i read don cameron's book and got an idea on how to word a letter to the ex when certain expressions indicate she has no clue why i left the jws.... i would suggest "captives of a concept" to all who just want a simple way to explain to a witness why we don't go... although there are a ton of reasons..... here is snip of the letter.... you mentioned me getting reinstated the other day.
i laughed because it was so funny to me.
it also let me know that you really don't understand why i left the witnesses.
If you're really trying to reach an understanding here, I would consider leaving out or changing this line:
I laughed because it was so funny to me.
This could be interpreted as hostile or condescending. That's especially troubling as it's right at the start of the letter.
Just a thought. :-)
i'll give my story again:.
i was raised a believing witness.
i had a normal life and very loving parents who would do anything for me and my brother(who is 21).
I would not confide in any JW about this. Even if they claim they won't hold anything you say against you, even your best friend is likely to tell the elders. They may do it because Jehovah is watching, or because it's for your own good in their eyes. Sometimes, they make promises like these without truly realizing that you might have something "apostate-like" to say. So they think they can keep the promise but can't.
I hate to say this, because I'm not big on the idea, but you could try fading. I didn't see if you were still living with your parents or not, but obviously if you are, that will be hard to do. :-(
I wrote a couple articles online about fading that offered tips on how to do it, but I'm sure there plenty of them available here, too. Note that my family aren't JWs (just my in-laws, who annoy me more than often than not) and even if my family were JWs, I've never been close to them. So it's easy for me to say you shouldn't fade. But maybe, in your case, you should consider it as an alternative to coming out.
Of course, everyone will eventually realize what has happened. But at least you won't officially be DFed for fading. The length of time required varies depending on how many witch hunters you have in your KH. It could be a matter of months.
http://xfamily.org/index.php/gallery_of_posters.
didnt realize until now how eirilyyyyyy similar jw's are to other religions.
wow.
Totally creepy. The pics at the link, I mean. The one Lunatic Faith posted was great.
I think we're on the same side of this religious graphics war, Lunatic.
when discussing the argument of how life originated the wt always boils it down to being chance vs. intelligent design.. no scientist in their right mind believes it happened by chance.
nor do most scientists believe that life is a product of god.. there is a solution that the wt completely ignores and that is... natural selection.. how many here who believe in a creator have honestly examined what natural selection really is?.
(i've been reading "the god delusion" by richard dawkins and was very surprised when i came to the chapter that actually mentions the watchtower society's arguments for intelligent design.
Actually, it's Keanu Reeves with a Frenchy mustache and Mr Fantastic hair.
I used to write fake bios on my web site. This was a picture of Keanu that I doctored up to look mildly stupid and pretended it was me. I ended up using it for my site full time. :-) Later, I wrote bios of me as the Terminator, KITT from Knight Rider, and other absurd things. They all had one thing in common: the mustache. Even the car had one.
Thank you, good night.
when discussing the argument of how life originated the wt always boils it down to being chance vs. intelligent design.. no scientist in their right mind believes it happened by chance.
nor do most scientists believe that life is a product of god.. there is a solution that the wt completely ignores and that is... natural selection.. how many here who believe in a creator have honestly examined what natural selection really is?.
(i've been reading "the god delusion" by richard dawkins and was very surprised when i came to the chapter that actually mentions the watchtower society's arguments for intelligent design.
I have the God Delusion on audio, which is actually read by Dawkins and his wife. I was pretty surprised when I heard him talking about the Creation Book. I already knew the book was pretty awful, but just hearing Dawkins address it specifically was a big "wow" moment since I hadn't expected it. Apparently lots of people have sent him copies to try and prove creationism, so he wanted to deal with it directly.
That's probrably my favorite book arguing for atheism so far.
the lady i studied with asked if it would be okay if she still brought the magazines by.
i said of course because i do love the awake and watchtower.
well, when she came by last week, she gave me the mags and then as we stood around chit-chatting, i realized we were basically still having the study, only we were standing up instead of sitting in the living room.
I'm afraid I agree with what so many others have basically said: she's milking you for another Bible study and another hour or so of field service time. In effect, she's using you to make her report card look better at the end of the month. JWs are very opportunistic, which is a shame, really. But it's true of many of them.
I would tell her--politely, if she'll let you--that you really meant what you said when you told her that you don't want to continue the study. Which is what she's tricking you into doing. But tell her you'd still like to be friends and you'd still like the mags.
Let's see if she's still your friend after that. Odds are, she'll stop coming. At least for a while. If she runs out of Bible studies in the future, she might come back to see if you'd like to restart the study.
If she doesn't let it go at this, you'll have to be more forceful.
BTW, many here have a very different opinion of the literature than you seem to have. Which is fine. But that's why you're getting all these reactions. Maybe you should try fact checking the articles some time. I think you'll begin to see why we're raising our eyebrows at you if you do.
Good luck.
i know some here have said they pretty much hated the elders.
did you personally feel the elders were abusive men?.
I certainly didn't like the elders at my old congregation. Most seemed to have an uncontrollable need to nitpick and, dare I say it, bully people at times. It seemed like many people at the congregation felt the same way. The KH was widely known as one particular elder's hall--he was the presiding overseer.
There were a couple who genuinely tried to help people and who even seemed to agree that yes, most of the BOE were bullies. At least two of them were put on some sort of reproof where they weren't allowed to make comments any more during meetings because they would use this as an opportunity to speak out when they felt the needs of the congregation were ignored. They also weren't allowed to fully participate in other ways, but I'm not clear on what that was any more.
Even the traveling overseers seemed impotent. They were publicly reprove the elders, but the same stuff went on after the overseers left.
two weeks ago during the bible study, we werein chapter 7 of the publication " 'bearing thorough witness' about god's kingdom".
paragraph 16 and 17 say this:.
16. christians today are priveleged to share in the work like that done by philip.
Yeah, all too typical. I tend to think the literature is largely there to encourage JWs to continue being JWs. That, and passing down edicts to the average Witnesses in their KHs. I guess the donations help too. :)
I do find the similarities bewteen JWs and Mormons striking. More so than JWs and most other groups. The stories of ex-Mormons impress me as much as the stories of many XJWs.
earlier today at work my inactive jw co-worker was telling me how the elders want to set up a meeting with her parents and with her, and her husband who is studying.
they haven't been to a meeting in at least 2-3 months, skipped the assembly, and missed the special day assembly.
they missed it due to just being busy with life and other things.
I often think that Witnesses who make assertions like "I know you love Jehovah" do so as if it's a prerequisite for being a good person, as if it's they're offering you a compliment or something. I feel like correcting both assumptions whenever I hear phrases like these.
But then how do you do it without offending them? Which kinda ruins the whole point. Or half the point, at least, if you want them to realize how cult-like they sound as much as you want them to know you don't appreciate being implicated as a believer in the Society against your will.
I don't have many "religious" Witness friends. Wonder why?
i apologize ahead of time if this topic has already been posted.
if not, i'm sure many are already aware that we had a 5.8 earthquake here on the east coast of the us at around 1:50 pm today..............we felt it here in ct. .
terri.
Yeah, I was disappointed. Didn't feel jack. I was working in a freezer and then heard something happened when I came out. On the way home, NPR said it was an earthquake. Would have been my first.
Cripes.
