Posts by cyber-sista

27

July WT. Contradicts Itself Regarding "Unbelievers"

by minimus in

jw
friends

i was reading the july wt.

at my mother's yesterday and the qfr asked about who should and shouldn't be viewed as an "unbeliever".

if a person was attending meetings and might even be an "unbaptized publisher" they should not be considered an "unbeliever".

cyber-sista

I took my daughter to the meetings since she was a little girl ( a bad decision on my part). She never became a publisher or was she baptized. Since I had promised my unbelieving hubby that it would always be her choice, I didn't push her. (Well, maybe just a little) Anyway, she kept on being badgered all through her teen years by the elders and others to get baptized before it was too late and sometimes it would put her in tears. She would tell me she just wasn't sure about what she wanted to do and didn't feel it in her heart enough to get bapitized.

When she became an adult she didn't attend meetings as much anymore, but still maintained some of her friendships with those she was raised up with in the Org--this being quite natural as these were the only ones she had associated with since childhood.

My daughter met a man who she fell in love with who was not a JW and they planned on being married. My husband and I liked the guy, our daughter was happy and afterall it was her choice as an adult--right? Well, not according to what happened over the next months before the wedding.

Without veering too far off the subject going into all the painful details and many months of elder badgering the bottom line was this: The elders got together and under the direction of the CO they prayed over the matter and came to the conclusion (through holy spirit) they determined that even though she was not a publisher nor was she baptized she was a Jehovah's Witness in her heart and therefore accountable (they wanted to make an example out of her). Of course you could argue that only Jehovah judges hearts, but the elders said that they were judges for Jehovah and when they determine something by holy spirit it is almost always right (the elder did use the term "almost always") The conclusion of the matter was that I had not given her the councel she needed to prevent this from happening (blame blame) and was therefore accountable for not giving the councel. The elders told me that if she wanted to get married she should be looking for a brother. The catch 22 was that she was not qualified to marry a brother...The answer was "Well, if she finds a brother she likes then maybe that will spur her on to getting baptized."

After months of my family being bashed by the elders (with little respect shown for my unbelieving husband or my daughters rights in the matter) I wrote the society a letter and received this one back. The elders read it too, but disagreed with it and wrote their own letter, which they received an answer to sometime later. They told me the second letter agreed with their point of view. I never saw letter # 2 but the society is not consistent, I know that much--sorry about this attachment being so large--can't seem to get it right and now I can't get rid of it...

40

The Surreal JW Horror show our agony and anguish

by Undaunted Danny in

the anguish and the agony of having to renounce the lifelong convictions of one's heart.the surreal horror to know that it was all a lie!

for the 33 years that i was a j-ho,the central theme of discussion among active jehovah's witnesses was their inescapable mortality.here i am 47 years old and the onset and onrush of middle-age can be overwhelming and devastating.

when they die they don't go to heaven.many like myself,squandered our youth for the watchtower.years of are vital prime spent in the borg are gone now forever.

cyber-sista

Yeah. This is NOT healthy psychological behavior. Just want to point that out folks.
B.

True Logan, but I don't think a lot of us here are healthy because of our experiences with the WT Org. Many of us have been left broken and bleeding. We are the discarded products of the WT Org and some of us are very upset about that. We are trying to put ourselves back together and to become human again--it is hard to know how to do it right sometimes.

40

The Surreal JW Horror show our agony and anguish

by Undaunted Danny in

the anguish and the agony of having to renounce the lifelong convictions of one's heart.the surreal horror to know that it was all a lie!

for the 33 years that i was a j-ho,the central theme of discussion among active jehovah's witnesses was their inescapable mortality.here i am 47 years old and the onset and onrush of middle-age can be overwhelming and devastating.

when they die they don't go to heaven.many like myself,squandered our youth for the watchtower.years of are vital prime spent in the borg are gone now forever.

cyber-sista

I can relate to where Danny is coming from. Just being on this site we are all here blasting the WT in one way or another and we all have a different style in doing so. Danny puts a lot of passion behind it ,because like so many others he has lost so much to the Org. Maybe those who have lost less can be less passionate about it. In the Org we were trained to curb our passions and to stuff in all down. We denied our human emotions. We were told who we could love and who we could not love. I got hurt so bad by this Organization I almost took my life over it. I am trying to get past the pain, but after over 20 years of programming I still have a lot of junk to sort through. We are all here to heal and to help others to heal and to expose the WT Org for what it has done to ourselves and others. It's not over because we know there are many who continue to suffer under the WT regime.

Go for it Danny,

cybs

62

YESTERDAY'S ASSEMBLY SUCKED........

by Mary in

jw
friends

well, i got dragged, kicking and screaming talked in to going to the assembly yesterday as a friend of mine was in the drama.

what a freaking waste of time interesting experience.

first of all, i had a tough time squeezing my larger than life ass bum into a seat that looked like it was made for a house-elf small child.

cyber-sista

Thanks Mary,

I needed a few laughs this morning. Your accounting of the assembly experience was unbelievable, but as we all know ever so true...

Love,

cybs

22

From God's Hands To Yours

by TD in

jw
friends

without a doubt the most time-worn excuse of jw's when it comes to errors, omissions and failures of the jw parent organization goes something like this:i only ask that things be put in perspective and to also realize that the writers of the society are not inspired.. .

the statement above is certainly true.

the writers for the society certainly are not inspired.

cyber-sista

If the WT is not inspired then how come its members are supposed to obey it to the letter? This was spelled out for me loud and clear in a letter from the society giving me directions in the form of old WT articles. The elders did the same. If you are not obeying the words of the WT you are not obeying the words of God--that was their message loud and clear...

PS. It didn't work to argue that point with them.

24

Silentlambs.org Uploading WT Documents Drawing Gasps By Denver Audience.

by allpoweredup in

part of email sent out from silentlambs.org regarding jw elders abetting child molestation at watchtower direction:.

william h. bowen addressed the (denver snap) conference on the topic, ?is it possible jw?s are far worse than main stream religion when dealing with child abuse??

never-before-seen material was presented to show the extent of the problem to gasps from the audience.

cyber-sista

Hoping the media gets its hands on this and runs with it. A good expose is what is needed right now. The WT has been telling too many lies and causing too much pain and destruction for too long...

32

When do the nightmares end?

by EyeDrEvil in

jw
friends

just a question for the board's input.... background information:.

my wife, raised in a jw home, very popular elder as her father, living through the entire 1975 thing ("honey don't worry about passing 7th grade.

next year will be the new system..."), but beat up for years by the mind-control and spiritual abuse by the wts.... she has recently officially da'd from the society this spring, had her first birthday party ever (a huge blast of a great time!).

cyber-sista

The Nightmares are healthy; they are the monsters of the ID breaking free from all the mumbo jumbo you've been told all your life. Once they break out of their unconscious prison and run away they just don't ever come back. I find I'm not longer afraid of the dark and can't get scared in horror movies anymore! It is all nonsense now and not boogeymen demons spying on me!
It is wonderful to be free. Rejoice in it. Embrace the fleeing nightmares and kiss them goodbye.
Terry

Enoyed your post Terry--great insight--would love to hear more from you. I still have nightmares, but not as many as I did when I first left the Org.

cybs

115

Love Is... The Meaning of Life!

by FMZ in

jw
friends

"one word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.

" sophocles (496 bc - 406 bc).

love is as old and timeless as life itself.

cyber-sista

Great bumper sticker that stuck in my head when I was leaving the Org after fighting their conditional love program.

IF NOT FOR LOVE THEN WHY?

49

HELP ME! I cant cope with this anymore.

by chok in

for those of you that remember the story a couple of weeks ago about my 4 year old daughter that declared us a witness free zone to her grandparents (my extremely devout parents!!!

) well the little minx strikes again.

i have just got off the phone from my mother.

cyber-sista

chok,

I am so sorry. I am going through some of these sorts of things with some of my relationships with those still in the Org. Also seeing a psycologist who has advised me that the healthiest thing to do in these situations is to set up boundaries. As many of us have learned it is almost fruitless to debate with a hard core JW--they won't listen to reason. So the best thing to do is just to come up with some broken record one liners such as: "It is best if we don't talk about religion anymore" "Or I can no longer discuss religious issues with you as I have my own beliefs about things and you have yours." You can repeat your lines over and over again. Eventually they will leave it alone. That is sometimes the only thing you can do in your defense. It helps to alievate some of the busy thinking--always trying to come up with an answer to every given situation such as "what will I say if they say this or that" Just come up with one or two good lines that just blankets the whole situation and use them whenever you need to. It frees up a lot of space in the head and reduces the stress a lot.

Hope that helps,

Love, cybs

20

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 6-20-04 WT Study (5-1-04 issue)

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 6-20-04 wt study (5-1-04 issue)(abbreviated)

only these are my fellow workers for the kingdom of god, and these very ones have become a strengthening aid to me.

imagine it took 6 years before they called on that inactive couple!.

cyber-sista

For the longest time, I thought our case was an isolated one - that "our" elders didn't give a $h!t about "us". I felt guilty that there was something lacking in "us" that caused "our" elders to not give a $h!t about "us" as a family, or even about "me" as a person. I owe so many people here a debt of gratitude for sharing their own similar experiences, because they helped me realize that it wasn't us that were lacking, it was them. Love, Scully

DITTO!!!