Born in but never baptised, so I wasn't eligible for shunning.
I was in Redcliffe in the late sixties, but was on my way out and didn't hang out with the 'In crowd' and don't have any fond memories of that congregation or it's members.
hi friend`s ,i just had to share my experience ,and surely there must be others on this board who had similar experiences that i had.. i was a jw for 37 years ,been out for about 20 years or so .however we as a family never had the problems that so many of you seem to have had .. none of our, my wife and i , immediate families have ever been jw`s.. i converted when i was about 20 years old in about 1960 and as i say remained in converted my wife and brought up two sons in the "truth" for about 37 years .. my 1st and 2nd congregations i attended in melbourne aust.
were very conservative and not very wholesome looking back.. however moving interstate to s.e.queensland in redcliffe was a whole new experience.. it was far more liberal and relaxed.. i befriend a couple of elders and ms `s who enjoyed an ale or two which was right up my alley.. and we went on camping expeditions on both fraser and moreton islands ,both just off the coast of brisbane.. i was a ms for many years there never pioneered or served where the need was great and always had steady employment in the world which probably kept my head above the clouds so to speak.. none of my family ,wife two boys and their wives are jw`s ,we have all left many years ago.. anybody else had negative effects of being a witness for many years ?.
Born in but never baptised, so I wasn't eligible for shunning.
I was in Redcliffe in the late sixties, but was on my way out and didn't hang out with the 'In crowd' and don't have any fond memories of that congregation or it's members.
psalm 110:1 (niv) “the lord says to my lord: “sit at my right hand until i make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”” .
psalm 110:1 (trv) “the lord god almighty says to a third of himself: “sit at my/our right hands until i make our/your enemies a footstool for our/your feet.”” (but don't tell the other third) .
My parents used to bash the Trinity without ever knowing what the doctrine actually taught. They even convinced a few, (emphasis on 'few'), Catholics to join their church using the Watchtowers explanation of how the Trinity didn't make sense. If their converts had understood the definition in the Catholic Encyclopedia, they would have seen through the WT subterfuge that my parents had fallen for. If my parents had been properly taught what the doctrine was and how it was arrived at by their parents and grandparents and Sunday School teachers, they wouldn't have fallen for the WT scam either.
I'm not saying that the Catholic doctrine is correct, (I'm an atheist), but I do know how to debate their official doctrine with a JW.
a previous thread has inspired me to post this ,thanks guys .. { i`ve been out for so long i may have missed something }.
Have a read of The Paganism in Our Christianity by Arthur Weigall, a book quoted by the Watchtower.
as 1975 was approaching, many witnesses sold their property.
do you know about specific cases that are willing to share their experience of doing so?.
I was made to sit and listen to a recording of that talk. Taped copies of it did the rounds of New Zealand congregations,
I stopped frequenting my parent's church soon after 1975. The Elders didn't bother to question me about my absence.
as 1975 was approaching, many witnesses sold their property.
do you know about specific cases that are willing to share their experience of doing so?.
I know two families who sold up and lived in buses so that they could tour New Zealand and participate in the final push before Armageddon. They would have all worn the Conquer the World badge at that assembly, as I would have. The last of one couple had their funeral a few weeks ago. The other couple still live in a bus.
I knew people that bought a lot of expensive stuff on the 'never never' because Armageddon was to arrive before they had to pay it off. I could name them, but it's probably not ok. The ones who are still alive know who they are.
i recently married my best friend of 32 years.
she is a life-long jw and once an active pioneer, i am a 'worldly' person through-and-through, always will be.
we married because it was the only way we could find a way of staying together while giving her a path back to her religion ultimately, which she does not want to (or cannot) let go of.
You should have asked these questions before you tied the knot. I can offer you my sympathy, but that's all I have.for you.
I hope you get some more optimistic replies.
15 years ago there were 5 congregations now there is only one and it is still struggling.
congregations closing their doors doesn’t mean business is good.
it looks like this last one to fold had no young witnesses, they either left the religion or moved.
I'm sure the local congregation must be growing, lots of imports coming here to retire or to look after their aged parents. Door knocking restarted not long ago, no kids being dragged along by parents that I've seen, the youngest door knockers would have been in their early forties.
an avid wts supporter writes:.
re: vaccinations: vaccinations have never been banned.
if they were, then no representative of the wts would have been allowed to travel overseas when vaccines were compulsory around 1920 when vaccines was regularly in the news, there was both positive and negative information printed in the golden age (forerunner of the awake) but not from the staff writers, but from out side sources of article by medical doctors at the time and others that responded to those articles.. re: organ transplants: organ transplants were never forbidden by the society.
From my memory, in the early sixties, even though vaccination had already been OK'd, my father wrote to Org to get permission to get us vaccinated against smallpox before we went to a JW free location where the 'need was great'.
The need wasn't great at all, but he got the OK from the bOrg and the place he went to got infected with JW doctrine. Many of the people that he convinced would be preserved through Armageddon and make it into Paradise with all of the wonderful benefits that would come with being the 'other Sheep' are already dead. So is he.
for a bit of back ground.
i’m a full blown pomo apostate.
nothing would please me more to see wt burn to the ground.
You can't sow seeds of doubt while they think that you are Satan's Minion, so don't give them a reason to think that.
i saw a post pop up on some click bait where serena williams saying she was praying for armageddon to come and that the jws have said we are living in critical times hard to deal with.this was her response to the texas school shooting.
another cult catch phrase.
i am sorry williams you aint no jw.
She is no more a JW than I am. She chose not to get baptized into her parent's religion, so you can't expect her to live up to JW rules and expectations any more than you could expect any other unbaptized born-in to, even if she does display psychological damage from her JW upbringing.