Posts by OnTheWayOut

13

When the dam wall busts.

by stuckinarut2 in

jw
friends

some (especially witnesses) may wonder what brings us to places like this?.

why is it that we have chosen to step away from the society that we once viewed as "the truth", despite the consequences for doing so?.

well for any visitors to this site, or any other "apostate" sites, the answer is simple really:.

OnTheWayOut

joe134cd:
There has to be some external factor that sets things going in the first place. For me it was a question that I was unable to find an answer for in the societies publications despite extensive research. Out of shear frustration I punched the question into Google and with in a click of the mouse up came jwfacts and 6 months later I walked out of the Hall for good.

My experience was very similar. Many things just were not right, but I was told to "keep waiting on Jehovah" or that such things were trivial. They weren't trivial to me, and I became a search engine junkie for research into public talks and daily life things. One day, I just had to Google "Jehovah's Witnesses" and decided to go to ALL the links no matter what they were.

It was like that dam wall bursting for me too.

Funny, I was never burned, disciplined, reproved, restricted. It seems to take some of that for many to take a look.

30

I need to know more on why its a problem for me dating a JW girl.

by seekinghelpp in

ok not to throw no shade or no disrespect to the jw religion.

which i truly do respect because my girlfriend is part of but i just don't understand, i have researched so much about it.

so much about how its discouraged for her to be with me just cause of different religion.

OnTheWayOut

I'm here to find a real reason why i can't be with my girl without a problem, without her mom not wanting me to be with her cause of me religion or her being scared to be kicked out her religion.

Her mom won't want you to drag her out of the religion and subject her to being destroyed at Armageddon any day now.

She will not necessarily be kicked out of the religion, but she will be made to feel bad about going against "Jehovah's" doctrine of marrying "only in the lord." If she confesses to premarital sex, she is subject to discipline up to being kicked out. If she celebrates a birthday or holiday, the same. If she manages to not tell them about these things, she will feel guilty. Basically, she will feel bad unless she comes to terms on her own with the thought that Jehovah's Witnesses are a dangerous mind control cult.

Even after all that, you might have kids. She won't want them being anything but JW's. She won't want them celebrating anyone's birthday or any holidays. She will want them to actually fear sharing birthday cupcakes at school when someone's mom brings them in. She will want them at all the meetings, not to have life-saving blood in a medical emergency, not to participate in school sports, not to go to college.

11

Crows and Those on Patios

by TerryWalstrom in

crows and those on patios______________.

terry: i write.

among the things i write are analyses debunking religious fundamentalism.. lou: sure.

OnTheWayOut

Terry, you are basically being just like a Jehovah's Witness in this conversation.
You are focused on one-upping so fast that he can't keep up. It is more important to you to show him up than to actually help him see your point of view.

To each his own.

24

What do you think would have happened to you if...

by LevelThePlayingField in

you found out about ttatt way back in the 70's or maybe the 80's (basically before the internet) and you thought that you were all alone in this knowledge?

what do you think would have happened to you?

no jehovahs-witness.com, no john cedars, no arc, no jwfacts.com and no crisis of conscience to fall back on.

OnTheWayOut

I came in in the late 80's (but with previous childhood exposure to it). So it is hard to relate. I know that, were I still there, I would have laughed out loud and walked out never to return when they studied "Overlap Generation." I am pretty confident I would have left JW's at some point no matter what was available.

But I relied heavily on the exJW community. Without it, I would have leaned on some kind of support from another source. Perhaps Alcoholics Anonymous or maybe I would have found a hobby group. I would have needed more therapy w/o you guys.

30

Jesus walked into a bar...

by Slidin Fast in

he asks the barkeep for 13 glasses of water.

he turns to his 12 companions and winks....

OnTheWayOut

How do we know Jesus was black? He called everyone brother and couldn't get a fair trial.

There were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:

He went into His Father's business
He lived at home until he was 33
He was sure his Mother was an actual virgin and his biological Mother and she kept saying she was sure He was God.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian :
1. He never cut His hair
2. He walked around barefoot all the time
3. He started a new religion

30

Jesus walked into a bar...

by Slidin Fast in

he asks the barkeep for 13 glasses of water.

he turns to his 12 companions and winks....

OnTheWayOut

How do we know Jesus was black? He called everyone brother and couldn't get a fair trial.

And don't forget this- He liked Gospel.

Jesus walks into a hotel, throws three nails down on the reception desk and asks, "Can you put me up for the night?"

20

If anyone claimed that god speaks to them personally.....

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

they'd be viewed as completely mentally ill and laughed at.. so, how do the governing body get away with it?.

OnTheWayOut

Well, they certainly imply it. Here's an example from 1964:

And the magazine goes to quote what someone else said about it being "the message... that Jehovah has for us."
Of course, they made up the bullshit about some brother opening the wrapper on his magazine, but they still did not say directly that it was true, what the brother said.

My point is that this is an important topic in our quest for freedom and helping others, but we cannot even get a grip on what the accurate Watchtower teaching is on this. I mean, it's not in print, but they want you to believe that when Fred Franz died, there was even more "spirit-direction" from heaven. But say that out loud and you will be cut to shreds.

20

If anyone claimed that god speaks to them personally.....

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

they'd be viewed as completely mentally ill and laughed at.. so, how do the governing body get away with it?.

OnTheWayOut

"Spirit-Directed" is a total cop-out.
"Inspired" is defined as "moved or guided by divine influence."

"Spirit Directed" is the same as "Inspired."
But Watchtower is such a dangerous mind-control cult that they can hoodwink members with their secret in plain sight.

The Bible was directed by Holy Spirit and is therefore inspired and is infallible.
The Watchtower is directed by Holy Spirit and is therefore not inspired, just directed. So it is fallible.
But it is right. Right up until it must be changed, then it was not right enough, but it's right now.

This nonsense plays all the way through the organization. We are supposed to believe that the Governing Body members are guided by spirit even though they won't say it. We aren't even supposed to know about the 2/3rds majority thing because that would help to shatter our illusions.

Basically, they cannot point out the absurdity of this whole subject directly. They must continue to talk in hair-splitting definitions of their own terms that they made up.

8

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

by JRK in

jw
friends

that is what life is like without you..

OnTheWayOut

Life can be like being in a cheap Chinese restaurant and realizing that they expect you to bring your own toilet paper.

I am pretty sure that will eventually happen at JW Assembly Halls.

JRK:

What good are these thoughts that I'm thinking
It must be better, huh not to be thinking at all

25

Did Crisis of Conscience find a market or did it lumber along until the copies ran out?

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

curiosity.i would think c of c was the grand-daddy of all the ex-jw books.is there any way to know for sure how many copies sold?

over what span of time before the 1st edition ended?

why did it peter out of print if it was a perennial seller?today, every tom, dick, and jasper has self-published the bleeding wound, 1st person singular, true confessional version of their own fall from grace.

OnTheWayOut

Today, every Tom, Dick, and Jasper has self-published the bleeding wound, 1st person singular, true confessional version of their own fall from grace. It's as common as Zika virus.

Maybe if you wrote a book about JW's that includes aliens from another world, it could sell.

Obviously, CoC was not a commercial failure. It gave Ray some financing and he was able to publish a second book and have updated publishings for the first one.

But it does seem to me that it mainly started out as a big load in his garage for years.

Today's books are a bit different with Amazon and e-books and all. My book is available for $0.99 or $6.00 as a print book on Amazon (Fade from the Truth) There is no stack in my garage. You order the print book and some computer prints it and soft binds it and mails it with very little human interaction.

It was always priced that low and like Brock, I didn't release it primarily to make money, but to help people. I wrote it to help me and hoped to help at least one other person. And I did that. I consider that a success. So I think I finally, in 4 years, made close to $500, perhaps more. Most sales were e-books and it seems more Europeans bought it than Americans. But I don't have a tally since it's mostly e-books.