Posts by Alive!

60

Those keenly following umbertoecho ARC Brief Update.

by MightyV8 in

i feel it is comfortable to say,.

yes her arc hearing has come and gone.. yes her hearing was so powerful, her allotted time was tripled!.

yes, information handed over "mind blowing" response from arc.

Alive!

The ARC recordings are there, on the Internet - for the world to see.

60

Those keenly following umbertoecho ARC Brief Update.

by MightyV8 in

i feel it is comfortable to say,.

yes her arc hearing has come and gone.. yes her hearing was so powerful, her allotted time was tripled!.

yes, information handed over "mind blowing" response from arc.

Alive!

Mistakenly 'liked' makemeanunbeliever.

But hey - isn't what makeme said true?

The ARC makes no difference in JW land - who cares about the victims?

I knew about this stuff several years ago before I faded .........abuse? It's rife in JW land - and they know it.

Kept quiet - All in the name of God.

79

The really cool feeling of community within JWs

by Phaedra in

i remember going out with other jws after the memorial.. small gatherings.. picnics at some local landmark.. the feeling of closeness, camaraderie, friendship with like minded people you could trust.. haven't experienced it since i left.. really miss that..

Alive!

@Life is too short.

Feeling your pain - I can only imagine your agony as a youngster.

(((( hugs))))

27

People who are happy in the org

by jhine in

i don't know if i can put my musings clearly into words , but i' ll try to be coherant !

on a couple of other threads lately folk have said that they have no wish to disenchant jws who are happy in the org .

those who have no personal problems and are content to stay in , thinking that it is good way to live and the nearest thing to the truth .

Alive!

PS sorry for my long winded vents - I'm just going through a bit of purge, trying to talk out and think out stuff that's hard to live with. X

27

People who are happy in the org

by jhine in

i don't know if i can put my musings clearly into words , but i' ll try to be coherant !

on a couple of other threads lately folk have said that they have no wish to disenchant jws who are happy in the org .

those who have no personal problems and are content to stay in , thinking that it is good way to live and the nearest thing to the truth .

Alive!

Hi Jan,

A thought provoking thread - thank you for getting it started.....

So yeah, It's been acknowledged that there are of course, many 'happy' Jehovah's Witnesses.

Many are 'happy' and 'joyful' in their long suffering - and I'm not knocking that...being cheerful, steadfastly patient and enduring in the face of 'adversity' usually produces feelings of quiet joy....many people of faith ( any faith) live like this....throughout history. I'm not excluding atheists in this - it seems to be an inner sense of hope and love for humanity that produces enduring 'happiness'.

I was intensely joyful over long periods of time, being a JW....my interpretation of Armageddon was that only the utterly wicked would surely reject Christ in the very final part of the days and that ALL would surely 'turn' and praise him in the final hour, unless their hearts were black.

Jesus, Jehovah increased my love for others. My heart saw everyone as a future brother or sister. Everyone.

Which is at odds with the 'party line'.....

But - the JW culture gradually revealed itself - it is a 'captive' organisation as Angus Stewart so aptly called it.

The rigid conformity to detail on personal grooming, indoctrination methods, recruiting methods and so much more, go way beyond scriptures.

I have seen utter, utter misery in the org - EVERYWHERE, and I had a large network of those who I have met throughout the world.

I've lost count of the number of JW men and women who can barely leave home due to depression etc - seriously.

I have seen highly prized career pioneer sisters go out and recruit new 'young ones' to take under their wings...whilst their own children are skeletons in the closet, 'gone' lost in a world of drugs.

There's happiness alright - but so many get lost, for not fitting in ( and that has nothing to do with a Christian personality issue - but not fitting the corporate branded look)

Absolute misery exists in these KHs....lost amongst the hard nosed gaiety and social acceptance which is a ticket to a good life.

I've seen it all - and I personally know of non JW family members who would have absolutely been crushed by the JW spirit - who were not hard enough to have survived.

So, I had to step away - it's so complex.

I don't know the answers.

I have my own faith...pretty much the hope of universal reconciliation - I'm working on the joy that should alone give me - but it's tough after years of being in a 'group' and having my daily life supported by a community.

Was I happy?

Yes.....but looking back, it now feels like what an artificial sweetener is to honey....and I feel for the poor gentle souls who constantly have their self esteem eroded every time they pick up a publication, listen to a sneakily critical talk....and get another lash of the whip when they realise they can never replicate the 'corporate branded Christian' image of the JW culture.

Should those promoting this agony be called to account? Certainly the leadership - yes....the followers? Argh....it's a mess.

27

People who are happy in the org

by jhine in

i don't know if i can put my musings clearly into words , but i' ll try to be coherant !

on a couple of other threads lately folk have said that they have no wish to disenchant jws who are happy in the org .

those who have no personal problems and are content to stay in , thinking that it is good way to live and the nearest thing to the truth .

Alive!

I have a beautiful friend who is intelligent, very capable of thinking logically .....she was given a hard time by myself when I showed her loads of evidence which made the blood doctrine fall apart and other issues. At first she listened and was empathetic, saying she could see and feel my distress. Then.....she closed right down and gave me a poor analogy to explain the difference between accepting fractions and whole blood...completely ignoring that 'sacred blood' had to be donated for fractions, possible stored etc.

She lives in a warm world of love, care and affection...with adult children and grandchildren and years of trusted friendships. She'd have NO-ONE outside the org. I'm sure I rattled her cage - and really, the conversations we had must cause a degree of CD, and unwelcome thoughts may need to be suppressed.

I had access to a worldwide network of people..... Some who I loved deeply.

The pain of losing my 'family' of over 20 years has been distressing beyond words.

My freind would cite the security and Christian love of the org - but really, something is terribly wrong with the non negotiable indoctrination and the disturbing aspects of the named leadership.

I saw and heard WT leaders speak at the ARC - I'd imagine they would have gone into that courtroom having prayed.....and then in front of the world they lied and used doublespeak. We heard them.

Four families experienced SIX suicides just in my congregation, three families lost children to lives as drug addicts, prostitution and one young woman ended up in prison. I remember these sweet young faces....no- one really did what they should to help these kids, just waited for them to 'come back to jehovah' - they never did.

Three circuit overseers left their wives for other women and later it was revealed one was a serial abuser.

I remember a speaker once saying 'brothers, it's a jungle out there' - and I thought, it's a jungle IN HERE'

But what can you do?

63

Watchtower crackdown on anointed expansion - are they reaching for a solution to the expanding numbers problem?

by slimboyfat in

if this has been discussed i missed it.

i think the january study watchtower is a concerted attempt to reduce the numbers claiming to be anointed.

but i love the sneaky way they go about it this time.

Alive!

Years ago, in our KH, three out of the five 'annointed' were truly bizarre, known for raising trouble and behaving badly towards others - a fourth one was highly respected and lived past his 90s however, I later heard from an elders wife that he was very abusive to his wife....and he behaved very ahem strangely towards a younger married pioneer sister...upsetting her husband and causing them some difficulties... This was known and not a secret.

I was told (regarding the eccentric annointed) that Jehovah knows the hearts.....we need not ask questions.

14

When you were in

by Esmeralda001 in

coucou,.

i hope you are well?!

i have a few questions that i'd like to adress (if you don't mind of course).

Alive!

Hi there,

I was a convert - I had a widish circle of non witness friends, and throughout life made 'good' friends easily....but, I did have low self esteem which was painted over by what appeared a super abundance of confidence...so a bit of a complex thing going on with me. I'm always looking out to see if I have met with approval - a little tiring I can tell you :-)

Back to 'then' - I had lost my parents and was mourning their loss. I was searching for answers.

I didn't expect to find them in the bible - so when a very successful 'business person' who was JW started talking with me - I was fascinated. Really fascinated and excited. The bible prophecies all seemed to 'fit' - the JWs hated religion apparently - yay!!! Me too!!

Slowly but surely I was introduced to a wide range of born in witnesses - the 'nutty' ones were introduced to me with a wink and a warning. Dozens of born ins would seem to seek out our company - and would say how reassuring and encouraging it was to see us 'get the truth'.

Fast forward - over the years we experienced and observed some terrible betrayals amongst JWs, the culture was concerning. I surpressed internal red flags - after all, doesn't love cover a multitude of sins?

Ultimately it was the deceit, the dishonesty of our publications which started to weary and depress me to a point where I was forced to ask myself - is this really the truth? The sneaky and coercive 'voice' I heard in our publications - the switch and bait tactics.

Somehow, this didn't sound like the voice that Jesus promised. Would Jesus treat a sincere, tender hearted follower with such dismissive words, belittling any concerns?

Keep searching - don't stop with the JWs - there is a good reason that people who do not have a 'healthy ego' join cults.

I was one of them - I just made a fantastic impression of being well balanced - but underneath, years in the org damn near destroyed my mental and emotional health.

Take care

Et bisou petite. X

29

Local Needs part given after Ministerial Servant left the organization

by cappytan in

jw
friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbb8rt2bem8.

some crazy cult language in this talk.. some highlights:.

18:15 - obey.

Alive!

Leaving-quietly .....great points.

When I caught the 'strange stories' point in this (cough) talk etc - immediately came to mind the strange stories regarding the resurrection of 'ancient worthies' - Rutherford explained that they would live in America, in the current culture and society of that time, what was that? 1920s right?...really?

As God's only channel - do not the FDS tremble a little, that a former brother was inspired to prophesy such strange and false stories?

Do they not tremble a little that dated predictions by the 'brotherhood' have been made using 'inspired' stories around ancient pyramids?

Aren't they a little Fearful of their own mouths????

32

Peer presure to use Ipad

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

earlier this season i advised my retired father to ignore the use of a tablet during his kingdom hall congregational visits.

his response was hopefull, but between the lines i could hear he had no choice.. yesterday he showed me his new 600 euro 64 gb ipad air 2. he had no clue what he has to do with it, he told me one of the elders will install the jw.org apps.. so, i feel he had to deal with presure to buy this ipad and i think he is not the only one.. do you recognize this?.

gorby.

Alive!

I've visited a local church - just as an observer......songs are shown on a huge screen up on the stage. Easy.

Each pew has bibles placed ..... No iPads, ever.

No dressing up, no 'witness bags' or 'meeting bags', no special leather bible covers wth special inserts for the reasoning book or whatever .... No special anything.

Just people who can turn up as they are and worship as they feel moved (the point is....its SIMPLE)

No one under pressure to look like a corporate branded 'christian'.

I can think of many JWs over 60 yrs who would feel so 'left behind' .......