by botchtowersociety 49 Replies latest jw friends
One when the elders sent two sisters to spy on me.They followed me,so I went to a hardware store too see if they would follow,sure enough in their sunday best.
The second when they elders hounded me to up my circus hours to 10 per month so I would qualify for extra privileges.They could so use me.....BS.
The third for later
B
:What was your "aha" moment..
It was a Circuit Overseer who had a huge ego (thought he was royalty) and probably had a little dick. Maybe not. I never checked out his dick.
His huge ego did it for me. I do know (because he told me) that his biggest contribution in life before becoming a Watchtower Drone was that he was a construction worker out of High School. Wow! I'm impressed! He knew how to hit NAILS in WOOD before he learned how to destroy lives and have the power to do so! Wow! I learned later from a former District Overseer that Erskine was a hand-picked lackey by Ted Jaracz and was trained to do the dirty work for the Watchtower Printing Corporation. That makes perfect sense since that man fit that description.
I left at 27 years of age. I was basically "born in." One Circuit Overseer with a God complex. One little Farkel who had had enough with that nonsense. It was all over. I was silent about my experiences for over 20 years. And I've been shouting about them for the last 15 years or so.
Carl Erskine, Southern California Circuit Overseer, Lynwood Congregation circa 1972. THANK YOU!
Farkel
cathryn,
: I think it was around 1991-1992 when I learned about the library card thing with the UN.
No, that was 2000 or so, and that information broke on this board first and foremost.
I believe it was Uzzah who broke that information, but I could be wrong.
It's all in the archives. Within a day or so, the WTS capitulatuled and then lied about in an "urgent" letter to all the Congregations. And within the same period of time the United Nations disfellowshped THEM for being the liars that they have always been!
How is THAT for poetic justice?
Heh, heh.
Farkel
it was a lot of little things that lead up to the big thing for me. mostly elders acting like asshats and jackholes. and then the flipflop on education. sitting there on a sunday morning in the 1990s and hearing the crap in the craptower: we never said you couldnt go to college ... some of you may have interpreted it that way .. you know the line ... well, i was stunned. i had done very well in high school and had lots of opportunities for scholarships .. but the elders said no .. showed me literatrash that specifically spoke against going to college ... never forget one of th ecomments: how much better to use your intellect for the good of gods kingdom (or some rubbish like that). anyways i was infuriated. telling me i got it wrong when i was hounded about it. lol. wasnt too long after that my mental exit began. then a physical exit in 2000.
For me it was seeing the scans of the "Truth" book- the original and the reprint, where all references to 1975 were removed from the reprint. Then I realized that the WTS were revising their own historyand making up s**t as they go along. I knew then the whole organization was dishonest from top to bottom.
THIS was my "aha" moment
I always had doubts..... being that when I started my study of the bible it took me from mans creation to 92 BC..... then the witnesses pick up at 1897 until now. I kept asking my family who are babtized, What happened from 92 BC to 1897??? where there not true christian on the earth? and what where they called, because the name Jehovahs witnesses was not used until close to 60 yrs ago??? No one had an answer, it was so irritating and the question just lingered. At the meetings they dont address the almost 2000 yr gap, when witnesses didnt exist, they just talk about the organization "moving forward".....
Last yr i attended the assembly and heard the "overlapping generation" theory for the first time announced. When the brother on the platform finished explaining it, I heard the whole auditorium get silent. you could hear a pin drop. No one believed what he just said. .... after the meeting I stood in line for 2 hrs trying to get a chance to talke to the brother who gave the talk, couldnt believe i was standing in line to see/talk to a MAN!
I decided to do my own studies, read the first studies in the scriptures volumes, read about the pyramids, how he used them to predict 1915 and then 1914, they now claim that they dont follow that doctrine and changed it since. Right then I realized how easy it was for russell/organization to combine his thoughts with scripture, twist the reasoning, give parralell meanings to scriptures and very easily PASS IT OFF as the Truth... Then it dawned on me that this man had enough money in time to start his own religion, and thats just what he did.... bought a printing press with Daddys clothing store money and started printing his "christian journals" and telling all his niave followers that God was using him as a channell of communication to reveal simple bible truths...... gee wiz. cant believe dedicated myself to this faith without investigating its background first : ((
the bible fortold us that this would happen, that in the end men would lead others away for themselves with false teachings............
Michele
I was content as a witness until I was DF for not forcing my daughter to have the child of her rapist. I continued to attend meetings for 8 months After one Elder counseled my 11 year old son on his talk He said to him. That he would help him with his talks now because he no longer had a father. That did not faze me I just told my son that the man was being ignorant
I kept thinking of the scripture about loving your enemies "Am I now the enemy" I asked myself If not why am I being treated so badly. Not one word of encouragement from the Elders during that 8 months I was treated like shit After the 8months they wanted to talk to me about reinstatement. I refused You have to be repentant. Right ! I was not They said I no longer had a relationship with God after I was DF. That was not true. I never believed he had abandoned me.
So I started attending church where I found love and acceptance not condemnation I always remember what one Church said when I told him that the witnesses think your all hypocrites . He said "come right in your welcome" and I thought "yes we are all sinners no one has made it. Didn't Jesus befriend sinners and condemn the self righteous" Anyway I made friends with Jan Groenveld subscribed to Randy's periodical and researched the basis of my faith in Jehovah's so called Organization. The evidence was overwhelming. I was a true believer Now that I knew it was a lie Not the truth I could not go back even though I realized what it could and did cost me ie: loss of friends family and marriage. I could not live a lie
"AHA" moment No just a gradual realization I had been deceived
As a "born- in " I had to constantly grapple with "Cognitive Dissonance" and not being able to swallow all the nonsense they came out with, such as a great prophecy in Daniel being fulfilled by Rutherford and cronies lurking amongst the trees at Cedar Point Ohio in the 1920's, what utter tripe.
But my first "Aha !" moment was whilst reading Daniel chapter4, it struck me that the fulfillment was right there in the chapter, at the end, and that 2520 years was simply not there, or anywhere else in the Bible !
I actually hung on for a few months after this, an Elder promised to return and build my faith in 1914, of course he never came back.
The actual final straw was when the GB/FDS demanded loyalty and worship that rightly belonged to Jesus just one too many times.
I walked out of the K.H, turned and looked back at it, and thought, "I am never going there again"
I was 58 years old, and finally had begun to think like a rational human being.
strymeckirules: when my study conductor told me jesus created everything. so what is jesus's heavenly fathers job?
Jehovah provided the blueprints for Jesus, the master worker, and the electricity for the power tools. What's wrong with that?
