Posts by done4good

16

My Story

by ninja in

i got in touch with jw's ...i got conned and indoctrinated....i wised up after 20 years and got out ...phew and grrrrr....thanks for reading....he he.... bet you thought it was gonna be a newboy story ...didn't you?...i wish....nothing to see here...i was on microphone duty a few times though...; )

done4good

Welcome Ninja!

10

Let The Person Discover The True Watchtower Or Tell Them About It?

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

let the person discover the true watchtower or tell them about it?my best friend recently discovered the truth about the watchtower after having.

loaned him my copy of crisis of conscience.

we fought excessively about the .

done4good

Wanderer,

You are in a better position than I am. I recently lent a friend CoC, but despite his willingness to listen to me, he won't quite take the steps to discover the truth for himself. He's almost afriad to read the book. I would say, if your friend is willing to read, you have one up on most of us. No need to force feed him anything. Let him ask the questions. He will on his own, in all likelihood.

It couldn't hurt to direct him here, though.

j

49

Do you recall your "point of no return"?

by JH in

jw
friends

was there something special that happened, an event or maybe a deception, that triggered your point of no return as a jw.. .

.

done4good

It took about a year, but several "defining moments" that took place during the breakup of my marriage to my first wife, and the subsequent months thereafter. The doubletalk in the elders meetings, and JC, the dishonesty that was tolerated by them, the whole thing. I was being taught things without even realizing it. Soon meeting attendance stopped, moved in with then girlfriend, (now wife), etc. One day I woke up and noticed something strange. I was happy for the first time in my life. Now I needed to now why... Then I found JWD and Freeminds. The rest is history.

j

54

Why Is Everything Always Wrong To A Jehovah's Witness???

by minimus in

jw
friends

nothing is ok. everything is problematic..... what if you stumble someone???--------.

let's say you want to invite someone over, you gotta worry about someone thinking your favoring this one over another.

you might be accused of having "cliques".

done4good

Is it any wonder why anyone who was ever a Witness can be so deceitful??

Nope. I came to the conclusion that jws were downright delusional a long time ago. They don't even know when they are bullshitting you.

j

62

Should I wait to be questioned by the elders? or take my leave in advance?

by Thinking of Leaving in

hi everyone, i recently joined this forum as i'm close to being df.

i am suppose to meet with a judical committee soon but was thinking that i don't want to go through those personal questions that i'm sure the elders would ask.

does anyone know, is it better to just tell the elders before, say like on the phone, that i want to be df and not go through the committee?

done4good

Unless you actually care about what they think, don't do anything on their terms.

j

79

'THE DAWKINS DELUSION' New book responds to Dawkins 'The God Delusion'

by nicolaou in

in the wake of richard dawkins bestseller 'the god delusion' (which i and many others here have read) there has been a good deal of rebuttal from the 'faith' community.

now a new book is out published by alister mcgrath, professor of theology at oxford university.

it is entitled 'the dawkins delusion'.. has anyone read it or ordered it yet?

done4good

On the whole, Dawkins is able is accomplish a fair amount of good in his book. As an earlier poster claimed, (before I got lost in one of the previous super-long posts), he makes people think. Really, it is what they need to do, if they are ever going to break away from a religious mindset.

Aside from some apparent arrogance, I really only disagreed with Dawkins on one major point in his book. That being, in one of the later chapters, he claims in so many words that the reason for religious fundamentalism is the fact that religons, (even harmless ones), are allowed to exist at all. I liken that to saying the reason we have bank robberies is because we have banks. No, the obvious real reason, is just simply because there are greedy, dishonest people in the world, period. If there weren't any banks, they would steal elsewhere. Same is true here. Fundamentalism, is borne of intolerance. Yes, religions have been a mojor source of intolerance for millenia, but not the only source. If religion went away, intolerant people would find another avenue to dispense their intolerance. Remember Stalin?

That said, if you can take what some of he says with a few grains of salt, and ignore the overlaying arrogance, I found The God Delusion to be a good, stimulating read.

j

21

When Christians experience the "power of the Christ" ...

by ithinkisee in

is this a feeling unique to christians?.

because i felt tremendously at peace when i came to terms with the facts about (what i feel is) the lack of authenticity of the bible and it's status as an inspired book - almost as if the universe was telling me, "just let go.

things are out of your control.

done4good

Being a healthy secularist, to me, means accepting the fact that you will never have all the answers. If you don't believe in God or an afterlife, then there's no glorious place with answers you expect to go to. It also means you have to try to do the best you can at figuring stuff out anyway.

Amen, to that!

j

108

How Far Up The "Ranks" Did You Go In The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

at age 18, i was a regular pioneer.

at 20, a ministerial servant.

at 24 an elder.

done4good

Never made MS, (could not play by the minimum hour requirement rules), but held several MS responsibilites, such as WT reader, Territory servant, etc.

Also did quick builds for several years, (telephony and PA systems).

PBX, (telecom) "key man", (what the hell is a key man?), at DCs.

j

17

Justifying Gods Organization Against All The Facts

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

justifying gods organization against all the factsregardless of how many facts a person has standing against .

the watchtower society it is still gods organization.

eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hearmy friend knows of the watchtowers involvement with .

done4good

Not nearly so easy at it sounds. But also true.
On the "member of the UN" thing -- The Watchtower was inappropriately a member of an organization controlled by Satan (according to them, of course). So they allegedly realized this and quit. Problem solved, right? Except, what if Joe Publisher became a member of the YMCA? Could HE simply quit, and all would be forgiven? No, he would be subjected to a judicial committee. They would not disfellowship him IF he was repentant. How would he demonstrate that repentance? He'd have to admit it, say he was sorry, agree that it was wrong and not to do it again. THEN they would accept him, almost surely with "restrictions". If he held any position in the congregation -- elder, pioneer, etc -- those would be taken away from him.
Where is the Watchtower's evidence of repentance? Did they meet with the JC, and take their licks like Joe? Hardly! They've never even publicly admitted they were ever a member, let alone apologized for it.
By their own standards, the Watchtower is an unrepentant wrongdoer.

Well said, AA.

j

17

Justifying Gods Organization Against All The Facts

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

justifying gods organization against all the factsregardless of how many facts a person has standing against .

the watchtower society it is still gods organization.

eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hearmy friend knows of the watchtowers involvement with .

done4good

Something PERSONAL has to happen to a JW for the fog to clear. Once it clears, even just
a little, then the alarm can go off: DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!! DANGER!!!!!

Sadly, it almost always needs to happen this way. Otherwise, using facts and common sense alone, usually only meets with frustrating the jw you are trying to reason with.

j