Sounds like this was a case of a couple of old farts having a regular chin-wag, especially since it's been going on for years.
Maybe he wasn't interested in you or anyone else because he was there for his regular chit chat session with your FIL.
Gulf Coaster
JoinedPosts by Gulf Coaster
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18
Do JW's use the bible to preach anymore?
by lostinthought inso...i totally stopped going to meetings two years ago.
since then, i have gotten married and moved into my husband's home.
his father and mother also live there.
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59
A difficult yet necessary decision
by Brother Jeramy inthe past five weeks have been perhaps the most painful in my life as a witness.. some months ago a young man (i'd say in his late thirties or early forties) began attending meetings at my kingdom hall.
he had just moved to my area from another state.
he had disassociated himself from his home congregation many years back, when he was 20 years old and going through many of the typical trials and temptations most young men experience.. two of the elders met with him initially, and they later shared the details with the body of elders.
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Gulf Coaster
umbertoecho: An acquaintance of mine was re instated within months. Her father is an elder. I always wondered about that. She has been reproved time after time since then.
Wondered about what? That as an elder's kid, they're special snowflakes who get away with more than the riff-raff? Yup. I saw that hypocrisy time and time again in my KH. That was one thing of many things that convinced me it was a corrupt and rotten mob and got me firmly on the path of getting the hell out.
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59
A difficult yet necessary decision
by Brother Jeramy inthe past five weeks have been perhaps the most painful in my life as a witness.. some months ago a young man (i'd say in his late thirties or early forties) began attending meetings at my kingdom hall.
he had just moved to my area from another state.
he had disassociated himself from his home congregation many years back, when he was 20 years old and going through many of the typical trials and temptations most young men experience.. two of the elders met with him initially, and they later shared the details with the body of elders.
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Gulf Coaster
Yes, there seems to be a recurring theme of cruelty and hatefulness in the JW cult.
First you have the hateful practice of shunning hanging over your head, which is bad enough and probably scares off a lot of people from leaving.
Then to twist the knife even more, they let you know that if you come back, you'll have to suffer even more. They'll want you to "crawl back" as if you were some horrible, disgusting person, and to suffer humiliation over a long period of time. How long? You won't know, there's no set time, which is stressful but that's okay as they want this to be as stressful an experience as possible. To warn others off. During this time, you are treated with suspicion and derision. Pure emotional blackmail. What a vile and disgusting cult.
It's been a long time since I was in but I do remember one young brother who came back. No memories of when or why he was disfellowshipped. Only thing I remember is him sitting in the back, against the wall, in a chair place several feet behind the last row. And I remember his slumped posture and look of pure misery on his face. He looked like an abused dog. It really resonated with me. And frightened me. As it was meant to. Thankfully it wasn't enough to scare me off of escaping from that cult.
It's good that Brother Jeramy's friend had his eyes opened as to the real face of that cult. Hope he stays well away. Forever.
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17
That’s What Happens When You Leave the Truth.
by John Aquila init never failed, when someone got disfellowshipped or left the organization, their life became shambles.
if married, a divorce ensued.
if the person had a great job, the company would lay-off or close.
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Gulf Coaster
Some of the Elders would say; OOOh is she going to pay for leaving the truth. We’ll get her when she comes back crawling.
Wow, that's just so nasty and hateful. No doubt wishing and hoping for that to happen, with smugness and glee. Such awful behavior from "elders", men we were supposed to respect and look up to. Pffft!
Wonderful story, so glad she stuck it to them by doing so well. My story's pretty much the same. Not as well off, but quite well-traveled, successful and very happy, thank you very much
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11
OMG They are right here in River City!
by myway2007 injacksonville, fl - the local newspaper had an article on the convention going on for the next two weekends.
while i could not find the article, i was able to find this slide show of this weekend's events.
the newspaper article was interesting as it discussed what a wonderful job they were doing cleaning the arena seats and bathrooms and everyone was enjoying their job.
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Gulf Coaster
Yeah, they're just so special and unique, the JWs. They're the only ones coming together and co-operating and working together nicely. None of those nasty worldly people are as wonderful as they are ... blah blah blah. I used to believe that too. Til I got out into the real world, that is. Yeah, they do those conventions well, and organize and clean and all that but they're not the only ones.
Photo #9 is good for a laugh. I zoomed in and see that hardly anyone looks too alert and perky. Or even awake. The sister in white, near the bottom of the photo, just to the left of centre, has her eyes closed. Young brother three seats along her row looks to be nodding off. Two brothers and sister in the row behind the sister in white look like they're in the land of nod too. Sister in grey to the right, near bottom, dead asleep. Bored out of their minds.
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4
Happiness is....
by FreeGirl2006 inhaving brunch and then getting a massage instead of sitting at the grand poobah session several blocks from my house.
it always irritated me how the convention was always scheduled for july 4th weekend and now it doesn't matter.
not trying to rub salt in the wounds of you poor ones who have to be bored or angry by turns at the rc this weekend, as i did decades of drone seat warming.
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Gulf Coaster
Best. Convention. Ever. lol! Yep, sure remember mindlessly parroting that myself. Everybody did. Because you had to. Imagine saying how you truly felt, that you'd been bored silly again, finding it absolutely excruciating and another waste of a perfectly good weekend
I remember the excitement in the KH at the upcoming conventions. But really, they mainly were just the same old crap regurgitated in a bigger venue over a longer time period.
And yeah, we'd all dress in our best, even buying new outfits, to hopefully impress someone at the Meet Market. Lots of young brothers and sisters ended up getting married to someone they met at a convention. So glad I escaped before that happened to me.
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Advice Needed - JW Grandparents
by What Now? inmy family has been out (inactive no meeting attendance or field service) for just over two years..
weve made many changes in our lives, including with our personal appearances (tattoos, piercings etc) that are a pretty obvious sign that we arent going back any time soon.
our families went through a period of time about a year ago when they made a lot of threats that if we left the truth, they wouldnt even be able to share a meal with us, they would stay loyal to jehovah etc.
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Gulf Coaster
Sail Away, you have excellent justification for "shunning" your parents for their ugly and hateful attitude towards your husband. You should be proud of loving your husband so much and putting him first. That's the way it should be.
I agree that in the end, there will most likely be hurt from trying to develop a relationship with JW parents/grandparents when you're not in that cult with them. It seems they'll be all nice and helpful when the children are young, but once that child gets to the age when they can choose to say no thank you to the cult, the "love" is turned off. That would hurt.
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67
How do you feel about exJW's who resist our efforts to effect change?
by nicolaou ini've met a few.
i'm not talking about the jw who, whether df'd or not, falls off the radar and just gets on with living a normal life - good luck to them and may there be many more!.
i mean the former jehovah's witness who is now enjoying all the benefits of a cult free life thanks to the efforts of many bloggers, posters and activists, but is critical of the efforts of someone close them to free more jws.
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Gulf Coaster
I also can't respect, or understand, the position of people telling you not to make JWs feel awkward by exposing the BS of their cult, as long as you're mature about it and don't attack people personally. I don't know why they would think that. I certainly don't. Maybe they're of the mindset that hurting people's feelings is something to be avoided at all costs. Kind of like a form of political correctness. But the damage done to families by the cult is so evident, and should be a more important concern than worrying about making some people feel awkward or hurt. By insisting you leave them alone, they're supporting more families getting ruined and more lives wasted.
Hopefully that group of non-supporters is a very small one.
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Try Other Religions
by Sofia Lose insometimes i get a strong curiosity to start dabbling into other religions, other faiths, you know?
really different ones such as islam, judaism, hinduism, etc.. has anyone here looked into something else?
has your spirituality been satisfied by any other than christianity?.
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Gulf Coaster
100% Secular Humanism.
0% JW ... lol! The only one I scored 0% on. No wonder I was so miserable in that cult. It just did not fit.
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11
Could this happen to you?
by adjusted knowledge inthere was a jw who was a born in and faded about 10 years ago near a congregation i attended.
he never married or had children and was in his late 30's.
his parents shun him for the most part but then he had a major stroke.
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Gulf Coaster
Sounds like a living hell. Trapped inside malfunctioning bodies & minds and being dragged back to the KH! Torture. They don't have much choice. Their parents are their caregivers and they are JWs. I'd probably want to find a way to top myself if that were me.