hello, some of you may know me by my screen name others probably don't.
so a friendly hello and a quick bio for those who don't know me.. .
i am 25, d/a'd when i was 22. i was a born-in, my family shuns me because of my d/a'ing.
Hi! In my opinion, at the age of 22 you were finally old enough to consider getting baptized. It makes me crazy that children are baptized, too young to make such a decision, and then shunned forever after when they are old enough and make the decision not to be a witness!
So, sorry about the shunning, but glad you are moving ahead with your life!
Cate
a parody press conference.
my name is gerrit losch, and i am a member of the governing body of jehovahs witnesses.
as you know, we hardly ever give interviews unless we feel pretty sure that we are going to get some unearned good publicity and goodwill.
Hilarious! Thanks, I needed a laugh!
Cate
the po comes to see me and talks round the houses trying to find out what my problem is.. so i tell him "look its something i have to sort out for myself and i dont want to destroy your faith and make you start questioning so id rather not tell you".
he already knew cos the first elder went to his house the second he left mine and told him about [what i thought was a private conversation between mates,] my issues.. so he proceeds to tell me a story of a brother he knows who was always very studious and knowledgable about all prophecies and the details of our beliefs.. well the guy suddenly stopped attending meetings last year, dont know why but the po seemed pretty upset about it as he was an old friend.. so he says " i said to him, but john, where will you go now on sunday afternoons,!
and really wary where else will you go?".
You don't have to know where you are going to know where you shouldn't be.
Cate
i think that i have seen the words "elders are positions of trust" before, something like that.
if you can find wt article containing similar words like that, i would like to see it again.
thanks!.
Elders are a "hiding place from the wind," unless they aren't. Almost all aren't. Most have an agenda, or at least are biased. People they like get treated one way, people they don't get treated another. Most POs or whatever they are called now, think they are in charge of "their" congregation. They act like a sheriff rather than a shepherd. They like having a reputation of being a kick-ass PO who keeps his congregation clean. They want to look good to the CO.
When I talked to a friend about the damage a "bad" elder can do to people, she admitted that some have caused a lot of trouble and pain, but said that there are good ones. Well fabulous. How do we avoid the harmful ones? And why would a loving God allow such men to have positions of power over people? Friend answered that this can serve as a test of our loyalty, that we don't leave the organization just because of bad elders. So this is God's plan? To tell us to look to these men as a place of safety and help and then go, "Ha, Ha, got a bad one! Let's see how you handle that!"
Cate
hi.. i have been a witness since birth (will be 30 years in june 2009).
got baptised when i was 15 (pressured into it by my parents, plus, i was promised my first home pc if i did get baptised before turning 16).. both my parents serve in the uk bethel.
i have an older brother and younger sister, both of which are witnesses.. i am married to a witness and live in cyprus (i am english).
First of all, Welcome!
Secondly, I think you have to be honest with your wife, or what is your marriage worth? That being said, it is possible that going slowly will be better than dumping it on her all at once. How about just starting with, "this is really bothering me..." Maybe she will admit that there are things that bother her too and you can have a conversation. Witnesses are trained to raise a mental wall if their beliefs are attacked. Perhaps coming at this obliquely will keep that wall from going up.
Cate
how did you feel about telling(confessing) to elders either about yourself or something you saw that the society considered a sin against the organization?
personally, i never did because i always questioned most of the elders motive.
i did not want to be a busybody but there where many in the kh who were always monitoring others activities.
Is there any scripture that says we must confess our sins to men? There is one that suggests asking for help if one is sick, which I suppose some might say could be "spiritually sick" as well, but even so, it is a suggestion, not a command.
Cate
the watch tower bible and tract society was founded on the belief that armageddon is imminent.
in the late 1870s when charles t russell gave up his business interests and began preaching that christ had returned - invisibly, of course - in 1874 and that by 1914 the current system would be over with, a religious model pinched from the adventists and millerites, was established.. 1914 came and went, this old system lumbered on, and the wtbts in the person of russell began re-reading his favourite biblical texts and re-calibrating his 'pyramidological' calculations.
yes, his prophecies hadn't come true, but the bible students lived to predict another end of the world.
Very interesting PasswordProtected.
Cate
do you think we tend to get guilty easily because of our past indoctrination in the witness religion?.
Absolutely! We are trained that way. Why aren't we pioneering? What about the little legless pioneer who keeps going despite being blind in one eye and possessing a really bad lisp? Can't get to all the meetings? What about all those brothers and sisters swimming crocodile infested waters because they love the meetings so much? It was all about guilt. Well, guilt and fear. I am now trying to fight a lifetime of indoctrination.
Cate
how would you respond?
you have been out for the day and upon your return home you find the jw's came around and they where at your home talking to your kids(teens, one 20 year old).
the kids where never jw as the householder never was but lost family to the cult and of course is bitter.
Show your kids the info on the internet. Just keeping the JWs away from your door won't protect them.
Cate
on metatron's thread about dubs going mainstream easyreader said this:.
another issue causing the decay is the lack of a "date".
in order for a cult to work, there has to be a date where everything will culminate.
"I could have been a sandblaster??!"
Ha!
Cate
