If you weren't born in, how did you get in? (page 3)

Casper

Death in the family, extremely low point... promise of the resurrection....

I was so gullible....

Cas

Dated a JW for two years. Had to get baptised as a JW before we could get married. I basically just did it for her, but I guess that was a mistake. Don't get me wrong ... I still love my wife, but I shouldn't have given up my own beliefs just to get married.

dinah

sa,

bless your heart.

WTWizard

When I was in, we had several tips during the Circus Meeting. These include looking at the obituaries. If anyone is there, the survivors are likely to get a waste of paper about seeing the dead ones again, and then they are in for a study with the witlesses.

Other people they look for are those who are single, who are living on their own, and relatively young. They generally get people with little (or poor) education, and those with little Bible knowledge (whether from another religion or independent) are more likely to fall prey to the scam. Females tend to be more susceptible, though that could be because they are that much more likely to be at home when the witlesses show up.

In all, they are nothing but cockroaches that are parasites to society. Anyone that is struggling to live on their own is a target. And that's the last thing they need--more problems.

About the only defense is education about the subject. Anyone that is approached by the witlesses should cross-reference the doctrines before their first study. They should never go to a boasting session until they have had the chance to cross-research the religion, using several independent sources. Which can be difficult if the person is poor, bereaved, or struggling with a job that barely makes ends meet and another problem (like physical sickness, disarray in the family, etc.) That is not the time to make major decisions like that, yet the witless cockroaches pressure them into making binding decisions at such a time. They promise deliverance from such problems. Note that they never make good on said promises, and they always add other problems on top of the ones the victim is already going through.

And they wonder why I want to ruin the Washtowel Slaveholdery.

ecuador

sacolton, what were the beliefs you had to give up to be a jw?

sacolton

I was a Methodist. Jesus wasn't Michael the Archangel and wasn't a created being. Communion was given and received each year. Honor, praise and worship to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It was a very nice experience.

FadingAway

I was and, am still, pretty much of a loner. I didn't have many friends. I moved down south and had no family or friends nearby. One of the people I worked with was a JW, had found out from another workmate. One day we had lunch together and I had asked him about JW beliefs and that opened the flood gates. I received a couple of books and an invitation to the memorial. Went to the memorial, love bombed, liked the attention I was receiving. Got a Bible study from the workmate who quickly became my "father" and his wife, my "mother". Was getting invited to all sorts of places, but now realized they were doing it to count service time. Bought it all hook, line and sinker because I thought I was dealing with genuine people and an religious orginization dedicated to truth and a noble cause. Got baptized and within a couple of years, reality slapped me in the face, not because of doctirnal issues, but with issues of controlling our behavior. Whatever we do, whatever we say, how we dress.... it was no longer spiritual... one's outside appearance and what you put on a feild service reports is what is most important. It was no longer pleasing God, but trying to keep your shit clean in front of men.

I'm still in, got a wife and 2 small kids. I'm too much of a pussy right now to take a stand, I'm trying to keep peace in the family but I'm also keep it lukewarm in the congregation, just do enough to get by. Fortunately for me, I am the only idiot in my family that took the nestea plunge, and my family has never disowned me for it, thought they warned me not to do it. The evil worldly family has always had my back and I love them for that. I don't blame an orginization for where I am, I only blame myself. But the consequences so far have been a mixed bag, most good, a little bad.

dinah

FA, in no way are you a "pussy". Take care of your family. You know how to make them follow you instead of the Borg. Just be a good Dad, the rest will take care of itself. Oh and put some tidbits of the wisdom you have in their little heads.

WT are just predators of the spiritual kind.

Quandry

I worked with a girl that was a Witness. Actually, there were many. They were all lovely, and fine examples of morality. I was puzzled. I asked questions, and one girl said she'd like to come over and answer all the questions. Two came, and flipped through the Bible amazingly fast. Of course, I didn't know they had another book bound into their Bibles, called Make Sure of All Things-it takes verses by catagory, so that they could find the verse dealing with any subject very quickly. Well, my husband and I were impressed. We were newly married-I was twenty.

Anyway, the Vietnam war was going on, and we were glad to find that Witnesses don't go to war. I also had a great respect for the Bible, and it seemed they had all the answers.

We were baptized for over thirty years. My husband was an elder for twenty. Actually, I don't think I ever believed the Trinity before, and I loved the thought of living forever in a paradise with no crime, death, etc.

We did everything "by the book" or should I say, by the organization. Consulted it first before making a move. Were there questions in my mind? Yes, the change in the 1914 doctrine was a BIG one. For years the Awake magazine stated on the inside front cover that they wanted to build my confidence in the fact that the ones who were alive and at an age of understanding in 1914 would live to see the end of this system, then they quietly changed it to those that were alive in 1914, and then that there would be a wonderful peaceful earth in the future. I was suspicious......also, the Nethenim(non-annointed helpers) for the governing body, and then the numbers increasing for the partakers at the Memorial. I didn't like the no higher education stance. I could see where it got my family-low paying jobs and no retirement. Still, I thought I just wasn't spiritual enough to understand.

My daughter was raised in it. She was beautiful, an honor student, shy, but always took talks, we all went out regularly in service, cleaned the KHall EVERY TIME it was our turn, in short, poster Witnesses.

Well, when my daughter was SIXTEEN, she did some normal teen stuff, nothing as bad as I did when I was a teen. Had NEVER BEEN IN TROUBLE WITH ANYONE BEFORE-but five men sat her down in the back room, and after humiliating, and berating her, while never actually counseling her for the stuff she did do, began accusing her of fornication for over two and one half hours, something no one had accused her of, and there were no witnesses, and she said she did not do (and did not) they called her a liar, then made her read scriptures that she was like this one and that one in the Bible that were condemned, and finally, after midnight, made her read a verse that said she was filth in God's eyes and would burn in the lake of fire with the Devil and his angels. They told her she was disfellowshipped, but never explained why, and if she was still disfellowshipped when Armageddon came that she could take some comfort in knowing that Jehovah can read hearts.

Yes, we spoke to the Circuit Overseer, and the District Overseer, and wrote the WTS, who said that perhaps these men had surely "learned a lesson" and whether the men could have spoken more kindly, "They couldn't say." We should just encourage our daughter to accept the counsel. Yes, we wrote page after page telling them there was no counsel.

This let us know-the curtain was pulled away, and we saw the man at the controls of the Great and Powerful Oz.

These are dangerous people. They can suck the life out of you. I will never accept what they did to my child and call it counsel of any sort. They devastated her. We all wanted to die for about two years. They will get NO MORE of my life. I must stop-my blood pressure is rising.

Hope this helps your knowledge base.

Solace1998

yeah, thats what happened.

The only witness i knew was a disfellowshipped athiest, who didnt even reveal he was a witness until later on, after studying.

If you weren't born in, how did you get in?

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