I agree with Oompa. I never noticed the illustrations as a child. No nightmares or anything of the sort. But when I started reading the book of bible stories to my kids I kind of started realizing that all the stories ended with somebody being stoned, or dying instantly or some horrible thing happening to them for doing something wrong.. I thought it was funny, but I stopped reading from the book and just would tell the stories I liked....
The scandalous effect of JW childrens literature. Why not investigated?
by jambon1 31 Replies latest jw friends
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jaguarbass
1960 when the USA had the cuban Crisis with Krushev and Castro, I was 8 years old and had 8 years of the paradisse book depicting the flood people hanging on to rafts and being swallowed up by earthquakes. When the sirens would go off in America and particularly when I was a child in florida, I would go crazy thinking armegedon was comming and my parents seemed to get a kick out of it. My father was not a witness, he may not have known the bullshxt my mother exposed me to.I Still have a hard time having good thoughts about them two after they made me spend my first 18 years in a Kingdumb hall.
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Bonnie_Clyde
When my daughter was less than two years old Clyde and I would sit her on our laps and read to her from the orange "Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained Book." I distinctly remember when I got to the page where people were dying at Armageddon, I would say, "Bad people die." Now I'm shocked at myself for being so stupid. No wonder she is so messed up now as an adult. She doesn't consider herself messed up. She knows that Clyde and I are going to be destroyed at the battle of Armageddon which is just around the corner.
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restrangled
As a child I noticed the illustrations....The (orange)? Paradise book. As a little girl I had continous nightmares about demons, and would scream at night for my parents. It took into my 20's (once in my mind leaving the jws) to stop having demon dreams. Even now, once in a while I can feel one coming on but know how to fight it.
You become limp in your dreams unable to move or respond....just able to scream and sometimes that doesn't work. I had many nightmares over and over again all based on what I was taught as a child.
I never saw a scarey movie in my life, and was not allowed scarey cartoons, but by god, the devil and his demons were out to get me as taught by the society for as a long as I can remember.
When I was a young teenager, we had someone from bethal come stay in my bedroom. I had to sleep in the basement on a mattress. I just knew I was in for it. Sure enough, the damn bed picked up and spun like crazy with me in it. I remember screaming "Jehovah, Jehovah!
My mom came running down, and said we were attacked because we were hosting someone approved by god.....................................................
Very hard to let go of this C R A P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
r.
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White Dove
Restrangled,
I, too, had horrible nightmares every time and some other times that my mom would study with us kids out of that stupid book and later the red paradise book. I swore that everytime I woke up but my body didn't that I was being attacked by demons. Didn't know I had a sleep disorder where I woke up but my body stayed paralized as if asleep. It's a stage of sleep where your body protects you from acting out your dreams. I would run crying to my parents room afterward and we would all pray together to get the demons to leave me alone. So stupid!
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annalice
My friend and I were just talking about this same topic yesterday. We are both mothers now and we were discusing the My book of Bible stories and how disgusting the pictures in it are. I went back and looked at the book and seeing that mother holding on to her baby and knowing they are about to die from the flood just made me SICK! I actually cried when I saw that. I cant believe how numb I was as a Witness child to these horrible stories and graphic pictures. Yet we were taught that it was theso called "wordly" children who were being allowed to see graphic shows and movies and were the ones growing up not being affected when they saw violence. HA! its the JW children who are shown picture after picture of people being killed at armagedon. My niece who at the time she said this was just 4 years old told us how she and her mommy saw a JW video and how it showed the earth opening up and all the bad people falling into it and God raining down fire on all the bad people. She actually said this with a huge smile on her face ,so happy that this was going to happen. I though I was going to vomit right then and there. How sick to show a child images like this and train her to have no feelings what so ever towards these people loosing their lives.That image of her telling us this and how happy and proud she was that she could tell it to us will always be in my mind, I was totally creeped out by it. I am so glad that my children will never see this literature and the images the society uses to train there young to have no compassion for other humans.
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mkr32208
When we had kids I had already left the witnesses and G was in the process of leaving but she felt that it was important for the kids to have a bible knowledge so we had the bible story book. I went though and started tearing out pics that were not acceptable. People drowning, guys with stakes driven into their heads, Jonah getting devored by a really small whale, jesus getting killed, some kid dead after falling out the window... It goes on and on and on anyway tear out all the morbid disgusing stuff and you'll have about 25 pages left...
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horrible life
Hey this is HorribleLife's daughter. She pulled out an old book of bible stories. I've just read the "A New Paradise On Earth" I told my mom "It doesn't even look like an author wrote it. It looks like some person wrote it trying to bribe little kids."
When I read it, I was in shock of how it words things.
Here's some of the things it says "Look at those tall trees, pretty flowers and high mountains. Isn't it beautiful? Wouldn't you like to live in a house in a place like this?" Jesus will see to it that this wonderful change takes place. Do you know when? Yes, after he cleans the earth of all badness and bad people." "Just think how wonderful it will be in the new paradise on earth!" It's horrible! It's just like saying "You wanna cookie........Sure looks yummy doesn't it!"
Of all the stories I read in bible school, we learned about God doing good things and how much he helped people. I never read anything about him...... killing anybody. I don't remember pictures of dead people either. LOL!
Well, that's pretty much it. I just wanted to say that I even noticed that it's bribing. I'm so glad mom doesn't believe in it anymore.
HL's 'happy' child.
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sosad
intereting thoughts on the bibile story book - my Catholic Husband did not want that one in the house for the kids -I begrudgingly tossed it but until now never really thought of the pictures as an issue for kids. We have a ton of other BS books and non of them are at all offensive in their illustrations.
the orange paradise book was absolutly terrifying as a kid - my older special needs brother was entirly freaked out - Blondie I totally remember the boy and his bike - i always thought he had been trying to get home to his mommy when armageddon struck
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LoverOfTruth
If only the parents could realize what's happening with there little ones. My little granddaughter is afraid of bugs. I couldn't even begin to imagine how some of the pictures in the Watchtower Childrens Bible Stories Books would affect her.
My daughter told me when she was young, her dad would scare the crap out of her with these pictures saying this is what was going to happen to me if I didn't come back to the "Truth"