Posts by sparrowdown

33

Concerned Parent

by ConcernedParent in

jw
friends

i'm writing for some advice from former jws.

my family is christian, and my 15yo daughter is "dating" a jw boy.

(the quotes are because they aren't old enough to actually go out on dates... they consider themselves bf/gf and have hung out and gone places with each other, but always with parents, family, etc.

sparrowdown

Hi CP, you have good reason to be concerned.

Jehovah's Witnesses are a high control religion that interferes with every aspect of a member's life. They take the bible very literally and males are considered the "head" of the woman so if this boy's family are "strong" in the faith that's how their household would be structured. They refuse blood transfusion even in event of an emergency. They discourage strongly higher education and keeping company with anyone not a witness, who they refer to as "worldly". Dating at such a young age would be frowned upon but dating a "worldy" person a definite no-no.

Ask questions if you can and of course we can try to answer any specifics here.

Glad you have started researching as their website is total dishonest PR spin.

53

Fred Franz Former Training in Ancient Greek

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

has anyone been able to verify that fred franz received the minimal training in ancient greek that he claimed gave him the expertise to translate the bible?

you would think that would be fairly easy to verify or disprove in this day and age.

what college did he attend?

sparrowdown

I don't know if hearsay evidence of seeing someone at a museum qualifies as evidence of formal qualification.

Circumstantial, at best

88

Favourite female heroes in film ...

by LoveUniHateExams in

... well, obviously not rey (daisy ridley) from the latest star wars films.

she's a complete mary sue.

but, before hollywood tried to force sjw propaganda down our throats, there were lots of powerful, legit female characters in film.. here are some of my favourites .... ripley (sigourney weaver): i though this character was great.

sparrowdown

Agree with you about Ripley LUHE and she did it all by using her brain and figuring things out in minimum costume and make up for the whole movie. Many of todays "girl power yaaay" heroes kick ludicrous amounts of ass in high heels, and/or perfect hair and make up and zero sweat, brains and muscle mass!

As if!

15

JWTALK Bob Comes Up With A Classic

by AverageJoe1 in

the guy everyone loves to hate, bob, has come up with a classic:.

redefining the concept of "critical thinking" when it comes to jws.. he quite correctly states the need to use critical thinking when reading the bible, yet we all know that pimi jws don't have the first clue what "critical thinking" really means, especially on a thread fawning over how great the gb are and guessing who will be presenting the next jwb!.

the link to the actual comment is:.

sparrowdown

Jw's think critical thinking = bitchin bout the borg.

34

Dutch House of Representatives formally requests the government to start an investigation re. JW child abuse

by Anders Andersen in

today the dutch house of representatives unanimously voted to petition the government to start an investigation into jw child abuse issues.. the request from the house of reps. came after jw nl refused to listen to repeated and serious requests from the government to start an independent investigation themselves.. now it's up to the government to either accept the request by the house of reps. and start an investigation, or refuse to do so and explain to the house why.

it appears the minister of justice is not unwilling to start an investigation though.... collection of dutch news items here.

sparrowdown

Cue WT's standard response.

David Splaine with a whiteboard, a pointer and a list of the three D's of fighting child abuse accusations.

Deny

Discredit

Destroy

47

Why didn't I leave back then???

by silentbuddha in

sunday my old bethel roommate came up to visit me.

he left a couple years ago and he wanted to catch up and reminisce.. while we sat back remembering crazy things we saw take place at bethel he reminded me of a creepy instance with bro.

swingell.. it was a saturday morning and we decided to actually go get breakfast.

sparrowdown

I didn't realize kimonos were considered "drag".

The upstairs neighbour in Breakfast at Tiffany's wore one all the time and he was just racist not transvestite (lol, that's called a joke).

What it is evidence of is a toxic heirarchy and who not to criticize. Yes a red flag that all is not what it seems at the big house.

I have no sympathy for bethelites full stop, but surely just being there for any length of time would send anyone a bit "eccentric".

Though it sounds more like to me he figured he had earned the right to not give a f**k.

7

Scared Kids with cognitive dissonance

by Wakanda in

this is not about sexual child abuse, and i apologize if i put it under the wrong subject area.

stream of consciousness writing: .

i was just thinking about how before i became more of an uber dub in my teen years i was a very frightened child.

sparrowdown

Yes, for supposedly the most "safe loving" place to be, being a part of the congregation of JWs is a cold, frightening and very isolating experience. Being a "frightened child" probably had something to do with becoming an "uber dub" in your teens. I think many become uber in an effort to control the constant anxiety that comes with "not doing enough"

WT is the exact opposite of everything they claim to promote. Love, family bonds, safety, spriritual/emotional/psychological good health, true friendships, satisfying "work", knowledge and facts, truth and honesty.... you name it whatever they claim to have the opposite is what they are!

The authentic personality is subverted, broken away and "murdered" and replaced with the WT personality- quite diabolical really.

Good for you that you can see these causes and effects now.

23

Very little that is factual in the Bible?

by TerryWalstrom in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mryipltf3i.

sparrowdown

Now that I believe the bible to be writings put together in one handy go-to place for the purpose of political control and social engineering it feels weird to hear people talk about it literally. It's a non-argument really.

12

Something that really ticked me off about seeing the video of New Head Quarters of J.W.s (Warwick)

by StoneWall in

jw
friends

when i was a jw it was always emphasized that we should trust in jehovah completely.

jah will protect his people do not trust in man, throw your burdens upon jehovah etc.ok now if that's true wouldn't it mean that if jehovah was going to protect anywhere it should be his world head quarters right?.

we were told to not trust in ourselves (such as guns,walls for defense and protection) but to leave it in jehovah's hands and he would provide a means for escape etc.so as i'm watching some pro-wt vid's about the facilities in warwick i noticed something they didn't show on them or focus on and only reason i know about it was because of the w5 newscast as well as the vids the protesters shared.they conveniently leave out the parts of them putting walls/fences and gates as well as a "guard shack" at entrance instead of relying on jehovah to protect them.the guard house even has a "no trespassing" sign in the window.

sparrowdown

29

Watchtower Spies and Secret Agents

by TerryWalstrom in

i'm posting this link:http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/spies.htmlonce you start reading it you won't be able to stop.fascinating and well-documented citations which give credibility to the belief that such a sneaky, underhanded, and often illegal practice has been secretly promoted for decades by watchtower society world headquarters..

sparrowdown

JP - I agree with you "keystone cops" - indeed, clueless nitwits with delusions of real power. Useful idiots to the GB.