StephaneLaliberte

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Posts by StephaneLaliberte

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  15

  Wow! I'm tripping

  by OriginalFlower in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this old place is still around?

  holy moly what a trip stumbling into this place from the good ole days before the 'new' social media😃.

  i used to have tons of long late night conversations with some good friends here...like 15-20 years ago!

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  StephaneLaliberte

  Here since 2007. I tried to quit once.... didn't manage to stay off for more than a month.
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  28

  How many here believe the WTS really has has 8.5 million followers / 8.5. million members

  by Hotpepper in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i think it's closer to 5 million with all the selling of kingdom hells and branch bethel's all over the world.

  it's even hard to get a hard copy of the lastest craptower or afake mag now in new york city..

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  StephaneLaliberte

  They do report a decrease in many contries. As for meeting attendance, the majority of those who miss still believe and contribute to their religion. The ones that stop altogether are called innactives and taken off the reports. So, yeah, the numbers are accurate and frankly, 8.5 millions is not something to brag about.

  Imagine a sales rep braging about making one or two sales in over 30 years!! That's what the JWs are doing! After billions upon billions of hours in the field ministry, and just about the same in monney for producing all their teaching matterial, all they have to show for is an increase by 2.

  Worst: When you ask anybody on the street what JWs preach about, the majority won't really know much about them. Yeah, they knock on people's door and they don't take blood and celebrate christmas. But the "good news"? No idea. There message is not getting through. Considering the gigantic amount of investment they placed into this, the results are very disapointing.
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  9

  My interview on BBC threw JWs in shock

  by Alex Bogdanov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i had an interview on bbc one.

  before i write about it and the jws, just a quick reminder.

  since my book was published two years ago, jws avoid me even though i am not disfellowshipped.

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  StephaneLaliberte

  Many people leaving the JWs aren't doing great. Many of them even go crazy and fall into many troubles. Its normal, leaving such a religion/cult causes lots of heartache and turmoil and life is especially difficult at that time. Sadly, this is as much as JWs will keep track about you. How you were before you left and how you’ve been a little after. In that time of your life where you had it worst. Then, they lose sight of you due to their practice of ostracism.

  As a result, they fail to see that the majority of those who leave their group eventually get back up on their feet and live productive, fulfilling lives. They just assume you’ll go on living a hard life, assuming there is no other redemption to your situation than “returning to Jehovah”. Hence, when they see xJWs doing well many years later, it sends them in a corner where the only remaining option for their temporary sanity is cognitive dissonance.
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  72

  Not invited to congregation “get togethers”. They finally said it

  by solomon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we don’t get many invitations to congregational social gatherings.

  we don’t attend midweek meetings and miss about 1/3 of sunday meetings.

  we go in service at least once a month.

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  StephaneLaliberte

  Quite frankly, I've been to at least 10 congregations and none of them would have done that, unless that person was marked. not being often enough in service is not being marked.

  Just being a JW is difficult, being in that congregation must be the worst!
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  12

  Just saw this on Facebbok, by Barbara Anderson, Disfellowshiping cancelled by "worldly" Court !

  by Phizzy in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  excuse the translation to english not being perfect ,.

  barbara anderson.

  33 mins · .

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  StephaneLaliberte

  There are two scenarios I can think of here:

  1) He was disfellowshipped for something that should be allowed based on basic human rights. I'm thinking of the concept of disfellowshiping someone on the mear grounds that he associates with dissfellowshipped ones.

  2) He was disfellowshiped with the JWs failing to obey their own rules (I'd see this as an agreed upon contract). As some have pointed to on this site, you can be disfellowshipped for any reason upon which 3 elders agree and appel commitee rarely reverse the first judgement.

  Perhaps this is what happened here.

  While this will likely have no impact on how the members of the religion view him, this may bring about legal consequences for future members who will suffer the exact same scenario.
  
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  18

  racism

  by Stealth in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  having been raised as a jw, racism was something that was never promoted.

  i now have a 9 year old that has been visiting her biological grandmother and my ex-wife.

  it is my child because i adopted her.

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  StephaneLaliberte

  If kids are not exposed to racism at home, they will be in school, or even in their professional lifes. What matters now is that you teach your kid to think. 9 year old is old enough to bring them to think about such questions.
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  49

  My wife and I have begun our fade

  by James Jack in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i haven’t posted in awhile.

  my wife asked me after the year 2000 came and went without fanfare(because the wt organization said all the “new world” would be here within this 20th century would end), “ what would it take for you to leave the truth?”.

  my reply was “ if i turn 60 in this “system of things”.

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  StephaneLaliberte

  Do you have kids? If so, how are things working out with them?
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  6

  Newspaper: JW top lawyer Shane Brady handles Duch court case, highest level jw.org involvement

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  newspaper stated that the highest jw.org lawyer handles the dutch court case.

  so the highest level is involved.. the report of trouw, nationwide newspaper:.

  the way jehovah's witnesses deal with sexual abuse is traumatic for victims.

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  StephaneLaliberte

  I find this study fasinating in that JWs were encouraged to call and tell their stories, thinking that even if they were anonymous, they'd be praising the GB's rules and protocoles.

  Such testimonies should have outweighted apostate testimonials, influencing the study to conclude that JWs are by and large, handling things properly. And yet, the study was very negative of JWs.

  Face with this result, the JWs leaders had two options in front of them:

  1) Accept that when people are anonymous, they speak their own individual minds and that their internal processes are indeed very flawed. Understand that, without a channel through which the members can speak freely and anonymously, JW leaders will never have a clear understanding of how their policies impact their members.

  OR

  2) Assume that the majority of people who called were apostates, driven by the devil, and that the people doing the study had a bias against the society from the get go.

  Sadly, they chose the second option.
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  48

  If you speak against the Governing Body you will be punished.

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this was a comment from the meeting(tm) on sunday.. the person that told me about it, is very confused about the validity of the corporation.

  somewhere between a pimo and a pimi-lite.

  the thing that angered me was that this person has cancer.

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  StephaneLaliberte

  That is among the reasons I left. Would anyone be called a christian if he did not accept any critism? Worst, if he than seeked to persecute anyone who said anything negative about him? Of course not. Then why should the GB be held to a different standard?
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  18

  Do you have dark tinted windows on your vehicle?

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you have one, do cops stop you to make sure it is not too dark?

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  StephaneLaliberte

  In Quebec (Canada), police will look for illigally tainted windows. While I can understand the desire for more taint when there is plenty of sun outside, cars need to be adapted for all year round. It seems that during spring and especially fall, we have a lot of rain and sunset can be early (as low as 4:30pm), making it difficult to see even when your windows are not tainted at all. So I personally totally agree with the cops enforcing this.