since i have been out for seventeen years what is the currant society policy concerning beards and mustaches.. in the sixties and seventies facial hair was forbidden at bethel if you white.
if you were black you could have mustache but no beards.
so obviously you could not be elder or pioneer if you had a beard.. any updates?
“stumbledbyothers”: “In some cultures, a neatly trimmed beard may be acceptable and respectable, and it may not detract at all from the Kingdom message. In fact, some appointed brothers have beards.”
What exactly is considered to be “acceptable and respectable,” at least in WT land? Well, “worldly” society is largely considered by the Watch Tower to be non-JW due to beards, tattoos, body piercings, holiday celebrators, etc. But those JW Pharisees are clearly ‘going beyond the things written.’
my husband and i have talked about starting a support group but we feel we don't have the proper qualifications.
has anyone started a support group for ex-jws?
we even thought of hosting a social gathering or meet and greet.
There is a fairly well-attended group referred to as the “Ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses of Toronto” MeetUp group – https://www.meetup.com/oexjws/ – in the area of Toronto, Ontario (Canada). It is a completely relaxed atmosphere with no formal format. Spontaneity is its lifeblood. All are certainly welcome.
it's been nearly 4 years now since i completely woke up to the watchtower lies.. thinking back on my jw life, during the time i believed, the organization truly did teach us to hate all beliefs that were contrary to the watchtower's.. i hated "false" religion.. so, when i finally woke up and applied critical thinking to my beliefs, i just went on hating religion in general...only this time i added jw's to that list.. a few months of waking up, i decided to base my beliefs on evidence.
i didn't want to have a set of beliefs unless there was some logic or evidence behind it.
so, now i consider myself an atheist.. and i kept on hating religion.. within the last six months or so, something has changed.
The thing which I suspect puts many people off the Watch Tower movement is that they have always promoted themselves as the one-and-only custodian and bastion of “truth,” but, as we all know only too well, their “truth” has always been their own rather unique and dogmatic interpretation of it – and any and everything but actual truth.
Many folks use religious books (“holy writing”), such as the Judao-Christian Bible, in an attempt to validate their own socio-political views, which only too often are simply self-serving tools, or “tricks of the trade,” for their own vain aggrandizement.
The Watch Tower did, however, once early on present a truth which is quite a factually sound and most poignant reality, which is when they had their followers go around in what they called “information marches” bearing signs and placards stating: “RELIGION IS A SNARE AND A RACKET!” Yes indeed, they got that truth bang-on right!
i think it’s ridiculous to kick people and families out of a restaurant because of politics.
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No matter what a person’s affiliation – political, religious, or otherwise – no one has the right to deny them as a customer in a public enterprise or establishment. Everyone has basic, intrinsic human rights, without which, . . . . well, might I say: “North Korea.” (Enough said.)
jesus christ, the son of the most high god, jehovah has this to say: "if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
if you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own.
now because you are no part of the world, but i have chosen you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.
Actually, I’m glad that this JW apologist, “BlackSpirit,” posted on here. It’s really an indictment of his religion fundamentalist sect, as well as a reinforcement of the complete lack of proof or logic of his WT stance. (The WT has an absolutely 100% failure rate for predictions and justification as its sole mouthpiece for an Almighty God.) Though, I know, it’s redundant, “BlackSpirit” has succeeded only in providing more iteration of the logical imperative of atheism.
when i was young and i bought a simple shirt saying have no fear.
my late dad instructed me to return the shirt back to the store!
i reluctantly did so.
And God forbid somebody actually does have an actual, real, biological beard, Whoa! That would certainly be a one-way ticket to Gehenna – what with not only the brazen conduct (Greek a·selʹgei·a) but also stumbling others.
That T-shirt is extremely offensive to Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Charles Taze Russell, and . . . . (oh, ya. I forgot).
a friend of mine was telling me about her recent trip to peru.
she said she had trouble with the altitude in certain areas of peru but the locals offered her a tea derived from the coca leaf and that helped tremendously with her symptoms.. i began to think about how i would have handled the situation as a jw given that coca contains an alkaloid that is used to produce cocaine.
in its natural form, the content is very low and the locals use it as a stimulant similar to coffee.. however, as a jw i would have probably refused to drink it viewing it as something similar to a product derived from tobacco leaves.
“pale.emporer”: “In matters such as these, it's very normal for JWs to simply say "i'll ask the elders" or "i'll have to see what the society says"... never daring to think for themselves.”
That’s the thing – JWs are so conditioned to seek the approval of their WTS controlling organization that they completely defer any decision-making to their most human and foible-prone “governing body.” (Notice that I didn’t capitalize “governing body” – that was, indeed, on purpose.)
The JWs have been consistently conditioned to believe that a small handful of patriarchal men – the “governing body” – is the absolute final word on everything relating to their day-to-day lives and, indeed, their ultimate salvation. But, as 2 Corinthians 1:24 says, “Not that we are the masters over your faith.” But the WTS usurps one’s individual “thinking ability,” or “powers of perception,” by their disingenuous insistence on everyone following the “letter of the law” pertaining to their own arbitrary legalistic code of living.
Yes, indeed – “common sense” doesn’t exactly rain supreme in the land of the WTS.
the jws always like to highlight their persecution during the holocaust.
while true, the chart below showing numbers of victims for jw was the lowest of all persecuted groups.
even lower than spanish republicans.. im guessing there have been more victims due to the wt blood policy.
“Stealth”: “Im guessing there have been more victims due to the WT blood policy.”
I think you may be right. When you factor in all the men, women, and children – including little babies – who have been killed on the altar of the Watch Tower, that is a very significant number of needless deaths.
It’s quite scary how man-made religious fervour can successfully manipulate even the most supposedly “intelligent” among society.
it's my first time on this site though i am no stranger in the ex-jw community.
i come to you now asking for your assistance in what to present to the dean of students at my university.. why am i meeting with dean of students, you may ask?
because today, while innocently finishing an assignment in the school library, i happened to look out the window and see the jws with their stupid little cart.
I say, Fight fire with fire. If those JWs want to keep their cart setup on the campus, that’s actually great. Just set up your own display right beside it with some choice material exposing the WT for what it really is – a man-made cult with more lies than Richard Nixon and Donald Trump put together.
The JWs want freedom of speech on the campus? Great. Give it to them. Show the passers by some videos of, say, John Cedars (Lloyd Evans), and direct them to the best resource pertaining to the Watch Tower: Raymond Franz’s book Crises of Conscience. Now, that’s freedom of speech in action.
important reading:.
https://aeon.co/essays/the-omnipotent-victim-how-tyrants-work-up-a-crowds-devotion.
after reading the article, please read the commentary: .
This dynamic of tyrants plays out a common theme in religion and politics in the “us-versus-them” siege mentality. There is always a demand for purity, or distinctly polarized identity. In the JW flavour of uniquely cultish fundamentalism, there is the ever-present black-and-white dichotomy between their group and “the world.”
In the eyes of the WT (governing body “monarchs”/“popes”), the best – and only – interests to be served by the will of the divine, in their eyes, necessitate the complete annihilation of any and all non-members of their tight-knit high-control group. All enemies, in their interpretation, of God and man are “false religion” (i.e., all other religions) and any non-devout members of their own sect.
All politics, “worldly” commerce, and “worldly” (i.e., other) religions are, in their opinion, the underlying cause of all misery and discord in the world – the world being under the control of “Satan the Devil.”
It’s not hard to see how this environment has readily fostered the line of kooky tyrants representing the man-made JW religion. For them, it’s always been us and them, and our way or the highway. Is it any wonder that out of that has arisen the strictly-enforced, dogmatic policies such as disfellowshipping (shunning) and the blood transfusion ban, which have split families apart and killed untold thousands of men, woman, and children, including little babies, auspiciously on the altar of the bronze-age tribal worrier god Yahweh (“Jehovah,” since around the Middle Ages).
Tyrants come in all shapes and sizes, but the common thread behind their modus operandi remains the same: self-serving aggrandizement and CONTROL.
