Posts by Morbidzbaby

22

Christmas Cards? Blondie?

by garyneal in

jw
friends

are we going to do a christmas card exchange this year?.

How many have moved away?

by evilone in

jw
friends

in an earlier post i talked about the fact that my wife and i were moving far, far away from the city in which we grew up.

well, the move was successful we're loving our new city and new jobs.

the congregation to which our publishers cards were sent doesnt have our correct home address and as a result no one has knocked on our door (i highly recommend getting a p.o.

Yes. I did the very same thing. I faded out from going to meetings, then I picked up and moved across the country. I'm finding it's much easier to be away from all the JW's and JW family I knew. I gave no forwarding address for my publisher cards, I gave no phone number to the elders (and asked that my family keep my number private...they have always respected this when I requested it, and will always call and ask if they can give so-and-so my number before taking it upon themselves to do so). I also live in a community where soliciting is not allowed. So I haven't heard from any JW's except my parents, and my ex and his wife for a good while now.

Like your wife, I don't really make an effort to call my parents often. What's the point? Usually it's a few words about how their health is, how my job is, then they start talking about the meetings and service, I talk about my new friends and my boyfriend, and they shut down and get all quiet. I can't even share the joyous parts of my life with them because they don't approve of it. So why am I going to keep a dying relationship alive? It sounds cruel, but for my own sanity, I need to keep them at a distance. I have other non-JW family that I keep in touch with and we've talked about arranging visits to see each other.

To me, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. Yes, I'm in a new state, a place where I knew no one except one person. I had to get a new job. I had to learn my way around. I had to make new friends. But...I'm FREE. I don't have to worry that the knock on my door will be an elder trying to sit me down for a judicial committee. I'm not afraid to be myself and be strong and outspoken for fear that I'm being seen as unsubmissive. I have no fear of celebrating holidays with the man I love, putting up Christmas lights and a tree, playing any kind of music I want, watching and having whatever I want in my OWN HOME without fear that some JW will walk in and report me to the elders.

My life is beautiful. And every day I'm understanding more and more just how abused, sheltered, and controlled I was. Moving, hitting the reset button on my life...it was all worth it...for FREEDOM.

22

THE CRINGE FACTOR

by Terry in

something putrid in your vicinity?

you cringe!.

something tainted or apalling nearby?

Morbidzbaby

I really enjoyed reading this, Terry. It's incredible how humans can go from being happy and normal to being something they themselves hated even a few months beforehand. It happens quicker than they realize.

61

todays WT study...the picture...?

by stillin in

i wish i could scan it and get your thoughts.

it was a picture of a happy group of witnesses during a meeting for field service.

there was a. comment from a local high-horse-rider about a brother in the front row in the picture being disobedient.

Morbidzbaby

Okay, I looked WAY too in-depth at this picure lol. I can just barely see something that looks like it might be a piece of literature between the elder's KM and his arm...it's right where the "offending brother's" arm/hand WOULD be if the pompous elder wasn't in the way.

From looking at this picture, I don't see that the intent was to play "Where's Waldo" and find someone NOT being submissive. Everyone in the picture IS being submissive, so I take it to be the WTBTS showing what submission is and basically asking "Is this how Jehovah sees YOU?".

However, the turn that the dubs in different congregations took...damn, they took that ball and RAN! You can see the completely judgemental attitude when they're finding something WRONG with a photo that shows complete SUBMISSION!

Witch Hunt, indeed.

8

Watchtower Sex Standards Are Cruel, Unjustified and Unreasonable

by metatron in

i was inspired to write the above verbose title after i took a tour of a science museum that offered an indepth display of an egyptian man's life during the late ptolemaic period.

bluntly put, he was worn out and falling apart by his early 30's.

dying before 35 was commonplace as adult life expectancy was very low compared to today.

Morbidzbaby

...and we're changing with each generation! Kids are going through puberty and losing their virginity earlier and earlier. My boyfriend was 11 when he had sex the first time! It's unfair and cruel to hold to a standard that the rest of the world has moved on from. Especially when it comes to sex before marriage and sex between married couples. While some people may choose to wait, or may choose to not do certain things, there shouldn't be a law or rule dictating such.

10

Why do they keep coming???

by OneDayillBeFree in

jw
friends

why do studies and people non religious and religous keep coming back to the meetings?

i get the whole brain washing thing and that may very well be the most logical answer but i don't know.

i know it's not because they found the truth or anything but being a born in and mentally out its just one of those lingering thoughts that pop up every meeting i go to.... i mean take the speaker for today.

Morbidzbaby

I can tell you from my own experience. I was inactive for a bit, the elders never called on me, never did a damn thing to show that anyone cared. I was alone. My husband at the time was active, but wasn't showing any interest in helping me to go back to meetings or get out in service. I was alone and lonely. No friends, family didn't live nearby, so I went back to meetings, even though I had my doubts.

Eventually, I stopped going again because the doubts just ate me up inside. We separated, and I ended up going back yet again to give it one last try to see if I was really correct in losing my faith in the organization. Before that last time, I had started reading and posting here...but then I thought "Well, maybe there really is a Satan, and what if he's trying to get me through doubts like they say he does??". So I ignored the UN scandal, I ignored the 607 stuff, I just went with it and went to meetings and pounded the pavement out in service...even started a Bible study. Thankfully her son was wise enough to tell her not to get involved and she stopped soon after.

A few months later, I lost my oomph and slowly started declining with my meeting attendance. I started missing every other Sunday...then every Sunday...then some TMS and SM's...until I just wasn't going at all. I went to one last convention where they announced the new Overlapping Generations crap, and that was it for me. I haven't been to a meeting in over a year and a half. I've been officially free of JW influence in my life for almost 6 months. This time I will not be going back because I know for sure that it's falsehood.

So...for me...at first it was a matter of being lonely for friends and family. In the end, though, it was a matter of being absolutely sure that it was all a lie.

I can identify with your anger at the speaker, though. Toward the end of my meeting attendance, I would make up every excuse to be out of my seat because the majority of what the speaker would say would make me incredibly angry. My very last meeting, I had to go outside (it was the beginning of July and HOT). I couldn't bear to hear anymore. I was shaking with anger, crying, practically hyperventalating. I knew I couldn't do this anymore.

Sometimes people just miss the friends and family they have known all their lives... And sometimes...they just need to be positive they are making the right decision.

44

It is SO depressing when you just can't get through to someone

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

i have been hitting a brick wall trying to pry my boyfriend away from this stuff.

it just makes me cry that it's so obvious to me how wrong it is, and he's not even batting an eyelash.

he knows about all of the scandals, all of the false prophecies, the coverup of sexual predators, that elders tell abuse victims to stay with their spouses, that they dishonestly use sources, and he just doesn't care.

Morbidzbaby

Will he allow you to discuss the Bible with him? Can you both do so without arguing over doctrine or without one of you getting angry?

The reason I ask is because I picked up a book at the used book store last week...had my eye on it for awhile... Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses by Ron Rhodes. I myself am not a Christian, not a JW anymore either, but my parents are still JW's and consider themselves to be Christian. I bought this book because it uses the Bible to appeal to JW's. It shows their major doctrines and beliefs, shows the scriptures they use from their Bible and quotes from their literature...then it uses other translations of the Bible, the entire context of the scriptures they use...it then gives you questions you can ask them to cause them to think...and it blows their doctrines out of the water. If my parents start a conversation again about this organization, I will be prepared to answer them from the Bible itself, even though I don't believe in it. I know my mother does...she accused me before of "trying to tear her away from her god", which was never my intention. She can believe in a GOD all she wants...but she really puts her trust in the Watchtower, and that's all there is to it.

I agree with Shirley...if he's dating you, he can be marked as bad association and will lose his friend if they find out... and by going to your church services, he's practicing what the JW's refer to as "interfaith", which is a disfellowshipping offense. So basically, if the elders find out about what he's doing NOW as an active JW, he'd be subjected to the very same thing some of us have with regard to being accused of apostasy and possibly being kicked out. How loving is THAT? But yet...he knows he shouldn't be dating you, according to them, nor should he be attending other churches...so he's not keen on following all of their rules.

As for being the only ones who are "living right"...according to his definition (which would most likely be synonymous with the Watchtower definition), this includes doing house-to-house preaching, not celebrating hoidays or birthdays, not cursing, not drinking heavily, not smoking, not committing "fornication"... However, I know of plenty of people who don't curse, don't drink, and don't smoke or fornicate...and they're not Jehovah's Witnesses. You don't have to be a JW to live a moral life. If he thinks that the fact that the JW's go house-to-house in harmony with some Biblical command is what makes them the right religion, then he's sorely mistaken...this wasn't even a command in the Bible. In fact, Paul didn't go house-to-house, it was likely he went from house-church to house-church preaching to small groups. Jesus himself said "do not be transferring from house to house". Jesus commanded his followers NOT to go from house-to-house. So, if anything, that makes the Watchtower Society in error for the fact that they DO.

67

Read S. Hassan's Book: Do JW's really fit the cult mold?

by simon17 in

first time i got a chance to read his book, "combatting cult mind control" and was interested to see if jw's fell into the cult mold.

my opinion after carefully reading and having left the witnesses after almost 30 years is... no, they don't.

however, i would add that they wish they were but are simply too big and unwieldy to really pull it off.

Morbidzbaby

"Right type of money-hungry charismatic leaders"...

As Zid said, the early leaders of the Bible Students/Jehovah's Witnesses/Watchtower Society WERE charismatic leaders. Rutherford was especially money-hungry. And power-hungry! He weaseled his way into the position of WTBTS President. Who builds a mansion in California, claims it's for the returning "princes" (David, Moses, and the like), and then when they don't show up, lives in the house himself, all the while boozing it up, whoring around, and driving 2 very large (was it 16 cylinder???) cars...DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION??!!!! That's no better than these televangelists who use people's money to live high on the hog! And that's NOT money-hungry?? Oh and he was VERY charismatic...Advertise Advertise Advertise, remember? And how about changing the name of his peons to "Jehovah's Witnesses"? That was all Booze Joe's idea.

156

Who would you have Lunch With? From JWN?

by AvocadoJake in

jw
friends

the last few years "warren buffet.

" has donated his time to the highest bidder for charity.

the ebay auction usually goes for $100,000 to spend lunch-time and pick his brain on his view.

Morbidzbaby

I've had lunch with someone here... Won't say who it is, but it just so happens to be someone I know IRL and we decided to get together for lunch and some moral support. Was great, as we hadn't ever done that before, and we hadn't seen each other in awhile.

I'd like to have lunch with anyone here...more specifially MrFalcon (where's he been???), for his great sense of humor and the wonderful support he's given; Shelby, she seems like such a sweetheart; sizemik, again, great support and great points of view; blondie, love her insight on things; AussieOz, because he's gone through the same type of thing I am RE: kids in the cult...

I'd pretty much like to see anyone here face to face...chances are I live in the same area as some.

27

Pre paid legal inc. is a cult

by zengalileo in

i tried selling pre paid legal for about two yers.

hardly made a sale.

none of my friends gave a crap about it.

Morbidzbaby

cyberjesus: I've heard that before...and I maintain that it IS a scheme. Recruiting your friends and family so that you can move up, making those on the lower rungs invest in the company by buying their materials and all the necessary advertising crap, and doing all the grunt work while the ones at the top sit back and collect. Any company that wants you to sell their product should provide you with the means to do so with no cost to you...the money invested by them would come back tenfold if their product was any good.

I've been involved in such a "marketing system" and no matter how much work I did, how much I pounded the pavement and looked for sales and introduced people to the product, it did nothing. I lost money in what was supposedly a rock-solid company that was growing. In short, these companies sell over-priced merchandise that can be bought or made for a fraction of the price...and they make their money, not on sales to new customers, but on sales to their representatives who need to replenish their own demonstration stock! $200 for a skin care system that I'm not using, but letting other people try? And it comes out of MY pocket, and I only get a portion of the sales IF I sell anything...meanwhile, my upline or Area VP is raking in the cash and driving a Mercedes because I'm spending MY money, yet I'm not making one red cent. To me, that's a scam.

In this day and age, there is no need for MLM's. And the ones out there are scams. They equate to a cleverly disguised pyramid scheme...and those are illegal.