Posts by LisaRose

16

Advice

by Tigerlove in

hello, new member here.

i have a question that has been bugging me for a couple of months now.

so i have been dating this guy(a witness ) for over a year now.

I am sorry, but I cannot offer you much hope. Do you want to be in a relationship where your boyfriend is ashamed of you? Do you want to be with a man that lies to his parents because he doesn't want to find a different place to live? These are mayor red flags that it's not a good situation for you. If he loved you he should be willing to stand up to his parents and find a different place to live if he had to.

The only chance for you to be accepted by his parents is if you became a Jehovah's Witness. As you have seen, this religion is not what you thought it was. Trust your feelings on this, the Watchtower has lied about it's history and practices. Once you become a Jehovah's Witness you must do everything they tell you or risk being disfellowshipped and shunned by every other JW. If your boyfriend is a baptized Jehovah's Witness he can be disfellowshipped for having sex outside of marriage.

Your only chance would be if your boyfriend were to stand up to his parents and be open about you and his desire to be a Jehovah's Witness, but that doesn't seem likely. Even if he did, he might decide to go back to being a Jehovah's Witness, including four hours of meetings each week, door to door work every Saturday, no Christmas, no birthdays, no Easter, etc. Is that what you want in your life? Is that what you want for your children, if you had them? Do you want your future children to be told they will die a horrible death at Armageddon if they aren't good?

You seem like a nice person, so why would you accept being treated like this?

5

Exiting the JW cult, by Bonnie Zieman.

by Sabin in

hello to you all, i`m reading this book exiting the jw cult & i think so far it is brilliant.

i emailed a friend the other day and said "sometimes i feel rage that isn't good towards the j dub`s & what they do to others".

then i came across this section in the book, pg 62-63, where it says.

LisaRose

I haven't read it, but I can relate to the idea that many JWs have a lot of repressed emotions that are making them sick.

It's not acceptable in this religion to say you aren't 100% happy, because YOU HAVE THE TRUTH, how could you not be happy? If you do have problems, they can all be solved by more prayer, study, meetings and service. It doesn't take a psychologist to know that this is patently untrue and causes more people to feel worse because it makes then feel like a failure. The fact is that it is not acceptable to express negative emotions, especially for women.

Anger and rage are expressed in a lot of different ways. Some people become depressed, some use alcohol or drugs to band-aid the problem, which only creates more problems. Some use illicit sex, other becomes workaholics. Some turn their negative emotions inwards and become sick. It becomes a negative spiral, becauseof the black and white thinking of the religion, as any of these things are seen as a moral failing.

I read a story on the Jehovah's Witness suicide page that broke my heart. A young mother suffered from depression. The elders counseled her to be more diligent in meeting attendance and service. She signed up to auxiliary pioneer. Towards the end of the month she killed herself, she only had ten hours for the month, far short of what was needed.

21

Wife Equates Having A Good Marriage With Being "Spiritual"

by JW_Rogue in

so i've noticed lately that my wife seems to think that in order to have a good marriage both people must be "spiritual".

she thinks being close as a family is all about family worship night, field service and praying together.

i know where these ideas are coming from but it is very hard to combat them.

LisaRose

I would just respond to that by agreeing with her....to a point. Sometimes clearing the air and confirming her fears can be a start to moving the discussion beyond whether you are a zealous JW or not.

For example you could say:

"I feel you think that the only way we can have a good marriage is if I am being a zealous Jehovah's Witness. I am sorry, but I don't think I can be the zealous Jehovah's Witness you think you need me to be right now. I have to say I do have some issues with the Watchtower.

But I do not have doubts about our marriage and I am committed to it and to being a good husband to you, just like the bible says husbands should be.The bible says that women should stay with their husbands, even if they are unbelievers, so that they may be won without a word. I am not an unbeliever, in that I do believe in Jesus (obviously only if you do), my only doubt is about some of the people in this organization, so I ask you to respect this advice from the bible, even if you find that hard to do, as I respect your right to believe in this man made organization.

If you will love and trust me, then we can have a strong marriage even if we do not agree on some things. "

23

Getting the Urge!

by Theburstbubble in

jw
friends

evening folks, so as some of you may know we have recently decided to leave the witnesses and can see it for the man made organisation it is.

so, why do i get the urge to go back and feel guilty for not being there!

it's like my mind is telling me to be logical about it all but then something keeps pulling me back.. don't get me wrong i really want to break free from it all and i'm resisting the urge to go back as i have been miserable in the truth for a long time as i've known it's not right and want to do the best by my daughter.

LisaRose

We have all felt that way. You have been conditioned to think the Watchtower is your only salvation and to fear leaving it. This fear is deep rooted, it doesn't automatically go away because you know intellectually it's nonsense. You have been attending meetings for years, and every meeting reinforced the idea that you are helpless without the Governing body to tell you what to think, do, and say. It will take time for your mind to adjust.

Check out howcultswork.com to get a quick overview of mind control.

Also, watch the movie The Truman Show.

39

The Vedas - Scientific Knowledge - Prophecy - The Truth?

by LAWHFol in

the vedas are the core sacred texts for the people of the east.

generally the vedas are to the east as the hebrew scriptures are to the west.

supporters of the bible, boast of it's scientific accuracy,prophetic accuracy & general infallibility.

LisaRose

oofdDaddy - Thanks for the link, which contains a quote, further emphasizing my point.. Oppenheimer - “access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.

You ignore the fact that the quote is from the BK, which you claim not to know anything about. Oppenheimer was a very interesting person, obviously a genius, but as we have learned, smart people can be misled by a cult. Oppenheimer was also quite enamoured of communism for a time, so I don't find his interest in the Vedas to be all that compelling.

If it walks like a cult and talks like a cult, it's a cult.

instein,Schrodinger,Tesla,Oppenheimer,Sagan,Bohr,Heisenberg - The Most Influential Physicists / Scientists of this Era ALL extensively studied the Vedas.

So that proves what exactly?

It seems that not much has changed.. Now instead of being experts on all Theological matters, you've transformed yourselves into experts on Typographical Matters... Your wisdom is something to be envied.

No, we are now experts on bull$hit, we know it when we smell it.

22

Has the Great Witness Trolley/Cart campaign produced ANY results?

by freddo in

jw
friends

i live between two cities that are big enough to have their own metropolitan trolley cart arrangements organised at circuit level.

the 3 congregations at the hall i attend have trolley schedule noticeboards.

i see trolleys in the high streets and markets locally.

LisaRose

My husband see them regularly at the Bart station (San Francisco Bay area commuter train). He never sees anyone actually looking at the literature or talking to the people standing there.

I am sure somewhere they have gotten results, but it's hard to imagine they are going to make many converts out of this. It's like the Christian Science reading rooms. I have never actually seen anyone going in there either.

I guess it's hard to get people to join a doomsday cult these days, go figure.

33

Thought I was stronger!

by Peony in

just come home from a weight loss class early.

it's 6 months since i da'd and two and a half years since i've been to a meeting.

there was a witness there (unless she has left, i wouldn't know) we made eye contact!

LisaRose

I had a similar reaction the first time the JWs came to my door, and it had been ten years since I left. I thought I had expunged every vestige of cult mind control out of my mind, but my mind went blank, I couldn't think of a thing to say. But the next time I did better, and the time after that I gave a through reverse witness.

36

How many here believed, down deep in your heart that the end would come in 1975?

by James Mixon in

i was straddling the fence on that one, just in case they were right.

i don't recall.

telling anyone this is your last chance.

LisaRose

I did at first, I converted in 1969. As it got closer to 1975 I started to think the end was going to come, not anytime soon anyway. The further away from 1975 the less Armageddon seemed real.

35

Epigenetics and Why Women are Stripey

by cofty in

take five minutes to learn something new today.... here is a very brief introduction to epigenetics with an interesting practical example.. ....

LisaRose

Sorry Cofty, I think I helped derail this thread with discussion of cancer research and my cat, but people should watch the video, it's a very good, basic explanation about one part of genetics that anyone can understand.

39

What went wrong in your congregation?

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

the target is converts.. why does it seem such an outrageous aim for a congregation to recruit new converts?.

in my old congregation, the enthusiasm was there but the knocking on doors produced zero " baptisms" in my final years.. a) why so little interests?.

b) was it the internet ?.

LisaRose

Most JWs only go door to door because they have to, not because they want to, they don't enjoy it, and are not good at it.

Door to door sales is very difficult in general. People are either not at home or are very busy and are suspicious of anyone coming to their door.

Most people either have a religion that works for them or are not interested in any religion.

Most people do not know what Jehovah's witnesses teach, and nothing people usually say at the door informs them. Most people think of them as magazine salesmen.

If people do know anything about Jehovah's Witnesses, it's that they don't celebrate birthdays and holidays and attend hours of meetings every week and have to go door to door every Saturday. Who wants to sign up for that?

Promises of a paradise earth seem unrealistic, the illustrations in the magazine of children petting lions seem corny.

If anyone is taken in by the sappy illustrations of shiny happy people, they soon learn that this paradise comes at the cost of the violent death of most of the earths population, which is not an appealing message.

The internet makes it very difficult for the Watchtower to hide their history of bad date predictions, problems with child sex abuse, and abusive shunning policies.