hybridous

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Posts by hybridous

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  95

  Supreme Court Of Russia bans Jehovah's Witnesses as an 'extremist organization'

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  read the news here.

  the jehovah's witnesses lost their appeal to the supreme court of russia.

  bethel to be liquidated.. i bet the gb saw this coming ... here comes the persecution complex paranoia.

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  hybridous

  • You have stated the "blame the victim" mantra quite well.

    Flag Dislike LikeCharacterize it as you will. I didn't offer any defense of the indefensible.
    
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  95

  Supreme Court Of Russia bans Jehovah's Witnesses as an 'extremist organization'

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  read the news here.

  the jehovah's witnesses lost their appeal to the supreme court of russia.

  bethel to be liquidated.. i bet the gb saw this coming ... here comes the persecution complex paranoia.

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  hybridous

  Even tho people can be individual members, the members themselves do not have input into the directives that control their lives.

  I will point out that, unless were talking about children, people choose to be JWs in the first place, and in doing so, they willfully abdicate all/most of their self-direction.
  
  Adults have the right to do this.
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  15

  WILL this be New Light? Is the Watchtower preparing to say out loud, Jesus is Jehovah?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk7ertncbsk

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  hybridous

  Then again, part of me wonders if this is not exactly the type of compromise the WT will find itself having to make for the sake of political necessity...
  
  What I mean is, right now, the WT doesn't have seem to have much in the way of religious or political allies.

  Maybe they will find themselves in the position of having to make doctrinal compromises to find common ground with the American Evangelical bunch? Maybe this is how they survive?
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  15

  WILL this be New Light? Is the Watchtower preparing to say out loud, Jesus is Jehovah?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk7ertncbsk

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  hybridous

  Terry, I love your posts
  
  and I absolutely pine for the day the WT backtracks on doctrines like THESE, because proceeding from THESE are schisms that will lay waste to, and likely end the JW religion as we have come to know it...

  But, I don't think we there yet. They can pay the bills that keep the lights on, so...on we go.
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  22

  A big thanks to all you good good people

  by aboveusonlysky in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "when the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies" jefferson airplane.

  until that is you find websites like this!

  i want to say a big thank you to all of you for everything i've learned here, as well as jwfacts, jwsurvey, coc, isocf etc.. i'm a born in and i spent more than two decades of my adult life in full time 'service' for the (b)org.

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  hybridous

  Good stuff. Glad to have you in the mix.
• 
  72

  Waking up - introduction

  by Dreamerdude in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i am a male, born into the jw cult(ure), baptized as a teen, now mid fifties.

  most of my life i dreamed of hugging pandas and lions, punctuated at times by nightmares of armageddon or jw drama and politics.

  still going through the motions for still-in wife.

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  hybridous

  Hi, DDude -

  Glad to have you here and thanks for stepping out of the shadows to talk.
  
  You seem to have laid some solid groundwork for yourself. Please, do not allow yourself to feel rushed, and do not put your wife (or yourself) under pressure to renounce the JW religion and just leave. As you know, a person must reach the satisfaction of their own conclusions regarding these matters. Tread lightly and feed your relationship.
  
  I am glad to hear you mention Farkel. He had really taken some time to indulge me in conversation that was very valuable to me. He was instrumental in helping me stay on the rails, even as I left the JW cult in an abrupt and furious manner. He was extraordinarily kind to this dumb kid, and for that I will be eternally grateful.
  
  Look forward to hearing what you have to say.
  
  
  
  
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  15

  Higher Education - is it really the end of the WT?

  by OutsiderLookingIn in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  as a non-jw, before i started looking into things, i must say i only encountered intelligent jws.

  so i was quite surprised to read here and in the pew report about their low overall educational achievement.

  granted, my exposure was limited (less than a handful of people over a lifetime) but i met two of them in post-college education (graduate school) at a very good school.

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  hybridous

  Like the OP, my own experience belies the general trend.
  
  My parents had 3 kids, all born/raised in the WT cult religion. All 3 of us graduated from college. I am the only one out of the WT cult religion. One of my siblings has a graduate degree. Did that valuable graduate degree help my sibling to really question our upbringing and indoctrination? Did it really help in vetting the ideas and prejudices foisted onto us by our parents and their peers?
  
  No. Not that I've evidence of such, anyways.
  
  I believe OEJ gives a good analysis in citing the power of immersion. I think my mom (despite being a fan of college), doubled down on the 'immersion' so as not to have her kids walk away despite the education. I found it suffocating. My siblings conceded. My mom's strategy was 2/3 effective.
  
  Another family from the hall had 2 young sisters. One was academically inclined, very smart & studious. The other one -ahem- academically 'contraindicated', shall-we-say...? Well. the smart one went to college, graduated, got a high-paying professional job, and is still a devout JW. The other one barely graduated high school, drifted through an assortment of menial jobs, and finally became an entrepreneur of sorts. I believe she finally carved out a modicum of success for herself, and..oh, yes...this is the one that exited the JW cult religion.
  
  Another case, I would say, where the mom was an absolute nutcase & tyrant. Total 'immersion' (haha). One person finds it intolerable, and another is broken. Who can predict these things?
  
  Anecdotes aside, I have no doubt that the general trend is true. Religiosity wanes while education waxes.
  
  Just kinda wish my family wasn't so much an outlier...
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  35

  what do you think is the main reason why so many young ones are waking up?

  by Crazyguy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seems as though the number of baptisms even for the young ones is down from what people report here.

  at my former hall the young ones are all in totally sheltered even while going to school.

  expressing thier desires to pioneer etc.

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  hybridous

  Good comment above by sir,
  
  When a young kid in the JW religion tries to extrapolate their life, what conclusions can they make?

  If this religious nonsense is making you miserable at 10, how will you feel after investing another 1/2 century into it?

  It is a very powerful thing to be able to express your doubts and have them confirmed.
  

  To know you're not the only one having them. To know there are indeed some very good reasons you're harboring doubts then way you do.
  
  And then, someone a little further ahead of you on the curve says 'I know how you feel...I've learned 'this', and 'THIS', and 'that'...'
  
  And then it's only a matter of time...
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  33

  Where and What. . . IS THE EVIDENCE for "Mental ILLNESS"? ? ?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have no interest whatsoever in stirring up controversy.. in fact, i find clashes of opinion to be debilitatingly negative.. so, i'd simply like to request that we narrow this discussion to evidence.. please watch this video which is tantalizingly titled :.

  "there's no such thing as mental illness".. consider this data and listen to the presentation of cause vs. effects and give me your analysis and any evidence for conclusions you may draw.

  we all have anecdotal tendencies, but i should remind you, anecdotal testimony isn't evidence, only opinion.________________________________________.

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  hybridous

  Hi Terry, and thanx for posting. I did watch/listen to the video and found it useful more for the questions it raised than those it answered.
  
  In summary, I can tell you that that whatever destructive, dysfunctional behaviour present in my family observed over the years was constantly, in some WAY, SHAPE, of FORM incentivised and exascerbated by the JW religion. I have certifiable, mentally ill folks in my family, and I can testify that the JW religion played at least a necessary (if not sufficient) role in these poor outcomes.

  And really, what could we expect from a wholesale rejection of reality in favor of a fiction?
  
  The people in question never did undergo counseling; were medicated instead.
  
  I suffered an abusive, born-in childhood, and suffered greatly, until I got counseling. I purposely sought a non-medicinal course of treatment, because I was leery of taking on a problem as I discarded another one.
  
  I do realize that 'your mileage may vary' and I do not aim to suggest to anyone else a correct course of action to alleviate whatever their problems are. I figure that when it comes to this stuff, we all will do what we must.
  
  
  
  
  
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  33

  Where and What. . . IS THE EVIDENCE for "Mental ILLNESS"? ? ?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have no interest whatsoever in stirring up controversy.. in fact, i find clashes of opinion to be debilitatingly negative.. so, i'd simply like to request that we narrow this discussion to evidence.. please watch this video which is tantalizingly titled :.

  "there's no such thing as mental illness".. consider this data and listen to the presentation of cause vs. effects and give me your analysis and any evidence for conclusions you may draw.

  we all have anecdotal tendencies, but i should remind you, anecdotal testimony isn't evidence, only opinion.________________________________________.

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  hybridous