Posts by OneEyedJoe

32

Recent Update - Service Report

by Da.Furious in

on oct. 22, eight brothers were released from prison in turkmenistan by presidential amnesty.

(see 2014 yearbook, p. 31) the ninth brother is still imprisoned, but it is hoped that he will be released shortly.

some were already in prison for three or more years and had been severely mistreated.

OneEyedJoe

the area I am at the # of witnesses appears to be shrinking.

Same here.

When I was a kid (lived in the same area) there would be a congregation splitting every couple years, and constant complaints about how full the KHs where (in some cases there would be 7 congregations to a double auditorium KH while they waited for a new one to be built). There was apparently huge growth in the area all through the 90s and early 2000s. A lot of the growth was just due to the growth of the city in general, but there where probably 3-6 baptized in my congregation at every convention and 1-2 for every assembly. Now, I can't remember the last time we've had a congregation split. The KH that used to never have less than 6 congregations in it now has 4. There hasn't been anyone baptized in our congregation in years, and the last assembly with over 1000 in attendence saw 3 born-ins baptized.

They may be growing, but it's not here, and if they're growing in any developed coutries, it's not by more than 1% annually and poised to start declining.

59

My Relief

by Smart in

what a massive relief!

thank god i have just found this site the other day!

i don't know where to begin!

OneEyedJoe

It's interesting reading the experience of a more recent convert, as I was born into the cult myself. A lot of the stranger things (you need to wear a suit, you need to report your time, etc) just seem normal when it's been that way your entire life.

They love-bombed you until you were locked in (baptized) at which point they switch and just saddle you with as much "priveledge" as they can. I'd echo the sentiments of others here, if you have no family in the cult, just stop going. They only have power over you if you give it to them. Personally, if my wife wasn't so indoctrinated, I'd dissassociate myself just to shock the congregation...in your case, though, everyone would probably assume that you relapsed and were disfellowshiped and no one would think anything of it. Just stop going, and if any non-elders call, maybe share a little TTATT (the truth about the truth) with 'em.

It's so remarkable to me that everyone's journey out of the cult is so different. For me, it was entirely problems with the doctrine, but for others it's issues with pedophiles, injustice in the congregation, or the importance of status to having any social circle, or like you expressed, the clear lack of personal concern for you until they decide that they need to push you to "confess" something.

Be grateful that you saw the cult for what it was so quickly. Many get married to a JW, or employed by one, and end up trapped for the sake of those relationships. Regardless of that, though, it's definitely a mindf*** waking up to the reality of the cult. I encourage you to seek out your family and true friends outside of the cult and get their support ask you remove yourself. Humans are social beings and huge changes to our social structure can be tramatic, so be prepared. I wish you the best of luck with your exit and continued sobriety.

32

Recent Update - Service Report

by Da.Furious in

on oct. 22, eight brothers were released from prison in turkmenistan by presidential amnesty.

(see 2014 yearbook, p. 31) the ninth brother is still imprisoned, but it is hoped that he will be released shortly.

some were already in prison for three or more years and had been severely mistreated.

OneEyedJoe

I'm going to guess that in reality out of every 10 baptisms, perhaps 1 is a result of someone actually knocking on the door. All the others are kids, family, friends, co-workers or current witnesses.

I suspect you're pretty close. Of course any time there's a talk on informal witnessing (or whatever the hell they're calling it now...) they'll always end with "of course the door-to-door work will always remain our primary method blah blah blah"

It's pretty clear that the door-to-door work is just about keeping people busy.

18

their beliefs and practice's don't tally- tonights book study

by purrpurr in

tonights book study in part is about jesus throwing out the merchants and money lenders in the temple... how do they manage to tally that up with asking for funds for all their various projects?

it seems hardly a meeting goes by without some kind of money plea?

don't they realise that they are doing the same thing that jesus got so angry about and threw out of the temple?

OneEyedJoe

I'm ok with the money part as they can't force us to give. The part which got to me was paragraph 8 onwards about man-made rules

Particularly the part about how the religious leaders of the day demonized non-jews and encouraged predjudice against them. I was sitting there thinking "is anyone else hearing/reading this?" How is the frequent encouragement to limit your association with non-JWs (often followed with condemnation of their acceptance of homosexuality, casual dating, premarital sex, etc) any different from this?

59

My Relief

by Smart in

what a massive relief!

thank god i have just found this site the other day!

i don't know where to begin!

OneEyedJoe

Welcome! We'd all love to hear your story.

You've happened upon a great forum with a lot of different personalities, you're sure to find many here that you relate to (and probably more than a few you'll clash with, but that's OK)

Glad to have you!

24

Show this to the young ones in the congregation

by EdenOne in

hopefully it will make them think.. .

.

eden.

OneEyedJoe

It really pisses me off that the WT library starts at 1970 for awakes because of this quote.

44

Find What Your Social Status Was in the Congregation

by Mary in

jw
friends

ever notice how the "happiest people on earth" are also the most class-oriented?

the social structure in the congregation is more complex than the blueprints of a nuclear warhead, but just so that you "remember your place", see if you can find where your niche was/is:.

1. at the top of the social order of things within the congregation is of course, the presiding overseer and his family.

OneEyedJoe

I'm a 5/8 but my current goal is to work my way to a 7 .

5

No Heaven For God

by Coded Logic in

imagine, for a moment, that you are the christian god.

and you have been around since before time began.

what would it be like to never be able to learn anything .

OneEyedJoe

If such a being existed, i suspect that much of it's behavior would resemble that of a spoiled petulant child. I guess that would explain a fair portion of the OT.

36

Pope says Big bang and Evolution are correct !

by Phizzy in

from the u.k independent newspaper :.

" the theories of evolution and the big bang are real and god is not a magician with a magic wand, pope francis has declared.. speaking at the pontifical academy of sciences, the pope made comments which experts said put an end to the pseudo theories of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, benedict xvi.. francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator arguing instead that they require it.. when we read about creation in genesis, we run the risk of imagining god was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything.

but that is not so, francis said.. he added: he created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.. the big bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.. evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.. the catholic church has long had a reputation for being anti-science most famously when galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his heretic theory that the earth revolved around the sun.. but pope franciss comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of pope pius xii, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the big bang theory.

OneEyedJoe

All good questions theredeamer. I'd add: If evolution is real, in what sense could it be said that we were "made in god's image?" I don't know what typical christian doctrine is on this point but the JW assessment that we have essentially the same emotional traits (most notably, love) seems like a reasonable interpretation of this verse.

If evolution is true, we evolved from single-cellular life, which certainly could not be said to have been made in god's image. So, all traits that we possess that are a reflection of god would've come about through an unguided process.* What does that say about the one in whom's image we were supposedly made? That seems irreconcilable.

* if you want to assert that evolution was a guided process, you've got an uphill battle against all manner of things like male nipples, eyes that were origonally better suited for seeing underwater, the appendix, our broken vitamin C gene, etc, etc. There's too many "mistakes" in our makeup for it to be possible that our evolution was guided by some perfect, omniscient, omnibenevolent being.

36

Pope says Big bang and Evolution are correct !

by Phizzy in

from the u.k independent newspaper :.

" the theories of evolution and the big bang are real and god is not a magician with a magic wand, pope francis has declared.. speaking at the pontifical academy of sciences, the pope made comments which experts said put an end to the pseudo theories of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, benedict xvi.. francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator arguing instead that they require it.. when we read about creation in genesis, we run the risk of imagining god was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything.

but that is not so, francis said.. he added: he created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.. the big bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.. evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.. the catholic church has long had a reputation for being anti-science most famously when galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his heretic theory that the earth revolved around the sun.. but pope franciss comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of pope pius xii, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the big bang theory.

OneEyedJoe

Vidiot - you're right, there's no way they could change the stance on evolution without a major overhaul in doctrine. They could probably do it, but they'd definitely lose a few donating members in the process.

I remember a while back I hear a public talk about evolution. The entire thing was basically just an appeal to consequence - If you believe in evolution, then you can't possibly believe in christianity, therefore evolution is false. At the time I wasn't awake to TTATT, but I had sorta figured that evolution must be true (and everything the WTS printed on the topic was riddled with holes). The brother giving the talk was by far the most intelligent one in the congregation, so I got rather excited - part of me hoped he'd finally point to some irrefutable evidence contradicting evolution and I'd be able to shed the lingering doubts that I'd had for years. Needless to say things worked out a little differently.

Sure, creation and evolution aren't mutually exclusive, but it seems to me that the JWs have one thing right in that christianity without adam and eve essentially just becomes a nice feeling because your imaginary friend loves you and tells you there's life after death.

That said, I do like the current pope. The way things are going he'll soon be advocating for condoms and doggie-style.