hello forum.
i started this topic because i had been thinking recently about a story that i had heard many times in different congregations over the years.
kind of a jw urban legend if you will.
People believe silly JW urban legends about angelic protection, even though the Watchtower doesn't officially teach that Jehovah protects his people, and even though every other religion has the same exact stories, but when something bad happens to a JW, even one in service or attending a convention, they don't let it affect them. You really can't have it both ways.
It's all just random chance, God has nothing to do with it, but you couldn't say that to a JW.
what is “the end of the world”?the phrase “the end of the world,” which appears in many bible translations, can also be rendered as “the conclusion of the system of things,” or “the close of the age.” (matthew 24:3;english standard version) it refers, not to the destruction of the earth or of all humanity, but to the end of the framework of human society.—1 john 2:17.. conveniently leaving out that according to current numbers and doctrine, 8.000.000 people will survive at max.. technically is not a destruction of all humanity....but it comes so close it deserves to be mentioned.. of course it isn't mentioned, because that would sound so extreme, cultish and unkind.
we wouldn't want people to get the right ideas about jw.organization now, would we?.
Oh, it's just a "closing" then. No need to mention on that they have been preaching a violent destruction of the world for well over a hundred years. And I guess they aren't showing any of the artists depictions of the violent death of people, children, even the family dog, they save that for the already converted.
i just was reading a thread and it occurred to me that "using" depression as a way to deflect from wt obligations is a mistake.
it feeds their sense of superiority-because when you do finally leave or get kicked out, they will say how leaving jehovah ruins lives.
they won't do anything with you anymore in any case, but why feed their delusions?.
The reality is that people who choose to slow down meeting attendance and service when fading will come under a great deal of pressure from well meaning family and friends, and some people are just not in a position to be open about their feelings. When you only choices are to be completely honest and lose your family or to tell a minor fib, I am not going to condemn anyone for choosing the lesser of two evils.
This is a short term tactic, but it can be very helpful during the transition from full believer to inactive JW. It can give the person time to become more sure of their feelings, to get their family used to the idea that they don't want to attend meetings and to get the elders off their backs. Yes, it would be great if everyone could be completely open and honest about their reasons for leaving, but that isn't the reality for most people.
today marks 13 years since my wife and i have stepped inside a kingdom hall.
after 29 years full on being a jw and a number of years serving as an elder then as the presiding overseer we pulled the plug.
yes 13 years ago coming home from the first day of a circuit assembly i said to my wife “that’s it i am not going back”.
Congratulations on your 13 years of freedom.
Lisa🌹
what i'm looking for specifically is things that are "pagan" in the sense they predate christianity (or i guess judiasm to cover the ole mosaic code), that jw's allow or do.
the ones that come to mind are below.. rings - rings seem to originate in egypt.
for wedding ceremonies it became a symbol of "ownership" in rome.. pinatas - looks like possibly it originated in china as a part of the new year and a request for luck, and catholics later turned it into a beating of temptation type thing.. anything else?.
Thinks with pagan symbolism:
Wedding rings
Honeymoons
Flying kites
Wearing neckties
perfume
Calendars, the months are named Roman God
From JW facts:
For example, when discussing piñatas, Watchtower advises to contemplate how they are currently regarded:
“A main concern is, not what the practice meant hundreds of years ago, but how it is viewed today in your area. Understandably, opinions may vary from one place to another. Hence, it is wise to avoid turning such matters into big issues.” Awake! 2003 Sep 22 pp.23-24
It's hilarious that they say in one case it doesn't matter what the history is, what counts is how they are viewed today, but in other cases you can't do something because it once had a pagan meaning.
in case you read my other thread regarding my existential crisis and how it was making my life miserable and left me feeling hopeless, purposeless and joyless i though i'd share what's recently happened to me and my way of thinking and have i've for the time being resolved my existential crisis.
i write every day in a journal.
i've been doing this for years.
Good for you, I think you have arrived at a very healthy place in your spiritual journey.
i'm a middle aged man.
i dated a jw lady for 3 months ., we never had sex, just made out , half naked , well everything except underwear .
she has been a jw for 40 years ., was married to a jw but he committed adultery 13 years ago so they divorced .
I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody came here with the exact same story. I wish I could give you hope but it never really turns out well, the JW is usually guilted into going back to the meetings and breaking off the relationship, and the person is heartbroken. She is torn between her desire for a relationship and her belief that she can only survive the coming world annihilation by being a good JW.
This is a cult, they have so seriously brainwashed your friend that she is at present incapable of thinking for herself. She is attracted to you, but at the end of the day her feelings of fear, obligation and guilt will probably win over her attraction for you. If you seriously want to invest time and energy into a lost cause, read Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steve Hassan. What doesn't work: attacking the religion or criticising it in any way. She has been conditioned to see that as an attack by Satan and it will just stir up her fears and cause her to run.
What can work is to work to establish trust, remind them of their interests and goals outside the religion and exposing them to critical thinking skills.
Good Luck
i have been reading rodney stark's new book triumph of faith, where he makes his argument afresh that religion is alive and well.
in fact he says it's doing better than ever, and we are in the middle of a revival of faith.
above is a particular quote he likes to use when refusing secularisation.
So because some people in Iceland believe in Trolls, and Iceland is a secular country, it means that Atheists have all just traded in one set of superstitions for another? That's patently ridiculous. Not being religious does not necessarily mean you are an atheist, it simply means you are not religious. Now if you had a statistic that said the X percentage of Atheists believe in Trolls, you might make a case, but you don't have that.
i'm wondering why believers remain members of this forum which is clearly hostile to believers.
as one member said, nonbelievers pounce on any semblance of belief like piranhas on prey.
as former jws we should have had our fill of judgmental know-it-alls, but here we are.
Why should believers leave just because not everyone here is also a believer? We talk about many subjects, most of them not related to belief in God. As ex JWs we all have a lot of things of mutual interest, so why wouldn't you just engage in those threads? Is everything an atheist says somehow tainted because we don't believe in God? Is your faith so weak that you will lose it if someone challenges your thinking?
As a believer you have many choices. You could simply avoid threads that discuss whether God exists, or you could read those threads with an open mind and not participate, or you can choose to debate your belief in God. It's entirely up to you. So why leave and miss out on the things that are offered here just because not everyone believe the same as you?
Personally I enjoy talking with everyone, believer or not. If I wanted to just be with people who all believe the same thing as I do I would have just stayed a JW.
has anyone else felt like they should believe something after leaving wt?
i am an agnostic atheist and its so so hard for me to believe in a god or higher power.
it just doesn't make sense.
I did at first find the uncertainty uncomfortable, but that went away as time went on and I accepted that this life is all there is.
I belief in my family and friends and beautiful sunsets and creativity and that is enough for me.
