Notes Of Interest From The 2012 D.C. (1/4)

Notes closely transcribed from talk outlines, demonstrations, and experiences given at the 2012 "Safeguard Your Heart" district convention of Jehovah's Witnesses.


 Personal Note: I am never, ever going to one of these again. It is not worth getting up at six in the morning the whole damn weekend; driving for an hour, walking up and down what has to be sixty steps just to find a barely comfortable seat that I'm going to be expected to sit in for 4-5 hours straight, while listening to material that ranges anything  from mind-numbing and sleep-inducing to offensive, illogical, cultist, totalitarian garbage.  One small consolation that came from attending was that such extreme, outrageous things were said from the podium in an effort for control, that it no doubt, backfired and woke several members up.


Friday

Why Must We Safeguard Our Hearts?

• Are you interested in how you appear to others?
• "The world" is over-interested in appearances, fanatic over diets and weight-loss plans (which can lead to eating disorders).
• What about how your inner person, your heart, appears to others?
• Your figurative heart is the person you are within, the seed of motivation, and the core of who you are, holding your secret dreams, desires, motives, etc.

I was starting to snicker at how the brother giving this talk kept making sure to say figurative heart. I've heard a ton of ex-witnesses say that back in the 70's they thought the literal heart (not the brain) was where our thoughts and motivations began. Complete with a chart paraded around at assemblies. Someone clear this up for me. Didn't it light up and everything? Fred's thinking about what he's going to have for lunch and the muscle that's pumping blood through his veins begins to light up with the thoughts it contains? LOL!

• Ways the heart is referred to in the Bible. Proverbs 15:14, Matthew 9:4, Proverbs 16:5, & Matthew 11:29.
• The Bible is what opens the door for us to know ourselves and you can't truly no yourself without its help. (Hebrews 4:12). "dividing of the soul and spirit".

You know what? I'm not sure if the underlined part was specifically in the outline. I think it was implied rather than said. I remember thinking it, when the point was expounded on from the outline. Forgive me, it was a long weekend. I'd hate to verge on slander, saying they said something when they didn't.

• (2 Timothy 3: 16, 17) The Bible is for teaching, reproving, setting things straight, and disciplining  in righteousness.
• Bible = Mirror. The Bible is all about making further adjustments.

This, folks, is why JWs are always so exhausted. Forget grace and forgiveness, The Watchtower is a performance-based religion and no matter how much you do for "God" and the organization, it's never, ever enough. Hell, why we're at it, this is also the reason they're so depressed.

Remember what the definition of our (figurative heart) is? The inner person, who we really are inside? Well, throw Jeremiah 17:9 in here and the whole things starts making little to no sense. Breakfast for champions of the Ex-jw online community, also did a commentary (which was absolutely brilliant, the quality of mine is nowhere close) on the DC and pointed this out. I didn't understand what he meant until I replaced "heart" with "inner person" in my notes.

• Don't follow your heart. Your heart is inclined to bad, treacherous, and guarding it is the best way of life. If we follow it, we would lose our life.

Here, let's make this easier to see.

• Don't follow your inner self. Your inner self is inclined to bad from your youth up (Genesis 6:5, 8:21).
• Your inner self is like a car, take your hand off the steering wheel, and it veers to one side or the other.

Ever heard of power steering? 

• Your inner self is treacherous, desperately wicked, a double-crosser, devious, and not to be trusted.

BFC was correct when he said the society gradually breaks your sense of self. They're basically telling you to never trust you really feel. That gave me a lot of pain and anxiety growing up.

Do You Have A Balanced View Of Yourself?

• Don't think more of yourself than necessary..
• Some self-regard is valid (Matthew 19:19), but what if self-regard turns into haughtiness.
• Hagar was not grateful for her secondary wife position and pregnancy. She began to hate Sarah. (Genesis 16:4). God tells her to be humble and return to her mistress. Humility gained.

Ok, steam was coming out of my ears on this one.  Hagar wasn't grateful of her secondary wife position, how dare she! You know why I don't buy the Bible as the word of God? Israel was supposed to be ruled by the All-Mighty God, and yet somehow fits into the misogynistic trends of the times. Wives are property, men can have as many as they please regardless of how much strife it causes among the wives and their children. (See Joseph and his brothers, or the terrible situation with their mothers, Leah and Rachel). Why would a loving God ever allow polygamy to exist? Read a few books written by EX-FLDS members and see if anything's changed.

The better half of this part was spent repeatedly saying "Don't think too much yourselves" which finally swung over to "But don't think too little either!". Of course, the ending point was to make sure to cultivate humility.

Symposium: Beware Of Dangerous Heart Conditions

I have to take a moment to focus on what had to be the most ridiculous demonstration ever, and how it clearly illustrates that the leadership tells JWs to isolate themselves from everyone but other JWs. I'm para-phrasing most of it, so if you went, and see a mistake, please correct me.

A "sister" is approached at work by her supervisor. She's looking at a file.

Dan: (teasingly takes her file) Hey, sunshine! You're such a workaholic. How about some lunch?

Sister: Oh, sure! I'll meet you downstairs.

Sister: (think to herself). Sunshine! No one's ever called me that before. I know he's not a believer (JW) but Dan's so nice, nicer even than some of the "brothers" at the hall. Besides, I don't want to be alone every day at work. I need some companionship. I'm sure I could convince him of the truth. And it's just lunch.

Notice how for JWs, lunch with a co-worker of the opposite sex automatically has them thinking of possible romantic intentions. I'm not physically out the organization, but even I realized how bizarre that was. In the real world, people have platonic friendships with others of the opposite sex all the time. But JWs aren't allowed normal platonic relationships where you just hang out one-on-one. If you're drawn to a person of the opposite sex in the organization (platonic, or romantic) you're expected to date, then marry them. Which is why the "sister"'s heart's all aflutter like a teenager having her first crush when her boss simply asks her to lunch.

Oh, and the correct way a JW should handle this situation.

Dan: So, how about some lunch?

Sister: Thanks, Dan, but I like to study my Bible during lunch. Thanks, anyway.

Yeah, there are no words for that.

Continued In Part 2.