on behalf of linda and myself, i would just like to thank all of you.
for your wonderful replies on my other thread... http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/9/131562/1.ashx.
i printed your replies, along with the pms and emails i received, and.
Thanks again, everyone.
I have just printed this thread and my other one up, and Linda will be reading them shortly.
I managed to sleep a bit better myself last night, I sure needed it, and am feeling rested today.
We are discussing treatment options with the doctor this afternoon, and I will post about that when I get home tonight, after 9pm.
love
Trev
some of the words that i always look out for in watchtower literature are the following:.
without doubt...... evidently...... obviously....... we can conclude from this......... can you think of more?.
a lot has to be learnt from blondie's watchtower studies and some of it is that when the wt society has no evidence for a supposition it plants one of these phrases that suggest stupidity on the part of the reader if he/she doesn't agree with what idea the watchtower society has come up with!.
Hi Gill,
One that a lot used in the ministry, but I didn't like using, was "honest-hearted people will agree...."
To me, that implied that if the unsuspecting victim householder was dishonest if they didn't agree.
I used to cringe when I heard anyone use it, and get ready to run if the householder got pi$$ed
with us for implying they were dishonest
dedpoet
a new board member asked me this.
i asked if it would be all right to publish my reply.
the question, in full, is, .
Fred
Jehovah has appointed Jesus Christ, who has appointed the Faithful and Discreet Slave, which has appointed its Governing Body, which has appointed the Overseers worldwide, who have approved the Congregations' actions.
You only have the watchtower's say so on that Fred, it doesn't make it true. The watchtower claimed the appointment that Jesus talked about for themselves at a time when they were publishing books like the Finished Mystery, which was their main teaching book at the time, and made some pretty ludicrous and obviously untrue claims as quoted here
http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/1_600_furlongs.html
http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/leviathan.html
and Millions Now Living Will Never Die, in which Joe Rutherford claimed that the scriptures pointed to 1925 as being the date of Armageddon, obviously a false prophecy by the watchtower society, and you know how Jehovah views false prophets (Deut 18:20-22).
Do you really think that Jesus, if he did return then, and again we only have the watchtower's say so on that, would appoint a group of men who were dealing out such rubbish to be his earthly representatives? I can't see it, somehow.
dedpoet
geeze, the memorial to remember your place in the organization jesus christ is next tueday i think.......anyone else getting roped into going besides me?
i'm trying to talk my brother into going....just so i'm not the only slacker there.
i know whats going to happen.
I haven't received an invite, and I know the jws have been to the block of flats
that I live in to dish them out, they were here just before I went out, but they
didn't knock here - they know better.
I wouldn't go anyway, of course. Are you going to partake Mary? That would
give them something to talk about, and I doubt they'd mob you so much then.
dedpoet
for me, it was the un debacle.
their association and weak retreat was priceless.
after that, silentlambs ranks right up there.. of course, if it were not for ray franz, many of us would've never even thought about leaving!.
I left in 1999, before news of the UN scandal came out, and the programmes
on child abuse were aired in various parts of the world.
I had started to have doubts because of the elders handling of a couple of
situations in my kh. I felt that they had acted in an unscriptural, unloving way,
and started doing some research of my own into wts teachings. Then I read
Crisis of Conscience, and that was enough for me. I left a few weeks after that.
None of the major scandals that have emerged since have surprised me at all.
What else should we expect? A cult whose beliefs are founded on half-truths
and downright lies are bound to slip up and get caught in their deceit eventually,
and that's what's happening to the wts now, and the good news is there is
nothing they can do to stop it.
It's like blondie says, the wts will sink their own ship, and their's is sinking
ever faster.
dedpoet
here's a question that i haven't seen addressed directly:.
why are there many witnesses who enjoy the organization immensely?.
no matter what you tell them, they would not dream of leaving.
I think Steven Hassan summed the jws and other cults brand of happiness
up well when, speaking of his experience as a moonie, he said "I was happy
because I was conditioned to be happy. It was considered disobedient not to
be happy".
It was the same for the Peoples Temple members who died in Jonestown.
They were queuing up to tell Jim Jones how happy they were to be part of
his organisation while the cyanide/Kool-Aid cocktail was being dished out.
As a jw, I was constantly told that I was part of an organisation of the
happiest people on earth, so I went along with it, and acted as if I was
happy as well. I was kind of comfortable, "knowing" that I was pleasing
God by being in his only true organisation, but deep down I was never
really happy as a jw, and I didn't know many other jws that really were.
dedpoet
on behalf of linda and myself, i would just like to thank all of you.
for your wonderful replies on my other thread... http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/9/131562/1.ashx.
i printed your replies, along with the pms and emails i received, and.
On behalf of Linda and myself, I would just like to thank all of you
for your wonderful replies on my other thread..
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/9/131562/1.ashx
I printed your replies, along with the pms and emails I received, and
took them to the hospital when I went to visit Linda earlier, and it gave
her a real lift to read them, as it did me. They meant so much to both
of us, far more than I can ever put into words. I will print the ones that have
been posted while I was out later, and take them up there tomorrow, and
I know that they will have the same effect.
Linda sends her love to you all, and is looking forward to the day when she
can thank you herself. She is comfortable and in good spirits considering the
news we had yesterday. We will be discussing treatment tomorrow, and I will
post about that on here when I get back home tomorrow night.
love
Trev and Linda xxxx
i don't think i am an apostate, but do feel like one for being on these boards as we were always warned not to at the meetings etc.. i disagree with so many things they teach, the main thing is the blood issue....being a new auntie, i love my niece soooo much and if i were the only person that could save her, how on earth could i not?
i'd be blood guilty for not saving her!!!!!
that in my books, would be murder.. however, may be it's because i've only been away from the mtgs for a year, but i still think of it most days and although i feel i've made the right decision as nothing was making me happy in it, and obvioulsy my ex beating me and getting away with it.....i still feel a certain pull towards it and a kind of insane loyalty???.
Hi KCM, and welcome to the forum
According to the watchtower definition of apostate you, and I, and many others on this board are apostates. However, like moat things, the society have twisted the meaning of the word to suit their purposes anyway. The dictionary definition of apostate is someone who has ababndoned a previously-held belief, usually religious though it can be something else, like political.
That makes over 60% of the congregation I used to belong to apoatate, as so many of them had come to the watchtower from other religions, a fact I have on occasion pointed out to them.
To be called an apostate is nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has the right to change their beliefs, or even abandon them. That the watchtower tries to apply the term apostate only to people who leave them is just another example of their mind control tactics. They try to make members fearful of apostates, and are very successful in doing so. Most jws I have known, including myself when I was a jw, are very wary, to say the least, of speaking to anyone who they consider to have what they would regard as apostate ideas.
When I quit the meetings just over 7 years ago, I would have disputed that I was an apostate, but nowadays being referred to in such a way doesn't bother me at all. I came to realise that such thoughts and feelings were throwbacks to my days of being under the watchtower mind control. I would think that, with the passage of time, you will feel the same way.
dedpoet
april km says that there is to be a new campaign again this year - clearly the wts feels that this is the way to go.
i thought that the results last year were quite poor , but apparently in some countries , the dc venues were beseiged - the culture in some lands is that when you get an invitation to anything , you go.
some people obviously don't get asked out much - not that i can relate to that personally , of course.... .
Expect the follwing pattern from now on. Memorial Tract Distribution District Convention Tract Distribution September AWAKE epecial Distribution October/November Special Tract/Brochure Distribution
I think you are right Stilla.
As Slim pointed out, such campaigns can lead to an increase in active publishers, and we all know how much the watchtower loves to report what they regard as a positive increase. It probably won't last, the less committed ones will go back to inactivity sooner or later, and it won't bring in a flood of new converts, but at least some of the end of year figures will look slightly better, maybe for a year or two at least.
we on this forum were all more or less unhappy with the wts for one reason or other and inevitably we left that religion which we consider to be in fact a cult.
we can't understand or imagine how anyone could be happy living in that negative environment yet there seem to be quite a few dubs that are happy and content being jws.
apart from the obvious ones eg those that have some status which gives them a sense of importance why do others feel happy being there?
Of course the watchtower has some happy members, apart from the ones in positions of authority who enjoy the power they've been given..
They are continually told that they are the happiest people on earth, and if you tell a group of people something often enough, then the odds are that eventually some of them will believe it.
All cults have happy members anyway. If you listen to the Jonestown death tape, you hear people talking about how happy they are to be Peoples Temple members 10 minutes before drinking the Kool - ade. I guess if you're the type of person who doesn't particularly enjoy having to think for yourself, then being in a cult, and letting someone else do your thinking for you, would make you happy.
