Somewhat the opposite to this question, but I used to think that if I was still a JW at 75 and looked back on my life, would I be proud of who I was. I realised I’d be ashamed that I never had the strength to leave. That is what made me realise I should leave and face the loss of family, rather than get old and face my own shame of staying.
jwfacts
JoinedPosts by jwfacts
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13
What I wish I had known at 18
by NewYork44M inthe financial times had an article with the above question.
the author asked various people to answer the question.. https://www.ft.com/content/169705e4-b4dd-11e8-b3ef-799c8613f4a1.
while i was not interviewed, if i was asked this question i would say that i wish i had known in 1975, when i was 18, that i was raised in a cult and that the continued focus on armageddon over my lifetime was a cruel joke.
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Bro. Geoff in September 2018 Broadcast vs Serena Williams
by NeedToKnow inthe september broadcast opens up with a story of 80 yr old brother geoff who gave up been in a band all them years ago.
fast forward to 2018 and we have a world renown tennis player and jw as far as we’re told.. so where some are encouraged to leave the world and it’s futile pursuits of fame and fortune, others are not.
or even punished for their behaviour on court or for been photographed with their country’s flag where others have been executed for refusing to salute flags.
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jwfacts
A brother I knew turned down a career with an Australian basketball team (I know, not quite US standard) as he was studying and got baptised instead.
Prince, particularly in later years, acted in a manner at his concerts that few JWs would get away with.
As far as I’m aware, Serena was never baptised, so little can be done to stop her giving glory to Jehovah for her wins. Publicity nevertheless that helps JWs become known
I agree that the situation of Prince in particular makes mockery of experiences of brothers that felt compelled to give up fame based careers for their Watchtower beliefs.
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JWFacts is incorrect about "Holy Spirit". Do YOU know about the 40 or so years the WT taught there was NO holy spirit?
by Bad_Wolf ini did my own extensive research as i was getting out, and by exploring actual changes and mentions of core doctrine, i learned how it came about that the gb teach that only they know the truth and only they get holy spirit.
i was checking if jwfacts had it, and although they mention many older articles, it seems they didn't realize they taught there was no holy spirit.
this was a real big eye opener for me, so thought i'd share it, and curious if any of you knew about this yourselves????.
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What was the EXACT exJW website you first visited and why EXACTLY did you visit it?
by ILoveTTATT2 ini had two episodes of visiting exjw websites:one time around 2007 when i just googled "jehovah´s witnesses" and dared to look at those sites.
i was scared and i promised myself i would never come back to them.
however, that one didn´t really count.the moment that woke me up was this:i got to know that whitney heichel was a jw and murdered by another jw, because i overheard that conversation in a kingdom hall.i looked up the news and in one of the news comments, there was one where an exjw was complaining that they were hijacking her funeral and they were really trying to downplay the fact that her murderer was a jw... and then it said "visit jwfacts.com"... which i did.and the rest... is history.what exactly got you onto an apostate website when you woke up?
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jwfacts
I forgot to add that a bit of the story behind http://quotes.watchtower.ca. That was a very influential site, as it just contained Watchtower quotes with almost no commentary. In such simple fashion, it showed some of the shocking teachings of the past, and the changes over time. Watchtower took the owner to court over copyright, that the quotes were intended to make them look stupid and hence defame the organization, and because he could not legally use the domain watchtower. They were unlikely to win on copyright or defamation, but probably could have made him hand over the domain. The owner was unable to pay to defend himself, and unwilling to take the risk of being sued, so shut down the site. Immediately a number of people created copies of the site and loaded them at new urls. It was a good lesson to Watchtower that they are unable to keep information about them off the internet, and chasing individuals made them look bad, similar to what happened to Scientology.
Many users on this forum said how http://quotes.watchtower.ca. was the first site to help them, as they found it less intimidating to just read Watchtower quotes, instead of any additional apostate commentary. As a result, I used the site and the quotes contained there as the basis for a new section of jwfacts devoted just to Watchtower quotes at https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/quotes/quotes.php, and have built on that over the years. It has turned out to be useful for both JWs in the first stage of leaving and also people and groups researching the religion.
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52
What was the EXACT exJW website you first visited and why EXACTLY did you visit it?
by ILoveTTATT2 ini had two episodes of visiting exjw websites:one time around 2007 when i just googled "jehovah´s witnesses" and dared to look at those sites.
i was scared and i promised myself i would never come back to them.
however, that one didn´t really count.the moment that woke me up was this:i got to know that whitney heichel was a jw and murdered by another jw, because i overheard that conversation in a kingdom hall.i looked up the news and in one of the news comments, there was one where an exjw was complaining that they were hijacking her funeral and they were really trying to downplay the fact that her murderer was a jw... and then it said "visit jwfacts.com"... which i did.and the rest... is history.what exactly got you onto an apostate website when you woke up?
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jwfacts
The first one I remember visting was members.aol.com/beyondjw It blew my mind that there was someone having the same doubts that I was, and had worked through it and came out the other end. I sent him an email telling Timothy how overwhelmed I was and grateful. As the site no longer exists I have republished some of the articles at https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/beyondjw-timothy-campbell.php
This led to other sites, such as
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JWFacts is incorrect about "Holy Spirit". Do YOU know about the 40 or so years the WT taught there was NO holy spirit?
by Bad_Wolf ini did my own extensive research as i was getting out, and by exploring actual changes and mentions of core doctrine, i learned how it came about that the gb teach that only they know the truth and only they get holy spirit.
i was checking if jwfacts had it, and although they mention many older articles, it seems they didn't realize they taught there was no holy spirit.
this was a real big eye opener for me, so thought i'd share it, and curious if any of you knew about this yourselves????.
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jwfacts
I was checking if JWFacts had it, and although they mention many older articles, it seems they didn't realize they taught there was no holy spirit.
JWfacts is a he, not a they.
Holy spirit is Jehovah's force, and it cannot be that there was suddenly "no holy spirit." Rather, Rutherford said holy spirit did not direct him. This is touched on at https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/directed-by-holy-spirit.php where it says "Over time he came to the conclusion that once Jesus was enthroned, holy spirit ceased guiding the Slave and Jesus was using his angels to direct his people."
I may open up my folder of custom research later and quote the articles
Please do, I would like access to the quotes.
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26
Carts on both ends of the farmersmarket
by Still Totally ADD inmy wife and me have a booth at the local framers market.
there is usually about 12 t0 14 vendors each week on a small short street in town.
what is funny on each end of this short street are cart setups with 3 people on each cart.
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jwfacts
I assume you pay to have a stall at the farmers market. Do the JWs pay either the markets, or the council if on council property, or are they illegally setting up their carts? Maybe you could call the council and asked for them to be moved if they are not there legally.
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Christchurch, New Zealand Convention 2018 (August 31-Sept 2)
by The Poetry Of Reality inanyone have the attendance numbers/baptism numbers for this?.
i would also be interested to find out the convention attendance stats for new zealand for any year available - so that they can be added to this.. thanks!.
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jwfacts
what ages were those baptised?
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27
In search of custody hearing advice ...
by dubstepped ini don't have kids, but i recently found that someone with kids that lives in my town is also an ex-jw.
she just happened to post on an apostafest thread on facebook for an event that i attended, saw that we lived in the same place, and i met her for the first time tonight.
pretty cool.. she has a 14 year old boy that is super smart and very articulate.
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jwfacts
https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/mental-issues.php discusses a couple of cases where the court found in favour of the non-believer, and the reasoning why.
https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/disfellowship-shunning.php has quotes that show that shunning is very strictly enforced. She could play the 2016 Convention Video on shunning video to the judge, where the mother refuses to even answer calls from the child, and how that coercion forced the child back into the religion.
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Ancestery.com— I Got My Results! Very Surprised
by minimus inso i got my results in on sunday and my bloodline is mostly from great britain and italy and greece!
not what i expected at all but it does explain my love of italian and greek foods.😎.
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jwfacts
ShirleyW7 hours ago
I have a feeling that sometime down the road these ancestral websites will be blasted on 60 Minutes or just the news in general for misleading people about their genetic history.
I was incredibly impressed by it. My son has a vast mix in him, and the results were exactly what I knew about my history and also that of his mother.