It's been a long time sincere I left, but I doubt it has changed much. The meetings are excruciatingly boring. They follow a strict pattern. On Sunday, they first sing one of the boring, unsingable "Kingdom melodies", in the usual perfunctory manner, using prerecorded music. This is followed by the public talk. All speakers use society provided outlines, there are only so many, so everyone has probably heard the same talk several times before. Then they have a go at another boring, unsingable song, then the Watchtower study. It's a question and answer type thing, someone reads a paragraph, then the conductor asks the question supplied in the magazine, then someone raises their hand and reads back the very obvious answer they have previously dutifully highlighted in yellow. Then another horrible, unsingable song and finally annother long winded ending prayer, by which point you will be very, very happy it's over. There is no room for personal expressions of faith or any joy or any deviation from the schedule of any kind.
LisaRose
JoinedPosts by LisaRose
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36
A Non J-Dub paying a visit to KingDumb Hall!
by J-DUBBED ini was thinking of doing a pop-in visit when they're doing their thing(what ever that might be).
to just see what it is that lures and hooks people, like our son.
i was worried there is some sort of subliminal messages in audio or video that start to brain-wash a person.
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36
NFL bans Player for using a 'switch' on his son
by designs innfl commissioner roger goodell placed minnesota viking's player adrian peterson on indefinite suspension for using extreme measures in disciplining his son using a tree branch switch.. sports illustrated covered details about how the process works with the players union, the player, and the nfl.. www.si.com/nfl/2014/11/17/minnesota-vikings-adrian-peterson-suspended.
i remember vivid scenes in kingdom halls and in the homes of jws who used extreme measures to discipline their children.
a father and assistant p.o.
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LisaRose
I think it's a good thing this has been made an issue. Peterson has said this was the way he was raised and he did not know it was wrong. There are probably a lot of parents out there who think this way, now they are at least being exposed to the idea that this is not acceptable in our society, that there are better ways to discipline a child. It's easy to get frustrated and lash out physically, much harder to come up with better solutions, people have to know the better options out there.
Peterson has not lost his job, he is merely been suspended. He will take a financial hit, but it's not like he is going to be living on the streets, as a professional athlete he will still make ungodly sums of money. It's probably more of an issue for him that he is missing the season, plus the damage that has been done to his reputation, but his fans will forgive him and he will come back from this and probably be a better person and a better parent.
Did the NFL go too far? Maybe, but better to err on the side of protecting defenseless children than on the side of wealthy, entitled athletes.
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Preaching is a waste of time
by konceptual99 inbefore anyone gives me the "bears/wood" similarities, this is a post based on insidethekh's reply on the mormon v jw thread.
(http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/287545/1/who-is-copying-who-jws-or-mormons) i like to see wt friendly posts on here as some of the wt bashing displays the same logical fallacies as levelled against the wts and it's followers so it's good to consider reasoned debate.. on the one hand i think itkh makes a fair point if you compare the worldwide success of mormons v jws but there is an overall context to the preaching work that is completely ignored by those fully "in" and has been a major factor in my move from being an active witness to one on the cusp of getting out.
from a statistical point of view there are great headline numbers presented by the wts but if you put them in the context of the number of witnesses, conversation ratios, ratio of new witnesses to birth rates, numbers that must be leaving, growth differentials across the globe, penetration in muslim nations and so on then these numbers become meaningless.
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LisaRose
The preaching work contributes to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.—Mark 13:10.
- The gospel must be preached to all the nations. How many millions of people live in China and other countries that have never heard of Jehovah or Jehovah's Witnesses? The Watchtower is sitting on billions, yet they seem to have no interest in using it to reach these nations. FAIL
We prove ourselves obedient by participating in the disciple-making activity.—Matt. 28:19, 20
- How many disciples has the average witness made? Likely none. Most time spent in Field service is wasted by knocking on not at homes and coffee breaks and aimlessly driving around. How can what most JWs do be considered remotely disciple making? FAIL
Jehovah wants the wicked to be warned about the consequences of their course.—Ezek. 3:19.
- Do you think anybody understands the message? Despite the millions of hours supposedly spent doing this warning work, the only thing most people know about JWs is that they don't take blood and don't celebrate Christmas. FAIL
We owe it to people to share the good news with them.—Acts 20:26, 27; Rom. 1:14, 15.
- Then why don't JWs ever talk about Jesus ? FAIL
Participating in the preaching work protects us from bloodguilt.—Ezek. 3:18.
- Really, doing the Pioneer shuffle, knocking so softly no one could hear and giving a half hearted presentation protects you from blood guilt? FAIL
Teaching Scriptural truth is a requirement for our own salvation, and it saves others too.—1 Tim. 4:16
- According to the bible, Christians are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus, not by works. FAIL
Speaking about Jehovah and praising him publicly are important features of our worship.—Heb. 13:15.
- The Watchtower spends more time praising themselves than praising God. FAIL.
We demonstrate our love for Jehovah and Jesus by obediently doing this work.—John 14:15; 1 John 5:3.
They are not doing the work that Jesus said, only the works the Watchtower wants. FAIL
Our ministry helps to counteract the lies that Satan promotes regarding Jehovah.—Isa. 43:10-12; 2 Cor. 4:4.
- This is a laugh. Most people have no idea what those lies are, so how could they counteract them? FAIL
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The Jonestown Massacre, Remembered
by Londo111 inhttp://time.com/3583781/jonestown-massacre/.
it was 36 years ago today.. the watchtower has caused far more deaths due to the blood transfusion ban and the suicides from disfellowshipping.
unfortunately, these deaths are mostly invisible to the public, since they didnat occur at once and in one location.. .
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LisaRose
My son was born on the seventh of November 1978, Gregor. I remember there was a photo on the front page of Time magazine. My daughter, then three, saw it and I had a lot of explaining to do, she was very observant and had a strong bs detector, she got the whole story out of me. I remember thinking I was glad I wasn't in a cult.
I have never thought about it that way, but yes, they have killed more people than Jonestown.
Sad.
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Ongoing frustration with wife
by Flipping El ini've tried taking the slow, patient approach with my wife.
i believe i first posted here about 13 months ago about my wife.. we've always had good communication and could talk endlessly about philosophy, neuroscience, sociology and then when i learned the ttatt, i clammed up a bit about spiritual things.
i'd always been fairly liberal, suggesting other alternative ideas, but then i told my wife about the un/ngo scandal (i ran across the guardian story doing a talk as an ms, lol!
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LisaRose
I think it would be best if you were honest with her. This seems like a time bomb that is sure to go off sooner or later, so why prolong it? Perhaps you should see a professional counselor to figure out how to approach it. I don't know what's going on with her, she seems very passive aggressive. Perhaps she wants out of the religion too or perhaps she wants out of the marriage and is afraid to say, it's impossible for any of us to know, but it's time to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
I think you need to figure out what you want. If you leave the religion she may leave you, so which is more important too you, saving the marriage or saving you personal integrity by not practicing a religion you don't believe in?
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JW's donations going to sexual abuse cases?
by Ginx ini posted in the child abuse section, but it hasn't been active for a few days.. i read somewhere on the internet (don't recall what site it was) that jw's donations are going towards sexual abuse cases.. is this true?.
where can i find solid evidence regarding this matter?.
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LisaRose
There are so many cases that are well documented from various news sources that it would be hard to pretend it's some apostate conspiracy, but don't be surprised if he doesn't believe it. It's hard to take in for the average JW, they have been led to believe it doesn't happen in their spiritual paradise, so not only do they have a problem, but they have been kept in the dark about it, it has got to shake you faith a bit. If you asked any JW if the funds contributed to the "worldwide work" go to paying off child abuse victims they would flatly deny it.
You might just say you heard about it and want to know from him if it's true. If he tries to prove its a lie he won't be able to.
The Mormon church is running into similar problems, they recently came clean that Joseph Smith had multiple wives, something they had always denied. It was getting to where so many people knew the truth they had to admit it.
The internet is hard on cults.
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Fibroids UK.
by quellycatface ini have just had a radiology appt where i was told i had fibroids.
great.. i had a mirena coil fitted 2 months ago to control heavy and prolonged periods, suffering for about 14 months.. i wonder what my gp will suggest now??.
i'm gutted.. thanks for listening.
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LisaRose
I'm sorry you aren't feeling well, I know how demoralizing that can be. I would think they will want to do a hysterectomy, especially if you are through having children, that will probably take care of both issues.
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JW's donations going to sexual abuse cases?
by Ginx ini read somewhere on the internet (don't recall what site it was) that jw's donations are going towards sexual abuse cases.. is this true?.
where can i find solid evidence regarding this matter?.
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LisaRose
It's true. Here is one example
There are others, typically they prefer to settle outof court and everyone has to sign a non disclosure agreement, so it is unknown how much, but certainly in the millions.
There have been some actual judgments that were not settled out of court. The latest is below, there is lots of documentation. The Watchtower was fined heavily for refusing to make a witness available for questioning and refusing to produce discovery documents.
Also, use the search function here and look for Candace Conti.
Assuming these two are not overturned, the Watchtower will be out some serious change. They are worth billions though, so it's not going to hurt them that much. Of course donations will be used for this, where else would they get the money? They have considerable real estate holdings, but since that real estate was bought with donated funds, it's all the individual JWs that are paying for these pedophile cases in one way or another. I doubt most JWs know about this.
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just wanted to introduce myself
by TheMark ini've been a lurker for quite some time and enjoy the forum.
i've reached a point in life where i don't argue ideologies anymore so i don't have much to say.
i've been out for decades and believe i've been mostly de-cultabilized (if that's even a word).. my family is still in and i haven't had contact with them in years.
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LisaRose
Welcome to the forum. I am also from California, currently living in the SF bay area, but I have lived in Ventura, Sacrameno area and spent ten years in Colorado, as of last week I've been out fifteen years.
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new neighbors
by Theredeemer inso, my wife and i purchased a house about a month ago and recently we met our new neighbors.
they are an older couple.
they are very nice and even brought us cookies.. in conversation they brought up that they were mormons and mentioned how much they loved it.
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LisaRose
We had three Mormon families move onto our street where we used to live, they had just built a huge stake nearby. They were nice, but mostly kept to themselves, no recruiting. I had suspected they were Mormon, when my neighbor said "Its just as I suspected, they are Mormons". I said "It's not like it's against the law", she said "It should be!", lol. She had spent a miserable year in Utah once and had no love for them, they would look at her sideways for bringing a thermos of coffee to work.
It creeped me out a bit having them there, too much of a reminder of my JW days. It's strange that they believed such different things, but the culture was exactly the same. A cult is a cult. Well, at least they came to our annual Christmas Party.