Posts by no-zombie

24

To all former Elders – what are your thoughts

by Tallon in

if you were part of a judicial committee, and knowing what you know now, what was it like for you to sit on jc’s?

how did you feel if someone was reproved or df’d?

were you ever on a jc and you disagreed with someone being reproved or df’d and were overruled – how did you feel?

no-zombie

There wasn't that many problems where I served as an elder, however when I was on a JC and we DF'd someone, I felt more sad for the person involved than anything else. While I was a true believer throughout my eldership, at the time I just saw those committees more as a logical legal process, reacting to 'sin' as per the KS book, I guess. I suppose I was lucky though, that I was with a body that was slightly more lenient than others too, as we were as fair and gentile as we could be seeing most of my cases involved some form of mental illness as an additional factor. However knowing what I know now, I would have definitely call the cops myself on this one guy who was a manipulative pedophile. We DF'd him, but unfortunately he got a way with it because none of the people directly involved or relatives wanted it to go public. Happily Karma fixed him pretty good, with that person dying rather badly not long later.

10

This religion has a chance of survival

by Socrateswannabe in

the jws could survive as an organization due to one vital human need: recognition.

for decades this religion glorified the older ones and really didn't do much for the younger folks, hence the younger people left in droves.

if you're middle-aged or older, what was the average age of the elders in your congregation or your circuit overseer, as you were growing up?

no-zombie

It's a nice comment Socrateswannabe, I had though about making a similar one myself because in Australia there has been a clear push by the organization to replace the older Elders with others 20-25 years younger which is particularly noticeable with conventions speakers and the Bethel representatives sent over. Gone are the ones who had real Bible knowledge and experience on their side. I think thought, its got to do more with the new hipster image of JW.(you know what) than anything else. But I believe that the main reason why things are going south for the society is the very real decline of the western fertility rate. Of course the other issues like the child abuse scandals, fail prophesies, higher education and just plain bat shi* boring meetings haven't helped either. And due to the internet, very few witness kids are ignorant of what's going on, unlike the zombie generations of before.

5

A change in understanding Deu.6:4

by no-zombie in

while i may be wrong, i believe that today's wt study article was the first one to say the deu.

6:4 was not written to refute the trinity.

i found it odd to say the least, since for all the years i've being going to meetings (over 50+ in actuality) the verse written by moses, has always been used to counter the trinitarian gods of the egyptians and the trinity today.

no-zombie

While it's clear that weasel words were used in this context, the sentence didn't really have to be included as part of the writing committee's reasoning in that paragraph. This was why I felt that is just odd that they included it. As if was a genuine change and the GB was just softening us up by dropping a one line statement, as I have seen before.

And in regards to the comment on higher education ... well I knew that someone else for sure would pick up on it. But it's a really stupid view, that's for sure.

5

A change in understanding Deu.6:4

by no-zombie in

while i may be wrong, i believe that today's wt study article was the first one to say the deu.

6:4 was not written to refute the trinity.

i found it odd to say the least, since for all the years i've being going to meetings (over 50+ in actuality) the verse written by moses, has always been used to counter the trinitarian gods of the egyptians and the trinity today.

no-zombie

While I may be wrong, I believe that today's WT study article was the first one to say the Deu. 6:4 was not written to refute the Trinity. I found it odd to say the least, since for all the years I've being going to meetings (over 50+ in actuality) the verse written by Moses, has always been used to counter the Trinitarian Gods of the Egyptians and the Trinity today. And just to check that my mind wasn't slipping, I checked the 2015 JW Library and found at least 43 references citing this scripture as the key text against that concept. (June 2016 p19 para 4)

Comments?

49

Warning: Watchtower computer dept. registers accounts on Ex-JW sites, coerces people to divulge their personal details

by WTS Archive in

jw
friends

we had a bad experience with watchtower trying to infiltrate our forums.

let this story be a warning for all you guys here.

if you value your privacy do not ever send your real contact details to anyone, even if you trust them (because their accounts could be hacked or accessed by their relatives - and yes, this happened to people i know several times already).

no-zombie

It's just another example of Theocratic Warfare; where it's quite ok to deceive and lie to people for the sake of Kingdom advancement. And its very sad that even here, we need to be careful. But for the sake of our freeness of speech, it would be wisest course to always keep our personal details out the posts we make.

21

Appointed men must be exemplary in heeding the warnings given by the faithful slave Governing Body when it comes to higher education.

by oppostate in

.

no-zombie

While this information is not new, is this new post based on a very recent CO visit or not? The reason why I ask is this. The talks given during a CO visit today have been revises so that the only ones presented are scripted from the Organization. So unless this is an old video or this CO is just talking out of his bum, it would appear to be another push by the GB. Can 'oppostate' confirm the video's age?

30

What will happen when they go full cult mode

by RobertT18 in

and they start delivering their message of judgment?

what do you think will happen when they start knocking on doors and telling people that their families will be killed in armageddon because they did not believed in jehovah.

i'm curious how people will react.

no-zombie

Its quite an interesting question when you think about it. How would the Witness population react if the GB went into full on crazy mode? When I think about the congregation I go to here in Australia, I think that while there might be a week or two of excitement, most would back off and water down any hard core message they were told to say. And I wager that any hard core actions demanded by the GB wouldn't be done at all. This is because Witnesses today are spoon feed spiritual babies. And without the self-researched bible based conviction that generations of long ago may of had, I doubt that many at all today would REALLY sacrifice their job, their house or their physical things in blind obedience to the organization, let alone stand up to a squad of riot police or pass the firing squad test. How many do you know would stand up and be the 'tank man' of Tienanmen Square? Very few I expect.

13

Turn out the lights the party is over

by Crazyguy in

i think the reason the borg really went on a cost cutting move and is selling off all thier buildings has become obvious.

the cult is telling people that there fast growing but then the numbers seem to indicate about a 1% growth rate.

this would give them roughly 800,000 new baptized ones in ten years give or take do to the small increase per year from previous gains.

no-zombie

While we have the benefit of hindsight, the die for the society's demise was clearly set when it changed from being a bible focused organization to a publishing (printing) company. High on the belief that the mass production of magazines was going save mankind, all that it ended up making was the cheap plastic judeo-christian clones we see around us today. Ones who in reality can't even help themselves, let a lone other people.

4

Congregation witch hunt?

by dothemath in

heard about a congregation recently that had a local needs talk regarding going to the elders if any wrongdoing had happened, or if you knew of someone involved.. mostly they were concerned with over-indulging in alcohol, but the elder emphasized "the need to get help from elders, or your spirituality would be harmed".

(words to that effect).

so now there's brothers and sisters running to see these guys, and likely over stuff that happened maybe years ago.. funny thing is the brother telling me about it said there's been several meetings now where people's names are read from the platform, and it looks like it'll be going on for a while.. i think if your conscience was bothering you, you would be better off being catholic, at least your only confessing to one person instead of being shamed in front of eveyone..

no-zombie

This is the typical method used by congregational elders when they perceive that "Jehovah has withdrawn his spirit from the congregation". Done if the congregation's field service and meeting attendances have taken a dive or they have heard things are going one but there's nothing tangible, this method is like fishing with dynamite. You throw it into the lake and to see what bubbles up. In reality it hardly works and elders generally are swamped with guilty consciences from petty problems. I've seen it used a few times in my life but the hard core "sinners" rarely come out by choice.

21

What is the real purpose of attending your JC?

by StarTrekAngel in

i was compelled to ask this question because i have seen several of the youtube videos on jcs.

on striking similarity among all these videos is that most of the people bringing the arguments to the elders are pretty much atheists or have turned to another religion altogether.. i can easily see that the common concern in most of the people involved, is their ability to keep in touch with family and friends, which by all means would be my concern as well, when and if i ever end up in one.. however, i can't help but to notice something.

it is difficult enough to think of the day that the wt would accept a loose canon in their ranks, let alone someone who openly claims to no longer believe in god.

no-zombie

When I have read some questions about Judicial Committees in the past, many fail to realize that if you are called to go before one, the elder body already has enough "evidence" to Disfellowship you. As an ex-elder, I can say three things. The first one is that (as previously mentioned) all sins can be forgiven except the failure to believe in the Governing Body and very, very quickly the questions asked of you will turn in that direction. Secondly, most elders will turn off and end the Judicial Committee if you try to made the Judaical Committee meeting into a forum to justify or prove your position. And thirdly, if you even start to mention that you don't want to loose your family, even with tears, its really over ... that's worldly sadness; not Godly sadness and you'll be done. The only thing that's going to save your bacon it to go in the back back room is to fall on your sword and and say "Mea Culpa". This is because Elders are drilled over and over again to keep the congregation clean and if you fail the loyalty test questions, there is no maneuvering room left for you.

That's unless you an elder's son or daughter where historically things tend to go a little different.