the age newspaper | fairfax media | friday, march 15, 2013. jehovah's witnesses a 'cruel cult'.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/jehovahs-witnesses-a-cruel-cult-20130315-2g5x3.html.
christian sect the jehovah's witnesses - with 64,000 active 'disciples' in australia - are a cruel religion with no soul, according to melbourne cultbuster raphael aron.. his warning comes as the federal government considers tightening the definition of a charity to prevent some cults and quasi-religions keeping their tax free status.
"There's no Moomba in the Bible either," he says. "And no football. Does that mean we shouldn't do those things either?"
Yet, the WTS has their intimidiating ways/comments to squash these times for sure also. Anything that is "fun" is cautioned by the WTS, well, because the word "fun" is not in the Bible either.
this morning i woke up thinking about a friend of mine, i will call her sara...here's some of the back story.. we grew up together and have always been good friends, even though we wouldn't stay in touch, we would just pick up where we left off.
sara has always been different, and i never really knew what it was growing up, but i didn't care, she was my friend.
so we lost touch for many years and then about 4 yrs ago when i went back to my home town, we reconnected.
Most gay individuals had to go through alot of personal honesty issues to be able to 'out' publicly about their orientation. I would expect she of all people would respect your honesty about coming "out" of the organization. If she is still 'stuck' about any WTism condemnation, you owe it to her to be free of it all.
A 'hello' from anyone in our past, I consider it a wonderful 'blast from the past."
hope everyone is having a lovely day.
i ended up here after spending the past few months researching jw, without the blinders on.
i was a born-in, baptized as a teen, pioneered out of high school for a couple years (turning down a 4 year scholarship).
Wow,,good for you and all the researching you've done. Yes, it does take time to unravel the knots that the WTS knotted up our normal brain circuit lines and patterns. But once we find them and realize we can value and gradually trust our common sense again or rightfully develop, then we experience a freedom of mind and heart properly.
Reading Steve Hassan books on mind control are great too.
Best wishes to you and your daughter. Thankfully the WTS didn't tear you two apart.
remember, you read it here first!.
dear brothers: .
we are pleased to announce that arrangements are being made for all baptized and unbaptized publishers who read and write english, along with their minor children, to be invited to locations where they can hear the 2013 annual meeting program that will be presented on saturday, .
there will be no arrangements for the program to be translated into other languages, including American Sign Language.
when I first read that, I thought, it must be about masturbation. Made me think of the recent youtube globalizing on it by JW. Maybe they are revising that alot.
i was studying spanish a little while ago - had to stop because of finances but became friends with the spanish teacher and we keep in touch, see each other now and again.
i just got a message from him:.
"hola louise, i would like to talk to you about 2 things, about the jws, as we are following this fatih, we find it interesting, we haven't been baptised yet, i want to make sure before making a mistake and the other thing that allan and i wold like to talk about is starting your own business.....".
Giordano, liked the "refried Adventists." haha
i was studying spanish a little while ago - had to stop because of finances but became friends with the spanish teacher and we keep in touch, see each other now and again.
i just got a message from him:.
"hola louise, i would like to talk to you about 2 things, about the jws, as we are following this fatih, we find it interesting, we haven't been baptised yet, i want to make sure before making a mistake and the other thing that allan and i wold like to talk about is starting your own business.....".
I would ask then what specifically draws them to the religion? Maybe that will help with the startup conversation. Sometimes, best to start in simplified form initially. Do you have one of Steve Hassan's books about 'mind control' to lend them?
Can you print out or attach the 'pamphlet' from jwfacts.com for them to read for an all-around simplified 'fact sheet?'
just my opinion but i see nothing but defeat for the watchtower regardless of what they do.. if they appeal and fight - it could go on for years, dragging their reputation thru the mud, at the same time that the catholic church is being slammed and sued.
they end up sharing the headlines with other religions that cover up child molesters.
talk about bad timing.... this defeat has already hit some witlesses like a ton of bricks, emotionally.
"Time to do (many) things differently"
"Time to protect the children (from WT policy)"
This movie clip may not fit in some ways, when it says "time to dance," I mentally put the above quotes instead.
http://www.sweetspeeches.com/s/171-ren-mccormack-a-time-to-dance
just my opinion but i see nothing but defeat for the watchtower regardless of what they do.. if they appeal and fight - it could go on for years, dragging their reputation thru the mud, at the same time that the catholic church is being slammed and sued.
they end up sharing the headlines with other religions that cover up child molesters.
talk about bad timing.... this defeat has already hit some witlesses like a ton of bricks, emotionally.
I think the goal is equal, involves both issues. Pedophiles will not disappear and the WTS will not go down totally, but the WTS/GB have to bend their stiff-necks and stiff knees. They have to soften their stance and change 'their' policy. I think Ms Conti, too, in her purpose is to 'force' the WTS to change. She trusts only the Law could be able to impose a strength against their policy, that clearly the victims have no power in themselves over the GB.
since many of you were kind enough to give your responses, or at least share in my confusion, i wanted to take some time to share things that went down in the last few days in my family.. to recap, i was born-in but thankfully the hogwash never took.
i was actively dodging meetings by age 13 by faking illness, usually missing 20 to 25 days of school per year.
i left my family to attend college and was told by a family member that an announcement was made in my local congregation the following year that i was disassociated.
My younger brother continued, saying that 'mistakes were made' and that 'it would be different now'.
This is an admission, WTS style, but no real 'deeply sincere' apology. It still comes up in reality, that 'you' are to accept & suck it up, forget about it, and get back in their game, while they go back to their own ridiculous rules. It is 'not' different now. They lie without a flinch.
edit correction:.
the court web site lisiting reflects the following below, but we have been informed that the watchtower society has been given yet another extension until march 26, 2013.. the below post will be left as is, for those who may have wondered what happened.. .
congratulations candace conti.
That's fine that they needed another extension, as two extensions were already requested and granted. A last minute, ("new light") info came up? But, why the "no show?."
