dedpoet

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Posts by dedpoet

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  17

  Baptism numbers down. Is this a worldwide trend?

  by R.F. in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just found out that from the dc i was assigned to that 17 got baptized this year.

  this was great news to me.. that is a huge decline from previous years, with the average each year being about 50-55 at the dcs.

  i've noticed at the cas and sads the baptism numbers have decreased steadily over the years.

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  dedpoet

  Our local dc is this weekend,so I'll probably get the baptism figure
  sometime in the next week or so.
  
  I know that baptisms have been falling in this area for years, and
  have consisted mainly of the kids of jws. I haven't heard of anywhere
  in the UK where there has been a rise in baptisms recently, so perhaps
  yhey are running out of jw kids to baptise, or the blackmail isn't
  working so well. Either way, any fall in the number joining is always
  good news.
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  26

  Positive changes in your life since leaving WBTS

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for me it's the friendships i have made with people that would have been considered too wordly to be friends with while i was still a jw.

  leaving behind the guilt of never been good enough or doing enough.

  celebrating the birthday of my precious children making them feel like king and queen for the day.

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  dedpoet

  The freedom of not having to rush around on Tuesday or Thursday nights
  so as to attend a meeting, and not having to sit in some football stadium
  for 3 days in all kinds of weather listening to how much better I should be
  doing, and how much more money I should be giving to the "work".

  The genuine friends I now have, as opposed to the conditional ones I
  lost when I walked away from the watchtower.
• 
  57

  13-yr old girl writes: example of Witnesses lying

  by Dogpatch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i get emails like this all the time.

  some jw gets upset at the stuff on my site, and wanting to add more weight/shock value to what they say, they either mention in passing that they are "not one of jehovah's witnesses" or are a child.

  this one claims to be a 13-yr old girl!

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  dedpoet

  Randy, I got just about the same email myself last week from some one who
  said she was offended by my website. Apart from claiming she was offended,
  the terminology and spelling is the same as the one you received, and she
  claimed to be 13 as well.

  Maybe it's a new watchtower tactic - get someone to pretend to be an offended
  child in the hope we go easy on the org in future (no chance).

  I got this one, from someone who seems to claim to like jws but not be one, a
  couple of days ago

  What I don't understand is why, if you
  leave Jehovah's Witnesses, all you do is slag them off. When they come to
  my door they seem decent enough people, they don't seem scared of a big
  brother organisation and simply want to give a good message from the
  bible. The Panorama program a few years ago appeared to be meat and drink
  to ex witnesses who went on the rampage with their slagging off. It
  made it sound like JWs were an organised bunch of child abusers.
  
  Child abusers were challenged and lied to the people in charge. Who is
  wrong there, JWs or child abusers? Who the greater wrong doer, the
  child abuser or the JW who didn't handle the situation very well? As it was
  reported, the JWs who handled the matter badly were struck off their
  jobs.
  
  JW's did not create the child abusers, the abusers simply take
  advantage of the JWs gentle manner of dealing with matters. If someone lies to
  them about what they have done, who do JWs believe, the abused or the
  abuser if they deny it. They are not policemen. If someone is abused it
  is not the fault of JWs as a religeon is it?
  
  Why do ex witnesses bother. If you don't like what you see or learn,
  why don't you just go to another religeon?
  
  If witnesses packed up and disbanded tommorrow what would you do?
  
  Would that make you happy?
  
  When I meet JWs they are happy people, friendly.
  
  When I meet ex JWs they are bitter, vengeful and appear to spend their
  time in a non productive work of dragging current witnesses down - not
  happy people at all.
  
  If JWs are not the "true" religeon why don't you just leave and go and
  find the real "true" one and be happy?
  
  I don't understand you!

  I was going to reply, but didn't bother. I did email them to say that I had accepted
  the message on my site as, unlike the watchtower, I am willing to accept opinions
  that I disagree with, and left it at that

  dedpoet
  
• 
  15

  moved on

  by dogon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well i have moved, for real, i lived with my husband of 25 years only 3 miles from my mother and father.

  it seems that most of the witnesses they preferred to associate with, have all been disfellowshipped or divorced, or separated.

  they have not called me or tried to visit me for over 2 years.

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  dedpoet

  Hi dogon, and welcome to the forum

  You are among friends here
• 
  74

  Update! Drew Sagan is no longer a Jehovah's Witness

  by drew sagan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as promised here is all of the info regarding what has been going on.

  per the last jc with the elders i realized that all i had done was buy time.

  they felt that we should be df'ed right on the spot, but because i made a plea to wait for a letter coming back from the wts they decided to hold on taking such action.

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  dedpoet

  Well Drew, I guess tou're free now to get on with the rest of your life
  without having to wonder about a knock on the door being a couple of
  elders trying to geat evidence for a jc. I can imagine you're glad it's over
  and done with, I know I was when I da'd.

  As for this comment to your wife

  "If you think you can hold on just so you can talk to mommy and daddy think again"

  What a piece of work this guy must be! I'm not violent, but I kind of wish
  he was in punching range right now.

  Can't you just feel the love?
• 
  1

  Can You Send me the scann of cover - new book DC 2007

  by ALEX_2003 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  please

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  dedpoet

  I haven't seen a scan of the cover yet Alex, but here's a thread
  that has information about the content

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/135083/1.ashx
• 
  22

  Notes: Saturday District Convention - Do Not Follow...

  by NestleBoy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there was also a district convention in south florida this past weekend.

  at the christian convention center in w. palm beach.

  i had the pleasure of having to go all three days -- yes it was boring.

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  dedpoet

  Do Not Follow Unrealities” Definition -- A lack of substance. They may promise great things but deliver very little.

  That phrase almost sums up the watchtower - they promise so much, but
  deliver nothing

  Do Not Follow False Teachers

  Like the fds? It's difficult to imagine any teaching more false than theirs.

  Nestleboy, you deserve a medal for sitting through this crap, I know I couldn't have done it
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  26

  Whats your favourite "reward" to yourself for accomplishing something?

  by Crumpet in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sometimes as an incentive to do something that requires hard work and will in the long term be beneficial to attend to i'll offer myself a reward.

  yes maybe the accomplishment in itself should be the reward - but i need motivation!.

  so do you give yourself a carrot for getting that long put off chore, for going to see someone who needs or wants to see you, for finishing a goal, for losing weight?

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  dedpoet

  I also have a novel way of rewarding and incentivising myself to study, but I dont think I can mention that one here

  lol

  I guess we'll just have to use our imagination to work that one out!

  Personally, I like to relax, put my feet up and listen to some
  Delta Blues, which I love but Linda hates. Her allowing me to
  do that without complaining about it is ample reward.
• 
  56

  I'M CONFUSED

  by nvrgnbk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've got my issues like everybody else.

  good days and bad days.

  ups and downs.. but there is something i can't relate to and simply will never understand.. that is:.

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  dedpoet

  I can see where you are coming from with this NVR.

  Some debates do. almost inevitably, become heated at times, in
  paricular the ones on atheism/theism, creationism/evolution and
  politics. More oftan then not, once the "battle lines" are drawn the
  insults start to fly from both sides. I can see how some of the comments
  on these threads would be viewed as rude and arrogant, I get the
  same impression myself when reading through them.

  Personally, I usually avoid involvement in such topics. I dislike
  seeing posters calling other posters "stupid", "idiotic" or "a$$holes"
  for merely holding, and expressing a differrent opinion to their own.
  I just wonder if they would behave in such a way towards their
  family or work colleagues? I doubt it somehow.

  There seems to be a few posters who make a sarcastic or even
  downright nasty comment on virtually every thread they post on. I find these
  even harder to understand. I wonder sometimes if maybe they don't
  get to say much at home or work, and have to resort to expressing
  themselves anonymously on here.

  Whatever their reasons, I agree with you when you say that this
  kind of attitude alienates more people than it will ever influence.

  dedpoet
• 
  16

  What was the biggest thing that helped you when you were leaving?

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for me, the support of this site was invaluable as i had had years of couped up emotions.

  always being told that if you are sporitually weak, it is your fault.

  i actually swallowed it and tried to be a good jw.

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  dedpoet

  I didn't believe that the watchtower had the truth when I walked away
  in 1999, having done a lot of independent research into their history,
  as well as reading Crisis of Conscience.

  That knowledge helped me break free from the mind control I'd been
  subjected to for my 8 years as a jw. I missed some of my "friends" at
  the hall, but I didn't miss them enough to lure me back, I knew that
  there was nothing worth going back for.