A big congratulations to you and yours and a happy birthday to your daughter. You know you did the right thing.
OnTheWayOut
JoinedPosts by OnTheWayOut
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22
One year of being free
by Israel Ricky Gonzales inone year ago, this thursday, i went to work as usual.
i got home, ate dinner, got myself dressed for the meeting, and helped my kids get ready like i usually did.. my son had a talk that evening, his second one.
many of my family went to support him.
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24
Resistance is NOT futile!
by Bonsai inall i want from this life is to be able to wash windows at bethel.. my story.. when i was fresh out of high school and pioneering, i said those exact words to my friends and family.
all i wanted to do was be at the core of the organization where it was the safest.
i gleefully told people that i'd gladly spend the rest of my life washing windows, waiting tables, doing laundry or cleaning bathrooms.
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OnTheWayOut
I didn't sort it out until afterward, but the 2004 tsunami was important to me. It didn't make sense that God would let all those children just die, but that He would spend a great deal of his energy on aiding individual JW's or making sure that some Watchtower books got past border guards.
Bethel layoffs was an enormous problem to me. Just as you were sure that Jehovah would see your strong desire to go there, I was sure that those already there were a special type of family unit. Rather than send some home, it seemed to me that Jehovah would tell the organization to keep them as long as they wanted to stay.
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WHEN IN ROME DO AS THE ROMANS DO
by TerryWalstrom inromans were pagans.. why wouldn't pagan romans use a pagan cross to execute jesus?.
should pagans have spared jesus a pagan means of execution?.
hell no!.
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OnTheWayOut
Dismissing the cross wasn't about saying the Romans wouldn't use a "pagan" symbol.
Dismissing the cross was a way for JW's to say that Christianity was corrupted by Satan and the cross is part of his corruption. The way they decided to do that was to demonstrate that it is a pagan symbol and say that it wasn't even used on Jesus.
Any symbol was a pagan symbol before it was adopted by those that declare they are not the pagans.
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34
Babylon the Great and the Anti Christ
by Perry insimilar views as those presented here are gaining in popularity in christian circles.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgmrfatdvtm.
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OnTheWayOut
Alrighty, you have gone there.
"The Bible tells us......" Those words allow ridiculously complicated theories on what symbols in the New Testament mean.
The mention of an antichrist in 1st and 2nd John seems pretty clear that the intent was to say that anyone who denies the christ is the antichrist. Should be the end of the story.
But you mix that with false messiahs and the lawless one and the beast mentioned elsewhere.
Yet, you declare that human DNA is a mix of rocks bumping into each other in the ocean.
Get your head out of your ass and see what you are doing. You are way over-complicating your beliefs and way over-simplifying those beliefs you oppose.
You are the anti-thinker.
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34
Babylon the Great and the Anti Christ
by Perry insimilar views as those presented here are gaining in popularity in christian circles.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgmrfatdvtm.
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OnTheWayOut
Perry, I almost slipped and called you Lars. I thought it was Michael Jackson also. I googled "Christian Circles" and came up with this:
Something about the Trinity.
Sorry, I don't have the patience to watch the video or decipher what you are trying to tell us about modern politics and someone's theory of prophecy. The Bible doesn't say a word about current politics. Throw enough theories out there and you may get some of them right. Predict that any government will fall and sooner or later they will.
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Will the Governing Body decree that Starbucks is forbidden??
by DATA-DOG init's bad enough that jws waste valuable, life-saving minutes getting coffee, but now this happens.... http://www.starbucks.com/careers/college-plan.
so many dubs work at starbucks!
this is a dangerous situation that must be from satan!
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OnTheWayOut
Oh, Starbucks CAREERS because of the college thing.
For a moment, I was wondering if you thought they would forbid taking their break from recruiting at Starbucks. Maybe they would play that cartoon of the little girl and her ice cream money but tell the adults how they could put the 3 bucks in the box instead of at Starbucks. "Make your coffee at home and carry a thermos."
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24
BURNING AMBITION by Jehovah's Witness YOUTH: "I want to clean toilets in Bethel for the rest of my life."
by TerryWalstrom inas i have written previously, i crashed a discussion between a young j-dub and his baptist workmate who were having.
a religious debate outside starbucks.
this was months ago.
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OnTheWayOut
In my wife's family, a DF'ed parent decided to get reinstated when her son was high school age. She then put a pioneer elder onto her son's case to help encourage him. She got exactly what she wished for and then the whole family, including her, seemed upset about it.
He got baptized before graduating high school. While he wasn't a terrible student, education wasn't really his thing. At one point, he had wanted to be a basketball star. I don't think he was really that great at it, and maybe he realized it. But he also started football and was pretty good at that. He might have gotten a free ride through college or a partial ride based on his size and ability. WELL, NONE OF THAT. By the time the pioneer elder had gotten through to him, he was ready to keep working part time at the shoe store in the mall and pioneer until Bethel called him. No need for any further education. No need for job training.
All the family, JW's included, tried to tell him how a young black man needs an education to get a decent job and to ever raise kids. But it doesn't matter to him. Bethel might just need him and he will stay at the ready. He has no clue that they will dismiss him at any time in the future with no real help toward his social security, let alone the time wasted instead of advancing in career. Even without further education, the guy who takes the low level job would advance over the years somewhat and be better off than the Bethelite thrown back to the local congregations.
I offered to help him take the local firefighter exam where I live, stating that he can turn it down later, but it takes years to get hired and better to have it as an option for later. He wasn't interested. I just said, "Okay, but do something. ANYTHING."
Update: That was last year. Bethel isn't calling, he has no connections. In his anxiety over that, he is starting to look at what his B Plan should be. How to have more than just "a job." I sure hope Bethel continues not to call.
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23
Facing up to the reality of the world
by purrpurr insince becoming atheist i have been paying more attention to world events and issues.
this is giving me some worry's when i see what's going on.
as a jw i could just dismiss stuff saying "armageddon is coming, jehovah will look after us" etc etc now of course i can't do that.
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OnTheWayOut
I say Whatcha gunna do? I am concerned. The correct response is to become involved in your own way. You can choose to become a doomsday prepper if you want. My personal choice is to enjoy people in my life and calculate that the oil and the U..S. dollar will probably be around the rest of my life. -
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Why some smart people believe the JWs/Bible
by jws ini consider myself smart.
go ahead, laugh.
i have a sense of humor too.. but i grew up a jw and also believed in the bible.
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OnTheWayOut
I like the thoughts behind this thread.
I also consider myself smart. I have a sense of humor too. I will occasionally wonder how I could be so "stupid" to be tricked into the cult. But in reality, I know what happened in my case and I also know that intelligence is not the most relevant thing that gets people there.And growing up JW adds a whole other level to the conversation.
Like you, I had an issue or two, but believed the JWs had the right religion. My doubts grew and grew and I was never burned by the religion, wasn't DF'ed or taken for money, nobody in my family was a pedophile victim or otherwise victimized by WTS. One day, the problems with the religion overwhelmed me and I discovered, among other things- Ray Franz's book. Like you, I hung onto the Bible, but less time- not for a few years, expecting I could find a relationship with God without the JWs. And like you, now I believe in neither.
Not that you need my opinion, but I say you were "born a JW and [your] parents told [you] this is the true religion" so forgive yourself for not knowing better.
I have read the Steve Hassan books and learned how cults work. For a born-in, it may be as you say, and it definitely is as you say in your own case- you had "the truth" and there was no need to look around. There are definitely groups out there that tell you what you want to (or need to) hear and take advantage of you.
While I had a childhood exposure to the JW religion, I converted as an adult and have a completely different experience, so it may have been easier for me to eventually decide that something stinks inside the Watchtower organization.
I envy anyone that could not really care about religion. I am sure it will help you to put this all behind you quicker. But if not, or because of family, don't kick yourself. It's okay.
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28
Did you know WTBTS applied for Holocaust compensation?
by umbertoecho indid you know that the wtbts applied for these compensation funds?
i had no idea and if this has already been addressed then so be it.
i find it interesting due to the fact that so much is made of the jws being in camps during ww2 and nothing else is expressed about the other millions who died in these camps.
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OnTheWayOut
Wait, so the fund would go to the WT or to the heirs of the family? If the WT is fighting for the heirs then that is a noble cause but it looks like they would also like a portion for their "education work".
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!
It doesn't really need much thought. Do you suppose WT would ever fight for money for someone else?
