perhaps you considering joining the wt cult - here is a concise list of why you should not.. what the watchtower demands of you:.
1.complete obedience to them.. 2. be willing to lose your life for zany blood teachings.. 3.put other cult members before your real family.. 4.refusal to let you leave their religion when the penny drops it's a cult.. 6.accept that they can backtrack and change any of their flip flop teachings at any time.. 7. you can't change your mind about their teachings without harsh discipline,.
8. insistence that you humbly and quickly apologise for your mistakes and errors.. 9.gladly accept they will never be apologising for any of their mistakes or errors of judgement.. 10.accept that even ones who follow and believe in the bible, but not the governing body are worthy of destruction.. please feel free to add more..
DESIROUS OF CHANGE:
Yes, I’m glad I’m Out of there.
I never would have agreed to any of these things mentioned in the beginning posts if they were laid out on the ‘study’. So, I guess I was a victim of ‘bait and switch’.
The JW religion probably knows no sane person would agree to these things - so they are sneakily introduced later on after somebody is ‘in’.👎
imagine if the watchtower had their own country where they could do what they wanted.
do you think they would actually kill people who disagreed with them?
would the elders be willing to carry out the executions?what say you?.
SEA BREEZE:
Good for you.
When I walked away from the Witness religion 23+ years ago, I didn’t fully know everything about TTATT.. I hadn’t started to deconstruct the faulty teachings in my head except for one: I rid my mind of the paradise earth teaching and living forever. I felt this was a cruel trick to play on my mind.. I never missed it which makes me wonder how much I believed of it in the first place.
Like you.. I’m glad I got out. But, in my case, Glad I never let the JWs tamper with my life or interfere with my work/career! Sorry for anybody who did.
this thread currently has over 300 comments.. it shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc.
it refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
in my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for retirement.. it tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?).
BALAAMSASS3:
Firstly, I’m glad you stopped providing free labor when you were young. And, those elders trying to guilt you about materialism - were they wearing rags and starving? I doubt it. It’s also sad about your ex. I certainly would never wish this on anybody.
Again, I’m so Thankful I never listened and kept on working full time.. But, I did not have the undue influence of people born in..so I never cared what anybody thought.
It all just shows how damaged somebody can be by following what this religion says. The sobering thing is seeing how so many older JWs have passed away. They can’t help anybody and what does it matter what they said and what their opinions were.
I also read that article about how 60 year olds today are not prepared with savings/pensions. Of course,, this isn’t just Witnesses but others as well. But, let’s never forget that Witnesses actually criticize people who work - whereas non-JWs are looking for jobs and can’t find them!
like the org just gives up and comes out saying that all of what they are saying is untrue and that there is no armageddon, nothing.
how do y’all think the the members still in it would react?.
there be a mental health crisis i perhaps.
STARLIGHT.vee:
I agree with VIDIOT.
I also think that even if the JW religion were not ‘outed’ as bad, this is the direction they are heading-in if there’s a more drastic loss of members and they end up selling off the halls. Some may disagree.
They can then be online with a changed name or whatever; almost no physical presence except an assembly hall (or maybe not)... Since I’m Out for many years, this scenario would make no difference to me.. But, the physical disappearance of their religion would be devastating to the remaining few Witnesses - especially the ‘needy’ ones.
imagine if the watchtower had their own country where they could do what they wanted.
do you think they would actually kill people who disagreed with them?
would the elders be willing to carry out the executions?what say you?.
SEA BREEZE:
Yes.
NOT FORMER:
I do remember reading something like that. It read to me that they were sorry they could not.. It’s an evil of human nature that there would always be some idiot only too glad and too cruel to do this, IMO.
https://youtu.be/sbh213gbedo?si=ceeaip451t6i0zjp.
so as they say one picture is as strong as a thousand words and here you have it guys in the latest study edition of the watchtower for october 2024 that has just been posted on their website a middle aged jw window cleaner dreaming of the new system where things will get better.
why does the watchtower need to talk now about jws on minial self employed jobs?
KERRY KING:
Nobody is knocking any particular line of work. At least I’m not. And I am well aware that some window washers can do quite well… And, yes, we are all tax slaves even though it’s a little silly to compare a doctor to a window cleaner.
But, you are missing the point and over simplifying things - even doing a little gaslighting. The fact of the matter is that the Jehovah’s Witnesses (at least back when I was younger) criticized college, white collar and/or full time jobs.. They made it out to be that the ‘only’ work JWs should do was house/office cleaning and/or window washing. They made it sound like if you did other work you were not ‘spiritual’🙄. People who did were looked upon suspiciously even if it was pt time.
JWs were instructed to work part time only to meet their immediate needs. They were made to feel saving was not having faith (totally ignoring wise Bible counsel).. Over righteous Witnesses really went out of their way to make snide remarks to people like me who had a full time job.. Doesn’t matter that I minded my own business and did the best I could with meetings and going out D to D.. I was still criticized.
Fast forward to now: I am retired (but live carefully). JWs who did otherwise and have now reached retirement age may be in trouble if they believed and did every single thing the religion told them.. In plain English: those who did not save or have a retirement plan (whatever their occupation) are in a serious predicament today!!
https://youtu.be/sbh213gbedo?si=ceeaip451t6i0zjp.
so as they say one picture is as strong as a thousand words and here you have it guys in the latest study edition of the watchtower for october 2024 that has just been posted on their website a middle aged jw window cleaner dreaming of the new system where things will get better.
why does the watchtower need to talk now about jws on minial self employed jobs?
RAYMOND FRANTZ:
I already started a thread on this and it’s four pages long.
Many fine comments. Bottom line: I am ever so Glad I never listened to the JW religion and I kept my job until retirement.. People like the guy depicted in the article are going to have to ask somebody else for handouts!
this thread currently has over 300 comments.. it shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc.
it refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
in my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for retirement.. it tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?).
BIAHI:
Yes, that’s true that there are plenty of users/losers outside the JW religion.. The person you describe I would only help once.
The difference is that people outside the religion don’t knock and shun people who work like the JWs do. JWs are very bad with this mentality…JWs think they can demonize responsible people who work full time and still imagine these people would give them charity!!! Sorry, but not in my book.
Even though I’m Out a long time, it still gets me that older hypocrite JWs with cushy lives who pushed poverty on gullible young people - are not even around to help anybody they misled. Those gullible young people would be senior citizens today.
So Glad I never listened to anybody back then. Maybe my ‘worldly’ upbringing saved me.
i'm interested to know the age demographics here.
it must be significantly different to other exjw forums.
it would be a damning report for watchtower if most of us appear to have left for decades.. you don't have to mention your exact age, you could always say "in my 50s".. i am in my 70s.
Like Blondie, I’m ‘old enough’.
Raised Roman Catholic, came in late ‘70s. So much didn’t sit well but I left after that 1995 Generation teaching.
They had lost all credibility at that point as far as I was concerned.
anyone have any anecdotal reports of individual congregation finances since the stealth takeover by the wt of their checking accounts?.
are donations up?
can they pay their bills?.
THOMAS MORE:
I have been Out like twenty three years, so I guess I must’ve read it on here about the JW religion taking possession of kh titles and congregation bank accounts, etc.
If the goal was them selling off halls, was this because of lawsuits or declining membership or a little of both?
Reading your No. 5: ‘displacement of congregations and individuals’, consolidating congregations.. This is like the game Musical Chairs, only when the music stops the people are left without a hall.. How many times can they rinse & repeat??
You are probably right that if somebody sees their hall is getting a major facelift there’s a good chance it will be sold. The result of all this happening too many times is the incredible shrinking religion. Is it the religion’s goal to go completely online with hardly any brick & mortar presence aside from an assembly hall??
If this is the case, there’s going to be some high & dry and disillusioned members that will be very upset.
