Posts by LisaRose

11

I need some friends!!

by BlackWolf in

jw
friends

i literally have 0 friends, actually i've never had any close friends.

its really started to get to me.

i homeschool and my parents keep me super isolated and all the other kids at my hall are complete a**holes!!

Sorry you are so lonely right now. My daughter went through much the same experience in high school. Many times people who are different in any way struggle in the religion, it's just hard to fit into the borg when you are intelligent and the type that questions things. You will have the last laugh though, when the kids at the hall are jumping into an early marriage and getting their window washing jobs, you will be out there living a better life, maybe going to college and then on to a great job. You will also meet other intelligent people who like to question things, and they will be friends who won't dump you because you decide to not be a JW. My daughter has a fantastic job in IT and is happily married, so very revenge of the nerds.

Hang in there, it will get better, high school doesn't last forever.

12

My beautiful 7th grade daughter just finished her Christmas Concert tonight.

by PaintedToeNail in

jw
friends

my lovely daughter played in her orchestra's concert tonight, in spite of her father who tried to make her feel guilty about it.

he went to the kh tonight, while my youngest child and i went to listen to joyous music played by the local kids at our town's school.

my girl was front and center and she did a great job.

LisaRose

Good for you both, it's one step away from Watchtower silliness and toward a normal life. Christmas music is lovely, it's one of the things that makes this time of year so special. I am glad your Grinch didn't steal your Christmas.

28

Give us more faith WT

by Formerbrother in

what a picture in this sundays wter.

the go bag is there and they have to turn all the lights out and have their meeting in secret.. .

in our congregation we are really being pushed hard to get your go bags in order for every member of the congregation, with at least 3-5 days food and water.. .

LisaRose

The cognitive dissonance is strong in this one.

Do they know what pictures like this do to impressionable young ones? My daughter used to obsess about being put in a concentration camp, Armageddon and starvation due to this crap. They just love to stoke the Armageddon paranoia.

26

Old, Faithful and Forgotten...

by rrb2016 in

had a conversation with my jw mother the other day.

she has been baptized for over 50 years.

i've been out for 30 years, but because both my mother and mother-in-law are jw's i keep up with all things jw.

LisaRose

I think you can get a kindle fire now for around fifty dollars ( the older version which is perfectly good) , so that might be an option for some folks. They 're quite simple to use, easier to maintain than a pc and you can do just about anything you could use a pc for. An advantage for older ones is that you can make the font any size you want. If they cannot afford the internet they could use a local library or coffee shop WiFi to download the literature to read later.

But It's so sad that no one seems to care about these folks that don't know or can't afford the technology.

475

What is the alternative to JW?

by Formerbrother in

i mean this with all due respect, i would like to hear from genuine people who think jw have it wrong and then what is the truth?.

im not talking about silly little quibbles here and there.. is jehovah real?

the the bible is word?

LisaRose

Former Brother, you have left "the truth" but "the truth" has not left you, you are still being controlled by the organization. Many, many things that are taught by the organization are simply factually untrue, others are exagerations. It's normal when you leave a high control religion like the JWs to still believe in much of it, most of us were like that when we first left, including me. I knew I could not be a JW anymore, but I believed they were good people who still got many things right and were closer to the truth of the bible than any other religion.

But as time when on and I started doing more research I realized that most of it was hogwash that did not stand up to scrutiny. I then challenged myself to reconsider everything and finally realized that very little the JWs teach is right. It was hard to admit that I had been so wrong, but it is what it is.

The Watchtower uses various means to keep people in the dark and to stop them from questioning things. The statement that they are the only group showing love to all races and are all over the earth is one of the "thought stopping" methods they use. You see some thing that bothers you about the religion but then you think "but they are the only group that is all over the earth, so they must be right". First of all they are not all over the earth, there are hardly any JWs in mainland China for example. Secondly, other religions are in many countries as well, and lastly, that doesn't excuse the bad things that they do.

You need to look at this with fresh eyes, question everything and then look at the facts. The failed date predictions, doctrine flip flops, troubling history they have covered up, child abuse cover ups, lies and deceptions are not excused because they may have gotten some doctrines right.

45

Closest to the truth?

by punkofnice in

i know many jws that state that the watchtower corporation is the 'closest to the truth'.

thus they quiet their cognitive dissonance.. i don't have access to a corporation library any more.

is this a stance that the watchtower corporation has actually claimed?.

LisaRose

I don't remember if they used that specific term, but it sounds like reasoning they would use. It's sort of an all purpose thought stopper if a person sees issues or problems in the organization. No matter what happens that may cause them to doubt, they think "people are imperfect but it's still the organization that is the closest thing to the truth".

I remember a Watchtower article in the late nineties that basically said that even though mistakes may have been made by Jehovah's organization, they were the only ones to teach the truth about hell fire and the trinity, so they were still far better than false religion. I know now that about that time growth had slowed down quite a bit, perhaps they noticed an increase in people leaving over their failed date predictions or other issues. This line of reasoning actually worked on me for a short time and kept me stuck for a few years, not really in and not really out.

10

The Dead Generation (Monty Python Spoof)

by Scully in

the dead generation.

gbm: "no it isn't".

jw: "yes it is, look at it!

LisaRose

Very funny. MP stuff has a wide range of applicability... like the Bible does.
A photo of the GB in their suits brought the Lumberjack Song in my mind.

Welcome Malachi constant, I've not seen your posts before. Do you mean the Monty python Lumberjack song? I used to listen to a comedy radio station on the eighties in the Southern California area that played a lot of Monty Python, including this gem. My children tell me they actually remember this, I like to think it's part of the reason they are not currently Jehovahs Witnesses.

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day.
He's a lumberjack and he's OK

He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lavatory. On Wednesdays I go shopping and have buttered scones for tea

He cut down trees, he eat his lunch, He go to the lavatory.

On Wednesdays he go shopping and has buttered scones for tea.

He's a lumberjack and he's OK

He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flowers

I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars.

He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps, He likes to press wild flowers

He puts on women's clothing and hangs around in bars.

He's a lumberjack and he's OK

He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I wear high heels, Suspendies and a bra.I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear mamma.

He cuts down trees, he wears high heels? Suspendies... and a bra?
... He's a lumberjack and he's OK He sleeps all night and he works all day.
... He's/I'm a lumberjack and he's/I'm OKHe/I sleep all night and he/I work all day.

70

"Most women would prefer to be stay at home housewives. Women's lib did alot of damage to women!"

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

the above is a quote from a jw female relative.

this was in response to a discussion about the suffragette movement ( and the movie about it that's currently in cinemas).

she seemed to think that it would be so much better if women were just daughters/ wives/ mothers and didn't go out to work and have career's?

LisaRose

Crofty: The modern radical feminist movement is nothing more than misandry hiding behind a facade of of victimhood.
They make videos about "manspreading" and "microaggressions" while ignoring the real sources of female inequality in the world.

Which is what? I honestly don't know what you mean. What is the real source of female inequality in the world? I had to look up the meaning of misandry (the hatred of men or boys) but still do not know what you mean.

16

It's OK to be an Apostate ... but only if you're on the Governing Body

by Simon in

look at the governing body.

none of them believe now what the wts believed back when they were born and later baptized.. so why aren't they disfellowshipped for apostasy?.

simple - because the true beliefs are always taken to mean whatever they currently consider them to be.. think about it - they can never be apostates because whatever they decide to believe becomes "the truth" and anyone not believing it is then guilty of apostasy, even if they believe things the wts has taught them all their lives.. if you do believe in the bible and jesus story, do you think this is what he intended?

LisaRose

The current organization shares very little with the organization that existed in the 1914-1919 timeframe that was supposedly when Jehovah chose them to be his channel of communication to mankind. So what was it that God saw in this group that made him choose them? And if what they taught was so wonderful, why have they changed so much of it since then?

23

In the past we taught it, but now we teach other thing....

by opusdei1972 in

i have been reading the watchtower study edition of march 2016. here some deceptive statements so as to justify their new lights:.

when were gods people held captive by babylon the great?.

that spiritual captivity lasted from the second century c.e.

LisaRose

For a number of years, we explained that this captivity began in 1918...The Christian congregation, in effect, was held
captive by Babylon the Great. That captivity began sometime in the second century C.E. and continued until the cleansing of the spiritual temple in the time of the end...

So they have exchanged one ridiculous teaching for another ridiculous teaching, it's not new light but new dim. The keep trying to make events that happened in 1914-1918 somehow important and a fulfillment of bible prophecy, when there is really no evidence of any of it. They claim God looked down on the earth and approved of the international bible students, because they were the only group teaching truth, but they hardly teach anything now that was a doctrine back then, so what was so impressive about them as opposed to any other religion? At least most mainstream religions didn't make ridiculous and failed date predictions.

They based the 1914 date on an incorrect date for the fall of Jerusalem, so the only thing impressive about it was their luck that world war I started in that year. Nothing they actually predicted to happen actually did. They also still taught many things they now condemn, like Christmas and birthdays.