Posts by MrMonroe

26

whats your take? When someone asks my wife what religion she is, she seems embarrassed to say she is a JW.

by goingthruthemotions in

so thinking back about the times when someone has asked my wife what religion she is.

she sheepishly and seems almost embarrassed to say she is a jehovah witness.

when someone asks me, i just say i am a christian.

MrMonroe

When I joined (as an adult) I was very happy to tell people I was a JW. A few years later I moved cities and this time made sure no one knew. I stressed about finding out where my workmates lived because I dreaded the thought of calling on their homes. I spent five years in that city and finally in the last year told the others in my office that I was a JW. They were curious, but wary.

I moved again for work, and this time told no one: my wife and I would try our best to avoid telling neighbours or (after we had kids) other parents; I certainly kept it a secret at work -- and again obsessed over inadvertently calling at the home of my workmates. I would try to worm out of them (or look up in office diaries) their addresses to make sure I'd never bump into them while I was out witnessing.

I was always embarrassed about being a JW and dreaded being spotted out witnessing or on my way to or from district conventions. I knew people would regard me as a fruitloop and I desperately wanted to be regarded as normal. It was always my guilty secret and added to the mental turmoil and stress of everyday life. In a way having "the truth" was a burden I felt I was unable to relieve: I "knew the truth" about God, and Armageddon, and the paradise, but it left me with an obligation I didn't really want. I was so relieved when I quit.

38

Who can you trust to admit you have doubts?

by MrMonroe in

(that is, doubts).

in margaret atwood's "the handmaid's tale", a futuristic story of life inside a repressive, abusive big brother-style society tightly controlled by religious fundamentalists, there's a passage in which the protagonist is alone with another woman at a state-controlled centre where prayers are generated -- then printed out and read out -- by a machine.

the other woman asks, in barely more than a whisper, "do you think god listens to these machines?

MrMonroe

A long time elder told me that it is easy to pick-out the doubters in the Organization.

That statement alone underlines how tenuously the organisation has its followers in its grips. There is no allowance for shades of belief, or diversity of belief, and any hint of scepticism or cyncism is regarded as a monumental threat, as if one person's awakening might snap the whole congregation out of its spell.

As a consequence, Witnesses are cowed into silence, afraid to discuss their concerns for fear of being "outed" as an apostate. The real outcome is an organisation of pretenders, which is one of the things that really began to turn my stomach about being a Witness. People were pretending to be pious, pretending to be zealous, pretending to be nice, pretending to be friendly, pretending to believe. In the end I couldn't pretend any longer.

At the 2006 district convention, I decided to listen carefully, take notes and try to work out if I was learning anything new at all. In the opening Friday talk the speaker told us we should be excited to listen out during the convention for a "fresh thought" about 2 Peter 3:13. So I did. In the final Sunday talk it finally lobbed: the "fresh thought" was that the new world could be even better than we had imagined. Wow. That's it? I felt cheated. At the close of the session I asked one of the self-righteous, judgmental pricks we hung around with what he thought of the "new thought". Naturally he hadn't even noticed it. I asked him what the highlight of the convention was. He ummed and ahhed, then he asked me what the highlight was for me. I told him, "The closing song. I was just glad it was all over."

I went home that night angry as hell and began writing a diary about how much I hated being a JW. Weirdly, it wasn't for another two years that we finally made the decision to quit attending meetings. I'm sure that by then we had long been marked as "doubters".

38

Who can you trust to admit you have doubts?

by MrMonroe in

(that is, doubts).

in margaret atwood's "the handmaid's tale", a futuristic story of life inside a repressive, abusive big brother-style society tightly controlled by religious fundamentalists, there's a passage in which the protagonist is alone with another woman at a state-controlled centre where prayers are generated -- then printed out and read out -- by a machine.

the other woman asks, in barely more than a whisper, "do you think god listens to these machines?

MrMonroe

(That is, doubts)

In Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", a futuristic story of life inside a repressive, abusive Big Brother-style society tightly controlled by religious fundamentalists, there's a passage in which the protagonist is alone with another woman at a state-controlled centre where prayers are generated -- then printed out and read out -- by a machine. The other woman asks, in barely more than a whisper, "Do you think God listens to these machines?" The protagonist is shocked by the question; although she knows the prayers are meaningless and contrived, she is forced in that instant to decide between denouncing the woman as a traitor and heretic ... or agreeing with her, knowing that it could be a deadly trap designed to extract from her an admission of her disbelief and reveal her as an apostate and enemy of the state.

In the last year or two of my life as a JW I faced the same agonising decision as the woman who dared to utter that question. There were many things I questioned or disagreed with, and my wife and I would ask ourselves if we really wanted to live forever in a society ruled by the tyrants in charge of congregations and assemblies and JW branches. At meals or parties where Witnesses gathered and drank, or even out witnessing and alone with a brother, I would try to subtly, carefully, raise those questions and air those doubts.

There were three different types of reactions. Two elders, whose own constant but sly criticism of the org seemed to invite further comment, each suddenly turned on me and warned me against apostasy. As elders they could complain, but clearly I was out of line for joining in. The most common response was people shrugging it off and looking for the positives. And then keeping their distance. Only with one couple did we get some agreement: they shared our contempt for the flimsy reasoning behind the JW ban on birthday celebrations and the wife had also delved into the doctrine of the 2520 years and concluded it was all shonky. We ate out with them one night and told them how we were beginning to see right through it all. Soon after, they did the dirty on us with a business we had and the friendship ended; we never spoke with them again. I think they still attend meetings.

But just how hard is it to open a discussion with others also "in the truth" about valid, genuinely troubling issues that go to the root of your belief? Did you try? Did you succeed? How much does it say about the level of intimidation and fear of repercussions that exists with the JWs that open discussion is off limits?

25

The new brchoure

by Sabin in

the gestapo body, brought out a brochure, i believe it was called return to jehovah.

in it they gave 3 reasons why some-one left the borganization.

if i remember 1 was because the person is angry at some one in the cong, or something along those lines.

MrMonroe

I've seen the cover of that brochure a few times on Facebook posts, but never read any of the text. What a putrid little piece it is.

13

Geoffrey Jackson's father

by One_day in

jw
friends

hi everybody, does anybody know if geof jacksons father is still alive?.

i wonder if he would dare return to australia again, maybe for his funeral?.

MrMonroe

He was in Toowoomba, Queensland, and this was in the Toowoomba Chronicle a week or so ago.

http://www.thechronicle.com.au/classifieds/ad/2328261/

8

More Conditioning in Sunday's Watchtower

by Socrateswannabe in

have you read the article, "this is our place of worship" in the july 15, 2015 study edition of the watchtower?

it is the study article for this coming sunday.

note the brainwashing techniques they're using to condition the jws to a total takeover of their kingdom halls, in the excerpts below.

MrMonroe

Don't mean to be a party pooper here, but as far as I was aware, congregations did not make decisions themselves to build Kingdom Halls and did not do the planning or construction work on their own. Decisions were obviously made at a branch level based on CO or DO recommendations; I don't know who applied for local authority planning permission, but the regional building committees then probably took over the task of funding and actually building the premises. Yes, they relied very heavily on volunteer labour and donations from local congregation members, but those local JWs had not actually caused the hall to come to be.

In that context I don't think it's unfair or inaccurate to say the WTS "provided" the halls and I can understand why the WTS would feel some proprietory interest in them.

180

What is the most bizarre counsel you received as a JW, from a JW?

by Funchback in

there were many addressed to me.

for example, i once had a sister tell me i was gambling because i liked playing skill crane (the machine where you have to try to pick up prizes like stuffed animals) at the arcade.

i then fired back a her: "you saw the r-rated movie 'backdraft.

MrMonroe

I was in a car with my JW girlfriend; a single brother was in the back seat. I was playing a mix tape on the cassette player and The Smiths' "What Difference Does It Make" came on. When it got to the line "The devil will find work for idle hands to do" he suddenly said, "Can you turn that off please. It's singing about the devil." Um, as the Kingdom Songs did also?

19

Mystery of the ' Strange Couple '

by Esse quam videri in

this strange couple was seen on main st. in vancouver, b.c.

a casual observer would be hard pressed to figure out their relationship.

the man seems a little young for the woman.

MrMonroe

Any time I've seen those carts, the JWs are parked a discreet distance away, looking quite nonchalant. And it always makes me think of spiders hiding not in their web but under a nearby leaf.

42

1975 all over again!!!

by John Aquila in

wt study edition jan. 2015.

here is the bait:.

as the number of kingdom proclaimers increases and as we near the end of this system of things, there is an urgent need for more facilities.

MrMonroe

I just blew it off, I knew they were wrong. Strangely I don't feel that sure this time.

Violias, what you need to recognise is that the JW concept of Armageddon was constructed by Joseph Rutherford out of a grab bag of OT and NT scriptures that suited his own tastes for divine revenge on those who didn't swallow his interpretation of a jealous, punitive God. Russell's view of Armageddon was quite different and it was no more or less logical or scripturally accurate than Rutherford's version ... or indeed a version created by you, me or Billy Graham.

For proof of this, track down the book "Counting the Days To Armageddon" by Robert Crompton; it's an excellent forensic examination of how the whole JW system of dates was developed -- dates arbitrarily chosen, then later abandoned. What today's JWs have ended up with is a system that works for them today, but could be abandoned just as easily as the old chronology beliefs were. I swallowed it all when I was a JW without checking anything. I believe in God, but I now I have no belief in any Armageddon brought on by God. That fear has gone.

20

www.jwawoken.com

by awokenjw in

forum
links

i am a new member to this forum.

i am a current jw who is currently struggling to leave or stay, depends on how you want to look at it.

i have created a new blog, www.jwawoken.com to allow me to have an outlet for the cognitive dissonance in my brain.

MrMonroe

Welcome. Like you, i found it very beneficial when I was reaching the end of the road with the JWs to write a lot of stuff down and apply some thorough reasoning. I find it interesting every now and then to go back to what I wrote at the time.

Be aware, though, that it is possible for people to trace the owner of a website domain name. That means that if some JW is nosy enough, they can find who you are, which could lead to you being called before a judicial committee. Sounds paranoid, but it has actually happened.