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compared with the six million jehovahs witnesses worldwide the .
so-called apostates are comparatively much smaller.
Robert and TrueOne, welcome to the forum! Those are some pretty incredible stories. Good point about the GB living in Brooklyn and traveling all over the world at other people's expense.
And I was especially shocked at the elder's comment about life at Bethel. I guess people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones...
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compared with the six million jehovahs witnesses worldwide the .
so-called apostates are comparatively much smaller.
Thank you Willyloman, I thought the analogy made perfect sense.
<!-- .style1 { font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; } .style2 { font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 18px; color: #663366; } .style3 { font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 17px; color: #663366; } --> why can you see through the watchtower while others cannot?
compared with the six million jehovahs witnesses worldwide the .
so-called apostates are comparatively much smaller.
Hi everyone, and a big hi to Mike! I've been absent for a while settling in at my new school, and I thought this was a good thread to come back with.
First of all, excellent question Wanderer. This is a universal topic that applies to many people, not just the Jehovah Witnesses. We were talking about a similar topic this week in my philosophy class. The teacher wrote all the major problems of the world on the board and he ran out of room before we could name them all, which was his intention. He wanted to show us just how many problems there are in the world.
I'll try to explain it like this. Things like poverty, disease, war, intolerance and prejudice have always existed in some form or another in all groups of human life. No one, I repeat no one, is exempt from this. I've heard from the JW songbook how they boast and brag that they are no part of the world and "we don't fit into the the world's perception of society." They think they're better than everyone else when in reality they're much worse. I know, many of you know this already, but let me explain it the way my professor does.
He told us that simply by being college students by choice, that meant we were acknowledging that we don't have all the answers to life and we want to work hard to earn our place in society. That's what true bravery is. The ability to admit you don't know what you're doing, and that you learn from your mistakes. The Watchtower paints a nice pretty picture where they have an answer for everything, but in reality if you join the Watchtower, you are essentially giving up on life. You send a message to the world "I have the truth, everyone else is false, and I'm going to paradise after armageddon." This is a copout on life. This is what Jesus warned us about. It's not even about religion or God, it's about having the courage to say "I'm going to live my own life and think for myself and be a good person, not someone's grunt or pawn."
We live in a very challenging world full of problems that no one has the answer to. People like Jehovah Witnesses offer an escape into their own imaginary world where you hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil, but only if you choose to be deaf, dumb and blind. However, I believe that it's the struggle itself, not the end result, that makes us good people. Anyone can come along and give you a quick fix or an easy way out, but so often it's the journey, not the destination that makes us who we are.
I once explained to my mom how the Watchtower prohibits her from rational thinking and keeps her always busy slaving their works. Her answer to every single criticism was "But I love it so much!" She loves being dominated by these people. She loves how they tell her what to wear, what to eat, what to read, what to say, and what to think. That's just how some people are.
I remember when I was five years old in kindergarten when the entire class was convinced we had cooties. Anyone else remember that? Well, since we were all going to die of cootie infection, or a least miss Saturday morning cartoons, we had to get a cootie shot. But only the cool kids had the cootie shots, and they got them from a mysterious source like an unnamed hospital through a very powerful "doctor." How did we get these cootie shots? Simple. All we had to do was give the cool kids our lunch money and free reign of the monkey bars at recess, and we got the shot. The shot itself was usually just a punch in the shoulder or a poke in the ribs with a pencil, and the cool kids said the effects were invisible, we couldn't feel them, but they assured us with great sincerety that the shot was working and we would surely die without it.
Now everyone reading this, I ask the question: Does this sound familiar at all?
Of course, this scam only lasted a few months before the parents and teachers found out. Maybe something similar happened at your school. My point is, the Watchtower is exactly like the cool kids with the cootie shots. They never seem to explain where they get their medicine, but they assure you that you would die without it. And what about their constant use of fear of armageddon and the grisly death of all your loved ones? Nothing more than an imaginary cootie outbreak.
I hope someday the Witnesses will wise up, get some backbone and dump this worthless cult once and for all. I'm not saying you have to join us, or replace it with another religion, but just do it for yourself. Yes, there are those who see the truth but still stay behind for their loved ones. That is a truly brave act, and I commend them for it. But at what point do you say "enough is enough?"
After all, do you want to spend the rest of your life in fear of cooties?
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obituary january 13, 2095. .
john mcdonald 1990-2095. the last known jehovah's witness died today, of natural causes at his home in brooklyn ny.
he survived by three children, six grandchildren and two great grand-children.
"Watchtower, proclaiming the beauty of sex."
Ha ha ha ha! Good idea with the female Pope too!
i received an email dated 01-11-007 from a brother at bethel here it is.
######### i heard this first hand, this morning that the faithful and discreet slave said that matthew 24: 14 has been fulfilled.
it was announced at the special day assembly at houston tx.
This is just too cute. I can just hear the title screaming from the New York Times and the six o'clock news:
"God the Almighty has announced the impending destruction of mankind via e-mail!"
there is an interesting article in the volume 5, number 3 (2006) of cultic studies review (http://www.culticstudiesreview.org) and i wanted to share a few of the interesting points related to anti-social cult leaders.
while application to a seasoned cult like the watchtower may be more ambiguous than a one-leader organization, i would like to know your viewpoints as to how you may have noticed any of these tendencies among elders and other leaders within the watchtower organization.
it certainly applies to rutherford for one!
Hi Randy,
Excellent topic, I can see many of these characteristics in my mom. I have a few questions though, and I was hoping to get your input.
Rutherford certainly had antisocial personality disorder. However, did he turn the Watchtower into a cult, or was it already a cult under Charles Russell? If not, was Rutherford himself responsible for turning the WTS into a cult?
Since I'm trying to be optimistic, I'm guessing that after Russell died, the organization would have died also had it not been for Rutherford. Many, if not all of their characteristics today did not exist during Russell's time. They still celebrated holidays, and they were not called Jehovah Witnesses. As World War One drew to a close, maybe Russell's followers would have dispersed or moved on to other things in light of his failed prophicies?
If Russell truly believed he was right, than Rutherford exploited the devotion of his followers to suit his own selfish desires. At best, I feel pity for Russell, for his organization became corrupt and anti-christian after his death, even more so than when he was alive.
Also, why is it so many cults pretend that by joining them you can get closer to God, when in fact the exact opposite is true? Doesn't the term "Jehovah's Witnesses" imply a direct communion with God, yet everything about their beliefs serves to remove them from a relationship with God or Jesus?
Just a few ideas...
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i just had this site pointed out to me.
a great resource for researchers.
follow the links to many district & circuit assembly programs and many mp3s of talks from them.
It seems I can't gain access to the site. Why is it password protected?
oh.... how the saga goes on!!
i swear we could write a novel about our life exiting the watchtower!!
ok..many of you read what happened..our house was egged and so was my sisters car that was parked here, and "frosty" was attacked!!
Wow, this thread is really popular, I hope I'm not too late.
Personally, I think you should press charges. True, Jesus taught us to love our enemies, and these people have clearly appointed themselves your enemy. You and your husband can personlly forgive them, but legally you should go all the way, this was clearly a premeditated religious hate crime.
You of all people know if the situation were reversed, they would pursue legal charges. That's how their "be no part of the world" rule works. They only call the cops when it serves their purpose. The elders are probably scrambling right now for a way to settle this before it goes public.
What I find ironic is that all the Jehovah Witnesses kids I met in school say they can't sing any Christmas carols except Frosty the Snowman, because it doesn't have a religious theme to it, but it deals with magic, which they don't allow either. When your neighbors attacked your Frosty it reminded me of it.
You know the sad and bizarre thing about this is that they are grown men. They actually think they weren't doing anything wrong, not even when they got caught. I bet they're talking to eachother now and saying something like "Well, what were we supposed to do, they were celebrating Christmas!?"
As if you were commiting some sort of sin and it was their job to punish you. Pathetic.
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i've seen this advertisement of the history channel for several days now.
i thought you all might be interested in seeing the show about deadly cults.. decoding the past: cults: dangerous devotion - thursday, january 4, 2007 - 09:00-11:00pmposted: tuesday, january 2, 2007from the bizarre prophecies of charles manson to the desperate paranoia of jim jones, cult leaders draw us into worlds of power, paranoia, and death.
through interviews .
Can someone please record it and post it online for those of us who don't get the history channel or can't record it? Thank you!
so says the february 1st 2007 watchtower in bold print on page 6.. the name of the article is: why be truthful?.
under the subheading, what is a lie?
it reads:"every lie is an untruth, but not every untruth is a lie.
Mike: Good point. You would think they would stop producing literature that only serves to incriminate themselves and is ultimately used by us to release their members from the Watchtower prison.
I imagine them as one large group of Do-do birds all chasing eachother off a cliff to their deaths. At least that way I can laugh at them.
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