Posts by OneEyedJoe

19

Never Allowed to be Myself

by NeverAllowestobeMyself in

so my handle has a typo, it is supposed to be never allowed to be myself but i'm okay with that because it is kind of symbolic of my situation.

as a born-in i have always had expectations forced on me, this is what you are to think, feel and do as a jehovah's witness.

my earliest memories involve being upset that i would die at armageddon because i was bad.

OneEyedJoe

As a child I learned quickly how to tell my parents, my friends parents, my friends, the elders, other members of the congregation, my teachers and eventually as an adult my co-workers, friends, children and spouse what they want to hear. It has become so ingrained in my personality that I do it subconsciously. So basically no one on this planet really knows who I am, what I think and how I truly feel about things.

Very well said. I'm sure many here can relate to this, I know I can. I'm starting to learn the joy that comes from being your genuine self and finding people that accept and appreciate you for it. It's so much better than any "friendship" I've ever had with JWs... If I'm honest it's brought me to tears a few times.

Wishing you the best of luck on your journey! You'll never look back!

43

The Modern Exodus: Perception or Reality?

by Hadriel in

i'm completely new at this however just in my joining this forum and of course interacting with others i can't help but notice what appears to be a significant exodus from the organization.. for those of you that have long been in this game have you seen this before?

i'm really curious and we should refrain from the sensational, but is what we're seeing different than in years past?.

it sure seems like so so many are waking and leaving.

OneEyedJoe

I felt the same way when I first joined the forum. I don't think what's happening could be accurately described as an exodus, more like a steady stream.

What I do think is significant, though, is the reasons people have been giving for showing up here in the past year or so. A lot of the folks that left a long time ago cite a lack of love or bully elders, etc as their reason for leaving. Before the only big doctrinal issues that seem to have woken up a good number were 607 and blood. There seems to have been a shift of late, though. People joining often cite a few common, org-wide, reasons for being here. It's the broadcasts and zone visits giving them a look at the true GB, it's overlapping generations, and ARC. These are no longer local issues waking people up, they're systemic. I think that will add up to a more consistent stream out of the org, and I think the people leaving for these reasons are more likely to research and wake up vs those that leave because a few elders wronged them and might be convinced to return.

16

The Watchtower Corporation gets to legally keep all the money and property assets, even if it does fail or reduce in numbers

by Finkelstein in

i think its vitally important to realized that the wts now has as of this year probably close to 2 billion in overall assets worldwide that it can live off for a very long time.

i get this gut feeling that the wts heads are positioning themselves and the organization in tentative survival mode for the long run.. so many cut backs, the selling off of many branches, the down sizing of much of its operations, are all tell tale hints that even the heads of this organization are preparing for the eventful devolving of this organization.

the wts gb leaders say that jah's chariot is moving along at a faster pace but in reflection of how this organization been conducting itself as of late, that wouldn't necessarily be the real truth of the matter.

OneEyedJoe

I'd be fine with it if they take the money and run. Above my desire to see these frauds thrown out on the street is my desire to see the end of the victimization of millions of people.

36

Estimating future growth or decline of Watchtower

by shepherdless in

i have seen a few posts here, in various guises, in relation to whether watchtower is in decline.

plenty of people respond, but it is all fairly anecdotal, or "gut feel".

some of it has been wishful thinking.. as of late 2015, watchtower's numbers suggest it is still growing marginally, but there are various anecdotes on this site of publishers typically being older, and younger ones disappearing.

OneEyedJoe

I haven't been in about a year, so I may be a little off, but I'd estimate the median age of my former congregation to be about 45. That may be a little conservative, though - it may be closer to 50. I think there's roughly 90-100 publishers assigned to the congregation with an average sunday attendance around 50-70. This is in the southern US.

I like this approach to estimating the decline. It will at least give us a reasonable estimate on the upper limit of how things will trend for the cult. I definitely agree that it will be a mostly slow decline with no mass exodus (unless something really big happens) and the decline will be mostly driven by the old ones dying off over the next decade or two. The problem, though, is that JWs aren't even keeping up with population growth rates so the decline will be more than what you'd estimate using normal models. To get more accurate you'd have to adjust the life expectancy figure to account for the young ones that leave, but that would be a tough thing to estimate.

12

What do ya think would happen?

by brandnew in

jw
friends

lets say..an assembly is arranged at a stadium for 30,000 jws to meet.

now lets say only about 1,000 jws show up.. do you think the show would go on?, or do you think it would be canceled because it would not generate enough money?.

OneEyedJoe

At that point most of the cost would already be committed to so they might as well get on with it. You can bet whoever failed to plan it properly would be getting demoted, though.

27

Unbelievable! Is this even allowed? Two elders from my hall RANDOMLY stopped by my apartment!

by macys in

jw
friends

ok wow.

i am really really pissed.

i had to really hold back and bite my tongue.

OneEyedJoe

I'm not sure why you keep acting surprised that this is "allowed." As far as I can tell the only time the elders are directed not to harass someone is if there's some legal aspect to it and they're trying to avoid liability or if someone's claimed that they'll commit suicide if the elders keep calling (which, I guess, really goes back to the legal liability thing). Since you're trying to get reinstated they're very likely to keep dropping by to see if they can get any dirt on you - they'll want to make sure that you're not still doing whatever you got DFed for, and they're not super likely to just take your word for it. Also, the memorial is coming up and lately it seems like the elders are being asked to call on DFed and inactive ones in preparation for the memorial/conventions/CO.

The unannounced call by 2 elders is the rule, not the exception. In most cases asking them to call before coming does not yield any results.

24

The official relationship between Jehovahs Witnessses and the Watchtower? I'm confused.

by Joliette in

jw
friends

can anybody answer this for me?.

whenever i tell people i'm ex jehovahs witnesses, they always assume that i'm against the jehovahs witnesses, but i am more so against the watchtower then anything.people assume that i'm anti-jehovahs witness, but now that i've done more research i've realized that its the watchtower thats more harmful then the jehovahs witnesses, even though theres a lot of jehovahs witnesses i dont like, i'm not against jehovahs witnesses as a group.. can anyone explain this to me?.

OneEyedJoe

I'd explain it like this: I'm not against the members of the people's temple, I'm against Jim Jones.

The JW conflation of god with the watchtower is seemingly pretty universal. I told my father that I could no longer conscientiously support the watchtower society in any way, and his immediate response was "we all have to prove to ourselves that Jehovah is real." I'd said nothing about Jehovah, but that was his immediate reaction. You're going to have trouble creating a distinction between the cult and their god in the mind of any JW, no matter what you say.

10

Worthy of imitation?

by stuckinarut2 in

the society says that ancient biblical characters (and their faith) are worthy of imitation right?.

so let's start a list of examples:.

- lot.

OneEyedJoe

They were just imperfect men! God knew their heart condition was good, thats why they didn't get punished!

Abraham - heard a voice telling him to kill his son, and actually took action in order to follow the instructions.

Elisha - asked god to kill a bunch of kids because they made a joke at his expense

83

if you had the slightest of doubt about leaving leaving the watchtower org. go to to jwsurvey.org NOW!

by nowwhat? in

and we are suposed to trust these guys with our lives?

!

OneEyedJoe

JW survey should submit their videos for consideration, then proudly declare that they've won the same award as the JW cult. No better way to demonstrate that they're phoney awards than by "winning" one and documenting the process that it took to get it.

31

A poll of sorts: How long have you been a "fader" for?

by SecretSlaveClass in

i'm curious about the following:.

1) how long have you been a fader for?.

2) how often do you still get pressure from congregation members and/or family to return as an active witness?.

OneEyedJoe

1) 1-2 years depending on how this counting.

2) I seem to get the ol' unannounced 2 elder visit every 6 months. Due to the dynamics of my family, I think it's pretty clear that I'd have no problem cutting them off, so they don't push too hard.

3) I don't know any other faders personally

4) I actually look forward to the prospect of being DFed. Only reason I haven't DAed is at the pleading of my still-in wife.

5) kinda hard to tell. I didn't have many cultist friends, but the ones I did have haven't completely cut me off so I guess I'm not being shunned. There might be some in the congregation that would shun me, but I never bump into them so I wouldn't know.

6) no. As stated earlier, I've only faded as a compromise for my wife.

7) I haven't done any cult activities for about a year

8) the cult still controls my wife, and thus has a good amount of power to make my life miserable.