Posts by OnTheWayOut

70

Report Card : How’s President Biden Doing?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i give him an f for falling down on the job..

OnTheWayOut

Bottom line is if you like Biden, you will gush over him. If you liked Trump you will love what he says.

This is where many Trump supporters get it wrong. Because the vast majority of them blindly accept whatever he does and says, they assume that the opposition does the same for Joe Biden.

Both Joe and Donald were too old for the job and not the best candidates, but the Democratic Party thrust Joe upon us as their choice and the Republican Party sold their souls to stay the course with their guy.

How's President Biden Doing? Luckily for comparison reasons (but not so luckily for the American people), the previous president set the bar so low with his constant golfing and television watching, worrying about ratings for his speeches, throwing tantrums, and totally failing at his COVID19 response. The bar was set so low that coming off of Trump's Negative 4 on a scale of Positive 1 to 10, Joe can be given a 5 or 6 so far.

53

Did you think this was it for the Watchtower-(Covid)- Well-They are coming back with even greater ZEAL!

by pistolpete in

so you all probably heard that the awake magazine is back, .

https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/?contentlanguagefilter=en&pubfilter=g&yearfilter=.

and one of my jw relatives said they were told by some elders that meetings and field service will resume before the end of the year.. they said this covid virus was a test, like when the romans breached jerusalem and retreated, only to come back later and sack jerusalem.

OnTheWayOut

They said this Covid Virus was a test, like when the Romans breached Jerusalem and retreated, only to come back later and sack Jerusalem.

:This kind of rhetoric is the stuff of the cult that I left. It wasn't that hard to come up with, but it would be what was expected of them. And they have let the people down so often, so it's about time they get back on their game.

20

wt's tale of the two mothers.

by waton in

in retrospect, for lurkerking fence sitters.

, today's( may 30 ) study article.:.

a mother un lovingly, on "apostate" advice, does everything, right and wrong to keep her daughter from becoming a wt slave.

OnTheWayOut

?????????

41

Governing Body; Villians or just Deluded?

by pistolpete in

are you sometimes dumbfounded at the direction the governing body takes?.

thousands of documents proving 607 bce is wrong, yet the gb sticks to the date, why?.

the generation that would not die, yet they continue by introducing an overlapping generation.. disfellowshipping at a time when everyone is leaving, not a good idea, yet they continue to disfellowship.. here is a video that addresses these questions.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbgeqhp9o9i.

OnTheWayOut

Raymond Franz has basically convinced me that getting to the Governing Body takes a high level of belief in the bullshit. I was nowhere near that level, yet I could see how I was just supposed to accept whatever doctrinal changes came out. The difference that brought many of us here is that we objected along the way for our various reasons.

I think that Governing Body 1.0 learned something special once these delusional believers got to the top of the ladder. They learned that their job was to protect the organization no matter what. Lies, withholding information, manipulating people, whatever it takes. Satan is evil and they justify themselves with a "fight fire with fire" attitude.
They recognized that they were monetarily poor on the way up the ladder and would rather do whatever it takes to stay at the top of the ladder rather than walk away owning nothing once they see what being at the top entails.

The video pistolpete posts with the explanation that members have already been denying their own violation of the rules on their own spiritual path and have been brainwashing themselves. These same Governing Body members convince themselves that they are qualified to be where they are and should stay there. Their own self-brainwashing at a higher level to include convincing themselves that they are "anointed" convinces them that they should not only contribute to the deceit, manipulation, withholding, but that they have been especially chosen by God to do that because nobody else is as qualified as them.

This full self-brainwashing and self-deception has been ensured ever since GB1.0 started handpicking new GB members who were total yes-men. And as they morphed into liars and deceivers, they also learned to keep their secret to themselves, not sharing their doubts in what they do with even each other.

20

Do You Still Easily Believe Everything?

by minimus in

jw
friends

to be a witness you had to accept whatever spiritual food was being dished out.

even if it didn’t make any sense, we were expected to believe.

now that we are out of the cult, do you find yourself a person who doesn’t just accept the status quo?

OnTheWayOut

I believe in music, I believe in love

29

Do You Know Of Anyone That Has Seen A Therapist Because Of Being A Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i really don’t know of many people who got into therapy because of their jw dealings but i would think that if someone remains depressed or severely affected by their past witness life, it’s not a bad idea to speak to someone to get you on the right path.

i think this site has been very therapeutic for many over the years..

OnTheWayOut

I "got into therapy because of [my] JW dealings" but really- it was because of unresolved issues that led to me becoming a JW and then elders telling me I did not need (nor could I trust) worldly counseling.

I think that most ex-JW's, and for that matter- most people, could use therapy for 6 months or longer.

Edit to add: If you have any issues at all (and who doesn't?), check out Bonnie Zieman's books. Bonnie is an ex-JW and a counselor.
https://www.amazon.com/EXiting-JW-Cult-Handbook-Witnesses/dp/1508477132/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&qid=1622126334&refinements=p_27%3ABonnie+Zieman&s=books&sr=1-4

58

Has anyone still in or otherwise heard anything about JWs think we only have 12 months before Armageddon?

by blablabluh in

i’ve noticed a change in family attitude recently, like there is just something extra on their mind.

i even had to call my brother to check if he was dying and too scared to tell me.

anyway, i saw a video last night my saying jws think we only have 12 months left before armageddon so thought maybe this is the reason for changes attitude.

OnTheWayOut

I guess it's time to stop worrying about your teeth or your savings and run those credit cards up.

29

Do YOU Think Biden Actually Won As President?

by minimus in

jw
friends

or do you think trump actually won???

?.

OnTheWayOut

The ballots have already been officially counted, and verified via a hand count of a statistically representative subset, for an election that was conducted fairly, checked repeatedly, adjudicated nationwide and certified over and over again, for nearly seven months now.

Every time, the checks have confirmed that Joseph R. Biden beat Donald J. Trump for the presidency. Every time, Trump die-hards have doubted the outcome.

And so, last month, the Republican-led Arizona Senate took custody of all the nearly 2.1 million ballots from Maricopa County and then gave those ballots to a private company called Cyber Ninjas, a Florida cybersecurity firm that has never conducted an election audit, and whose CEO has been associated with social media claims that the election was fraudulent and with pro-Trump lawyers who filed election lawsuits last year.

20

As An ExJW or Fader What Do You Believe In?

by minimus in

jw
friends

god?

jehovah?

science?

OnTheWayOut

You ask what I believe in, so despite your declaring from your soapbox that science is not impartial, I believe that we have to look to science for answers. Sure there are problems with money and politics and religion getting in the way, but in the long run, science leads the way. So everyone has to look for themselves.

This is what I believe:

Evolution is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The Human Genome Project and other science has clearly demonstrated that all humans are related and come from the same origins. The start of life has not been proven yet to the satisfaction of many, but if we put aside the ingrained religiousity of the masses, we can see that science is attempting to answer the questions we have and the gods of man are getting less and less important.

Science has debunked the Bible and all other stories of magic on Earth to my satisfaction. The study of archeology has certainly demonstrated that the stories of the Exodus in the Old Testament are just stories and not history. There is some actual history mixed in to the stories, but there is also some actual history in modern fiction writings that place their characters in the real world. I believe that Gospel writers (including the ones beyond Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) never expected their stories to be taken as absolutely literal. Of course that is not proven, but people who do believe in the magic of the Gospels laugh at the magic of other stories outside of that.

I believe all the gods were invented by men. Even solid believers agree with me with their "one exception."

I believe in the not-so-mystical karma of humanity. If you are positive, you can draw positive people to you and see the positive and good in life. If you are negative, you draw negativity and see more of the negative. But I also believe you cannot live your life ignoring the other side of that.

16

Non Believers, how do you respond ?

by Phizzy in

i recently had this in a message from a jw, a lovely person, but mind controlled, he wrote " a life without hope is no life for me".. how should i respond to that ?

i am an atheist, but want to respond in as kindly a way as possible.. i was thinking along the lies of saying i got no comfort from what i knew to be false hope, but need to say it in a kindly way.. ideas please ?.

OnTheWayOut

There are elderly and already dead witnesses who lived their whole lives for a future promised hope.
If that hope turns out to be false, they wasted their entire lives in the here-and-now for nothing.