i usually can't hear someone knocking on the door of our enclosed porch, so i haven't spoken to a jw in person in the ten years that we've been at this house.
and being that the temperatures are currently very cold in northeast ohio, i suppose the jws are doing telephone witnessing.
so, today i had the opportunity to talk to two real live jws.
SUPER JOB JAMIE!!! I certainly hope that Travis has not had to experience pedophilia first hand. Your quick thinking just may have saved him from the clutches of the WT if he takes your advice. Perhaps we will be able to greet him here on JWN.
I can't say I've personally been the victim of a pedophile but some members of my family have.
It's cold here in NW Pennsylvania too.
Reopened Mind
Love Earl Grey, drink it straight. I add a teaspoon of honey and a few drops of vanilla extract to my rooibos.
Reopened Mind
had a phone call from my son today.... he rang his jw mother to give her some news and found out the school his little half siblings go to was having an end of year play.
he was pretty excited apparently and asked if he could come along and this is how it went.... "no, it is for family.
for our family not for children who never speak or visit us.".
Wow! Just WOW! Aussie. What a stark contrast between a thoroughly indoctrinated cult member and those who are normal. Lucky for him he is 19 and able to start a NORMAL family and have a NORMAL life. On the other hand I feel so sorry for his mom for replacing her son with a cult. So sad for your family. But one normal parent is better than none.
Reopened Mind
ps; Wish your son and his girlfriend a Merry Christmas
as some of you may know, about two years ago my brother contacted me on fb.
i hadn't seen or heard from him in roughly 12 years before that.
things progressed well once he found out that i and the wife had left the jws.
Uncle Chris --- that has a nice ring to it! Glad to hear you're doing well. And congratulations to your wife on her new job.
Reopened Mind
i guess the stars aligned for this one.
this morning i dropped my car off to get it fixed and the shop i always go to is a lot closer to my mom's house than mine so i asked her if i could stay at her house while it got fixed.
she was out in service doing returns at the time and offered to ride me to her house.
MrFreeze,
The elder who visited you was right about one thing----nothing you can say will make him think it isn't the Truth. If only he would do his own unbiased research with an open mind. Some things are too much to hope for. Well at least it seems you have a good relationship with your mom.
Reopened Mind
it has been a long time since i have posted here, so, here it goes.
i have been back and forth for the last two years on whether or not to stay in this religion or not.
most of me wanted to stay for the same as many others, fear.
Theredeemer,
You, too, are admired for standing up for what you believe in. Posting here is a definite stand.
My husband and I left together. We left mentally long before we were able to leave physically. We had children and grandchildren in the cult when we began to wake up. We moved 1000 miles away to start a new life free of the cult. O, and did I mention we were in our late fifties so transitioning to a whole new way of life was difficult.
I don't know your circumstances but I hope you are young enough not to have given the majority of your life to a publishing company. I know it's daunting having to make new friends and learning to think for yourself. Keep posting. Someone here has been through every aspect that you will experience. You have help.
Reopened Mind
when asked who was the wisest man, socrates said, "i know one thing, that i know nothing".. i can definitely say that what i thought was immutable truth 25 years ago is not what i now believe.
the older i get, the less certain i am of what is definitely true.. ageing and life experience teaches us in the end that we really know nothing.
life is very humbling.. do you agree with socrates?.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.
Reopened Mind
was a jw for 40 years.
stopped attending 2010...resigned officially in 2011. still a little shell shocked but beginning to feel much better now.
awesome revelation....people in the world are not all that bad.
arrakis1,
Welcome!!
I was a JW for 38 years, my husband, a born-in, was in for 57 years. We left together last year and moved 1000 miles away from all the people we had known. I must say we have made some wonderful new friends here, some of whom are aware of our JW past. It isn't easy. We have a lot to learn and a lot to unlearn.
Best of luck. Looking forward to reading your story.
Reopened Mind
david turned 18 yesterday.
(he is the one who walked from orlando, fl to washington, dc a little over 3 years ago on behalf of homeless children) i wrote about that on the forum back then.
what i didn't write about is that david has grown up without a father....not because he doesn't exist, but because his father has chosen to live his life of drugs and violence.
coffee_black,
You have an awesome grandson----and handsome too!!
May he have a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Reopened Mind
a practical question concerning human psychology .
it very well be that it was the jws who were.
responsible for first approaching this posing question to people to incite their interest and concern.. i can confidently say it was for my 20 something year old mother back in the early 50's.. unfortunately people who did so, weren't completely discerning the probable commercial .
Armageddon became less and less real especially after 1975.
Reopened Mind
