Posts by OnTheWayOut

56

Words and expressions a JW can't say

by JH in

jw
friends

name few words or expressions a normal person can say, but not a jw.. when someone sneezes, you can't say bless ya !.

if you want to surprise a jw, you can't say boo !!!

http://www.prankcallsunlimited.com/pcu/booecho.mp3.

OnTheWayOut

Their country's anthem/pledge

I don't enjoy field service

Anything critical of the organization, Jehovah.

Guess what the judicial committee said?

Announcing the convention dates before a January service meeting.

32

The Tragedy of Fundamentalism (WARNING to all Pharisees! LARGE PRINT!)

by Geronimo in

so many of the former jws here have embraced a religion that differs little from the jehovah's witnesses.

worse yet, that fact reveals the basic wiring flaws of many fundies and evangelicals who post here.. .

first off, they embrace an even nastier god.

While I am not sure that all the fundamentalists feel and think as you describe them,
I am confident, for the moment, that I do not want ANY religious organization
misleading me. I'm not sure what the truth is, but if God is love and forgiveness, he
will understand those who don't go to church / temple / kingdom hall / whatever
and he will forgive them.

11

When you started to arrive on your decision about leaving

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

when you started to arrive on your decision about leaving it happened one day sitting at a sunday meeting, i noticed so many in-.

dividuals reading the answer directly out of the watchtower magazine .

and my thoughts were " does anyone in this place have any imag-.

OnTheWayOut

Like done4good, I put up with things I saw for many years. I thought I had the actual ONE TRUE RELIGION.
All the things I saw (people unable to think for themselves, teens deprived of a fairly normal lifestyle)
must have been human shortcomings. I was totally assimilated. Then that change in 1995 came for
THIS GENERATION. This threw my mindset out of whack. Still, I accepted the change, promising to look into
it later. Maybe 5 yrs later, my mother told me about 1975, again promised to look into it. Over the last 5 yrs,
I really did look at these things hard.

After tons of research on those and related doctrines, I decided this past summer (early June 2006) that I
definitely did not have the truth. I had avoided apostate doctrine, but would now take a look. I found freeminds.org
and learned so much so fast. I got Ray Franz' book from the library and devoured it.

Emotions kept my tied to JW's for years. Intellect allowed me to leave. Once I made my decision, I was very
upset at how I may have contributed to the elders process in meetings and judicial committees, I felt terrible for
any people I tried to help along the way to become JW's. I understand that it was the evil Borg that had a hold
on me, but I should have seen it in the beginning. I thought I asked the right questions and truly examined this
~~religion~~publishing company.

My breaking away is very slow by my standards, but would seem fast to the JW who thought all was fine for all those
years.

15

Ever wonder why so many inactive ones never actually become ex-jws

by done4good in

jw
friends

i have been considering this often lately, as i know many who have for all intents and purposes, left the organization, yet they still believe it is the truth.

i know when i left, it wasn't long before i had to really investigate for myself, (after a matter of about three months of just taking a "breather"), weather or not what jws taught was actually the "truth".

i think, this was because i realized that something other than just my own weakness had to be what made me "give up".

OnTheWayOut

The inactive ones that I have spoken to in the past believe that they are inactive due to their own shortcomings.
They are involved in sins and will stop eventually. They are chasing the Almighty Dollar and feel that
they should go back to the KH.

W.Once has it about right.

41

Met with the C.O., and need help with 1975

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

here is a quick summary, in august i turned in an elder resignation letter stating that i could not teach doctrine from the governing body because i did not "know" them at all, and i had doubts.

when asked by the elders, i said the doubts spring from this generation and 1975. the elders took no action, waiting for mother to tell them what to do.

would want to talk to me on his visit.. this week, our c.o.

OnTheWayOut

Thanks, V

While realizing while it happened that this CO visit was going to be the best thing
for my fade, it was extremely hard to be upset with him and not crack a smile.

I did not think of the "Go take care of the 99" stuff until 10 minutes before the PO
asked me to wait to see the CO. I kept thinking of that shepherd over and over
in order to seem upset.

11

Dubs: we alone preach seriously we alone are the true religion.

by greendawn in

when the dubs say: "history shows that we are the only true religion, look only we preach the gospel to all the nations we do much more than all other christian religions put together.

" what do we say to them, it appears like an impressive record yet we somehow know it is false.

i note they no longer believe the end is necessarily near so what does all this preaching achieve?

OnTheWayOut

You should not bother to say much to their claim. They will only close their mind to what you say anyway.

"Seriously" is a good answer.

Also, you could say, "Not according to freeminds.org."

15

Laying the groundwork for dumping the "1935 anointed cutoff" date?

by sir82 in

jw
friends

the next domino to fall in the society's muddled chronology-based teachings is very likely to be the concept that the "general call" for anointed members of the 144,000 ended in 1935, when the "great crowd" was identified.

after 2+ decades of seeing the number of "memorial partakers" hover in the mid-8000's, when actuarially speaking the number can't really be more than a few hundred at most, the society needs to do something (as in, change the teaching, just as the passing of time necessitated a change to the "1914 generation" teaching).. at our circuit assembly this past weekend, i heard something which makes me think the society may already be laying the groundwork for this "new light".

the public talk included "4 lines of evidence" that we are living in "the last days".

OnTheWayOut

Since Jehovah can't look into the future

He can look into the future, but I think the comment meant that he won't use his ability to predestine who will succeed or fail to be faithful to the end. That is a JW teaching, but they can easily spin that to say, "He did not predetermine WHICH anointed would fail, but he knew SOME would."

15

Laying the groundwork for dumping the "1935 anointed cutoff" date?

by sir82 in

jw
friends

the next domino to fall in the society's muddled chronology-based teachings is very likely to be the concept that the "general call" for anointed members of the 144,000 ended in 1935, when the "great crowd" was identified.

after 2+ decades of seeing the number of "memorial partakers" hover in the mid-8000's, when actuarially speaking the number can't really be more than a few hundred at most, the society needs to do something (as in, change the teaching, just as the passing of time necessitated a change to the "1914 generation" teaching).. at our circuit assembly this past weekend, i heard something which makes me think the society may already be laying the groundwork for this "new light".

the public talk included "4 lines of evidence" that we are living in "the last days".

OnTheWayOut

Zico, that is so insightful:

According to the 1935 doctrine, Armageddon should have come by now. Since Jehovah can't look into the future, he can't know about replacements and should have planned to bring the end before replacements would become so important. If there had been no replacements, we'd have 3 men in their 90s/100s running the whole Org now.

Too bad the average JW will never allow such reasoning. "Of course he knew some would be unfaithful."
Personally, I think the new light will be that Jehovah planned for this and did not choose all of the
anointed, saving some slots for the "very last days."

41

Met with the C.O., and need help with 1975

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

here is a quick summary, in august i turned in an elder resignation letter stating that i could not teach doctrine from the governing body because i did not "know" them at all, and i had doubts.

when asked by the elders, i said the doubts spring from this generation and 1975. the elders took no action, waiting for mother to tell them what to do.

would want to talk to me on his visit.. this week, our c.o.

OnTheWayOut

Poppers,

What I saw was that he was able to keep eye contact, and he did not change
his determination to get out of there.
As an elder, I was totally floored. I know sometimes the publishers don't get
the help they need from the elders, but the elders at least go thru the motions.
Many of you might say they don't go thru the motions- I am sure there are plenty
of poor examples, but remember, the PO was right there. Even though he will
never admit (to me) the CO botched it, he will tell the other elders what happened.

Just in case he doesn't, I WILL. I will really get some miles out of this.

27

Meetings are BORING!

by 5thGeneration in

jw
friends

why do the brothers take such offense when someone says that the meetings are boring?.

i can't possibly fathom how people who have been going to the meetings for decades can sit at the kh and listen, for example, to yesterday's wt study for an hour about adam and eve, cain and abel, how we are all allowed to pray, blah, blah, blah... and not be bored out of their minds!.

.

OnTheWayOut

How about assemblies/conventions? Everybody knows they are long and boring,
they are all just afraid to say it.
Even my totally borg mother says, "They are sooooo looong." Why can't more
people be that honest?