by ShempLives 61 Replies latest jw friends
Fernando and Gregor, excellent points both! And I believe that is the reality of the situation. The few angry apostates that go all "Danny Haszard" on the world only feed into the WT caricature of an "mentally diseased apostate." The reality is that most of us are closer to the Ray Franz end of the spectrum, ... or at least that's the way we're leaning.
We just don't make so much noise so you don't hear about us as much.
SO NOW WE'RE GOING TO JUDGE AGAIN??? Like living thru the HELL, of the watchtower isn't enough and being judged esp. By the people you love, you know, no matter how or what a person says, whether you think it's outrageous, the witnesses WILL, always think you're not right, cause ya don't have the WT, in your life! Lay off of people who need to vent!! WE ALL, deal differently !! And stop judging!!
I can understand how they are hurt and all, many have been and still are but acting out all crazy and doing rash actions is not an answer- it makes things worse. The problem is that it makes the Watchtower look right, as if all apostates are crazy. When a Jw sees this they automatically think and agree this person is "mentally diseased" and all other apostates who dont act like this get swept up and generalized into one package. It's really counterproductive for all who want to help JWs. Plus, think about the outside people, what would they think if they saw one person acting drastic and crazy, and JWs all calm and quiet? That makes them look good. I wouldn't want to be around someone acting crazy.
Though they may make life a bit harder for the rest of us apostates behaving like this, I have sympathy for them.
The painful irritation of the mind, the remains of a cult life that obviously motivates them, is clearly personal, emotional and eating away at them.
The turmoil and damage that causes someone to drink and cause disorder in this cult after leaving, is due to inner pain that was done TO them as we all know and witnessed ourselves.
I am sure most of us have thought of doing such things. but restrained outselves or dismissed it.Don't get me wrong, it is not the way to do it...not at all, in my opinion. But I feel sad that they are so desperate to have their side heard in that KH, they did that.
I don't remember ever seeing such displays in the literature, under a heading of 'What a life in Watchtower can result in....'
Although I understand the emotions that lead to such pointless actions, I do agree with Band On the Run that they are immature.
When I ceased to be a Bible believer it became very necessary to devise for myself a way of making moral and other decisions based on something other than the Bible or some woolly idea of what Jesus might have done..or not done.
I decided that anything I was going to do had to result in the most good and the least harm for my fellow Humans, my Neighbours if you like.
In my humble opinion these actions by those with extreme anti-WT feeling are pointless, and badly mis-directed. The poor mind-contolled JW's in the K.H should not be the target of any such action, it achieves nothing and is rude and hurtful toward them personally.
Worse, it is counter-productive, it strengthens their belief.
If you truly wish to help JW's to see the Real Truth then the way to do it is by sensible posts on here, and anywhere else that you can, and "planting seeds" when in conversation with J.W's
What is the Real Truth ? Well one is that the W.T Corporation are money grubbing parasites. Getting that idea growing in the mind of JW's is far more productive than talking Doctrine or taking petty childish action on a local level.
Apostate & Ex-Jehovalarious Meme Collection
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I find some of the behavior puzzling, it makes me uncomfortable. But I am not responsible for what other ex JWs do, we are not one group, just individuals trying to recover as best we can from our time in a destructive cult. Current JWs buy the Watchtower lie that we are angry and bitter, so they can hardly think any less of us.
That sums it up right there. We may have similarities with our experiences in the Org but the reason we left is too have FREEDOM from that oppression. You escape one label to be put under another. What would be the solution to this? Have a Governing Body of Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses? It may be embarrassing to see what some ex-JWs do but at the end of the day they're their own individual. THAT'S something the Watchtower never let us be.
Which pic is more scarier?
Both pics are how "apostates'' are percieved by JWs
Welcome Shemp. I think you are correct with what you said.
It is human nature to focus on the negative. Videos like these might be a release for the ones involved. But videos like these might push ones who are questioning their faith back to the organization because it reinforces the WT’s notion that all apostates are evil, crazed and mentally diseased. I do believe it is the vast minority who make videos like this but the majority of people not “in the know” might think it is the majority of apostates who make these videos. I don’t think it helps those of us who are living our normal lives away from the Borg and want to set a good and normal example for our extended family to see we are normal away from the Borg, not crazy and mentally diseased. It doesn’t help our cause but I do get the sentiment behind the videos.
ShempLives - "A Bible Student: A BITE mark from the WT! You summed it up perfectly."
Agreed.
Makes me think of WT revenants; they wither and decompose if they don't "turn" new recruits...
Snare&racket, your post nails it, I think. It pretty much says exactlywhat I was going to say. I only have a little more to add...
shep said:
I was starting to get the sense of an angry mob emerging from the online XJW community.
It would be pretty weird if there was NOT a pretty substantial amount of anger among some of the thousands of different people who are exjw.
The Jehovah's Witnesses take people's parents, children, grandparents....forever! It's like your whole family died!
The reality is that thousands of different people in pain will react in thousands of different ways. That’s normal.
Anger is a stage of grief. One can’t expect that that stage be skipped or that nobody expresses that anger and frustration in ways that put off JWs. Some people are bound to confront JWs on the street, make angry videos expressing themselves, or even disrupt meetings in protest. And some people will not do these things and will work through their anger and frustration other ways. All of this is normal.
But you can’t expect all ex-jws to live their lives around what makes JWs comfortable, and there is no reason to judge those who don’t live their lives that way, or those who are passing through an ‘anger’ stage of their recovery.
It is only the Jehovah's Witnesses who think a ‘happy person’ = ‘good person.’ It is Jehovah’s Witnesses who are required to walk around with fake smiles plastered on their face all the time in order to ‘make a good witness.’
That’s NOT normal.
And if anyone thinks that getting all exjws to be sweet and kind all the time is going to bring the WT down…its never going to happen because thousands of exjws are not robots. So you might as well move on to plan B.
