Posts by Tornintwo

9

Australia public hearing on child abuse in JWs

by Tornintwo in

just in case you didn't know, must have missed a thread because i didn't until i found it on google this morning, there is to be a public hearing about child abuse in jw organization in australia, starting 27th july, should be revealing.

will be watching for reports with interest:.

https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2015-06/public-hearing-into-the-jehovahs-witnesses.

Tornintwo

Just in case you didn't know, must have missed a thread because I didn't until I found it on google this morning, there is to be a public hearing about child abuse in jw organization in australia, starting 27th July, should be revealing. Will be watching for reports with interest:

https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2015-06/public-hearing-into-the-jehovah’s-witnesses

9

IMITATE JESUS REGIONAL CONVENTION - BRIGHTON, WEST SUSSEX (UK)

by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

train, trust, and empower others, as jesus does (luke 8:1; 9:1; 10:1)speaker opened by stating that there was a need for "harvest workers" and "shepherds" as the worldwide membership of jehovah's witnesses is now 8.2 million.

he then went on to state how jesus willingly gave responsibillity to others and that this pattern would be considered further.he briefly examined...john 1:3 - jesus' role in creationisaiah 50:4 - prophecy regarding the messiahisaiah 50:5 - schooling of the messiah2 tim 2:2 - timothy urged to entrust responsibilities to "faithful men".speaker stated that jesus trained, trusted and empowered his followers.

he cited luke 8:1 as an example of how jesus accomplished such training.

Tornintwo

Thanks cha Ching...

I'm all but decided that this can't be gods true organization, and even though I know so many things are wrong, it still hurts.. We were promised so much, a loving brotherhood closer then family, when reality hits it's painful. Venting here really helps...

36

Family Reuinion and Being Disfellowshipped (sorry...but it's long)

by babygirl30 in

jw
friends

it has been a long looong time since i posted on here, but never ceased reading all the posts and keeping up on the changes that have been going on!

but it just seems that now i have a need to get something off my chest, and this is the one place that will most definitely understand the topic at hand.

i have been disfellowshipped for about 8yrs now, and have dealt with the 'consequences' of that decision: all my so-called friends in the org left and i was also abandoned by my own family.

Tornintwo

By their fruits you will know them....

your non jw family just had a first hand look at 'the most loving organization on earth'

well done staying calm and controlled, showed them it's not you causing the rift.

i was told recently by a c.o. That it is a personal choice how much contact parents have with their df'd kids, but in reality the wt uses heavy guilt tactics by stating that 'your loyalty to Jehovah is at stake' you only have to see the shunning interview above to know the reality that it certainly isn't being presented as 'personal choice'. Also on jwfacts there is a reinstatement interview where the girls repentance is questioned because she (a single mother) has been accepting help from her jw parents.

9

IMITATE JESUS REGIONAL CONVENTION - BRIGHTON, WEST SUSSEX (UK)

by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

train, trust, and empower others, as jesus does (luke 8:1; 9:1; 10:1)speaker opened by stating that there was a need for "harvest workers" and "shepherds" as the worldwide membership of jehovah's witnesses is now 8.2 million.

he then went on to state how jesus willingly gave responsibillity to others and that this pattern would be considered further.he briefly examined...john 1:3 - jesus' role in creationisaiah 50:4 - prophecy regarding the messiahisaiah 50:5 - schooling of the messiah2 tim 2:2 - timothy urged to entrust responsibilities to "faithful men".speaker stated that jesus trained, trusted and empowered his followers.

he cited luke 8:1 as an example of how jesus accomplished such training.

Tornintwo

In any case, who would want to jeopardise their mental health by getting closer to the very ones who actually do micro-manage, who bully, who fault find, who tear down, and who portray a corporate productivity paradigm of ministry hours rather than Jesus paradigm of a load which is light and refreshing. Their paucity of elders is sure to continue!

so true...I attended my rc a couple of weeks ago and I was actually encouraged by this talk and the anti-pharisee ones, it shows that they are well aware that there are serious problems with pharisaical bullying elders out there. The encouragement was momentary...... The problems are endemic and nothing is done to address them.

my kids (and others) were mistreated by a prominent elder and his pioneer wife, when I decided to swallow my pride and ask them for peace, I even apologized for anything we'd done to offend them (for the kids sake) I was called evil and a liar, I hadn't done anything to deserve that and frankly I was shocked, I have never, ever been called evil or a liar by anyone in the world! What was done about it? Sweet f.a., as usual we have to let it go and forgive, brothers are not perfect etc etc etc. He chummies up with his elder mates and they all look down on us because my son left the truth and is living a worldly lifestyle but still loving at home (only 16) and so my husband cant hold privileges. It makes me sick that these power loving narcissistic bullies get to look down on the genuine sheep in the congregation because they aren't part of the boys club.

Oh but dont forget, we have no hierarchy or titles in this organization ...ha ha

34

Do you ever feel strangely drawn towards Conspiracy Theories?

by JW_Rogue in

after mentally awakening to the idea that jws don't have the truth i strangely found myself delving into all encompassing conspiracy theories.

not that i believed them but something about them seemed quite fascinating.

i was especially drawn to the idea of a new world order/one world government.

Tornintwo

Sometimes you read conspiracy theories and think, there could be some truth in that, but most are probably greatly exaggerated...

one thing I'm convinced of is that we don't know a fraction of what really goes on between politics and big business, and how they are controlling a lot of events, world conflicts and regime change, financial markets etc..I have a conspiracy loving jw friend who's convinced they're controlling the weather with chemtrails too...not sure I believed that but then I found out it is a credible science so who knows? God help us!

51

Getting it out of my system, a VERY long introduction/outpouring..

by adimmedlight in

warning, novel ahead:.

after a few months of lurking on this site, i've decided to take the plunge...i don't really care so much about introducing myself, but somehow there is some relief in the thought of getting my little story out there, just getting it out of my system.

i am the oldest of 5 kids.

Tornintwo

Welcome a dimmed light, thanks for writing your story. It was moving.

a lot of the comments about being a youth in the organization resonate with me, I'm raising kids now, one has left and the others still in but there is so much PRESSURE. To do more, be a good example, resist natural friendships with people you meet in school and force friendships with people who are waiting to judge you the moment you put a foot wrong. It's not loving...it messes kids up. I see so much stress in my daughter amd I'm heartbroken that I cause it by raising her in this crazy religion.

it was the treatment of my son when he left that started me to question things, reading jwfacts and crisis of conscience everything starts to unravel (you have to read them!) and then the oppressive guilt we carry as JWs starts to lift. What a relief!

After a couple of months of research and listening to my doubts, I'm still half in for family but I've decided we can't know 'the truth' about everything, the GB have tied themselves in knots trying to explain everything and look foolish, there's good and bad in most religions, there's wheat and weeds in all (I've certainly met good kind Christians outside the org and few nasty people within it) and all we need is Jesus teachings, not a long list of rules, hour requirements, guilt and pressure!

Enjoy life and worship the way you want to, God gave us an inner conscience for a reason, no one should be master of your faith except Christ, if God is up there he won't forget all the good you've tried to do for him and he surely appreciates that despite all of your troubles and heartache, you haven't forgotten him.

45

Fun at The WT This Morning

by OneFingerSalute in

so ofs was at the wt this morning, and on par.

14 the question was, "what trust can a faithful christian whose relative is disfellowshipped have?".

after awhile when no one else raised their hands ofs did, and was called on.. ofs commented, "one of jw can have the trust that god will lovingly give them the ability to uphold the disfellowshipping arrangement by totally shunning family members.".

Tornintwo

Nice one! They act like shunning is a dirty word but that is actually what they do!

47

Songs celebrating leaving the faith? Not being a puppet, mind controlled, living life, etc etc

by aley63 in

i am looking for some songs that are in ref to celebrating leaving, seeing the light, realizing what you were told wasnt right, being happy w your life, etc etc.

all those emotions about being controlled and repressed, being told what you can feel or think or how to live, blindly following the "brotherhood ".

Tornintwo

Awww love a bit of supertramp! Got to listen to those now.

for the young and trendy my kids are listening to 'could've been me' by The Struts, it's great for putting yourself in a good and powerful mood, here's the chorus:

I wanna taste love and pain
I wanna feel pride and shame
I don't wanna take my time
I don't wanna waste one line
I wanna live better days
Never look back and say
It could have been me
It could have been me

37

W 15 july - members of others religions not destroyed???

by paradisebeauty in

please tell me what do you understand from this quote that is taken from w july 2015, the article your deliverance is close paragraph 5.. i understand that not all members of other religions will be destroyed at armageddon.

i talked to a jw.

he says he understands differently: they will not be destroyed when the babylon the great will be destroyed but they will be destroyed in armageddon.

Tornintwo

I think anyone who has genuine faith should be very careful about putting themselves in a position of judgement on others. Matt 7:1

I like dubstepped remarks ; my view is that we are so far removed from the time of Christ, from any miracle, from any tangible prophet, the world is so secular and there is so much confusion surrounding God, that it would be unfair of God not to make things clearer before the end. So that the choice is clearer if he's going to use people's decisions now as a basis for judgement.

It's crazy to think that someone refusing a magazine on a Saturday morning because they're busy would be a basis for judging them adversely.

Its either got to become much clearer what people are saying no to, all over the world, or God will read people's hearts and make the decision. Either way I can't believe that only 1 in 1000 will live, the current ratio of jws, not 1% but 0.1%.

32

If you were put in charge of the Governing Body tomorrow...

by FusionTheism in

if you were somehow magically put in-charge of the governing body tomorrow, by jesus, with the rules being, you could not teach anything that would be considered outright apostasy and you could not teach anything that would be considered to cause doubt about god's existence... (so as not to arouse suspicion).

what "new light" or "clarified understandings" would you introduce first?.

and which later on?.

Tornintwo

I'd say we've made a lot of mistakes!

We no longer want to be masters over your faith, if your conscience allows you to take blood, celebrate birthdays etc etc the it's between you and Jehovah, there'll be no sanctions. Reconsider the stance on blood and prove that Jesus emphasized the value of life above all else.

id change the disfellowshipping, reinstatement arrangement, no more shunning. Presumably if people want to come to the hall they want to try to do things right, that's enough. Restrictions could be no preaching and teaching but not being ignored by people.

Id take away the hierarchy, labels and counting hours. For statistics you can count conversions not hours (3000 souls were added, scriptural example)

I'd emphasis love and acceptance, mercy etc. say "we're trying to follow gods word and Jesus example the best we can and we hope we have his approval" , but not "we're right and everyone else is completely wrong". Stop calling other people worldly and say we hope Jehovah is merciful to as many as possible in the time of the end. As for preaching it would be more about basic Christianity.

I'd gradually reexamine every teaching without the prejudice of past teachings and tradition of men, or the desire to control others .

Oh, and I'd organise loads of social events especially for the young ones.

vote for me!