the cobe of the local kingdom hall never paid my ex-wife for the work done because they promised they would use "trade" to reimburse close to $5000 worth of work.
as you can imagine nobody here would like him because he believes all the pedophiles can change their ways after the child sex offenders have proved their humility by bowing before the judicial committees.
this is how honest jehovah's witnesses are, they changed her work from a 1200 sq.
You can try to file a claim in small claims court for the $5k and see what happens.
As to the taxes, sure, go ahead and report them. (Won't matter if they're exempt.)
And as to the dishonesty about the building permit, report that too.
Promoting enforcement of laws is perfectly ethical and effective.
i guess that's what a cult upbringing does to a child:.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3092457/boy-7-taken-away-parents-judge-rules-damaged-jehovah-s-witness-mother-s-religious-beliefs.html.
i apologize for how rantish this is but please hear me out.
anyways i'm a 15 year old girl and i've never really wanted to be a jw.
its just never been something thats made me feel happy or loved.
blackwolf, you have to hang in there until you're able to leave home safely when you're an adult. "Distress tolerance" techniques would help with coping with both your home situation and your ED.
People suck. Dubs suck harder. Journal about what it's like to be an actual good, healthy person--the opposite of dubs. What it's like to have a life worth living. How you're going to go about doing that.
you know about my not-so-ugly divorce and how me and my wife found out the religion is false.
she still attends while my 17 year old has been raging on me about all the wasted time he suffered from by being in this religion.
he think's his life is ruined, very angry we did not learn this was a cult earlier(he was 14 when he stopped attending after reading the revelation book, he said "in all time and history, how could a trumpet blown in revelation have anything to do with a jw bible student convention statement"?.
Anger is a normal stage of grief.
Acknowledge his feelings, apologize and help him reset his perceptions. 17 years old is a great time to build a life worth living, and he has plenty of time to do it.
after leaving the organisation 10 years ago i fought with everything i had to stay in my marriage and with my three children.
after a tumultuous number of years trying to maintain a happy family life while living in a divided home, it's finally over.
the religion is single handedly responsible for destroying my marriage and my family.
I am sorry. (( )) I hope for you that you are able to rebuild a life worth living very quickly and smoothly, with as little pain as possible.
Would you be able to take some time off and go somewhere new for a week, just to give yourself a mental change of venue? Somewhere peaceful or interesting, that fills your mind with the possibilities of a new life.
You have accomplished the division that your holy book brags about.
Well said.
for some background, i am still in.
still an elder.
very much awake.
I don't think you should directly point out your own reactions to the video. Instead:
"Wow, I am concerned interested ones may misinterpret this. As The Society has said for over 100 years, we do not ask for money. That is a mark of Babylon The Great. You can even find that message consistently stated throughout the literature 100 years ago, through the 1980s televangelist scandals, and up 'til now. Those televangelists had mansions and enormous, expensive churches that weren't needed. No, we're not like the other churches.
"Although Bro. Lett says this in the video, he later mentions how expensive the new _(unnecessary thing)___ costs and that they really want donations. He doesn't really make a case for why the ___(unnecessary, expensive, ridiculous planned purchase)___is really important. I'm so concerned interested ones will think we are the same as other churches."
so i went to get a burger just now, and a couple of elders from my former congregation caught me off guard.
they started giving me the we feel so sorry for you, you must be so lonely bit.
i kept telling them im doing great and im not lonely but its like they couldnt hear me talking.
if I go they can introduce me to them....They know I’ve been inactive for over a year so I have no idea why they would want to hook me up with a “Spiritual Sister”.
After I'd been inactive for several years, a bro invited me to go in field service.
And by 'inactive', I mean, "after saying very clearly that I would never return to the dubs".
Weirdos.
i was thinking about some of the old jw urban legends that we grew up with and believed in as jws.
most of the ones i remember revolved around stories about demons, and jws being "attacked" when they would do something wrong.
some of these legends scared the crap outta me when i was little.
^I should point out, I don't even have HIV and still the dubs said that. That really sounds more illogical than Westboro Church!
It's interesting, isn't it, that most cult fearmongering legends boil down to a few themes:
i was thinking about some of the old jw urban legends that we grew up with and believed in as jws.
most of the ones i remember revolved around stories about demons, and jws being "attacked" when they would do something wrong.
some of these legends scared the crap outta me when i was little.
Having a bleeding disorder and being an inferior gender in the jw cult was "interesting". The dubbies had a lot of whacked out fears about me.
"Hemo-philia" means "like/attract" and "blood" which means you like blood. Vampires like blood too. Therefore you are like a vampire. Vampires are demonic; therefore you may be possessed by demons.
Rasputin treated a hemophiliac boy using magic spells. Magic spells are from demons; you have a similar medical issue as that boy. Therefore you may be possessed by demons.
Much of this was sparked when the dubbies would see me having marathon nosebleeds at the kh and realizing it's impossible to not have a single drop go down your throat. And swallowing it instead of pouring it on the ground is a huge sin.
I was in my early teens when these things were said to me. Reprehensible.
Later, when HIV was identified, and some hemophiliacs had it, I was told I shared in the sin of gay men because they had the same disease. Obviously it was a curse from Jehovah. I was a virgin heterosexual girl.
I had blood products before becoming a dub (not while I was a dub) and they said I would be naturally sinful because I had other people's personalities inside my body from their blood.
They theorized I had so much innate sin coursing through my veins that Jehovah would not be able to allow me to survive through Armageddon--only through paying the wage of death could I be considered clean. (I was terrified of that but not sure they were correct.)
i was raised a jehovah's witness, so i know all the "ins-and-outs" of their theology and belief system..
in my view, they can become a part of mainstream christianity and lose their cult status by making just a few changes for the better:.
1: stop their severe shunning practices.
Just from the recent changes, I wonder if they are toying with the idea of becoming mainstream. The tv, website, cartoon characters, banners at conventions, dancing in the halls, etc. But they still seem very culty--dictating which hotels to use, colored socks, skinny pants.
If they go mainstream, they have to give up control. Has any cult gone mainstream before?
