Why it's Dangerous to Associate w/ Jehovah's Witnesses-Barbara Anderson

by flipper 60 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  AndersonsInfo

  Thank you for your kind thoughts.

  "awildflower" please use the entire lecture in any way you see fit. Duplicate it and cover the town with the material. You don't have to blank out any names or any information unless you want to.

  I gave three different lectures at six different places within a space of 90 days and it was a bit much preparing the lectures. So as I was preparing this lecture, "Why it's Dangerous to Associate With JWs," I asked Kerry Louderback Wood if I might "borrow" a few thoughts out of her blog article about blood which is to be found on Freeminds; By request, Brenda Lee sent me some of the wonderful "cult" information that she put together. Her material was so good that I wished I could have used it all, so credit goes to her for some of the information found in this lecture. And there are a few other points, like the date-setting of Russell and Rutherford which I found somewhere on the Internet. I was the compiler of other people's brilliance which I placed into my outline. I want to thank them all very much.

  There are so many wonderful people working so hard to get our message out about the dangers of belonging to the Witness religion and we assist one another as much as possible. "Silence means consent," and as long as we're on this earth we will never be silent about the damage this religion has caused and is still causing among those who joined the group, totally unsuspecting people, who did not know what they were getting themselves into.

  Thank you "flipper" for being so kind to start this thread at my request. It's the information that is so important to spread, not the compilers of the information.

  If anybody wants to read the other two lectures, they are on www.freeminds.org

  Thank you again for the expressions of support I receive from each and every one of you.

  Barbara
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  BadBettie

  Thank you so much. The JW's keep visiting my future mother in law, and this will be a good way of explaining that they are coming over for more than coffee. She sees what they did to me and I have recently acknowledged it in discussion with her, so this would be very appropriate for follow up discussion. It says things in a way I never could.
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  flipper

  BARBARA- You are very welcome my friend ! We appreciate your sharing this information with us and others. Any way we can all help to get the message out is the main thing as you said
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  Snoozy

  Off topic...

  Darth, how do you do that? Post an article. I have tried the cut and paste but I can't do it . I lose it when I come back here to paste it. Any suggestions on how to post an entire article on a board?

  Snoozy..(sorry to interrupt)
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  TheOldHippie

  Just a few comments, as I found this grossly exaggerating and misrepresenting.

  Literally, thousands of Witnesses die each year when there is need for whole blood or some blood components that JWs don’t approve of.

  I think that is a bold statement, and would like to see the proof that thousands die annually.

  The truth is that all of these "minute" fractions would equal a whole unit of blood if added together! Jehovah’s Witnesses are not told this fact.

  I fail to see how one needs to be told that fact. If I do not understand that 1+1+1+1=4, I would be rather – well, uninformed. It is rather self-evident, if you ask me.

  Did you know that JWs are encouraged to report on other JWs who break a medical doctrine such as the ban on blood? JWs will do this to attain status with both Jehovah and with peers.

  Not to attain status, but because they think it is the right thing to do.

  As a side note, I didn’t know that vaccinations were forbidden up until 1952, when Witness leaders reversed course. I became a JW in 1954 and no one told me about a ban on vaccinations. Now, virtually all JWs will accept a vaccination, and many are unaware that it could be derived from blood.

  I knew it, because I read older literature, so that is the responsibility of each and every one. Here, it is common knowledge that some vaccinations have blood fractions as their basis, for example measles. And that is the reason JWs in countries as Mexico have refused those vaccinations for many years. So they kept informed.

  Higher education is a no, no. Young JWs clean houses, wash windows, etc. waiting for Armageddon. They suffer from poverty, disappointment, depression, and low self-esteem.

  I have never seen or heard it is a no no. On the contrary, people have been told it in the end is their choice. The poverty etc. statement is a huge exaggeration and misrepresentation.

  JWs are discouraged from reading the Bible without their own literature explaining it.

  Never heard of it. To the contrary – read it daily and meditate upon it.

  Does the organization have two purposes: recruit new members without regard for bettering the lives of their members? Yes. Members are told to wait until the new world when life will get better.

  Dead wrong. Drug addicts and alcoholics and gambling victims and smokers all see a drastic improvement of life conditions here and now. The here and now benefits are clearly pointed out.

  Does the organization expect you to jeopardize your family relationships or isolate you from society in some way? Yes.

  Isolate from society? No. People work, interact with others, they do not retreat to a far-away Montana settlement, and they have television, radio, go on vacation, to the movies, concerts. Not correct.

  What attracts people to this religion? There are many reasons, but for most people, it is fear of what they do not have the power to control, so they elect to escape into mystical solutions such as offered by JWs.

  Not my reason, any way. Mine was the search for the Bible truths, and I made a deliberate choice after having studied many groups and religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Evangelic groups, Herbert Armstrong’s group, LDS.
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  InquiryMan

  The essay was well written. However, I do agree that some points were unduly exagerrated. But perhaps the American version of JWism fits to that description. After all the outcome of less education, pension planning et is more visible in a country like the US with is not so developed when it comes to taking care of the welfare of its citizens.
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  InquiryMan

  Also in general it seems that the most extreme cases, whether it be "scandals" or extreme severeness, takes place in the US... In e.g. Norway, only 2.6 per cent attend church on a weekly basis, so I guess also JWs are less "militant".
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  quietlyleaving

  Higher education is a no, no. Young JWs clean houses, wash windows, etc. waiting for Armageddon. They suffer from poverty, disappointment, depression, and low self-esteem. I have never seen or heard it is a no no. On the contrary, people have been told it in the end is their choice. The poverty etc. statement is a huge exaggeration and misrepresentation.

  old hippie ultimately pursuing higher education is a no no among witnesses but the wts dresses it up as that witnesses can make their own choice.

  when my son decided to do his A'levels he had pressure from the elders and pioneers to give it up and go straight to pioneering and was told to look for some sort of work like window cleaning or house cleaning (2 elder pioneers who had such businesses offered him work). I fought in his corner because I knew that he really really wanted to study on. My husband and I had been window cleaners and we'd found it extremely hard to earn a living and pioneer. I did not want my son to experience such a precarious living. In the end, to lessen the pressure from the elders and pioneers he agreed to do an AS level in accounts so he could pioneer straight after completing his A'levels. He also completed A'levels in spanish, physics and maths gaining A's.

  Right through doing his A'levels he had pressure to reject a university education.

  Britain must be quite a lot like the USA because Barabara's article does not come across to me as exaggerated.

  edit:

  this statement of yours is interesting in view of what you are claiming against Barbara

  Just a few comments, as I found this grossly exaggerating and misrepresenting.

  lol
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  skeeter1

  Very, very, very good!!!!!!
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  TheOldHippie

  But quietlyleaving, you are implying that what happened to your son - which I in no way find appropriate - is what is happening to each and every JW worldwide. There are so many instances of blowing up what happened to one family or what is happening in one area and making that universal. Here, many drop out of school - regretfully - but there are also many who take a higher education, and a university education. Especially in the big cities, and many also have good jobs within computer business / advertising / the more "hip" or "in" fields of today. There is clearly a division between a window cleaning group and a more mainstream group, but in essays like the one in question, the picture is painted way too one sided, as if the latter group does not exist. There IS a choice, there ARE possibilities, one does not HAVE to say yes to what over-eager elders tell. It IS possible to live life as you personally want to in these respects - and that should be pointed out too.