OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  24

  Stalking people

  by Esmeralda001 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  have you ever been stalked/spied on by fellow jws?

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  OneEyedJoe

  Stalking on social media definitely happens all the time. In my experience this is mostly done by the women in the congregation (who invariably love to gossip - I'm not making a statement about women in general so much as JW women who are kept powerless and have little outlet for their natural desire for some feeling of control) and if they find something out they'll report it to their elder husband/father.
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  35

  What did being a JW teach you?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  these are some of the things the wbt$ 'taught' me:.

  dishonesty is fine if it's to trick people into joining the cult.. if your spouse stops believeing, the best thing you can do is break up the family.. the laws of the governing body overrule any other laws...or else!.

  my friends are conditional.. avoid loving people, they'll only let you down or get df'd.. unintelligent dumbos are better than intelligent ones if the dumbos are elders or above.. hate is better than love.. i am not good enough and god will probably enjoy killing me.. demons will appear in my room at night.. ignore practicallity if being practical or loving prevents the leaders getting money or praise.. god hates.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Things the cult taught me (that I didn't recognize the truth of until I left)

  • "worldly" people are mostly kind, loving people. I learned this time and again based on how I was treated by people who I bothered on their day off, and in hindsight I believe they mostly felt sorry for me.
  • The more you think you're impervious to having been fooled, the more likely it is that you're currently being fooled.
  • People need not have malicious intent to use effective propaganda techniques in order to trick you.
  • Smart people can be fooled too - don't trust what someone says just because they're intelligent if they can't explain it in a way that's logical.
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  13

  Has Watchtower financial strategy taken a very dark turn?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as shepherdless pointed out on another thread, the watchtower business model of using free labour to produce and sell books and magazines for profit started to break down when charging for the literature ended in 1990, and has now begun disintegrating completely in the face of the internet and declining donations.

  over this same period there has been a noted increase in hardline rhetoric on disfellowshipping and pushing early baptism.

  might these hardline trends actually be related to their money woes?

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  OneEyedJoe

  Hasn't getting the inheritance of older ones been part of their financial strategy for a while now? I think the increased rhetoric around child baptism is probably more because they've done some investigation (formal or informal) and noticed that the kids that leave or the families that leave often correlate to kids that didn't get baptized while they were young. Same thing goes for the hard-line stance on separating from DF/DA kids and family. They probably asked around about some people who'd left and found that those with family that left are more likely to leave too.

  The cult seems more reactionary than forward-looking. I guess that's what you'd expect if the leadership really believes their own BS about the nearness of armageddon. So while I don't think its overly cynical to think that part of their financial plan is to take the money/property of older ones when they die, I think you might be attributing a little too much forethought to the cult leaders.
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  26

  When does it end? My marriage is 90% great for the most part, except when it come to this cult

  by goingthruthemotions in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i know marriage is tough and it takes work on both parts.

  we have been together for 27 years.

  the last eight have been involved with this cult.

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  OneEyedJoe

  You and me both, buddy.
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  14

  Do Jehovah's Witnesses dedicate themselves to an organization or not? Which one is it?

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  anyone that is/was a dedicated jehovah's witness knows that the worship of the ''faithful and discreet slave'' is the only relationship we know.i don't remember having a personal relationship with jehovah without the governing body being in the way.they make all the rules on every matter.anyone who thinks that jehovah has any control on your daily matters is a fool.jehovah's witnesses only answer to an organization!.

  "we do not dedicate ourselves to a religion, nor to a man, nor to an organization.

  no, we dedicate ourselves to the supreme sovereign of the universe, our creator, jehovah god himself.

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  OneEyedJoe

  clearly that watchtower has some old light left in it.
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  39

  CO visit; going to meeting.

  by SG098 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hello everyone!just a little background info, i haven't been to a meeting in over a year.

  my wife has asked me to go with her tonight to help watch our son since it's the circuit overseers visit...my wife wants to be able to pay attention and get something out of the meeting since our son is 1yr old he can be a handful some times.. a few things of note about the situation:.

  - i'm going to the meeting no matter what.

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  OneEyedJoe

  "We missed you"

  "That's strange I haven't missed a meeting in the past year!"

  Yes! That reminds me of my favorite line to use while I was still going to some meetings. If someone noticed that I'd "missed" a few meetings, I would just quote the movie Office Space: "I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob."
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  23

  "Theocratic Warfare" still alive and well within Watchtower in 2016!

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems like the watchtower is still encouraging "theocratic warfare".

  in the no.1 watchtower of 2016, they (ironically) printed an article on honesty.here is something they said:"lyingwhat is it?

  saying something false to someone who is entitledto know the truth.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Should someone forward this to the Austrailian RC or are they done now? They did ask about theocratic warfare afterall, and this would be a great additional peice of evidence to demonstrate that it was very likely that the elders were lying constantly (though from their findings it seems that they'd already worked that out)
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  33

  Why do girls have a hymen?

  by JWchange in

  1. social
  2. family

  if you believe humans evolved, and were not created, why would having a hymen help, especially as no other mammal has one?

  if you believe humans were created by {a} god, or intelligent beings with advanced technology, what was the reason for a hymen?

  i'm interested to hear your thoughts on this unusual subject, not many people talk about..

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  OneEyedJoe

  Why the need to be condescending with people who wish to engage in a friendly discussion?

  As he said, in this day and age, ignorance is a choice. Ignorance is not something that deserves respect. It's one thing to be ignorant privately but to go proclaiming something as a reason to doubt evolution after doing absolutely no investigation (the lack of investigation is apparent because there is plenty of readily available information explaining why the differences in the sexes is in no way a problem for evolution) is inexcusable.

  Professor Cofty, where did the first living cell come from? How did it originate?
  

  This is one of the watchtower's favorite tricks - conflating abiogenesis and evolution. Evolution makes no claims about the origin of the first living cell (and if you'll look at Cofty's post, you'll see that he did not either). Again, though, if you'd bother to do a little investigation on your own you'd find that there are several different plausible explanations for this that are backed up by observable evidence. Certainly more convincing than the observable evidence for the claim "god did it."
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  44

  Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

  once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

  in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

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  OneEyedJoe

  The tattoo thing stood out to me too. Tattoo removal is still a relatively new process (when compared to the JW ban on tattoos) so I wonder if they're gearing up to make it mandatory in order to have privileges. Maybe something like shaving where the elders have the leeway to exempt people from the requirement in certain cases (health concerns, can't afford it, tattoos over entire body and only visible ones removed, etc) but by default the expectation would be to get them removed. I think this would actually be a good move for the cult. Requiring more investment from converts would make the cognitive dissonance more insurmountable should they come to have doubts in the future. It could also help shed some of the dead weight by getting rid of those that aren't sufficiently invested (and probably don't donate) so that congregations can be consolidated and liquidated more organically.
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  57

  Reasons for Stagnation in Growth. AKA YearBook Numbers!

  by ttdtt in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so why has the growth flatlined?

  why is less time spent in the ministry?

  why have aux pios droped by 1/3rd?.

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  OneEyedJoe

  1. Agreed - we've seen many new ones on the forum cite one broadcast or another as their final straw. This is definitely having, at best, a polarizing effect on the R/F.

  2. Probably not so much. For one thing the TMS getting eliminated happened after the end of the service year so it would have no impact on numbers. The elimination of bookstudy probably has had a small impact, but not because people are unhappy with the reduced emphasis on teaching, but more because there's less indoctrination and that will allow a few to break free.

  3. Agreed - When the cart witnessing was introduced I didn't know TTATT, but it struck me as very cult-like and seemed like busy work that would not be productive at all. This, along with the general apathy about being productive in the ministry, was difficult to reconcile with the idea that we're preaching to save lives and that its the most important work to be done.

  4. Not sure. I think a lot of JWs get caught up in the "easy time" that they get from just dropping off flyers and not having to talk to people as much that they don't realize how stupid the whole affair is. Maybe those who are seriously doubting already, but this doesn't seem like one of those things that would be someone's final straw.

  5. Not sure on this one either. I don't know that I would say that JWs have gotten any poorer in the last few years, so I don't think this really accounts for the stagnation/decline. If anything I've seen more and more JWs pursuing better jobs because, on some level, they're aware of the possibility that the cult could be wrong about the nearness of armageddon.

  6. Definitely. There's always new and more interesting things going on in the world and the "distractions" will only grow while the cult recruitment stays largely the same. Another aspect of the apathy, I think, is that the response from the ministry is dwindling to nothing. No one likes to feel like they're wasting their time, and when someone does feel that they are the typical response is to give up.