Posts by apostrate

16

Jehovah cult kicked me out - but not the man who raped me,' victim claims

by defender of truth in

positions of trusta jehovahs witness spokesman said: we have tried to educate families to try and educate and protect their children, so that children can protect themselves if they find themselves in a situation.if jehovahs were found to have abused someone if they are in a position of trust they would no longer have a position of trust.asked why about the claims sewell had not been kicked out of the jehovahs the spokesman insisted we cant comment on specific situations.we dont give out personal information, he said.http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/jehovah-cult-kicked-out---8891636

apostrate

Back in the 70's it was common practice in the Kingdom Halls (at least where I attended) that, when a person was being reproved or disfellowshipped, the specifics of his sin were not made known or announced from the platform. However, at the time the announcement was made, there would be a short talk given about the evils of their specific sin (either just before the announcement or directly after).

So all anyone in the audience had to do was put 2 + 2 together to figure out what the perpetrator had done. The talk itself might not go into specifics either, if a brother was guilty of fornication, the accompanying talk might be about loose conduct or sexual immorality.

So, basically, if a young brother admitted to the elders that he pleasured himself, everyone in the Hall could figure it out and know what he did (plus, there's the benefit of the gossip mill). If a parent gave their child a birthday present, everyone in the congregation usually knew what they did.

BUT, if a brother had sex, in any way with a child, all he had to do would be admit to it and promise that he wouldn't do it again, and nobody in the Hall would be the wiser!!

That's messed up!

52

Why do I suddenly want to start reading JW literature and going to Kingdom Halls?

by yogosans14 in

jw
friends

is good calling me back or am i just letting my emotions get the best of me?also i really want to be closer to my jw family.

btw i was never baptized and i consider myself a born again christian i go to a baptist church and wath televangelist and i have expirenced gods presence like never before but sometimes i get fearful and think "what if jws are right and i'm wrong" than i'm screwed!but if there wrong and i'm right it doesn't look to good for them.. i would prefer if nobody posted "god isn't real" type comments.

i truly believe he is real but i respect why some are atheists..

apostrate

snare&racket,

Amen Brother! I did the very same thing! The difference between sitting thru a JW meeting before and after learning TTATT is the difference between night and day!

I could never be a spy attending JW meetings. Too much of my life was thrown away at their meetings when I was young!! I intend to spend my senior years trying to savor what I can out of real life.

Life's too short to be a Jehovahs Witness!!!

52

Why do I suddenly want to start reading JW literature and going to Kingdom Halls?

by yogosans14 in

jw
friends

is good calling me back or am i just letting my emotions get the best of me?also i really want to be closer to my jw family.

btw i was never baptized and i consider myself a born again christian i go to a baptist church and wath televangelist and i have expirenced gods presence like never before but sometimes i get fearful and think "what if jws are right and i'm wrong" than i'm screwed!but if there wrong and i'm right it doesn't look to good for them.. i would prefer if nobody posted "god isn't real" type comments.

i truly believe he is real but i respect why some are atheists..

apostrate

Well, what if the Mormons are right?

What if the Muslims are right?

What if the Seventh Day Adventists are right?

Actually, I believe that you have already answered your own questions in your first two sentences. A) Yes, you are letting your emotions get the best of you, and B) You are wanting to be closer to your JW family.

You have to ask yourself, even though it is for the sake of your family, can you sit through the meetings again, listening to what they are indoctrinating people with? You know it is not the truth.

Once people find out there is no Santa Claus, do they ever revert back to believing in him for the sake of the children?

32

CO kept mispronouncing "debt"

by Red Piller in

so, this happened a while ago - but i never posted on it.

during a co visit, he gave a talk relating to jesus ransom (i think) and the "debt" that was owed by sin, etc.... he kept saying "debt" and he kept pronouncing the "b".

so it sounded like "deb-t".

apostrate

I was told by a friend that at a congregation in Costa Rica a black brother giving a talk continually pronounced the word Niger as, well, you can probably guess how he mispronounced it (yes, the "N" word). One of the elders pulled him to the side and told him the proper pronunciation. Ouch!

The brother who studied with me, years ago, and he was only a few years older than me, corrected me when I said the word Habakkuk. He told me that the correct pronunciation was "Hab-back-a-nock". I was so timid at that age that, since he was the elder, I just said okay (I knew that it wasn't really pronounced that way).

Now, as if it wasn't bad enough that he should correct me whenever it was he that was in error, he raised his hand at the KH when the subject of Habakkuk came up and informed the whole congregation that the correct pronunciation was "Hab-back-a-nock".

I don't know if anyone corrected him after the meeting that night, but if you should ever run into a JW who pronounces Habakkuk as Hab-back-a-nock, tell him I said "hello".

76

WT loses appeal in UK!!!!!!!

by Viva la Vida in

the wt lost its appeals regarding the charity commission inquiry.

here is the ruling:.

http://www.charity.tribunals.gov.uk/documents/decisions/watch-tower-ruling-03mar15.pdf.

apostrate

WT lost its appeal to me over thirty years ago.

24

Jehovah's Witnesses Are Believers But Know Not What They Teach

by minimus in

jw
friends

they simply belong to a religion.

they cannot explain why they follow all the dictates of the organization.

they live in blind faith.

apostrate

Excellent Steve2!

To the "religiously ignorant", the average JW appears to be wise beyond years! And, let's face it, there is still a huge pool of religiously ignorant ones out there.

In my mind, at least for the last 15 years or so, I have likened the way JW's operate to how a pimp operates. Pimps know their business, they know how to recruit! They often case the bus stations, looking for that runaway girl with no home to go to, often running away from something more than they are running to something. The pimp represents safety, security, he offers kind words and the appearance of love.

JW's, likewise, case their territory looking for the religiously destitute. The JW offers them something with kind words that represent safety, security, and love.

Neither the pimp nor the JW offers real love. The authoritarian pimp keeps his girls working the streets to take in as much money as possible, to make a better life for themselves. The WT keeps its members out working the streets for the same reasons!

The hooker and the JW both know that if they disobey they will be beaten (the hooker physically, the JW mentally), both with the ultimate threat of death.

24

Jehovah's Witnesses Are Believers But Know Not What They Teach

by minimus in

jw
friends

they simply belong to a religion.

they cannot explain why they follow all the dictates of the organization.

they live in blind faith.

apostrate

When I was a young teenager and "in the truth", I was talking to an elder and his wife and they offered me some hot tea. I declined and told them that I like ice tea but I do not care for hot tea. The elder told me that when I get older and find a "sister" that I fall in love with, if she likes hot tea, then I will like hot tea as well.

How little did I realize that it at the time, but he just spoke volumes about life itself, the Watchtower Org, and religion in general.

If a young man really has no interest in religion but he meets a woman of a particular faith that he falls head over heels in love with, he will fall in love with her religion as well, if for no other reason than to "get the girl".

And I have known many JW's who fall into this category including the elder who gave me the "hot tea" analogy. In fact, I truly believe that had his wife been a Mormon, then he would have become a Mormon. JW's, like many other cults and religions, are simply a bunch of lemmings.

Become a JW and you can go far! Get you a beautiful wife, often times you can marry into a good job, you can become a part of a social group. Knowing the real history of the organization is not a requirement. Just do what you are told!

25

Leave truth - catch AIDS???

by JEMIMAH in

jw
friends

we had a laugh last weekend at our s.a.dthe visiting speaker was from the london bethel (bcm)during the last talk he was trying to encourage the bros not to read non society lit.

the example he uses was of a m/s bro who used to really study his wtwell for a sunday, however he occasionally used secular sources to back up his research.. our bethel speaker in order to prove how wrong this was explained very quickly that because of this secular research, "this brother fell away and caught aids".

the brothers and sisters in the audience where very shocked at the folly of our ex-brother.

apostrate

Viviane,

Praise Jah indeed! Some families misfortune becomes a JW's blessing!

Following that same line of thought, here's one (and it is not an urban legend nor does it involve JW's). I had to make a delivery to a roofing company. The woman who owned the company was a member of the Church of the Nazarene, or something like that. She never kept her religious affiliation a secret.

The Dallas/Ft. worth area had seen a very nasty springtime with lots of tornados that year. Lots of people losing the roofs on their houses. When I made my delivery and was making some idle chit-chat with her, she commented, "Business has been very good lately, we certainly do praise the Lord for blessing our roofing company!"

One man's ceiling is another man's floor!

25

Leave truth - catch AIDS???

by JEMIMAH in

jw
friends

we had a laugh last weekend at our s.a.dthe visiting speaker was from the london bethel (bcm)during the last talk he was trying to encourage the bros not to read non society lit.

the example he uses was of a m/s bro who used to really study his wtwell for a sunday, however he occasionally used secular sources to back up his research.. our bethel speaker in order to prove how wrong this was explained very quickly that because of this secular research, "this brother fell away and caught aids".

the brothers and sisters in the audience where very shocked at the folly of our ex-brother.

apostrate

jhine,

Don't worry about the spelling of my name, it's not important.

Okay, first off, I have it backwards regarding woman at the door and the two angels (it's been a long, long time since I've heard this one related).

It was two sisters going door-to-door. They offered a householder (a man) the literature and he respectfully declined. Later on, the police came to the man's door and arrested him. He had killed somebody else who had come to his door and had the dismembered body in his basement. Somehow the police knew about the JW's who had come to his door and asked him why he didn't kill them also. "Are you kidding? There were two huge men standing behind them! I wasn't going to mess with them!" (For JW's, proof of the angels being with them in Field Service).

I heard that one told for years, back in the 70's. I had already come to the conclusion that it was a bunch of twaddle and malarky when an elder publicly denounced it as nonsense at a meeting one night.

The two Sister Paynes! I loved that one! My friends wife (a JW) told it as though she was at the Hall when it happened.

There were two women at the Hall each named Payne. Once at a Watchtower study, the only people to raise their hands to answer a question were each of these sisters. So the elder conducting the study pointed to the back and called on "Sister Payne in the rear!" (Payne=pain, get it?)

I had told that one to many people, non-JW's as well as JW's. Then, one night about 30 years ago I started to tell it to an older sister and she interrupted me. "This isn't the one about "Sister Pain in the rear, is it? That's soooooo old!!"

There is a bunch of others too, but I guess I should start a whole new post!

25

Leave truth - catch AIDS???

by JEMIMAH in

jw
friends

we had a laugh last weekend at our s.a.dthe visiting speaker was from the london bethel (bcm)during the last talk he was trying to encourage the bros not to read non society lit.

the example he uses was of a m/s bro who used to really study his wtwell for a sunday, however he occasionally used secular sources to back up his research.. our bethel speaker in order to prove how wrong this was explained very quickly that because of this secular research, "this brother fell away and caught aids".

the brothers and sisters in the audience where very shocked at the folly of our ex-brother.

apostrate

DesirousOfChange,

It's an urban legend. And not just in JW circles. I first heard it back in the 80's from a co-worker and it had nothing to do with JW's.

Just like the infamous urban legend about the woman at the door who saw two angels behind the men claiming to be JW's, they were supposedly killers. Even the Catholics have their own variation of that one!

There once was a time when I would spread these stories around because I believed them all. But my favorite was the one about the two "Sister Paynes". I'm sure you've heard that one!