Unimpressed by the local Ex-JW's

by bohm 9 Replies latest jw friends

  • bohm
    bohm

    I come from a small crappy country in northern europe. Im sad to say that among the resident 'vocal' Ex-JWs there is a good deal who have had visits from God (thats a bad sign in my book), who think satanists run the watchtower, who think there are 'hidden codes' in the images in the WT, who believe the MEPS system can translate between all kinds of languages and this somehow feed to a conspiracy theory, who think accusations of pedophelia and painting all JW elders as borderline pedophiles (or at least some who hide pedophelia) is remotely close to the truth. Many of them seem to belong to small cultish religious organizations.

    By far the largest ex-jw website carry many of these things in a semi-sensationalist way with a hopeless design from the last century.

    The best info i have found was a guy who plagurized most of Don Camerons book (i hope i am not making a false accusation here, but i really doubt he got permission to translate and post it on his website without making it clear who wrote it) who i think is a russelite. (Don, if you read this i can provide his name and address from the whois record).

    Im quite frustrated about this. I think its doing the JWs a giant favor; if i was a journalist i would immediately see that much of the Ex-JW information fit the label propaganda, and that kind of exagerations and mis-representations are very damaging the moment they are disassembled by a WT spokesman who know his doublespeak: Intelligence beat intelligent bullshit, but Intelligent bullshit beat regular bullshit.

    Its properly not a very practical idea, but i wish there was a more united 'information on jehovahs witnesses' effort with a clear goal of reaching current JWs and the press, kind of like Anonymous and scientology.

    I dont really have any real suggestions to help this problem (im not even sure it can be done), but i would like to ask if other has experienced similar quality problem regarding non-witness material and any comments on what can be done.

    Finally i should add that the country i come from is quite secular, and the witness has experienced very bad growth the past 10-20 years; ie. they have lost about 10-15% of their members. I think most new converts are crazy, born-ins or fugatives from other countries who are converted. It should be a good basis for a vocal ex-jw community!

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  • designs
    designs

    The simplist way to understand a religious person's choice of community and point of view ie progressive, fundamentalist, charismatic etc. is to ask why it benefits the individual.

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  • Psychotic Parrot
    Psychotic Parrot

    One or two of the ex-dubs on this message board are borderline loony tunes, the kind of people that are attracted to cults are not going to just suddenly become normal on leaving a cult. As for born ins, not surprisingly many of them have had very strange upbringings & have grown up to become confused & angry people. Many of them are being shunned by family & friends, quite a few have been sexually abused in the past, & most feel that they have wasted much of their lives in the cult & have missed out on a lot of opportunities in life, they are rightfully bitter about it. Also, many of those who leave feel regret for recruiting others into the cult & are desperately trying to get them out, often in vain.

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  • bohm
    bohm

    Designs: thats true, and properly the reason why there is such a difference on ex-jw boards - the problem is if there are a few 'old elephants' who monopolize what being an ex-jw is and despite stating they are religiously neutral keep writing articles with a strong religious bias (more likely: One state the group is religious neutral, another write evolution is clearly wrong), etc., i got to think it drive a few of the people away you *really* want to see in the press.

    PP: I dont speak with much weight here, but its my impression that most of the loonies on here are not x-jws, rather people with strong religious views who like to be heard :smile:. Ranting and airing personal -minor- issues has its place; i just dont think its a very good strategy with respect to the press and the people who really need help - current JW's who are not sattisfied with their current life.

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  • Black Sheep
    Black Sheep
    they have lost about 10-15% of their members

    That makes it sound like your Exs are doing a very fine job. Better than us Kiwis anyway. What are they doing right?

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  • bohm
    bohm

    Black Sheep: That was indeed on of the questions i originally set out to investigate, so far i havent been able to figure it out - there seem to be no real JW forums (not with any real traffic or good content, at least!) and little organized ex-jw activity.

    My best answer would be that its a small country with very little variety in culture and language. I also have a feeling that statements such as 'We are right, you are wrong' is taken as a greater offense here than it is in some other countries. In good and bad, the children is a bit brainwashed to believe all ideas are equally valid, especially with regard to religion.

    Its my feeling that being a Jehovahs Witness here is not so hard as in eg. USA or the 3rd world. I dont know if that is a symptome or a cause. (examples: Facebook & Feng Shui seem acceptable for elders)

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  • Mad Sweeney
    Mad Sweeney

    I too lament the lack of a united movement against the Borg, but freedom to be of a diverse set of beliefs is the greatest gift EX-Dubs have. I don't know how to get everyone on the same page in a united attack on the main Cube while at the same time some are hardcore fundies and others are hardcore atheists and those in-between are as diverse as can be.

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  • PSacramento
    PSacramento

    PP makes a very valid point, leaving an organization we have been with for a long time is hard enough, leaving a religious one that is open is harder and leaving one like the JW's even more so.

    Many lose their faith completely and focus that "JW-like zeal" into being non-believers, others fien a different faith and are just as zealous,whole others simply go with the flow if thatis their personality.

    I think it matters quite a bit the TYPE of JW one was, if one was a full time zealot then that personality will not go away, you are an either/or type of person and will join the nearst group of extermists you can find, be it believers or non.

    BUT, I do think that it is wrong to label anyone ( yes I know, I just did that very thing) even though it tends to be our nature.

    I don't think that you want to get everyone on the same boat and it is unrealsitic to think you can, it is enough that they are out.

    The fact that some are damaged to such a degree by their time under the WT and that they can't break the shakles of extremissim just shows how dangerous groups like this are.

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  • besty
    besty

    I strongly believe in education being the answer.

    Before the Internet, Christians controlled the exit gate from the JW's.

    After the Internet, Christians, crazies (often they are combined - oh dear) and educators all vie for airtime.

    My advice - make the best website you can and then contact jwfacts.com, freeminds.org etc for links. I'm sure they will help you

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  • StAnn
    StAnn

    MadSweeney, I've wondered how it could be done. All I can think of is that we have some kind of organized protest where we have literature, have the news media there to cover it, etc., outside of Kingdom Halls in every state at the same time across the USA and have an even larger group at the WTS hq. Blanket all of the car windshields with flyers, take out ads in the national papers proclaiming freedom from the WTS day. But this would take massive organization, participation, and money. I think we all have different agendas and it just isn't feasible.

    However, I would love to see ex-JWs get on TBN, for instance, once weekly or once a month, and discuss the fallacies in the WTS one at a time. A lot of fundamentalists watch TBN. It might help prevent people from being converted and help the evangelical/fundamentalist churches to step up their efforts to help people leave the WTS.

    StAnn

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