IsaacJ22

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Posts by IsaacJ22

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  104

  Father Elders going mad !

  by koolaid-man in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the stress on jehovah's witness elders raising their children in "the truth" is causing many to literally go mad.. keeping their children in " the spiritual ark" is becoming more and more difficult.. many elders are snapping under the pressure.. one of our guests on the six screens conference call told of her elder father ( who everyone at the kingdom hall thought was an angel) came home from the meeting and killed the family dog in the kitchen with his bookbag as the family looked on....... join us tonight oct. 22, 2011 at 7 pm edt.

  .... our guest will be wendy lee tucker former jw whose father was an elder and terribly abused her physically and emotionally.. she received horrific beatings..... hit with a bat, punched at, receiving a broken nose and became a prisoner in her home.. wendy was looked in her room with the doors being nailed shut when the family went off to the kingdom hall.. a far cry fom being a "spiritual paradise".

  it is easy to get on the call....no computer is necessary.... just dial 712-432-8710 and when asked for pin use 9925. our lines open at 6:30 pm edt.....so come on early and talk with all those who have been "touched by the tentacles of the watchtower".

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  IsaacJ22

  Making stuff up and spreading rumors doesn't help ex-Witnesses. It doesn't even hurt the WTS. In fact, it often helps it to keep JWs loyal because it provides the Society with examples of how nutty ex-Witnesses and opposers are. They say that the world is all evil and full of lies about them. Crap like this only proves them right. It also makes us look as screwy as the org to those who don't understand what the fuss is about.

  Thanks, but could you knock it off already? You're hurting us. Not helping us. Or are you secretly a double agent or something like that?
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  21

  Anything scary happen after you left or joined another religion?

  by lilbluekitty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i see i only get to post one thread a day so i'd better make this one count.. did anything scary or bad (besides shunning, etc.

  ) happen to you after you left?

  what about if you decided to join another religion?.

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  IsaacJ22

  The most frightening thing that happened to me was the harassment. I had Witnesses knocking on my door (didn't help that I lived only 2 miles from the KH), leaving 50+ messages on my phone every night, hassling me at work, etc. It was unreal and it went on for a couple of years. I was actually afraid to go outside!

  If this happened today, I'd just go to the cops. Back then, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this religion. Was I going to come back? Was I done? I didn't know. That made me a little uneasy as well.
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  13

  Let the shunning begin, apparently...(long-winded)

  by lilbluekitty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my father and i have been going back and forth on facebook in private messages.

  it had been since august that my dad had contacted me, before i was beginning to "come out" about not wanting to be a jw, and actually i haven't actually stated that to any of my family or jw friends yet, as i was hoping to do the fade thing.. well i wrote to my dad and he has recently been very sr (self-righteous) lately and was copy/pasting "answers" to my questions right out of the wt cd-rom.

  i called him on it and asked him to speak out of his heart.

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  IsaacJ22

  I also recommend you fade if your congregation is full of apostate hunters. If you can simply stop going to meetings, then I wouldn't drag it out unless there's a good reason. That's a good reason by your standards, not anyone elses, BTW. I simply stopped going and was never DFed or anything like that, but some say their congregations will DF you even if you simply stay away.

  The thing is that your relationship with your family will be needlessly complicated if you get DFed or try to DA yourself. So why bother with that? Better to be inactive.

  I appreciated the part about your father speaking to you in a fake voice. I've noticed that many JWs do this thing where they talk to you in their elder-giving-a-talk voice. It's the one they often use in field service, actually. It's like they think this is a conference call, and Jesus is on the 3rd line, so they want to sound professional to impress him or something.

  Good luck. Welcome to the board.
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  30

  Now what do I do?

  by outsmartthesystem in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you that know my plight....i need to know your opinion.

  summary - i developed a piss poor, combative, rebellious attitude toward the society many years ago.

  my wife saw it and hated it.

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  IsaacJ22

  I tend to agree with Sinis. No offense, but I think you're going about this the wrong way.

  I hate to say this--and I know that many on the board are big on the same line of argument as you--but I doubt they'll care about your research. They will only look at each other sadly, realizing that you're not just some weak, crazy, mixed up kid...which all we lesser apostates supposedly are...but you are instead a dangerous individual who must be dealt with for the good of the congregation. Right now, they probably think you just need straightening out, which is (partially) why they promised your wife they wouldn't DF you. Once they realize they were wrong, they will DF you anyway.

  Big time.

  I know it feels good or even heroic to stand up and fight the power. I think lots of exxers fall into this trap. But in the end, the best thing you'll have to show for it is the ability to claim you did it. Meanwhile, you may lose your wife, your family, everything. Your kids will likely grow up enslaved to the WTS because they'll come to see you as the bad parent who chose Satan's way of life. And all for what?

  Is it worth all that for the right to say you stood up just this one time?

  Or you could play it smart and make a solid impression on your kids over the coming years, who will realize that every time the WT mags speak badly of worldly people that they are, in fact, talking badly about their dad. Their dad who is a great person and who isn't hedonistic, dishonest, or any of the other crap they keep saying about non-Witnesses and especially former Witnesses.

  That's the long path. But it's the best one you've got. It will be far better than some grand courtroom scene that will end if misery. Trust me, it won't go the way you imagine it would.

  Dare I suggest that the elders got your wife to dare you to enter the KH to trick you into going there, exposing yourself as an apostate? That's exactly the sort of thing they do at my old congregation. They'll all justify it as their way of helping you. Even your wife. That may not sound like her, but mine did a few things I wouldn't have thought possible of her at the behest of well-meaning elders.

  BTW, I'm still married to a JW who worked with the elders "against me" for a time, too. I don't have kids, but I do have some insight on this issue. I hope my advide helps.
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  20

  Muscle testing, applied kinesiology, and just plain being wrongheaded

  by JimmyPage in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife's family have been jws for generations.

  we all know that the watchtower had crazy ideas about health early on and were usually at odds with the medical community.

  so it's no surprise that my in-laws are big on non-traditional ways of treating ailments.. but for years now the society has printed articles and preached in assembly talks against applied kinesiology, or muscle testing.

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  IsaacJ22

  My wife has an aunt who has sold the whole family on alternative cures. She has shelves of vitamins, drops, and pays out hundreds per visit to go see quacks instead of real doctors who only charge half. Even things that claim to have a spiritistic explanation she's into, despite the Society's warnings.

  The worst thing is that she can just as evangelistic about her alternative cures as she can be about the WTS. She keeps trying to suck my wife into the vortex! And then she uses my mother-in-law to help too.
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  12

  Piggy-Back JW's on the Mormon Cult Controversy

  by Momma-Tossed-Me in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on a previous thread a non-jw made the linked the jw's to cult status excluding the mormons.. can we as a group add jw's to this mormon-cult controversy to get some mileage out it?.

  surely there are some on this board with some media contacts that could do the trick.. make some correlation between the two comparing the relative similarities of the two.. mtm .

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  IsaacJ22

  I can tell you that I find lots in common with articles written by ex-Mormons and ex-Mormon videos on Youtube. But I have to say, their beliefs are weirder than the WTS's.

  Many people seem to believe that JWs are just your garde variety protestants who like to knock on doors. That's one of the reasons they get so many things wrong about JWs when they appear as characters on TV. Some are sympathetic for this reason and get annoyed when we post criticisms about JWs.

  You'd have educate people about their beliefs and especially their culture before selling them on the cult idea, I think.
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  10

  A couple of statistics I'm looking for...

  by IsaacJ22 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  hi guys.

  i've been plucking away at a podiobook about going from jw to atheist and why jws should think about how they treat xjws.

  (this will be bigger than my 15 page essay from a while back.

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  IsaacJ22

  Thanks to everyone for your comments. I noticed that the survey size was small, too. I will have to mention that out of fairness if I use the data in my podiobook.
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  10

  A couple of statistics I'm looking for...

  by IsaacJ22 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  hi guys.

  i've been plucking away at a podiobook about going from jw to atheist and why jws should think about how they treat xjws.

  (this will be bigger than my 15 page essay from a while back.

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  IsaacJ22

  Thanks Slimboyfat. I found one Pew web site during my search, but not this one.

  While searching for the statistic regarding ex-Witnesses who become atheists, I did find that "only" 80% of JWs believe their faith is the one and only true religion. I suppose that suggests about 20% might not be completely fanatical. Or that 20% of them weren't really paying attention when asked the question. Maybe I'll find other useful tidbits while I look.

  IMHO, thanks for that statistic. Good question about how they arrived at the figure.
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  10

  A couple of statistics I'm looking for...

  by IsaacJ22 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  hi guys.

  i've been plucking away at a podiobook about going from jw to atheist and why jws should think about how they treat xjws.

  (this will be bigger than my 15 page essay from a while back.

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  IsaacJ22

  Hi guys. I've been plucking away at a podiobook about going from JW to atheist and why JWs should think about how they treat XJWs. (This will be bigger than my 15 page essay from a while back.) I was wondering if anyone knew where I could get my hands on a couple of statistics I haven't been able to locate via Google so far.

  1) I thought I read that the Pew study on religion found that JWs have the highest rate of people leaving the faith who become atheists. Yet I can't find it. I even remember details about this. I thought they said that 15% of XJWs become atheists, while the 2nd highest group (ex-Mormons) only become atheists at about 8%?

  Was I high, or has someone else seen this too? You'd think I could find it without much trouble.

  2) I understand that the dropout rate for JWs who've been converted is like 2 out of every 3. Does anyone know if there's a statistical dropout rate for born-ins?

  Thanks a lot. I don't want to put anything in the podiobook that's untrue.
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  24

  Why can't I just have one day with out seeing a JW ......seriously

  by troubled mind in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  today i went early to my dad's house to help my disabled sister with medical paperwork .

  at 10am the cleaning lady shows up .

  she was a jw recruit of my mom's yrs ago, and use to be like a sister to us a really long time ago .

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  IsaacJ22

  I had years of this stuff after I left my KH. It remains one of my pet peeves with local Witnesses. 15 years later, and I only have to deal with them once in a while...despite the fact that they're my in-laws.

  Hurray!

  You might try asking them how good an impression they think they're making on you when they treat you this way. If you were a Mormon and treated them this way, would it encourage the Witnesses to change their faith to Mormonism or would it actively discourage them?

  Hey, the least they can do is to do no harm. Sometimes, just behaving like a decent person can be a good witness to others. But behaving badly does more harm than good.