so like the title suggests, i'm going to break up with my boyfriend today.
it's for several reasons, but mostly because i'm not prepared for a relationship.
i need to grow and learn what it's like to be me now that i'm not a jw and learn how to love myself so i don't make the person i am with miserable.
Build up a network of new friends.
Please keep your dignity and self respect. Remember that everything that makes you YOU, is not dependant on external things like a religion, but is dependant on your frame of mind, values, dignity, poise and self worth.
Yes, I would also recommend talking things through with a professional counsellor who specialises in helping those who leave high control groups. It is an investment that will help you greatly as time moves on.
Much support from us!
my brother isn't a witness but he was raised one like we all were.
after 15 years living his own life he decided about a year ago to have a bible study.
this being the case, as a non baptized witness he can still speak to me but he's getting a lot of pressure not to from elders and the rest of my family.
Well handled PE!
Yes, this religion IS NOT the same one we were all raised in...let alone our parents!
The changes are like the "frog in boiling water" illustration. They have happened so smoothly and slowly to those inside, that they don't even recognise the reality of changes!
Those of us who have jumped out of the water can easily see it boiling away!!
my brother isn't a witness but he was raised one like we all were.
after 15 years living his own life he decided about a year ago to have a bible study.
this being the case, as a non baptized witness he can still speak to me but he's getting a lot of pressure not to from elders and the rest of my family.
Oh dear.... He sounds like the perfect person the society targets.
PE, just be that kind, good , supportive brother he needs. Hopefully he won't get guilted back into the org.
The society is playing on his guilt, insecurities and life baggage....as one who is "sighing and groaning over the state of the world"
we all gossip.
it is only human.
watchtower actually tries to instruct adherents not to gossip and it can land a jw in front of a judicial committee—some do try to follow this admonition.
The way witnesses use the "tool" of gossip is no different to the way Satan supposedly spoke with Eve to plant seeds of doubt in her mind.
"is it really so...?"
They do just the same, by casually dropping comments about someone in just a way that causes doubt, reservation and in turn miss-trust amongst fellow witnesses...or ones who have faded....
wt 1973 p568.
"did you know, for example, that mothers and fathers that stroke the genitals of their fretful babies to keep them quiet are unwittingly encouraging them to become maturbators later on?".
what sick fu... writing this article thought the the average person did this to keep kids quiet..
Yes! In what world was that ever an acceptable practice??
The very notion is odd!
you found out about ttatt way back in the 70's or maybe the 80's (basically before the internet) and you thought that you were all alone in this knowledge?
what do you think would have happened to you?
no jehovahs-witness.com, no john cedars, no arc, no jwfacts.com and no crisis of conscience to fall back on.
Yes that's correct LevelThePlayingField!
If a person is "an honesthearted truth-seeker" and values honesty and facts rather than mistruths and propaganda, then it seems inevitable that they will find their way OUT of the society.
After all, didn't Jesus say "you will know the truth, and the TRUTH will set you free"!?
this idea was inspired by another post i saw (but forget who or where) referencing the mootness of delaying armageddon now that the 1914 generation is gone.
(i just skimmed over the post and thread, and didn't give it much thought until later).
wt doctrine basically says that jehovah, through his undeserved love, allows wickedness so that people can hear, and accept, the 'truth', thus being saved from the destruction of armageddon.
Yes, great thread!
If God REALLY cared about minimising suffering, then he should have started again after Adam and Eve!
That wold have saved Billions of people the agony of death....
OR, when the 'flood' happened!
That too gave the chance to start a fresh!...but in only one lifetime things went bad again??
It is almost like God likes waiting till there is a large number ready to be destroyed!
we all gossip.
it is only human.
watchtower actually tries to instruct adherents not to gossip and it can land a jw in front of a judicial committee—some do try to follow this admonition.
The gossip-mill is the most powerful tool in the hands of the society, both from a local congregation level, right up to the highest level of the society!
Elders use it strategically to ensure that people are spoken ill of, even if no judicial action can actually be taken!
so in an effort to relieve some pressure here are what i term the low-lites of yesterday's assembly that i had to endure for the sake of family still in and my progressing fade.
apologies in advance for being pretty long winded.. these may not all be the actual words used, but the ones i use are close, and they pretty well say what was said from the platform.. right off the bat in the opening prayer the praises of the governing body were spoken.
thanking the g.b.
I don't know how anyone can sit through that sort of stuff. The pure manipulation and propaganda is mind blowing.
Thanks for sharing the report, I take my hat off to you for being able to sit through it
had two lovely jws (stephen and ruth) visit this morning.
this was our second study in the last 2 weeks.
they first knocked on my door (bell is out) 3 weeks ago and i shared my testimony and we arranged to meet last tuesday which we did.. our first study went like this:.
So a simple question for them is:
If God has been directing the organisation through the F&DS class since the start of the society, then did God get so many things wrong, or is that proof that God was not directing their message??
They can't have it both ways!
