i am reading crisis of conscience and am wondering what goes through people's minds when they read it, i am on about page 115. i find it slow reading because of the way it is written.
even though i have been out of the org for going on 20 years, i am a little shocked at some of the stuff i'm reading and i feel like it shouldn't shock me.
i remember when i was a jw, how the governing body was put on a pedestal; everyone assumes they spend all their time studying and praying over matters from a scriptural standpoint.
i give c.o.c. 10 out of 10.
brilliant to have explained to me how i never used my own brain.
now that i do i can see all the b.s. that was dealt me for 23 years.
i am about to start to read christian freedom, if it is only half as good as his c.o.c. ill be well satisfied.
mr.alw.
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ok, i'm bored and it's only 5:30 friday night.. i've got no kids till monday mornin.. what am i to do???.
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lehaa, you will really enjoy the c.o.c.
im about ot start his other one christian freedom, as my wife is now on the last ch.
saw cellular the other week,pretty good too. you should try "forgotten" next that was enjoyable.
well ill have to go now,the films about to start.see ya! mr.alw
this is a response from one of my best friends in the whole wide world who is way "in" in the org.. it's amazing how for such an intelligent, reasonable man that doesn't agree with many of the tenets of the wts party line, ultimately he still tows the party line for the most crucial jw doctrine.... the role of the fds as the sole "channel" for "god".
i knew it was inevitable... he is the only dub that so far hasn't shunned me..... the following is an excerpt of his personal letter to me.... please read it and critique it.
(highlight are mine).
upside down, congrats on your efforts to help your friend.
he replied to you exactly as i thought he would, i would have made the same excuses myself a year ago, and i agree when someone said he wouldnt go near c.o.c. with a 10ft. bargepole.not that you should give up on him, no, i think you are doing a great job breaking down the barriers.
you are at the very least making him think, you can never tell how his mind will be turning over these issues.maybe someday in the future he too will be made to think due to some upset in his own life.
right now his life is probably sweet, no worries as we say over here.a lot of us here were happy to go along with all the lies for a long time, then,bang out of nowhere,we are attacked by an occasion that shatters the whole illusion,then we start to question,question, question, and hopefully when that time comes for him you will be there for him.
great post keep it up.mr.alw.
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ok, i'm bored and it's only 5:30 friday night.. i've got no kids till monday mornin.. what am i to do???.
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lehaa, its 7.15 here so you still have time to read this post and turn your telly on for 8.30 if you like a good murder mystery,"wire in the blood" no, nothing to do with the blood issue,its on abc.
i dont know how far behind our time you are, or in fact you may be ahead.
or maybe a rental video, we watched nic cage in "national treasure" last night, pretty good.no lust, gore, sex, blood,swearing, maybe it was a bit boring!!!!! lol
anyhow have a fab weekend,mr.alw
i have been thinking about this for a while, so here goes.
when i was in the "truth" i truly believed in god, i prayed and tried to do what was right ( wt style) then when i started reading stuff and the experiences on here it didnt take very long before i knew the "truth" wasnt true after all.. so after 20 years as an adult that i spent in, it litrually took a few hours to come out.. ive asked myself how and why did this happen?
and so quickly.. at first i felt i still believed in jehovah, but if the wt was wrong, where did that leave me.
vitty, i understand you perfectly.
like you i entered the truth,(lie) as an adult, and was in for 22 years, and yes once one starts to see another angle to it all it doesnt take long to exit, if only in your mind.
i was never what you would call religous before the jws, but i did pray to god often and i felt i had a close relationship with him.especially in times of unrest i would make special efforts to pray to him and i always felt better.
when i joined the jws i thought my relationship would grow even more, however the longer i was in the more distant i felt to god. maybe it is that :were never good enough" attitude we were were bashed with all the time.
i remember giving prayers at meets, studies,even at home with my family and feeling very inadequate, and almost robotic, the closeness i once had had gone.
also like you i feel my faith in a god of any desciption is lacking now due to the anger, and hurt felt by being duped by the org. some here still have a strong faith in god, and thats good for them but for me im not sure anymore,im still dealing with a lot of issues.i feel like im in "no mans land"
good post vitty, thanks for sharing. mr.alw
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try this one on for size.
my dad who owns a busisness...was told he could not do any work for the local catholic church or school...( he had just gotten a big for them)...and he came to find out the elder that forced this issue..( to the co )...himself signed a contract to do all...the churches work...( two diffrent feilds of work they were not in comption with other) my dad has written a letter to the wtbs.....wonder if it will help...what do you think...donald
donald, your dads letter wont mean a thing, he will be lucky to get a reply.
over the years i too refused work on churches, and local tab,(betting shop so as not to stumble other dubs.what a joke. once i remember an elder cautioning me from eating weetabix breakfast cereal, why? because its owned by nabisco, the 7th day adventists church,i still eat it, when i feel like it .
tell your dad when he stands before the pearly gates he will be accounting for HIS conscience not anybody elses. hope he has enough work without that contract. regards mr.alw
....................our great mate ozzie is sick in hospital.
he isn't able to post so i am the go-between for the moment.. if you want more details or contact information pm me and i will make sure it's ok with the ozzies to forward those details to you.. ozzie is a tough dude and having known him for many years i am confident he will be back on board before too long!.
please be patient with me as i work and can only check my pms in the evenings.
c,mon ozzie, c,mon, c,mon, c,mon ozzie, c,mon.
hope you get well soon, thinking of you both. the alws
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have you ever had experience with the supernatural?.
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hartstrings, i dont know if you will believe this but it is true.
when i was about 19, 3 of my friends and me used a ouija board to contact the spirits, just for a laugh.
a laugh we did not have.
while the glass was moving about the alphabet spelling out indecipherable words the glass suddenly rose up in the air, none of us were touching it by now and it shattered.we all nearly died of fright.
les whos house we were in said his mum would kill him if she finds out we have released a spirit in her house, he said to us pleadingly "what can i do?" one of the others said quick as a flash, MOVE OUT!.
mr.alw
well i can't recall now which public talks it was - one of my first - and it dealt with field service / preaching.
so i thought i would interview several people in the congregation about service and their thoughts and feelings on the subject, expecting something very different than what i got.
to my shock (i was an over zealous young buck who thought the sun rose and set on the wt) three sisters burst into tears as they told about their feelings of inadequacy and guilt over field service.
new worldly testament reminded me(' when he mentioned some of the tricks employed by pioneers to count time.")of atime when i was a cleaner of windows. the p.o. a pioneer elder said that i could aux. pioneer in the april if i tried really hard. he said that when i clean windows at a certain business, just mention something about the truuf, and when you go back at the end of the day to pick your money up mention something else about the truuf and i could claim the whole day,approx 8 hours, we do it all the time.
after that i never took an interest in the stastistics in the worldwide report,obviously pleasing men not god.
i never really wanted to go preaching and my wife hated it.so glad we dont have to anymore. mr.alw
i was just reading tyler's (new member)bio.
he was baptized at 11 years old.
jesus christ!
blondie hit the nail on the head, a lot depends on if the elder is wealthy or influencial in the territory.
for e.g. when i served as a m.s. my 18 year old son decided he no longer believed, shock and horror to us, he said to me i better leave home so they dont make you step down as a m.s.
obviously after trying to keep him in we eventually had to aquiese to his decision.
i told him he was more important than any privilege in the world and right now he needed to be at home and stable.therefore i stepped down immediately.
not long ago in the cong we were in, a certain elder,who hardly turned up for meets, but was in the clique where it counted had a daughter who went to town, met a worldly man, slept with him till the next day when she was finally found, as one of the other sis dobbed her in. only a few of us knew what had happened.the quick thinking elder arranged for his daughter to go live with a pioneer sis in a neighbouring cong. end of story. talk about double standards.
hope this helps put things into perspective. mr.alw
