The elder referred to by one poster who told the DF'd person to leave was way out of line. I live in a pretty conservative country in Europe as far as JWs are concerned and the advice given to elders by the org here is that if they go to a wedding and a DF'd person comes to the meal, that the elders themselves should leave.
thedog1
JoinedPosts by thedog1
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Strong, odd and weird opinions on my brothers anniversary
by usualusername intoday my brother a non witness gave me a phone call.. .
he spoke about this, that and the other.
he then said that my oldest brother (an elder) was having his 25th wedding anniversary.
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the circuit assembly
by thedog1 ini am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow.
not really looking forward to it as it is the first one i will go to after finding out many things on this forum.
since the last assembly i have read coc, in search of christian freedom, and some of the gentile times reconsidered.
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thedog1
I did find myself at the sessions sort of standing outside it all as my overall view of it has changed from mostly accepting of the premise to being a bit uneasy with it all. A tough experience as the bros and sis are individually very nice people in the main, sincere, even if misguided, and willing to make huge sacrifices of time and energy. As many here have noted, this is in contrast to the actual beliefs we have had to deal with in the last few months/years. It seems to me that responding to the principles recorded in the bible creates more moral, caring people if they truly apply those principles in their lives. But the downside is the need to accept doctrine and beliefs that have no basis in scripture.
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the circuit assembly
by thedog1 ini am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow.
not really looking forward to it as it is the first one i will go to after finding out many things on this forum.
since the last assembly i have read coc, in search of christian freedom, and some of the gentile times reconsidered.
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thedog1
Thank you for your kind comments. We are trying to work through this. My wife is such a talented person. A wonderful cook with a flair for inventing or adapting recipes. She is also a gifted seamstress who once thought of opening her own business handcrafting clothes. Now that we are in our 50's she has narrowed her life down to the house and garden and some outings for the meetings and some social outlets as her social phobia is quite severe. I try to validate all her other talents as she cannot get that validation from the ministry anymore. Thanks again for your expression of solidarity and human feeling.
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the circuit assembly
by thedog1 ini am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow.
not really looking forward to it as it is the first one i will go to after finding out many things on this forum.
since the last assembly i have read coc, in search of christian freedom, and some of the gentile times reconsidered.
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thedog1
Xanthippe, I don't know if she is seeing what is really going on , but she does now see that too much is expected of some people who just can't do it. She was always more dedicated than me. She has a stronger faith. She really believes it is the truth but sees some of the holes. But she is SO guilty about the ministry as she gets physically sick if she tries to go. I have told her recently that all bets are off and it doesn't matter what the fallout is, that she does not need to feel she has to even try to go out if she is feeling ill. We conduct a bible study together so this keeps her going at the moment. But in the end, if it means my resigning as an elder to allow her to continue to feel sane, then I would do it tomorrow. The 'position' means nothing to me if it causes her more pain due to some 'expectations' of what an elder's wife should be doing.
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31
the circuit assembly
by thedog1 ini am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow.
not really looking forward to it as it is the first one i will go to after finding out many things on this forum.
since the last assembly i have read coc, in search of christian freedom, and some of the gentile times reconsidered.
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thedog1
As has been mentioned on another thread about this circuit assembly, reference was made to a brother quoted in a WT article quite a few years ago about the danger of pride, who recounted how, whenever he thought he was feeling a bit proud of his own accomplishments, took himself off into a corner and told himself that he was only an insignificant speck of dust and shouldn't be exalting himself. Of course, for those who believe in a creator, then we are pretty insignificant in comparison. But in general I disagree with the idea of denigrating ourselves too much. There is a verse in the book of Romans, I think, which tells us 'not to think more of ourselves than it is necessary to think, but to think so as to have a sound mind.' We need to have a measure of self-confidence. I know witnesses who took that brother's comments, and if they were a natural depressive, would feel even worse about themselves. So we need to celebrate what we are good at. Sometimes we witnesses get down on ourselves too much. Must be all that guilt kicking in!
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the circuit assembly
by thedog1 ini am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow.
not really looking forward to it as it is the first one i will go to after finding out many things on this forum.
since the last assembly i have read coc, in search of christian freedom, and some of the gentile times reconsidered.
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thedog1
Xanthippe, sorry to hear that obeying the pioneering push ruined your health. It contributed to many of my wife's problems as she pioneered for seven years and itmade her crack psychologically. She thought it was something she should do and as a very shy person, pushed herself until she could no longer do it. Now she has a huge social phobia and cannot go door-to-door. She lays the blame squarely on her attempts to live up the standards she thought she should follow.
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31
the circuit assembly
by thedog1 ini am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow.
not really looking forward to it as it is the first one i will go to after finding out many things on this forum.
since the last assembly i have read coc, in search of christian freedom, and some of the gentile times reconsidered.
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thedog1
So, just back from the circuit assembly. Sort of an odd experience as the content was not what I was expecting. Most of it was quite bible based. The part about strange teachings was one I expected to be about apostasy, but it wasn't. It dealt with the scriptural admonitions about sexual immorality, materialism and not being too prideful. Generally lots of solid advice in various talks in relation to following Jesus' teaching methods, helping others, and even the 'giving attention to the needs of the circuit' part, which often has the circuit overseer poinitng out the things that need working on, mostly dealt with being kind to others and strengthening our friendships in the cong. The only 'big stick' talk was on Saturday which was a BIG encouragement for everybody to pioneer. This talk was given by a bro in our cong who is a special pio., temporary circuit overseer, pretty nice guy and someone who puts his money where his mouth is. I thought the talk was still a bit of a guilt tripping device, though.
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the circuit assembly
by thedog1 ini am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow.
not really looking forward to it as it is the first one i will go to after finding out many things on this forum.
since the last assembly i have read coc, in search of christian freedom, and some of the gentile times reconsidered.
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thedog1
I am off to the circuit assembly tomorrow. Not really looking forward to it as it is the first one I will go to after finding out many things on this forum. Since the last assembly I have read CoC, In Search of Christian Freedom, and some of The Gentile Times Reconsidered. Puts everything in kind of a new light. Trying to seem normal for my wife and some friends we are taking to the assembly tomorrow. Just have to see how it goes...
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CO visit
by thedog1 init's the co visit in our hall this week.
last night he gave a talk about all the changes that have taken place in the last few years, like the change in the book study arrangement and the changes in public forms of witnessing, the rise and importance of jw.org.
he then emphasised what our reaction to these should be.
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thedog1
It's the CO visit in our hall this week. Last night he gave a talk about all the changes that have taken place in the last few years, like the change in the book study arrangement and the changes in public forms of witnessing, the rise and importance of jw.org. He then emphasised what our reaction to these should be. That we should make more efforts to do more in the preaching work, have a family worship evening, and make sure our behaviour was good. When we got home my wife, who does not really doubt at all, said, 'now I feel even more guilty.'
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A Dummy's Guide to the 'This generation' doctrine
by Honesty ina jehovah's witness explains the watchtower society's 'this generation' doctrine..... .
http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/jehovahs-witness/t3heh0tafiuk6f9t3.
what do you think about his explanation?.
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thedog1
The last two posts on this topic, by Oubliette and prologos, encapsulate the difficulty with the change in the generation teaching in 2010 and 2014. I must have been totally asleep in 2010 as I did not register this in the way I should have. It only made an impression on me when I had burst my brain trying to understand all the 'new light' in 2013 about all the changes in the July 15th Wt and all the stuff thereafter about the identify of the F&DS and so on. So after that I was alert to new reasonings, and when the Jan 15 2014 wt came along I was ready for it, in the sense that I DID NOT GET IT AT ALL IN THE LIGHT OF THE BIBLE! We are due to study it soon, and as I take the WT study I am going to skip that week as in all conscience I could not support it.
The two posters above nail it on the head when they stress how there is no scriptural evidence whatsoever for the assertions made in those two articles. For me this is desperately sad as I became a witness on the basis of bible evidence for arguments made. God help me if somebody asked me to try to explain it to them. The faith I have built up over the last 30 plus years has been eroded by these teachings in the last year. Then I dug deeper on foot of this and read CoC and In Search of Christian Freedom and currently reading The Gentile Times Reconsidered. How sad to see all your dreams shattered!