Posts by MrMonroe

2

Wanted: Info on TV doco on the JWs in the late 1990s, possibly Canadian

by MrMonroe in

does anyone remember this?

i saw it on australia's sbs, probably 1997/98.

i remember i stayed home from the meeting to watch it and it was very depressing viewing, very discouraging!!

MrMonroe

Found it after all that.

Children of Jehovah. Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1996. 1 videocassette (60 min.). [OhioLink]
Jehovah's Witnesses are a fast growing, media shy religious sect that believe that Armageddon is rapidly approaching. Children are often torn between the rewards of conforming to its laws and the freedoms of a secular world. This program focuses on the pressures adolescents and adults come under as they decide to stay in the church or leave, and on the impact of the terrible penalty faced by those who do leave.

Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 1995: ABOUT US - Children of Jehovah: SBS , 8.30 pm. Who are those disturbers of the peace, the Jehovah 's Witnesses , who knock on doors and specialise in being told to go away? A Canadian look, through young people's eyes, at the media-shy religious sect.

Comment by Alan Feuerbacher, http://www.exjws.net/pioneers/alanf.htm "This practice of shunning obviously creates much unnecessary pain and is extremely destructive. About 1994, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) produced a documentary called "Children of Jehovah", which largely consisted of interviews with young people who quit, or were expelled from the JWs, and whose parents shunned them. One can hardly keep a dry eye watching this film. All of this shunning, of course, is done at the direction of Watchtower leaders."

Has anyone seen this doco? It was very moving. I'll try to see if it's obtainable on DVD.

35

New watchtower

by bohm in

jw
friends

the new watchtower is out (woooo) http://www.jw.org/ , and there is an article about "prophecies which has come true".

the most funny one is the one about earthquakes since, well, there just isnt an increase in earthquakes:.

what do the facts show?

MrMonroe

JWs will look for anything that will validate their strange beliefs.

They are a bullied, intimidated and beaten people who will also do anything to reassure themselves that those who are dominating and controlling them are telling them the truth.

2

Wanted: Info on TV doco on the JWs in the late 1990s, possibly Canadian

by MrMonroe in

does anyone remember this?

i saw it on australia's sbs, probably 1997/98.

i remember i stayed home from the meeting to watch it and it was very depressing viewing, very discouraging!!

MrMonroe

Does anyone remember this? I saw it on Australia's SBS, probably 1997/98. I remember I stayed home from the meeting to watch it and it was very depressing viewing, very discouraging!!

From memory, it was looking at life as a Witness from the perspective of a teenager. It showed this boy witnessing at a door, plaintively going through his spiel, and also interviewed some girls who were chatting about how much time they spent in a cafe while they were counting time. It was a very sad doco, and I recall thinking afterwards, "I really wish I hadn't watched that." Because it made me see my religion in a different light. And in reality that became one of the first chinks in The Wall around me where tiny shards of light began breaking through.

Can anyone help with the title or any info?

77

JW's not a cult

by Lunatic Faith in

okay, before you fly off the handle--i wrote a blog on how my research proves jw's are a cult (no, i haven't read the cult book yet).

somebody linked their own findings onto my site saying the opposite.

their evidence is erroneous and as i don't have time to point this out i thought i would let you all do it for me.. www.epages.wordpress.com.

MrMonroe

Does the group squash individuality as well as independent thought?

Put it another way: Are members permitted to form their own opinions about the dictates of the Governing Body? Are they free to determine their own actions and choices in life?

"Overseers of Jehovah’s People", The Watchtower, June 15, 1957:

"Let us now unmistakably identify Jehovah’s channel of communication for our day, that we may continue in his favor ... It is vital that we appreciate this fact and respond to the directions of the “slave” as we would to the voice of God , because it is His provision."

@Nugget, I like your reasoning on page 1.

90

Did you Fade Gradually or Stop Attending Meetings Quickly ? Reasons ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

been thinking about this and curious about what makes us all come to the decisions we came to in our fade/exiting the jw organization.. i think for myself having been born-in & raised a jw my doubts about the generation doctrine had simmered for years within me quietly and by the time i finally left in 2003 i had reached my breaking point.

also seeing unjust treatment of rank & file witness ( myself included ) just propelled me into my decision even quicker.

so - one day after meeting with 3 elders in a back room before a meeting and seeing their judgmental aggression towards me - i just told myself " enough is enough ".

MrMonroe

It was never a conscious fade, but having a couple of babies helped give my wife and me an excuse to ease out. I was convinced it was the truth but hated the meetings, the patronising, the insincerity, the pretence, the power games, the robotic attitudes, the time-wasting assemblies and the "brothers" with whom I felt I had less and less in common. I would leave immediately the meetings were over. My wife hated the meetings too and we would take it in turns to stay home with one of the kids. When we did go, it was often for only half a meeting. At assemblies we'd go for lunch just to be seen, then leave again.

We pretended to do field service for the last couple of years, attending the group and then saying we were off to do calls, but go shopping and then drive home to get changed. When someone told me about the UN brouhaha I took an even greater dislike to the guys at the head of the organisation. I read bits of Franz's memoir via links at Wikipedia, which made me hate them even more.

I missed a memorial because I was working that night and didn't care. My wife and kids went, but no one was game to ask them where I was. By then I guess they knew I was very sour about the whole thing. I bought Crisis of Conscience and my wife began reading it first and told me she was never going back. I told I'd keep going from time to time, just to maintain some link with God's Organisation and make sure I survived Armageddon. Then I started reading the book and realised I could never, ever go back. April 2008 was the last time we went.

We felt relieved and so happy. It brought my wife and I closer together. Witnesses, meanwhile, avoided us. No one asked if we were OK or had a problem until the PO caught up with my wife six months later and asked her why we'd stopped going. She told him we were happy and didn't want to discuss it. The same guy phoned me a few months ago to grill me about something I'd done and I told him his phone call was inappropriate. Friends interstate have tried to put the guilt trip on us, but we told them we don't want to talk about it.

We'd rather not be DFd because it would complicate business matters, but really we don't care any more.

36

Assembly changes

by d in

i was wondering what changes have you seen with assemblies now.compared to assemblies in the 1950's..

MrMonroe

Off topic, I suppose, but on my first DC as a newly converted, newly baptised brother, I was dispatched to the news service department because I worked for a newspaper. I spent lunchtimes strolling around Lang Park, Brisbane, looking for anyone from outside Brisbane, who would be photographed as a happy, smiling family. I took down their names and congregation. The rest of the sessions were spent writing up those details as captions to go out to their local papers, along with a unique rewrite of a DC press release on some of the main points, skewing it to their local area.

In the end I reckoned I wrote out that press release about 50 or 60 different ways on their crappy portable typewriter. At the end of it people, knowing I was a newbie, asked, "So what did you think of the convention. Wasn't it encouraging?" And I'd go, "Yes, it was very encouraging. I got a lot out of it. It was very upbuilding." I reckon I heard about an hour of the whole thing.

51

Earthquake in N.Z.

by smiddy in

jw
friends

i guess the witnesses are rejoicing over the death and destruction of the latest earthquake in n.z.as proof of the imminent coming of armageddon,and their deliverance into the "new world system of things" i can just see it now ,the kh`s in nz will be filled to overflowing in the next month,......then in six months later it will be back to the status quo.. p.s when jesus said their would be" earthquakes in one place after another" couldn`t he have identified these areas for the faithfull ?

so at least beleivers would have been spared the trauma ?

of course non beleivers would have suffered the consequences,but why should beleivers suffer also ?.

MrMonroe

Murray Smith, I have sent you a PM.

Usual instructions: click on the envelope at the top of the page. If it gives an error message, hit "back" a few times and keep trying until it appears.

51

Earthquake in N.Z.

by smiddy in

jw
friends

i guess the witnesses are rejoicing over the death and destruction of the latest earthquake in n.z.as proof of the imminent coming of armageddon,and their deliverance into the "new world system of things" i can just see it now ,the kh`s in nz will be filled to overflowing in the next month,......then in six months later it will be back to the status quo.. p.s when jesus said their would be" earthquakes in one place after another" couldn`t he have identified these areas for the faithfull ?

so at least beleivers would have been spared the trauma ?

of course non beleivers would have suffered the consequences,but why should beleivers suffer also ?.

MrMonroe

A friend in Christchurch texted my wife today with the news that her husband was out in field service again today.

For a religion that thrives on bad news, a natural disaster that kills more than 200 people and cripples a city is a godsend.

I can imagine them now, walking past homes without running water or power, no flushing toilets or showers, their gardens knee-deep in grey sludge vomited from the earth and mixed with sewage, proudly clutching their Watchtowers to warn that the end of the world is nigh. They exploit the vulnerable, seizing on a mood of fear and uncertainty.

They are vultures. They are lacking in love, empathy and human affection. They are truly a religion that fits the description at 2 Timothy 3 (Jerusalem Bible): "Heartless ... demented by pride ... They will keep up the outward appearance of religion but will have rejected the inner power of it. Have nothing to do with people like that."

34

The role of the Home Bible Study arrangement in JW brainwashing

by MrMonroe in

i've just started reading "year of doom, 1975: the inside story of jehovah's witnesses" by english author j.c. stevenson.

it was published in 1967 as basically a memoir of his years in the dubs, including time as a pioneer, and an explanation of the methods used by them to make the organisation grow.. it's not the best "insider" book i've written, but there is a section i've uploaded below that makes some interesting points about the home bible study procedure and why it is so effective at turning interested people into baptism candidates.

reading through this, i see myself back in the mid-80s sitting there getting led, week by week, into the trap.. this section is from chapter 2, "the seed is watered" in which he explains the typical process following a few return visits.. .

MrMonroe

I've just started reading "Year of Doom, 1975: The Inside Story of Jehovah's Witnesses" by English author J.C. Stevenson. It was published in 1967 as basically a memoir of his years in the Dubs, including time as a pioneer, and an explanation of the methods used by them to make the organisation grow.

It's not the best "insider" book I've written, but there is a section I've uploaded below that makes some interesting points about the home bible study procedure and why it is so effective at turning interested people into baptism candidates. Reading through this, I see myself back in the mid-80s sitting there getting led, week by week, into the trap.

This section is from chapter 2, "The Seed is Watered" in which he explains the typical process following a few return visits.

51

Earthquake in N.Z.

by smiddy in

jw
friends

i guess the witnesses are rejoicing over the death and destruction of the latest earthquake in n.z.as proof of the imminent coming of armageddon,and their deliverance into the "new world system of things" i can just see it now ,the kh`s in nz will be filled to overflowing in the next month,......then in six months later it will be back to the status quo.. p.s when jesus said their would be" earthquakes in one place after another" couldn`t he have identified these areas for the faithfull ?

so at least beleivers would have been spared the trauma ?

of course non beleivers would have suffered the consequences,but why should beleivers suffer also ?.

MrMonroe

Have meetings been suspended to allow people to cope with the trauma? Have the brothers arranged for professional counselling for congregation members? Have quotas for door to door witnessing been dropped? Have plans for the "extra activity" in April been abandoned? Are those disaster relief committees assisting non-Witnesses with their physical needs? Just wondering ....