after i decide to leave the jehovah's witnesses one day,i will not look for a new religion.
the damage that the wts has caused me leads me to mistrust all men and religion.. i trusted these men from the wts .
i gave up 35 years of my life to find out that the wts is just a printing and real estate corporation disguised as a religion.
I regularly worship at the alter of freedom - in fact some might say that I do so actively although I don't submit a monthly report to demonstrate how active I am. I would worship more but work gets in the way - not that I'm trying to justify or judge myself.
I can't recommend what others should do - except to avoid being stuck as a JW
MMXIV
There are likely to be as many undiscovered/unproven/known but not worth a recall faults with other cars.
leavingwt has it spot on. Improve your odds by driving a bigger car with the latest safety features and drive it carefully.
A JW is three times more likely to die as a result of refusing blood during childbirth (totally avoidable) than in a road accident. (Ok mixing American stats with Netherlands stats of 68 in 100,000 JW childbirths 1983-2006).
MMXIV
for a period of time when i was a jw, i lived with a family of jws.
they had 2 young children under 12. the family were good friends with another jw family who had 3 children under 12. .
so were talking about 5 kids under 12, this will be important later.. .
You did no wrong. You did right. For any JW to expect you to break the law - especially one which involves the safety of children should fall into the territory of council from the elders (not obeying supperior authorities, holding life sacred, stumbling others - etc).
Someone I knew was convicted (wrongly) of driving without due care and attention (they were in a crash with a very old lady who survived - but only just) and despite a jury twice not reaching a decision the elders took him off as a MS and put him under restrictions. Did he cause the accident? no - he actually took evasive action - but the elders acted as it had been notorius. I wonder who the elders would have pointed the finger at if you'd been in an accident and one of the children were hurt.
I think the generation thing is a factor. My dad often skimps on safety because "that's what they used to do in his day".
In my own experience I've found many JW's cherry pick what legal rules they follow or not - more often to do with how others in the cong will view them rather than what Jah would think or indeed what is actually legal/right!
MMXIV
many witnesses got married at a young age (because they felt they had to).
you can't sin, right?.
some people get married and for years, are very happy.
I had an old fashioned view of marriage that I should provide for my wife. That meant waiting for a long time for me to get a career together given I was a typical dub without qualifications. It was also a long time before I therefore popped the question and it was only after we were married did I find out that she'd hoped/expected/wanted me to ask for her hand on so many occasions. I screwed up on that one.
I/we tried very hard not to allow JW's to influence us - courting was tough, but we had the quiet, swish wedding we wanted - away from witlesses and the long honeymoon that meant no meetings. Now that was a holiday.
Would I do it again? Impossible to answer because I am the person today as a result of marriage. It would be the same girl, just different timing. Regrets? Not leaving the borg earlier so we could better enjoy the early years of our marriage.
MMXIV
this post links to the letter i sent to the london bethel following my judicial appeal decision.. this follows my series of podcasts recording the actions of the elders in my local area.. letter to london bethel.
please read the letter and judge whether these men acted fairly and in a just manner.. matt.
You've stated your case well. Not sure how these things will work but surely anyone reading it will have little choice but to investigate or review the evidence? Despite the clear mishandling of the case it may still boil down to how they consider your motives for your beliefs - that of apostasy or just someone who will wait faithfully on Jah to see if he will shed new light on the matter. The elders involved will do anything to cover their own backsides - I'd expect them to lie, but might be hard to change their story from the evidence they've already submitted.
May I respectfully ask if there is an outcome you actually want from this? Clearly being DF'd as a result of false witness is just a shocking injustice, but do you want to remain in, clear your name, take down a few dodgy elders in the process or prove these aren't decisions influenced by holy spirit?
Hope you get a response. Hope you get a result.
MMXIV
i went to the meeting yesterday and found it to be a sad experience.
(i've been fading over the years and down to 2 meetings per month).
i looked around and found that there are no new members.just family members and friends.
I would still be interested to see/find out how that little community I grew up in changed over the years. I only hear when another old timer passes on. When I was young - there was a generation of old ones who had built the congregation. That generation has now completely disappeared.
MMXIV
the russians are coming the russians are coming, the freshman, the man who knew too little.
Life of Brian
There's Something about Mary
I volunteer to do photography for different charities - saves them money and I get to do something I enjoy. I also help out at a local disabled children's unit - assist in building projects.
MMXIV
hi new to this message board.
i was trying to contact the admins or mods and the link at the botton if the message board does not appear to be working.
am i able to pm them?.
Welcome,
Girl – you’ve got self control – several years??? I Lurked for a while but gave in to temptation and became a member a few weeks ago. Wonderful therapy. I'm also a touch paranoid about discovery due to family still in but have learned so much here in a brief time and as long as I don't give personal details I know I'll be safe.
College - my sympathies. I was also impacted by this era and didn't have university as a realistic option (unless maybe I lived at home under the careful scrutiny of family and studied something that could have been useful in bethel – would have been a long shot). Watching younger kids go to Uni didn’t make it easier – I also felt betrayed – but interesting to hear it’s falling out of fashion again?
MMXIV
were any of you really bothered/still bothered by the practice of field service reporting?.
there was an old post on here that got me thinking how the practice got started.. instead of simply being a tool to monitor the progress of the faith, or to see if the work was done "throughout the earth", it appears to me that it was just a tool used to keep the presses rolling and to see how much literature to produce - along with controlling the rank and file.
the average jw gives it no thought, its just another "blessing" from the organization when you hear the monthly reports, etc.. the organization is so statistics-driven that they make jesus out to be a ceo with people who need to meet their sales quotas.i'm sure he really wouldnt care if peter and andrew got 20 hours one month and john got 25. wait, maybe thats why john was "beloved" .
after a while i started counting from the moment i started getting dressed for service, reasoning that from that moment on my day became different because of going in service
agent zero - creativity at it's best.
The WTS is run just like a business and they need some way of seeing if certain strategies are effective or not and what new trends are emerging. So I'd expect they will be closely watching whether the reduced meeting lengths will impact FS positively etc. Fundamental to capturing accurate timesheets within a business is that the process and motivations of those completing them have to be robust. Completing FS reports has changed over the years - does anyone remember when results were posted on the notice board - how competitive would that have been??!!
FS reporting is a perfect mechanism for faders - as long as you turn up to a few well attended groups - and go off on RV's you're sorted. I'd like to think I perfected this art.
Last time I went out though - I got caught by the PO who wanted someone to work with. Fortunately I had recent mags with me, was very positive about working with him and then proceeded to be incredibly zealous on each door. He did ask what articles I'd found successful recently to which I came up with a suitably humble response that some unlikely awake had been really popular despite my presenting it badly "sometimes the cover just speaks for itself" :-) I cheerfully carried on till we finished a long stretch in the cold. Last door I ever did.
MMXIV
