round two with me and my parents went terrble last night.
my mother was sobbing and my dad had the biggext look of dissapointment on his face.
i couldn't think straight.
I have to say, by speaking up at all, you WON. This is all new to you, whereas they are parroting words that have existed for over 100 years. Naturally, they were able to cut you to ribbons with scriptures and reasoning and so forth. Give yourself a little time to get your feet under you. And don't feel bad for "losing"... you're well on your way to escaping the crippled life of a cult-member, and doing so before you even reach 20 years of age! You are totally winning!
What AA said.
j
i know many people did business with me because i was an elder and had to be honest.
i never cheated anybody anyway because it's simply not right but i know a lot of witnesses that were "screwed" by other witnesses......what about you??
?
My expeience with doing business with jws, is that generally, they think they are entitled to special favors because they are a "brother" or "sister", such as having time off, or worse, wanting a break on a price because of thier "brother" status. I know a jw who owns an auto shop in northern NJ, and it seems about every jw in NJ uses his services because of his jw status. I also know many, many jws owe him money. He continues to take the abuse because he doesn't know how to say NO!
j
some of us here are still active and still have a magazine order.. what do you think will happen when we go to pick up our magazines?.
will the literature servant reduce our order of the 15th edition to 1 per person?
what if you want spares?
I wonder if this new arrangement might be a stepping stone to changing their mode of distribution of the 15th of the month issue. They could easily post the information on their website for download or email it to a designated person in the congregation. That would be a HUGE savings in printing costs.I have considered this for some time, and you might be right.
A couple of considerations though;
- They know that us evil 'apostates' are more internet saavy that the reg pubs for the most part - and they may fear that we will get ahold of already digitized versions from an insider.
- They don't like the dubs online if they can keep 'em off - getting the mag online might lead to online research 'while I'm here', and that could really backfire.
I agree with Jeff on this. They don't use their website effectively as it is. Either this is because of Jeff's above reasons stated, or just becasue it dosen't fit into the "arrangement". If the arrangement were to change, they would have to realize the risk they would be exposing the r&f to. They are just slowly bleeding to death.
j
ok guys, list the ones ya know.. the truth/truth = the truth according to jw's is their religion.
for example someone baptized as a jw is baptized in the truth, whereas someone baptized elsewhere is not.. new light/light = a better understanding of the current status quo or 'light' in general which is just knowledge, new light allows for a complete change in beliefs without exception.. god's word = mainly the bible but anything else published by the wbt tract society is also acceptable.. true christians = refers only to jehovah's witnesses or suitable examples from the bible.. apostates = anyone who has been a jehovah's witness who opposes their beliefs (not necessarily people or individuals) and shares how they feel about the watchtower bible and tract society with anyone.
a person who hasn't been a jehovah's witness but does clearly oppose their message and beliefs may also be referred to as an apostate.. experiences = stories that will upbuild and encourage jw's.
"Stream of Time" -WTF???
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...; )
Welcome Ninja!
<!-- .style1 { font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; } .style2 { font-family: arial; font-size: 18px; color: #003366; } .style3 { font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; color: #003366; } --> 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 .
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
was there something special that happened, an event or maybe a deception, that triggered your point of no return as a jw.. .
.
.
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
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".
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
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?
Unless you actually care about what they think, don't do anything on their terms.
j
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?
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
