I could never figure out why the international convention prices were so high and an elder (who has connections to Bethelites) told me that the prices are padded and the Society uses the extra money to send the missionaries to the conventions and back home for visits. Incredible, the WT pays for nothing out of it's own coffers!
WalkTall
JoinedPosts by WalkTall
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41
International Conventions = $$$$. WTBT$ in bed with South Korean government
by Mattieu ini remember the whole process of selecting a host city for australias last international convention.
the australian bethel played the nsw government against the victorian.
it was so similar to choosing an olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game.
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Open Letter To Jehovah's Witnesses
by cindalmiller inyou may not remember, but i know you very well.
i met you a long time ago when you came to my house with your smiling faces, your neat clothes, and your soft voices, and a bible tucked neatly under your arm.
you told me many beautiful stories of a "paradise earth," and a "righteous new system" which would be established shortly.
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WalkTall
Amen, cindalmiller, Amen.
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What was your initial reaction to finding out the religion is a cult?
by make yourself inmine was filled with shock and anger but mostly anger.
it made me feel that way because i have never been lied to like that growing up in the religion with it being all you know.
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WalkTall
Did you ever see one of those movies where the thief must get through the invisible security to get to the priceless gem. You can't see the trap surrounding the gem until you use special lighting and then all the lines are exposed. That's what it felt like to me. I was inside the trap all along, I just never saw it. Sometimes I felt the discomfort of being confined but I didn't know why. Then, when I found out the truth about the 'truth', it was like that special lighting came on. Suddenly I saw how trapped I was. Nothing really changed, but I knew, I could see the obstacles encasing me. Problem is, I'm still trapped inside.
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Legal Department....
by on the rocks injust curious to know how big is the legal department in brooklyn??
is it headed by a gb member...how much influence they have over the teachings of the society?.
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WalkTall
I heard once that the legal department is the biggest department at Patterson. They take up the most square footage. Not sure if that's true, but I'm thinking it was a Bethelite that told me that. It was a while back though.
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Open Letter To Jehovah's Witnesses
by cindalmiller inyou may not remember, but i know you very well.
i met you a long time ago when you came to my house with your smiling faces, your neat clothes, and your soft voices, and a bible tucked neatly under your arm.
you told me many beautiful stories of a "paradise earth," and a "righteous new system" which would be established shortly.
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WalkTall
I have tears in my eyes from reading that letter. It expresses so many of the same sentiments I myself feel as I am in a similar situation. I often ask myself "how did I get involved with something so dangerous?" and of all the religions in the world why did I fall for one that requires so much of my time and that could take my children away from me? I was lured in at a very young age, like many others here.
My heart goes out to this poor woman. In just a few short paragraphs she exposed the WT for the 'wolf in sheep's clothing' that it truly is.
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Youtube video asking them "Are All JW's Ordained Ministers?"
by OnTheWayOut inthe youtuber, publishingcult says to download and share the videos, so i am sharing.. this is a part 2, but a stand-alone video.
he asks jw's if they are ordained ministers.. the answers blow away the "unity" of the members.
i may try this when stranger jw's approach me and say "why do i get different answers?".
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WalkTall
I enjoyed it OTWO. Sad (especially the end), and funny, at the same time.
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When do we say adiós to the Satan construct?
by AK - Jeff init was not like a locomotive, more like a brush with a bush in the night-woods.
nonetheless, it was clarion.
at first i doubled back to assure that i had not missed it, that i was still on the marked trail.
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WalkTall
Very eloquently illustrated AK Jeff! When I came to realize that Satan was just another villian formulated by the human mind to attribute the badness of the world to, it was so freeing. The shackles of fear unlocked and fell right off.
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Does anyone here ever feel that they don't fit in
by cantleave inyou no longer fit in with the jw's and aren't yet accepted by those outside either?.
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WalkTall
Gayle, I love that thought - ifI was able to make myself happy in an extremely negative cult, then I could be happy anywhere else, for the most part.
We forget it's to our credit that we managed, and some of us still do, to keep our sanity, and remain relatively hopeful and happy, despite the negativity of cult living. Thanks for the reminder.
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"It is our Personal Responsibility to Turn In People who are Sinning"
by WalkTall inat the last two meetings i have been to, two brothers mentioned in their parts that we have a personal responsibility to turn in someone we know who is involved in wrongdoing.
they both said we need to do this out of love and because we could also lose our own relationship with jehovah if we fail to do so.
it struck how odd this all is.
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WalkTall
At the last two meetings I have been to, two brothers mentioned in their parts that we have a personal responsibility to turn in someone we know who is involved in wrongdoing. They both said we need to do this out of love and because we could also lose our own relationship with Jehovah if we fail to do so.
It struck how odd this all is. Here we are, grown adults with no real obligation to tell these yokels what's going on in our own lives, much less anyone else's, but we sit there like grade school students whose teacher wants someone to stand up and be the tattletail. "Now, class, unless someone tells me who threw that spitball, you will all miss recess".
Now that I am fully aware of their manipulations, it just seems so strange that JW's so easily acquiesce their privacy and that of others to people who have no business having any say in their life. And that expression 'turn in' sounds so 'law and order', like we are dealing with criminal activity. It's just another one of those things that makes me think that if that was my first meeting and I heard this stuff, I would think these people are nuts.
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DESTROYING the Individual: the goal of Watchtower Authority
by Terry inthe governing body wants to disable individuality.
individuality is evidenced by self-expression.
no self...no expression of self.. personal desire leads to expression of personal desire.
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WalkTall
They destroy your empathy one step at a time. First you must look at all non JW's as less than human, not deserving of life and happiness, simply because they do not listen to the Bible's (WT's) message. Then you must suppress your own compassion and sense of what's right by purposely shunning someone who is a friend or loved one. And you do all of this with feelings of righteousness, because you are doing what a God of love and justice wants.
I remember one time a CO, in talking about how some feel it is against our human nature to participate in the discipline a df'd person needs, said that "it is not our (meaning the WT) thinking, it is God's thinking, This is what God wants". So, I guess you could say we are 'sociopaths for God.'