Who would still be a Jehovah's Witness if it wasn't for the INTERNET???

by What-A-Coincidence 45 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  monophonic

  i dropped out before researching the internet or reading 'apostate' lit. i dropped out b/c my gut and prayers told me it was the right thing to do, essentially i was smacked upside the head w/ too many signs to leave.

  and every once in a while, when i hit a low point and i'm really down or something, i'll pray and ask god to lead me in the right direction, and if becoming a witness again is the right direction, please give me a sign and i'll go where you lead me.

  every single time i've prayed like that, the answer is loud and clear to stay far away from the jws.

  i'm not sure how prayer works, but it never fails, it's answered w/in a day or so.
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  R.F.

  My experience is quite similar to monophonic's.

  There were many things that didn't quite sit right with me even before really researching over the internet. My prayers always seemed to be answered in the way of steerting me away from the JW religion. Prayer really does work and this entire experience has given me more faith in God than ever before.

  R.F.
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  Purza

  Even during my fade I was afraid to look up any anti-JW stuff on the internet. One of my therapists encouraged me to do so and finally did -- after my fade was successful. I found this site in order to help me cope with the aftermath of fading.

  Purza
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  sandy

  Probably not but like mrk32208 said I'd still be an apologist.
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  bluebell

  I wouldn't be because I left over child abuse issues but I would feel more alone, JWD is a support I couldn't have done without when I first started researching
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  PrimateDave

  Over the past decade, I went through periods when I missed meetings and barely went in service. I pretty much thought it was the truth, though I had my doubts. I got extremely bored with the meetings. It was the same ol' leftovers all the time.
  
  There never seemed to be any real community spirit in the congregations outside the usual arrangements. Certainly, a sense of community was never really encouraged by the organization. It's strange. I actually envied the brothers in poor countries because they seemed to pull together as a community because of their difficulties.
  
  I realize now that it is just a matter of cultural differences. For all the Watchtower talk about "putting on new personalities," they are just as much a part of this "world" as any other group out there.
  
  The Watchtower is a child of the industrial revolution and a product of empire culture. As such it is about control and business. It has taken me a long time to be able to look outside the box, and the internet was the key for me to do it.
  
  Thanks to Talk Origins and Timothy Campbell's Beyond Jehovah's Witnesses website, which appears to be discontinued now, I got started on the road to recovery. I read Ray Franz's Crisis of Conscience. I finally saw the Bible for what it really is after reading Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Friedman. And, of course, I got support from JWD.
  
  Dave
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  changeling

  I would be. W/o the internet I would probably never have found out about the UN fiasco, and even if I had, I would not have been able to reaserch it as I did to convince myself it was true.

  This was the issue that allowed be to open my eyes and see all the other inconsistencies and was the catallyst for my fade.

  changeling
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  Gill

  No! I'd already made my mind up that me and mine would DIE rather worship the WTBTS and its mass murdering God!

  However, the internet freed us from that belief also, for which I am truly grateful!
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  steve2

  I was preparing to leave when Ray Franz's book Crisis of Conscience came out in the early 1980s - about the same time as he was featured in Time magazine - well before the internet. The strength of the internet is the speedy dissemination of information and the sense of not being an "isolated" case. It's great also to hear more and more accounts of the dwindling numbers activiely propping up this sad and self-important cult.
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  passive suicide

  Monophonic.........Is it prayer, or common sense of a man who's released himself from a though controlling "relig"? Not to go on a side tangent.....but I put NOTHING on prayer. It's an invention to make man believe he needs devine guidance....when in actuality, the HUMAN spirit is the strength being drawn from.