Posts by sd-7

67

Another Suicide

by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

there wouldn't have been any good way to hear the news i suppose.

it's just so strange to recall the conversation yesterday.

my "still in" parents are with me and my inactive sister having a pleasant conversation.

Whoa. Sorry to hear that. It's a terrible place to be, feeling depressed, and the circumstances he may have been in as an ex-Bethelite could only have made that worse. It's hard to know what to say in a situation like this, but...thanks for sharing, and my thoughts are with you. It can be very hard not to be swallowed up by one's own pain at times. I know when I used to feel that way, I tried to think of it like a ship weathering a storm, and you can't always see the edge of those storm clouds, but it's best to deal with one moment at a time, make it smaller until you get to a second that you can survive, and go to the next one until it gets a little easier. It's always uncertain whether a person who is depressed can successfully convince themselves to go on.

The thought of not being able to afford medication possibly contributing to that really pains me to hear, though, because I feel like I can identify. I know I've been wanting to at least do therapy again for a long time, but it's costly. I can't imagine how an ex-Bethelite with limited education (?) could cope. It's tragic, really tragic.

Hang in there, bro.

--sd-7

55

Being pressured and getting increasingly stressed.

by NBird in

hello, i'm a 17 year old born in and i'm done with this religion.

one hundred percent.

i came to the conclusion a year ago that i wanted to leave.

sd-7

So, my next spiritual goal: "Do NOT get baptized!"

Wish I could put that on my wall.

I'm suddenly seeing a comic of the Ethiopian eunuch saying, "What prevents me from getting baptized?" Then a thought bubble above his head..."I'm not old enough...does this mean they'll be able to shun me if I do?? Maybe I shouldn't..." Then Philip shoves him into the water..."You're doing the mikes!"

--sd-7

25

Have The JWs Changed All That Much In The Last 20 Years All That Much?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i believe most witnesses believe that there is nothing new in their religion....would you agree with them?.

sd-7

Well, now that you mention it, I've just got to make a list of stuff off the top of my head:

The separating of the sheep and goats will happen at the end of this system--the preaching work ain't doing it.
"This generation" is actually the generation of wicked people living at any one time.
Blood fractions are A-ok if your conscience accepts them. More or less.
The calling of the anointed did not end in 1935, there's no cutoff date.
"This generation" is actually the anointed.
"This generation" is actually the anointed whose lives overlap with the anointed who saw 1914.
The "faithful slave" is the anointed at HQ, 'closely associated with the Governing Body'.
The "faithful slave" was appointed in 1919 but won't be appointed over 'all his belongings' until Armageddon and etc.
No more Book Study; now it's the Congregation Bible Study, shortened by half and held at the KH.
Book Study Groups are now Field Service Groups.
Family worship/study is now Family Worship, Big F, Big W.
In vitro fertilization is fornication if the sperm doesn't come from your husband.
Looking at woman-on-woman porn is a DF'ing offense.
The Internet is dangerous--it has porn and apostates on it. To avoid that, stick with Watchtower.org.
The Internet is a useful tool for spreading the good news of the Kingdom. Still has porn and apostates, though. Go to JW.org only.
The Theocratic Ministry School Guidebook was replaced by 'Benefit From Theocratic Ministry School Education'.
The Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life book was replaced by What Does the Bible Really Teach?
Organized To Accomplish Our Ministry was replaced by Organized To Do Jehovah's Will.
Sing Praises to Jehovah was replaced by Sing to Jehovah.
The Public Talk is 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes.
Auxiliary pioneers have to make 50 hours a month instead of 60 hours.
Regular pioneers have to make 70 hours a month instead of 90 hours.
Auxiliary pioneers can make 30 hours a month instead of 50 hours (pilot program, I forget if that's permanent now).
The Watchtower was separated into Public Edition and Study Edition. The Study Edition was...simplified...as the Simplified Edition.
The Watchtower and Awake! magazines given to the public were reduced to 16 pages.
Dramas are now made on DVDs instead of VHS tapes. Some can even be watched via the Internet or downloaded as MP4 files.
Audio magazines/books are now on CD or even MP3 formats.
Kids now have new heroes, Caleb and Sofia, as part of the 'Listen, Obey and Be Blessed' childrens' cartoon series.
The presiding overseer is now called the coordinator of the body of elders (I prefer COBOE).

Wow, that was fun. Nah, they haven't changed anything. If anything, our personal view of the truth has changed. Why are you murmuring against Jehovah's wonderful organization?

--sd-7

42

Why do all the COs have food intolerances/allergies/special dietary requirments?

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

it's a well known phenomenon i've observed from jwn, my own cos. a new co we had once who was fresh from being a normal elder and after a couple of visits he said, "well i've finally become a true co...i now have food intolerances.".

i mean, only once did my husband and i ever have a co around for dinner and they couldn't eat this, he couldn't eat that, she couldn't eat this...it was so hard to cook something with none of the zillions of things they were 'allergic' to.. and then after all that the wife couldn't come anyway because she had a naturopath appointment or something.. why do all co's seem to have weird dietary problems?.

.

sd-7

I think it's a matter of survival. Everyone will make their richest meal for you unless you tell them to tone it down. The health consequences would be dire otherwise. I don't believe it's a matter of control at all, just a matter of watching their health, especially since if they get sick from eating too much heavy/fattening/salty food, they'll have to stop their circuit work.

--sd-7

18

New JW.ORG exhibit

by cantleave in

http://www.jw.org/en/news/by-region/americas/united-states/history-exhibit-tour-through-time/.

just saw this on fb.

sd-7

Pretty cute woman in that photo at the bottom of the page. Otherwise, "Men Have Loved the Darkness"? "You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Moulded by it. I didn't see the light till I was already a man, and by then, it was nothing to be but blinding!"

--sd-7

3

Does Jehovah's Witnesses baptism qualification info disclose anything about Disfellowshipping

by Watchtower-Free in

does the bible teach book say anything about dfing?.

.

isn't this dishonest?.

sd-7

The Bible Teach book doesn't even mention the 'faithful and discreet slave', does it? I think the idea is that it is assumed that that will be learned at the meetings anyway, more or less. Also, handing the prospective JW the 'od' book is the equivalent of notifying them of what DF'ing is, since they're supposed to actually read it. In the strictest technical sense, the information is provided before baptism, but a typical JW is probably not going to read everything they're supposed to before making the commitment.

--sd-7

32

Stuff You Would Lose If You Went Back

by Nosferatu in

jw
friends

so we know all the things the wts prevents us from doing, but that's much, much different than the stuff we've grown accustomed to.. for those who have been out for a number of years, what kind of things would end up being abandoned if you suddenly started going back to the kingdom hall?

you know, stuff that you now do on the nights you used to attend meetings, the things you own, the things you wear, etc..

sd-7

A lot of books (featuring magic or sex [or both, in 'A Song of Ice and Fire') and (R-rated or magical) movies. Sleep. Patience. What little freedom I currently have. The ability to look skeptical when an absurd teaching is explained at a meeting. The ability to say Jesus too much. My beard. My work schedule. Girl-on-girl Internet action (not that I'm into that sort of thing, of course...but I would lose the option, mostly because I'm not good at lying about stuff...). The ability to post on the Internet about JW stuff, as surely someone would probably find out about sd-7 sooner or later. An excuse to not have to deal with my older brother and my mom. An excuse to not have to deal with JWs from my old congregation. 'Self-abuse'. Attending birthday luncheons at work. The option to attend a holiday party at work (I usually don't 'cause I'm not good at socializing).

Honestly, that's about it. The self-loathing has pretty much remained at a fairly constant level for whatever the current reason happened to be, with occasional dips into madness. So that probably wouldn't change too much, maybe a slight increase and then a leveling off with time as my brains turned more into fudge.

--sd-7

70

Is Richard Dawkins an ostentatious acrimonious supercilious pusillanimous calumnious censorious vituperative querulous embittered obsessive and bombastic bully?

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

richard dawkins closes down his free-thinking/free-thought site (www.richarddawkins.net) for 30 days to reconfigure it 'because too many morons were contributing drivel' (he doesn't put it quite like that!

) he is then surprised because those self-same contributors call him everything under the sun (i won't repeat the names flung at him on our ultra -refined boards).

he now wants the site more or less 'peer-reviewed' (by analogy with papers to learned/scientific journals having to be vetted by vips).

sd-7

I'm actually starting on 'The God Delusion' right now. He does get pretty visceral with his tone, but he also brings up some pretty darn impressive points about religion. I can accept the validity of his tone when it supports facts or pretty logical argumentation. Certainly religion is no less visceral when it comes to its own beliefs.

I'm actually enjoying the book so far, though I probably would prefer a little more data and a little less slamming, but I'll reserve my judgment beyond what I've already said for the time being.

--sd-7

26

'Apostates want to draw people after themselves'--what are they really implying?

by sd-7 in

when jws say this, what are they really saying?

i was pondering this recently, and i was thinking...what they're really trying to imply is simple:.

apostates are thus accused of attempting to be cult leaders.. because the idea is that since they're not getting people to follow christ, but follow themselves, then they want their 'victims'' belief system to be centered around an individual, following that person's directions.

sd-7

Instead of the implication of the soceity thinking of all ex-JW as potential cult leaders, I think that they are just afraid of increased competition from other religious charismatics pimping their personal spiritual plane.

Good point. Especially since we know that advertising is the name of their game, reasonably then, a big part of their advertising strategy is to slam the hell out of their competition. That seems to make up a pretty large portion of their recruitment strategy--be it attacking Christendom or like with the new brochure they just put out that's geared towards practicers of Judaism or whatever. In this case, apostates are their most dangerous competitors, as exposing them as a complete fraud guarantees they can't win a person back to the Borg if they leave (save perhaps through blackmail). And since clearly thousands are leaving on a regular basis, they need to at least minimize their long-term losses, in typical business fashion.

Also, absolutely loved The Age of Reason--it was one of the first books I read that was critical of the Bible itself. I'm actually thinking of reading a little Richard Dawkins soon. Just read a sample of 'The God Delusion' on my Kindle and I'm already hooked.

--sd-7

26

'Apostates want to draw people after themselves'--what are they really implying?

by sd-7 in

when jws say this, what are they really saying?

i was pondering this recently, and i was thinking...what they're really trying to imply is simple:.

apostates are thus accused of attempting to be cult leaders.. because the idea is that since they're not getting people to follow christ, but follow themselves, then they want their 'victims'' belief system to be centered around an individual, following that person's directions.

sd-7

The main reason JWs 'need' to shun 'apostates' is about information control.

Well, yeah, obviously. I guess it's not really an intentional implication, more so part of the ad hominem attack, to attribute this sort of quality to apostates.

--sd-7