OnTheWayOut

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Posts by OnTheWayOut

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  Looking for someone to help...

  by Vetro in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm looking for someone to talk to, preferably local, things are in a really bad way, is there a way to post to the more private members only forum?

  i can't seem to post there...

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  OnTheWayOut

  Yes, please state in a MEMBERS ONLY thread where you are.
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  Were You Ever SHOCKED That Someone Got Appointed As An Elder?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember some men getting appointed and wondering what the hell were they thinking???.

  likewise when i came to someone being appointed a presiding overeer or whatever they are called now!

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  OnTheWayOut

  OntheWayOut do you mean 'mixed' religiously? When the Witnesses use that word that's usually what they mean, but I thought your wife was still in?

  No, she is a JW. I mean the old C.O. literally thought white JW's marrying black JW's was "spiritually" bad. I told him I had prayerfully examined my situation and read mags about such.

  He said I would not find such couples in Gilead, and rarely at Bethel. I found and showed him a recent Gilead class photo with a black/white couple.
  
  
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  What is the Psychological agenda of the Watchtower Corporation enacted through its publications ?

  by Finkelstein in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  basically its to get people to believe in the things they say and proclaim.

  once people are in a believable mental state and acceptance, then the wts can control people's thoughts, emotions and actions through acts of repetitive indoctrination.. this all comes together by instilling the notion that their interpretation of the bible is the correct and accurate one.

  add in the notion of following us you'll be more righteous in the eyes of god , thereby offering a better chance of survival at the soon to come armageddon.. everything connects in a cohesive self supporting way and subconsciously effects the thoughts and social behavior of all those being indoctrinated.. constantly pointing out the many evils of the outside secular world or other religions as "false" but how one can gain true happiness when inside this organization is their way to sustain devoted members.

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  OnTheWayOut

  This all comes together by instilling the notion that their interpretation of the bible is the correct and accurate one. Add in the notion of following us you'll be more righteous in the eyes of god , thereby offering a better chance of survival at the soon to come Armageddon.

  Yes.

  Although many beliefs teach, "We are right and others are wrong," Watchtower literature has really gone to the extreme of taking scripture snippets to seem to prove their doctrine is right and JW's have a better understandibg than anyone else.

  The average JW is mainly only interested in being right about holidays or military service ir blood or whatever, and showing up anyone in disagreement.

  It now seems to me that they do this so that when they want to push their agenda with no real scriptural backing, members are so accustomed to them providing elaborate proofs and they stop checking those reference scriptures. So they just tack on those "obey the slave" or "light-brighter" references and it is accepted.
  
  
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  Who has a harder time leaving JW's - Born Ins or those who converted?

  by HeyLittleGirl in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my freind (who is also out) and i were talking about this the other night.

  i was a born-in, 3rd generation jw and she converted when she was in her late 20's.. when she left, she said that she knew the world wasn't as bad as she was told as a jw, so she knew she would be fine.

  also, she still had lots of "worldly" family who welcomed her back with open arms.. it was harder for me - i had nobody in the "world", no family or freinds.

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  OnTheWayOut

  ...I believe converts make more of a commitment than born-ins....and it may be harder to admit you are wrong and the blame is yours...

  That may be true. Although I am technically an adult convert (with childhood exposure to JW's) I never had trouble admitting I was wrong.
  
  
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  25

  Who has a harder time leaving JW's - Born Ins or those who converted?

  by HeyLittleGirl in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my freind (who is also out) and i were talking about this the other night.

  i was a born-in, 3rd generation jw and she converted when she was in her late 20's.. when she left, she said that she knew the world wasn't as bad as she was told as a jw, so she knew she would be fine.

  also, she still had lots of "worldly" family who welcomed her back with open arms.. it was harder for me - i had nobody in the "world", no family or freinds.

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  OnTheWayOut

  Steve Hassan talks about a pre-cult personality in COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL.
  I prefer to talk about a non-cult personality in the case of born-ins.
  
  This is the true person without the cult enforcing it's way upon a person's beliefs.
  
  Of course the born-in may not really have had much of an opportunity to develop their non-cult personality and they never had a pre-cult experience.
  
  It's probably much easier to leave for a convert. Then factor in how much JW family a born-in usually has in comparison.
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  28

  Were You Ever SHOCKED That Someone Got Appointed As An Elder?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember some men getting appointed and wondering what the hell were they thinking???.

  likewise when i came to someone being appointed a presiding overeer or whatever they are called now!

  .

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  OnTheWayOut

  Yeah- ME!
  I was baptized in 1988 and was appointed an elder in 1994. Awful quick ladder climbing.
  While I was fully in believer-mode and did underline in my Watchtower and all that jazz, I have heard that really just doesn't happen.
  
  I had the advantage that I was not a born-in, so my history was not an issue. I married right after being appointed an M.S. without getting into any trouble. I think the local elders and a new C.O. liked how I stood up to the C.O. at the time of my engagement because he said that "mixed couples" don't do well in the truth.
  
  But the biggest factor was that I studied with an elder who wanted another feather in his own cap, so he pushed for me to be appointed.
  
  I was appointed in a U.S.southern state and then moved in early 1995. I heard that there was a huge argument in my next congregation among the elders about appointing me again because I still hadn't been "in" for 10 years and they just didn't appoint under those circumstances. But they did appoint me. It was strange because I was in the congregation for 8 or 9 months and was not an M.S., was not given any responsibilities at all in the congregation- not even microphone handling, and had only had two five-minute "talks" in the Theocratic School. So I was surprised again. The whole congregation was surprised too, because I was still fairly new and then appointed an elder. Apparently, that congregation was chewed out for not "using" me. I was enjoying the break.
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  13

  January 2018 Study Watchtower - if only J.W.'s knew the truth!

  by The Fall Guy in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 19, paragraph 12: "with prayerful consideration, the governing body strives to be faithful and discreet with regard to how the organization’s funds are used.".

  yeah, i "prayed" too - that more and more j.w.

  's would discover that millions of dollars of their hard-earned cash were being misused to shut the mouths of j.w.

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  OnTheWayOut

  "Are the millions of dollars worth of child abuse judgements and out of court settlements taken from the GAA, or is that another fund?"

  
  It is ALMOST worth returning to find a way to bring that question up. But seeing as I don't know when it could come up again, and then only locally, I won't do it. I sure wish you had said that.
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  18

  How/when did you become a jehovas witness?

  by Lewis1998 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i've been a protestant for most of my life, it's how i was raised, but recently i started questioning my faith more and more and now i feel like my beliefs resemble that of a jehovas witness rather than a protestant.

  i don't know any jehovas witnesses, so i was just wondering how a lot of you found the religion and adapted to it?.

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  OnTheWayOut

  My aunt joined out of college and convinced my mother that the end of the world was coming in 1975.
  I was just a kid in 1975 when the end of the world did not come. My mother left the religion to return later, but I did not return with her.

  Fast forward to my young 20's. I made a mess of my life and tried to commit suicide. Jehovah's Witnesses was the only religion I knew. So when they told me God spared my life for a higher purpose, it sounded great to me.
  
  So I like to say that joining a dangerous mind-control cult was better than killing myself.
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  15

  Everlasting life on a stick

  by truthseeker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think the watchtower is the only organization that can promise a product (everlasting life) and never deliver it.. what fools we've been to believe this nonsense..

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  OnTheWayOut

  
  The image of chasing a carrot on a stick is not correct. They don't even have a carrot to put out of reach, just the promise of a carrot- everlasting life. When members start to realize they can not even smell a carrot, they stop chasing it.
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  7

  The cut back

  by Akid48 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  does the cut back for 6 magazines for the year show how there losing money or just cutting back.i feel going to begging for peoples money than just chargeing money for a magazine was kinda killing money.but they do get a lot of property and they can just sell that making money.. it seems to early for me to make a full opinion on the topic i wanted to know what others think about this..

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  OnTheWayOut

  I think each factor has to be taken separately.
  
  Ceasing the missionary program or closing a branch can mean they have no monetary profit from many foreign fields. Personally, I believe they had been paying for a loss in many foreign fields with the hopes that it would eventually turn around, and it never did.
  
  Continued reduction in quality and quantity of printed literature should tell us they see less monetary profit or even a loss from printed literature.
  
  We don't really know what they have done with the money from property sales. We do know they have made bad investments and have lawsuits, but we don't know where all the money is going. They do know that once a property is sold, it is gone. They cannot maintain a business model of selling properties off. I couldn't tell you if they are spending all the property money on current deficits or stashing it away.
  
  My bet is that they are stashing it away and preparing for continued reductions in membership and will continue selling Kingdom Halls until members have to meet in private homes in tiny groups (still years away from now). If that is the case, they should have enough money to run their rural New York Headquarters for a long time and provide some direction to the worldwide membership without a huge staff at Headquarters.