i did not see a newbs thread to introduce myself, so my apologies if i'm in the wrong place.
i was a 3rd generation born in witness for 30 years until i was disfellowshipped back in 2007 for making a mistake.
my entire life up until that point was based on and circled around the society, and even though at first i really enjoyed my freedom (i still do), the fact is that i'm still struggling with cognitive dissonance, resentment, and loneliness.. i miss my family all the time.
Welcome! You are in good company here. Most of us aren't total nutjobs, and most of us who are nutjobs (to whatever degree) are damaged goods (thank you WATCHTOWER)
I am a little worried that you went from a controlling and restrictive religion to a spouse that is doing that with you. I hope I am reading things wrong, but when your spouse is running off your friends, thats concerning to me.
my 'still in' family is passing this pic around facebook like proud parents.
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So, he is providing comic relief even to JWs. Good to know.
with all the pedophile lawsuits can you blame them?
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i think the silent lambs march as well as dire financial straits is making them trying to get out of public eye with restricted access to headquarters, were as in brooklyn ny it was not possible..
Lawsuits can find them even in upstate NY. They have large public conventions all over the world. Moving was about the money from living in the city, maintenance of the complex of buildings and logistical reasons. New Yorkers were never going to rise up and cause grief for the WT by marching on it to any degree or in any way that would inconvenience the WT for more than a minute. Financially, they made a good move by the relocation, that is inarguable. All the implications surrounding it (the downsizing/layoff/what they are DOING with the money, etc) is another subject altogether. It also keeps WT fans out of the big bad city and gives them a small community that they will presumably do their best to make WT friendly for all the visiting JWs who come to spend their money during their visit. NY will never be WT friendly, but Tuxedo NY might find some businesses (informally) blacklisted if they talk any smack about the WT. You can't threaten all of Brooklyn with that, much less Manhatten.
on a previous post mamacita29 pointed up the low quality of new jw converts.. is the quality falling even more as the society use lower than low meeting, talks, broadcasts etc.. when i was active initially the organisation and standards seemed totally different today.
i have seen hard working intelligent elders fall by death or exhaustion.
the younger generation that came along never really grasped responsibility hence shortage of good elders, never mind the watered down to almost nothing quality of meetings.
I'm starting to think there is some arrogance in this thinking that the ones newly drawn to the WT org. are particularly desperate creatures. The pseudo intellectual posing of early JWs was no more intelligent than the frankly simple stuff they have out now. We may have THOUGHT we were all that and a bag of chips, but we were just as deluded by big words and recitations of out of context scripture as they are now. Yeah, we all used to study more, but we were still being led, we were still being discouraged from any ACTUAL deep study. . . we just read what we were told to read.
I remember the 1970s. We had some pretty dodgy types even then, the ones that immediately scooted to the back rooms with their dubious looking assortment of cohorts. We were discouraged from any outside study, we underlined the answers (and tried to rephrase them so we didn't seem like we were reading when we answered.) I remember some distinctly odd people that came in late about once or twice a month, never said anything, and left during the song. They were 'studies' or baptised and inactive.
I just found out that the elder I thought was some rich businessman lived in the trailercourt across from the hall. So, yeah, some of us cleaned up good, but we were all in the damn organization and they were just as false in 1974 as they were in 1976. Those who came in after being convinced they were living in the end times had just as false of evidence in 1965 as in 1975 and 2015. THERE WAS NEVER ANY TRUTH. We were all gullible and bought it.
I'm pretty sure that someone in the last 5 pages has already said this, but I think we need to get over ourselves already. I got out when I realized, but just cause I was young doesn't mean anything. My IQ recognized errors, but social and emotional factors kept me in too long. That doesn't make me stupid, and it doesn't make anyone stupid. It makes us humans who do things for reasons that are not as intellectual/moral/spiritual as we would like to think they are.
Do cults generally get people who are on the outs with their society/culture? Those who are, for whatever reason, vulnerable to cults? Yeah, and it was like that when some of our grandparents got involved. People are people, people. Just because it was normalized in our family doesn't mean our family was "normal" when they got involved with it. So, yeah, weird people are coming in now, just like before. Some fly their weird flag boldly, some are just quietly hurting or weird in ways that don't show.
we discussed what he would do if i were incapacitated and our daughter needed a blood transfusion would he refuse and he said no.
( i do want that in writing still) .
now she is having a tonsillectomy, adnoidectomy and the back of an earring removed from her ear lobe( don't ask, i feel like a mother failure enough already!
If you have notified the doctors and her surgeon of your wishes, in writing, this will be a non issue. You have consented and if a doctor/hospital has the consent, they are not going to go borrowing trouble with your husband because your signature is their out. NOT treating her while they have your signature is a liability that they won't risk. Just make sure all the parties have your consent and tell them what the deal is. They will always err in favor of LIFE, unlike WT minions.
december 29, 2016 to all congregations re: donations in support of kingdom interests worldwide.
Meh
so being someone who is not, however still believes around 70% of what the jw's talk about as far as the bible goes, ignoring the fact of no blood transfusions, shunning, etc.
wt doctrines, i got this question.
anybody really know how faithful 'worldly' (i use this term lightly 😉) women are these days?
One cannot generalize about others in this way. You are dealing with individuals, not some monolith, "women". Each WOMAN is an . individual. I try not to be some reactive person, and I'm conservative in many ways, but I'm offended by the question in the title. When you seek a partner in life, you will get the person they are, the one that has good, bad and ugly bits. She will be an individual and you should have a good idea of her character and history and goals before you build a life with her. Then, you should work along with her to build the relationship you want. You don't get faithfulness by choosing a woman that you think will be faithful (for whatever reason) and figure your work is done. It just started.
ask them why the gb has spent millions of people hours buiding the new bethels in new york and london rather than them working door to door or on the trolleys.
Hey, you think you can get a contractor to show up and remodel your kitchen AFTER the new system? Good luck with that. I'd totally get the granite if I were a jw
i’ve been reading up on the last days of the roman empire.
the rule became a tetrarchy; by four regional emperors or caesars.
the emperors had these necessary concerns; they always gave first consideration to the security of their own positions followed by the annual extraction of taxes and their territorial authority.
Comparing them to Rome will just puff them up more than they are already.
i have two honest questions for everyone here.
i understand that most here want retribution from the courts against watchtower for child abuse allegations.
but let us take away the instances where someone was accused of child abuse and then later put back into a position of authority, such as an elder or an ms. let us just take the cases where a regular publisher or even an appointed person, with no previous accusation of child abuse has come up against that person.
I don't know where the laws are so lax that rape is legal. Or child abuse. Or incest.
If it is legal for a 30 y o man to have sex with a 3rd grader, then the fact that the child claimed it or the man confessed to his SIN should be a good enough reason to keep him away from children.
The STATED POLICY OF THIS ORGANIZATION doesn't protect children. They barely even pretend to give a damn.
