after reading some experiences, i have found that this organization has had quite a big change in its operations within the last decade.
back when i was talking to the ocassional witnesses at a local hotspot i remember some of them having respectable intelligence.
what i want to know though is those who have been aquainted with who they felt were more educated and independent in thinking, how they handled the rapid changes.
Falling for a cult's tactics has nothing to do with intelligence. Some of us here are thought to be quite intelligent as well. Many of those here were very much IN the cult, myself included. I was all in.
I don't think that the massive changes led me out so much as they coincided with the natural progression that I was making internally that did.
do all potential converts have to take part in field service before baptism?
and do new members generally try to bring in their friends and family or do they generally keep their religion to themselves?
what do pioneers do if they're going door to door and chance on someone they know or work with in their personal lives?
Rebel nailed the first part, so I'll take the second.
are JWs still pushing bible study?
Yes. Let's face it though, they were always supposed to, and some just never progress past leaving magazines because it's easy. Most don't truly want to study with people. It's a lot of work and commitment.
Who pays for the magazines they distribute?
The people that leave them often pay for them. They are supposed to ask for donations, but that's uncomfortable, so many don't.
i don't mean to be blasphemous to the real god.
i just don't think the god of the bible is our actual god.
and i think the god of the bible is not very bright.. i was thinking about the flood the other day.
Great points. Why didn't Jehovah just use Noah's flood as Armageddon? You just killed off everyone on earth but the righteous, why not just get rid of Satan and his followers and start over? Why allow so many centuries of suffering thereafter? Really, what is left to prove?
okay, i posted this in a thread that got locked and buried.
since then i've been really busy and have overdosed on christmas music in the past week.
so, i'm resurrecting this "holy day" holiday that most people will unknowingly be celebrating tomorrow.
Ah, I just went looking for this to bump it and Heaven beat me to it. Merry Pantsmas everyone!
(As an aside, has anyone seen Billy lately? I hope he's doing well.)
you guys do know that if you just leave and never go back you wont be disfellowshiped right?
i know people who have done exactly this.
you have to commit a sin and you or someone else has to tell a elder.
Oh please, this troll has been allowed to play here and he isn't going to stop because people don't cuss at him, so I might as well say what I want. Makes me feel better. You guys are trying to reason with him. Do you really feel that your earlier remark Brand New wasn't feeding him? Your little dog is barking up the wrong tree here.
you guys do know that if you just leave and never go back you wont be disfellowshiped right?
i know people who have done exactly this.
you have to commit a sin and you or someone else has to tell a elder.
What a disingenuous trolling thread. There are so many stories of people disfellowshipped merely for no longer believing because someone told on them. My wife and I were shunned by both of our families for speaking to my disfellowshipped brother, disfellowshipped for living with a girl who he didn't have a relationship with other than giving her and her son a place to live after her boyfriend threw them out.
So take your beliefs, light them on fire, and gfy with them. You want to start threads about your ridiculous beliefs, go right ahead. You want to start threads poking at trauma suffered by members at the hand of your evil cult, go f $#! yourself.
due to last years success, i will post everything related to the 2017 regional convention in this thread.. to start us off.... thanks to exjw reddit user ich3b we have advance notice of the theme (this is not a joke!).
the theme for the 2017 regional convention is: "don’t give up!” .
as always, if you have access to confidential materials you would like to leak but need to protect your identity, pm me or email me: wifibandit1 (at) gmail.
Theme song should be Journey's doon't STOP, beleeevin'.......
i have been accused recently of "trying to direct my own step" because of my questioning the org and refusing to come back to the "truth" for the past 6 years.
i personally still believe in god, i just doubt that he is behind the jw org, that's all.
why is that so hard for jw's to understand?
If it doesn't belong to man to direct his step, then why are they trying to direct yours to follow men?
it's that time of the year again, when most people spend too much buying too much crap for people .... it's also a good time to take advantage of the few days off to look at your finances and make sure you're not being "gouged" by the big companies that, well, like to extract as much money from people as possible.. for us, one of the biggest culprits was telecoms.. think about it: years ago you just had to buy a tv and probably paid to have a phone line.
nowadays you have cell phones for everyone in the family and a million and one tv channels (all showing crap or repeats of crap) and extra for movies and pay-per-view.
you can easily be paying hundreds of dollars per month.. it can all add up, quickly.
First, I love this thread. Thanks for starting it Simon!
Here are some things that we've done over the years that have helped us:
1. Get a budget. Track what you spend. It doesn't have to be hard or expensive. We use YNAB (You Need A Budget) with the app on each of our phones. We put in everything that we spend into the appropriate category, and it is all tracked against the amount we have budgeted for that category to start the month. Just being intentional with your spending really helps. I believe we spent like $50 on YNAB and $5 for the app on each phone years ago. There may be better options today. I do know that there's a platform called EveryDollar that is free but has a premium version. It is a product by Dave Ramsey, the anti-debt guy that is so well known.
2. Speaking of anti-debt, if you can get out of debt by following Dave Ramsey's plan in the new year that really frees your money up. We worked like crazy people for 18 months to get rid of all of our debt, except the house. It was so freeing.
3. We also worked hard and built up a 6 month emergency fund, and we live one month ahead on our budget. Again, it relieves the pressure. And no, we aren't rich, nor do we have some profession that is particularly high paying. We clean houses. It was just a matter of buckling down and being willing to work like crazy people to build things up.
4. I've always heard that the beginning of the year is a great time to shop your insurances. I've yet to do so, but I will be doing so this year. You might find that you can save hundreds just by switching to another insurance company. Brokers are often the best to check with because they can shop from many companies instead of being captive to just one. Our health insurance just went up 2.5 times what we were paying because our old policy was discontinued and we now have to go into the Obamacare program. So that hurts a lot. Maybe we can save on our home or auto insurance somewhere and help a little bit.
5. My wife has a phone through Virgin Mobile. It costs $38 monthly and she bought the smartphone outright for $100 or so. I have a phone through Verizon prepaid that costs me $48 monthly and I too spent $100 or so for my phone. We have smartphones that do just about anything another one would do that costs more, but we don't buy the most marketed phones that cost a fortune. In the past we had two smartphones through Verizon on a contract and paid $160 monthly. We now pay half that. We have the wifi turned on our phones when at home so as to conserve data on our cellular plans.
6. Money is reflective of our behavior. Don't expect to change everything overnight. We have always struggled with spending too much on eating out. We work a lot and aren't always home to eat. Still, just bringing a lunch here or there helped. Then we figured out some things we could make and freeze at home that we can just pull out and heat up for a good quick meal at home with less work when we're tired. Small changes, over time, add up.
I'll post more if I can think of any. I'm the self-proclaimed king of driving cheap cars. I bought cars for $1800-$2500 that lasted me for years and years, driving them in our cleaning business every day. My wife finally convinced me to spend a little more and I dropped $3500 on a van that we've now had for several years with minimal problems. You don't have to spend a tone on a car. We never have a car payment. By going up a bit in price we got something that was a little newer and that had working AC. Still, we got a minivan that had 85,000 miles on it and we're now up close to 150,000. It has been great. You just have to know how to look and see cars more as utilitarian vehicles to get you from here to there instead of falling in love with a particular make or model or look.
Oh, we will also be investing for the first time this year so that we can retire someday. We will be putting money into index funds because they perform well (reflective of the S&P) and have no real fees to speak of like managed funds. We'll see how that goes, but it's a huge step for us.
maybe there will be a mass exodus from jws when thinking people read feb 2017 watchtower telling them the governing body stuff up, shouldnt expect correct/ perfect information and basically make up guff as they see fit.....ya reckon?.
This was said in the past and there was no mass exodus. Cult members be like "so what, look at how humble our leaders are". Nothing will change for most. It's always spun in their favor.
