Terry, I loved that! It did make me think some of my grandfather Elijah. Yes, his name was Elijah. He was born in 1885 and was a follower of CT Russell. All I ever knew about him was that he was considered an apostate and that he was somehow into 'spiritism' He died of TB in 1966 and it was the only time I saw my grandmother cry. Mind you, I loved my grandma dearly. My JW aunts used to tell me how they would cross the street when they saw him and later, my only non JW aunt blamed him for bringing the scourge of the JW religion into our family. I mostly just wish I could have known him and talked to him. He was actually college educated but, as one of my aunts described him, one of the original hippies in that he chose a life of anti establishment over the status quo. I really think I would have loved this man. I only remember him shortly before he went into a TB sanitarium as a little smiling (toothless) man who I decided I liked as a 7 year old child.
fiddler
JoinedPosts by fiddler
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37
The story of a secret Apostate Anointed
by TerryWalstrom inthe remarkable sister pettifog.
this morning i arrived on my bicycle at the local starbucks early, before the intensity of the texas sun boiled to full blaze rendering me a soggy, wrung out mess.. i took up my perch on the outdoor patio in the shade, eager to work on my book of short stories.
this will be my 3rd book and i’ve been enjoying the process daily.. .
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What is the current suicide and mental illness rate among JWs and previous members
by 060702015 inthere seems to be no current data on this information and there is questions concerning the validation of past data.
apparently there is high rate of mental illness and suicide.
jehovahs witnesses suicide rate 5 to 10 times above average.
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fiddler
I was born into the JW religion and experienced my own mental health decline due to constantly having to deal with the cognitive dissonance. Before I left I really just wanted to die. The 'new system' was not a happy prospect for me to contemplate knowing that many family members, good neighbors, good people were going to be destroyed by my so called 'loving God'. That part of their theology in itself is a recipe for mental health disorders and don't tell me they don't teach the destruction of billions today. We only have to listen to the JW broadcast and governing body members to hear that mass genocide of the human population us still being shoved into the brains of the 'sheep'. ...human hotdogs anybody???
I also observed many depressed individuals from sisters to elders. I've wondered if the mentally unwell are drawn to this religion in fact. They would call them 'the sighing and crying ones..'.
I would call them depressed. These are people who can't cope with life. They are people often living with the consequences of their own bad choices. To hear that 'God will fix it all AND bring back their dead loved ones AND you that they can live forever and pet lions AND panda bears, SIMULTANEOUSLY just appeals to their every desire! Sure, there are also a few educated people that fall for that bait as well but by and large, it is the less educated and depressed.
The rest are born in. My grandmother started our family in the religion straight out of the Great Depression! I think many 3rd and 4th generation witnesses came from that background. And there you have it!
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Jesus Knows the Day & Hour Now?
by KillerJones ini was skimming the july 2016 wt study article and came across a paragraph indicating that, despite scriptural evidence, the governing body indeed feels that god's son now knows the exact day and hour of armageddon.
is this 'new light'?
from the second study article, page 14, pgh 4:.
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fiddler
Saw a "Jesus is coming soon" sign on a 7th Day Adventist church yesterday. The end timers are channeling the same propaganda. Have to get back to them in a couple of years; 2, 5, 10 maybe and ask the to clarify what they mean by 'soon'
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The best way for a witness to wake up, is to simply read the societies own older publications!
by stuckinarut2 inonce again the society is on a push to scare witnesses away from doing any research, or "stumbling" upon any "apostate" material (from workmates, neighbors, or online).
however, the most enlightening, mind blowing and eye opening things are found simple by reading the early publications themselves!.
read how ct russel, (the supposed channel god was using) had the most far fetched and laughable ideas, such as obtaining pivotal dates by measuring the pyramids of egypt!...
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fiddler
Blonde, you nailed it "it takes time to marinate"! As I was reading tor1500's post I was thinking a lot said in that post sounded like me in the 1980's thru 1990's. I was not trying to find fault with the organization? I was trying to strengthen my own faith. The Greatest Man book really got me reading the gospel accounts about Jesus much more closely and then I started using the law of Love as a measuring standard for everything I was seeing in the congregations and reading in the literature. I did start going back over old publications like the Commentary on James...boy did I get blasted for bringing up That book by one of the pioneers! I had no idea why she was so adamant against a publication that was, to me 'spiritual food', set out by the governing body for us. There was nothing in that little book that was not scriptural and that went against the law of love, in fact, it reinforced the kind of love I felt Jesus was trying to teach. I found out years later that Ray Franz had a big hand in that little book. No wonder ms. Pioneer was so miffed! Anyway, as has been noted, all those little things are part of the marinade but boy, what an 'aha moment' when it all came together!
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Instruction Manual for Life
by skeeter1 ini saw this on another jw forum, and thought it summed me (and likely you) up without using religion or jws.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaiprrzvnjg.
instruction manual for life [cc] 40 videos subscribe603,832 like add to share uploaded by theramintrees on dec 22, 2008. piano score written/performed by qualiasoup.
http://www.youtube.com/qualiasoup.
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fiddler
Thankyou for bumping these! Although I was around 5 years ago, I missed this.
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To the lurkers: This cult of a religion keeps killing my marriage over and over
by goingthruthemotions infirst let me say, if i could turn back time and never get involved with this cult.
i would.. to the lurkers: .
if you on the fence and could leave.
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fiddler
Gttm, all you say is true. Vent away. I sometimes wonder what life would have been like without the cult; if we'd have gotten out sooner. My husband left first (1998) then he died (2001) of cancer. I wonder sometimes if it was the religion that killed him. The cult of JW sucks all will, life, and personal power out of a person. Killing a person's spirit would understandably lead to dis-ease and death.
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You must not say Gee, Gee wiz, or Golly
by Truth and Justice inbefore i start my subject post, i like to extend a warm welcome to all the new members that have joined the site.
i just can't keep up with all the new names.
nice to see all of you here.. i haven't posted anything in a while because of work, scheduling and everything else, but i do have some interesting thoughts that i would like to share with all of you in the coming months.
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fiddler
Not watching Indiana Jones because of the scene involving the name Jehovah! I never heard of that but I am going to assume that The Life of Brian was also off limits for At Least the stoning scene 😆 And how about the very wholesome movie Pollyanna? Had a great hell fire and damnation sermon in it where the name Jehovah was invoked. Whatever, all the Petty rules dished out at meetings, assemblies and or just by holier than thou elderettes was so repressive and ridiculous!
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The Bread Illustration (Feb 16 Broadcast) - Massive Contradiction
by fizzle inso... bro flodin puts poison onto the first loaf of bread and says that this pictures someone "sinning against the holy spirit".
he then puts the bread into the trash can stating that jehovah completely discards anyone "sinning against the holy spirit"... meaning they cannot ever be forgiven...he says that the pharisees "sinned against the holy spirit" because they denied indisputable evidence of the operation of jehovah's holy spirit displayed by jesus... therefore jehovah would completely discard them... no way back for them.. fast forward a little... we have the bible character stephen...acts 6:8 says: now stephen, full of divine favor and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.so stephen was showing indisputable evidence of the operation of jehovah's holy spirit.now we come to the bible character paul (saul)... he was a pharisee.paul would have seen stephen in action... witnessing the indisputable evidence of the operation of jehovah's holy spirit first hand!yet paul not only waged war against all christians but he personally approved the killing (stoning) of stephen.according to the bread illustration paul should have been discarded by jehovah at this point for "sinning against the holy spirit"... he would have been put in the trash can... no way back at all...but what happened according to the bible?
jesus appeared to him on the road to damascus... he became one of the most zealous apostles in bible history with jehovah's full support!so what on earth is the bread illustration all about?
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fiddler
Paul undoubtedly came up against a lot of different feelings and interpretations of Jesus' words in his time. Even Paul's own interpretations could easily have been called into question...he was, after all, After Jesus. Just because Paul said 'this or that' doesn't make his words the 'word of God'. Just because the governing body says 'this or that' doesn't make them inspired. Using gross visual imagery to influence heavily indoctrinated cult members that they should avoid being with their unbelieving family members is....well, Cult like.
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Just realized this recently - as a JW, I never "owned" any of my accomplishments or talents & abilities....
by Muddy Waters injust realized this recently - as a jw, i never "owned" any of my accomplishments or talents & abilities....we were always told how we are nothing, just specks of dust, grasshoppers, worms.... lowly, despicable sinners in need of redemption, born into sin & misery, constantly facing temptations that we could never handle on our own but only with "jehovah's help"... so we were continually marginalized, all our abilities and talents... they would even quote scriptures that said things like "why should we boast as if we didn't receive these abilities..?
"it was a weird mentally psychotic dichotomy -- being told we were worthless sinners, undeserving of god's kindness -- and on the other hand being the only ones who would survive the great day of jehovah the almighty god at armageddon.
(well, probably, maybe, if we did enough and *kept* doing enough...)so we didn't "own" any of our abilities and accomplishments.
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fiddler
This thing of 'honoring' our natural gifts and talents is a huge point to make! Thank you MUddy Waters for posting this. As a born in JW I had a love for music ever since I can remember. When I was 9 years old I fell in love with the violin and although Teachers noticed I had a gift for it; almost perfect pitch, it was just a side thing and 'hobby' as far as JWs went. Even when I tried to just offer my playing at a 'get together' as a gift or just a nice offering to the occasion, it was almost as if I was discouraged from it...when I played there was generally no comment or if there was it was a 'won't it be nice in the new system to persue your musical interest?' I kept my music in my life private pretty literally 'in the closet' and all through marriage and motherhood that's where it stayed. Later I finally started finding outlets to play (worldly) as my kids got older. It was then that I started to hear encouraging comments and people actually wanting me to play. Then I started teaching and the rest is...well, getting to know all these 'wordly' people in their homes and in the community The break from the cult was inevitable for me. I was 41 when I finally came out of the closet...years lost where I could have been working with other musicians and honing my skills. I know my story is not at all unique in the ex JW experience. I try not to be bitter and am glad I got out when I did but every now and then, when I'm with my fellow music teachers and such, I still find the low self esteem and a feeling of being a fake creep in.
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Living Through the Brief Liberalization of Jehovah's Witnesses, Never Recovering
by TMS inwith the book crisis of conscience detailing the turbulence at bethel during the early to mid 70's, the transformation from autocratic rule to governance by committee or a body of men, many of us can speak to how that felt among the rank and file of the local congregations during those years.
we learned new concepts based in large part to research done for the aid to bible understanding volume, then we were asked or coerced into unlearning those principles, going back to the old ways.
some of us never readjusted, finding ourselves very different from our more hardline compadres.. the inertia for the changes that eventually were initiated in the congregations came from the discovery that the greek words episkopos and presbyteros were used biblically to refer to all qualified men in a congregation, not just one.
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fiddler
As I said earlier in this thread, this thread was so enlightening as to what happened in th 1970's to 1980's. It truly was a different time for JWs and for those of us who came into it during those years it explains quite well why so many of us are now here. I was actually born into it in the late 1950's and remember well the Babylon The Great book in the 60's but it was early 70's that I made my dedication to a JW religion that no longer exist! They'd have to 'study' with me all over again to accept the religion as 'truth' today...fat chance good luck with that!