Posts by DanTheMan

26

Were you df'd while suffering depression???

by Pistoff in

i have a son who was disfellowshipped while suffering serious depression and who was not actively "sinning".. i feel this is outrageous and want to know how widespread the practice is.

please tell me what your experiences are, i am interested and want to try to get the brothers to factor this in, so we can stop losing people to depression.

DanTheMan

Last October I sat in the Star Chamber. I had been going through severe depression in the prior 1 1/2 years, and I had committed an indescreet act with a coworker.

When I came back into the room to hear the decision, I was scared to death. I felt like "if they DF me, I'm gonna kill myself". I could tell that two had won out over one, and I was reproved. A different group of three and it VERY easily could have gone the other way. I think that 90% of people in a similar circumstance would have been DF'd. I just got lucky. Now that I'm DA'd, I'm sure the three look back and say "we should have DF'd him".

Interesting thing was, is I only attended 2 meetings after that. I'm hardly the picture of mental health, I have a lot to work through, but I'm way better off than I was a year ago, when I was so depressed that I was nauseous until around noon every day and couldn't eat, I was losing weight, hair falling out, it was lots of fun. Thank God for the internet and all the wonderful ex-jw books.

19

Were you " SPIRITUALLY IMPOVERISHED"?

by refiners fire in

jw
friends

or did you have the truth in your hearts?

brothers and sisters.

field service/ meeting attendance/ personal study/ and personal prayer.. how were your key indicators?

DanTheMan

The WT "Big Four" - what a masterfully designed religious treadmill

Meeting attendance:

Here's a funny story. When I was a newbie, I was so serious and straight about everything. One time, when I was going to miss book study, I called the conductor to let him know i wasn't going to be there. He just laughed and said "OK buddy, we'll see you next time". Over the years it fell off some, but not much. I enjoyed the meetings. The friendships and communal atmosphere kept me in long after I started feeling like not all was right in Watchtower World.

Personal Study:

Hit and miss, more miss as the years went by. Sometimes the Awake! would have an interesting article or two, but the Watchtower seemed to get weirder and weirder ("you expect me to offer this to people?"), especially after 1995 and the generations thing. They seemed to get more repetitive and counsel-heavy. The ENDLESS counsel in the pubs and from the platform was a big part of my starting to chafe under the WT-yoke.

Prayer:

"Jehover, please forgive me for this that and the other...please help me with this and that problem...I'm sorry i fall so short in this and that way..." That's all my prayers ever consisted of. Kind of sickening, in retrospect, how much guilt and shame I suffered from and how much being in the WT reinforced those feelings.

Field Service:

"Hi, my name is Dan, we were offering these Bible-based (tm) magazines to you and your neighbors today. This issue of the Awake! is about police officers and how important they are in our society. Is that something you would be interested in reading?"

"Yeah, OK, I'm a police officer myself."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll enjoy the articles then. By the way, if you don't quit your job and join us, Jehovah is going to kill you at Armageddon."

I didn't go out in field service much.

14

Hello

by jozb5 in

jw
friends

er i thought there was an introduction page but i guess this will do nicely.

my name is josie and i am a longtime lurker.

i just recently got up the nerve to post something and i thought i should make a more formal hello.. i was raised with the borg but i never got baptised and i'm glad to say neither has any of my siblings.

DanTheMan

greetings Josie.

Isn't it great to know you're not alone?

17

NEW BUMPERSTICKER--get yours!

by Intuit39 in

i'm working on printing a new bumpersticker, but i need a rough estimate of how many i should run:.

if the watchtower society doesn't lie,.

well then, jehovah god is the liar!.

DanTheMan

THE FAITHFUL AND DISCREET SLAVE IS NEITHER!

HEY JAYDUBS! WWW.FREEMINDS.ORG

THE WATCHTOWER IS A SNARE AND A RACKET

RAY FRANZ IS RIGHT!

FORMER PRISONER OF THE WATCHTOWER

MILLIONS WHO WERE LIVING IN 1925 HAVE DIED

THE WATCHTOWER: A PEDOPHILE PARADISE

CROTCHTOWER BABBLE AND TRASH SOCIETY

I AM A WATCHTOWER DECRUIT

STAY ALIVE 'TIL '75

I'll stop at that

10

Dogs returning to its own vomit.

by KKLUV155 in

jw
friends

this is what i was always told of ones coming into the org.

and then leaving again.

as a dog returning to its own vomit.

DanTheMan

no honorable way out

25

Do dubs deal with death better than others?

by SpiceItUp in

jw
friends

going to that funeral this week made me think about a few things.. first the family members that attended, who btw were not dubs, were shedding tears.

i did not see anyone else there crying even though the woman who died was a great friend and will really be missed.. now since the dubs have the hope of the "resurrection" does that allieviate their grief that they should normally posess?

does that mean they are "happy" when someone dies because their wait is over?

DanTheMan

Room 215:

EWWW reading your post MAKES ME ILL!!! Those Brooklyn shmucks have to prescribe how everything is done. God it makes me sick that I wasted 10 years serving those sick bastards.

I only went to 1 funeral while I was in. The talk was given by one of the local heavies who everybody admires because he has such a mastery of the mental gymnastics and scripture soup recipes it takes to keep WT doctrine straight. It was a strange occasion, one of many that made me say "hmmm".

26

THE ATTITUDE OF A BETHELITE

by minimus in

jw
friends

one of the most interesting things that i have noticed about being a witness is the awe that is given to bethelites.

it seems that if you are a bethelite, you are accorded special privleges in congregations.

you are honored when you visit a hall.

DanTheMan

My first couple of years in, while I was still the enraptured, glistening-eyed newbie, I was encouraged to aspire to serve at the great city on the hill in Brooklyn.

I wish I had gone. I would have left the borg sooner.

A guy I was roommates with for a year or so went, not sure if he's still there or not, don't care really. He was just anxious for something to add to his theocratic resume. He was/is very ambitious, his sights on CO or DO. I really hated him, he contributed much to my disillusionment.

JT and others, I enjoy your x-jw from a black perspective posts. I was always kinda hooked on that "only JW's have racial unity thing" but that was probably my patronizing white attitude.

37

Pedophilia and the WTS 's Irrational Arrogance

by Lee Elder in

jw
friends

i am shocked and outraged by the recent actions of the watchtower society to silence child advocates who's only agenda is to stop the rape and molestation of jehovah's witness children and protect them from the known pedophiles operating within the organization.

those in the organization who are responsible for these reprehensible actions must be sanctioned.

i sincerely hope that voting members of the watchtower society will insist on the removal of all corporate directors who support the current policies that harm children and protect pedophiles.

DanTheMan

If I was still in, I would probably be only vaguely aware of the whole mess. I wouldn't have watched Dateline, I certainly wouldn't have looked at the internet, I think my coworkers sensed my embarrassment at being a JW so they never asked me any JW questions (and believe me, I didn't tell).

I think a lot of JW's are like I was, just keeping their heads in the sand and waiting for the Jehovah to destroy them at the big A because they didn't do enough.

25

Apostate terminology

by Mum in

jw
friends

my daughter and i, fun-loving apostates that we are, have some terms we use regarding the wt organization and other cults.

i would like my fellow posters here to tell us their terms, buzz words, etc., to add to our list: to get the ball rolling, two of our favorites are:.

cookie-cutter theology.

DanTheMan

a never-a-jw friend that I've made since leaving always cracks up when I call it the:

CROTCHTOWER

14

WT MAFIA-Alvin Hansen

by abbagail in

jw
friends

this was posted at the below "jahchristian" link on friday, july 26, 2002. it sounds like the wt is another word for mafia!

and has the wt always had connections with the irs and us attorneys?

if so, what hope is there the feds will ever prosecute the wts re: the pedophile database, etc.?

DanTheMan

A couple of years ago at a DC in Dayton Ohio, apparently there was a hotel that wasn't holding up their end of the bargain, as far as the WT special rates went.

The reaction among the brethren was scary. It was almost like they were were ready to give the hotel managers some concrete overshoes. Over what may have been an honest miscommunication or clerical mistake. "We'll teach these bums about messing with the Watchtower" seemed to be the spirit of the day.

It was pretty sickening, I remember at the time feeling like, damn, what a mafia-ish collective ego here. Nothing Christian about it.

I know this doesn't really relate to this post, just giving an experience.