Posts by Billy the Ex-Bethelite

21

It's Going Down: The Family Is About to Go to War Over... Halloween Decorations.

by Sorry in

yup, you read right.

despite other personal turmoil that needs to be addressed, my family has decided to go nuts over halloween decorations being "too close" to our yard.

a new family just moved in next door; their kids are super young.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

And that new family next door can go on the "do not call" list in record time!

18

Being Disfellowshipped + On-Going Cycle of Depression

by Cimarrona in

i've been disfellowshipped for six years, since i was 18. i struggle with depression and self-destructive habits (minor in comparison to the suicides, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior of others i've grown up with who have left or were too afraid to leave).

i'm fairly successful for my age - respected in my field, i have an extensive curriculum vitae of published writing, presentations, and other projects.

yet, i often feel worthless and unloveable.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

When I moved away to university for my fade, the school provided free counseling, which helped immensely. My psychologist recommended the book in this thread as a great self-help tool, I found it helpful for my depression and anxiety:

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/268557/feeling-good-handbook-david-burns

Personally, I found the behavior modification approach of the book more useful than medication... particularly since Bethel had started me on pills.

20

A new step in my exit from the WT

by Skepsis in

jw
friends

if you remember, i've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and ms at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as ms two months ago.. during these months, i've been through a difficult way.

but after every step, i could feel freer and better.

i've met a person outside the wt that has changed my life forever and i have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.. however, i knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Hey Skepsis, I'm late to the party here. From the sound of things, I wouldn't be surprised if one congregation or the other drops the ball and your records fall into limbo.

When I switched to a foreign language congregation, my English congregation dutifully sent letter and records. The new congregation promptly lost all the paperwork. I should have taken that as my cue to leave, but that was a long time ago when I was still a believer and in Bethel at the time, unfortunately.

When I moved away for my fade, I left the records in the old congregation and didn't give a forwarding congregation. I only received one phone call from the old secretary, and let it go to voicemail. That's been 5 years now. So I didn't have much hassle from the congregation, and the old 'friends' from the congregation have disappeared from my life, although some are on the FaceBook account I rarely use. Family, really only my parents, are my only remaining link to anything JW.

Best wishes on your ex-JW journey!

16

Last Sunday's WT Study re Anxiety

by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

this article could be seen as a nice read compared with the banality and repetitiveness of many articles in recent years.

however, several areas in the article still troubled me.

paragraph one externalises the cause of an individual’s anxiety to satan the devil.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Burdened with anxiety? Stress? Depression? Discouragement? Doubt?

The cause is the invisible boogeyman Satan and YOUR imperfection!

The solution is more Watchtower beatings until moral improves!

5

C.T. Russell animated intro video project

by TimeBandit in

this is a short video i made a few years ago to be the intro for some future jw parodies i had thought about making.

i took a picture of russell and animated it and tamed him into being my new mascot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ghiolgml-g .

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I'm not sure whether to point and laugh or run in terror.

I'm too tired to run, so I'll give it a LOL!

28

No Reason For JWs To Go To The MIdweek Meeting (CLAM)

by JW_Rogue in

everything that is done at the midweek meeting can now be done at home.

the videos are online, the first talk is scripted, the bible highlights are scripted.

you could get the same experience by just reading and watching the material from your tablet.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Honestly, it's very awkward making conversation with people you've known for years but don't really care about that much.

Very soon now, they will probably be handing out scripts and acting out demonstrations of how to converse with fellow cultists after the midweek meeting.

Sister A: "Wasn't that the best, most encouragingist CLAM ever?"

Sister B: "Indeed! It was the CLAMiest CLAM that ever CLAMmed!"

6

Moments Of Clarity As A Born In JW

by JW_Rogue in

-when i was in my early teens we were studying the revelation book for the second time.

the first time i didn't understand much but the second time i remember that my family had quite a lengthy discussion about the lake of fire.

they were trying make sense of the scripture and the jw interpretation.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Again, I forget the year but it was another RC. It was the last talk of the convention, we had been promised very exciting new light. The last talk arrives and it is about the book of Daniel and the feet of iron and clay.

That was 2011, I believe. How exciting to hear the revelation that there was no special significance to the image having 10 toes, or something equally nonsensical.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/211705/feet-toes-research-noo-lite?

17

Father's Day is tomorrow (in the US). Why is it wrong?

by leaving_quietly in

i did an examination of the one single article ever to address father's day since it's tomorrow here in the us.

the article covers both mother's day and father's day.

hope it's informative.. examination of “mother and father worship unscriptural”, the only article ever to address father’s day in any publication printed by the watchtower bible and tract society.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I'm pretty sure that there were some Mother's and Father's Days celebrated in the Bible where people got their heads chopped off.

It's been a few years since I set foot in a Kingdumb Haul, but I think that's the way it went down in the Bronze Age.

51

My son is not sure about what he has been taught about the common ancestor

by KateWild in

this week my son expressed he is agnostic as he is not sure what to believe about evolution and the common ancestor.. i thought any jw hang ups were gone.

i told him that what they teach in school is trustworthy and he can be rest assured that there is evidence to support that the common ancestor was the real link to the evolution of humans.. he has got critical thinking skills.

and responded with "for hundreds of years schools have been teaching things and have changed their thoughts".

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

And responded with "for hundreds of years schools have been teaching things and have changed their thoughts". He gave me an example which I can't remember now.

Schools, that is to say "good schools", aren't the same as church where the students/laity sit silently and absorb the dogma handed down from on high and unchanged since the Bronze Age. Critical thinking means to listen and learn AND question, examine, prove, and improve. In my field of study, the very basics are only a few hundred years old. One of the textbooks we were using in class had a section that was already outdated by improved formulas. All of my professors were clear about the fact that there is much more to discover and we may find things that contradict what was previously understood. Embrace the change. Lead the change. Then when we're rich and/or famous, remember our alma mater!

Isaac Newton is famous for what he got right. But a lot of what he wrote was WRONG! Does that discredit all his work? Of course not. He wasn't writing a sacred bible that was a know-all, end-all. Others examined, corrected, and improved on the foundation he laid. And in the field of research into human evolution, the greatest discoveries are of recent origin with DNA research. SURPRISE! Neanderthals didn't just mysteriously die off. Some of us are carrying about 5% of their DNA in ours.

From a scientific point of view, there is much more to research and discover.

From the religious fundamentalist point of view, there's always just one answer:

I told him that what they teach in school is trustworthy and he can be rest assured that there is evidence to support that the common ancestor was the real link to the evolution of humans.... I don't care if my son believes in God or not. I just want him to know evolution is a fact.

Don't try to force a specific belief on him or make what is taught in school become a religious doctrine that he dare not question. Allow him to think critically. He's already said, correctly...

"for hundreds of years schools have been teaching things and have changed their thoughts".

Time for more critical thinking on this subject of educational evolution. Technically, "public education" has only been available for the last 200 years. Previous to that "schools" were only for the elite. If he is thinking that it's wrong for schools to evolve with the times, does he really want to go back to living the way they did hundreds of years ago? Sure, lots of rich white men were "successful" during those earlier centuries, but they often died young of tuberculosis, smallpox, cholera, typhus, measles, scarlet fever, etc. And if the diseases didn't kill you, the treatment by "medical professionals" of the time would easily kill you in horrible ways.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's a good thing that schools are now teaching doctors, as well as the general public that might get jobs in food service, the importance of hand-washing, for example. If your son prefers the "good old days" when people would bathe only when they fell in the river, well, I just don't know what to tell you. LOL

80

Islam is a religion of peace (2)

by Coded Logic in

in behalf of the horrific events of saturday night, i just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone that islam is a religion of peace.

it doesn’t matter that the quran explicitly says that homosexuals should be stoned to death (7:84) - it’s still a religion of peace.

and it doesn’t matter that the scriptures say that all gay men should be killed (sunan 1:152) - islam doesn’t in anyway condone violence.. it doesn’t matter that every mainstream imam calls homosexuality a sin "worse the adultery" - it’s not a religion of bigotry.. it doesn’t matter that 61% of muslims in the uk think gay acts should be made illegal - islam has nothing against the gay community.. it doesn’t matter that countries with sharia law actively persecute the lgbt community - islam is all about peace and love.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I have a bunch of redneck 'merican Christians from high school among my facebook "friends". They don't just blame Muslims, they blame an insufficient amount of guns, and evidently they also blame atheists, judging by comments like these:

"The problem isn't guns. It's a godless society."

From what I've seen, they haven't posted any comments in support of the Orlando victims and their families. They've made it clear from their previous comments about LGBT issues how they feel about that. One of the most "Christian" of the Republican presidential candidates this time around (that got no traction) wrote this book:

"God" barely rated above "guns". From the part of 'merica that I come from Christianity=GUNS! Conservative Christians may be furious about Muslims coming to this country, but if they're coming here the conservatives are going to make sure that every one of those Muslims gets as many guns as they want as easily as they can.

I don't know why so many immigrants keep wanting to move here or even visit here. This place is nucking futs. As if the guns and political climate aren't bad enough, we have tornadoes, floods, traffic, and the country is filled with loud, fat, and obnoxious Yankees like Mike Huckabee and my "Christian" high school classmates * sigh* and the atheist moderately liberal (or liberally moderate) me.