How Many Here Used To Sneak Looking At "apostate" Material?

minimus

I did! Even when I was in junior high School I would go to the library and look for anything that was about Charles Taze Russell or Millenial Dawn or Jehovah's Witnesses..... maybe I was an "apostate " in the making.

Londo111

When the internet happened, I accidently stumbled onto things and would quickly run away.

But I do remember as a kid in the library picking up a book...I don't remember what it was called. It opened with two siblings going door-to-door. One kid messed up and the sibling said something mean to them. I didn't' read further than that.

DesirousOfChange

When my doubts finally demanded research outside of the WT Library, I went to our friend, Google, but did my best to avoid "apostate" sites.

One area in which I think this board (and the posters) err is by going into an instant "attack mode" on new members who are still "on the fence" and are even WT apologists to some degree. It's a gradual transition. Attacking a person who is just doubting and starting to question things (and how have taken a HUGE step to stop here to read) is counterproductive (IMO). It only confirms what they've been told about "apostates" by WTS and it risks hindering their accepting TTATT.

minimus

Doc, you are right! Attacking JWs with doubts may not be the best thing to do. However, if a troll comes here and tries to stir up things, then I have no issue rebuking them. Still, there's usually no need to act out like a jerk just because we feel we know more than them.

skin

No way, that was the most wicked thing that I, as a JW could think about doing back then. It was WT's very own literature, and their rewriting of their own history that made me wake up. Main topic for me was what WT say today about what Charles Taze Russell wrote about 1914, vs what Charles Taze Russell really wrote in his books regarding 1914. It was after that, that I discovered that wicked evil apostates were telling the truth about what Charles Taze Russell really wrote in his books regarding 1914. And it is the WT that have rewritten their version of 1914 to suit their agenda.

pale.emperor

I stumbled upon this site from time to time. Only when i was feeling really annoyed about the bOrg though. Every time i went away feeling a heavy weight inside me. Not anger at the apostates but because they were speaking the truth and i couldnt refute a lot of the stuff i'd read.

Eventually i used to visit JWFacts in the KH on their WiFi! - this is while i was still a JW.

Eventually the seeds took root. Thanks guys.

Bungi Bill

I read WC Stevenson's 1975: Year of Doom? and WC Schnell's notorious 30 Years a Watchtower Slave before the term "apostate material" was ever bandied about - let alone put on the "forbidden list" by the WTS. Back then, I believed that as we definitely had "The Truth", then there was no harm done. After all, "The Truth" would stand up to anything, wouldn't it! (Particularly when stood up against the rather incoherent rantings of some disgruntled ex-member; which is how Schnell's work came across as).

Also, during my early years as a JW, the congregation's territory that I was in contained a large component of what are now known as "Alternative Lifestylers". This led to some very interesting conversations while engaged in the "Field Circus".

There were Hippies, Communists, Maoists, Stalinists, Trotskyites, Marxists, Red-Feds, Anarchists, "Born Agains" of various stripes (particularly of the more extreme variety), Draft Dodgers (perhaps even a few army deserters - the Vietnam war was still not over), Pacifists, Spiritualists, converts to the "Eastern Religions" (including Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims):

- all working as seasonal workers for the local fruitgrowers and tobacco farmers; with most of those being either staunchly Episcopalian or of one or other of the Brethren churches.

As far as I could see at the time, yet another person with some unconventional ideas (in this case, a former JW) couldn't be too harmful.

However, once my doubts began to grow, I did some serious but discreet research of my own - even though by that point it had become a definite "No-No"

waton

early one was given Schnell's 30 year wt slave, and ordered Penton's work ( including "plugilist club, members only" kh sign) ha ha, but all that did not have the impact to get me mentally out, that only later developments provided

Bungi Bill

waton,

Out of curiosity, after you had finished reading it, what were your impressions of 30 Years a Watchtower Slave?

LevelThePlayingField

For me, it was in 2004 when I first ventured out to any so called apostate site. I don't think there was jwfacts.com yet. I can't really remember what was there, but I remember reading about how Russel was saying vaccinations were nothing and will always be nothing. I thought What?!

At the time that was about it, I never made the connection between that material and what we can see today on the internet. It's strange really, I mean what the internet was in 2004 and now today, 13 years later in 2017.

How Many Here Used To Sneak Looking At "apostate" Material?

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