i started my fade a the beginning of 2015, took counseling form a psychiatrist, and worked hard to get my family away from the cult.
my marriage split and i now live alone with my 15 year old daughter.. she came to me last night and we started talking about jws.
she told me that the subject they are discussing at the moment in philosophy is "cults".
I wished my son had that honesty. Even though he does not shun me because, as he himself puts it, he is human, the fear of losing his family (on my ex wife's side mostly) does not let him even take a closer look at anything.
Congratulations Driving Force to you and your daughter!
just a little disclaimer: english isn't my first language (i'm from france) thus the poor writing skills.here is the situation: i'm not a jw.
however, i'm in the process of becoming one.
in fact, i'm studying with the jw's, and i'll proceed to become an unbaptized publisher as soon as i finish the first book.to make a long story short i was introduced to the truth when i was 18een.
Esmeralda, you should read "In Search of Christian Freedom" by Ray Franz (an Ex-Member of the JWs governing body who sadly passed away already). It will open your eyes concerning how to search for the real christians and how they are supposed to behave...
Just my two cents.
Vivalavida
manal al-sharif is a saudi arabian former extremist muslim who was liberalized by the internet and became a women's rights activist in her country.
reading this quote i was struck that her experience is similar to a jehovahs witness experience, including mine, and gives me hope that many more people who are brought up in extremist environments will wake up, no matter what their backgrounds.
the internet is a fabulous thing.
Definitely the Internet is an eye opener. However, it does require the right kind of person, somebody who, as she states, is burning inside. Only then, in my opinion, you will eventually give yourself permission to open up and learn more.
vivalavida
hi people,.
i want as much data as possible on the effect of the internet on the time captured by the cult.. please answer the three following questions about yourself or about someone you know (for example, if your parents or grandparents were jw's and left).
1) were you raised as a jw, or did you convert?.
1) Raised
2) 1985
3) 2009
24 Years...
so what scriptures do you think will never make the cut?i will start off with one to warm you all up.. 1 corinthians 4:6 - do not go beyond the things that are written,.
just a little disclaimer: english isn't my first language (i'm from france) thus the poor writing skills.here is the situation: i'm not a jw.
however, i'm in the process of becoming one.
in fact, i'm studying with the jw's, and i'll proceed to become an unbaptized publisher as soon as i finish the first book.to make a long story short i was introduced to the truth when i was 18een.
I won't be rushing into baptism without having the full picture. It isn't in my interest to let my study instructor know what I have been up to lately so i'll try to be discrete about me visiting "apostasic website" (like french jw like to call it). I need to gather info from both parties so that i'm able to fully understand what it is all about.
Hi Esmeralda,
I very seldom comment here, but seeing your "evolution" has prompted me to comment. Most people who land on this forum without knowing that it is not pro JW, run like crazy when they find out it's mostly ex-JWs.
In your case, you have the correct philosophy as I've quoted above, namely:
- Do not rush without having the FULL PICTURE and,
- Gather info from BOTH PARTIES so you can FULLY UNDERSTAND.
I think those two are key. Kudos to you! I just wish more people who are in would recognize the importance of those 2 factors.
Have a great day and greetings from Germany
Vivalavida
okay, i need to vent.
as a newly awoken individual, i have yet to "come out" to my hard core jdub parents.
my plan was to lay low and use my unbelieving husband and baby as an excuse for my "inactivity", it has worked for the last few months.
Shattered Origins, I don't post here often but this made me come out of my silence.
I agree that you have to do something to put a stop to this madness. So, I'd like to offer a TECHNICAL SOLUTION to the problem. I don't know whether your husband or you have some technical skills or if you can ask a friend to do this for you.
There is a free DNS service (DNS is like a telephone book that helps your computer find different websites on the internet) that allows you to block dubious websites and you can include specific ones like jw.org.
This way, at least from your computers / tablets / cellphones at home that are connected to your router or WI-FI nobody will be able to go to that website.
The service is called openDNS and you can find it here: https://store.opendns.com/get/home-free
Another option, if you only have ONE family computer, would be to follow these instructions provided you use Windows on your computer.
I know it all sounds very technical, but it is actually not that complicated and once it is setup, it should work without problems. Obviously, if your mom is accessing jw.org on HER own phone without connecting to your WI-FI it won't work. But you could offer access to it, so that every time she walks into your house it connects to your wi-fi and your filtering kicks in.
I see this as another option you could use which would enforce whatever you want in terms of websites.
Just my 2 cents!
Vivalavida
in march of 2014, i was a very active jw, a ministerial servant, gave a public talk, was an attendant for the memorial, and one of 4 cleaning captains for an international convention of 40,000+ attendees.
so what woke me up?
an innocent comment from a co-worker about the candice conti court case rang a bell that could not be unrung.
Pedophile story on NBC in 2007, then the Sept. Kingdom Ministry NOT condoning people to get together to study the Bible. My thought immediately was, "Do they have something to hide?"
I had already heard of the Mexico / Malawi connection and the UN debacle like 10 years before but deleted it from my mind. But after those two events mentioned in the first paragraph, I gave myself permission and just did what you did. Checked everything and "that was it for me"... FREEDOM AT LAST after almost 40 years in the religion.
my parents are zealous jecultah's blindnesses, but my sister and i are not.
because of this, we are limited in our abilities/opportunities in life.
mu parents hate my sister because she went to college and started a full time job and thus isn't able to go to meetings or service.
so, witlesses are handing out assembly invitations locally for their gatherings to invite the public to attend...... .
a meeting that's 50, 100, 150 miles away?
there was an era when placards were put in storefront windows and bombastic sermons were delivered by radio.
Yep, here in Germany they came to my house and handed the invitation. If I were to attend, I'd have to travel almost two hours to go there. I tried to talk about the invitation, but they practically refused, insisting that they JUST wanted to leave it and that was it. But they would love to see me there! LOL!
Weird!
Vivalavida
