Posts by hybridous

28

What Are Your Predictions for 2020 and Beyond?

by The Bethelite in

jw
friends

2020 the society will continue to have financial problems with massive pay outs because of their lack of protecting their young people from a religion that harbors thousands of pedophiles.

thus this and other religions that has an 1800's mentality will continue to lose their young people.

with the religion's lies easily found on the internet the smart ones will continue to leave in droves.

hybridous

The WT cult wants to tighten their grip on the regular witnesses, like all despotic regimes - their literature will get kookier and kookier - and more and more worrisome for those of us on the outside looking in.

I think the WT leadership doesn't mind kookier literature, because they kinda know now that that the public isn't reading it. It's not for potential 'converts' - it's to keep the R&F under strict control.

The kookiness will get more and more strident and pronounced as the WT seeks to exert control over new areas of the R&F lives they used to allow some measure of autonomy over. Now, no more. Like with all greedy, power hungry bastards - some power is never enough.

The kookiness will continue to squeeze out individuals on a limited basis. My heart will swell when I hear about old friends who find themselves, for some reason or another, on the outside of the Tower (hopefully, for good!).

26

venting: My wife is the most dangerous kind of JW

by goingthruthemotions in

i need to vent again here.

because i have no one else to talk with and no one who really understands except for the people here.

my wife is the most dangerous kind of jw.

hybridous

thank god my kids want nothing to do with it..

This is something to be eminently grateful for.

Of course you know that your wife, like almost all JWs, cannot/will not be won over via a full frontal assault on the church/belief system.

As much as their bullshit deserves it, and as much as it might temporarily gratify you to bring it, it will not serve your goals. Please resist those impulses.

There are folks here who ultimately attained (to some extent) that which you seek - the extraction of devoutly immersed family members. When this has been accomplished, it has been after a long campaign of tolerant, but consistent, undermining of the JW paradigm. Maybe some of those folks here can talk to you more pointedly about their journey.

Only you can know your situation, and what is best for you.

I need to vent again here. Because i have no one else to talk with and no one who really understands except for the people here.

Yes!! Though there is sometimes no easy solutions to these entrenched problems, this message board offers a tremendous relief, in that we are people who thoroughly know the peculiarities of the difficulties the nasty CULT offers life.

Come back here often, just to vent; find some relief. Many of us here are working through similar difficulties w/ relatives. Keep your cool - and keep us posted on your situation.

12

Syrian conflict

by Holden Caufield in

i feel that assad even though he is bad is a better alternative then islamic extremist taking power.

what do you think?.

hybridous

You really gotta wonder about further efforts to destabilize countries in the Middle East - just to make room for ISIS (et al.)...

Now that we all know the typical and likely flow of events...why would it be good to have this Assad character gone, in favor of some other savage murderers?

Qui Bono?

27

Make Shunning A Hate Crime

by Lost in the fog in

the humanist organisation in the uk wants to protect non-religious people who leave their church/religion from being punished for doing so.

they want the religious hate crime legislation in the uk to be extended to people who are not religious.

i hope they will succeed.

hybridous

It's cruel, it's unpleasant, but it should not be illegal. As a "victim" of shunning, I'd rather live in a world where shunning was allowed than live in a police state that could dictate who I had to talk to and associate with.

Not to mention, as I've progressed forward in life - OUT & AWAY from the JW religion...

It has occurred to me that, there certainly are instances in life where, I absolutely reserve and demand for myself the right to associate (and NOT associate), with whom I please.

If I must be a 'victim' of such - even for specious reasons - then that is the price that I must be willing to pay for their own right to my own free association.

I suspect that we all recognize the right of all people to make such choices for themselves. Probably, what is really most objectionable are the pervasive and insidious demands that the WTORG foists upon its parishioners. Namely, that they turn over their choice making in the use of such, to the organization's demands.

Please realize that this, too, is a person's rightful choice to make. A person has the absolute right to turn over the responsibility for making all of life's choices to a group of religious charlatans, who they have likely never even met, for unfalsifiable promises of everlasting life in the world to come.

24

I got a Sympathy Card in the mail

by Butterfly607 in

i haven’t been to a meeting in months.

just got a sympathy card in the mail from a “sister”.

i don’t know her beyond her face.

hybridous

I really liked this -

The thought was nice but that whole life is a chapter I have closed and will not allow it to be reopened no matter how well intentioned someone is. I didn’t respond at all because a Witness has nothing to offer by allowing them into my life.

Presume the best.

Prepare for the worst.

Do not respond.

If you're trying to put distance between yourself and a place, you don't keep turning around.

You don't need a dialogue with people who have an unspoken agenda concerning you.

33

Besides Everlasting Life What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Offer To Anyone?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i have been thinking... why would anyone want to join the religion or actually stay in the organization.

i understand that people don’t want to lose their loving family and dear friends so some stay in.

but what does anyone really ever get because they are jehovah’s witnesses??.

hybridous

It also strikes me that what we have here is some kind of perverse symbiotic relationship between the jovie converts and the jovie faith. The jovie faith needs the converts just as much as the converts need the faith,

This also explains the great sense of loss that a jovie feels when they leave the jovie sewer.

Great insight, here. I am seeing a parallel to individual relationships that are abusive, but tolerated. The abused party's internal calculus concludes that it's somehow better to be abused, then to not be in the relationship at all. Thus, it continues on.

The WT, like an abusive partner, makes sure that there's a high price for leaving. It's been mentioned a million times - the WT can't be reformed. The DFing is an essential tool of control for the

21

They are Still preaching against careers!

by LongHairGal in

i saw on another forum a post somebody made about the melbourne assembly.

it seems the religion is still knocking full time jobs/careers and saving for retirement.. you would think at this point in time - after thousands of bethelites were sent home; many thousands of rank & file jws are at or near retirement age with no preparation - that the religion would change its tune, but no.

they are still stubbornly sticking to their guns on this issue.. i’m sorry for any young jws who listen to this.. i’m just glad i never followed their advice and certainly would not want to be in any congregation surrounded by these desperate people!.

hybridous

Once again, the WT seems firmly committed to generating for itself precisely the kinds of people

who can least bear the financial and intellectual burdens of actually maintaining this thing.

It's thinks like THIS that make me pause and consider the possibility that they actually believe their own nonsense,

This cult is on a slow but steady march toward its own demise. I kinda wish it would speed up, though. I'm tired of this crap.

19

Impeachment hearings ...

by mikeflood in

watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.

too much time on the media for nothing.

it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.

hybridous

No, the House can pass Articles of Impeachment by a majority (of those present to vote). The Democrats could pass the articles now.

Yes. I was wrong about the height of that bar. It's even lower than I thought. And it's not happening, which I think lends credibility to the notion that...

(not UN-like military interventions in the 3rd world).

There's more to be gained by execution of the process, than there is from a final conclusion derived from said process.

33

Besides Everlasting Life What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Offer To Anyone?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i have been thinking... why would anyone want to join the religion or actually stay in the organization.

i understand that people don’t want to lose their loving family and dear friends so some stay in.

but what does anyone really ever get because they are jehovah’s witnesses??.

hybridous

They offer simple answers to the BIG life questions.

And the prospect of (certain forms of) love and friendship to awkward folks, as long as you follow the rules. This can be really powerful for people who have difficulty making friends on their own.

Sometimes, people know that their understanding of reality is suspect. So when some unapologetic-ally prominent assertions are confidently made, all of a sudden the sense of responsibility shifts: from the person to the group. The freedom to be wrong can be terrifying.

19

Impeachment hearings ...

by mikeflood in

watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.

too much time on the media for nothing.

it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.

hybridous

I'm not yet convinced that this impeachment endeavor will progress to the US Senate.

Prior to that, it must pass through the House by a 2/3 majority.

The sweet spot of effectiveness of impeachment as a political tool for the Democratic Party lies somewhere between NO effort to impeach, and Full Senate Trial to remove Trump - IMO. In other words, having the Trial to Remove, and being unsuccessful in such is WORSE than not having anything happen in the first place, because it serves as a indicator of pettiness, and impotency at even that.

In the absence of any real power to remove Trump, the utility of impeachment hearings is to keep allusions and innuendo of wrongdoing freshly in the MSM, on a continual basis. But perhaps this is also subject to laws of diminishing returns, insofar as the more fluff and nothing folks hear, the more weary they are of the story...and the more frustrated they are with lack of meaningful political action on their behalf...

Until/unless they have the numbers, why would the Democrats want the vote?