and S.A.D. levels there are a one or two brothers assigned to monitor the talks. They have all the outlines and carefully follow along. Normally these are the guys that have been around a very long time. (Each Circuit Overseer passes along to the next Circuit Overseer a bunch of files on the brothers to use, and who the up and coming brothers are.) The speakers are then graded. I forget what the range is, but if he goes way off script, or puts people to bed they pretty much will never have another part, or be stuck at the Circuit level. However, if the C.O. and the monitors like him, the C.O. will then send his name with his reports to, "Mother", for the Big Show.

  At the Big Show, there are a handful of monitors. These are the guys in the "Special" booths where security guards in .99 cent suits, and ties that match thier socks, won't let you in unless you have a special sticker, or stamp. These monitors sit up there, sipping coffee, eating doughnuts while following along. If the speaker really F's up, he's done. There are pleanty of Organization representatives who will jot his name down, and make sure he will never get another shot. However, if he does well, follows the script, and is lively he will continue to get assignments. The session Chairman also plays a part in this as well. He has all the outlines of the talks during the session he chairs. If you look carfully, you'll see him to the side reading along with the speaker just in case he has to step in. A long time ago in city far, far away during one of those hellish, hazy, hot, and humid outdoor conventions, our key note speaker suffered from heat stroke, and the session Chairman stepped in and seemlessly carried on without any of the forty-five thousand in attendance knowing.

  There really aren't a lot of these guys who qualify. That's why you see the same brothers used all the time. What with that, and you, and your family have to be setting a good example as well. It's a pretty good process for weeding out the disloyal. Although, I know a few who have slipped through the cracks. It also explains why these guys carry themselves in a kind of elitest way because it is a Priviledge.

  Wow! I haven't talked about this shit in about six years. I can't believe I remembered it all.

  P.S. Where the hell is the spell check?
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  2

  Conspiracy theories and the fear roller coaster, or reassurance ride?

  by Seraphim23 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  MTSman

  Dude, you really need to think out what you want to say first, and edit before posting. I hate to be harsh, but I stop reading after the fourth run on sentence. You've got a great idea for a post, just be a bit more articulate.