Wow. Congratulations on saving a life - that's a privilege that most won't get to experience, even if it was rather thankless in your case. Well done.
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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46
JWs nearly killed my mother
by cookiemaster inthe past week has been hell for me.
my mother started feeling ill and we went to seek medical assistance.
we live in the mountains and the nearest large hospital is about 150 kms away.
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Starting to get grilled by parents
by Anonymous17 inso my parents had a meeting with me to talk about me not progressing spiritualy as i should be.
i felt like i was being interrogated in a nice way.
they want to know who i talk to and if my association at work good.
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OneEyedJoe
It's tough to be put in that sort of a situation. At least you're in a position to understand what's going on and know that they really do care for you and are trying to do the right thing even if they're completely wrong about what that is. They may be using emotionally manipulative tactics, but you can focus on the fact that they do care for you in spite of their being misguided.
One other thing that you might be able to tell them with complete honesty is "The truth has never been more important to me than it is now." Obviously they'll hear something different, replacing "the truth" with "the watchtower society" but it's their fault for making up their own definitions of words. A little theocratic warfare, if you will.
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Having One Of Those "Pondering Disassociation" Days :(
by freemindfade inthere are a lot of things that make me have days like this, the utter embarrassment of being are part of a cult that protects child abusers, that enforces emotional brutality through shunning, and that lies constantly.
the lying i can tolerate, the world is built on bullshit, i have a high lie tolerance.
i can ignore it if it has no effect on me etc.
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OneEyedJoe
As for the #3 reason not to do it - I suspect that it would be a wash. There might be a few on the verge of waking up that wouldn't feel they could talk to you after you DA, but there would probably be a few that feel they can talk to you, precisely because you had DA'd and no one would find out that they'd expressed their doubts to you. For someone who's doubting, it's a risk to talk to anyone who's still in on paper, even if they're inactive. I guess it might not be fully the case since you seem to have been somewhat vocal about your issues with the cult, but even so when people start to wake up they're really paranoid a lot of the time.
Also, for your #1 reason to DA - that one doesn't bother me because you're only a JW on their paper. I don't care if they think I'm a JW on paper, with their track record if they put it on paper it can be taken as convincing evidence that it's not true. As long as no one tries to list me as a JW at a hospital or something like that, I don't care.
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Bible teach book does not mentioned shunning
by poopie inor disfelowshipping si the bible does not teach it.
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OneEyedJoe
Deceptive recruiting tactics at their best. -
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UK TV--next monday 24th aug---channel 5-----9 pm--escaping the witnesses
by stan livedeath injust see it advertised on tv--with photo of our friend from south wales
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OneEyedJoe
I love that people are mentioning scientology and the JWs in the same breath. Even if people don't watch the thing, that's sure to leave a (well deserved) negative impression of the JWs on the minds of any normal person that sees it. -
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The Kingdom Halls are empty
by punkofnice inmy jw spies tell me that the kingdom halls are empty compared to how they used to be, since i left 5 years ago.
not saying they're empty because of me though.. is that what you are hearing?.
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OneEyedJoe
Our hall isn't empty but it def isn't growing. Just very stagnant. And very old. Extrapolate out 20 years and the Borg is in major trouble.
This is pretty much exactly what's going on in my area (though they did recently lose one seat filler, and I'm never going back!). I'd say at least half of the BOE in my wife's congregation will be senile or dead in 10 years, with relatively few prospects for replacement. There are a few MSes that will likely get appointed in a few years, but after that I think the pool will run dry. There are only a couple boys in their teens, and they demonstrate absolutely no desire to "reach out" for more obligation. Of the men between 23 (you know, mandatory MS age) and 30, none are MSes.
The stagnation (maybe a slight ~2%ish decline in the last 5 years) in attendance is also a bad sign in itself. The suburb that the congregation is centered in is growing rapidly. 15-20 years ago, there would be a local congregation splitting every couple years. A new KH was needed pretty regularly as well. I think it's been 12 years since a KH was built anywhere nearby (my FIL is pretty high up on the RBC, and never gets an assignment within an hour's drive, and quite frequently has to drive 2-4 hours away to the build). I can't remember the last time a congregation split, but it's been well over a decade, and the last ones to split were the spanish congregations. Even the growth there seems to have stalled. When a cult can't even recruit the "fish out of water" of recent immigrants, you know they're in trouble.
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OneEyedJoe
All. The. Time.
When I saw this thread I had a realization that this phase is yet another in the loaded language that enforces a transient view of life. JWs just spend their lives in waiting.
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The Royal Commission and Watchtower - A game changer
by Hidden-Window ini had finished watching all the videos on the royal commission's investigation of jehovah's witnesses (yes, i know more videos are being released).
i am still processing the information of everything that has emerged.
i do not plan to cover it all here, but i would like to point out that it is patently obvious that some of the wt representatives provided misleading information.
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OneEyedJoe
Yeah, when I was growing up the popular interpretation of "use the rod" seemed to be "beat the shit out of your kid if he makes a noise during the meeting." However, I seem to recall in the last decade or so the cult published something about the rod being a reference to how a loving shephard would simply guide the sheep, not beating them with it. -
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This week;s PopBitch
by krejames ini subscribe to a gossip mailing list called popbitch, which as the name suggests is concerned with the lowest common denominator trivialities and rumours about people in the public eye (usually wicked whisper type stuff, like some 'anonymous reader' stood next to samuel l jackson at urinal and whew!
what a whopper!.
yes, that kind of garbage i'm afraid.
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OneEyedJoe
How Jehovah's Witnesses are changing how doctors think about blood transfusion:
That sounds like a terrific sequel to the widely acclaimed article "How the people's temple changed how the world thinks about kool-aid"
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Geoffrey Jackson - Freedome Of Religon Within Jehovah's Witnesses - VIDEO
by C0ntr013r ina summary for you guys of the rather lengthy discussion about peoples ability to leave the organisation:.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpir8vjsdre&feature=youtu.be.
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OneEyedJoe
Did he really try to sell disassociating as a RIGHT that people have?
So if you don't want to be subject to stalking, constant emotional manipulation, having to hide participation in normal human activities (holidays, sex, voting, etc), inability to express yourself honestly with your family (meanwhile they can talk about the cult all they like), and more - all you have to do is pull the trigger and commit complete social suicide and say good by to everyone that you've ever known and loved. What a great supporter of human rights this organization is!