40-odd years on and I'm not passionately anti-JW any longer. I just don't want to expend the mental energy. Maybe that's just a part of being older. If I come across JW's I will avoid them now, whereas once I would have confronted them. Occasionally I'll see something that perks up my interest such as a ludicrous WT article about not having a colourful personality, or avoiding articles inhabited by demons, but generally I can't be bothered. I have so many other good things in my life to savour that I don't need to dwell on the negativity around witness teachings over much. I do enjoy much of what is posted here however; I find some of the insights written by ex's on other matters quite intriguing and worthy of consideration.
snugglebunny
JoinedPosts by snugglebunny
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How do you feel about the JWS religion after being out more than 10, 20, 30 years ?
by Finkelstein inmyself being a born in and completely out for more than 30 years i see more of the damage of what this religious cult causes people .. part of myself leaving had to do with the psychological harm it was causing people back in the 1970's, one guy my age at the time hung himself out anxiety and depression.. the numerous suicides that have occurred in numbers is shocking to say the least.. then there is the many families breaking up.. marriages breaking apart because one member decides to leave the jws.. the deaths of members or their children from refusing a blood transfusion.. this hit me personally when my mother refused a bt when she was ill in the hospital and died.. over the years and observing all of these things reminds me how glad and fortunate i left when i did but i do find it responsible to others to expose this religious cult to what can happen to people who get involved with it and that's what i've been doing on this forum and elsewhere.
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snugglebunny
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Ex JW of 30 years , still messed up from it
by Doubledecker inhi , this is my first post .. i left jws 30 years ago as 18 year old unbaptised youth and after the initial fallout from leaving pretty much put the whole thing in a box and buried it .. however , i am now starting to realise how much the doomsday messages and the ‘them and us’ doctrines that’s fed to you from birth has remained in my core beliefs.. how have others managed to reprogram themselves ?.
thanks for reading , have a good day .
dd.
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snugglebunny
Fear of disapproval, fear of being abandoned by loved ones. All sense of self-esteem measured against our own behaviour, forever coming up short. In such areas are obsessions and compulsions based. The NHS has some interesting points of view in their depression - anxiety - OCD advice pages.
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My email to JW Following Trolley Conversation
by cofty ina few weeks ago i had an really interesting conversation with three male jws who were loitering around a trolley at the west end of princes street in edinburgh.. i managed to completely avoid giving any hint about my jw past and focussed on why they thought the bible was a reliable moral guide.
i used the subject of slavery to illustrate my concerns.. one of the three was in his early twenties, knew a lot about his own beliefs but nothing about the real life and it was difficult to get through his thought-bubble.
the second one was in his 60s and not very bright.
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snugglebunny
It's a good approach IMHO. Not a direct criticism of JW teachings and practises, just a question as to the morality of the book they claim to use as their authority.
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LGBT, trans, etc. - Be warned!
by The Fall Guy in“in one tweet mr miller wrote: "i was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish.
" this tweet was among several others which were reported to humberside police as being allegedly transphobic.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-51501202.
any minority group who bring such cases because they have been "offended" by a comment or a joke about their precious "alternate" lifestyle, should take a few steps back and admit what they are really demanding - a total ban on everyone's freedom of speech, except their's!
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snugglebunny
I see that a contender for the Labour Party leadership, Rebecca Long-Bailey, is throwing her support behind trans gender issues. That should play well among the working people of the City of Manchester, whom she represents as an MP, most of whom don't give a flying fuck about such self-indulgent horseshit. In fact, the only people who do give a flying fuck, are those in charge of Labour policy. And we all know how well their policies went down with the general public at the last election.
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Old friends - remember "Yerusalyim"?
by Nathan Natas indoes anyone here know what became of "yerusalyim"?
he was a good guy.
just wondering....
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snugglebunny
He's fine. I hear from him on social media from time to time. He's out of the army and living in Europe with his family. Sons and daughters has he them!
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How Many Here Remember Hearing Details from the Platform on Why a Person was Reproved or DF'd ???
by RubaDub ini just had this flashback when commenting on another thread about how they used to announce reproof or dfing from the platform.
at least in our congregation, it was a dramatic event (this is what i can remember from back in the mid-late 60's or early 70's when i was a kid).. at the end of the service meeting, just before singing the final song, the brother would announce, "we have a letter that must be read.
the "congregation servant" (my grandfather or later my father) would then slowly walk from the back of the kh to the platform.
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snugglebunny
Yes indeed. Heard my own PO father read out the misdoings of a 15 year-old girl - fornication of course - and the restrictions that she was now under. The list was long and even included how much TV she was allowed to watch and what time she had to be in bed (no joke intended).
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If you're "anointed" don't seek out other "anointed" so says the Watchtower January 2020
by RolRod inwhen i was affiliated with the witnesses, there were barely 6,000 who profess to be of the anointed remnant.
i recently read somewhere that today there are over 20,000 who profess to be anointed.
that figure may be more when you consider those who meet and partake privately for fear of the stigma of claiming to be anointed.
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snugglebunny
The whole anointed thang has become a distinct embarrassment to the JW's. It had always been linked to the timing of armageddon. As armageddon came ever closer - "just around the corner" - so the numbers of anointed diminished year by year as heaven filled up as they died off, every year getting closer and closer to the magic figure of 144,000 dwelling upstairs.. Indeed, going back to the 60's (my teenage years!) a new anointee was not a subject for rejoicing - it was greeted with sadness because it meant that a former member of the anointed had fallen away from The Truth and this new member was simply a replacement.
Just nuts when you think about it.
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Dumb things JWs believed
by JimmyYoung ini am not talking about the usual crap from the cult writings, but rather things idiots believed on their own.
maybe even helped on by the cult but not directly taught.
i knew an old man now long gone kunde in michigan.
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snugglebunny
George Orwell got the title for his book 1984 by adding a generation - then believed to be a 70 year period - to 1914.
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Anyone ever get blow back for owning and riding a motorcycle?
by JimmyYoung inmy wife's family rode motorcycles all their life.
her grandfather was an elder.
i was told by some dubbers that it was not christian to use a motorcycle.
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snugglebunny
I can mimic the noise of a Harley perfectly. Just repeat 'potato potato' over and over again.
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the Watchtower guide to sex.
by stan livedeath init occurs to me the gb probably dont have much experience when it comes (!
) to marital sex guidance, so i think its only fair and reasonable we should put together a few hints to help them publish a suitable guide.. it is well known a lot of jw's get married in order to have sex, and all to frequently the marriages fail, possibly due to sexual problems, so the watchtower guide to sex should prove to be very worthwhile.. any jw courting couple intending to get married should be allowed to have a copy of the guide, and should only be available by a special order through the body of elders.. copies are not available to any single bros and sisters.. all and any advice in it must adhere to bible principles, and certainly no salty language or smut will be allowed.. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
so--to get this started--and in no particular order--here is my first suggestion:.
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snugglebunny
Their obsession with sex is just nuts. My JW momma approached me years after I'd left to inform me that the original ban on oral sex had been lifted and would I now like to re-associate? Actually she even phrased it along the lines of "Some men like to treat their wives as a homosexual". I was stunned. She'd lost track of the fact that the original ban on oral sex hadn't even been implemented until well after I'd left. Apart from the fact that momma was the last person on earth with whom I would want to have a dialogue with about my sexual preferences, such a conversation with anyone would have felt like a betrayal to my partner. This is private stuff and as such discussion about one's bedroom activities should remain right there - in the bedroom.