Posts by OneEyedJoe

85

Mormons getting hollowed out: The tipping point has occurred.

by Qcmbr in

ever since mitt romney turned the spotlight on the lds church a growing tsunami of disaffection has been accelerated and brought to a head.. the lds core faithful members are leaving in increasing numbers such that growth has not simply stagnated in the west but it has actively reversed.

to their credit the church is responding aggressively but not only is it too late, it is an impossible task.

you can only paint sh*t so many ways.

OneEyedJoe

I suspect the shunning mandate is the major difference. The Mormons were smug enough to actually think they were right and wouldn't need any further shackles. Now with the latest church admissions on hot topics the core members are either hunkering down into extra committment mode or leaving.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking... I know mormons do occasionally shun those who leave, but I thought it was more them being super self righteous, not something they did to avoid being shunned themselves, like it is with the JWs.

Mormons also encourage higher education. In the past that probably didn't hurt them too much, but as the world gets more and more secular that's going to cause problems.

127

I'm sitting here listening to a JW try to recruit somebody

by Terry in

jw
friends

i'm at starbucks .

just outside in the courtyard.. i'm trembling.

my hands are shaking.. wow!.

OneEyedJoe

Well done. You should suggest that he sign up here, I'm sure he'd get a warm welcome and lots of advice and empathy on dealing with his awakening and the resulting family issues.

102

Should I attend Kingdom Hall meetings to discreetly "preach"?

by CrytoJesus in

jw
friends

christians, should i attend kingdom hall meetings to discreetly "preach" to jws about the real jesus and the lies of the watchtower?.

.

i plan to go undercover and plant seeds into them.. .

OneEyedJoe

whatever floats yer boat. i can't imagine it'd be worth sitting through a meeting to get ignored before and afterwards. JWs don't tolerate being preached to (hypocrites). The only way you might wake someone up is by asking questions that they have no answer for. Most likely, though, they'd just try to breeze past the difficult questions and force you to topics they want to talk about with their cherry picked scriptures. If you keep pressing your unanswerable questions, they'll just abandon any hope of converting you since you "don't have the right heart condition."

24

As a JW Did You Often Feel "Guilty" About Something?

by minimus in

jw
friends

if muslim is supposed to be the religion of peace, jehovah's witnesses has to be the religion of guilt..

OneEyedJoe

At one point I realized there was no use in feeling guilty if I wasn't going to change my behavior so I just stopped caring.

My wife, though, is driven by her guilt. She hates going to meetings (except gossiping afterwards) and hates going out recruiting, but she is faced with uncontrollable guilt if she doesn't go. I wish I knew how to get her past that so she could get some time away and deprogram a bit.

9

Life On Mars?

by metatron in

jw
friends

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-finds-evidence-of-life-on-mars-9929510.html.

perhaps life in mars would be more accurate.

also, recent study of martian meteorites have yielded organic material.. .

OneEyedJoe

At this point data is showing signs of water and methane on Mars. Imagine if fossils of advanced lifeforms (i.e. animals) were found on Mars. I wonder how the Watchtower would try to spin an explaination around that.

They'd just ignore it like they do all the fossil evidence right here at home. At best, they'd misquote some scientists and quote some fellow creationists to "disprove" the findings.

16

Are Jehovah's Witnesses A Cult?

by What Now? in

i came across a great quote.... the distinction between cult and religion lies squarely in how those leaving or those wanting to leave are treated.. hits the nail on the head for me!.

.

OneEyedJoe

Spectre - I can relate to that 100%!

5

The Christmas fence

by Tech49 in

jw
friends

so i noticed something the other day on facebook.. a group of "sisters" in several neighboring congregations got their young daughters together for a "girls day", to spend some quality time together.

now this group, of whom i know many, is composed mainly of elders' and ministerial servants' wives.

the general theme, or focus of the "party" was to build gingerbread houses with the kids.. ok, no big deal right?

OneEyedJoe

What's worse is that they're doubly hypcrites, since hypocrisy is probably the number 1 thing that JWs cite on the topic of what's wrong with other religions.

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.