@Mia T -. First, welcome. Second, I think that as JWs we were told that we could (or should) control everything. So when something spins out in life it makes us feel out of control whether or not it was ours to affect. They create control freaks both because they held out unrealistic goals of perfection but also because they took control of us and made us look for control anywhere we could get it. Cults work black magic on the mind.
dubstepped
JoinedPosts by dubstepped
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119
Jehovah's Witness Recovery is no more...
by TimeBandit ini just tried to go to the site and there is a goodbye message.
i was a member there since 2010. i was really surprised.
i had just started posting there again after being away for a while.
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119
Jehovah's Witness Recovery is no more...
by TimeBandit ini just tried to go to the site and there is a goodbye message.
i was a member there since 2010. i was really surprised.
i had just started posting there again after being away for a while.
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dubstepped
That seems like a really crappy thing to do to people that have already had the rug pulled out from beneath them and a loss of social contact. I'm not sure you could handle that much worse. Sorry for you guys that lost your group again. :(
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ANNOUNCEMENT
by COLLINS ina wonderful announcement to my friends in the forum.
i am no longer one of jehovah's witnesses.
in the month of may 2016 i wrote my resignation letter and gave it to the elders in my congregation.
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dubstepped
Good for you Collins! Be safe. It sounds like your parents could cause you trouble. You're free of the cult. Now you may need to get free of your parents.
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EdenOne, Mrs. Eden & Son: DISASSOCIATED!
by EdenOne ingreat news!.
we are free!.
as of the 9th of june, me and my dear wife mrs. eden handed over our letters of disassociation at bethel in portugal, thus making official our departure from the jehovah's witnesses.
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dubstepped
So awesome! My wife and I DA'd last September. Glad to see three more out. Life is about to get a lot better for you all of you. Celebrate your freedom and that weight that has been lifted. You can breathe free now.
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20
I feel frustrated
by BlackWolf inhello all, things for the most part have been somewhat better for me because my parents haven't talked about baptism or anything recently.
i got a scholarship to go to art camp for a few weeks which has been fun (since its free, my parents didn't refuse) but it has also been very nervewracking for me.
i haven't been around any non jws for more than a year and its like being in a different world, a world where people are actually real and genuine and not mindless drones.
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dubstepped
I'm assuming at camp that your parents aren't watching your every move, so make camp friends at camp. Chances are you'll all drift away once you go your separate ways, but you'll have a better time at camp if you just be friendly. If they want to do something you can't do with your parents outside of camp, just tell them that you'd love to but can't because your religion doesn't allow you to.
I'm sorry it is so frustrating. Of course it would be. JW's don't make anything easy.
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"Shunning" - now a Watchtower word?
by slimboyfat ini know jws have long used the word "shun" in a general sense, as in "shun what is bad".
but i think they have long avoided using the word in relation to disfellowshipping.
in external media or literature wherever the word "shunning" was used in a piece about jws it was usually a good indication it was critical of watchtower and not a neutral or supportive commentary.
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dubstepped
Oh yeah, shunning was formerly an apostate word. They would claim to not shun. Now they're making the shun their own.
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47
Why are some that post here JW apologists?
by ctrwtf inmy rant tonight is against the quasi religious apologists that post on this board.
those who at once rail against the jw's then later talk about how "orderly" and "neat" the witnesses are at their conventions.
those who site the benefits of bloodless surgery to some who have the luxury and time to actually make an educated choice, while ignoring the tens of thousands who've died because they happen to be in an accident or succumb to a disease for which there is no other treatment.. i understand the power of cognitive dissonance.
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dubstepped
DoubtfullyYours - ........I can easily see that the good far outweighs the bad........
Unless I'm misunderstanding somehow, how can you possibly say this? Yes, the JW's dress nice and there are nice people in the organization, but they aren't necessarily more moral than anyone else (the horror stories abound like anywhere else). They don't do charitable work, even in times of natural disaster choosing primarily to help their own. Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of families are estranged due to their rules. People live in a system of fear and control in the organization, many surviving on "pills and prayers", according to one famous talk by a Brother Mack. Kids are brought up isolated from the world at large and end up ostracized. They're then pushed into baptism whereby they risk being forever ostracized from their families at some point in the future. Time that could be spent recreationally is devoted to mindless door knocking and I can't tell you how many times I wished my dad would do something with us but he had meetings as an elder to go to. Most new members come from growing families or friends of friends, not helping hurting people in the world and bringing them in. Suicide happens often, so they aren't protected from that. People die refusing blood transfusions. They die because the organization makes arbitrary rules and won't let them get a party card in their country. So many lives ran off into a ditch because of Jehovah's Witnesses, but they're often out of sight and out of mind.
Where is all of this good that far outweighs the bad? I'm not being daft. I'm serious. When I lived my little JW life in a bubble it seemed great, but that's just because the dissonance wouldn't allow me to see things as they really were. I knew in the back of my mind that this wasn't right, and that wasn't right, but look at us being Jehovah's happy people, his clean people, blah blah blah. It sounds great, but it simply wasn't true.
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47
Why are some that post here JW apologists?
by ctrwtf inmy rant tonight is against the quasi religious apologists that post on this board.
those who at once rail against the jw's then later talk about how "orderly" and "neat" the witnesses are at their conventions.
those who site the benefits of bloodless surgery to some who have the luxury and time to actually make an educated choice, while ignoring the tens of thousands who've died because they happen to be in an accident or succumb to a disease for which there is no other treatment.. i understand the power of cognitive dissonance.
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dubstepped
@Fisherman - I was a JW and they are evil AND a cult.
And please tell me you didn't just link JW and analytical thinking together in the same sentence. Come on man, there's no ability in the Kingdom Halls of today to do anything more than point to jw.borg.
Basically saying "b...b...b...but Christendom is MORE evil" is really lame. Whether you're a serial killer or just an everyday murderer, you still suck at life. JW's aren't the moral, clean people you and other apologists clearly think them to be. Put down the brainwasher and start using some of that analytical thinking about the religion you're clearly in. Don't believe your own hype.
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47
Why are some that post here JW apologists?
by ctrwtf inmy rant tonight is against the quasi religious apologists that post on this board.
those who at once rail against the jw's then later talk about how "orderly" and "neat" the witnesses are at their conventions.
those who site the benefits of bloodless surgery to some who have the luxury and time to actually make an educated choice, while ignoring the tens of thousands who've died because they happen to be in an accident or succumb to a disease for which there is no other treatment.. i understand the power of cognitive dissonance.
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dubstepped
Some here have spent a lifetime in the cult and are still active in it. Their lives revolve around it still. Since they haven't taken a stand against it, it only stands to reason that on some level they may be for it in some circumstances. You can't keep drinking the Kool-Aid and not have it impact you. Indoctrination session after session will impact one's thoughts and feelings.
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Is shunning unscriptual?
by MrTheocratic ininternational version 1 cor 5:11. but now i am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.
do not even eat with such people.. if shunning is wrong.
.how does one explain this scripture?.
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dubstepped
I'm none of those things in the scripture, yet I'm shunned. A person that fornicates once, gets DF'ed, then goes on to live a very moral life is still shunned forever unless he comes back to the cult. What constitutes a "brother or sister"? Only a person in the same faith? If so once a person leaves that verse gas no further hold. Why are greedy people still non-shunned JWs? Or drunkards, and we all knew brothers and sisters that drank too much at least once, which is apparently all it takes where sex is concerned, right?
That verse is so full of holes. That's the problem with taking verses and creating rules. What about Jesus saying to forgive 77 times? Pick and choose to support whatever you want. It's so easy with the Bible. It's not consistent whatsoever.