by minimus 111 Replies latest jw friends
ok TD,
Here is the story. When he quit the meetings
I called elders to help him and all I heard were
rumors they were saying about him. So I told one elder
Iwas going totry to help him. The Elder said"No thats our job."
I said "Well he is my son and I am going to help him."
I started doing research on Jerusalem's destruction and found
out my son was right. We (My son and I) talked for about 3 months
and I finally seen the truth. Lost my other Son and Daughter to the WTS.
Over%forme, heartwarming about your helping your son, which helped you. But heartbreaking to hear about your other son and daughter.
Each day is a new one. You never know what each day will bring. You just never know. ((hugs))
There was no internet to help me out. I just "manned" up, dropped out and took my chances. I hoped that dang Jehovah wouldn't mess me up for doing that.
So far, so good after almost 40 years. (Don't tell "Jehovah" that, though. He might hunt me down and mess me up. You know how touchy He gets when He's pissed off.)
Farkel
Besides Sparlock the following apostates/apostateinfo helped me a great deal in the initial stages:
JWFairytale (youtube)
Ray Franz
Eric's (raypublisher) Judicial recording
Ethan's (Anondude2) Judicial recording
Randy Watters story and website
Cedars awesome articles and site
Barbara's Watchtower documents and story
and of course JWfacts.
I sometimes feel ashamed that I didn't come to the realizations others did on their own. I was born and raised in and although I thought some things weren't right, it was all I knew and I didn't know better. Chalked it up to human error or that god'll correct it in time.
Somebody made me watch a show critical of JWs. John Ankerberg? That show did not make me think. I just assumed they were using misinformation. But one of the guys on the show was selling books. A guy my dad had run into on a few occasions (dad's arch nemesis is what I used to think of the guy). One of the books was Ray Franz's book and I remembered the scandal when he defected and it piqued my interest.
I ordered Crisis of Conscience. It really opened my eyes to the history, the internal workings, the floundering on beliefs. And because of who he was, he had way more credibity to me than some Christian apologists who were part of Satan's org (in my mind) and trying to trick me. Once I saw the JWs were man-made with no godly backing, I couldn't return.
So Ray Franz.
This board and the "apostates" here helped me feel more normal for rejecting those JW beliefs and helped me to find so many other wrongs.
Paul Grundy's site is fantastic, I spoke to Bill Bowen, Billy The Ex Bethelite and countless others on this forum but the real honest answer has to be: THE INTERNET. Imagine how effed up we'd still be if we didn't have access to the info the internet supplies us?
I am not a JW, but I see Ankerberg being mentioned in JWS post.
His show is from my neck of the woods so his show was quite popular here. I must say when Dr Walter Martin was on the show it was awesome. I might not agree with some of what he says, but he would be one heck of a guy to have a cup of coffee with. I have discovered the shows he did with debating some JWs. My goodness that man is quick! I wish the full versions of some of his speeches were on youtube instead of partial ones.
Also Ankergerg did some shows with ex-jws and they were quite good.
Bill Cetnar. He got some exposure on TV at a time (pre-Franz) that made an impression on me when it was very helpful.
I don't really have a "favorite" but I do have to give a shout out to Randy (Dogpatch).
Two years ago this christmas I met up with a cousin that I hadn't seen over 15 years. She told me that when she was questioning the org(about that same 15 years ago), they emailed back and forth for a bit and he was instrumental in her seeing what a farce it is. Something about seeing in color versus black and white when you finally get out.
One of the best christmas's I've ever had.
I used to sneak looking at Ankerberg.
