Posts by OneEyedJoe

72

Waking up - introduction

by Dreamerdude in

i am a male, born into the jw cult(ure), baptized as a teen, now mid fifties.

most of my life i dreamed of hugging pandas and lions, punctuated at times by nightmares of armageddon or jw drama and politics.

still going through the motions for still-in wife.

OneEyedJoe

You're on the right track... You're not alone. You may never wake up your wife (sorry for the pessimism) but I certainly hope you do.

My advice is to remember to take care of yourself. If things start to get too hard to fake it, just get out. Lead by example and hopefully your wife will follow. But don't sacrifice your health (physical or mental) because you think it might give you a slight edge in waking up your wife. In my case I think I would've had a better chance if I'd been up front when I first woke up. It's a crapshoot, so all you can do is try your best and make sure you take care of your needs.

Again, welcome. I wish you the best of luck in your journey!

3

Why is it downplayed that a woman was the first to seek wisdom?

by Watchtower-Free in

.

OneEyedJoe

It isn't, it's just reframed as the woman being responsible for all the evil in the world, and an example you mustn't follow. Kills two birds with one stone: discourage "independent thinking" while pushing a deeply misogynistic value system.

15

Higher Education - is it really the end of the WT?

by OutsiderLookingIn in

as a non-jw, before i started looking into things, i must say i only encountered intelligent jws.

so i was quite surprised to read here and in the pew report about their low overall educational achievement.

granted, my exposure was limited (less than a handful of people over a lifetime) but i met two of them in post-college education (graduate school) at a very good school.

OneEyedJoe

Cults rely on immersion. That's why the word cult often evokes an image of an isolated commune wherein members only leave to recruit or sell fruit or whatever to fund the cult. In reality, cults needn't be quite so completely immersive, but they still rely on heavy involvement of the members so that they don't have time to explore other ideas or ask questions. When completely immersed in the cult, it is also more threatening to question it. When it's your entire life, you're less likely to explore the possibility that it's false. If it's only a small piece of your life, you may be willing to examine it. College can give a fulfillment that has nothing to do with the cult and therefore lessens it's importance. It also teaches critical thinking, and exposes you to other cultures and ways of thinking. All this can lead to more introspection, which can lead to awakening.

It's a numbers game, though. You've met 2 JWs that have extended education yet remain JWs. That's called anecdotal evidence. The fact of the matter is that the more education someone has, the less religious they're likely to be. It won't destroy the faith of every one that goes to college, but a healthy percentage will leave. So regardless of the 2 examples you gave, the more JWs that get an education the fewer will remain JW.

34

Hello

by WITNESS-FOR-WATCHTOWER-REFORM in

jw
friends

just to say a big hello.

i have been reading this site for some time now and have been very unhappy with some of the things emanating from watchtower head quarters in new york.

the final straw for me is the upcoming watchtower study this weekend encouraging us to shun our own family members (our own mothers if need be) if they are disfellowshipped....a step too far for my liking.

OneEyedJoe

Welcome. I wish you the best of luck with your letter writing, but I suspect the best case result is that nothing happens. The WT corporation requires that you provide your name and congregation in any correspondence, otherwise that won't respond and, I suspect, won't bother reading it. This means that any sustained letter writing in which you are unrelentingly critical of any of their policies or doctrine is almost certainly going to result in your being disfellowshipped for apostasy.

I hope you win, and wish you the best of luck, but I fear this is too risky for you than it's worth.

17

Watchtower myth: God’s will discerned through committees, not individual leaders

by Londo111 in

be it the governing body, or the a judicial committee of the local elder body, when a two-thirds majority vote is reached, it is viewed as god’s will, as the action of holy spirit, of jesus nudging the stars in his right hand.

[and if i’m not mistaken, the minority is encouraged to change their vote, so that is “unanimous”.

anthony morris alluded to this when he unsuccessfully tried to explain why the governing body is not dogmatic.

OneEyedJoe

I wonder about the psychological dynamics of committee leadership from whence this feeling of awe is derived.

My guess is that it's similar to an ouija board in which no individual feels in any way responsible for the outcome, but all have a part in making it happen.

I never really understood how making decision by consensus was somehow proof of divine backing. Decisions are made by consensus in governments all the time, but the WT would always say that those are just men making the decisions. What's the difference?

28

NEW PEW Research data on Jehovah's Witnesses just released

by Balaamsass2 in

i was expecting people who "identified" as jws to follow watchtower beliefs more closely than these pollsters report.. .

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/26/a-closer-look-at-jehovahs-witnesses-living-in-the-u-s/.

OneEyedJoe

Steve, I totally get the numbers in a census will show more JWs than the cult's official numbers do. My point was that the survey seems to imply that there are more active members than the cult's numbers do, and by a wide margin. Either their's some inaccuracy in the sampling or people were lying when they said they regularly attend meetings. I don't see another option.

28

NEW PEW Research data on Jehovah's Witnesses just released

by Balaamsass2 in

i was expecting people who "identified" as jws to follow watchtower beliefs more closely than these pollsters report.. .

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/26/a-closer-look-at-jehovahs-witnesses-living-in-the-u-s/.

OneEyedJoe

These numbers don't add up...maybe someone can help me with this -

it says 0.8% of the US population is JW. That puts JWs at roughly 2.5 million members. Even if you assume that children are represented in disproportionately low numbers compared to the overall population (I'm assuming the survey was done of adults 18 and over, but I see no indication of this for sure) you still have 1.6 million adult JWs. If weekly meeting attendance is at 85%, you'd have to have 2.1 million JWs attending meetings weekly and 1.4 million adult JWs attending meetings weekly. Those numbers seem way too high considering the cult's official numbers are at 1.18 million publishers and I can't remember the last time I heard of a congregation having anything close to 100% attendance, let alone average attendance of 115-178% which is what would be necessary for these numbers to make sense.

My guess is that this survey isn't very accurate due to the small sample size. Either that or they got a good number of inactive JWs who were lying due to guilt over their poor meeting attendance.

11

Adam buried at the foot of Christ's cross. Are you kidding me.

by James Mixon in

i heard this on "the story of god".

his blood trickle down through the rocks into adam giving.

him life.

OneEyedJoe

Theists say the darnedest things.

15

a unique situation

by stuckinthemiddle in

jw
friends

i think i have a unique involvement with jws.

i'm not a baptized member.

my mother has been devout for over 20 years.

OneEyedJoe

It sounds like you're not in much risk of being taken in by this cult, but I would still recommend that you (and your partner) take a look at jwfacts.com to see what JWs won't tell you about the organization, and much of what JWs themselves aren't told about the organization. Things like the religion's history that are hidden from you as you are pushed towards conversion. It's not a healthy religion by a long shot. Please be careful.

37

San Diego abuse case: stay tuned. Zalkin's motion to be considered this Friday.

by Sugar Shane in

zalkin proposing huge sanctions if jw leadership fails to produce documents.

unredacted this time!

feds need to get involved with this.

OneEyedJoe

DD - you make a good point. There's a big cost for them that's hard to quantify - the damage done to their membership/donations if they do publish their enormous list of pedophiles. Up until now, I was thinking that their choice was between 1) causing a few enormous summary judgments (which will continue once lawyers realize all they have to do is subpoena their records and win) and 2) the possibility that publishing the documents increases the volume of abuse lawsuits when people see the size of the problem and are able to clearly see that the WT knew about their abuser before their abuse.

The drying up of funds should this story become widespread is almost certainly bigger than the other costs that they're accounting for. Especially since they are probably somewhat insured against the court costs but cannot be insured against evaporating membership/donations.