Posts by OneEyedJoe

8

How known child abusers are dealt with in other organizations.

by JWdaughter in

i was recently reading of the dunblane school massacres (scotland) and the perpetrator was one who was 'suspected' of child abuse.

he was reported to police and after the revelations that the scout organization knew of him, he was "blacklisted".

later, in another area, he tried to become a leader again-and his blacklisting held and he was not allowed.. anyway, the guy was a creep and eventually a murderer.

OneEyedJoe

At one point, the WTS semi-publicly stated that sex offenders could not hold positions of authority/responsibility in JW congregations.

Recently, however, that restriction has been loosened to allow "former" offenders to serve if their past misdeeds are on the down-low.

This is another big reason they're culpable for the abuse to children by elders/MS or anyone with priveledges in the congregation that's a known pedophile. Right up until I educated myself on their real policies in the secret elder's book, I completely believed that known child molesters weren't allowed to have priveledges. I would be shocked if this wasn't the belief that most in the congregation have (as you say, it was publicly stated as such not too long ago). This means that, having secretly changed the rule, when they so much as have a pedophile carry the microphones on one sunday, it is viewed by the R/F as an endorsement for him to babysit your kids.

18

Jehovah's Witnesses are NOT a Cult......so they say.

by Tenacious in

trying to develop a good strategy for relatives still partially indoctrinated by this despicable inhumane cult.

i researched their own material and i found some good info on how they don't mind control anyone.

the following unedited information was sourced from their february 15, 1994 watchtower p. 5-7. i've highlighted some sentences that we all know are lies and a distortion of the reality of their community:.

OneEyedJoe

I like Breakfast of Champions method of introducing the idea of JWism as a cult. In his thread, he detailed how he took Steve Hassan's detailed BITE model list and replaced "cult" with "group" and showed it to his wife as a list from someone who had never heard of JWs (which, at the time of his writing the list, was the case for Hassan).

Also, it's fun to compare the JW, mormon, scientologist, etc websites. They always have a FAQ entry for "are you a cult" or something similar. They always like to redefine what a cult is in their own terms. You'll never find a reference to the BITE model in there, it's always about how long the religion has been around, how many members it has, whatever.

7

Not on JW.ORG: Wall Street Journal : Can unhappy Jehovah's Witnesses demand return of donations to Watchtower Bible and Tract Society? Some thoughts.

by Balaamsass2 in

menu

markets dan's journal

live help

OneEyedJoe

I've never donated much and now my thinking is I'll take some if I can.

I'm with ya. I probably put in somewhere around $1-2K, which i suspect is on the low side considering my employment and how long I've been in. I'd love to have it back, but I always prefered to donate cash because even while I was in I didn't like the possibility that someone might be tracking my donations. That being the case, there's no way to request it back.

Also, I suspect that if you tried to give a donation with a bunch of contingencies like those specified, the WTS would probably say "no thanks" hoping you'd just give it to them anyway, like a good JW. If they did take it, you can bet they'd fight giving a refund. If i remember correctly there have been a few cases documented on here where people gave money on contingency that they could get it back if needed but got a fight when they wanted it back (or got heavy pressure to convert it to an outright donation)

In any event, I've taken to getting my money back by trashing 30-40 magazines every month, depending on how many meetings I make it to. I wonder how long it will take for them to recognize a disparity between magazines ordered and placements reported.

13

Jehovah witness just like the ISIS...only they can't kill..but they do torture

by goingthruthemotions in

both the jw cult religion and the isis religion are both the same.

both extremist for there gods...the jw 's sheeple worship the watchtower.

the isis god is allah, but they seem to worship/kill for muhammad.. .

OneEyedJoe

You're wrong on one detail - they do kill. The difference is that JWs mostly kill innocent members for the crime of needing a blood transfusion. Based on that, I'd argue that ISIS is a little more rational, as they only (or at least mostly) kill appostates and non-members.

I'm right there with you on that last bit, though. I really wish I never gotten baptized into this murderous cult mascarading as a religion.

63

After Six Months of Hiatus, I can tell you the Watchtower is Starting to Crumble Faster than you think!

by SanLuisObispoTruthSeeker in

i took a hiatus from jwn because the wall started to collapse because i lost several people ive known almost my entire life.

these were people i thought would never die, the lies told by the watchtower is unforgivable!

there was a party i attended keeping a low profile while documenting what was said.

OneEyedJoe

This stuff with the sex-abuse suits certainly seems new and momentus to me...but I haven't been in the exJW community very long. It also seems unlikely that they'll get to the supreme court with it, since there's some pretty good precedent set by the catholics, and it doesn't look good for the WTS.

That said, things always seem more exciting when you're living it right now - that's why there's end-times cults like the JWs in the first place. I'd really love to have the cult collapse around me so I don't have to worry about getting my wife out, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.

34

Whose KH has the Blue Square jw.org on it?

by blondie in

jw
friends

i have been looking and finally saw the logo on the kh sign............. .

.

OneEyedJoe

Just put it on at ours this week. Also has the tacky blue sign on top of a brick sign similar to blondie's pic.

63

After Six Months of Hiatus, I can tell you the Watchtower is Starting to Crumble Faster than you think!

by SanLuisObispoTruthSeeker in

i took a hiatus from jwn because the wall started to collapse because i lost several people ive known almost my entire life.

these were people i thought would never die, the lies told by the watchtower is unforgivable!

there was a party i attended keeping a low profile while documenting what was said.

OneEyedJoe

sloppyjoe -

I totally agree that there's certainly a bit of wishful thinking and confirmation bias going on here, but I'm not aware of any previous financial threat to the cult that could potentially reach past the Billion dollar mark. This is, afterall, a business we're dealing with, and a great financial threat like they've got in the pipeline with all the child abuse cases could well be the thing that makes a measurable blow to the cult. It certianly won't disappear, but if the persecution comes and is focused solely on the JWs, and not on the other religions of the world first, that's gotta cause some doubts in the minds of any who have been paying attention to the cult's end-times script.

63

After Six Months of Hiatus, I can tell you the Watchtower is Starting to Crumble Faster than you think!

by SanLuisObispoTruthSeeker in

i took a hiatus from jwn because the wall started to collapse because i lost several people ive known almost my entire life.

these were people i thought would never die, the lies told by the watchtower is unforgivable!

there was a party i attended keeping a low profile while documenting what was said.

OneEyedJoe

The WTS has the money now to pay off law suits out of court and hush the incident from the publics eye as well the body of JWS.

Certainly if these law suits were to occur back in the 1960's or70's, they would have produced some major damage to the organization.

....... but this is not the 1960's

How much money do they have laying around? The last case out of california left them $13.5 Million poorer. It only takes 75 such settlemenets to be over a billion in damages. Obviously they can start selling more KHs and make more money grabs on the members, but the more they do that the more JWs will be left asking questions. Also I wouldn't be surprised if the money-grabs increased well before they actually get close to running out of money. Either due to greed/arrogance of not wanting to use their slush-fund up paying for pedophiles or inorder to prepare for the expected future suits.

Considering that some of these cases are going as far back as the 80's and they still haven't changed the policies that are getting them in trouble, they've potentially got 30 years or more worth of lawsuits in the queue. Now they're stuck in a tough situation - change the rules and be seen capitulating to 'satan's viscious attacks' or they can take a hard line and keep getting sued. Changing the policy might even be seen as an admission of guilt and cause a short-term upswing in judgements against the cult (I'm no lawyer, so I'm pretty much talking out my ass on that one).

I will say I don't see this cult disappearing anytime soon, but their decline is only going to accelerate from here, quite possibly in a dramatic way.

1

Bill Burr on religion

by OneEyedJoe in

i watched bill burr's netflix comedy special "i'm sorry you feel that way" a couple days ago, and something reminded me of it so i thought is post it here as i think many here will enjoy it.. the whole thing is hilarious, but in one segment he did a bit on religion and how he "just let it go" one day.

he touches on the fact that tall other religions (he gives the example of scientology) seem insane to you, but yours makes perfect sense because it was put into you from an early age when you had no critical thinking.

all the while he makes no effort to force anything on the audience - everything is presented in a non-threatening "here's what i did" sort of way.. i have to give comedians some credit for my atheism - comedy is a great way to get people to challenge their beliefs while bypassing the usual defense mechanisms.

OneEyedJoe

I watched Bill Burr's Netflix comedy special "I'm sorry you feel that way" a couple days ago, and something reminded me of it so I thought is post it here as I think many here will enjoy it.

The whole thing is hilarious, but in one segment he did a bit on religion and how he "just let it go" one day. He touches on the fact that tall other religions (he gives the example of Scientology) seem insane to you, but yours makes perfect sense because it was put into you from an early age when you had no critical thinking. All the while he makes no effort to force anything on the audience - everything is presented in a non-threatening "here's what I did" sort of way.

I have to give comedians some credit for my atheism - comedy is a great way to get people to challenge their beliefs while bypassing the usual defense mechanisms. I saw Bill Burr do some of his bit on religion a while back on some late night show and my wife made the comment that he was funny but she didn't like the part on religion. So as I was watching this with the wife I made sure to laugh heartily when he made fun of Christianity - she was clearly uncomfortable during the whole bit.

Anyways I just thought I'd share in case anyone is looking for something to watch, and especially for those trying to get their spouses to think critically. Plus he's one of my favorite comedians - hopefully he'll do a show within 100 miles of me at some point so i can see him live.

45

About the ten plagues in Egypt

by runForever in

alot of people are saying god is cruel for killing the firstborns and animals and people in the ten plagues.

but didn't god achieve his goal of making nations and people be in fear of him?.

OneEyedJoe

Cold steel - you have no more evidence that moses existed than I have that the hardy boys exist. There's also zero evidence of a single massive exodus from Egypt as is claimed in the Bible.

That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.