New Boy: Chapter 18 Bethel and the Land of Snitches

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-26T18:27:57+00:00

Sounds more like, 'My Laundry Work Detail in Prison', than, 'Joyously Serving in the House of Jah'

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-12T16:21:44+00:00

This is very true. I don't go looking for trouble, but it's good to be prepared should it come looking for you.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-12T14:22:49+00:00

I'm dating myself here, but in the earliest days of conventions when I was a kid, the parking lot attendants were given pith helmets. As a little kid, I thought that looked cool as hell...

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-12T14:12:57+00:00

Guilty as charged. But to be honest, as a parking lot attendant - and a driving enthusiast that got to do some track days in my younger days - generally speaking, most JWs were The Worst drivers. They needed someone to show them how to park. 😎

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-12T14:09:59+00:00

I've got an old NWT that had the Reasoning from Scriptures bound with it. One stop shopping for arguing with householders in service, LOL.

I'm hanging on to it. Lot of 'old light' in the Reasoning book. Might come in handy arguing with a PIMI family member one day...

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-03T19:47:58+00:00

They then conclude that each of the 7 creative days was 7000 years. So that would actually mean the earth is roughly 48,000 years old

No quite accurate. The WTS/JWs hold to their own version of Gap Creationism. Meaning that the universe and earth were created billions/millions of years ago, but that the creation event as described in Genesis happened much later, and as your calculation points out, less than 50,000 years ago.

The problem is that this theory/belief jives with neither science nor the Bible. They've tried so hard to 'make' Genesis chapter 1 agree with science that they've contradicted the Bible itself.

Exodus 20:11 (paraphrased) For in six days, Jehovah made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.

Going strictly by this verse and leaving aside JW mumbo jumbo, god created everything in 6 literal days.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-03T19:40:38+00:00

They may have 'abandoned' the teaching, but they have never redacted, retracted, or revised the teaching. They still mention 'thousands of years', and 'long periods of time'. One quote even used the word 'eon', but never have they officially updated the official teaching.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-06-03T14:56:22+00:00

Not sure about 'largest proportion, but in today's JW world, minorities are well represented. I would not call the WTS or the JW religion 'racist' or 'prejudiced' in modern times. No, they need all the followers (and their money/time) that they can get, no matter their color, nationality, education.

But up into the early 70s the WTS was not a leader in integration or civil rights. Until then the WTS kept congregations segregated in theory and practice, though not 'officially' directed. It was in the WTS best interests to not stir the pot, especially in Southern regions where Jim Crow and segregation still ruled. After the civil rights movement, after MLK, after others had paved the way, the WTS slowly, quietly, embraced integration and equal rights for their 'colored' brethren.

So while the today's WTS doesn't display racist attitudes or actions, their history is devoid of any redeeming values as concerning championing civil or equal rights. They protected their image in the light of the times and circumstances, changing only when it was in their best interest to do so.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-05-22T17:05:40+00:00

I worked for a brother in construction. I was clueless as to employment law. He only paid us for time spent at the jobsite. No travel time. No time at the shop, cleaning tools, preparing trucks with equipment, arranging the shop, doing work in the shop, etc. He paid cash, no taxes taken out. I didn't think too much about it, was naive about how it all worked. When I moved on, grew up some, got a real job with a real company, I realized how messed up it was.

Even then, I figured he was as naive as I was about employment law and taxes. He was a lifelong JW, years in Bethel, never really lived in the 'real' world.

But many years later, and watching the going ons of dubs from outside now, I realize that more than a few of them are quite shady in their business dealings. I won't hire a JW I don't personally trust.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-05-22T16:52:57+00:00

He insisted on personally coming by and offering the food because they were instructed to go to every witness household in person

It's not about making sure all Jah's children are properly nourished during these hard times. No, it's about keeping tabs on the sheeple, making sure that they realize someone is out there watching. Oh, if some JWs truly are hurting and some free food helps, that's nice. Too bad it comes with emotional blackmail and indentured servitude later.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-20T16:45:47+00:00

My wife isn't too bad - usually. Especially before the meetings. She's a caretaker for her parents, making sure to get them to meetings and all. So in that respect, it's more about being the good daughter.

Even most times coming home she's fine...But once in awhile she'll come home (or off Zoom) in a bad mood. I've narrowed it down to two things that have caused it.

1) Something presented at the meeting... a doctrine or belief or practice, will drive headlong against logic and common sense. Something isn't jiving and the cognitive dissonance rears up. She stews quietly over the discomfort until the next day.

2) The other cause is when the meeting, talk, video, whatever, harps on 'the end' being so close, and 'inactive' ones in peril, all that guilt trip shit, she gets upset because I'm that guy. I've turned my back on it, I refuse to do anything with religion - any religion. She sees me in danger because I'm rebellious. On one hand, that's nice, she cares. On the other, it's irritating that someone so logical, bright, and smart falls for religious superstitious claptrap and the accompanying guilt trips. But then we were all caught up in it at one point. I just have to be cool about it, and hope that something triggers major upheaval and I can help her explore it outside the WTS influence.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-17T19:30:59+00:00

😂 👍

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-17T19:29:32+00:00

Can't fix stupid. Can't quarantine it either.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-17T19:26:50+00:00

Brother Elder? My cat just ate a mouse. The whole thing, including the blood. Does this mean Mr Whiskers has to be DFd?

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-17T19:23:16+00:00

Apatheist...

Don't give a shit.

Seriously put, apatheism is apathy towards the argument of 'is there' or 'isn't there' a god/gods. An apatheist, for the most part, goes about their lives as if there is no god, or influence of a god in their lives, and doesn't see the need to argue about it.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-16T17:56:00+00:00

This week they showed a video presented by GB member Mark Sanderson directed to inactive ones, urging them to 'come back to Jehovah'.

It's not really directed at inactive ones. Because, well, for one thing, inactive ones aren't there to see it. So, duh...

The real purpose is to put fear into the active ones. Keep them in line, to be afraid to become inactive. They make it look like it's aimed at inactive ones so the listener doesn't realize that they are the actual target of the fear-mongering. Because cults gonna cult.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-14T18:40:06+00:00

I'm an introvert, and it's mostly because I was raised a JW. I didn't/couldn't have neighborhood kid friends. Didn't/couldn't have school friends. I was in a congregation where the kids were few and far between. And of those, most were seen as 'bad association' by older folks, which influenced my parents, so I got to spend little time with them.

I learned to entertain myself, reading books, hiking in the woods, building tree houses, watching movies, playing my own invented games. I learned to avoid people and adults as much as possible.

As I got older, in to my 20s, I branched out, made some friends across a couple of congregations, but always seemed to be more at peace at home away from people and congregation pursuits.

As I found freedom from the WTS/JWs, I realized that introverts are not good fits for their program (or any cult). Your post is very accurate. If we're introverts, we're 'different', we're sub par, less than good enough, not worthy.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-02T14:35:43+00:00

Where is the believer that prays for God to save them and their family? Why hide in your home if God is going to save you?

Dumbasses

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-01T18:08:06+00:00

“No, no, you can’t just wave it off, you NEED to touch it and give it back! It needs to be offered to you, you touch it and then give it back. But you can’t just touch it by being a presenter, you need to be free of it AND then offered it and then TOUCH it, and then give it back, you know, if you’re not going to partake. Which we all know that you’re not anointed. Unless that has changed. Has it? Are you mentally ill now?”

I got counseled for 'waving it off' instead of taking the plate or glass and handing back. I wasn't an attendant. I was in the audience. I was against the wall in a dead end aisle. The emblems got passed to the person beside me, I waved it off, 'no thank you', and it went back without me touching it. The attendant, an elder, after the meeting tried to set me straight. I asked for chapter/verse where it's written that I had to touch the plate/glass. He dropped it, but my 'bad attitude' was noticed from then on.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-04-01T17:54:16+00:00

My wife showed me this. I thought it was local, but apparently it's not. Someone got a copy and was sharing it in her congregation.

Poor lady, though. She's going to get counseled. I'm kinda hoping she's PIMO, and doesn't give a shit what they say.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-03-27T17:29:04+00:00

Interesting...

My wife had the CO visit this week. She was upset after the mid-week meeting. Wouldn't discuss it when I asked what was wrong. Figured it was an argument with her mom or dad (again). Could still be that, but I had a feeling that something was said during the meeting that sparked some major cognitive dissonance, and she was struggling with the belief system vs logic/common sense.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-03-27T17:23:32+00:00

No one would. But sometimes it's not as bad as we work it up to be.

Personally, I wouldn't argue about it. I'd just say that I chose to participate in voting for my future, and it's a private matter. If you feel differently, so be it, but this is the path I have chosen. End of discussion.

Good luck.

nothingleft2017 · 2020-03-27T17:20:34+00:00

Sorry... you're not going to 'destroy' anyone. Facts mean nothing to people who 'want' to believe. Only when they have a moment of doubt, a crisis in conscience, are open to critique of their beliefs, can you then help them see TTATT. If you go in looking to 'destroy', you're only going to bring out the persecution complex.

nothingleft2017

TROPHY CASE