Looking to speak to current & ex-JWs in Australia

by nomoreklondikes 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  smiddy

  nomoreklondikes,

  I was a convert at the age of 19 , convinced my then girlfreind to join me ,and a year later we were married in a KH ,after being baptised some months earlier . This was in 1961 . 33 years later we exited this mind controlling , manipulative religion ,profiteering from a publishing and real estate corporation , not to mention its many and varied investment choices that would question a religous organizations investment in such enterprises., that has made billions of dollars since its inception since the late 1800`s . Investments I might add that are opposed to what they profess and preach.

  Do you consider yourself an investigatve Journalist ? You have a lifetime goldmine here . Are you up to the challenge ?

  Do yourself a favour , look up what the religion has not only said , but published in print and is on record via film etc. whether u-tubes etc. in the past and see whether it matches up with what they claim they said today . They have become masters of spin , they would put a politician to shame .

  Compare what they actually published in print , KM ,WT`s. Books , pamphlets , brochures , Awakes , etc. and look at their revisionist take on what they said or printed and you will discover the real Watchtower Society masquerading as the religion of Jehovahs Witnesses.

  As I said , are you up to the challenge ?

  smiddy
• 

  Frazzled UBM

  I will be very interested to read this article to see which angle it comes from. This is an important topic and I hope it gets proper critical treatment. Unfortunately it doesn't look like something that will get widespread coverage and given its length is not likely to get picked up by mainstream newspapers.
• 

  3Mozzies

  
  
  I have the article, as I bought the paper. ↑

  It's written very well without being biased.

  It's written in a way that a jw can read it and not feel threatened, but with so many facts that they might question their religion.

  Pete has written a well balanced non biased article.

  Hope this gets picked up by other papers around the globe.

  3Mozzies
• 

  nomoreklondikes

  The Lifted Brow has published a companion piece to the main article online, a kind of collage of facts and observations and Watchtower quotes I unearthed in my research: http://theliftedbrow.com/post/86860497611/all-along-the-watchtower-the-world-of-jehovahs
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  MissFit

  Thanks for the link. You were very fair. Could you tell me what was one of the most surprising things you learned About the witnesses and the ex- witnesses?

  Having been born in I haven't had a chance to get an objective view of the religion.

  How can I get your magazine? I am in the USA.

  Miss.Fit
• 

  nomoreklondikes

  Hi MissFit, you can buy a copy of the magazine here: http://theliftedbrow.myshopify.com/products/the-lifted-brow-22-pre-order-now-out-monday-28th-of-april

  The most surprising thing I think I learnt about the Witnesses is how dour the whole operation is –– how little religious fervour I encountered, at least in the way I thought about religious fervour: people getting shaky in the aisles, etc. The Witnesses I met were definitely very committed, but the meetings and conventions felt very formulaic, sober, and didactic, like business seminars almost.

  The main Witness I interviewed for the story also said that two decades in the church hadn't really made him feel closer to God. It had helped him stay off drugs, though. I asked one elder how he defined religious growth in a religion where there are absolutely no mystical trappings, no goal of absorption in God. And he said it was in a person's behaviour –– them showing themselves to be a balanced individual, which I took to mean just being a normal social character in the way the WTS defines that, able to do what the religion requires of you without complaint. Which, considering the work involved, is difficult enough.

  From the ex-Witnesses, it struck me how ingrained the teaching was in them, and remained –– kids who'd rejected the church, for instance, to go and be young and wild, and who went off and did that, but then who saw the towers fall on 9/11 and thought it was a sure sign of Armageddon coming, just as the WTS said. I think it's difficult to get a proper sense of how deep it all goes unless you're born into it, or have spent a long time in the church.

  For me it was never a cult busting exercise, this article. There's enough of those out there; most articles just repeat the same things. I wanted to do it from more of a sociological viewpoint, to find out why people choose to join the church, what makes people want to stay – or leave. The answers I found, along with the church's fascinating and strange history, really surprised me.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  nomoreklondikes

  The most surprising thing I think I learnt about the Witnesses is how dour the whole operation is –– how little religious fervour I encountered, at least in the way I thought about religious fervour: people getting shaky in the aisles, etc. The Witnesses I met were definitely very committed, but the meetings and conventions felt very formulaic, sober, and didactic, like business seminars almost.

  Different strokes for different folk - It was precisely that 'coolness' and seemingly reasoned atmosphere that appealed to the 17 y.o idealist, who often on saturday nights, when the world played, could be found reading in the State library, that I was then. Probably, one reason I spent near 40 years in this organisation (of wasted life) until disfellowshipped.

  As far as the 'atmosphere' of the JW meetings are concerned, you could check out a very thin book by R.J.Banks, Going to Church in the First Century, in which he draws on the 'thin' scriptural descriptions that we have of first century Christian meetings. Banks' incorporates these descriptions into a fictional story of attending a 'house meeting' in Rome, a decade or so after Paul's conversion, and aside from the fact that there was a ritual sharing of food, into which is incorporated a reminder of Jesus' sacrifice, you have something reminiscent (I found) of the ideals of a JW meeting.

  Reason still matters to me, which is likely why I do not join the hysteria that often excites participants on this site.
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  MissFit

  NMKlondike: I like your writing style. What is your next article about?
• 

  nomoreklondikes

  Thanks Missfit! Next article I'm planning is on prison rehabilitation –– the kind of programs in Australian jails, and what effect these have on inmates and crime and communities.
• 

  Doug Mason

  Hi,

  I have not yet read your article so excuse me if I misrepresent you.

  While I have never been a JW, I was a member of a related eschatological Church. Although it took me 10 years to extricate my mind, I am still able to communicate with members of that Church - something that ex-JWs wish they were able to do, especially within their families.

  I believe that the responses you received at this discussion tell you that your question should not have been "HOW do they behave?" Rather, it should have been "WHY do they behave in the way that they do?"

  The "active" JW lives with the knowledge that any expressed doubt, regardless of the confidentiality when that statement is made, will result in them being publicly humiliated and being denied access to family and friends who are still JWs. Can you imagine what that means to a JW?

  On top of that, they are continually bombarded with one message: Armageddon is imminent and to survive it you must be fully and totally obedient to the organisation's leaders, regardless of what they are currently teaching. When that teaching changes, as it regularly does, the minds of millions are compelled to march in lockstep unity. Truth is irrelevant, since that is subject to change: obedience to the US leadership is paramount.

  Your follow-up article should then document the studies into the effects this has on the mental state of JWs.

  The Watchtower Society runs an operation that makes the Exclusive Brethren and the Scientologists look like amateurs. And while the general community treats Jehovah's Witnesses as the butt of jokes, the leaders ply their pressure, telling the members that all JWs are happy.

  I too live near Melbourne.

  Doug