my husband and i had a committee meeting because of underage drinking.
when he was being counseled, the p.o.
told my husband that he needed to make me wear different clothes to the meeting because it made some of the brothers unable to concentrate.
An elder looking over a new Dodge van a brother purchased: "That brother is weak because he bought a van that had a ram insignia, Don't buy a Dodge Ram....its demonic."
Same elder different day: "We never use brothers that have cable TV, it shows a spiritual weakness."
Here are a couple more given to me by various janitors....
"You cannot read the Watchtower for the congregation unless you wear a white shirt."
"Leather jackets and coats are worldly".
a few recent threads have been about faking hours in field service reports (for example, this one: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/72429/1.ashx).
a number of posters said they would never actually go in service, but still magically get in their hours each month.
my question to you ex-elders: did you ever confront someone on this?
Oh my god...this is the funiest damn post I have read in long time! Way to go Gary1914! My heart was never in counting the hours. I always under reported my time. The powers that were...knew this to be true and pleaded with me to report all of my time. I was up for appointment for MS at one point. At the time the cowboy PO ( I call him that because he was such an arrogant, snotty, and abusive bastard)wanted the brothers taking the lead to have an average of 16 hrs. a month and be "visable". I never would report more than 12 hours per month unless I was an auxillary pioneer at which point I would report 60 hours without fail regardless of the actual time spent. Once the cowboy PO told my wife I was "a proud man". Needless to say I was not "meek enough". Some years later I resigned the WT on my own terms as well. Counting time is very subjective and personal. Keep on faking those reports!
when i was new witness in the late 70's i was assigned to young couples new home.
we were required to park our shoes inside the back door and proceed in our socks to the front room...fine.
the other piece to this was the couple hosting study had a big male blood hound dog of some kind.
When I was new witness in the late 70's I was assigned to young couples new home. We were required to park our shoes inside the back door and proceed in our socks to the front room...fine. The other piece to this was the couple hosting study had a big male blood hound dog of some kind. The old boy had big ugly genitals and he drug them all over the carpet that we had to walk on with our socks. I was always glad to get home and wash my socks and disenfect the inside of my shoes! Holy crap! Another hosting family had a large two story victorian home with large rooms however,we had to go to the basement and meet in the old coal bin. It was stuffy, cold and cramped. I was appalled they sported this beautiful home and then herded the group to the dungeon for the congregation book study! At another old couples home that I went to for years had a fur covered toilet seat! It was worn and stained on top of it all!
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after becoming a witness, slowly we became programmed to believe that 99% of the world was not approved by god and that they were evil, and in the darkness, and would all die at armageddon.. most of us left the watchtower, or are on the verge of doing so, so at a certain point it's normal to be in a so called no man's land, where you don't believe what the watchtower taught and at the same time you still believe that the entire world is not approved by god.
i was just wondering how long you stead in this mode of beleiving that the watchtower teachings were wrong, but at the same time, you still remembered and believed that the world was also doomed?
counseled me for not wearing a neck tie to the sales meeting
Gary: My wife and I supported our family for many years in direct sales. We attended weekly sales meetings for the product we represented. We often remarked to each other how close the format of the service meeting was to our sales meetings. LOL! The tie thing always seemed bizzare to me as well. I started wearing soft soled casual shoes the assemblies and in the service work. I was really looked down on for that, but I kept right on being comfortable once I realized that I was not going to be struck dead for deviating from the shiney black shoe ritual. I graduated from the soft sole shoes to a beard.....well the rest is history!
i think most of the elders relied on the "smart ones" to help them out.
my experience was that there was probably 2 or 3 "sharp ones".
the rest were dopey!
My wife and I have been in serveral congregations over the years and I am proud to say I never took on the grave responsibilty of being a JW elder. Some elders are way too complient to the higher ups in the WT and CO's. and are big butt kissers. Most are power hungry, hippocritical, negliglent of thier own families, and narrow minded, that is just to start with. I wont go in to the way they all dress, shave, walk and talk like a bunch of clones. They are all men leading a bunch of nice people down a path of wasted life and time. They burn up relationships, burn bridges like they are a dime a dozen. Some elders overlook or share in child and spouse abuse. Shame on most all of them! Hitler was on the ball, so was Saddam until someone knocked his ball out from under him. The JW elders will pay thier dues too some day.
well, i guess it will be official very soon, the announcement will be read and we will be "lost" into satan's world... my husband gave our letters to the elder who came to visit us with his wife the other day.
this is the 3rd time they came by in the last month, even after he told them he would call them if we wanted to "talk".
they saw the christmas tree shining through the door, brightly lit, so there could be no question that we had already taken some steps away.......but he still stayed for an hour trying to convince my husband that it was the "truth".. later that day my parents came over (i wasn't here) and he said my mom just looked at our christmas decorations with jealousy in her eyes.
Good for you and your family. Merry Christmas! This is the third year we have celebrated Christmas after a lifetime for my wife and 20 plus years for me in the JW CULT. It is wonderful not to be burdened with the all the those damn rules, new lights, old lights, brighter lights, blah, blah, blah and blah! Christmas lights are us, now!
i have met a wonderful man but unfortunately he is a jw.
i have never been interested or really ever been around any religion in my life so all of this right now is very fascinating to me.
i have been thinking of studying to become one but am also having a hard time finding anything on the net that is positive about it.
Henry David Thoreu said "Its easier to stay out then it is to get out". Burn rubber girl! Forget about your JW man and get on with your life, don't borrow trouble.
The local JW's in the community I live in see me here and there at work and shopping. They try to keep that straight sober face and shun me since my resignation from the congregation earlier this year. I belong to nice christian church now that does not encourage in anyway having poor manners by not greeting life long friends in passing. I always greet the witnesses and say "hello how are you?" much to my amazement the soberness on thier faces gives way to a hearty smile and greeting back. They are so starved for loving kindness and non-judgemental love that the bible teaches christians to have, they are actually very relieved to not have to participate in the shunning. I do not engage them. I have shown them unconditional christian love and manners and move on. What has your experience been?
at this point in my life i don't think i could trust any religious group.
i don't even feel the need to be a part of anything like that right now, and maybe never will.. but i know of some who have joined other churches/groups since leaving the borg.. why do some join another religion and why won't some ever get involved again?.
what makes us so different?.
My wife was raised with Jehovah's Witnesses. I met her when she was 12. We married when she was 19. I came into the Witness thing when I was 18. We spent the next 25 plus years on the JW merry-go-round. After we got off the ride in circles, we took some time to reflect ( a year so) We resigned in good standing from the JW's and became active in a local christian church. My wife and I are involved in teaching Sunday school and other church functions. We are very happy with our choice and it has been refreshing to know that there are folks involved in other religions that are not like the average JW fanatic cultist! We have decided not to get hung up on hard line veiws that we learned from the WT. We view our present church activity as a healing process and community service. Our advice is to let go of your JW past in a big way and start living. Become involved in your communtity in some way. Do not isolate yourself. Live life!
my nephew has been working for a jw, for about three years, part-time of course, has to do more service, pays him next to nothing, good training and learning experience though, but three years, and paying $7.00 an hour for maybe 20 hours a week, while the employer has a new car, and just bought a bigger house ???
yep, go figure ......................, that's the kind of person i want to work for, and the sad thing is, if he was to quit tomorrow, there are 20 little jw dubs ready to vulture into the job.
unreal !!!.
Yes! I worked my tail of for the presiding overseer of our congregation. He was the city overseer at the time as well. I cleaned commercial floors for him late nights. The pay was pitiful. However, the worst part was the chemicals he sold to the same accounts I cleaned. He provided nuetral floor cleaner in 5 gallon pails. He had me drain off one gallon in each pail and fill it back up with water and retain the extra gallon to help fill the empty five gallon pails we picked up. A small little scam, but typical of him. I am glad I seen him in action. It really started to open my eyes up to the hypocritical ways of the overseers. I am wiser now for sure and glad to have all that JW crap behind me!
