Posts by yourmomma

73

Latest Watchtower Magazine Increases Odds of Surviving Armageddon!

by TooBad TooSad in

99% of all jw's believe and are taught that to survive armageddon that you must be a jw or as a minimum be.

associated with the jw's.

however the april 1 "public" issue of the watchtower has some interesting wording.

yourmomma

wow, where does Jesus come in? shouldnt that be #1 or #2 on the list?

15

anyone who knows any articles in the wt litterature that explains why members who were disfellowshipped for not accepting a doctrine, not automatically becomes reinstated when "new light" confirms that the wt now accept the doctrine which the person was df:ed for in the first place?

(long sentence, but i think you get my point.....)

yourmomma

i thought it was just believing something other than the GB taught would get you DF'd? I think that even if you stay quiet and keep to yourself, you will still get in trouble. can someone correct me on this?

39

Changes to alot of the eschatological beliefs of the WBTS.

by jefferywhat in

i posted something similar on a different thread but it was blissfully ignored and i really think its worth a discussion.

leolola touched on this in another thread and that is of the changes to alot of the eschatological beliefs of the wbts.

a) 1935- no longer cut off for fds .

yourmomma

if they are viewing what they view as "materialism" as Babylon the Great, that is scary. I mean, the teaching of fleeing Babylon the great, allows them to DF you for going to a church service right? So, whats not stopping them from DF'ing people for working late or missing meetings to work? Calling something Babylon the great is a serious thing. I have read it here before and I agree, we are going to see a sifting and a possible split.

10

Does God Really Care About Man?

by TooBad TooSad in

for several years i have really been struggling with this question and i hope that my friends here.

at jwd land can help me get my head straight.

when i was an active jw i prayed several times a day.

yourmomma

i always viewed thanking him for food and health was more out of respect, and not that he has like some kind of forcefield over you and he is blessing you particularly with food and health, etc. i think a ton of witnesses go totally overboard with all the "blessing for Jehovah" stuff. I mean, i knew people who would say "when i went to the store, the exact product i needed was on sale, it was a blessing from Jehovah!" or "i got a free trip to mexico, what a blessing from Jehovah!" if a person believes that, they should keep it to themselves. i never thought that the Bible taught that God magically protected some, but not others. that is a false belief portrayed by the WTS. The Bible indicates that God will give us the strength to deal with our problems. I never understood how people could think this stuff, when we have a prime example in Job, where God did not magically take away his problems. anyway, none of this matters if you dont believe in God. thats your right and i am not going to judge you, to each his own. the WTS turns alot of people off to God, which is sad and tragic, imo.

19

Shunning, the latest from my oh so righteous family

by Pistoff in

i should say my wife's family.

i have a child (active witness) getting married this year.

one of my other adult children is disfellowshipped; he is invited to the wedding, not the reception.

yourmomma

this is the same exact issue that basicly destroyed everything for me. i was a MS, and we decided to have a wedding outdoors and not in the KH. the WT's said it was a conscience decision. i asked an elder i was close to, and we ok'd everything. after stuff is paid for and arranged, 2 weeks later the PO doesnt like it, and to make a long story short i was told that i could have a DF family member at the wedding and reception if I had it at the KH. If I didnt have it at the KH then I would lose my position. We had at outdoors as planned. I was deleted and basicly lost everything. i dont regret it however. we since left that hall, and about 90% of my old life long friends do not talk to us. while its a hardcore lesson in life, its a valuable one. i dont ever want to have a situation in life where i feel i am sorounded by loving people who i view as family, when in reality i am in the matrix, and if i wake up and pull the tube out of my throat, they will all walk a way. would rather have a couple real friends then a bunch of fakes. so good luck to you, i hope this wedding doesnt ruin anyone's "life". i know several other people that have lost alot because they simply had a wedding. witnesses eat their young and become animals when its time to have a wedding.

63

is a homosexual as bad as a paodophile to a jw ?

by looloo in

the same guy that spoke to my mum on the doors yesterday was talking about them in the same catergory , aswell as saying that there are alot of 13 to 15 year old girls hanging around the local night club looking for a one night stands (she should of asked him how he knew about this , is that because he is there ?

) his point was is a man of 25 that picks up a 15 year old plastered in makeup at a nightclub a paedophile ?

which was totally irrelevant to the point she was making about the local ex min servant that had abused his daughters friends in the cong even though he was good friends with thier parents and had known the girls since birth , so did know they were underage .

yourmomma

I love these arguments that the witnesses try to use to defend the wts and they make themselves look worse. The "15 year old plastered with makeup was asking for it" defense is disgusting. To act like the adult is the victim because of how the 15 year old looked is a joke. The other defense that i see that is common is the "well there are alot of false reporting by children who just get mad at their father and it turns out they lied about the abuse and the father lost everything." thats like saying we should get rid of 911 because there are sometimes fake calls made. as far as homosexuals, witnesses view it as a worse sin than adultery or fornication, which is wrong. its equal in the Bible. as far as if homosexuality is natural, i dont think there is a conclusive answer. logically it would seem that homosexuality for the most part is something people are born with. no one would intentially pick a life style that is so opposed and hated in modern society. and as far as their ultimate judgement, well, if Jesus died for all of us to cover our sins, and homosexuality is a condition caused by imperfection, it would not make sense to destroy all homosexuals. of course this is not the witness thinking. hell, at talks its borderline gay bashing sometimes, and i cringe if there are any gay people in the audience.

35

What's the craziest thing you've lost your privileges over?

by 5thGeneration in

jw
friends

this question dedicated to watson!

5th... stick to the "losing my priviledges threads.".

love when people can't take a joke unless it's theirs!

yourmomma

having a wedding outside the kingdom hall. actually i didnt just lose privileges, i lost my position as a MS, and life long "friends" in my old cong. i also know personally a former elder who was a great elder that was deleted because his daughter a pioneer sister of 19 years of age was dating a brother in good standing of 21 years of age. they followed all of the 1845 courting rules and had a shaperone 24/7. wtf you say? the reason was one of the elders felt as though they were "casually" dating. so basically the elder body put a gun to his head and said he either forbids them from dating, or steps down. so he stepped down. the ironic thing that was wonderful was that his daughter and this brother got married 6 months later and throughout the whole thing never did one thing wrong. if the elder with the power in the congregation wants you to eat roaches, then you either eat roaches or get deleted. insanity. for years i thought stuff like this was congregational, now i realize its organizational and the org is the one that manufactures these pharisees.

43

What is the HIDDEN purpose of the Watchtower corporation?

by Terry in

why does the average man or woman on the street only have a vague awareness of who jehovah's witnesses are and what they stand for?

isn't it weird they know next to nothing after over a hundred years of door to door work???.

ask yourself why this has been such an ineffective ministry.. one actor, tom cruise, has raised more awareness about his own religion (scientology) than all the watchtower magazines placed at a million households.

yourmomma

This is interesting. It reminds me of an experience. A few years ago a witness friend of mine joined Quixtar which is the new alias for amway. i heard things in the past about amway, but i didnt know it was a cult at the time. anyway, while hanging out he pulls out what they call "the plan". It all sounded good but my gaurd was up, I figured there was a 90% chance it was pyramid BS. Anyway, I have the skills to set up ecommerce sites and make money, and was told that i could do that with quixtar. anyway, you get a percentage of each sale you make. so i figured i would set up a site, drive traffic to it, and link it up to the quixstar store site. easy money right? wrong. i was not allowed to do this. the ONLY approved method of selling was face to face. I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE INTERNET TO MAKE SALES AND IT WAS PRESENTED AS AN INTERNET BUISNESS! L O FREAKING L!

Anyway, i then decided to search the net, and I found out they were a big scam and cult. Any REAL buisness would want to sell as much as possible and make the most money possible. Selling face to face is the cave man of selling in this day and age. I a week if you are good you would get 20 people, on the internet thousands of people could buy from you in one week. Then I read a book called "Merchants of Deception" which is written by one of their x higher ups and it exposed the whole thing.

So where am i going with this? well, I had been thinking for a while, why arent the witnesses using more effective methods? everyone i ever talked to gives the experience of doing 8 houses, going to get donuts, and then doing rv's. If you ran this org, and you knew you had the life saving message, wouldnt you be using every single possible method available?

anyway, if you are interested read about quixtar, its so similar to the witnesses, its one of the first things that started me thinking about the org.

29

My conversation with a Born Again.

by yourmomma in

jw
friends

i spoke with a born again today.

i am wondering if this person represents how they all think or just some.

i'll assume just some.

yourmomma

I spoke with a born again today. I am wondering if this person represents how they all think or just some. I'll assume just some. Anyway the conversation was fine, however then it hit a point when it dawned on me that they are similar to witnesses. He said that all of JW's are going to hell because they are not born again. So I said the following: "So let me get this straight, for example lets say there is an old widow who has been a witness all her life, and she believes with all her heart the JW docterine. So she truly feels that she is serving God. This woman because she has been deceived by men into believing the WTS docterine, is going to hell? An innocent, old, honest hearted woman who loves God and is dedicated in her own mind to him is going to hell, a place of eternal torment because wicked men took advantage of her and deceived her?"

His response was yes. So at that point I ended the conversation. I'll carry a conversation with anyone, but once I detect this kind of crap, im done. You know why? Because its no different than the witnesses, the only difference is that instead of Armageddon its hell. Hell and Armageddon, 2 things used by relgions to guilt and fear people into serving God. F that. Im thinking about coming up with a chart that lists the different religions, and then what kind of extreme punishment will befall a person who doesnt believe what they believe. I'll start with 2:

1. Jehovah's Witnesses-If you dont serve God the way we say, you die in Armageddon.

2. Born Again's-If you dont serve God the way we say, you spend eternity in hell.

This post is not meant to offend any Born Agains, if you believe this, more power to you, I dont buy it. So I guess I am going to hell. I wonder if the JW's will shun me when I am in hell. We'll look at each other and say "Dam, we were both wrong, wow, its like a sauna in here. Im assigned to the steel pole in the eye machine today, what about you? Oh, I had that yesterday, today I am assigned to the hot lava down the throat, while being disemboweled machine. Oh jeez, let me know how that goes. cant wait to swim in the lake of fire, that doesnt seem to be as bad. Hey, anyone see Satan? No, but I was in line behind Hitler at the steel pole machine. Is it me, or does it seem like we have been down here for an eterinity! LOL"!

23

what as your first jolt that started your wake up process?

by yourmomma in

jw
friends

you know when you are in a deep sleep and something happens that may put you on a different level of sleeping, not as deep.

anyway, then i thought, 90 minutes for lunch?

so, there is a group waiting to cross the street.

yourmomma

You know when you are in a deep sleep and something happens that may put you on a different level of sleeping, not as deep. Kind of like when you are starting to regain conscienceness but are still asleep. You are not awake, but you will be in a few minutes. You know that part in the matrix where neo starts to wake up. Its that level of conscienceness before he realized he was in a cocoon with a big tube down his throat. I think that there is a scientific term for it. Anyway, I would consider myself awake right now, but I look back at the first moment that caused me to begin waking up.

It was in 2006. Now just a little background, I had my fair share of brutal experiences with elders and other witnesses. At that time, I believed that those people were ignorant, I did not realize it was a by product of the system. At this time I was really beginning to notice how basic the information we were going over at the meetings and start to think about how long its been this way. So I was starving for some "spiritual food". I mean, I think at the book study we were going over a new brochure that had 3 sentences per paragraph, with letter like in 1st grade books with very basic language. It had just come out, I forget the name of it. Anyway, it was brutal. Literally a paragraph would be like this: "WAR, DEATH, ILLNESS, CAUSES SUFFERING. WHAT HOPE IS THERE FOR THE FUTURE?" Thats it. And then there would be a question. I have no problem if there is material written for people with no education. Thats fine, those people count just as much and equally as me. However the material at the meetings was almost all basic.

Anyway back on track. So its 2006 and I found out what the name of the convention was going to be. "Deliverance At Hand". That struck me. That was one of the more dramatic themes in quite a few years. I thought to myself, wow, Deliverance at Hand, what could that mean? It means deliverance at hand! lol. Wow, this is got to be the one where things change and we get some real food. So the first thing I noticed and this could have been going on for a time, but at the service meeting they went over the KM article about the convention. Usually I zoned out since it was the same stuff over and over. But this time, I noticed alot of the way the people in the hall were commenting. They were going overboard with suggestions by the society. One comment in particular struck me, "if we go to any other convention, other than the one we are assigned, we are showing a lack of respect for Jehovah." Of course that struck me because we used to break up the convention days because of back problems, etc. I just was not able to do 3 straight days in a row. I mean, all the rules already in place, and now this one?

So I decide, ok, since this is likely going to be a good convention, I'll go all 3 days in a row. So I get there Friday and because I knew I was doing 3 days in a row, I studied the program. For the first time I noticed that the lunch breaks had been lengthened to almost 90 mins, which meant we would be getting out of there after 5pm, and with the length of closing prayers, even longer. And thats if you are not cleaning, etc. This struck me because it seemed as though they were getting away from this and making the days shorter. Now they are longer? (This could have happened years earlier but this is the first I noticed. Anyway, then I thought, 90 minutes for lunch? That is insane.

Then I started to notice the attendants. They had a brother stationed at every single corridor entrance, and when you would start going up the steps they would say "Hold on to the rail please". And if you didnt, they would get more forceful. I am an adult, I think I can tell if I need the rail or not. At the convention we went to, the top level always has plenty of seats. The place doesnt ever fill. So when we get up there, this year there were brothers telling people where to sit, even though there were plenty of seats. So I am just noticing this overall air.

so the program goes on and there is this demonstration, it may have been Saturday, Im not sure. It was this young brother talking to an elder. The elder basicly said to him that while its nice that you are at ALL the meetings, out in field service EVERY saturday AND sunday, made sure to handle all assignments, and commented at all the meetings. He basically tells this young brother that this was not enough because he worked full time and that he should work part time and pioneer, as well as stop watching tv at night. I thought, wow, he is doing all these things and that is not enough? Here we have an example of a young brother who is doing GREAT in the truth, staying out of trouble, and it was not enough. Wow.

So then the last day comes, and the whole convention was about dress and grooming, entertainment, pioneering, not going to school, etc. Needless to say the spiritual food I so desperately craved was not there. so then i thought, well, wait until the last 2 talks, they are usually the good ones. the 2nd to last talk focused on dress and grooming, and the last talk was a snoozer. I was stunned. I remembered some of the best talks I ever heard were at the end of convention days.

Disappointed I walk out at the end. While I am walking to my car in the garage, the first jolt in my deep sleep happens to me. As I mentioned before I noticed the brothers were very on top of everyone, telling them what to do in the most minor things. So, there is a group waiting to cross the street. Its not a big street, its a one way city street that is empty, that is rarely traveled. There are no cars for a mile. So as the group crosses, I was about 10 feet away from them. They were in the crosswalk. So I step onto the street, again, about 10-15 feet away from the crosswalk. While I am halfway across, I hear a man screaming "BROTHER! BROTHER!" I wasent even paying attention. Then finally I look up, and this attendant is yelling at me! He was sitting with a group of attandants near the garage entrance which is where we were all going. So I look up, with the biggest "WTF" face I have ever made, and he yells, across the street "BROTHER! USE THE CROSS WALK! YOU MUST USE THE CROSS WALK FOR YOUR SAFETY!" So im half way across the street, and so I beginning to walk towards the cross walk and he screams "NO! NO! GO BACK TO THE SIDE WALK AND THEN CROSS IN THE CROSS WALK!" This dude, in front of about 100 people not only yells at me to use the cross walk, on a deserted street with no car in site, he also wants me to turn around, go back and start over.

At this moment I had 2 choices, mock him, tell him to screw himself, which would have made me look like Satan, or take it up the you know what and do what he said. So like a good little brother, I submitting to "theocratic direction" and let him verbally rape me. lol.

From this moment on, I knew something was wrong. It may not seem like a big deal, but it was a turning point. Then when I get in the car, i talk with another sister, tell her the story, and then she tells me a story that she went out in the corridor during the session because she had a coughing fit, and a attendant went up to her and told her to sit down. When she explained she is having a coughing fit and is just waiting it out, he tells her she must go to the nurse, she cannot stand in the corridor.

This experience was the first jolt that eventually led up to me waking up from the matrix.

anyone have any of their own?