Posts by LongHairGal

34

The Watchtower—Study Edition | April 2023

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

study article 19. how can we strengthen our faith in jehovah’s promise of a new world?.

17 many servants of jehovah have applied jehovah’s counsel to “keep in expectation”—even for decades.

louise, for example, began serving jehovah in 1939. she says: “at that time, i thought armageddon would come before i finished high school.

LongHairGal

DISILLUSIONED JW:

Just curious: are you still a JW and doing this? If everybody on the planet stopped what they were doing and took this literally - nothing would get done.

Fields wouldn’t be planted, bread wouldn’t get baked, grapes wouldn’t be made into wine, fish wouldn’t be caught, fine garments wouldn’t be woven, structures wouldn’t get built, etc.. The business of life would come to a standstill. So, was Jesus advocating that everybody should become irresponsible bums?? I know it sounds like it to some people, but I don’t believe it. When the person said to him that he had to go bury his father, Jesus had said to him “let the dead bury their dead”. He was implying that somebody had to be around to do this - and so on. I don’t take this or anything in the bible literally and apply it to the modern world. Others can believe what they want.

Thankfully, I’m not in the religion anymore. But, I just loved it when people who already made their living and were collecting their pensions were pushing this mentality of poverty on young people there!.. If I had listened to this I wouldn’t be retired today.

34

The Watchtower—Study Edition | April 2023

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

study article 19. how can we strengthen our faith in jehovah’s promise of a new world?.

17 many servants of jehovah have applied jehovah’s counsel to “keep in expectation”—even for decades.

louise, for example, began serving jehovah in 1939. she says: “at that time, i thought armageddon would come before i finished high school.

LongHairGal

DISILLUSIONED JW:

But people (men) back then had their occupations. I don’t know if this means ‘they didn’t put the kingdom first’. Maybe in their minds they did and used every opportunity they had to preach.

Also, I don’t think there is any comparison with the situation of the ancient world and the modern day one. If JWs or anybody else today wants to use the excuse of ancient bible writings to keep themselves in a full time ministry - let them knock themselves out.

34

The Watchtower—Study Edition | April 2023

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

study article 19. how can we strengthen our faith in jehovah’s promise of a new world?.

17 many servants of jehovah have applied jehovah’s counsel to “keep in expectation”—even for decades.

louise, for example, began serving jehovah in 1939. she says: “at that time, i thought armageddon would come before i finished high school.

LongHairGal

DISILLUSIONED JW:

I see what you mean about the bible itself also being to blame for people being urged to wait expectantly.

I don’t think though that the early bible writers meant that people shouldn’t live their lives. That seems to be something that more modern day religions have adopted - along with trying to micromanage people like we see the JW religion trying to do - either having suggested that people remain single or don’t have children or telling people not to get college/careers, etc.

34

The Watchtower—Study Edition | April 2023

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

study article 19. how can we strengthen our faith in jehovah’s promise of a new world?.

17 many servants of jehovah have applied jehovah’s counsel to “keep in expectation”—even for decades.

louise, for example, began serving jehovah in 1939. she says: “at that time, i thought armageddon would come before i finished high school.

LongHairGal

RULES & REGULATIONS:

I wonder what ‘Louise’s’ situation is? What’s printed in your post doesn’t mention anything. - If she’s comfortable financially like some Witnesses are (maybe she inherited $) then she’s coasting along and probably enjoys some socializing with other older JWs

Like FOOLEDNOMORE says, The sunk cost fallacy also figures into this and if older persons are fairly content they would see no reason to ever leave the religion. But for younger people who have to make their way in life, that’s a different story.

16

Are Both The JW And The Ex-JW Community a Cult?

by Vanderhoven7 in

charlie ryde writes:.

let us use the same bite model for determining if something is a cult to both being a jw and being ex-jw.

mind you this is a short summary.. b- behavioral control.

LongHairGal

BARTOLOMEO:

I think you are right that people on the forum are a little biased against anybody who believes in God or the bible.

When I first ‘Faded’ from the JW religion over twenty two years ago, I still believed in God and the bible. Over the years things changed. I now find myself to be an agnostic and see the bible as a history book of sorts and a collection of stories some of which have a moral. I don’t disrespect anyone who still believes the bible. I’m just not interested.

To each his own. But, I’m not sure I would say the ex-JW community is a ‘cult’.

26

2023-01-27--Civil Unrest!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2023-01-27--civil unrest.

click image to enlarge.. .

https://postimg.cc/gxqvnfcq.

LongHairGal

FOOLEDNOMORE:

So, they are still at it with calling on your family!

I guess your wealthy mom is still a ‘believer’ and if she hasn’t specifically told the JWs to get lost they will still attempt to call on her. One thing is for certain: if she were poor and dressed in rags these people would avoid her like the plague.

Only certain elderly people get attention. They couldn’t care less if the others drew their next breath.

26

2023-01-27--Civil Unrest!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2023-01-27--civil unrest.

click image to enlarge.. .

https://postimg.cc/gxqvnfcq.

LongHairGal

FEDUPJW:

That is very good of you to be this man’s friend and go visit him.

It’s too bad he feels about himself that ‘it would be better if he just died because nobody but you cares about him’.. God help any PIMI JWs who are counting on friendships and attention from people in the religion to keep them going!.. I remember back when I was a ‘believer’ going through a phase of being sad because I saw so little love there. I got over it in time.

I came to see in the JW religion that if you’re not related to the ‘right’ people - then it’s all about judgmentalism, conditional friends and Users. You are only as good as the next favor you can do or $ervice you can provide. If you can’t (or won’t) do that, you’re ignored. Even those who DID these things and stopped for some reason were forgotten like yesterday’s garbage.

It’s too bad people there keep telling themselves they are in a loving brotherhood. Thankfully, I never believed it and could only count on myself.

22

Jehovah's Witnesses: Zoom Cancelled Love Jehovah Go Back to In Person Meetings

by HiddlesWife in

this is a new video posted by the exjw critical thinkers jt & lady cee:.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvmulzbczvm&t=1s.

i had a hunch that wt was going to do so, but this is happening quite soon.

LongHairGal

I think they would be making a big mistake if they cancelled or just restricted the Zoom meetings to the elderly and infirm.

I was reading posts on Reddit about how the religion can’t get people to come back. In my opinion as an observer, it was the two plus years away from the meetings that did the most damage to the religion.. In that time, people got ‘deprogrammed’ and got their minds back.

Let’s not forget that people were stressed out during the pandemic: some got sick, some lost jobs, etc. Also, people started to notice little things and some important things: like how important time is. Maybe they didn’t see the sense of all the meetings in the JW religion. Like why can’t they have one meeting weekly like other religions??.. Maybe people resented the level of control and intrusiveness into their lives and were glad to be rid of it. Maybe they came to see this wasn’t the ‘light load’ Jesus spoke about!

Even if some JWs do trickle back, I don’t believe things will be like they were before the pandemic - and even then the numbers were decreasing!

26

2023-01-27--Civil Unrest!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2023-01-27--civil unrest.

click image to enlarge.. .

https://postimg.cc/gxqvnfcq.

LongHairGal

LOST IN THE FOG:

I cannot imagine that if civil unrest were to break out that the congregations would be visiting elderly JWs. That would be the last thing on their minds.🤣

I’m sorry for any of them and others with special needs who didn’t hear from anybody during Covid. To be real, even before then almost nobody cared.

I’m out of the religion many years and I always felt that if you weren’t popular and part of the ‘In’ crowd - nobody even thought about you.. Besides, most times if someone got a phone call it’s because somebody wanted a favor OR because something was wrong!

Sorry for anybody who thinks this is a ‘loving brotherhood’.

34

Elders are no longer teachers

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

back in the day when i was a young witness lad, you very much got the impression that at least the training as theocratic teachers was good.. even the bible reading back then had a short introduction and conclusion.

you had to research and prepare your own ministry school talks and then perhaps you would graduate to a half of a 55 minute public talk.

then later if you were a book study conductor, you got to decide which scriptures to read and highlight.

LongHairGal

INDOUBTBIGTIME:

So, you think the “answer is to not have too much to lose if the banking system collapses..”? Or whatever else JWs tell themselves to further justify why they don’t want to work like responsible people.

Nah, it’s much more enjoyable to go tripping along knocking on doors and going on coffee breaks.🙄 Right? The problem with this mentality is that you would be needy NOW, way before any collapse or chaos even happens.. You have NO business believing that responsible people who worked and got criticized should be giving you anything or sharing their ‘surplus’.

I could not imagine being around JWs if and when things got super bad! They would have an almost cannibalistic attitude towards anybody they thought had anything. As it is, they can’t wait to get their hands on ‘worldly’ people’s possessions and live in their houses!