Posts by Quandry

16

Here's the updated (3:20 p.m. ET) MSNBC article quoting Candace Conti

by AndersonsInfo in

jehovah's witnesses ordered to pay more than $20 million to woman who said she was sexually abused.

by james eng, msnbc.com.

updated at 3:20 p.m. et: in what both sides described as a momentous ruling, a jury in oakland, calif., has found that jehovahs witnesses was partly responsible for the alleged sexual abuse of a girl by one of its members and must pay her more than $20 million.. the alameda county superior court jury on thursday awarded $21 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff, who is now 26 years old.

Quandry

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I'll bet a lot of JWs were "stunned." Ha!

26

Just wanted to say hello

by Suraj Khan in

i've only very recently discovered this site and have been reading many compelling personal accounts and testimonials.

i'd like to share my own as well.. i was born into 'the truth' in the early 1970s.

along with my several (fleshly) brothers and sisters, i went through the usual travails of a witness boy - not celebrating birthdays, not pledging allegiance to the flag, not singing christmas carols in the class chorus.

Quandry

Welcome to the forum!

Glad you are here with us. I hope someday that your family will want to be together with you....they are the ones missing out on so much!

31

My email to my mother - sorry a bit long

by darthweef in

jw
friends

hello - i am new here .. just joined a couple of days ago, and have enjoyed the bit of lurking that i have done.

a breif history, i was raised as a jw, was active until i was 36, and was a regular pioneer for 7 years and a ministerial servant for 5 years, and was one when i left.

my reasons for leaving are not important at this point, but i have spent the last year or so researching the flood and more extensively the theory of evolution.. i have finally decided to broach the topic with my mother since after all this time, the last of my jw friends and my brother and sister have all decided that they should shun me now, and i want to make a last ditch effort to convey to my mother that i didn't leave the organization so i could do lines of coke off a cheap hooker, but because i actually believe that this is not the truth.. i'd love some feedback on the email and what you think the possibility of it actually breaking through the "permafrost" created by the society.

Quandry

Welcome.

You know your mother, so only you will know if she is interested and will digest scientific arguments. However, as a mother and one who was "in" for over thirty years (I am now sixty) I can tell you that emotional pleas work best. Simply telling your mom that you love and appreciate all she's done for you, perhaps bringing up some cute stories from your childhood, or trips that the family took, may work better to keep the lines of communication going.

Has she actually asked you why you left? Do you think she actually wants to know? For some parents, only when the child "speaks against" do they draw a line. If you want to keep your relationship with mom, maybe it would be best to just leave all of it alone. I know it is hard....you've obviously done a lot of research, and feel armed with information. As you know, though, the WTS has "done the research for you" and has trained JWs not to do their own thinking. Maybe if you just left bits and pieces of interesting information instead of laying it all out in a way that they might feel brings a confrontation.

Hope the best for you.

46

Did You Watch The Waltons?

by snowbird in

if so, did you enjoy the show?.

i loved it.

missed quite a few episodes due to attending kh meetings, but i'm making up for that.. the show reminds me so of growing up in a large family, having to share everything, and looking out for each other..

Quandry

Which leads me to Greene Acres

The fact that the husband literally snatched the wife

from a life of luxury and forced her to live in squallor

ought to be grounds for divorce

Ha ha ha! Very true. I hated Greene Acres. I haaaated Mr. Haney and the way he talked.

47

Was Any Part of it Real?

by Big Tex in

jw
friends

i'm sort of following a stream of consciousness so bear with me.

i was flipping around on tv and ran across an old movie.

a couple had a one night stand and when she realized he had just used her she was shocked and told him he had said he loved her.

Quandry

I'm actually really very curious and trying to move forward in this life. I beleive if we understand the past we can understand the present.

Howdy Big Tex-I don't know that we'll ever truly be able to understand the past as regards being "in" the organization. I was "in" for over thirty years. Now that I am out it seems like I went through some type of fog...it doesn't seem real that for so long I had no opinions other than the ones that were presented to me by the WTS....that I spent hour after hour in "field service" walking down streets and sidewalks, never really liking it but feeling that it was necessary....not getting an education....no, I'll never really understand it...why I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I wasn't born in, but was young when I came in.

Can we move forward? Yes, we can. To do that we have to spend less time looking back. The people we used to know and love no longer wish to have any association with us, plain and simple. There are some that I still think about and my husband and I wonder what became of them, but it would be pointless to try to contact them, so we don't.

Hope the best for you, and all of us now on "this side." We can do it....we can move forward. At least every day we have is truly OURS to do with as we wish...we get to decide what we think...we can have opinions now. We get to make choices. The research is no longer "done for us."

56

Everybody sing along... "Sparlock, we love you!..."

by cedars in

jw
friends

i've uploaded a song i've written to youtube, here it is.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wvo71qg7k4.

here is the link to my blog article on the society's new dvd, for those who haven't yet read it:.

http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/the-watchtowers-new-toy-story-what-parents-need-to-know.

Quandry

The choir children are precious!

11

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee

by cofty in

this weekend marks the 60th year of the reign of queen elizabeth ii and its a 4 day holiday in the uk.

this afternoon there will be a flotilla of over 1000 boats on the thames from all over the world led by the royal barge.

love it or hate it we do pomp and ceremony with style.. .

Quandry

What a beautiful boat! It looks like it will be very exciting around there for the next few days. I am sure we'll get some television coverage of it in the U.S.

I view it as a vestige of ancient history that has beauty and grandeur. Yes, pomp, also-in this day and age when many people have their eyes glued on small screens playing video games, or working at dull jobs. It is so, so...British. It will bring in a lot of money from tourists from all over the world, and cause young women to dream of going to the ball with a Prince.

56

Everybody sing along... "Sparlock, we love you!..."

by cedars in

jw
friends

i've uploaded a song i've written to youtube, here it is.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wvo71qg7k4.

here is the link to my blog article on the society's new dvd, for those who haven't yet read it:.

http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/the-watchtowers-new-toy-story-what-parents-need-to-know.

Quandry

I like the song! Yes, please tell us, is that you singing? Are there any talent scouts in the area?

47

OK, I am too old and missing it - but what is this SPARLOCK phenomenon?

by james_woods in

at first, i thought it was some legitimate cartoon character (disney or such) that the society was putting down as "demonized".. then, i started getting the idea that perhaps (unbelievably) the society had made him up as a negative "teaching device" to warn jw kids about "worldly demonism".... can this possibly be true?.

surely not even the wtbts could be that stupid!!!.

can somebody explain this to me, please???

Quandry

Thanks, interested one.

47

OK, I am too old and missing it - but what is this SPARLOCK phenomenon?

by james_woods in

at first, i thought it was some legitimate cartoon character (disney or such) that the society was putting down as "demonized".. then, i started getting the idea that perhaps (unbelievably) the society had made him up as a negative "teaching device" to warn jw kids about "worldly demonism".... can this possibly be true?.

surely not even the wtbts could be that stupid!!!.

can somebody explain this to me, please???

Quandry

I am old and not very computer savvy, so bear with me. I have a question.....what is a meme?