Why do you need to look anywhere to find the meaning of life? The cult phrases the question in a way that excludes deciding for yourself what the meaning of your life is, because they want to give people a meaning (be slaves for the cult).
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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20
So, I got a contact letter from a local Jehovah's Witness...
by SecondRateMind in...which was kind of her.
i find i like most christians, even mormons, and jw's.. she sent me a leaflet, which asks: where can we find the answers to life's big questions?
science?
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65
Withdrawing community support in the congs
by purrpurr ini've noticed in the past 10 years that the social support that used to be available in the congs, a shoulder to cry on, elders to help with family/marriage issues these seem to have been purposely withdrawn.
counsel is even heard from the platform that the elders are not there to help people with their problems.. so first in the 80s-90s they take away the congregation get to getters and social events and now they seem to be going one step further in taking away the emotional support for people too.. this will take away an aspect that i'm sure was keeping alot of people in the borg, the community support.
if that's not there and its just about meetings and ministry how many will start to get their emotional support elsewhere?.
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OneEyedJoe
I'd say I definitely saw some of this before I left too. I think it's a symptom of other problems/priorities, though, and not an intentional thing - essentially they prioritize other things over being supportive to the common member and it ends up showing in things like this. I may be wrong, but I thought the elimination of official congregation get-togethers was related to concerns over potential liability should there be some accident or altercation occur at these events (the cult always seems to be more concerned with money than the benefits of its adherents) and I think the observed withdraw of elder support in recent years is likely due to the fact that elders are increasingly in short supply. When you see an organization make cuts like this, you see what its true priorities are. They prioritize money over r/f JWs quality of life, and they prioritize the administrative and punitive duties that elders perform over helping and supporting individual members.
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Finally decided to read 'Combating Cult Mind Control' by Steven Hassan
by UnshackleTheChains inwell, i finally got round to reading this book.
having read many positive reviews, i thought i would give it a blast.
i am trying to deprogram myself from watchtower group think and avoid going back because of family and peer pressure.. hopefully this book will give me the tools i need to do this.
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OneEyedJoe
My experience of reading it definitely helped remove some aspects of the cult programming that I didn't even know were there to begin with. Having been born-in, there were some aspects of how people relate to each other that I just didn't know the cult wasn't normal. In the long-run, though, I've found it's definitely helpful to talk stuff through with a good friend or a therapist periodically - I may have an intellectual understanding of how I was controlled, but getting rid of those automatic responses takes continued effort.
It'll probably be different for everyone, but the hardest thing for me hasn't been understanding the way the cult indoctrinates and controls people and how not to allow it in my life anymore, but it's been unlearning all the defenses that I built up in the cult that are now purely impediments to me (even though they were a matter of survival when I was in the cult). One of the things I learned in the cult was that if something in your life is good, you don't share it with anyone or tell anyone about it lest it be taken away to make more time for cult activities. I'm still instinctively really guarded in conversation with people, especially if the conversation turns to something like my dating life or whatever. It takes a lot of reinforcement to shed those sorts of defenses.
Good luck to you on your journey! Keep making progress - as has been said many times: living well is the best revenge!
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What Is The Most Ridiculous Thing You Have Heard From A Witness?
by minimus ini remember an elder questioning a woman who had admitted to giving and receiving oral sex from her unbelieving mate.
he asked her the most intimate questions which clearly flustered her.
interestingly, she “confessed “ to the elders because her conscience bothered her.
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OneEyedJoe
Have you asked your wife what she thinks about the two-witness rule, and how it affects children who are the victims of sexual abuse?
I got the standard excuses. "It's Jehovah's arrangement, we just have to trust it." "There can be bad people in any group." Etc. She wouldn't trust any details that I gave regarding specific cases, because I was an evil apostate. She certainly wouldn't look at any external information because that was all apostate lies too. She was a lost cause if ever there was one.
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133
What Is The Most Ridiculous Thing You Have Heard From A Witness?
by minimus ini remember an elder questioning a woman who had admitted to giving and receiving oral sex from her unbelieving mate.
he asked her the most intimate questions which clearly flustered her.
interestingly, she “confessed “ to the elders because her conscience bothered her.
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OneEyedJoe
In my last-ditch effort to make my ex-wife see the cult for the blood-guilty cult that it is, I brought up the issue of blood fractions and actually got her to admit that it was possible or even likely that at least one person who's conscience would've allowed them to take fractions had died rather than take fractions and face the penalty of being shunned by their family prior to that policy being revised to make fractions a "conscience matter." When I pressed her to acknowledge that this means the watchtower society is bloodguilty, she said "No, because it doesn't matter if they died, because they'll be resurrected." That's the moment when I knew that nothing I'd ever say to her would make a difference. The cult could literally do no wrong in her eyes - any evils they commit in the name of god would be undone so they don't even matter.
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Does the Watchtower have an official position on Alcoholics Anonymous?
by JeffT ini ask because i'm working in a 28 day residential addiction treatment center and one of my co-workers is studying with the jw's.
he does not know i'm an xjw.
i suspect that at some point they're going to tell him he can't go to aa meetings anymore.
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OneEyedJoe
Why don't you explain your JW past to your coworker and offer to give him a fuller picture of the religion and your experience? Seems like kinda a dick move to watch someone getting indoctrinated into a cult all the while just standing by and watching.
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Three Simple Reasons Why an Assault-Weapons Ban Is Bad Policy
by freemindfade ini keep saying this is a bad place/policy to put all the time, energy and resources if you really do in fact care, or if you are just riding the agenda bandwagon: .
an assault-weapons ban is irrelevant to suicide deaths.
the large majority of gun deaths are suicides, and there is no credible argument that an assault-weapons ban will have the slightest effect on suicide.
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OneEyedJoe
The worst part about a ban on assault rifles would be the sense in many that we've taken some reasonable action to address the issue and would reduce the likelihood of "common sense" (i.e. keeping guns out of the hands of people that are obviously at risk of using them unethically) action being taken.
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Question about a kingdom Ministry
by new boy indoes any one remember a km back in the nineteen sixties that stated at the very top "only x (number of months left) before 1975 arrives".
question?
what was the number of months in this statement?
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OneEyedJoe
https://www.jwfacts.com/images/kingdom-ministry-1968-mar-1975.JPG
90 months mentioned here. I'm not sure if this is what you're after, though.
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Lloyd Evans' New Book - Is It Really Necessary?
by pale.emperor inso lloyd evans will shortly be releasing his new book how to leave the jehovah's witnesses.
i do enjoy his rebuttals and the stuff he manages to get hold of and leak.
but i'm struggling to understand what he could possibly write to merit a whole book.. all info on how to leave is right here on this forum.
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OneEyedJoe
Deleted...posted in the wrong thread.
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Lloyd Evans' New Book - Is It Really Necessary?
by pale.emperor inso lloyd evans will shortly be releasing his new book how to leave the jehovah's witnesses.
i do enjoy his rebuttals and the stuff he manages to get hold of and leak.
but i'm struggling to understand what he could possibly write to merit a whole book.. all info on how to leave is right here on this forum.
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OneEyedJoe
So don't buy it.
Alternatively: This thread - is it really necessary?
