hi guys,.
following on from my earlier threat about huge amounts of money simply vanishing from my old congregations bank account with nothing to show for it (here: https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5742472565096448/satisfying-decline-my-old-congregations-donations) - i actually did take someones advice and requested the uk charity commission to investigate.
i was called today by a person who is not investigating this.
Atlantis normally posts all the BOE letters that come through - it's a lot to look through but this might get you started:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/users/15734/Atlantis/topics
Or you might contact him directly, he may have a way of finding it quicker.
another article analyzing how bad poor jw's have it when it comes to opposition from family.
few interesting quotes:.
parr 2:.
Great commentary, thank you. I'm so glad I don't have to sit through these anymore (it's been just over two years! how the time flies!)
"You can heal the pain from having a family member leave the religion by working harder for Watchtower and talking to yourself"
As usual - the cult creates the problem, then presents itself as the solution.
Also, I just love that these two quotes are in the same article. Lets just put them right next to each other and see what it looks like:
But the greatest threat to our peace may come from unbelieving relatives. Some might [...] threaten to disown us unless we give up our faith.
Despite our pain of heart, we must avoid normal contact with a disfellowshipped family member by telephone, text messages, letters, e-mails, or social media.
I don't think anything further needs to be said about that...
my brother got married to a woman who was wild and selfish.
so for those who think i am just biased let me tell you the story.
he married her and about a year later she got pregnant.
It sounds like he's cut ties with you, so I'm not sure what you're even asking for. It further sounds like he's in an abusive relationship, so abandoning him now is the worst thing you can possibly do for him. If you want the best for him, then helping him to build up his own self confidence and see that there's more to life than her is probably your best bet - if you're making an accurate representation of the situation, then he'll eventually realize that he would be better off without her and that she is not irreplaceable. That said you also have to look out for your own interests too, and it may not be worth it to you to have him in your life. That's for you to work out.
absolutely thrilled to give you the news that my younger brother, a zealous full-time pioneer has left the witnesses!!.
i haven't seen or spoke to him in a year.
i'd lost all contact with him, no facebook, no mobile number, i didn't even know his address because he'd moved house.
This is great news. Sounds like it's time to try to educate him a little on cult control and stuff like jwfacts. Right now where he is, he's just a personal tragedy and some big world event away from being driven back in.
some of the videos on youtube really make the beard policy look ridiculous.
i wondered what would happen if the jw beard policy caused someone to stumble?
jesus most likely wore a beard, and charles taze russell had a beard.
The org gets a free pass and doesn't have to meet its own rules. If someone is stumbled by the org going beyond what is written, then that's their fault for lacking humility and not waiting on Jehovah. The individual is always to blame, never the cult.
some congregations were known as liberal and others were considered very conservative.
back in the 1970s a nearby congregation made all speakers who gave public talks a white shirt to wear.
if a speaker came in wearing anything but white they were brought into the library and were given a white shirt!
Not my congregation but one in the area gave a local needs talk about the twilight movies. Apparently those were not ok if you were in that congregation.
One CO came through my grandparent's city in west texas and tried to ban cowboy boots from the stage. That didn't go over well.
choose freedom, choose happiness.
after finally leaving, it can be tempting to “hibernate”.
we attempt to turn the page, “move on” and create a new life for ourselves.
I chose freedom in the form of not believing the dubious truth claims of those who lack any corroborative evidence.
just curious how we all think.. what prompted or influenced your choice of username for this forum?.
there are some really amazing names, and it would be great to hear the stories behind them.... mine was nothing fancy.
i just felt "stuck in a rut too" along with so many others.
Mine was chosen essentially randomly and has no relevance to me whatsoever. When I signed up I was pretty paranoid about being found out and subjected to the kangaroo court.
jws and other christians would often point to the handful of the bible verses that seem to be scientifically accurate as evidence of its divine inspiration.
but not surprisingly, they ignore the ones that are scientifically inaccurate, or when they address those verses they put a spin on it like saying the account is not a reflection of what the bible is teaching but what men at the time erroneously believed and which god allowed them to record in the bible.
would you believe a jw actually told me that!
If the bible records an account of someone doing something that we know to be an effective method at achieving some result and they get said desired result then it is evidence of the bible's scientific validity.
If the bible records an account of someone doing something known to be ineffective at achieving some result and they get it anyway (i.e. Jesus rubbing spit in the eyes of a blind person) then it's a miracle and is evidence of the existence of god and that the bible is the word of god.
If the bible makes a statement of fact that we know to be scientifically accurate (or, through some mental gymnastics, like the "circle of the earth" bit, can be made to seem scientifically accurate) then it is evidence of the bible's scientific validity and divine inspiration.
If the bible makes a statement of fact that we now know to be false then it was merely figurative language, metaphor or use of popular ideas of the day to make a point and is in no way evidence of the bible being scientifically invalid.
one of the most frustrating things.
when you confront jw's about what they believe they will often deny it.
such as "if your child is disfellowshipped then you can't have contact with them ever again".
It depends a little on the circumstances, but all cults will do this to some extent - there's a separation between outsider and insider doctrine, justified by only giving spiritual babes milk and saving solid food for when they've grown. So if confronted by someone at the door about something about something uncomfortable they'll say it's not true. They'll usually rationalize this by telling themselves about some loophole (i.e. the necessary family business stuff or how family members can talk to minor disfellowshipped children that still live with them) and because the uncomfortable truth they're facing down isn't completely absolute, they'll deny it's truth.
In other cases, they've come up with their own rationalization for the doctrine that allows them to see themselves as a decent person while still believing the doctrine. They then use that rationalization similar to the above.
Lastly they're often ignorant of the doctrine. Meetings and literature are boring so many will educate themselves to have a basic framework and then they fill in the gaps using some flavor of logic and a few axioms (i.e. love, justice, etc). That can obviously lead to places where their beliefs will differ significantly from official doctrine, and the places where those differences occur are likely to be the areas they're going to get challenged on.
