Posts by StephaneLaliberte

10

Question for parents with a believing co-parent

by Anony Mous in

my daughter is being raised in a pimi household and spends a significant time with me in a pomo household.

i don’t pressure her to believe, so she is thinking/pressured about becoming a jw from the other end, so she is reluctant about celebrating holidays and birthdays, but as any kid, she loves the gifts and attention, so she will “not celebrate but still do things”.. she is becoming a teenager however, and showing interest in not-so-jw-things.

her mother forbids star wars for violence and magic, but she wants to watch it, she wants a few horror video games, she wants to shoot things and go hunting but guns aren’t allowed, so i’ve compromised for archery.. what do parents of teenagers do?

StephaneLaliberte

Is your daughter baptized? Is she a publisher? Or does she believe in JWs? I would be very careful about doing things that are judged "bad" by the JWs if your daughter isn't a PIMO. The only thing that could counter the excessive brain washing JWs do is by doing a bible study of your own, even if you are an atheist! For instance, read a book that offers a quick cover to the bible, or you could even review JWs content with her and ask questions. If you try to do things while she believes these things to be wrong, she will act against he conscience and will ultimately blame you as a bad influence.

16

your last big assembly

by stan livedeath in

can you remember the last big assembly you went to ?

by big--i mean bigger than a circuit job--so--district ?

whole country at a stadium thing.. my last one was old wembley stadium uk..about 1969 ?

StephaneLaliberte

2002 in Montreal at the Olympic Stadium, 36,000 in attendance. Audio was horrible, no A/C. At some point, it rained and I had no ambarella. I felt uncomfortable and was asking my self: What's the purpose of this? There were so many people you could barely find your friends, at an era where a lot of people still didn't have phones. Also, my mom got really sick, so I had to bring her back to the hotel. Missed a big portion of the Saturday, but I remember i was sorta glad to have an excuse to leave. I wouldn't say this particular assembly was part of my fund memories.

1988 in Montreal at the Olympic Stadium, 50,000 in attendance. That was the big one that is in my good JW memories. It was at that assembly that they introduced the Young People Ask book. I was a 9 year old kid and they placed all the kids in one special section for that talk. It was pretty cool at the time. My dad had bought a brand new suit. Considering our financial situation, it was a really really big deal. I tripped on a wire on the floor and dropped coffee all over him. At one point, I also got lost and ended up in different sections where people were speaking different languages, like Spanish and German, etc. I remember, at the end, people from different countries were walking in big groups in the middle of the stadium as we sang a kingdom song. People were crying, including my parents. All convinced that Armageddon was just around the corner. That was 33 years ago!

22

Don’t Trust the Courts! Splane’s Latest Anti-Apostate Talk

by StephaneLaliberte in

david splane’s talk “put up a hard fight for the faith” was that last talk presented on the saturday of the annual convention.

this talk was to largely address apostates and restated ideas and arguments often presented before.

however, this year, watchtower is spending more time in disqualifying negative findings originating from secular courts and here is the segment of interest here: .

StephaneLaliberte

Rattigan350: So Splane is right. We can't trust juries.

I agree that no one should put their full trust in juries, especially when we consider all the innocent people that have been thrown in jail by a jury of their peers. The system isn't perfect and injustice happen. Still, these injustices are not the majority of the rulings. In most cases, the judgement is sound and righteous. Yet, listening to Splane, seems like every ruling against WT has Satan whispering in the judge's and jury's ears, which is plain wrong and a very dangerous way of manipulating their members.

Court rulings are recorded, documented and follow a process where they can be reviewed and contested. The WT way is to basically bully their members not to discuss these things at all, preventing them from forming their own opinion.

22

Don’t Trust the Courts! Splane’s Latest Anti-Apostate Talk

by StephaneLaliberte in

david splane’s talk “put up a hard fight for the faith” was that last talk presented on the saturday of the annual convention.

this talk was to largely address apostates and restated ideas and arguments often presented before.

however, this year, watchtower is spending more time in disqualifying negative findings originating from secular courts and here is the segment of interest here: .

StephaneLaliberte

David Splane’s Talk “Put Up a Hard Fight For the Faith” was that last talk presented on the Saturday of the Annual convention. This talk was to largely address apostates and restated ideas and arguments often presented before. However, this year, Watchtower is spending more time in disqualifying negative findings originating from secular courts and here is the segment of interest here:

“Charged and investigated. That doesn’t mean he’s guilty. Or supposed that someone is convicted and put in jail. That would apply to our young brothers in Korea. They were convicted and jailed. And what was their crime? They refused to kill someone. Did they do anything wrong? Or someone is found guilty by man, as Jesus was, that doesn’t mean that he is guilty in the sight of God.
So brothers, we really have to think about these things, we may read that a person or organization was sued and than settled out of court. Does settling out of court mean that they were guilty? Not necessarily. Court cases are often handled by a jury. Now who are on the jury? Ordinary citizens with no legal training. Not only that, these ordinary citizens don’t always have access to all the facts. Because the judge and lawyers decide which facts will be shared with the jury. So its unlikely that the whole truth will ever come out in court. Actually, neither sides probably wants the whole truth to come out in court.
But someone would say, no! I don’t believe in settling out of court. I believe in justice and truth! So that bring up the question: Is it wrong to settle a matter before it goes to trial? Or is it scriptural? Lets let Jesus answer that question: Turn to Matthew chapter 5, verse 25 and 26. Interesting that Jesus should mention this with all the important things that Jesus thought.
Be quick to settle matters with your legal opponent while you are with him on your way there so that somehow the opponent may not turn you to the judge and the judge to the court attendant and you get thrown into prison. I say to you for a fact you will certainly not come out of there until you have paid over your last small coin.
Now this is interesting, think about the mosaic law. Was there any provision in the mosaic law to throw someone in jail if he couldn’t pay a debt? That wasn’t the way. If he couldn’t pay, he’d have to work it off. Or a family member would have to work it off. So when Jesus talks about prison and a judge, he’s obviously referring to what a gentile judge would do. And you couldn’t necessarily expect justice from him. Why might he rule against our brother? Well, maybe he got paid under the table by the other party. Or maybe he was prejudiced against the race or the religion.
Now notice that Jesus didn’t say that the man should settle only if he was guilty. So brothers, lets not be naïve, don’t believe everything you read. Just because an article is called a news report doesn’t make it true. And an editorial has someone’s opinion and that someone may be wrong. And TV producers, they have their own agenda, prejudice and viewpoint.”

This is the first time JWs unambiguously include negative court findings into the “anything negative about JWs is linked to apostacy” group. Hence, JWs no longer have the ability to discuss such court cases with their JW friends as this could now bring reprisals. This is BIG.

6

Has anything from a meeting/ Platform caused you to laugh at the bull present?

by Overrated in

jw
friends

i was at a sunday meeting an the speak was going on and on how the org does good for people in public.

example is how at new york the brothers handed out bottles of water.

i know firsthand that they didn't but locked their doors.

StephaneLaliberte

For me, even as a PIMO, that stuff generated anger, sadness, distress in me rather than laughter. It confronts you to the reality that you've been spending a large significant portion of your life in cult. I can't say that ALL the time I spent in that cult was waisted, but a big big part of it was.

24

What Was Your Most Memorable Field Service Experience?

by Sea Breeze in

me: selling the wt and awake for 10 cents at 5 years old.

i don't mean to brag or anything, but i sold 'em like hotcakes.

i musta been a cutie at 5 yo.

StephaneLaliberte

One of the worst I had was me preaching to a homosexual who's answer was: Listen, I'm happy, with my spouse, having a good breakfast, enjoying life, and here you come to my door to tell me that the only way I'll be truely happy is by giving up on the love of my life. Just imagine that: You find the girl of your dream, mary her and have children. Then some kid shows up to your door and tells you that God wants you to leave all that behind for him... How do you expect me to believe that God want's my happiness?

24

What Was Your Most Memorable Field Service Experience?

by Sea Breeze in

me: selling the wt and awake for 10 cents at 5 years old.

i don't mean to brag or anything, but i sold 'em like hotcakes.

i musta been a cutie at 5 yo.

StephaneLaliberte

Another one of my introductions was : "We're teaching the bible" and the guy at the door told me, so why are you holding your magazines in your hand? Its like writing a book report with the "Cole's notes" of a book. Shouldn't you be able to simply use the book itself?

24

What Was Your Most Memorable Field Service Experience?

by Sea Breeze in

me: selling the wt and awake for 10 cents at 5 years old.

i don't mean to brag or anything, but i sold 'em like hotcakes.

i musta been a cutie at 5 yo.

StephaneLaliberte

I used to start all my presentations with:

"Hello sir/ma'am, we're having discussions with our neighbors this morning on a topic that has an impact on everyone and ... " I asked them a question.

then a man at the door said... "no. you're not having discussions, you're preaching. I can tell that no matter the answer I have for you, you already have a come back. If I say no, you'll say this and if I say yes, you'll say that. that aint a conversation, its leading up for a sell.

If you truly want to have conversations, ask open ended questions where you have no idea what the person will say. While they are saying it, don't think of a come back, simply listen to what they have to say. Once they are done saying it, new ideas might emerge. That's what a conversation is! You're just here to sell your ideas.

From that day forward, I never used that expression again when preaching. Later, when I was ready to hear what people really had to say, I used open ended questions, but that was when I was alone... never did it with other people with me.

12

Are JWs still reporting time?

by Vanderhoven7 in

here are some little child encouragers at work.. .

how do they report time since the halls closed?.

StephaneLaliberte

"and dont forget the 4 hrs per month per parent per child,"

I actually liked that rule as it allowed me not to go door to door for almost a year before fading out for good.

37

What are your personal reasons for hating the Jehovah's Witnesses religion ?

by Rocketman123 in

first thing comes to mind is that this organization through its leaders are not witnessing the true and honest version of the gospel teachings of jesus christ .. they are subjectively teaching/preaching a tainted version made up by the top controlling men of the organization, which i'm sure is connected to the proliferation and distribution of literature which these men publish themselves.

.

when jesus said that no one knows of the time not even he, he didn't say a select few will know .. the other thing that bothers me is this organization promotes human ignorance on many levels, admonishing education or knowledge that mankind needs for its very survival... there are many other religious organizations that do this as well but the jws is just one of these organizations.

StephaneLaliberte

I don’t hate the religion ... I think some of its tenets are dangerous and detrimental to people, that’s all. That doesn’t mean it should be wholly destroyed.
Hate is not the word... Hate is destructive to the hater and I avoid such emotions.
many of the people within it are good people, although duped , as I was once.
I don’t hate the religion either. Many aspects of the religion I don’t like though.

Though the WT paints apostates as "hating" their religion, it is not the reality. We hate some of their actions and teachings, but not everything as a whole.