Posts by done4good

8

Interview With An Apostate: done4good

by done4good in

jw
friends

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. family first started studying with jw around 1977. i was 4 then, and raised pretty much up the religion from that point onward.

my father studied, lost interest, but mom picked up where he left off.

simultaneously, my aunt studied with another jw, and dove in head first.

done4good

Nex2go - What was the one single thing in the end, that made you walk?

I stated this elsewhere recently, but it came down to an epiphany I had about 6 months prior. The consequences of divorce, (or other highly stressful situations), often force someone to rethink their position on many things, and I was no exception. I figured out that leaving the ex was the best thing that could ever happen to me, and that flew in the face of everything I was taught to believe about marriage, divorce, sex, etc. I could never look at my belief system the same way again, even though I tried to.

The judicial committee that followed that breakup only served to further demonstrate the whole thing was all smoke and mirrors. The elders did not care one bit about either my "readjustment" or "keeping the congregation clean". I saw very clearly, (since the blinders were at least partly removed at this time), that the entire judicial process was all about two things. The first of which is making sure I was obedient. JCs test for this by saying the most ridiculous things and expecting you to agree. Any questioning of this, (even sincere inquiry), is considered "not respecting the arrangement", and will result in DF. You are expected to say "YES" to everything, no matter how stupid it is. The second thing JCs concern themselves with is all about keeping up the appearance of a "clean" congregation. That is why they don't give public reproof when no one knows about the "wrongdoing". They would much rather do that, but if anyone actually knows about it, they have to make the organization look good, (by some demonstration that the matter was "handled"), so they make it public.

I left that JC knowing it was all bullshit. It took me a few months to process that whole mind fuck and find my way to the exit door.

d4g

10

My experience with some ex-JW Christians

by opusdei1972 in

currently i can accept the existence of "god" if you say that "god" is a superior rational being.

i support the idea for the existence of superior beings living in other places.

it means to me that we, humans, are not the superior ones in the universe.

done4good

I took a similar path, and remained "Christian" for a period of time after I left, wanting to believe the bible. It did not take long however, to find way too many logical inconsistencies, and I began to study the bible from a historical and anthropological perspective. I came to conclusion early on, this book was nothing more than an amalgamation of interpreted Jewish histories and socially evolved Egyptian beliefs. In other words, just another mythological ancient holy book, just slightly more socially evolved than its polytheistic predecessors.

My experience with ex-JW Christians is that they have not taken a similar path of research in an honest search for facts. This is no better than JW.

d4g

40

What was your ''the last straw that broke the camels back'' moment

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

there is a limit to how much straw (long yellow grass) a camel can carry on its back.

if you keep putting more straw on top, it will finally break the camel's back.

when you are at the last straw you are finally angry and will not take any more.. my moment (to stop attending all watchtower meetings) was after the harsh treatment from the elders and fellow congregation members of my second cousin who was disfellowhipped as a teenager.

done4good

Realizing I would be much happier leaving my ex-wife, (then a JW, she also left a few years later). I was right, and at the moment, I knew everything I was taught about marriage, divorce, etc. was not true. It was that simple. If what I was taught was not true in this one area, then it is not "the" truth, and therefore cannot be the "true" religion.

I stopped attending completely within 6 months of figuring that out, and never went back. Roughly 30 years in, and one epiphany to get me out.

d4g

30

People keep sending me messages saying "what happened?"

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

i am sorry i haven't replied and if it seems rude.

but people keep asking me what happened and i am not sure what to say.

thanks for writing anyway.

done4good

Slim-

Your posts are some of the best on here, and bring a healthy dosage of skepticism, of which any open-minded person would appreciate, even when they disagree.

Many of us were very concerned for you when you left 2.5 years ago. That said, it is important that people respect boundaries, and not expect an explanation from you, or anyone else for their decisions.

I also agree 100% that saying too much is often saying less than would be if someone actually says less. Many ideas and concepts are difficult to articulate, and not easily understood by an audience that does not have access to the context of the person trying to convey the idea. The more intuitive of your audience will "get it", without much actually said.

d4g

3

Lost friends and musing

by Lostandfound in

jw
friends

sitting listening to some very evocative music, rachmaninov, my mind wandered across 4 decades of friendships and laughter in the borg, friiends now faded to memories.

the time in "the ministry" just after a co visit when he had urged us to knock more persistently at doors instead of quiet taps so we did not disturb anyone.

i was with someone and showing off how loud i could knock and firmly attacked the large brass door knocker in the centre of the door.

done4good

Bad girl, Sparrow...

d

25

Brave New W0rld of Education - The Regressive Left

by cofty in

i found this to be a thought-provoking film on the trend in higher education.. oubliette drew my attention to a brilliant article recently called "the coddling of the american mind".

please have a look at the film, click the link and check out the links in the article.

i would love to hear your thoughts.. ...

done4good

I have not watched this yet, however in my experience, extreme leftists are rare. Those with left leaning views tend to avoid herd mentality inherently. There are always exceptions though.

The MO of the right is all about ideology, and they tend to look for these one-offs and exploit them as a diversion tactic.

d4g

54

The Watchtower is not invincible

by Coded Logic in

despite claims to the contrary, there's no guarantee the watchtower will be around in a few decades time.

and it seems to me there's ever mounting evidence that the opposite may well be true.

but it's not just that recruitment is down and their defectors are up.

done4good

If you look around the world, all religion is becoming very polarized. Society is evolving, and some religions, (like the RC church), are slowly beginning to evolve with society progressively, (I am an atheist, so not defending the RC, although the modern version of the RC is quite docile), while the more fundamentalist ones, (radical Islam, Evangelical Protestant, JW, Orthodox Judaism, etc.), are becoming more extreme and out of touch with the rest of society.

A positive feedback loop is what we are seeing. As society evolves, (and this is happening much faster with the aid of modern technology), more people are becoming less religious. The fundamentalist type religions are responding to this with varying levels of extremism, pushing the moderates either away from religion entirely, or they become extreme themselves. What is left religiously is even more extreme, and this further pushes existing moderates out, etc. This is not a stable situation and will become unhinged for many religious groups in the coming years, not just JW.

d4g

60

Literature being discontinued, including Isaiah's Prophecy and Reasoning book

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

congregations get an annual letter that tells what can be ordered for literature (it's mainly a list of audio cds/dvds for the deaf), but this time it included publications that will be discontinued, and this included the isaiah's prophecy book and the reasoning book, and i think i saw the draw close to jehovah book.

i meant to take a picture of the letter but forgot.

the branch is only going to give what they have on stock, when that stock depletes that's it, you won't be able to order those publications anymore.. this is in canada so i don't know if this is worldwide..

done4good

kramer-its hardly trying to rewrite or destroy the past. They are just stopping printing some books.If they were really trying to destroy the past they would do things like tell congregation libraries to destroy all books past a certain age, or encourage publishers only to keep stuff x years old.
How is stopping printing some things trying to erase a history??

Naive.

It's called revisionist history, and the WT, as well as all authoritarian regimes are masters at it.

d4g

56

OK friends lets be honest, if a Nuclear Holocaust took place today how many of you would return to the KH?

by James Mixon in

speaking for my self, no way in hell.. this question to see if you really have been deprogramed,.

do you 100% believe it is not the truth.. a fourth of the world hit by a nuclear attack..

done4good

In a word, no, however this is probably not a good example scenario.

9/11 for example, certainly forced some people back, (my cousin who was DF for 8 years and a coke head at the time was one of them). An event of great significance, but not catastrophic to humanity, one such as 9/11 or worse, would probably force those who are not convinced 100% JW is not the "truth", to go back. If you look at some older threads here from 2001, there were some here who did exactly that.

I am not one of those people.

d4g

23

Fade update...

by StarTrekAngel in

i have attended only one meeting in the past 3 weeks.

i know there is no way to leave this cult fast enough, but is my fade too fast?

done4good

Cold turkey works most of the time. Contrary to popular belief, even with family in it can be done. You just need to keep low key overall in that case.

d4g