How familiar this sounds to me. I don't think the JWs could cope with taking the time and care to obtain a "balanced" view of why people leave. The JWs have a vested interest in putting the most negative, and even sinister slant on someone's reasons for leaving. I used to think that other religious people were very unfair in the way they jumped to wrong conclusions about what JWs believed, until I began listening to what the JWs themselves were saying about "inactive" brothers and sisters. Seldom, if ever, did the JWs bother to check out the facts or listen to the other side of the story. It suited their closed-minds to judge and label and reflects a very defensive religious faith. "By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have judgement among yourselves!"
Posts by steve2
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9JW's are so quick to judge those who leave
by unbeliever inmajor shock i know.. i called mom back and told her she better get her facts straight.
telling people that someone abandoned their own children is a very serious accusation.
that really pissed me off.
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'This Generation'
by fairchild inyes, again... after reading numerous posts on this site and doing some research on my own, i have a strong feeling that my whole belief will soon stand or fall with the understanding of 'this generation'.. matthew 24:3 .."tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?".
matthew 24:7 for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.. matthew 24:34 truly i say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.. .
generation:noun: group of genetically related organisms constituting a single step in the line of descent noun: the normal time between successive generations example: "they had to wait a generation for that prejudice to fade".
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steve2
What comes through the various points of view is, there is more than one plausible way of viewing the concept of "this generation" (I happily concede that my very literal interpretation of Jesus's words about "this generation" is just one interpretation).
Where a belief system starts to come "unstuck", however, is when its proponents insist theirs is the only correct way to view the matter and then impose severe consequences on those who question it. A few centuries ago, the consequences were persecution and death, whereas today, the consequences are more psychological, but not necessarily any less devastating to those on the receiving end. All because one group elevates its current interpretations to the level of divine-led conclusions. Talk about human pride!
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'This Generation'
by fairchild inyes, again... after reading numerous posts on this site and doing some research on my own, i have a strong feeling that my whole belief will soon stand or fall with the understanding of 'this generation'.. matthew 24:3 .."tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?".
matthew 24:7 for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.. matthew 24:34 truly i say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.. .
generation:noun: group of genetically related organisms constituting a single step in the line of descent noun: the normal time between successive generations example: "they had to wait a generation for that prejudice to fade".
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steve2
So, what seemed to happen in the gospels, over the years of their composition, was an elaborate "re-write" because the end had not happened. It's called trying to explain THE DELAY. This is precisely what happens in our age when end-times religions realise the world still has not ended, despite confident assertions that it should have...by now.
One of the hardest lessons I faced after leaving the Witnesses was this: Because I needed something to be absolutely certain and beyond a shadow of a doubt, did not mean it ever would be. Groups like JWs thrive on the need for absolute clarity among its members who have been conditioned to have a very low threshold for ambiguity; that is, they need to have everything spelt out and explained and if it is not? Look out there's bound to be an existential crisis. Hence, the Governing Body obligingly re-interprets ancient texts and proclaims, "Now the light is brighter". Hey people, the emperor really is naked.
Part of getting on the road to recovery from all of this is learning to tolerate the basic simplicity of "scriptures": "This generation" was Jesus's generation. End of story...although, not the end of the world.
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High rates of depression in Org.
by chuckyy ini noticed after being a jw for a while that many members of my congregation were having to take antedepressants.
(i counted at least 30 out of 100).
after a few years i too began to have bouts of depression and problems with anxiety.
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steve2
Rod P: I have really appreciated reading though your posts and look forward to following through as you tell us more! steve2
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Special announcment 20 march fore JW ?
by happy man insomeone informed me today that in two months time there will be a "special announcement" to all congregations.
everyone must be present at the kingdom hall for it.
my elders already know what it is, but won't tell me.
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steve2
Blondie - amazingly detailed account of what the changes are likely to entail. It would be interesting to compare the direct references to 1914 in the new edition compared to the earlier one. I suspect that, over the years, the absolute number of direct references to 1914 in the literature would have declined (although, perhaps the more general references - e.g. "we're now deep into the time of the end" - make up for this). Now, if there's a knock on your door, Blondie, I don't suppose it would be the boys from Brooklyn asking you to proof-read the new edition?
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Those 'Convention Report' newspapers sold outside Convention grounds.......
by nicolaou inthey always have photographs of brother righteous and his theocraptic family!
the report on the convention has clearly been fed to the editors by some wt pr department to try and portray the fundies as a sane group of christians that you might like to join [shudders].. well if any of you can dig out the names of these papers and a contact address, fax or email then i'd be happy to work on short but revealing 'press release' that can be submitted for inclusion in the same issue of the paper 'in the interests of fairness and balance'.
most editors might actually welcome an opposing and controversial point of view.. what do you think?
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steve2
I don't know what it's like in other countries, but the days of widespread coverage of Watchtower conventions by the media seem to be over. On at least two occasions in recent years, the JWs have had their district
assembliesconventions in my city (Palmerston North) and I knew nothing about it - no newspaper coverage at all. I only found out later from my mother who had visits from her JW siblings who were in the city for the convention. Main nation-wide newspapers typically ignore these events with absolutely no coverage. -
71
'This Generation'
by fairchild inyes, again... after reading numerous posts on this site and doing some research on my own, i have a strong feeling that my whole belief will soon stand or fall with the understanding of 'this generation'.. matthew 24:3 .."tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?".
matthew 24:7 for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.. matthew 24:34 truly i say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.. .
generation:noun: group of genetically related organisms constituting a single step in the line of descent noun: the normal time between successive generations example: "they had to wait a generation for that prejudice to fade".
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steve2
Talk about the very human tendency to complicate things. Surely when Jesus was speaking to his disciples and said, "This generation..." that is precisely what he meant. Pure and simple. It seems that when something is predicted (or, to be kinder, prophesised) and it doesn't happen, loyal followers start to read things into otherwise straightforward statements. Bad move. From there on, things become more and more and more complicated. The absolutely hardest thing for believers in Christ to accept is the simplicity of his message.
In a nutshell: "This generation meant Jesus's generation".
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High rates of depression in Org.
by chuckyy ini noticed after being a jw for a while that many members of my congregation were having to take antedepressants.
(i counted at least 30 out of 100).
after a few years i too began to have bouts of depression and problems with anxiety.
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steve2
Popular illnesses:
Fibromyalgia (more sisters than brothers)
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (brothers tend to have this one more)
Severe allergies
I absolutely agree. Another way of looking at it is, if you have a physical illness, the JWs tended to be very understanding compared with having a more emotional- or psychological "problem". So, some seem to have learnt that the most harmless way to fade away is to develop physical ailments. I'm not suggesting that those diagnosed, say, with CFS, are faking it. However, it is also a matter of clinical research that people "carry" chronic stress in their bodies, which actually leads to physical ailments of one kind or another.
I am sure that, if the watchtower society announced that you could be a totally acceptable person in Jehovah's eyes and not need to door-knock, the overall health of the majority of Jehovah's Witnesses would suddenly improve. I acknowledge that, in each congregation, there are a handful of JWs whose health would probably be in jeopardy if they couldn't door knock. As they say, it takes all kinds!
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Special announcment 20 march fore JW ?
by happy man insomeone informed me today that in two months time there will be a "special announcement" to all congregations.
everyone must be present at the kingdom hall for it.
my elders already know what it is, but won't tell me.
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steve2
The last organized book was released the same way. So it makes sense.
When was the last organized book released?
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Those 'Convention Report' newspapers sold outside Convention grounds.......
by nicolaou inthey always have photographs of brother righteous and his theocraptic family!
the report on the convention has clearly been fed to the editors by some wt pr department to try and portray the fundies as a sane group of christians that you might like to join [shudders].. well if any of you can dig out the names of these papers and a contact address, fax or email then i'd be happy to work on short but revealing 'press release' that can be submitted for inclusion in the same issue of the paper 'in the interests of fairness and balance'.
most editors might actually welcome an opposing and controversial point of view.. what do you think?
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steve2
I remember how naive I was: I thought the newspaper journalists and photographers were really interested in publishing big front-page stories about how special we were, until a friend in the newspaper industry shared with me that the special editions sold outside convention grounds were different from those distributed more widely to residents of the city. It was nothing more than a good business ploy to suck in the JW conventioners so they'd buy extra copies. Remember how the Watchtower used to quote from these articles, crowing about how special Jehovah's people were? I get goosebumps just thinking about it...not.