OnTheWayOut

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Posts by OnTheWayOut

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  36

  Coming to terms with the Watchtower experience

  by Lee Elder in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  it is a challenge coming to terms with your experience as a jehovah's witness.

  if you were born and raised as a jw, and your parents were true believers, the impact on your life is profound, lasting, and largely negative.

  in some cases quite abusive emotionally, spiritually, financially, educationally and yes, even sexually.. i recently watched "trumbo", and was quite moved by dalton trumbo's speech to the screen writers guild in 1970. here is an excerpt that i think is quite relevant to this topic:.

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  OnTheWayOut

  Coming to terms with our experiences as a Jehovah's Witnesses could be like the five stages of grief.

  Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance.

  We have learned that it's not always just like that, nice and neat, even with typical loss of a loved one, so it won't be just like that with discovering and accepting the reality of our JW experience. But it may be a process similar to that. Most of us were long in the denial process before coming to this forum and probably already moved past it. Bargaining, if at all, probably came before anger or depression. Acceptance doesn't mean that all the anger or depression is gone, especially since most have loved ones still captive to the cult.

  I am past most of the anger and most of the depression, but there are triggers here and there.

  
  
  
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  31

  Who has made an unforgivable sin against the holy spirit?

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  we all sin and some sins are worse than others but blasphemy against the holy spirit is said to be unforgivable.what is considered to be an unforgivable sin?

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  OnTheWayOut

  Sin is a term invented by religion so that the religion may offer the cure.

  But to me, unforgivable evil is deliberate abuse of another human being, especially children.
  Deliberate abuse of animals is also right up there.
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  83

  Why all the hate...

  by Dystopia in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ...toward jehovah's witnesses?

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  OnTheWayOut

  I don't hate the individuals. I see them as fellow victims.
  But the religion that makes them victims, I hate. It causes children to grow up with warped values and beliefs. It interferes in normal family relations. It makes people feel guilty for doing/thinking normal evryday things. It wastes the lives of the victims.
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  15

  Is it true: the memorial will stop after the last anointed have passed away?

  by FinchAndWeston in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i heard that the memorial will stop after the last anointed have passed away ... is this information true/false?

  just curious.

  it's secondhand.

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  OnTheWayOut

  I could read the great answers from others, they probably use the Bible and make cult comments wonderfully.

  But let me just say, "It's a made-up fiction, it's their power structure. The 'anointed' will be in charge as long as Watchtower exists. One day, before the last 'anointed' is gone, Watchtower will fail, so NO- The Memorial will stop BEFORE the last anointed is gone." I just hope it happens in my lifetime, but I won't count on it.
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  24

  Did You Get Invited to the Memorial?

  by Ding in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'm just wondering if jws keep inviting you back or if they've given up on you.. they haven't invited me for years..

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  OnTheWayOut

  I believe I was invited in 2007 and 2008, and not since then.
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  13

  "M" is for "Memorial"

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many weeks ago, i apparently put "m" on today's date- wednesday, march 23rd, in my google calendar.

  it was supposed to remind me that the memorial that jehovah's witnesses observe would be held today.

  i was flipping through my calendar this past weekend and asked my wife "what in the world is 'm' for (that day)?

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  OnTheWayOut

  jambon1, I agree- pointless.
  
  Dagney, yup. I enjoy not being invited. Regular evening, WOO HOO!
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  60

  I would rather be in the JW cult than the ex-jw cult

  by questioningmyfaith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have posted one other time on this website.

  just for the mere fact that i wasn't anger and bitter and ready to declare the gb the sociopathic criminals that so many here ascribe to, my initial question digressed to bickering over ad hominem attacks against the gb and not my beliefs that i'm questioning.

  some did give me some help on my questions.

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  OnTheWayOut

  If I read your post right, questioningmyfaith, you have (or will have) reached a point where you will just go do your own thing. Instead of learning the religion or learning what's wrong with the religion, you will learn a language (and/or other things).

  That's great. The most personally successful former JW's are not here. They are not at meetups. They are not protesting outside of Kingdom Halls, nor are they sitting through meetings inside the Kingdom Hall. They are living their lives, wherever that may take them.

  Good luck.
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  20

  If God is all powerful why did it take six days

  by James Mixon in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if god is omnipotent (all powerful) why did he take six days (or six thousand years jw.org) to.

  crete everything.

  why not speak everything into existence all at once?

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  OnTheWayOut

  There was no paper and pencil "in the beginning." So God had to do everything in his (figurative) head. There was no way to see what it would turn out like, so he did a few steps at a time and stopped to see what it looked like. You know, like choosing the carpeted floor color and having to look at it before you decide what color walls and drapes to have. Should the carpet and drapes match exactly?

  So I can imagine looking up from earth at the vast nothingness and trying to decide how to fill that sky and how to provide warmth for life and food for plants and whether to tie them all together or make them separate.
  
  And it only got harder to decide as he created life. Sometimes, he put eyes all over a creature to see if he liked that, or made the front legs too short (t-rex) or morphed them into wings. Tough calls in each instance. You know, why couldn't birds have 4 or 6 legs along with wings?

  Unlimited power doesn't mean you know what to do with it. Put a blank canvas in front of an artist and he will spend time staring at nothing, painting over what he painted, yadda yadda.
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  26

  They want to get rid of "anointed ones" - It's getting clear

  by thedepressedsoul in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i've never met a group that turns on it's members like the jw's.

  sister faithful that thinks she's anointed is now bat shit crazy with mental illness.

  we all have known it's true, but now you have the wt, who put it in everyone's head that you can be anointed.

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  OnTheWayOut

  Watchtower has married itself to a handful of things that it will find hard to separate from, let alone divorce itself from them.

  Number one is 1914. They had chances in the past and decided not to take them. Now they would have a battle on their hands if they ditch it. They kept reinventing their past to say that they have always said accurate truths about 1914, so they got more and more intertwined with it.

  Number two is the great tribulation occurring before "this generation" has passed. Blast that Bible anyway, it makes it too hard on that one. So they have changed what "this generation" means many times. Their last couple of changes have kept them firmly married to Number 3- the anointed. The overlap generation has bought them so much time, but it's at a point of ridiculousness. They will eventually have to change again, if Watchtower isn't gone in 40 or 50 years. Maybe they will leave the generation in place and change the meaning of what is supposed to happen before they all have passed.

  Number three is the anointed. When the number of JW's was getting too big, they pulled that one out of their Bibles. They kept it around too long. In the 1970's it totally became the basis of their power structure and it has been highlighted as such ever since. They messed up way back when by allowing the anointed to be a bunch of followers. They should have corrected that long ago. Because the calendar is still driving their need for doctrinal changes, they will further attack what "anointed" means and who is it. I see a future where they declare that Holy Spirit (and Freddy Franz) have directly told them the number is full and only a very few men needed to be their spirit medium Governing Body members are actually of that group.

  Think of all the money on wine and crackers that will save for congregations. They can buy the tiniest bottles and not worry about partakers.
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  24

  Whatever happened to "YOU'RE WELCOME"? Has "NO PROBLEM" replaced it?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  wherever i go, i say "thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "no problem!".

  have i aged to the point i'm now an old fuddy duddy who doesn't "get it"?.

  is it counted mannerly to avoid, "you're welcome" in favor of "no problem"?.

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  OnTheWayOut

  This reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld:

  Kramer tells Jerry that a bank will offer anyone $100 if they are not greeted with a "hello" by a teller when they enter the building.

  At the HOME FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK Kramer walks up to a teller.

  Kramer: Hey!

  Teller: Hey!

  Kramer: Hey! wait a second. You didn't say hello.

  Teller: Yes I did

  Kramer: No no you didn't ...Hundred dollars.. I get a hundred dollars.

  Teller: No, No I said Hello.

  Kramer: No, No You said Hey!

  Teller: Well.. Hey! is Hello, same thing.

  Kramer; The ad said that the bank's gonna pay a hundred dollars if you are not greeted with a hello

  Teller: You're taking that much too literally. Now sir , do you have any business to transact.

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  What do you want? Acknowledgement? You call out their parents because people use a different expression?
  I choose the old fuddy duddy answer.
  
  "You're welcome" "no problem" whatever. I sometimes say "It's no bother." Even a short "Oh, sure."

  We don't dress up in a suit to get on airplanes anymore either, and I like that better.