All of the above, plus:
unrefrigerated lunchmeats, and years of blindly worshipping other humans.
what do you associate that name with??
what's the first thing that pops in your head?
All of the above, plus:
unrefrigerated lunchmeats, and years of blindly worshipping other humans.
being on this site is a little like having taken the forbidden fruit .
.. joining the site, is a little like eating of the fruit .
has your vision changed any?
I came here once by accident several years ago while still a card carrying Hoho, I was new to the evil of the internet and was seeking the official WT site for the first time. The watchtower-looking logo at the top of the page, well, it tricked me. I commented on it at a BS, about how the Apostates had this website that looked like 'ours'. . .
And now I'm here a couple of times a day. This site has reinforced what we came to believe on our own: that the WTS is the most dangerous mind controlling org on earth, and that those of us who have got out need each other for support, I'm grateful for it.
isthisit .
i cant believe that it has come to this, but your hand has been pushed and you had to act, for this i know that we raised you the right way.
we love you both, and will be in boston with you on your day.
Nice!!!!
i got to thinking about the conventions and such today.
here is a guy... always a guy who is in charge of a section of seating.
his job is to get up every so often and count people.
On the last day of one of our last conventions, my husb and I sat in two end seats in a particular section. We had car trouble and so took a really long lunch to handle the repair. When we returned, the attendant for our section was in our seats with his wife, our things were in a pile in the middle of the section in a single available seat. My husband went to talk to him, and was told by the attendant that he needed those two seats because he was the attendant, plus made no suggestion that he could or would find us another two. My husband said, 'golly you didn't need them in the morning', the kid said, 'I do now.' It was especially sucky too, because we had purposely sat with about a dozen others from our cong, and they watched this whole mess unfold.
My husband walked to me, paused, and said he had 'had enough of all this crap', did a 180 and walked back to the attendant, leaned down into his face and and with his hand motioned 'follow me', and in his face like that it was so sarcastic, I fell in love with my husband all over again. . .
He had the attendant follow him back to where I was waiting, turned around and said, 'Get your wife and all your crap out of our seats and go ask an attendant to seat you somewhere else!' It was so hot! We got our seats back.
i need some help in understanding something that's been bothering me for a while, please give me some insight on this.
i often see posts here where some take shots at elders and witnesses for working as janitors and window washers, and it's always bothered me.
i mean does it really matter what they do for a living as long as they are making a living honestly?
It's very common for many Hohos to work for themselves, and for very good reason. I know that there is a large percentage of them that do not report all their income, or do not have lawfully required licenses or equipment for the work they do. For instance, in AZ there are several of their men, MS and Elder included, who do air conditioning service. They not only do not operate as legal business entities, and therefore do not pay accurate income tax or collect sales tax for parts and equipment sold, but several blow off refrigerant instead of reclaiming it. Big, big fines for that.
One of my sisters is going through a shitty divorce from her abusive Hoho MS husband, he's owned a landscaping biz for 29 years. She has never held a job and is now faced with supporting herself and was hoping for a decent amount of 'spousal support'. When his past tax records were presented to the judge, they showed he has never reported any more than $800 average per month income--all while raising 5 children, owning a nice home on 2 acres, collecting western art and antiques and owning horses.
It's always been an inside joke, 'how je---ah provides for us', how they (myself included, I was raised with the 'suck the milk of the nations' mentality) could just manipulate the facts and the $$$. When really, if they were to act within the law where these businesses are concerned, they'd have far less spendable income.
At any rate, living off piece-work is rough and that pleases their evil 'society', and it reinforces the martyr thing. Afterall, 'the son of god had no where to lay down his pointy little head', he only had that nifty outer garment.
.
hello all, been lurking a few weeks, decided to post..... i am mid 20's, male, unbaptised, 3rd generation, elder family etc.
a number of years ago, in the name of intellectual honesty, i decided to research religions to make an informed choice before being baptised as a jw.... there was not enough time (and i was too uninterested) to look at other religions seriously, so i figured if jw is the "truth" then it should be able to stand any criticism.. is it just me or is it all a load of old bollocks?!.
I'm still fairly bible literate and therefore not easily fooled, and so I'm pretty certain that your alias is, indeed, a bible name.
years ago, when i was 19 and shp (single hot pioneer), living at home of course, waitressing at denny's, just living la vida loca.
.. swingle stayed in our home for a district ass.
after the weekend and as he was saying his goodbyes, he grabbed my face and shook me back and forth and with a wide grin on his face said, "you need to come to bethel to meet some of our bethel boys, i'm tired of these colored girls coming to bethel and taking our boys home.
Years ago, when I was 19 and SHP (Single Hot Pioneer), living at home of course, waitressing at Denny's, just living la vida loca. . .
Swingle stayed in our home for a District Ass. After the weekend and as he was saying his goodbyes, he grabbed my face and shook me back and forth and with a wide grin on his face said, "You need to come to Bethel to meet some of our Bethel boys, I'm tired of these colored girls coming to Bethel and taking our boys home." He stopped and looked at someone else in the room, and added, "I don't know why they fall for these colored girls."
No one said a word about it then, but I was horrified, being raised Hoho and taught to not see the color of people and all! Later, I brought it up to my folks who said I should forget about it, and surely Swingle didn't mean it.
Anyways, is it Lyman or Lymon? One of them is an ingredient in Sprite, one isn't.
i'm brand new here but have been reading for months.
my sincere thanks to those who have come before me, shown me that i'm not alone, that i'm not nuts and not a loser.
i was raised a hoho, pioneered my best years away, i married a nice brother, my dad was an elder, one or of both my parents have been pioneers for 30 years+, we hosted bethel speakers and gb members in our home, my parents have had numerous circuit ass.
You guys rock! Thanks for all the comments and understanding, and thanks to all who have shared their Hoho stories. It's just good to be here.
Catfish
i'm brand new here but have been reading for months.
my sincere thanks to those who have come before me, shown me that i'm not alone, that i'm not nuts and not a loser.
i was raised a hoho, pioneered my best years away, i married a nice brother, my dad was an elder, one or of both my parents have been pioneers for 30 years+, we hosted bethel speakers and gb members in our home, my parents have had numerous circuit ass.
Thank you so much for the quick, kind and supportive responses.
One of the things that helped me over the first few hurdles was an article about Joy Castro that one of my good friends and co-workers found in the NY Times Magazine. Weeks later, I purchased Joy's book, brilliantly titled: The Truth Book. It's the well-written story of her life and years living with her abusive-sexual-predator-ex-Bethelite step-father. At any rate, I recommend it. The author is now successful and well-educated--things that the Hohos forbid.
Reading it was a turning point for me, for here was someone my age who had started out on the same path as I did, but left it as a teenager. She had shaped her own life, become successful and here I was feeling like I just woke up from a coma. I don't feel like my life is a failure. Yet every success made me an outcast to the Hohos and my family. Check this out: I have a great husband, he's my best friend--my mom says his spiritual weakness is the reason I left the religion; I have a career that I enjoy in car sales--family and Hohos say 'it'll be nice when you can find another job where you can be honest and get out of that bad atmosphere''.
I argued with my mom about education for a while near the end there, she said that on my company's website she saw that many sales people had in their bio's listed their degrees and education. She said that was stupid because she had just learned at the assembly how expensive a single college semester can be, stupid because 'all these people can do anyways is sell cars now'. The truth is, most of 'these people' had previous careers, were laid off for different reasons and now are in a field that provides well, and yes, it requires no initial investment. My mom has never worked as an adult, has no concept of supporting a family except what the literature says. Now, my parents are not wealthy, but they own a nice home Northern AZ--that and everything else is willed to the society. Like the rest of us, I was told that education is naughty, besides apparently being expensive, so a dose of real truth that I figured out: The society forbids higher education also because of it's cost, for, if all those JW parents in the 50's-80's had sent all of their children to college, there would be nothing left to give to the organization. Plus, they would have had to work harder in order to pay for it, hence, no pioneering.
My husband and I both feel like we grew up as pawns in a stupid game, and now we're paying the price, the price for being afraid to buy a house in this system, to protect our credit, to save for the future. . .we've even put off having children. Like we were pushed along, right into life with no preparation and when things didn't go well moneywise, for instance, it was our own fault. I wasted 11 years, from age 18 to 29, regular pioneering, while my husband struggled to support us. I realize that I grew up afraid of everything, of everyone that's not Hoho, afraid when we watched as 'World Events That Seemed To Mean Something' turned out to be nothing over and over again, afraid of people in the cong who seemed to showed a rebellious attitude or wear too much black, afraid of crazy Arizona thunderstorms that could have been armageddon, afraid because I cussed, afraid of dying the everlasting death because I really was embarrassed when I went to a classmate's door when I was on service, and Jesus did say 'if you're ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you'.
And now, honestly, we're really pissed, that's the truth. When I think about it all real hard, like I am now, I am really angry. I really hate the Hohos. (My good friend that passed along the article about Joy Castro early on, she was raised Jewish, unbelievably she cannot pronounce Je----ah's Witlesses without much notice and ended up just calling them Hohos.) Everything I read about them makes me more angry, including things like the Malawi/Mexico thread. . .we used to go to Rocky Point, Mexico and true, the KH's were called Education Centers, and true, they didn't carry bibles in service or to meeting and the real reason for it was not what we were told back then. . .everything I believed was a lie, even things that didn't directly affect me. It's a lie that parents should love their children, because there are exceptions. I've learned unconditional love from my husband and my friends, those worldly bastards.
My last email conversation with my oldest sister ended up with me having to copy back my own sentences, and asking her, 'Where did I say this or that? Look at my words, I said no such thing!' Their thinking is so twisted, they twist things that you haven't even said yet, it's beyond belief. I have cut off all contact with my ex-family. There seems to be no hope for any of them, they'll languish and die while some 'younger GB replacements' change the rules and the dates and their hopes.
And yes, I too know now that I'll die one day, that my husband will die, that we want to have children and we know the consequences of all of it and wonder what will come next, and it's really freaking awesome and exciting, this life thing.
Thank you, thank you for being here and for listening. That you all understand is soothing, just thank you.
My friends call me Catfish.
i'm brand new here but have been reading for months.
my sincere thanks to those who have come before me, shown me that i'm not alone, that i'm not nuts and not a loser.
i was raised a hoho, pioneered my best years away, i married a nice brother, my dad was an elder, one or of both my parents have been pioneers for 30 years+, we hosted bethel speakers and gb members in our home, my parents have had numerous circuit ass.
Hi. I'm brand new here but have been reading for months. My sincere thanks to those who have come before me, shown me that I'm not alone, that I'm not nuts and not a loser. I was raised a Hoho, pioneered my best years away, I married a nice brother, my dad was an elder, one or of both my parents have been pioneers for 30 years+, we hosted Bethel speakers and GB members in our home, my parents have had numerous Circuit Ass. and District Ass. parts about their success as parents, as 5 out of 5 children were Hohos, until I quit the family religion.
My husband and I played like we were attending/participating for the last 2+ years, and this was easy since we live in a different state from our JW families. But when it was too tiring to fake it, I let my parents know--simple as admitting that I didn't know our summer convention dates and that I didn't care to find out.
The cruelty, curses, denials that came forth from my 'nice' parents, my sisters and brother are too much, too difficult and numerous to relate, and how many of you have dealt with the same--the hatred they can express is overwhelming!! They said I'm no longer their child, that I have lost the best parents in the whole world, and my mother included that I'm obviously addicted to drugs and alcohol, that's why the change, plus she said I looked horrible, used up and worn out and had no idea why I need to work full time since I have a husband. (After a few of the early accusing, nasty email conversations, my parents drove from Phoenix to Denver on the spur of the moment to see what was up with us-they popped in to my place of work and stayed for 10 minutes. That was the last time I'll ever see them.)
I know now that my husband attended for years because he was raised to believe that he should, but never felt it. People were critical 13 years ago when I married him, because he wasn't an MS, a pioneer like me, or elder, and he didn't aspire to be. As a result he was always passed over for promotions in the cong, even early on when he was more inclined the Hoho way. What a blessing it has been to be married to someone who has never fallen for BS of any sort!
I have more to say, but later.
Thanks!
JC, Hoho No Mo'