Posts by Diogenesister

14

Has anyone out here read Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason"?

by Captain Schmideo2 in

jw
friends

i wish i had read this back when i was 18. it's an amazing take down of religious beliefs, the bible, and religion in general.

) a "reason"-able manner.take this quote, from near the beginning:.

when also i am told that a woman, called the virgin mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, joseph, said that an angel told him so, i have a right to believe them or not: such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it: but we have not even this; for neither joseph nor mary wrote any such matter themselves.

Diogenesister

I've read sections of his work and been blown away by it. Interesting that it's believed many of America's most famous forefathers held these beliefs given the prevalence of religious fundamentalism there now.

28

Did you ever experience true kindness in the Org?

by HereIgo in

i remember when i was about 17, i started shunning an older brother because he was disfellowshipped.

when i graduated high school, he pulled me aside and said " i know you are not supposed to talk to me, but i want you to have this" it was a gift that he had custom made for me.

i was so blown away, we never even had a real conversation before.

Diogenesister

Schnell The nicest ones never seemed to be the "strongest" though. They'd come in late, they were rarely in service, and they would be the first to help you in a jam. Funny.

Reminds me of some of the first person holocaust stories I've read. Oftentimes the " pillars of society" have the least personal integrity in the camps. As to the General population, it's usually, though not always, those on the bottom of society...the prostitutes, the poor, the tramps and "dodgy types" -who show the most compassion to the hunted Jews.

A bit like the type of good folk around Jesus.

28

Did you ever experience true kindness in the Org?

by HereIgo in

i remember when i was about 17, i started shunning an older brother because he was disfellowshipped.

when i graduated high school, he pulled me aside and said " i know you are not supposed to talk to me, but i want you to have this" it was a gift that he had custom made for me.

i was so blown away, we never even had a real conversation before.

Diogenesister

Hereigo Loved your story, it was so touching. And yes. I have. Usually from the most despised of members.

32

Have any ex-jws considered joining the Bible Students?

by Rainbow_Troll in

their fundamental beliefs are much like jehovah's witnesses sans the paranoia, authoritarianism, stifling rules, and end-times enthusiasm.

you don't even have to become a bible student to be saved, you could be an idol worshipping heathen and still get resurrected in the milenium.

if i still believed in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, i would be a bible student.

Diogenesister

What is the Micheal Heiser book called please Steel?

30

Were you aware of the shunning policy when becoming a JW

by UnshackleTheChains in

for those who became jws, were you fully aware of the societys cruel shunning policy whilst studying?

i absolutely had no idea such a policy existed until years later.

it really only hit home when reading the horrendous stories on the internet around 2002. .

Diogenesister

I was clearly told it was only spiritual association that was prohibited with one disfellowshiped. Dissociation did not exist, as far as I knew.

But the main thing is families could still associate, for sure, despite being DF. This in the UK in the 70s, as a kid. And of course kids were not baptised until at least 16 too, which made a difference to my feelings.

38

"We Had No Idea How Manipulative He Can Be!"

by pale.emperor in

very stressfull and upsetting evening was had last night.

i dropped my 2yo daughter off to my ex-wifes home.

all seemed good until i got home.

Diogenesister

Freddo He threatened to go to child protection services and say that he consented to his abuse and fully participated in it (he was nine years old remember?) and could be a danger to their own child if he had unsupervised access.

Hmmm, let them go. Typical Witness statement. Can you imagine what child protection would think of the sort of person who would claim that a

Nine year old boy was responsible for his own abuse?!!! They would get short shrift!

38

"We Had No Idea How Manipulative He Can Be!"

by pale.emperor in

very stressfull and upsetting evening was had last night.

i dropped my 2yo daughter off to my ex-wifes home.

all seemed good until i got home.

Diogenesister

I'm sorry but you have to take the gloves off now. Firstly you need to document all Of this. Then contact an anti cult organization and try to get the name of a sympathetic lawyer. NOW is the time to do it with all the ARC stuff in the media. You need to point out to a lawyer the risks to a small child at the kingdom hall

*ARC

*Undue influence the BiTE model

*Shunning, what happened with your "in" family

*Risk to health re transfusion

*Risk to mental health, why two strange men are allowed to question your 2 yr old about your sex life.

*Risk to her mental health as she grows, what if she is gay, number of suicides of young people in the org, sexism against women,

*Risk of domestic abuse, girls told to put up and shut up in marriage

Try to get more access, as the JW are seen more and more as a dangerous cult to kids, please try to get more control over what they can and cannot do - for your daughters sake.

Sorry but this has made me furious.

I can't write anymore it makes me so mad. THEY need to watch their step THEY ARE THE ONES IN A CULT.

29

JW's arrogant as f...?!

by Alostpuppydog in

has anybody else noticed that almost all the jdubs are super arrogant?

i mean even from just the basic ones to especially the elders and the overseers omg.

they act like they are so high and mighty that you should just worship them.

Diogenesister

Longhairgal Witness religion lends itself to fantasy and certain behavior (that I considered offensive)...was tolerated there. I'm referring to older "anointed" who were deliberately difficult to deal with and expected people to "cater" to them. I also saw the same behavior in certain older pioneers and others who were around in the very early days. They thought they were better than the newer and younger JWs in the hall. They imagined they could be rude or make remarks and were not going to be called on it.

Oh long hair gal I cannot tell you how much I agree here. Oh the rings those old time anointed used to run us in- they ran US ragged!! Grumpy not the word, obstinate and deliberately difficult!!

Some of us young ones even dared to question if they really were anointed! Oooo O-ER missis!

21

Has there ever been a time when someone has been outed as a JW mole on this forum?

by Tenacious in

having been a jw for decades i'm used to watching what i do, say, or watch, in fear of being snitched on.. therefore, i the question begs.. there have been instances, i won't say how, where i've felt some members are being deliberate in their attempt to feign support for the anti-jw rhetoric on this forum.. any input is greatly appreciated..

Diogenesister

I don't think he means folk like takeofthecrown who are quite open about their support for the Watchtower. And that's fine, all of our journeys started as fully believing dubs at some point. We are here to help those folks ( I hope!) so if someone is " feigning" their support for anti JW ' rhetoric'( think tenacious used that word as it was convenient ) well, I guess all we should do is just keep being us. After all, this is called jehovahs-witness.com so we can expect all shades of views, which is good no? I wouldn't worry although their was an incident where an IT worker at polish branch office tried to blackmail an exJW forum user into confessing to his elders. He pretended to be a DF dub on a polish forum but his posts were hysterically funny and obvious frauds, as u expect a fully in dub is told an apostate thinks and acts. They have threatened the idiot with court action as despite being the head of polish branch IT ( based in Holland, I think) he left a trail by which they were able to track him down.

17

clinking of glasses

by sosad1 in

hello all - long ago i posted under sosad..... cant get back under that name so hello again.

i though i remember in hte last couple of years that there was a change in the strict practice of not clinking glasses and toasting,,, that it was more of a conscience decision.. was i dreaming this?

any help towards printed information on this subject is very much appreciated..

Diogenesister

Toasting can 'even now can be viewed as asking ‘heaven’ for a blessing, as if seeking aid from a superhuman force'.

Do they ever listen to themselves? What the deuce do jws do before a meal if not ask "heaven for a blessing ....seeking aid from a superhuman force"?!! Good grief I give up.

Its wrong because it wrong because its wrong because It wrong.