by Newly Enlightened 11530 Replies latest watchtower scandals
I just fell down a rabbit hole looking at old threads regarding AAWA.
It is interesting looking back from a distance and seeing the birth of all the problems we now see. The legal matters are probably minor, the manipulation of membership numbers seem to have damaged a lot of people. That is tragic.
JeffT, I'm up in the wee hours and finding some other rabbit holes of my own. I Googled the names of some "old friends" that I haven't seen in decades. The ones who have died, seem to have mostly died JW's. However, two elderly JW men choose not to have any funeral ceremony. If their wives stayed JW, and the men woke up, (which is what I suspect) that would be the only solution. I realize that this talk of obituaries is off-topic. I'm just so glad I got out of Watchtower, even though my youth and energy is gone. I get to "digest" what happened to me, and to us. Exjws from ten years ago didn't have our internet access. They had to wake up mostly only with Crisis of Conscience.
He's baaack !
Toblerone5: On other News, the Patrons are up to 469 ?
Patreon most likely updates the number of people joining in real time (ie, on a daily basis) but updates the number of people who leave at the end of the specific support term. If your page is set up to accept monthly subs, then the number of people who leave probably isn't updated until the end of the month, which is when their subscription would expire.
So it's not unusual for the numbers to rise a few times over the course of a month, then get updated at the end to reflect the people who ended their support. If you follow the numbers every day or week, you might be frustrated to find them climbing until month's end. I think the better way to look at it is the long term pattern, which in his case shows a significant drop since the beginning of the year.
After The Mormons what's going to be next? this...
This is so far beyond parody. He’s advising a wife about being in a dysfunctional relationship.
My wife and I stopped attending meetings in 1988 and DA'd in 1989. We were doing our research in the interval between those dates. There was no internet, no Lloyd Evans. I spent hours in the library, my wife was going through bookstores. We joined a support group. We spent a lot of time with Crisis of Conscience but there was a lot of other information out there as well.
Looking back, I can see that the Watchtower's own words; the falsehoods, the hypocrisy, false prophecy etc condemned them. Our research was a matter of confirming what we knew to be true. It is true: by the time you're looking at apostate Youtubes you're standing in front of the exit door.
LMsA, Yes, “so far beyond parody”.
JeffT, Yes. I made the decision to read Crisis of Conscience at the very end of 2018. I read it voraciously, and immediately ordered In Search of Christian Freedom, beginning of 2019. When I saw in CoC that the Governing Body was a farce, that was all I needed to let go of Watchtower. I still had some misplaced loyalty to Watchtower,... thinking that I shouldn’t speak ill of it. But that soon gave way to anger at all they had stolen from me. After reading those two books, I consciously sought out exjw YouTubes that revealed the doctrinal errors in Watchtower. What I’d needed most was to be freed of the mystique that the GB were righteous men, channeling God’s will to his people. They are pompous impostors. And I was “standing at the exit door” when I searched for my first exjw YouTube.
Aude SAPERE I suggest adding an intro/background chapter with details found on JWN.
On JWN, JLE describes his ambition to create a cohesive community for all xJW's with him (at the time know as '(John)Cedars) as the lead. Then JLE completely botched the AAWA launch project with deception (ie: using an alias to form an actual, legal US corporation) and excessive control.
This is an excellent idea and pretty much an essential first chapter (I'd usually say it would be the intro but so many people skip them!)
I think it's important someone around at the time writes this part as it's extremely important to set the tone correctly.
Then JLE completely botched the AAWA launch project with deception (ie: using an alias to form an actual, legal US corporation) and excessive control.
This is quite instructional as to his level of young egotism and ambition. Not always a bad thing in moderation, when coupled with a lack of education and inability to accept constructive criticism it was always going to end in disaster, as was the case here.
Given the level of ability and the calibre of the folks willing support this endeavour, it's a real pity he wasted such promise.
I’m not much of a writer but I’d certainly be willing to proofread if that’s any help.
