Srecko Sostar

Unfortunately, in my opinion as I've said before, and as the scripture says, the GB have become the 'wicked slave' that says the master is delaying, then the wicked slave starts to beat his fellow slaves etc etc.. 
"and keep the congregations morally and spiritually clean" you say. Then explain to me the whole situation of the Child Abuse / pedophilia problem in their Org. And why the GB refused to hand over the twenty years worth of documents pertaining to same, when the Supreme Court of California demanded it. After all the scriptures say to 'be obedient to the law of the land as long as it doesn't conflict with God's law. 
The Pedophilia problem has been hidden in the JW Org for much longer than i know. But in 1997 the GB started collecting all the USA accusations together. The 'orders' were given that the elders must keep quiet about it all and not reveal any Pedophiles within their own congregation. Congregants were ordered not to inform the police and not to go to any outside authority. Children and adults that didn't have 'two witnesses' were called liars. Those same people were disfellowshipped when they wanted justice. And you pretend that the GB were "just doing their job they feel they have been assigned by Christ". Hypocrisy at its best. 
 

What helps me stay in, generally, is that I expect NOTHING from anybody, and consider everybody no damn good.
I put up with them ... BUT THEN .... they have to put up with me.
We're EVEN.

I'm afraid not according to the "life and ministry meeting work book" 2017-06-08
 

Spoken like an elder or puppet of the GB.
This is my personal case : I left the Org after doing three months research into the Child Abuse accusations Earthwide in the JW Org. In my opinion the GB were responsible for most of it and the elders just acted as puppets for the GB. I could no longer see the GB as the 'faithful and discreet slave class' because of their actions and instruction to others. "By their works you will know them"... 
I did not spread any message in the congregation, so I did not cause division. I emailed as many elders as I could and told them I was 'resigning' from the JW Organisation. This does not mean I was or am turning against God or Jesus Christ. I just left the JW Org. ... 
The elders didn't ask me for a reason, they just called me in to 'do the paperwork'.  I had to sign a copy of the email that I'd sent which one of them had printed. 
Prior to me 'resigning' I had told a few 'brothers' that i intended to resign, not giving them a full explanation... This was so that those people that mattered to me would know I had not been disfellowshipped for sinning against God... 
Now we all know that the GB has told all elders how to announce it only one way from the platform. So and so 'is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses'. This is a deliberate ploy so that everyone will SHUN that person. No one would know if the person left of their own choice or was disfellowshipped for 'wrong conduct'. So of course no one would then speak to such a person. Total shunning.
Even those that knew I was 'resigning' do not speak to me. I repeat total SHUNNING. 
Why ? Not because of anything I've done, but out of fear of the elders and the thought of themselves being disfellowshipped. 
I am strong enough to cope and have a good wife. I can cope. Many cannot cope, they suffer badly.
But of course to the American mind, of which most of the GB are, it is just collateral damage... The same as is the Child Abuse victims. 

The problem with JW Org is the thing taught is Not To Think. Just Obey.  Don't ya know that the GB are the 'faithful slave' they get all the communications direct from God. They gotta b right en it.  That's how it taught. 
Don't think about what you can celebrate and what you can't because we will TELL you what to celebrate and what not to.
Don't think about how to do the ministry because we will TELL you how to do your ministry. 
Don't think about who you can talk to or mix with because we will TELL you who you can talk to and mix with.
Don't think about what clothes to wear because we will TELL you what clothes to wear.
Well I think you might just get the idea from those examples.
The thing that the GB hates is if congregants start to think for themselves. Because that's when the GB starts to lose their hold over people. They lose a little bit of power and control every time someone thinks for themselves. 
That's why people get disfellowshipped for asking too many questions. Oh dear that's 'causing a division in the congregation'. Disfellowship them. Off with their heads.

Are you both serious? Really? 
You mean to tell me that you cannot see the similarities between passing the plate and requesting money? Had this come from the Catholic church encouraging their members to fork over some money, you two would be going over some dialog in your minds of how jws are so much better because the jws don't do that. The fact of the matter is ALL churches do it. They all do it for the same exact reasons stated here and elsewhere, to cover expenses. Do some spend it frivolously and are wasteful? Sure. Is any one group innocent in their dealings with the peoples money 100% of the time, probably not. Are there some who try to use the money responsibly? No doubt. But to look down your nose at another group while ignoring your own actions is the perfect definition of hypocrisy.    

what do you want me to do about your struggle? 

WT magazine quote:
"The religious ties he had with his family change, but blood ties remain. The marriage relationship and normal family affections and dealings continue." source: https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/shunning/
WT and JW members having real problem that coming to be bigger and bigger with every day.
Training Video on JWorg Convention very clear highlighted important point/lesson for JW members, when mum not want to respond on dfd daughter phone call (this act has been presented (showed) as role model that is need to be imitate). Also, there is/are more examples in publications and in public talks in congregations to support what is going on.
So, it is question; What GB means when say -  "blood ties remain and normal family affections and dealings continue."???  
What is "normal family affection" in this ???? when mum not want pick up phone to her flesh and blood?????!!!!!
I am so hurt when see this hypocrisy (not because my family not want speak with me), but because i feel the pain that is inside those (ex) JW people rejected by their families and friends!! because of WT policy.  

... like at the famous "Battle of Little Big Horn" when George Armstrong Custer's  army troops were being massacred by the Indians, while firing his last bullets he turned to the Indian Scout beside him, and said  "What are we going to do NOW, Scout?"
The Scout replied  "What you mean WE, pale face?"
 

Sometimes, to do the "right thing" ... you have to suffer GREAT personal injury, loss of livelihood, your home, your family, or even have to die.
Sometimes you have to do that thing which is abhorrent and against all natural ingrained inclinations ... AND THINK!
Dying is easy to do for your faith, losing your money and real estate is harder to do, as there is no glory in it.
Dying for your faith is an instant "free pass". OTHER people will clean up the mess.
Losing your money, your comfortable job,  and your real estate is embarrassing ... and HARD.
That is why we have the current policy of chopping off the babies head when it cries.
It does not require any real thinking, and we STILL sleep warm at night in a soft bed.
Because we know that ... no matter WHAT we do .... the free money keeps rolling in.

Yes it is a mess caused by the GB inventing things 'beyond the things written'.  When i was still a brother it was announced from the platform that one of our daughters was 'no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses'. This daughter was actually acting as a foster parent to a child which was born to one of our other daughters, so it was a deeply involved situation. I made it known to everyone that i would not shun my daughter who was no longer a Witness because she needed our help in many ways. The GB should not make these blanket rules which only put burden on people shoulders. 

I've heard of this type of thinking. My father was the presiding overseer when a wayward Witness was running around with a group that that got arrested for committing an armed robbery. My father called the Society's Service Department in Brooklyn for advice, and our Circuit Overseer called him back shortly and asked, in effect: "How quickly can you get him disfellowshipped?" To my father, this meant, how soon could you make contact with the arrested man, and ask the kind of questions that would allow this "fallen" brother to admit that he had recently been repeatedly committing sins without a proper level of remorse. Also, I think even in those days, my father would have to arrange for another "servant" in the congregation to be secretly listening in on the line.
As I recall the idea of acting on this so quickly kind of fell through anyway. Even though this was around 1970, I was 13, and it didn't occur to me at the time that this was really not just. At that time, we were still saying that a disfellowshipped person would die at Armageddon by default. Another case like this, I recall from another congregation happened around 1978, and another one I was told about (unconfirmed, though) from just a few years ago.

Not long ago we had a situation in our congregation with a brother who was addicted to prescription drugs to the point where he got in serious trouble with the law. The nail in his coffin came though when he decided to come to the meeting for FS when the CO was here, inebriated. Yes, you read correctly. Anyway, the brothers wanted to take him home, short of manhandling him to stop him from driving off,  but they didn't succeed, so the CO and another brother followed him in their car to make sure he got home safely.  On the way, the inebriated brother managed to mount the sidewalk and crash into a traffic light post. Thankfully no one was hurt. But what I found curious was that the CO quickly made sure all our literature was out of that brothers car before the police arrived.
My husband and I later discussed this and realised that this was a good example of the mentality we have, to always give the appearance that we are morally on a higher ground, have the cleanest buildings, best equipment, perfect little families etc. (I recalled when you gave the experience of Bethel not wining the first place in cleanliness award (or something like that) and how one of the brothers was extremely upset about it).  It is no wonder then that we get dishonest when things are not quite so. But on a much more serious note, as you mentioned, it also causes us to cover over things that should NOT be covered over, such as child abuse. 

It is a heavy burden "carrying the utensils of Jehovah" and yet being riddled with the imperfections that plagues every single human being on earth.
It would be nice if one day we can be candid, open and honest about our failings. I think we are trying, in an indirect way. The last WT lessons pointing to the failings of Moses and Aaron and others shows that no one is exempt, not even those in leadership roles. And of course we know the "Slave" has put in print that they make mistakes (no kidding ). But this mentality, that we have a reputation to uphold, regardless whether actual reality is different, is deeply ingrained.

Anna, there are so many different families living in so many different ways that the GB has no right to give blanket orders as to what a person should or should not do. Where grandchildren are involved, old parents involved, so many different things.  
I still say that Jesus said we should 'Love our enemies and pray for them'. So why would Jesus want us to ignore or shun our families ? 

In case anyone wonders... this topic forked from an earlier one here:
 

https://biblehub.com/interlinear/2_corinthians/5-20.htm
Very interesting indeed. 

The GB and the elders have no right in doing this to you. They are putting a strain on your marriage.  Maybe you can ask her what scriptures the elders use when they tell her not to talk to you about such things. 
My wife is not baptised so she does not feel the pressure so much but still the elders try to cause a division in my household. 
Maybe you should have a lazy week and when your wife returns just say that as she was not home to work why should you do all of it :) 
 

Some on here say i go completely off topic. But this post is not about masturbation and pornography on the bigger scale of things, its about the Video the GB of JW Org may have made. So it seems you have gone off topic, and it could be said that you are using the topic to tell how much work you do concerning the subject. However, the topic is not about how seriously you take it, it is about the JW Video.  
So when you ask me what am i doing about it all, I give no reply, as it would be off topic. But in reality i don't go asking people if they masturbate and why. It is none of my business what others do in that respect. 

It is my job to help you THINK.
It is NOT my job to supply you with answers.

At Warwick Watchtower World Headquarters they have a very large lake on the property, with a huge remote controlled powered  valve on the bottom, ostensibly to release flood waters with the throw of a switch, when they get too high.
" Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilt."     (Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Reflections on Religion / 1906)
"The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example."   (Mark Twain / 1835-1910 /A Tramp Abroad)

Ah but is it the GB's thinking or God's thinking, this is the whole point ? 
Can they give direct scripture where God states such ?  If there is no scripture then are they going beyond the things written ? If so they are adding burden to God's word. 
Surely there is enough pressure for any true servant of God to deal with, without making them feel guilty in an extra way. And as I've said before it might just make some younger people stumble, by thinking that the GB is putting on pressure whilst allowing 'other things' to go unpunished. 
They may see double standards and be stumbled to the point of quitting the JW Org. 
 

If while readin' my posts, John, you keep your thumb on the left side of the monitor as you scroll down, you will not lose your place.
I throw my lot in with Jehovah's Witnesses ... not so much because I agree with them, but because generally, they agree with ME. 
I only claim to be a Barbarian, interested in Justice, Truth, and the Theocratic Way.
Oh yes ... I almost forgot .... God's thinking makes perfect common sense, as TRUE theology must.
Corporate interpretations .... sometimes yes ...... sometimes no.
If I am wrong, I must pay the full price for my being wrong.
If THEY are wrong, I STILL pay that full price, whatever it is.
They pay no price whatsoever for totally screwing up other peoples' lives, when they are wrong.

What you are seeing is NOT actually what is there.

(Eph 5 v11)  So the scriptures tell us to 'make things known', but for anyone that does they get disfellowshipped for 'Causing a division within the congregation'. And the GB has made its own 'rules' telling congregants not to report Child Abuse to the police or outside authorities. But if a member of a congregation reports child abuse to an elder nothing gets done about it, especially if the pedophile is and elder.... This has been proven in court rooms many times now..  Well as the scripture at Luke 8 v 17 says " For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest, nor anything carefully concealed that will never become known and not come out in the open".  Its good to see so much being revealed. Maybe the GB will answer for their crimes. 

WT magazine quote:
"The religious ties he had with his family change, but blood ties remain. The marriage relationship and normal family affections and dealings continue." source: https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/shunning/
WT and JW members having real problem that coming to be bigger and bigger with every day.
Training Video on JWorg Convention very clear highlighted important point/lesson for JW members, when mum not want to respond on dfd daughter phone call (this act has been presented (showed) as role model that is need to be imitate). Also, there is/are more examples in publications and in public talks in congregations to support what is going on.
So, it is question; What GB means when say -  "blood ties remain and normal family affections and dealings continue."???  
What is "normal family affection" in this ???? when mum not want pick up phone to her flesh and blood?????!!!!!
I am so hurt when see this hypocrisy (not because my family not want speak with me), but because i feel the pain that is inside those (ex) JW people rejected by their families and friends!! because of WT policy.