The society has so many enemies on the net. Facebook is like the gateway internet forum and can lead people to more forceful sites such as JWN and groups where apostates can easily infiltrate their ranks. The society can't control the WWW so they try to control the people.
Posts by nugget
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40For those in any doubt that the Society is at war with Facebook...
by cedars in...take a look at this from page 29 of the latest october 2012 awake!.
the gloves are now well-and-truly off.
referring to facebook as a "social networking website" clearly isn't working.. the society now feels compelled to start being more specific about which websites it doesn't want you to visit!.
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22
Awkward, but kinda funny encounter with JWs today
by hemp lover ini live in a majority-minority neighborhood, so i get the double witness whammy of my street being worked by both spanish- and english-speaking congregations.
jws come to my door about four times a year, but i stopped answering years ago.
what's interesting is that about two years ago, they stopped knocking on my door or ringing the doorbell.
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nugget
Witnesses are very task focused and there is probably a territorial thing meaning that if they witnessed to you they would be encroaching on the english speaking congregations territory.
The cult programming runs so deep that we can be affected even when we have been out for a long time.
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61
Trying to talk to my mom - really discouraged, need help.
by rather be in hades inso, i'm new here and i've decided to finally tell my mom the truth about jws.. and sorry for the long post.
i'm at my wits end.. here's some background:.
i grew p in a congregation in california, i'm not a born in, though i was raised in it from 5 - about 20. arond 20 i pretty mch faded out, bt the emotional ups and downs were jst all too much.
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nugget
You have to face the reality that unless a witness is in the right mental place NOTHING you say will help them see the madness all that will happen is it will ring all their alarm bells and the focus will be on you and your apostacy.
Your mother is also in a position where she would have to face the fact that she has brought her children up in a destructive cult, that is a huge thing for her to face up to. She would need a degree of humility to accept that this is what she has done. No parent would want to know that they had harmed their children.
This is an occasion where less really is more. Telling her everything will accomplish nothing.
When I approached the subject with my mother I just said, I think the Governing body has lost it's way. This allows for the possibility that they were once correct and that things have changed. When she asked what I was concerned about I told her I found the focus on the GB disturbing and that Jesus and Jehovah were given much less prominence. Over time we discussed many issues and she agreed with many of them although she would never break free herself.
I understand the temptation to tell all but it is not a good idea. Witness tell new ones not to tell people everything all in one go because they know it just doesn't work Information dumps scramble the brain and cause shut down. This is a time when patience is required if you want to let her know how you feel without causing rejection.
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60
New here
by konceptual99 ini am new here, been lurking for a while but felt compeled to join as i would like to comment on more and more of the topics i come across.
by way of an introduction here is some info about me.. i am an active jw, married with a family, living in the uk.
i serve as a ms and have done for many years.
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nugget
Welcome to the board. Things are always a little muddy at this stage. As parents we want our children to be happy in life and not everyone's experience will be the same. We have an autistic child and an older daughter, there were not witnesses in the local community and no cousins who they saw regularly. They were not encouraged to make friends at school and their constant exclusion from activities of their peers as well as not celebrating holidays and special days served to isolate them and make them socially awkward. It was also the realisation that the friends in the organisation were conditional friends meant they were always vulnerable.
In addition the meetings and literature were often inappropriate for children, gods judgment, violence, crime, masturbation, immorality, earthquakes, end of the world, earthquakes, disease, hopelessness, Armageddon,war wickedness all around were often discussed. These fed on my sons fears to the extent he was self harming and hiding under tables at school screaming about bad books. The study books for childen reinforce the message that they must not have pride in their achievements, that they must trust the organisation and elders and they must constantly strive for gods approval whilst never being sure they are ever good enough. These were not the messages we felt it was healthy for my children to be exposed to. When elders asked why we did not attend meetings I told them how the constant negative topics affected my son and I said I could not see a place for him. The elder agreed there was no place for my son in jehovahs organisation. So salvation is only an option for people with no issues.
For our children the meetings were harmful. Having been brought up in this mess myself as soon as I realised the doctrines were based on lies I had to take my children out. The organisation demands much of us all, even to the extent that we sacrifice our lives over blood, give up education and a chance to fulfil our potential and risk shunning by our friends and family if we differ over religion. I could not risk my children turning into conditional sons and daughters and conditional friends.
You have different circumstances and have your own choices to make but I hope this helps to clarify can't leaves comments and why we personally took the stand we did. It may be worth asking your children how they feel about the sacrifices they make. They are sacrifices and it takes a lot of courage to make a stand every day and risk ridicule. Are you sure that the organisation is worthy of them? All I will say is no one can decide what is best for your family but you and circumstances change over time.
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New Article - Birthdays, Why the Watchtower stance is wrong
by jwfacts ini have a new article at http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/birthdays.php outlining why the watchtower stance against birthdays is wrong.
there have been a number of threads on jwn discussing this, and the article collates and summarises the points raised in these threads.
please feel free to point out any errors in grammar or logic.
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nugget
On someones birthday the idea is to make them feel appreciated, special and loved. None of those are bad things. You only get one birthday a year on which you are the centre of attention and you receive gifts and cards, however you will celebrate many other people's birthdays throughout the year in which you give without expectation of receiving yourself and in which you have the opportunity to make someone else feel appreciated.
The Bible says there is more happiness in giving than in receiving, so in order to appreciate the joy of giving there needs to be a recipient. Birthdays allow people to experience this joy by not celebrating you limit your capacity for joy.
Loved the article it helped to scrutinise the doctrine which we accepted for many years.
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Surprise Elder's Visit-FAIL
by iclone in[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng /> </o:officedocumentsettings> </xml><!
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[endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* style definitions */ table.msonormaltable {mso-style-name:"table normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"times new roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:en-us;} </style> <![endif].
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nugget
Well done brilliant argument.
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127
Introducing Mrs Cedars...
by cedars ini just thought you should know that mrs cedars has finally taken the plunge and joined the forum.
she was able to log on for the first time yesterday.. though we both "awakened" at different stages, mrs cedars was very supportive and non-judgmental when i first began exploring my beliefs from a critical standpoint.
she is currently in the process of reading crisis of conscience and aquainting herself with some of the facts of witness history that were hitherto unknown.
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nugget
Welcome, I was in a similar position arriving here after my husband was already an established member. I too read CofC and realised that I had been lied to by a corrupt organisation and took the decision to walk away. It was the best thing I ever did.
I have a life with supportive and great friends and have found that life on the outside is so much better than I could have hoped. I wish you well on your journey.
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110
What song or line from a song bests describes your time as a JW?????
by karter inwaisted days and waisted nites.. freddy fender..
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nugget
You're just somebody that I used to know.
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Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 07-15-2012 WT Study (STRAINED MARRAIGE)
by blondie incomments.
comments.
comments.
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nugget
I find this particular article disgusting. I was brought up in a religiuously divided home but when I look back at who was responsible for the tension in that home I would say it was the JW. Because JWs do not compromise on anything and because they allow elders to constantly interfere in family life it causes tension. The religion itself makes the marriages strained and difficult but the article does the usual bait and switch positioning it that the non JW is the primary cause of difficulties.
In one of the examples the wife tried to save the marriage to give a good witness. So her motive was not to rebuild her relationship but to give the appearance that she had tried and she would be beyond reproach. There was no love in her comments.
Great comments from Blondie on this one.
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Help for a father of two young JW's
by never a jw ini have never been a jw, but my wife, two brothers and their wives and children are.
also, most of my wife's brothers and sisters are jw's.
since i have a close relationship with both my family and my wife's family you can deduce that most of my friends and associations are with jw's.
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nugget
PM is a private message. Scroll to the top of the screen. Top right hand corner is an envelope which takes you to the message screen. Click on the message once and then click on the envelope and message again ( due to system glitch).
As a non witness normal relationship rules do not apply as the cult has control of them and has taught them to defer to elders and the organisation for most things that are usually parental decisions. Remember one important point, time is on your side. My father had 4 daughters in the cult. 3 of us are free. It took 40 years in my case but I am free and stand by my fathers side proud and grateful that he never gave in and was there for me when I needed him.
Never under estimate the level of control that this religion exerts, this is a long term project but it is possible to help ease your children away and educate them. The religion is built on lies and manipulation and whilst they are very good at keeping their people in thrall to the lie you can be better. They fear knowledge because they have too many skeletons to keep them hidden.
Good luck.