by Momofmany 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
JW leaders are sexually repressed, puritannical old white men. They live an ivory tower existence and are largely clueless about modern life.
The man who started the Watchtower movement - Charles Taze Russell, who's spirit still lingers in the organization - was a married man who, according to Barbara Grizzuti-Harrison in her book Visions of Glory: A History and Memoir of Jehovah's Witnesses, did not have sex with his own wife.
Celia,
I let my boys have a study so that they could know Jehovah. I knew I would never be right in God's eyes. So if they had their own study, at least they would live. I know it sounds weird, but please don't laugh.
Momofmany, it sounds like you were raised a witness, or had some contact. If so, then you are now realizing that the organization is NOT what it used to be, and never has been what it claims. Sadelder would tell you that the offending brother should get talked to; I would say that he should be sanctioned; REMOVED for breaching this subject with this young a person. I understand that it gets talked about at school by classmates, etc; I feel as you do, that this is for a parent, and certainly you should at least have been told.
Get your children out of their studies, especially in this book. Look at the book; in the chapter about sex abuse, it states that demons like to pick on young children. Is that what you want your children to learn?
I still go to meetings; but I have come to learn how toxic this faith really is. As for knowing Jehovah, I don't know what to say to that. I feel like the God I was taught as a youth is more the OT concept of a vengeful God than the divine qualities that Jesus reflected.
Why could you never be right in God's eyes? Have you committed murder, malfeasance and adultery, like David? Then you can be forgiven. Manasseh was forgiven by God; he did worse things.
I worry that the early information you got about God has formed your current feeling that you can't be forgiven. THAT is very much a witness viewpoint, but not one that squares with what Jesus taught.
If we are to forgive our brother seventy seven times, would God do any less?
Momofmany : What I don't understand is that you seem to know that the JW brand of religion is wrong in so many ways, so why would you let a salesman from the Watch Tower indoctrinate your own kids ?
I understand about wanting to teach them about God and Jesus and all the good things religion can bring into one's life. But why would you ask a JW to teach them these things ?
Go with them to an independent christian church and let them participate in the Bible study that takes place at the end of the Sunday service, or ask them to read a chapter of the New Testament every week, and talk with them about what they have learned....
God, woman, get them out of there before it's too late !
Pistoff,
I will try to keep this short, but no promise. :) My Mother became a witness when I was 15. She started taking me to the meetings when I was 14. I stopped going when I ws 18 and moved out. My father became ill, and I became a single parent. So I moved home, they watched the kids, and I worked. After my Dad passed, it was now just my mom, the kids, and myself. I started wondering about their life. Se we all started to go to the meetings with my mother. I know I can never be a witness. I know I cannot do what is required to be baptized. But I want my boys right in God's eyes. I stopped going to the meetings, and after their last study, I cancelled thier's. I guess after this, I really started to read some of the litature with a keener eye so to speak. And there was a lot of sex relations in it. Which took me for a loop. I never noticed it before. If they are God's mouth peice, does he really think about it that much? And I have one more question. I know it is not what this topic started as, but Why are they God's mouthpeice? Who chose them? Did God? Or is that just what every church says, and they have taking it farther?
(Hope I have made sense here. If not I will clarify anything that did not make sense)
Celia,
I never thought of them as salesmen. I just thought they were right and I was wrong. I did not agree with them on somethings, but I thought that I did not fully understand. You all at this board have been so insightful. I have learned much. I just don't know what to do with what I have learned.
Then I do fear, what if they are right, did I doom my chilren to death? But if they are the false profits, I have saved them. I am kinda stuck right now. Cannot go forward, can't go back. Stuck is the only word I have. Any advice is appreciated.
Momofmany,
Welcome! I could not agree more with Celia on this. If you want to teach your children about Jesus and God (Jehovah), there is better ways than allowing a Watchtower book rep. teach them. Ask the local Watchtower Sales rep why he needs to use that book. Tell him to use only the Bible and not any thing else and see how productive the "Bible Study" is. Ask him how can you have a Bible study, when the Bible is hardly used. Bottom line a true christian study does not need such books, that way the Bible speaks only for itself, and not what some man (men) think it says.
I grew up in that religion (if you can call it that) and all it does is lead to disfunctional adults that are worried about when Jehovah will come to distroy the world. This is three and a half years of recovery speaking. I could go on...
I want to give you something worth reading from somebody else who posts on this site. It is about how the Watchtower Society really works. Enjoy! It is about 20 pages long, but very much worth your time.
http://www.freeminds.org/bethel/dave.htm
In fact, the whole website is great, because it is run by an ex-bethelite.
Any advice is appreciated.
Read Crisis of Conscience by Raymond Franz. You can order it from www.freeminds.org or from www.amazon.com. Or get it from your local library, but they may not have the most current edition (it is now in the 4th edition).
