AllTimeJeff

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Posts by AllTimeJeff

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  15

  Religion...is regarded by the rulers as useful

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  lucius annaeus seneca, roman statesman, 4bc - 65ad: "religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.".

  this comes to mind as trump has been throwing the word "god" around.

  there are a lot of outwardly religious people in this government.. benjamin franklin: "the way to see faith is to shut the eye of reason.".

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  AllTimeJeff

  I am with you Flipper. Hide your books folks. It can happen. I'm not saying it will, but don't be naive.

  Unless you'd like to kill all the non-anglo, non-hetrosexual science lovers. Then by all means, carry on.... ;)
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  23

  Internally rolling my eyes.. Get this

  by raven in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  a bit of an update, last weekend was my great grandmothers funeral, now, she was never a jw, and never was going to be, no matter how hard my mother, and grandmother tried to preach to her, she was the type of person that would kindly accept a wt or a book, but she wouldn't bother reading them.. anyways, she was a great wonderful and inspiring woman, the funeral was extremely sad, she had been a school teacher for over 35 years and a member of various clubs, so there were a lot of folks besides family that attended.. well, anyways i was there and so was my jw mother, stepfather, and grandmother, we were cordial, didn't talk about anything jw related because, it was great grandmothers funeral, not really a time to discuss how i am an evil sinner, or how i've escaped the org by avoiding df'ing, right?

  wrong, as i'm sitting waiting for the service to begin, a lady shows up, now- i have known this woman for a long time, apparently she baby sat me as a small child, (like i remember?

  ) so she isn't someone i was ever close with, but knew of her or when she was around would say hi to and make small talk.. to give you a tid-bit on her personality though, she is one of those crazy jw's.. she claims to have been possessed by a demon, very very wacky on the prophesies, or gb talks, etc.

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  AllTimeJeff

  What The Flipper said.... Boundaries within the Borg do not really exist.

  Very sorry for your loss. What a whack job. It reminds me of Ray Franz handling a funeral after Freddie Franz was so insensitive on the platform. The purpose of a funeral is to honor the life of those who've passed, and comfort those who are grieving.... Except in JW land, where it is yet another marketing opportunity.

  And that is why the crazies feel they can do what they do..... :-/
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  47

  What did you regrettably not do because you were a Jehovah's Witness ?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  jehovah's witnesses cannot do a lot of things.

  i remember pioneers having to quit their jobs because they could not work in a convenience store and sell cigarettes.

  i know of a young man who was offered a scholarship to any college or university if he wanted to go to because of his football abilities.

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  AllTimeJeff

  College and sex. Just the truth.
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  45

  New light in this weeks WT?

  by Indian Larry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  anybody have any ideas where they are going with the "new light" they have been pushing last week and this week?

  for instance in this weeks study article one section reads:.

  in years gone by, we believed that jehovah became displeased with his people because they did not have a zealous share in the preaching work during world war i. we concluded that for this reason, jehovah allowed babylon the great to take them captive for a short time.

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  AllTimeJeff

  Mega Kingdom Halls OTWO?

  That sets them up for consolidating congregations, selling off properties, appearing to be on the decline, but then saying that things will clear up later to show that they were really doing fine.
  
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  23

  No Longer a JW Expert But Starting to Figure Out Life

  by AllTimeJeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  consider this an update for those that remember me here.... when i left in 2006, it started a 10 year journey into a new phase.

  no more "safety".

  some people want to be their own person.

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  AllTimeJeff

  I think I got this part figured out, I think.....

  The best revenge is recovery and finding a new life for yourself. JW's aren't the only group that does this to people. Entire political systems (see, North Korea) also are aimed at taking away individuality. Thus, be yourself. They lose.

  GB versions 1.0 and 2.0 had as their biggest weapon the control of the message. Everything NOT THEM is WORLDLY! (BOO!)

  YOU are worth as much as you'll ever be, HERE at the Kingdom Hall.

  THEY look like they're having fun NOW, but remember, THIS LIFE ISN'T ALL THERE IS.

  However, you should offer as a sacrifice YOUR LIFE NOW, to ensure you get a BETTER LIFE in the FUTURE.

  No wonder the hurt and the weak are the ones attracted to this. It's easier just to be spoon fed than to figure this out for yourself.

  The real truth is this: YOU and I are the only way to beat GB 2.0, simply by being the best versions of ourselves, our talents, gifts, unique points of view, etc. That's my goal anyway....
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  17

  Flip Flops to Nowhere

  by Lostandfound in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how long until wt has flip flopped its way back to anything of the faith many of us knew?

  who are the now dead ones giving evidence of their non captivity to babylon etc?

  i would not recognise what goes on in a kh now and i was in since 60s when we had firm beliefs, now being eroded little by little.

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  AllTimeJeff

  I think the Ray Franz incident in 1980 proved that backlash doesn't work in a high control environment. The point of control essentially is that you get to do what you want.

  Power is in control of the crafter of messages. Sprinkle just a little bit of dormant "think for yourself" muscles in, and you really won't have a backlash.

  Why would anyone want to anyway? The only thing worth saving as far as I am concerned is friends and family. The theology is just weird, the history is even weirder and sordid. If GB 2.0 had a Delorean with a Flux Capacitor, they would go back to 1921 and throttle Rutherford in his sleep.

  Then again, internal backlash has happened! It's called the internet and the ability to expose them for what they really are. I think in that context, a backlash has happened, and it has worked. But internally, I just don't think it's possible, given the "Bah Bah" mentality of the followers....
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  23

  No Longer a JW Expert But Starting to Figure Out Life

  by AllTimeJeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  consider this an update for those that remember me here.... when i left in 2006, it started a 10 year journey into a new phase.

  no more "safety".

  some people want to be their own person.

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• 

  AllTimeJeff

  Consider this an update for those that remember me here...

  When I left in 2006, it started a 10 year journey into a new phase. No more "safety". No more "brotherhood". I was so glad that I left and blew up the bridge. Scared, but happy to try and figure out life.

  I spent the first few years here online, sharing all my "insider" knowledge and sharing some of my pain. As a missionary and elder, I saw a lot, and saw that most of it was crap. I needed to write, just to get it out. I would like to think I put a small dent in the Bullshit Boat that is Governing Body 2.0 and helped a few people to see some facts. I had no agenda and still don't. The fact is, Jehovah's Witnesses as a group of people are mostly "nice". (whatever that means) But they are a cult because of what their leadership teaches and enforces.

  And yet, people still sign up. Just like they always will. And we should expect that in the future too. You'll always have cults and high control groups because frankly, some people need them. They can't operate as their own person. Some are so damaged they can't function without it.

  I myself am still damaged, and will probably have a "limp" of sorts for the rest of my days.

  One of the things I have had to come to grips with is that I ever did that stuff. I am way easier on myself than I used to be. I HATED that I chose to spend my 20's with them. I get it, they stroked my ego as a teen and it grew, and I ate it up. However, when I finally opened my eyes to the damage being done, even though it broke my heart to leave all my friends and start life over, I had no choice. I left. At least I was giving myself to become something of the person I could.

  And that is my biggest thing. I have become my own person. I own all a good chunk of me now. I once wrote that I would know I made it over the hump when I could say "Yeah, I used to be a Jehovah's Witness. Can you please pass the ketchup?" I have learned that most everyone has obstacles, born into less than favorable circumstances, but that you can also make something of your life.

  After 10 years out, one thing I have accepted is that we all want different things. Some people want to be a group. Some people want to be their own person. I used to want acceptance for all, these days, I'll settle for peaceful tolerance.

  Jehovah's Witnesses hurt me and my family in immeasurable ways. But I can't go back in time. I can only spend the time I have left.

  Time is on no one's side, but time is all we have. I hope for anyone who knows the unique experience of being a JW, who might consider leaving, or are in pain, that you will value your days, and value yourself. That is my message. After 10 years, I don't have a whole lot to offer on what the current teachings are from the deluded idiots running the place. But I do have some years of healing and growing. I will try to share if it seems appropriate. :) Peace and love to you all.
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  10

  Forever Young

  by AllTimeJeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey everyone.

  so this is what 10 years out feels like.

  employed, paying bills, and watching the slow demise of planet earth.

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  AllTimeJeff

  Hello Yesu. I am not an active atheist or theist. Having spent my first 30 years debating in that arena, I am happily a live and live, tolerant agonstic. (so long as I and all people are tolerated...)
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  10

  Forever Young

  by AllTimeJeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey everyone.

  so this is what 10 years out feels like.

  employed, paying bills, and watching the slow demise of planet earth.

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  AllTimeJeff

  Hey everyone. So this is what 10 years out feels like. Employed, paying bills, and watching the slow demise of planet Earth. Awesome.... (I'm kidding. I am sure we will all be ok. Look! Unicorns!!)

  Been reading a few posts this week in particular. For sure GB 2.1 is in full effect. No more Gilead? No more sending white bread Americans with above average networking skills to 3rd world hotspots in order to be potentially murdered by the "WeDon'tGiveASh*tAboutYou" locals as a way to show you rock? No more book studies or Theocratic Ministry School? No more Presiding Overseer, because he is now the Coordinator and doesn't babysit? No more deep embrace of the hallucinogenic "doctrine" that was in fact, the overactive imagination of college dropout Freddie "The TypologyTypist" Franz?
  Sign me up!

  I recall getting in several heated debates as I exited here and on a couple of other sites that were for me. I look back and they are a personal journal of sorts. Glad you can read them too if it helps. I thought I'd share two things that popped into my head lately.

  1) Jehovah's Witnesses will not die instantly. They will slowly evolve and turn into something else. That is in fact, what has happened and what will continue to happen. As with all bad ideas and movements, idiots and blinded people are hard to show the truth. I have learned the hard way that beliefs trump facts. (pun intended) It is only by having the right values, including an acknowledgment that facts are more important, can true change happen. Having said that, we live in a country where it is a Constitutional right to make bad decisions and have poor judgement. Welcome to freedom! The freedom to sign your life over to a registered cult.

  2) Jehovah's Witnesses will continue to exploit young people, and I'd like to offer myself as exhibit A to get this rolling.
  

  In 1991 for reasons I cannot specifically recall, I took advantage of the time home schooling provided me and started to "walk" my territory as an auxiliary pioneer. I was 16. I read the life stories of missionaries and circuit overseers every day and it affected me! I also did it for the approval of the elders, and because I had set goals for myself. It is how I got my good name out there and became a ministerial servant at 19.

  If you saw the 19 year old version of me, you'd hate me. I was committed to my goals and every bit the @$$hole! But you would have liked the 16 year old me. I was just a kid trying to do his best, please his parents and his "church". It grew and turned into something I couldn't have possibly comprehended. And as I look back, no one pushed me to do it. I was sincerely trying to do my best. With no true guidance from anyone. No internet. I missed that by four years. Nothing but the "atta boys" and occasional honked horns of elders as they drove by me while I walked to my next return visit in the late afternoon. That's where it started for me.

  I am very sensitive when I see intelligent and ambitious young people these days, of any stripe and from anywhere. They need guidance, they need wisdom. And it is not in ready supply. The fact is, programming is very real, and it happens EVERYWHERE. Not just JW's. In America. That is why marketing and the news is so important. "Can we win the battle of the message? What are the optics?" It doesn't matter if it's right or not, so long as it feels right.

  The human animal runs on emotional beliefs, not cold facts. JW's are masters of this, and know it better than anyone. And who is better to influence than the young? Whatever the GB needs, you can be sure they will figure out how to suck their youth into a generation of JW's that will roll their eyes at you when you mention 1914, 1975, all of the changes to the word "generation", and those old fogies Russell, Rutherford, Knorr and Franz. And why not? They get told everything in their KH.

  What is the hope for anyone young? Access to information, education, and the wisdom to tell the truth and facts from the crap. True reasoning ability, and a desire to make a difference. (so maybe college shouldn't cost so much?)

  Isn't that what being young is all about? Maybe that is gone too. Maybe everyone will just turn into automatons that just listen and do what they're told.

  I am lucky. I am 42, and still young enough, but have had more than a lifetimes worth of experience to know that the key to the future is to influence the young. I hope we all have the wisdom to help out when we can. And I hope more than a few young JW's stop by sites like these and read up. There is nothing like getting your critical thinking skills going for the first time.
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  31

  Griffin Assembly Hall (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) now a Megachurch

  by Sanchy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my mom, while pregnant with me, was one of thousands of jw volunteers to work on the construction of this once beautiful assembly hall in south florida circa 1984. it had a beautiful pond, waterfall, and even a resident alligator.

  many remember it as well for it's huge plaster murals on the walls showing scenes of paradises.. pics as it was before (sorry for the low quality, struggled to find good pics of the auditorium as it was, if you have any good ones, do share them):.

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  AllTimeJeff

  I grew up in the Fort Lauderdale area. The plastered walls from what I was told and remember (I was 10) was that they sort of snuck it in, misrepresenting what they were doing to Bethel until it was too late. At every CA, an announcement was told "not to touch the walls." It was a nice facility. Many adulterous arrangements were evidently made their based on all the disfellowshippings I remember... lol

  I miss the alligator and the pond. I don't miss the drive out there. Not that I live down there anymore. The location wasn't very good imo

  I recall at the time that we would rent the WPB auditorium for DC's when we didn't use the Hialeah racetrack. Whatever their reason for getting rid of Griffin Road, I am sure it was in some way a small "F you" to the local elders that did things their way.