Posts by diamondiiz

13

Changes in Australian legislation - likely to outlaw shunning in the future?

by cedars in

some may have missed this post from wary, which has been augmented with some very useful information from lady lee.. here is a link to the original thread:.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/226539/1/http-www-abc-net-au-news-2012-06-03-new-domestic-violence-laws-target-emotional-abuse-4049150.

assuming i have lady lee's permission, i would like to replicate her comment below:.

diamondiiz

Would be nice, I just don't see it. You have the freedom to shun anyone you want. You don't need to be friends with people you don't like or people that did something to you, I don't see us living in a society where a government will dictate to us how we should act towards others in this respect. When it comes to dub shunning, this could fall under the same technicality as blood not being a df offense. "We don't shun people, if someone chooses to do something offensive to us we are under no obligation to continue to be their friends. So if these individuals view us as shunning them that is their perspective." Not being a JW could be deemed offensive to dubs which automatically triggers the shunning response. After all, when they announce so and so no longer being a JW, they never mention that dubs should shun them - cult members automatically know what it means. Lets remember, that cults do twist words and interpret things for members differently than the society in general would, while the followers eat it up without a question - definition of generation is a prime example of this.

The only hope is that governments finally recognize wts as being a cult and categorize them as such, strip them of charitable status and start taxing them like any other corporation.

17

Here we go again on "false prophecies"

by booker-t in

hi ex-jws on this board.

i have a question that needs answering.

for years i have read on this board ex-jws, born-agains, and other anti-jw group condemn jws for "false prophecies".

diamondiiz

Cor speaks of individuals with wrong expectations. You or I can have false expectations and can be reproofed for such. On the other hand, WTS, God;s channel on earth can't be questioned regarding any of their teachings otherwise you are said to cause divisions and you get the boot. While you and I can have wrong expectations we wouldn't claim that we received our understanding from God and others need to conform to our standarts. WTS, on the other hand claims to receive guidence from Jehovah, you have to believe their shit and preach it to others as if taught by God himself. If wts' actions aren't that of false prophets than I don't know what is.

25

Disfellowshipped Facebook friends?

by ldrnomo in

jw
friends

i just recently friended someone i knew many years ago.

they have been disfellowshipped for a number of years.

i am currently not da'd or df'd so if the elders wanted could they disfellowship me for having a fb df'd friend?.

diamondiiz

If anyone forgot, Ray Franz got df on technicality for association with a da individual. If the elders wanted to force the issue, I'm sure they could find a way to df you, but generally no, they wouldn't df anyone for talking to df person. You might get talked to, if you associated too much with a df person but again, it all depends on individual elders. There are some half decent elders out there and there are hard core nut cases, which also goes for general jw population.

37

I may be stepping down!

by Kool Jo in

so the co is in town...sorry i can't disclose much info....i haven't done anything wrong that warrants no longer serving as an ms....but the co is thinking of deleting me as an ms (my parents are aware)....i really hope he does as this will make my fade much more easier...... freedom is just around the corner i hope.... peace.

kool jo.

diamondiiz

If they don't remove you, maybe start telling people that you're thinking of stepping down because you got too much on your plate at this time or something to that effect so that the rumors get to the elders and meet you and you can step down without others wondering why you were no longer a MS. Rumor mill should have spread by then to most why. In the long run, these people really won't make a difference in your life. If you fade or da, most will cut their ties with you since you no longer go to meetings or shun you for da or even for fading. Once you decide you no longer want to be a dub you also have to realize you will lose most of those whom you know. Simply, JW can't be anyone's real friends, even their entire families are superficial.

For any lurker or outsider the best advise is not to get attached to jws or any who believe in wts doctrine, don't date them and don't gamble with cult personality because it will bite you in the ass in the end.

16

jw.org - My reasons why WTBTS are moving over to the internet

by falseprophet in

so we all know that the blotchtower and awake are becoming 16 page mags.

yes, they are becoming the "weetower" and the "halfasleep".. they are moving some articles over to jw.org and i have a few reasons why i think they are doing this:.

'new light'.

diamondiiz

I can't imagine the ip addresses being of much importance to them that they would want to pass to a CO. They could have been doing so at present since their sites have been up for a while already and they can compare their ip addresses between watchtower.org and jw.org to see what correlation there is between those who dl and those who may be simply curious about wts. For any ip relevance they would need a public and dub sections where the stats could better reflect closer percantage of who visits their site and why.

I honestly believe the only reason they mentioned an updated dub site in the letter which announced reduction in printed material was to take the focus off the negative news and emphasize the appeal of their site. Consolidating two sites may also be cheaper to update. Any articles that will be there will be vague, appealing to the public and to the government's eyes - nothing more controversial than it's already up there now. I don't see them making any statements that "only dubs, faithful to GB will make it through the Armageddon which is imminent. " I also don't see them encourage dubs to use internet more as they continue to warn them about the evils of internet. Since they know they can't stop the information progress they will try to fight it by directing witnesses to their site which may have more QFR or reasoning how to explain some of their BS teaching but nothing too controversial.

16

jw.org - My reasons why WTBTS are moving over to the internet

by falseprophet in

so we all know that the blotchtower and awake are becoming 16 page mags.

yes, they are becoming the "weetower" and the "halfasleep".. they are moving some articles over to jw.org and i have a few reasons why i think they are doing this:.

'new light'.

diamondiiz

Noo Lite - they won't be able to alter old publications and claim they haven't done so. Digital downloads are same as printed versions, so even if they edit the future edition, the original will be around and can be backed up by the printed version for dubs to check. It would be difficult for them to weasel out of it by claiming their original was not their teaching but altered by lets say apostates. We know they altered few bound volumes, and possibly dvd-roms but we all know at least some dub that collects the original wt copies and binds them each year. It might get rarer by the year but once they print it, it will be very difficult for them to publicly deny they've done so.

IP tracking - not viable. They can't tell if it's dub or as apostate from the local area logging into to dl their crap, nor can they tell if it's a worldly on the site.

They are trying to make themselves progressive to the younger dubs who may be wondering why the J-chariot is standing still while the world is progressing in technology with all the info on the net and yet hooly GB members continue to demonize the net. Their printing division is not doing so well so they would like to get dubs to use digital versions more but what are the chances of that? The org is retaining old ones who aren't tech savvy nor well off to afford tablets. Middle age ones may start getting tablets but I doubt that will be a large sector. Zealous youth will, but again many young ones just aren't as zealous as their predecessors.

jw.org is a futile attempt to make themselves look progressive while at the same time they claim internet cannot be trusted and higher education is "bad." Their only hope to see huge growth is a global recession where tons of believing df/inactive dubs come running back to khs because they think it's the end, but this will also wear off when the end doesn't come. They should have shed their cult structure decades ago - it's simply too late for that today. No amount of fixing their internet presence can change who they are and what they are, internet is wide open with information that is detrimental to them and there is nothing they can do about it. They've entered their twilight years with maybe another short boom ahead of them before the see a major collapse in membership.

75

Lurker's first post

by sseveninches in

jw
friends

hi guys,.

i call myself a lurker, but it's really been a short time since i've known about this site...it's only been five days.

i discovered this site while doing personal research on the topics of porneia, oral sex, and mutual masturbation, and found a thread on this site about it.

diamondiiz

Hello,

Depending on your financial situation, don't rock the boat too much until you graduate because regardless how wonderful jw may be, you don't have a clue how they may react if they find out you're leaving the cult. I'm sure you can find enough experiences here how families disowned their own. May not be the case for you, but you really don't know.

When you decide to share anything with any of them, maybe get your parents a gift, I would suggest Russell's Studies in the Scriptures Vol 3 which is also called Thy Kingdom Come(pdf download link). It has all the fun stuff, the pyramid and how 1914 will be the end, how the pyramid points to 1874, the date of Christ's return and 1878, the date of his enthronement and him taking power in heaven. It explains how not only 1914 is based on 7 times based on 606, the year of fall of Babylon to Cyrus but also on the 40 years of harvest from 1874 and how all these signs make up a composite sign that 1914 will be the end. Oh ya, it also explains the start of last days - 1799. I strongly recommend that book for any witness to read, a great gift too :) After all, how many witnesses wouldn't want to read a classic Russell book.

As you do your research, read the apologetic jw explanations as to why the scandals shouldn't really shock you, and compare these with some the rebuttals to these. Personally, I never thought UN issue was as huge as it affected others but it does show wts hypocrisy. I thought their child abuse scandal of few years back was more shocking.

Good luck on your journey, and take your time and be careful how you go forth, as more you learn the more sick you'll get of the meetings and the propaganda you hear there.

1

How to Track Societies money?

by criticalwitness in

jw
friends

what do they do with all the money?

the org.

has no shelters no food drives no schools and no tms doesnt count!

diamondiiz

You can see some of their book in countries like Canada and England, but these also donate large sums to the mother Bethal which has a privilege of hiding behind the law and doesn't need to reveal any of its holdings. What they do at the top is a very good question that most of us would like to know.

Top brass' travels are paid for by wts, lawyers and financial advisers probably get paid very well. How much is paid for lobbying is a mystery. It seems that wts is like a trust corporation, gets bigger and bigger but doesn't really pay out - or does it? Russell's and Rutherford's lifestyle indicate that these two lived very well of the corporation but that appeared to have ended with Knorr and new created GB. But again what is know from that era is up until 1980 from what Ray Franz indicated and for the last 30 years we really have no clue. It does appear that even Ray didn't know much about the financials of the organization since he hasn't wrote about it.

Maybe there is any certified US accountants here that can suggest what legal grounds would top brass have to large paychecks under religious charities and would there be a way to find out income of such individuals. Or do such ones simple expense anything and everything under wts which again may be tricky to do as such gifts would have to be claimed by individuals under IRS (I assume).

If anyone here knew personally the wts lawyers or accountants maybe they can share their experience of these individuals lifestyles and assets.

29

Who or what are you most angry at, when it comes to your situation in relation to JW Org?

by BreathoftheIndianNose in

jw
friends

i've been receiving very bitter messages from jws i know, mostly my mother, but also others that know how to contact me electronically.

sometimes i find myself mad at her, though not displaying it.

but i know it's really not her or my fathers fault.

diamondiiz

What I'm mad about is the fact the wts hides their past. Because of this JWs don't know their true history so they preach present version without telling others the whole truth about them. They prey on youth, elderly or those in their weakest moments by selling a faulty product where the "buyer" had no chance of reading the reviews back in the day when I was sucked in.

Today the practice is exactly the same, but luckily for general public they have internet and sites like this one to see what wts is all about. While I was young and naive when I was sucked in, there may have been a different outcome had I known that they taught for over 50 years that Jesus returned in 1874 and all the calculations that dealt with Russell's theology. It may have been different if I knew about 1975 fiasco instead the whitewashed version that some jws jumped into their own conclusions about the end and wasn't wts' fault!

WTS knows very well what they're doing and how they're deceiving people, regardless of which part they may actually believe. Actually I don't believe that today's GB believe their own shit as it stinks too much and there just is too much information for them to see that it's all BS! This is why they publish dishonest material with misquotes and selective passages from their old publications which shows that they know they are deceitful and shows that they know what they're doing. One can't be an editor of a serious newspaper and continue to allow continues misquotes or selective passages from their old publications to get to print without seeing what's going on. WTS is a cult, operates using deception and they know it! They hide behind the freedom of religion and get away with literal murder. WTS like many other criminal organizations can get away with it on technicality and now with large assets behind them, they have the upper hand in shifting laws in their favor.

I would love to see top leadership including wts legal and financial teams send of to a place like Iran, western world just doesn't have justice system for scum like these.

23

Facing the elders - The right way to do it?

by mrbunyrabit in

so now you have it in your mind, that the wts are not what they say they are, they lie and what have you.. nowwwww, next time you dont go out in fieldservice, and the next time, and the next time people start to wonder.. well, time comes and you have to explain yourself to who ever.

your mom, your dad, an elder, who ever.

now you cant just go about saying, "well, one of the things is that new light is a bunch of crap, because russel predicted this in 1914 and that in 1918 and that in.....".

diamondiiz

You can say you were reading Russell's Study in the Scriptures books and that's how you found out, why? Because you always wanted to read Russell's books and now you were able to do so, so you did, and you realized that what you read has not been taught to you by any witnesses or when Watchtower makes reference to Russell it's very selective as to what he preached or out of context.

You don't have to mention apostate sites apostates or anything. Any info you should keep strictly from Watchtower's own publications, and if they say you're becomeing apostate ask them since when are watchtower publications apostate????

Are JWs not supposed to read certain WTS publications? Which ones? Is there a cut off year for ok reading while others aren't?