How better to represent an invisible kingdom than with mute, unnoticable representatives?
Billy the Ex-Bethelite
JoinedPosts by Billy the Ex-Bethelite
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19
sold ducks today opposite JW cart
by nugget intoday my husband and i sold plastic ducks for the annual duck racing fund raising event opposite a jw cart.
in the 2hour period we sold over a 100 ducks putting our jw training to good use proactively approaching people, overcoming objections and generally wishing people success.
cantleave went round the local businesses selling to the shops and generally was received positively.
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If you are an open minded christian...
by snare&racket ini would appreciate your opinion on this historian and his explination for the birth of christianity.. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mwuzozn-9dc.
please watch all of it before you comment.
i found it very interesting,.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Very interesting. Listening to it is an hour better spent than going to the KH! I'll probably watch it again.
Thanks for sharing.
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org is dying
by lambsbottom ini don't understand why so many ex jws and faders think that the jws will continue to grow and thrive as a religion.
i still attend a meeting once a week and you can smell the death of the religion creeping up when you hear the talks, read the study wts and hear the letters from the gb.
the way the organization has changed is a sign that it reached its peak (in "healthy" membership) long ago.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
While WT has been able to survive 1914, 1925, 1975, and 1995, I don't think they have the level of brains today that they did in years past. And as already stated, the Internet wasn't around back then. It takes some kind of charisma to keep a cult going. Now that they're getting rid of the DOs, that leaves the COs to do the face-to-face rallying of the troups. I don't know that many can do it effectively.
In the past, JWs were flooded with litteratrash to read. Now that's down to a trickle, particularly when you eliminate all the "old light" that ought not be read anymore. They used to circulate recorded talks. That's discouraged now. Sure, there are the official audio recordings and videos now, but most of the time it seems that the videos get watched once (twice if they prepare for the SM that discusses it). Some listen to the audio recordings, but most don't. As we know, the number and length of meetings have decreased in recent decades. Cults need to keep a tight rein. Not sure that WT is doing this.
One of the things that has always existed, but seems to have increased, IMHO, is that JWs have such friction within the ranks. I've been in congregations where the mudslinging and divisions in the congregation were unbelievable. Despite the fact that "Local Needs" were constantly about fixing gossip and infighting, the material coming from WT was sowing suspision of other JWs. In the magazines, talks, and dramas, there were continuous examples of "bad JWs" that were causing problems for "good JWs". I would shudder when these came up because it fueled the infighting and hostility among the sheeple.
Whether it's dying or not, at least I'm glad I'm not involved in that train wreck.
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18
Question for Faders
by Daniel1555 inhi friends.
i have some questions for all who are fading.. .
do your friends in the old congregation know, that you maybe don't attend the meetings in the new congregation?.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
I didn't attend the local congregation. I thought about it, but when I went by and saw what a depressing, old, windowless building it is, I couldn't imagine wasting a minute in that hellhole.
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56
Kicking the "Gay Habit" at the IC
by breakfast of champions inheard from a reliable source that this was part of friday's program.
they even interviewed a "former gay man" who "kicked the gay habit".. evidently kicking the "gay habit" is difficult, not unlike quitting smoking or avoiding sugary snacks.
the persons who related this to me found the whole thing to be laughable at best, but honestly seemed quite disturbed by it (which is good!
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
So being gay is equating with eating sugary snacks? Nothing like saying, "Hey, same-sex activities may be as much fun as eating cotton candy at an amusement park filled with attractive people that want to be your friend, but you need to walk away from it and commit to a loveless marriage to a pioneer partner."
"gay habit" - Is that the dudes that dress up in drag as nuns?
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9
What stage are you in after leaving or waking up to TTATT?
by suavojr ini can honestly say that although still in, i have lost the fear of wts dooms day version and in all sincerity i don't care what others inside the cult think of me.
at first i was mad of being lied to, i was sad that paradise is not coming, and i felt fear of death.
i happy to report, that i am now at peace with my eventual mortality and i am enjoying every second i have while i am alive.. .
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
I'm awake and have faded. Some family still in, some out. Didn't marry in, so I don't have that issue. Still have the anger and regret. Still working on moving on with life, career, and friends.
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18
I used to think that 7 million JWs was a large number
by dogon inthen i saw a stat that made me think differently.
there are 7 million practicing voodoo religion world wide.
about the same as jws, and the big thing is that they do not at all go out and try to convert people at all, not one pamphlet not one tract no door to door calls, phone calls nothing nada.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Give me 7 millions dollars and that's alot of money... thank you very much.
7 million members of a religion that think that they will be the only armageddon survivors that will create a global paradise? ... that's just a deluded small minority of humans.
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9
Can religion be banned?
by FL_Panthers inis this a realistic thing?
can the governments or someone else ban religion?.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
WT prophecies were wrong on this count as well. Sure, many of us have turned away from religion after leaving WT, but I drive past plenty of churches that are booming... much more alive than the local Kingdumb Haul.
And Islam isn't going away any time soon. That's a religion that is able to ban governments.
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101
org is dying
by lambsbottom ini don't understand why so many ex jws and faders think that the jws will continue to grow and thrive as a religion.
i still attend a meeting once a week and you can smell the death of the religion creeping up when you hear the talks, read the study wts and hear the letters from the gb.
the way the organization has changed is a sign that it reached its peak (in "healthy" membership) long ago.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
It's hard to say what the future holds for the JWs. Although it posts numeric increase in the yearbooks, there is no booming growth like years past. The property sell-off and other money grabs can't continue indefinitely. Then what happens?
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"Hello from Phats"
by phats inhay out there.. wife got back from her thursday meeting & now she's setteled down with the dog, a v large g&t (maid be me) & watching terminator 2 on the telly with her ipad on her lap looking up places to go for our holiday (& googling symptoms of to many antibiotics as my 16 year old is getting signs of ibs).
so now is a good time to say hello.. well hello.
my name is phats & i'm an ex jehovah's witness.. there, i've said it.. this must be like it is going to your first aa meeting.. i've already used up some of my posts for a newbe but i'm not in to the whole long story thing.. basically i've been out now for 8 years (mentally out for all but four or five of those years of my life when i made the commitment, got baptized & married.).
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Welcome!