d- What are you studying? Why do you want to drop out? If you leave, do you have an alternative, such as a job or career that you are qualified for? How close are you to finishing? How are you paying for college, and are you incurring a lot of debt? The only think I can say for sure is that no one can answer your question without more information.
Chaserious
JoinedPosts by Chaserious
-
36
Is college worth it?
by NewYork44M inmy life has been transformed by higher education.
however, i am aware that college is not for everyone.. here are some interesting thoughts:.
http://www.theatlasphere.com/columns/080926-williams-higher-education.php.
-
-
-
123
New here
by Change Name ini had been studying with the jehovah's witnesses for the last couple years.
they have been interesting study sessions and have learned quite a bit about them and their beliefs.
much of what they teach is what i had learned through personal bible study.. growing up was normal.
-
-
Chaserious
Change - if you are not trolling us, you seem to value being able to look into what you see as both the positives and the critques of this organization and then make the choice you think is best, whatever that may be. How do you reconcile that with the organization's policy of banning all consideration of dissent? If you were to be baptized, you would then be subject to expulsion and shunning for even looking at a website such as this one or others considered to be "anti-JW". What about those who were born into the organization, as I was? Surely you don't think that reasonable people can't differ on whether JW is the true religion. Why should those born into the WT not also be allowed to look at the positives and negatives before making their choice? Instead, they are taught that you will lose your everlasting life if you listen to anything critical on the part of former members.
Also, have you considered the history of flip-flopping on doctrine? As an example, the published position of the WTS has changed 8 times with respect to whether those destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah have any chance of a resurrection. I can provide the citations if you are interested. For the cliff notes, it's basically Yes/No/Yes/No/Yes/No/Yes/No. While this is not a key piece of doctrine, if they are really God's mouthpiece, why would God give them the wrong answer, then the right one, and so on and so forth. Yes, there is a scripture about the light getting brighter that they are fond of using, but unless there is one that says the light will get bright, then dark, then bright again and so on, I'm not convinced.
-
41
newbe
by emperorslaundrist inthank you for this forum.
thank you for your stories which helped wake me up from my delusion.
thank you for letting me join you.
-
-
Chaserious
Welcome! Best wishes planning your "escape". It's good to approach this kind of thing with a lot of deliberation. I thought my wife would choose the org over me as well, but she didn't, and we have both been out for two and a half years now, and never been happier! If it looks like your exit will be prolonged, finding a way to start a degree program somewhere would be great if it's practical for you. The education we got before/after our exit was really a lifesaver.
-
20
Daily Show References WT Masturbation Video
by MrFreeze indon't remember it being brought up here and something made me think of it so i thought i'd post it here.. here's the link from the segment.
it shows up at around the 5:45 mark of the clip: .
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-31-2012/a-daily-show-tribute-to-institutional-competence.
-
-
Chaserious
Wow, that is priceless.
-
20
Daily Show References WT Masturbation Video
by MrFreeze indon't remember it being brought up here and something made me think of it so i thought i'd post it here.. here's the link from the segment.
it shows up at around the 5:45 mark of the clip: .
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-31-2012/a-daily-show-tribute-to-institutional-competence.
-
-
Chaserious
Is it possible to link to a thread here about the WT video you're referring to? Love the Daily Show, but feel like I missed the joke!
-
49
RBC biggie divulges WTS expects disaster victims helped by RBC volunteers to fork over insurance money to the WTS
by oppostate inmy wife spent all morning long preparing this super thanksgiving banquet.
with a huge turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce.
and greenbeen salad, pie and icecream.. yummy!.
-
-
Chaserious
"Putting the pieces together, from the insurance companies' point of view (including the National Flood Insurance Program, i.e.taxpayers) they are paying to restore property that was not covered by an insurance policy, for which premiums have not been paid. I'll leave it to the lawyers to opine whether or not this is legal, but it certainly is unethical!"
You do have to pay premium for a NFIP policy... usually quite a sizeable premium, in fact.
-
49
RBC biggie divulges WTS expects disaster victims helped by RBC volunteers to fork over insurance money to the WTS
by oppostate inmy wife spent all morning long preparing this super thanksgiving banquet.
with a huge turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce.
and greenbeen salad, pie and icecream.. yummy!.
-
-
Chaserious
It's not insurance fraud. As long as you pay insurance premiums, you are entitled to get the fair commercial cost of repairs and do whatever you want with it. You could take a cruise around the world with the money if you want. If you have a mortgage, your mortgage company might have to sign off on the check if it's over a certain amount, depending on what state you are in. But they don't care where the money goes as long as the work gets done. I'm sure the way the RBC phrases it, they don't demand the money, but just highly pressure you to hand it over. I worked on the RBC for a few years and wasn't aware of this. They probably have the RBC bigshots talk to the homeowners, and I doubt they put anything on paper. It's sleazy, especially with the PR spin they put on it for the literature, but it's still a voluntary donation. To be honest, it's not a bad deal for the homeowners, because if you paid a contractor the money to get the work done, you'd be right back where you started. If you make the donation to the WTS, you're back to where you started, plus you can deduct it from your taxes. On a $50k repair job, that could easily translate into a $15k tax refund, plus getting your house fixed.
DaCheech: You are close, but I worked for a homeowers insurance company in the past. Once you satisfy them that the repairs are done/are getting done, they have to sign the check over to the homeowner. In most states, it's illegal for them to force you to forward the money to an approved contractor or require that a contractor be on the check.
-
62
Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower SUICIDE . How many JW suicides can you recall?
by Anti-Cult inhow many jw suicides can you recall?.
is it more common than the rest of society?.
i personally know of 5.
-
-
Chaserious
I was in from birth until I was about 26, and I can only think of two cases. One was a young brother with small kids who decided to become a police officer and was constantly getting crap about it from the elders. They tried to counsel him not to do it, but apparrently he really wanted to be an officer, and they couldnt' DF him for it even though it's discouraged, so he just did it. They kept playing games with him, like taking away his "privileges" one at a time - not letting him carry the microphones, not letting him even give #2 talks, and so on. I think there were other factors as well in his suicide, but I felt bad about the hassle and embarrassment they were constantly putting him through for just doing the freaking job that he wanted to.
-
22
JW's just called
by l p inthe jws just called.
they are new to the congregation since i left in 2002/3.. they were offering a dvd for deaf people to 'learn what god requires of me".
i said there were no deaf people here.. the other guy that was just standing there asked if there were deaf people in this area.
-
-
Chaserious
They are probably from a sign language congregation or group, and not associated with your local congregation. The foreign groups tend to use the phone books to try to find people, but since you can't pick the deaf out of a directory, they probably just go around and pick a random house or two in each neighborhood and ask if any deaf people live in the area. Horribly inefficient, but I'm not surprised. It's easy too, because they can easily spend a couple hours driving around without actually having to witness to anyone.
-
112
Are They Cynically Shutting Down The Organization?
by metatron ini've raised this idea before but recent events seem to support it.
changes in the watchtower may be guided by more than a need for cash flow: they may simply be liquidating/shutting it down as discreetly as possible.. of course, this doesn't mean they stop working on their upstate ny country club - but it could mean that the throrough going exposure and disproof of their beliefs on the internet, when it emerged, took many of them by surprize, as it did many of us!
after awhile, they generally gave up trying to make any sense of their doctrines - and coupled with cash flow issues - moved towards a quiet retreat.. take a look at a few things:.
-
-
Chaserious
I think that their demise of the WTS as we know it in the U.S. is still about about 10-20 years off, when they start making religions pay property taxes. There have been proponents of this all throughout American history, going back to James Madison, and it's already becoming the norm in Europe:
As the U.S. grows more secular, I think it's only a matter of time before they want to either collect taxes on the vast landholdings of religion, or put that property to productive use by someone who will pay taxes. They will probably give exemptions for the charitable arms of religions, such as those that run soup kitchens, hospitals, shelters, and the like - but of course that wouldn't help the WTS. This kind of development would be the tipping point - I would have to imagine that the congregations that could even afford to stay afloat would be able to send much less $$$ along to the WWW, not to mention the taxes on HQ. I wouldn't be shocked if anticipation of this is one of the factors driving them out of Brooklyn. One year of property taxes on the Brooklyn buildings at the height of their Brooklyn presence would make the Candace Conti verdict look like pocket change.