OnTheWayOut

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Posts by OnTheWayOut

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  17

  You don't paint the rooms on the Titanic

  by TTWSYF in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this was the line my nephew gave me regarding why jws don't give alms.

  i had several rebuttals to give him, but didn't.

  i was hoping for some comments from this board.

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  OnTheWayOut

  "Your Jesus fed the poor and cured their illnesses, when he would have known good and well that wasn't any real answer if Watchtower is correct."
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  66

  New Here

  by Grey Goose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi one and all.. i've lurked for 3 years, about time i signed up.. i'm a still in ms due to family.. fully awake.. i look forward to getting to know all of you..

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  OnTheWayOut

  My guess is in 5 years time. But as I mentioned, with family still in, everything is up in the air right now.

  Welcome, welcome. I wanna say- a fade is a progressive action. Mine was pretty fast. Some people are even faster and able to walk away instantly and not be DF'ed. But if those are not the case, I hope you can still make some progress. You already fake some time. It would be great to get that M.S. monkey off your back. Maybe you could become irregular or even inactive and get fired. Maybe you could blow off some CLAM where you have a part and offer the poorest of excuses- "I took a nap after dinner and never woke up for the meeting."

  With no wife and no kids, sure you want to keep your family. But is it possible to fade out also? Or to at least work toward being so irregular and undependable as far as meetings go, having no responsibilities but to sit there at half or less than half of the meetings and skip the rest of them? Instead of 5 years, you could be at that point in 1 year.

  But if you don't do that, I get it. Good luck to you either way.
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  114

  What is truth?

  by Heisenberg in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well, i have been lurking on this site for several months and i recently decided to join as a member.

  i have made several observations and would like to make a few comments.. first, i am perplexed by the attitude of many on this site that are either former or active (but apostate) jws.

  they seem to have a strong hatred for the wts and also for rank and file jws.

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  OnTheWayOut

  "What is truth?"

  Truth can be subjective. "You are a jackass!" is a truthful statement, but loaded with opinion. Others can make a truthful statement that disagrees.
  I have seen a green car that was listed as "blue." That is truthful because blue is used with yellow to make up green. But my thought is that such a listing is misleading in order to dump a green car.
  My truthful statement is that believers go too far with this and accept that their beliefs which cannot be absolutely proven false are true. But they only accept that this goes as far as "their" beliefs. As an example, Christians typically deny Muslim or Hindu beliefs.
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  65

  How do I handle this situation?

  by BarelyThere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey everyone.

  i'm sorry that this isn't a very thought provoking post but i could really use some advice on how to handle this.

  there isn't anyone else in my life i can ask right now because, being dfed, all of my friends are "worldly" and don't know how witnesses function.

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  OnTheWayOut

  What I would do is not get reinstated. I could never sit through all that.

  But answering your question, you really cannot use the information at all from FB. You really only have two choices: sit there for months and then request reinstatement or move to another hall now and start fresh there, sitting for months before requesting reinstatement.

  I would suggest the move, but if you have already invested months at this one hall, it's a tough call.

  Do not move to another hall after requesting reinstatement. Either move beforehand or not at all. It would look like you ran away from the brothers that refused you.

  Good luck.
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  40

  How do you feel about the expression "The Truth"?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's amazing how the expression "the truth" has become such an ingrained term used by witnesses.. "we have 'the truth'".

  "is he 'in the truth'?".

  most here have found out so many facts about the organisation, and felt the effects of being "gut-punched" as we realised these facts.. so how do you feel about the expression "the truth" now?.

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  OnTheWayOut

  I was hoping to find a place to stand on my soapbox today.

  Jehovah’s Witnesses use this phrase, “the truth” when talking to each other, from their podiums in their Kingdom Halls, and in front of thousands at their yearly conventions. Members say it and hear it every week. If one is converted, the phrase is repeatedly heard so that it will sink in.
  
  A search of the 2005 Watchtower Library CD-ROM (not going to bother to update my info. but easy to do) shows that the phrase “the truth” appears 18,774 times throughout the literature. Since the phrase is
  heard and said so often, the members accept it as a fact. They are confident that the practices and
  doctrines of the Watchtower organization are, indeed, the truth. Since it is an established fact in their minds, anything new printed by the Watchtower is accepted as the truth.There is no room for doubt. Jehovah’s Witnesses are even told that there is no room for doubt.

  Most members would never dare to question anything they read or hear from Watchtower. The average Witness doesn’t try to think and interpret the scriptures for himself, but relies totally upon the Watchtower organization.
  
  Jehovah's Witnesses do not refer to a truth that is abstract or subject to opinion like a standard of "beauty" or "morality." They insist that the truth does not depend on whose version of facts are used, like whether Pluto is accepted as a dwarf planet, a planet, or a large asteroid. They insist that the truth is absolute and established by God, and can stand up to any scrutiny. The Watchtower claims that our perspective on truth should come from the absolute authority of the creator of all things. They teach that the creator determines what is right and what is wrong, and that the absolute truth we seek is knowledge of His will for His creation.

  This is “the truth” that, unlike beauty, does not lie in the eye of the beholder, according to them. But then they just turn the whole thing into a crying shame by saying that we need humans to interpret what that absolute truth is, and to tell us what they think God’s will is for us. And they happily become those humans, and say they are the only humans that can do that.

  I cannot prove there is no absolute truth, but I am actually thankful that Watchtower goes to such an extreme in insisting upon it. That is the primary reason I am free of their lies. I did not have to discover the absolute truth or even if one existed. All I had to do was realize that Watchtower didn't have it, and their lies start to crumble. Their literature of the late 20th century insisted that each member examine "the truth" for themselves and I used their own standards to judge their statements and doctrines and they did not hold up. I suspect that's why they no longer insist that each member examine it for themselves. Now, they insist that members just trust them, no matter how bizarre their statements may be.

  Thanks for the soapbox. Now, back to my regular internet cruising.
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  62

  Brooklyn news on sending the elderly packing

  by I am a Bible Student in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  johnny the bethelite on this program talks about the older bethelites being targeted by watchtower.they are getting rid of those at bethel who are 65-87 years old, some being anointed even the widows of former governing body members who gave decades of loyal service time to the watchtower organization.. the reasons the very elderly are being expelled are money in that for their age range they cost so much to cloth, fed, and medicate, having problems from high blood pressure to dementia.

  they include persons such as sister henschel whose husband had been a watchtower president and marian sydlik whose parents are long dead.. https://soundcloud.com/rick-fearon/jan-16-2016-johnny-the-bethelite-watchtower-insider-host-his-radio-program-from-brooklyn-ny .

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  OnTheWayOut

  Or they even getting Social Security? I believe everyone is entitled, but are the elderly at Bethel receiving it since they signed a vow of poverty?

  Not the point. I could be referring to elderly ones not at Bethel. The point is that it is a wild rumor, and offers no verification. And I consider the source and dismiss it UNTIL someone credible offers more.
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  62

  Brooklyn news on sending the elderly packing

  by I am a Bible Student in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  johnny the bethelite on this program talks about the older bethelites being targeted by watchtower.they are getting rid of those at bethel who are 65-87 years old, some being anointed even the widows of former governing body members who gave decades of loyal service time to the watchtower organization.. the reasons the very elderly are being expelled are money in that for their age range they cost so much to cloth, fed, and medicate, having problems from high blood pressure to dementia.

  they include persons such as sister henschel whose husband had been a watchtower president and marian sydlik whose parents are long dead.. https://soundcloud.com/rick-fearon/jan-16-2016-johnny-the-bethelite-watchtower-insider-host-his-radio-program-from-brooklyn-ny .

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  OnTheWayOut

  ShirleyW, I just don't trust wild rumors- in this case, anything from Rick Fearon or his fictional character Johnny. I don't want to feed WT's claim that apostates always lie.

  Otherwise, could we start a rumor that Watchtower is putting the elderly into induced comas and keeping them alive to collect their social security, and say the same thing you said to those that say "Nah!" ?
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  62

  Brooklyn news on sending the elderly packing

  by I am a Bible Student in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  johnny the bethelite on this program talks about the older bethelites being targeted by watchtower.they are getting rid of those at bethel who are 65-87 years old, some being anointed even the widows of former governing body members who gave decades of loyal service time to the watchtower organization.. the reasons the very elderly are being expelled are money in that for their age range they cost so much to cloth, fed, and medicate, having problems from high blood pressure to dementia.

  they include persons such as sister henschel whose husband had been a watchtower president and marian sydlik whose parents are long dead.. https://soundcloud.com/rick-fearon/jan-16-2016-johnny-the-bethelite-watchtower-insider-host-his-radio-program-from-brooklyn-ny .

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  OnTheWayOut

  Johnny the Bethelite on this program talks about
  

  That's as far as I needed to read. I decided to comment on just that.
  Don't fall for any Rick Fearon crap, including Johnny.
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  24

  GB Members: What's the Story?

  by Cold Steel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  over the past few decades i've met many individual jws, but i've always been curious about the gb members themselves and about service at bethel.

  first, do gb members fraternize with regular rank and file members or do they only sell out each other?

  when i was a methodist, it didn't take me long to figure out that our minister and his wife were frequently invited to dinner, but i never heard of him actually inviting members to his house for dinner.

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  OnTheWayOut

  I am not personally knowledgeable about these individuals, but I know enough about the way the JW's work to say this.

  These guys go around like rock stars at various conventions and events surrounding their visits. They fraternize some with the rank-and-file, but mostly with the local big-whigs, branch overseers and C.O.'s and the more well-known elders. When they travel, they don't stay in some family's spare bedroom and eat oatmeal in the morning with the family, and they don't sit in the back of some sister's Toyota Corolla. If not at an expensive hotel, they will stay at in upscale accommodations that are available through the JDubs with some money.

  They are mostly taken to dinners/lunches at upscale restaurants and they never pick up the check. If they do go to some local members' homes for a meal, it is all for show like the Pope washing someone's feet.

  When the Wizard of Oz was forced to come out from behind the curtain, he wasn't so intimidating. When these guys started appearing on video regularly, they had to lose some of their mysticism, mysteriousness. In many ways, they are laughable now. But they sought the limelight.

  About the worst appearance (but most JW's will never watch it) is G. Jackson's appearance at the Australian Royal Commission where he basically says he is just a corporate officer in a narrowly defined job and has no idea about what goes on outside of his narrow assignment, and that he would appreciate recommendations from the Commission. Sad, but whether that is believed or not believed, it minimizes peoples' opinions of these guys as just bumbling idiots, incompetent kiss-asses, or scheming liars.
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  26

  "Fa La La"

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  out at the mall with mrs. otwo, she sees a shirt on the rack that was marked down from $25 to just $4.

  she holds it up and says, "should i buy this as a workout shirt?".

  i tell her "no, because as soon as you figure out what it means, you won't wear it anymore.

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  OnTheWayOut

  Faye, here ya go. There is no mention of drugs.

  
  

  Bob Dylan - "Everybody Must Get Stoned"
  
  

  Well, they'll stone ya when you're trying to be so good
  They'll stone ya just a-like they said they would
  They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to go home
  Then they'll stone ya when you're there all alone
  
  But I would not feel so all alone
  Everybody must get stoned
  
  Well, they'll stone ya when you're walkin' 'long the street
  They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to keep your seat
  They'll stone ya when you're walkin' on the floor
  They'll stone ya when you're walkin' to the door
  
  But I would not feel so all alone
  Everybody must get stoned
  
  They'll stone ya when you're at the breakfast table
  They'll stone ya when you are young and able
  They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to make a buck
  They'll stone ya and then they'll say, "Good luck"

  
  Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone
  Everybody must get stoned
  
  Well, they'll stone you and say that it's the end
  Then they'll stone you and then they'll come back again
  They'll stone you when you're riding in your car
  They'll stone you when you're playing your guitar
  
  Yes, but I would not feel so all alone
  Everybody must get stoned
  
  Well, they'll stone you when you walk all alone
  They'll stone you when you are walking home
  They'll stone you and then say you are brave
  They'll stone you when you are set down in your grave
  
  But I would not feel so all alone
  Everybody must get stoned