JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  13

  Songs that help recovery

  by peacefulpete in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are there songs that seem to speak to you?

  maybe especially when leaving the church and losing friends and family.

  i still pause when i hear hennly's heart of the matter.

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  JeffT

  Tommy, by The Who. The whole album. I think that salvation through pinball is a perfect analogy for whatever stupid behavior the cult you're in demands of you, like say, counting the hours you spend selling Watchtower magazines. And making yourself deaf, dumb and blind while doing it.
  
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  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  I'll just leave this here, make of it what you will.
  

  Just heard an interesting quote on the History channel. The show is tracing Harry Houdini's dark side, the narrator said "It was not enough for Houdini to succeed, he needed everyone else to fail."
  
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  31

  Hobbies

  by peacefulpete in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think it's been a while since this was asked.

  tell us your hobbies, interests, pastimes, whatever you find enjoyable as a diversion from work and school.

  i am lucky enough to live in a small cabin on a lake, i enjoy rowing my old boat and fishing, i play with car projects, and we travel as much as we can.

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  JeffT

  I'm retired and have time on my hands for two hobbies.

  I like assembling 1/700 scale model ships. I put together a lot of models as a kid; the newer kits are much more detailed and have more parts. They are more complicated, more fun, and more money. I have ten battleships, five aircraft carriers (one under construction), and a few odds and ends, including the Titanic. These models are typically a little over a foot long.
  

  I also write. I have five novels for sale on Amazon, plus one being serialized on Amazon Vella. One of the novels (and a sequel that I'm revising) plus the serial have ties to my experience as a JW. I haven't made a lot of money, but it's enjoyable. Most of the books are based on history, as are the models, so there's a connection between the two hobbies.
  
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  31

  How get out of watchtower?

  by Hellothere in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  how do you get out of watchtower?

  am i supposed to write letter to bethel or local congregation telling them i don't want to be a jw anymore?

  how are the steps.

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  JeffT

  To write a letter of disassociation is to imply the Watchtower has authority over you.

  Strongly disagree, at least for myself. Our DA letter was a public (we sent to a lot of people) declaration of independence, that we no longer accepted the Governing Body as having any authority over us. It might even have counted as a declaration of war. We wanted to make sure that everyone knew that we left because the religion was WRONG. We specifically stated that if they impugned our character we would take legal action.

  It wasn't long after we sent it that we saw a car group working field service on Saturday morning cross the street to avoid walking in front of our house. Maybe they thought we would sneeze apostate germs on them.

  I would say (strongly) that the important thing is getting out of the Watchtower, not the route you took. Everybody has to find their own path.
  
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  31

  How get out of watchtower?

  by Hellothere in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  how do you get out of watchtower?

  am i supposed to write letter to bethel or local congregation telling them i don't want to be a jw anymore?

  how are the steps.

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  JeffT

  My wife and I stopped going to meetings in 1988 and sent in a letter in 1989. I now recognize that we had some advantages others did not. We were both converts and we no longer had close family and friends in the org. We sent a letter because we wanted everyone to know we did not believe the Watchtower. We've never regretted it.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  It is very hard to make "activism" your primary income, especially if the target is something as elusive as the Watchtower's prophecy and doctrine. Eventually a person's first hand knowledge of what goes on inside the cult is past it's pull date, buried under all the "new light" that appeared after you left.

  This is exactly what happened to me. I left in 1989, by the mid-to-late nineties my first hand experience was no longer meaningful. These days I come here to see what's going on because it interests me. I'm a consumer, not a provider.

  Lloyd's personal problems probably accelerated this process. He does hot have personal experience with anything now coming out of the Watchtower. He can offer his comments on it, but his information isn't any better than that of about a million other people.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  Personally I think it’s a system that is vulnerable to abuse which this case is emblematic of.

  I agree 1000% I have to wonder how many Croatians find themselves counting cash into the hands of a cop to make the "criminal case" go away.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  All I was saying was that (in the US at least) sending that letter is not a crime. All the issues raised are the kind of thing that get settled at trial, and would be included in the court documents when filed.

  So far nobody has seen the court documents, so arguing about it is moot.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  Your accountant showing up again.

  I don't know anything about the Croatian legal system, I know a lot about how the US legal system deals with debts and torts.

  In the US it is common practice (frequently involving smaller amounts of money) to send a "demand letter' outlining the nature of the problem and the proposed cure. Example "Your kid threw a rock through my window and did five hundred dollars damage, invoice for the repair included. Please pay this amount within thirty days to avoid further action." This puts the defendant on notice, if the case goes to court the plaintiff can point out they made a reasonable effort to settle the problem outside the courts.

  I think this letter should be read as a demand letter not a threat. It is poorly worded (a good lawyer would try to sound friendlier) but otherwise not that far off the mark. One telling factor is the low ball statement of damages. In the US $3K (or whatever it was) is chump change, a matter for small claims court. No lawyer with brains is going to give up the big money coming out of the starting gate.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  You had the audacity to ask abuse survivors to pay you for including their story in your book so you can profit off their stories, twice, with that payment and then when someone buys the book.

  A correction from your friendly accountant:

  He's triple dipping not double dipping.

  1) Patron $

  2) charging people to put their story in his book. Usually it's the other way around.

  3) Book sales.