By now I’ve written a number of articles about Watchtower, but it’s been a while since I’ve written anything addressing the organization directly.
A recent development, however, has moved me to write my former religious leaders a sincere open letter of gratitude, as follows…
Dear Watchtower,
As you may know, I am a passionate advocate against the damage you are inflicting on countless current and former Witnesses with your profoundly harmful policies on child abuse, shunning, higher education, domestic violence and blood transfusions.
I certainly don’t expect you to help me with my work of raising awareness of your dangerous, cult-like attributes – so whenever you do assist me in this respect I feel duty-bound to express my gratitude.
As you know, you recently lodged a copyright takedown request with YouTube for one of my “Getting To Know” videos featuring Tony Morris’ first rant about tight pants during his branch visit in Rome.
Oh, you know! The one where he scolded his audience saying “you chuckle, I don’t think it’s funny, I think it’s DISGUSTING!”
The video against which you so vehemently protested was a shortened version of the video below, minus the hilarious skit at the end with Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon…
It goes without saying that by issuing a copyright takedown request for this video, you are both (1) claiming ownership of its outrageous content (I assume on Tony’s behalf), and (2) showing the world that, like any good cult, you will move mountains to censor any information that makes you look bad – even if it originates from you.
I honestly couldn’t be more profoundly appreciative, and hence I will not be challenging your copyright claim – even though my video quite clearly falls under the “fair use” laws.
Besides, I set up the separate “JW Survey” channel precisely to shelter my John Cedars channel from this sort of petty, retaliatory action from you (which I have already experienced two years ago for uploading a song about Sparlock).
So, despite getting a strike against my back-up YouTube account, I can honestly say there is no real harm done.
On the contrary, you have done me a huge favor by showing the world how litigious, surreptitious, banal, cowardly, and ashamed of your own paranoid rantings you are despite being “God’s one true organization.” Readers of this website who would be otherwise ready to leap to your defense will have a hard time imagining Jesus filing a copyright complaint against someone for repeating his own words.
Far from it, Jesus (who you claim to be head of your organization), was apparently only too happy to take responsibility for his own words and own up to them because, as he put it, “I have not spoken of my own initiative, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:49, New World Translation)
If you were truly “God’s organization” issuing life-saving proclamations through the holy spirit’s guidance and direction, you would be delighted that I am assisting you by spreading the words of one of the few members of your revered “faithful slave,” no matter how controversial these words might be.
Instead, your clearly-demonstrated desperation to conceal your own words (because you know full well they expose how backwards and deluded one of your leaders is) speaks volumes.
You are doing my work for me, and I can’t thank you enough!
I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude that you have not sacked or disfellowshipped Tony Morris, as I once feared you might.
If the Governing Body had done this, it would have sent a clear message to all Witnesses globally that it takes its responsibility to be “faithful and discreet” very seriously, and will not tolerate one of its members laying down arbitrary rules without basing anything on the scriptures – behavior it is happy to denounce as “Pharisaical” when observed in other religions.
The fact that you have kept Tony Morris in his position despite his embarrassingly inappropriate rant against clothing (at such a prestigious event as a branch visit in front of more than 1 million Witnesses) again shows thinking Witnesses the true nature of your organization.
Your leaders are deluded and arrogant, drunk with their own power, and you are powerless to prevent them from “making an ass” of themselves (to quote Rutherford) – especially as their lust for prominence seems boundless. All you can do is mop up the damage afterwards and try to keep things hushed up.
And don’t think the fact Tony’s talk didn’t make the cut on JW Broadcasting’s “Programs and Events” page hasn’t gone unnoticed either.
So, thank you Watchtower. I really mean it!
Without your bumbling incompetence you would be a worthy adversary. Instead you’re proving something of a pushover. Every time you shoot yourself in the foot like this, you make my activism work far more easy and enjoyable.
Your grateful opponent,
@Anonymous&Grace. You both make very good points .Judah got his daughter in law pregnant but he was let off because Judah thought she was a PROSTITUTE!’ Again because Judah was in the Messianic Line ,Fine.Just like David (Adulterer& Murderer)Solomon (Polygamist & Idolator),Lot(Binge Drinker& Incest). If any JW JUST HELD ONE Cigarette or a Can of Beer in the Kingdom Hall or just Raised a question about a point of doctrine in the Watchtower like ‘oh Brother & sisters don’t you think the Governing Body are a little FLIP FLOPPY at times….Hmmmm.!! I thinkkk Elders would have you in the back room faster than David could jump into BED with BATHSHEBA!!!
Have a Good Silent Night All ye Faithful !!
Anonymous, I like the way you make me think & question more.
Pickled Brain, you put a smile on my face & make feel okay with my decision to leave.
These last 10 months of my fading have been like closing one door & opening another.
I may not have family still stuck in so I don’t have the heartache of being closed off from those still. I came in when we lost our dear little daughter in a tragic accident. My husband & I were in a vulnerable state & thought that this was the religion that would reunite us once again. That’s why that axe always felt like it was just hanging ready to sever any opportunity to be with her again because the goal post is always shifted with wt. It’s that spiritual/emotional blackmail that kept me in for so long & why I had to keep pushing my doubts further into the back of my mind until I couldn’t fit anymore in there. The library was full you might say so I had to just admit that this is not the way for me to deal with my grief, it just added more grief to my grief.
There is so much more to our story but it’s too long to tell, I just try to put it all behind me & move on with my life in a different direction. I just need to undo the indoctrination one block at a time to truly be free again of guilt & fear. This is my therapy coming on here & reading everyone’s input, I do appreciate everyone’s opinion. That’s why I wanted say ‘thank you to you all’.
Grace, my heart goes out to you. Remember all those Kingdom ministries that a good time to witness is when the householder has lost a loved one in death? I wonder how many people were taken advantage of like that? If the Governing Body know that it’s all a hoax, they should all rot in jail!!! It is so much better to encourage a parent or anybody who has lost a loved one to seek professional counseling. The Witnesses think all they have to do is show a person some scriptures and it will “fix” everything. The thing the “victim” doesn’t realize is that when they start that study, it’s like being drawn into a spider’s web and a never-ending treadmill. Sooner or later, hopefully the whole destructive cult will come crashing down and save at least some of the rest of the “victims'” lives that are still left in it. I hope so for their sakes.
I am sure glad I finally realized what a scam it is, even if it took me 50 years. The relief I feel now is a wonderful feeling. Not like it was when I was still going to meetings and service. I always felt like I could never do enough and all it did was make me feel depressed. Down deep, I realize now that I never really believed in Armageddon but the fear took me a long time for it finally went away. I haven’t gone to a meeting now for about 5 or 6 months. I don’t miss one minute of it. The best feeling in the world is knowing that I don’t have to care about what the elders think and I have no fear of the Governing Body, just as Cedars said in one of his videos.
Anonymous, I have asked myself the same questions about the gb. Do they target the grief stricken with good intention? I think that they do but only because they are so deluded. I truly believe that they sincerely believe that they are the closest thing to Jesus that can exist on the earth. I asked an elder one day, how do we know that these men don’t suffer delusions of grandeur? He gave me a funny look & didn’t reply.
The hardest part about my early stages of grief is that I wanted to cry & cry & cry it out. In my culture we express our feelings but I was told that I shouldn’t cry as we have the hope of the resurrection. Every time I showed the slightest bit of emotion, I got judged because I lacked faith in the resurrection. In the end I found myself internalising my feelings & walking around with this fake smile because after all aren’t “we the happiest people in the world because we have the hope?” (sarcasm). It also caused me to have this great fear of being judged. I ended up getting some professional grief counselling which is what really helped me to get through it. It also helped me to deal with the insane asylum that I confronted every time I walked into the kh.
@Grace & Anonymous.You two ladies are good hearted& kind people who have been hurt BADLY by the LIES of The Watchtower….It is so touching to read your words& feelings.You both are helping & will MOVE others to Question their FEAR of Leaving the INSANE ASYLUM of The Watchtower (beautifully put) !The sad part is they play on the emotions of people when they are at their most vulnerable!! That is how they draw people in with the hope of resurrection & keep them in with fear of Armageddon.I cope with the Hurt&Pain by injecting some humour into my comments.Please take care Ladies!
@Grace&Anonymous . It is Ironic we can all Express our TRUE FEELINGS here on this Supposedly Apostate(watchtower definition) But can’t raise Genuine Questions amongst our brothers & sisters at the Kingdom Hall without FEAR of being Shunned as Bad Association!! Crazy I thought there was NO FEAR in Love ! This madness has to stop & get off this LUDICROUS TREADMILL of Mental & Emotional Exhaustion! Elders are NOT Trained in Grief Counselling.I knew one Elder who Threw his Wife’s ANTI DEPRESSANTS in the bin& told her to read the bible more.She ended running out into the street & had to be hospitalised with ECT treatment .The Elder had told his wife that if she was more busy in the ministry as there is MORE HAPPINESS in Giving than Receiving ((Acts20v35) then her Depression would improve.And These Men are meant to Be a HIDING PLACE from the Wind as mentioned in Isaiah!!! My best friend was an Elder who committed Suicide by Hanging himself as mentioned in my comments on this same blog previously.So anyone who is a JW GET Professional Help!!!
@Grace your comment about ‘us JW being The Most Happiest People on Earth ‘ reminded me that is what an Elder said recently in his comments in the Watchtower.WHAT AN ABSOLUTE SICK JOKE!! Please if I hear that one more time at a meeting I am personally going to RAM some PROZAC down his HAPPY THROAT !!
Grace and Pickled Brain, I think everybody in the Organization, internalizes their pain and doubts. Our congregation was about 85-90 at any given time, and I could swear that at least half of them were on prescription pain pills or antidepressants and the other half have children who are either disfellowshipped or don’t want anything to do with the “truth”.
For years, I would ask the question: Why is it okay to fellowship with your child if they decided not to get baptized but is living an immoral life but the kid that got baptized at 12, gets disfellowshipped because he smoked at 16, and because of the unloving way he was treated, decides he doesn’t ever want anything to do with it anymore but then in order to fellowship with his family, has to “pretend” to want to be in the truth again and get reinstated? That never made sense to me then and it will never make sense to me now, except when you think that is what a cult would do????
These family members are so “brainwashed”. I know Steve Hassan says it’s mind control over brainwashing, but to me, it is brainwashing because withholding “love” to a child so they get baptized, is a form of punishment such as what they do when a person gets brainwashed.
It’s a form of punishment, just as one of those Governing Body members said, not to let them get a driver’s license unless they get baptized. Remember Patty Hearst? She is the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, who the movie Citizen Kane was about. She was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army and developed what they call Stockholm syndrome in which she was the captive but she developed a sympathy for her captors and she joined them and held up a bank with them. Even though she was under mind control of a cult, they still held her responsible and threw her in jail for 2 years until Jimmy Carter had her released.
That is how I would refer to anybody who has come under the control of the Watchtower. They are under mind control, but they should still be held to account for their atrocities that they commit against another person and to me, to withhold love from a child unless they decide to get baptized, is a form of child abuse. It stunts the child and turns then into a vegetable, with their minds vulnerable to the manipulation of their parents and peers so that they continue in that same mind control group think, willing to do the most heinous of crimes, in the name of religion and God, just so they feel loved.
That is why it is so important for the Society to go after the young and the most vulnerable like you who just had just lost your child. They absolutely know what they are doing, or else they are deluded with a God complex. Either way, they are evil and should be held to account for their actions.
@ Anonymous.You Really make some very,very good points in your above comment about Patty Hearst Syndrome where someone will do anything to try & please those who have a strong emotional hold over them.Sad to say some women stay with ABUSIVE partners because by being more Nice & Submissive they wrongly think the partner will change !!Very Rarely will that will happen.In 99% of cases the Abuse gets worse & more Extreme so those in the Truth especially young impressionable minds will try & please friends,family & The ORGANISATION & then the Emotional abuse gets worse !That is Give up your Higher Education,Have as little to do with your Family if not in the Truth;AVOID those in the Congregation if they aren’t Spiritual Enough,Be a Regular Pioneer,Special Pioneer,Missionary,Regular Auxiliary Pioneer,Bethelite !! Then you might be HAPPY But WHERE in the New Testament (GREEK Scripture) are THERE ANY TITLES!!! Please Governing Body you are no better than any other religion with this Hierarchical SYSTEM which creates Competition to strive for these titles & when brothers come off they often feel Depressed that they have LET JEHOVAH down & the Congregation & family..I have seen it happen.As JESUS said we are all Brothers what titles did he give to his Apostles.Where are The WORDS GOVERNING BODY in the Bible??? Take care Anonymous & Grace & try & FREE as many as you can BY LOVE & KINDNESS!!
It is precisely because I am not controlled by religion that I do not celebrate Xmas. Ooooh, that’s a lot of responses. Toys back in the pram.x
@Pickled brain, I couldn’t agree more. All the years I was a JW, I never agreed with people being made be ashamed of themselves if they didn’t either pioneer or having the pioneer “spirit”. That is one thing that I didn’t keep quiet about at home and even sometimes in service. I never felt it was right or scriptural. As a matter of fact, I knew it wasn’t scriptural, so that was one thing I felt brave enough to speak up about. I didn’t say it often, but at least I did it sometimes. That tactic that the Society has to keep everyone under cult control, screws up every kid. From youth on, they are made to feel that if they to be “good association”, they must also talk about how much they want to pioneer when they grow up. Most parents really don’t know how to instill into their children a love of Christianity, because the Society’s use of scriptures is much like a dictionary. It uses scriptures in the articles to support doctrine, not to bring a person closer to the creator or to the Son. There can’t be a close relationship to a dictionary and there can’t be a close relationship to the creator if that is the only reason scriptures are used in a “study” of the Bible.
I, for the life of me, can’t imagine any child growing up “normal” if they are a JW. And then, these kids get married……..
Beat the Beatles “and your bird has flown”, in context with religion. Happy Xmas.x
And your bird can sing.. . . Apologies.
And yes “this bird has flown”
In the context of religion, of course. x
Gary’s the man for the music scene, but here’s one I almost
remember….. What will you do if I sing out of tune (At the K,H,)
Will you stand up and walk out on me, ( Yes ) ,
“But you’ll get by with a little help from your friends”
Best wishes to everyone.
@Anonymous . If the Governing Body truly followed the Bible the advice is simple 1 Tim5v4,8 &14 which requires us to to Provide Materially for own families look after parents& grandparents & younger women to marry& bear children which is the Apostle Paul’s view ,not mine personally ,BUT if The Governing Body claims to follow the Bible why does it encourage sisters to do the bulk of the Pioneer work whereas Jesus sent 70 disciples(Men) in twos to preach.The apostle Paul,Peter,Barnabas,Silas,Luke,John,Philip,Stephen,Timothy,Matthew,Mark,etc were all MEN so WHY does the bulk of the PREACHING work get done by Sisters who are the main pioneers.The Governing Body ONLY FOLLOW SCRIPTURE when it SUITS THEM!!
@Pickled brain. I will never forget an experience my daughter told me when she was in her old congregation. It was a dad who was an elder in his congregation and his married son was a regular pioneer but he was married and both the son and his wife were living in the basement of the dad’s house and the son was a window washer. At the Sunday Watchtower, the dad (elder) raised his hand and made a comment that went something like this: ” I was listening to my son praying last night before he and his wife were going to bed and he was praying for (let’s say her name was Sue) to get a job and Jehovah answered his prayer by the Sue finding a job so that (the son) could keep pioneering.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of women who work full time so their husbands can go gallivanting around with his buddies “in service”. I think it’s because these women want the prestige of their husbands being appointed as elders. According to the Bible, if a man doesn’t provide for his family, he is worse than an unbeliever.
I doubt very much if any of the Governing Body members ever had a full-time job. They have lived off donations, their whole life. To them, “working” in service is “work”. It isn’t doing nothing, but making money, it doesn’t and making money is how you provide for yourself and your family.
Why oh why, didn’t I see how stupid it was years and years ago?????
On 2nd thought, I can’t imagine any woman being happy, having to work full-time to support their husband so he can pioneer. I think if that is what happened, it was because they were somehow shamed into it. The divorce rate among witnesses is just as high as in the “world” from what I have seen. I can’t imagine how anybody growing up in the organization could be “normal” so to me marriages in Witnesses, have to be bad but they just put on a “happy” face because they don’t want to draw attention to themselves.
If a sister goes to the elders and complains, she will come off as spirtually weak and not supporting her husband or she will be depicted as a Zezzabel or whatever so more than likely, she will just keep putting on a “happy” face until she can’t take it anymore and she leaves him. I know marriage after marriage that fall apart in the organization, just around where I am located. How about that scripture that a man would rather live on the top of his house than with a nagging wife? These women in the Organization have it bad. I know. I lived it for 50 years.
@ Anonymous.You keep making very good observations which I think most witnesses do as well but don’t voice publicly.I know of AT LEAST Eleven Elders Marriages(some friends of mine) who fell apart mainly due to IMMORALITY on the part of one of the spouses.One was an Elders wife who had an affair with a 16 year old brother who had no father who she was claiming to help spiritually but the Elder was so busy he didn’t realise what was happening.The Elders wife was disfellowshipped & he had to step down from his position. Another Elder was helping a regular pioneer sister in the ministry & they were caught kissing in her car.Both were Disfellowshipped .In both cases there were 2 children left EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATED & hated the offending party.The children when they grew up had broken marriages.The CYCLE PERPETUATES itself .The emotionally damaged youngsters never get professional help so never understand what is happening in their Underlying Subconsciousness .They either went to other Elders for advice(hiding place from the wind??) who hadn’t the skills to deal with it or were told to pray & leave it with JEHOVAH.!! This is The TIP of the ICEBERG!!! It is SO SO VERY SAD what this Organisation is Doing!
@Anonymous. Your point earlier about the ILLOGICAL CRAZINESS of NOT being able to speak,Email,text,Etc our teenagers if they are BaptisedJWs at 10,11,12,13,14etc but start smoking a cigarette or questioning their Beliefs at 18 or get involved in fornication.CUTTING them DEAD is not Loving BUT if they don’t get Baptised at a young age & they are a HOMOSEXUAL,TRANGENDER AXE MURDERING PSYCHOPATH and HAS DREADLOCKS then fine keep texting,Emailing,Talking Because they Haven’t Got Baptised!!! The Governing Body has the Logical reasoning of the LUNATIC ASYLUM!!! When Did Jesus get Baptised our Greatest Role Model.If Jehovah Can READ HEARTS! What is The Rush??? I think we know the Answer.Baptise them young then FEAR of losing family& friends will keep them a JW But for the WRONG REASON !FEAR FEAR & FEAR!!!
I’m not sure why a woman couldn’t be happy with a full-time job?
Pickled brain:
1) Can you stop using caps-lock please? It looks like shouting, and I don’t like being shouted at. Thanks
2) These immorality stories usually have a background which isn’t told… “The heart is devious”! Blame it all on the heart. As if the mind works properly… (especially for a JW *wink*). The literature contains little to no background material for this, how to be more understanding instead of judging everyone (and therefore hating “sinners”). Wow they’re so happy judging one another it’s depressing them :-P lol (actually, it’s very sad of course)
Ummmm so getting back to the wbts takin down their own boy from the public eye ….isnt that where he wants to be?
Or are these insane messages only meant for the brainwashed?
Meant for the already brainwashed, cuz to normal thinking persons, its ridiculous…..very bad.
&Gareth. Thanks for the comment about CAPITAL LETTERS & YES I AM ANGRY…,, AT THE WATCHTOWER!!! You Remind me of my Old Theocratic Ministry School Overseer.Perhaps I Need to WORK on my use of CAPITALs !!! It would have been better
if you could see the PAIN & HURT & Sense the pain from my Comments & made a positive comment about that than comment about Whether I use CAPITALS or NOT .!!! We need to remain United as Ex-Jws so hopefully we can agree to Disagree & what I like about this Website When you see my Name PICKLED BRAIN just scroll down past it & read someone else’s comments!!We are not in the WATCHTOWER who pick on every Silly little thing to try & Reprove you for .!! But I DO ENJOY your COMMENTS so I will still be reading yours though I would like to see you use CAPITALS more .Please work on it!(my TURKEY I have raised & will eat for Xmas is called Gareth) .I DO Enjoy YOUR COMMENTS.Oh the Joy of being free from the Watchtower & comment how I wish!!!
@Brandnew. I think those messages were meant for the already brainwashed. That is why it is so important that nobody is supposed to be recording any of the talks etc. But what they don’t realize is how easy it is to pack a really tiny little tape recorder in your purse and the talk gets out for the whole world to see how dumb those talks are.
The Witnesses have been listening to those talks their whole lives and are used to hearing talks that sound like these men are talking to nothing but two year old children so they are used to it. Unfortunately, the rest of the world are used to people who are talking to adults, not two year old children. That is why Morris’ talks are so embarrassing to the Watchtower and want them erased.
Pickled brain. When I get upset over anything, my voice gets a little louder and my husband will always tell me to stop yelling but when he wants to yell, he yells and that’s okay. @Gareth, I am mad too. Using caps isn’t yelling. That is just what people like to say but it’s only using caps. Screaming in somebody’s face is yelling. That is what is so nice about this web site is that we can vent. Venting means letting off steam. It helps us heal.
I understand you’re mad; I’m angry too sometimes. But yelling helps no one. Also, two wrongs doesn’t make a right anonymous ;-).
Let me quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_in_technology:
“Another rule is to avoid typing in all caps or grossly enlarging script for emphasis, which is considered to be the equivalent of shouting or yelling.”
Anonymous THANK YOU for your UNDERSTANDING COMMENTS.Much Appreciated.
Gareth we are all united in our opposition to the watchtower (lower case letters) but please don’t get hypercritical like they do straining out the gnat & gulping down the camel.If you could look and analyse my comments & appreciate just like yourself & commend all of us who have been EXTREMELY DAMAGED by what we have Suffered & Endured.The reason on certain words I use upper case is where I feel the most emphasis should be put because it attracts the eye & mind to what I consider important.But I will apologise if it upsets you because we are all needed on this website to express how we feel & hopefully new Jws who are searching can feel part of a network where they can get support.CHRISTIAN LOVE ( I feel this is important ) Pickled Brain
Hi Gareth. If I was getting a person email from somebody and they were using upper case to “yell” at me, then I’d understand where you are coming from, but here, what the upper case “yelling” is for, isn’t for one another but for our disgust for the Society. We aren’t yelling at each other. We are simply expressing our disgust “yelling as you see it” at the Society who has ruined our lives. We have every right to express our anger and not to be “quiet” about it. Our lives were ruined by it and I can’t get back the last 50 years of the only life I will ever be given. That makes me angry. I am not angry at you but at the thought that you are trying to keep us quiet. Do you understand the “submission” that we women have been subjected to all these years???? Unlike Pickled brain, who that comment was directed to, I won’t apologize for my comment. All we are trying to do here is expose the lies and hypocrisy of the Watchtower. Lots of times, I see people who are commenting and maybe their grammar is wrong or their spelling is wrong but I overlook it and try and see the sincerity in their comments and try and understand where they are coming from and maybe help them if possible. That is the “correct” way to see comments and not be so worried about what Wikipedia says is correct when sending email messages to a private person.
and by the way, if you see the need to put somebody else in their place, that principle should work both ways….
Pickled brain, anonymous, I visit this site for encouragement,
and that is what I get from your comments.
I can make no other answer, but, thanks, and thanks.
( Shakespeare, Twelfth Night..)
Gareth: Personally, it gives me a warm feeling to see people reach out and not be concerned about grammar, spelling, caps, etc. It’s one of the main reasons I finally posted here. Those are some of the very issues that keep some jw’s silent. People need the freedom to be able to express their emotions and concerns w/o worrying about a critique or they might be stifled.
In general this appears to be a very kind, understanding, accepting and forgiving group. It does seem to me that being associated w/ jw’s in my formative years has made me a very judgmental person. And I have to fight this everyday of my life.
You are obviously an intelligent and educated person. Highly commendable. We have not all had the same opportunities. Many of us have had to put all of our energy in to surviving day to day. We all have an albatross of one kind or another. You? Don’t think you’d be on this forum otherwise.
What I do take umbrage with is your comment about women and full time jobs (wink, wink). You may have taken that out of context.
@ Anonymous.Your comment has succinctly put the point across to Gareth & your support is appreciated.The point I & you have made we are YELLING at the WATCHTOWER for the YEARS of Abuse Emotional & Physical in some cases!! As you RIghtly say let’s look at the SINCERITY of the comments NOT HOW they are WRITTEN.!!The PAIN & ANGUISH behind the WORDS are what is important not how they are written!! But having said that It is GOOD we can have different points of view on this website & hopefully remain good friends & be UNITED against the common Enemy who has RUINED so many Lives!! Take care ALL of YOU(Plural) & Enjoy the Next few days with friends & family IF that is possible due to Shunning by the Watchtower!
@Shanti. And thank you for your comment too.Quite well encapsulated (I just swallowed the dictionary.Thought it was a MINCE PIE)
@Shanti .You are a very tactful person in the way you express yourself & have complimented Gareth fairly in saying he is an intelligent & educated person.You obviously like many JWs were as you say damaged in your formative years.So you can relate to how many feel here that comment on this site.You take umbrage at his comment earlier about women which is a fair point but you equally mention this is by& large a Tolerant & Good website with balanced views.Thank you again for your Kind support.
@Shanti and Pickled brain. I came across a little ditty in the 1954 Watchtower this morning while I was doing some research and thought it was apropos to our conversation here. It’s on page 508 under the Title:
“Women Talk Too Much”.
“This is the title of an article by Sophie Kerr in the December 11, 1954, Saturday Evening Post. After the opening observation that “women have become awesomely articulate without having anything special added to their hearts, minds or spirits to be articulate about,” she says concerning female conversation: “No sentence on either side is finished without interruption, no question is ever fully answered, no story is permitted to end, and if an idea should stray into the arena it is not recognized, much less developed.” Even if one gets the floor “don’t think for an instant that the oppositition actually listens; no, the opposition is crouched tense in her corner framing what she is going to say” when she can break in. “The rule is: Everybody talks. Nobody listens.” Author Kerr labels today’s superloquacious woman “the machine gunner of words, loaded with ammunition.” But she laments that the bulk of it is all trivia, not worth uttering, and concludes: “Let’s face it. Women need fewer words and more thought; less chatter and more meditative silence; a better selection of what they say and better manners when they say it.”
Okay, now this is the Watchtower’s take on this woman’s comments:
“How different it can be with the theocratic women of Jehovah’s visible organization! They have many good things in their minds and hearts and spirits to be articulate about, yet listen courteously while others speak, to see how their responses can be most helpful. The conclusion about women of the world is also true about men-both sexes do well on fewer words with more thought and could have a better selection of material if they meditated on What Jehovah’s word says concerning the critical times hard to deal with that now confront baffled mankind.”
At first glance, the Watchtower’s comments may seem innocent enough and even include men as talking to much with nothing to say, but this is clearly aimed at women in the Organization. In other words, listen, listen, listen and if you have a comment about the “critical times we are dealing in”, then you might have something worth while to say. Otherwise, women are meant to be seen and not heard.
@anonymous you are right about the Faithful Slaves view of women especially when you hear Samuel Herds view on women.He is the Most SEXIST person I have heard especially an old talk of his about women’s brains being inferior to men’s.It makes you DESPAIR when so many sisters with so much POTENTIAL are subservient to this Male Dominated Organisation!!
EXCUSE ME ALL OF YOU BEAUTIFUL , AND GROOVY PEOPLE ! ! !!
Please , dont be like that ugly cult we have finally edged free from. If my man wants to use capital letters , and vent a lil….let him, and i can almost guarantee, that when your bad hair day comes…and you feel like throwin some capital letters around…, we are gonna love you that much more.
We will feel empathy for you, and listen to your anguish, and seek to talk with you, not at you…like our previous cult owners.
So please ….when im having a bad hair day…”im a dude by the way” ….please dont judge me , but love me …….
And dont get mad if i ask..”LET ME HOLLA AT YA REAL QUICK “…..yay ! !
@brandnew. You made me laugh. It’s good to have a good laugh now and then at the expense of the Watchtower’s antiquated but up to date advice.
I have another goodie from the 1956 Watchtower page 588 and I am quoting here “Among the factors that it listed as contributing to the rising divorce rate in Britain was “the new position of women as equals rather than inferiors in marriage partnerships.”
@Pickled brain, Samuel Herd’s talk is very similar to Lett’s talk about women’s “lip”. These men grew up in the organization when women were to be seen and not heard and I will bet you anything that their wives hate them behind their backs if that is their view of them that they should be “quiet” and let their man have all the attention.
These women are nothing but appendages on their husband’s arms and nothing more. Who knows what these women even look like?
The thing is that these old men who are running that organization all believe in Women “keeping silent” in the congregation but like you said before, it’s the WOMEN WHO ARE DOING THE BULK OF THE WORK (yes I am yelling here for emphasis). How dare they subjugate women the way they do and take all the credit!!!! These men have no respect for women at all. Like Herd said, their place is to “please their man”……PIGS!!!! (YELLING HERE ALSO)
That quote from that 1956 Watchtower article is where it also says that a woman’s husband can be caught having sex with an animal or another man and she didn’t have a scriptural divorce coming to her because the man couldn’t make babies with the animal or another man.
And these people think this is God’s Organization??????