Posts by ABibleStudent

17

First public talk as an "apostate"

by Borges in

jw
friends

i gave a lot of talks as a jw.

beeing the only elder in a cong for almost three years, i've been on the platform at every meeting (also at ca and dc).

but thats long ago.

ABibleStudent

Best of Wishes to you Borges. I hope that your experiences will help others to avoid dangerous cults like the Watchtower.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

50

New Here! So many questions! :)

by TeenageInsider in

jw
friends

hey everyone!

i'm so happy that i finnally joined i just turned 17 and i have so many questions about the org.. i've been lurking around the site for months, and love reading experiences about bethel, and all the hypocricy that the wtbts spews out.. so i finally joined in and hope to make some great friends.. a little about me:.

im male, 17, and i am a born-in, so this is all i know... i was baptised at age 13 i beleive.... my gramma, and grampa and mom , and sisters and brothers, are all jw's.

ABibleStudent

Welcome TeenageInsider, Research as much as you can about the Watchtower and its history, and dangerous cults that is not published by the Watchtower, make as many non-JW friends as possible, and get an advanced education/vocational training. Pretty soon you will start having difficulties talking with your parents, so I would recommend reading Steve Hassan's books (i.e., "Combatting Cult Mind Control", "Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves", and "Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs") and visit his website at www.freedomofmind.com . Post often to vent your feelings, be respectful to your parents while you live in their home, and best of wishes growing up. Life will get better for you in a few more years.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

93

Need advice. My inactive jw husband has been lured back.

by ingimar in

ABibleStudent

Welcome ingimar, Have you read any of Steve Hassan's books (i.e., "Combatting Cult Mind Control", "Releasing the Bonds: Helping People to Think for Themselves", or "Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs") or visited his website at www.freedomofmind.com ? May be You can contact Steve Hassan through his website and ask for a reference to a councilor in your community to visit with your husband. The only other thing that you can do is keep your husband busy doing fun activities and making new non-JW friends that will keep him too busy to attend meetings.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

39

Hi I am new. Thanks for the food at the proper time.

by 2+2=5 in

jw
friends

i have been lurking on this forum for a few months and thought it was time i joined in.

a big thankyou goes to all who post here, i have enjoyed immensely all the thought provoking discussion and not so thought provoking (thanks recovery/ethos).

i have had heaps to get my head around recently learning the truth about the truth and as i remember reading here before its like digesting a brick.

ABibleStudent

Welcome 2+2=5!! Best of wishes on your fad/exit from the WTBTS. Have you read any of Steve Hassan's Books (i.e., "Combatting Cult Mind Control", "Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves", and "Freedom of Mind - Helping Loved Ones Leave Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs"") or visited his website at www.freedomofmind.com?

By the way "Freedom of Mind" can be purchased as an e-book so that you can read it at D.C.'s to preserve your sanity. It could also be a great gift to give to some abused JW spouse. Or, to help you help family to awaken.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

22

For JWs: Bible Verses Contradict Watchtower

by ABibleStudent in

have you ever wanted to have a witty comeback for a jw's thought stopping platitude or slogun, but couldn't think of one to plant a seed of doubt in a jw?

please share your witty comebacks and a bible verse(s) that contradicts watchtower thought stopping platitudes and slogans.. here are a couple of mine.. 1) watchtower thougnt-stopping platitude - "where else will we go?".

response - "don't you mean to whom?

ABibleStudent

Have you ever wanted to have a witty comeback for a JW's thought stopping platitude or slogun, but couldn't think of one to plant a seed of doubt in a JW?

Please share your witty comebacks and a Bible verse(s) that contradicts Watchtower thought stopping platitudes and slogans.

Here are a couple of mine.

1) Watchtower Thougnt-Stopping Platitude - "Where else will we go?"

Response - "Don't you mean to whom? According to the Bible go to Jesus Christ and not to an organization. Have you read John 6:61-69?

1984 NIV Bible John 6:61-69:

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit [e] and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

2) Watchtower Thought-Stopping Platitude - "The light keeps getting brighter!"

Response - "If God is perfect and doesn't change, how can the light get brighter by the Watchtower changing its doctrines? Have you read James 1:16-18? How can the Watchtower be God's organization on earth with its flip-flopping changes in doctrine?"

1984 NIV James 1:16-18

"16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."

3) Watchtower Slogan - "Millions Now Living Will Live Forever! (and Billions of non-JWs will die!)"

Response - "Don't you mean billions will live forever in the spirit? According to 1 John 2:1-2, Jesus Christ sacrifice atoned for the sins of the whole world."

1984 NIV 1 John 2:1-11

"2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for [ a ] the sins of the whole world."

3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love [ b ] is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him [ c ] to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Please share other witty comebacks to Watchtower platitudes, slogans, and miss quoting scripture in the Watchtower and Awake! publications in this thread.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

60

Study the Bible with JW - Any advice?

by FingersCrossed in

going for a word by word bible reading/study with a jw, no literature involved and maybe using more than one versions.

is that a wise move and is there any advantage?.

ABibleStudent

Hi FingersCrossed, If you are trying to help your JW friend, you should read Steve Hassan's books (i.e., "Combatting Cult Mind Control" and "Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves') or visit Steve Hassan's website www.freedomofmind.com. If you are not familiar with interacting with Cult or former Cult members, you will be confused with how JWs or former JWs behave. Reading a bible with him may or may not help him. Your time might be better spent inviting your JW friend to meet more non-JWs and do fun activities together. I hope that you are not romantically attracted to your JW friend, because JWs and former JWs have a lot of emotional baggage to deal with that may cause you a lot of emotional drama. Good-luck!!

As long as the JW is not trying to recruit you into the cult, I would recommend reading a Study Bible with your JW friend because of the annotations at the bottom of each page. I own a NIV Study Bible that helps me to put Bible verses in context with what scholars believe were occurring during Biblical times.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

97

Jehovah's Witnesses dismayed by new magazine format from Watchtower Society.

by Balaamsass in

jw
friends

wow.

i was surprised this week by calls from active jws complaining about the new magazine format, and more begging for money from the platform.. frankly i was surprized by this reaction since this is old news to jwn members.

i guess actually shuffling to the bookroom and grabbing the new "awake tracts" minus the inside cover forward ...awakened many sleepy, catatonic, bored jws who never read the things or go on the internet anyway.. any feedback from other areas?.

ABibleStudent

Billy the Ex-Bethelite - My mom expressed her disappointment at being able to finish a mag in less than 20 minutes. It doesn't make for very much to offer at the door or to return visits. Most of my parents' calls are more social than religious.

H'mmm, less time wasted reading Cr_p = more time JWs have to think. This could be another nail in the coffin for the WTBTS.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

9

WT at its most clever?

by simon17 in

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ABibleStudent

The WTBTS is very good at rewriting scriptures and then citing the scripture to validate their opinion to make it appear as if they were only reciting the scripture in the Watchtower and Awake literature.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

34

It's Back! . . . Round 2.

by ABibleStudent in

if you are an american citizen, please visit http://wh.gov/tfk and sign the "protect millions of americans from dangerous orgs: modify usc title 26 501 tax exemption requirements" petition that i created on june 1, 2012 on the white house website.

i assume that only americans can sign this petition, but i do not know.

it takes about 2 minutes to register and sign the petition.

ABibleStudent

Thanks a million to the 36 people, who have signed the White House petition at http://wh.gov/tFK as of this afternoon.

Unfortunately since only 36 people have signed this White House petition with only 3 days until it expires, it seems unlikely that more people will sign this petition than the 93 people who signed the first petition nor will it collect 25,000 signatures so that Obama administration officials will respond to the petition.

Although I believe that requiring tax-exempt organizations to promote freedom of religious belief and speech to members and employees is a core value that will prevent organizations from becoming Dangerous Orgs, it appears that my idea has very limited support. In an attempt to increase awareness of politicians to revise USC Title 26 §501 (and possibly §170) to clearly define public policy, I plan to continue to write politicians about protecting children from child abuse and molestation by requiring that tax-exempt organizations implement policies to protect children and encourage prompt reporting of felonious crimes such as child abuse and molestation, rape, and murder.

Today, I wrote letters to the President, my two U.S. Senators, and my U.S. Representative to hopefully inspire them to either create and/or support legislation to protect children from child abuse and molestation. The letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein is shown in the quote box below. Writing letters to the President, U.S. Senators, and U.S. Representatives is another phase of a multi-prong approach to raise awareness of politicians to promote legislative changes.

Does anyone else have suggestions for writing to politicians and nfluential people?

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

Dear Senator Dianne Feinstein:
I respectfully ask that you support and/or create legislation to revise USC Title 26 §501 (and possibly §170) to require that all tax-exempt organizations and its leadership must promptly report felonious crimes to proper government authorities and protect children from child abuse and molestation. I believe that Congress should authorize the IRS to promulgate new regulations; to expand investigating complaints of non-profit organizations; and to enforce the legislation. An organization’s tax exempt status should be suspended for not less than 3 years if an organization encourages its members and/or employees to discourage victims and perpetrators from promptly reporting felonious crimes to applicable government agencies or if an organization does not implement policies that effectively protect children from child abuse or molestation. As a minimum, legislation should specifically require that crimes of child molestation and abuse, rape, and murder should be reported to government agencies before being reported to an organization’s legal department.

Considering the following news reports, it seems incomprehensible to me that tax-exempt organizations are not required to have effective child protection policies and to encourage their members and/or employees to encourage victims and perpetrators to report crimes to appropriate government agencies:
· Jerry Sandusky molested children through Second Mile charity that he started for troubled youths: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/25/jerry-sandusky-second-mile_n_1545590.html.
· Amateur Athletic Union institutes child-protection measures to prevent child abuse by the organization’s leadership, such as the allegations against former CEO and President Bobby Dodd: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2012/06/12/after-ousting-ceo-over-abuse-allegations-aau-mandates-child-protection-measures/.
· Catholic Monsignor William Lynn was found guilty of one count of endangering the welfare of a child for covering up child sex abuse: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/22/us-usa-crime-church-idUSBRE85L13820120622.
· Catholic Bishop, Robert W. Finn, indicted for failure to report suspected child abuse: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/us/kansas-city-bishop-indicted-in-reporting-of-abuse-by-priest.html?_r=1.
· Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York top leadership pressured local elders to not inform other JWs about known pedophiles in the congregation: www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/us/28-million-awarded-in-jehovahs-witnesses-abuse-case.html?_r=2.
Although changes to USC Title 26 § 501 (and possibly §170) may appear expensive to implement at first glance, I believe that costs can be paid for by tax exempt organizations and are less costly to governments than for paying for additional social and judicial services. According to opinions of Supreme Court justices in BOB JONES UNIVERSITY, GOLDSBORO CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS, INC. v. UNITED STATES. 461 U.S. 574 (1983) , Congress does have the authority and responsibility to define public policy changes for the IRS to enforce.
Thank you in advance for reading and responding to my letter.
Sincerely,
Robert

61

Flipper Jr. & Flipper Sr. Leave Child Abuse News Releases at Kingdom Halls

by flipper in

of course everyone knows about the news of the candace conti child abuse case which has gone viral , ( one would have to live in a cave, under a rock, or another planet not to know about it ).

that being said - it may very well be that those jehovah's witnesses who do not use the internet, or read newspapers, or in simple english are neanderthal's, still living in the 19th century or before , out of fear of negative reprisal from wt authorities may have not even heard about this case because they are in the habit of not watching the news or using the internet.. so- with those particular type of people in mind my son flipper jr. & myself decided to print up about 20 copies of the candace conti child abuse lawsuit from the england daily mail issue , here's the link : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160605/candance-conti-molested-jehovahs-witnesses-member-age-nine-wins-28milion.html?ito=feeds-newsxml .. so what we did is since we are doing some out of town jobs in several counties we figured we'd leave these child abuse news releases under jw car windshields at kingdom halls while they are out in field service.

we left about 15 so far at 3 different kingdom halls under car windshields .

ABibleStudent

Hi flipper, Great effort of passing out flyers to JWs about Candace Conti. Have you thought about creating a flyer with an article about Candace Conti on one side and an article about Monsignor William Lynn being criminally convicted of child endangerment on the other side? See the article in Reuters about Monsignor William Lynn: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/22/us-usa-crime-church-idUSBRE85L13820120622. You could even hand-write "Is the Pope & GB next?" on the side with the article about Monsignor William Lynn.

If people don't want to spend money on gas and printing flyers, they can send or forward anonymous emails to their JW friends and relatives as suggested in the thread http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/227545/1/email-Blitz. PM me with your email address and I will be happy to send you an anonymous email like the email below. Or, just copy and paste the information below into an email to a JW.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ctrussell <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 12:52 PM
Subject: Has the Apocalypse Started?
To:

Have you seen all the guilty verdicts in the news lately about pedophile lawsuits? Have you read the following news reports?
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/guilty-verdict-means-ex-penn-state-coach-sandusky-could-spend-the-rest-of-his-life-in-prison-641623/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/22/us-usa-crime-church-idUSBRE85L13820120622
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160605/Candance-Conti-molested-Jehovahs-Witnesses-member-age-NINE-wins-28milion.html
What is this World coming to if a Catholic priest didn't commit child abuse, but was found guilty of protecting other pedophile priests and endangering children? Will bishops, cardinals, and the Pope be next? Will elders, CO's, DO's, and the GB be convicted of child endangerment also for following a policy of secrecy to not tell JWs about pedophiles in KHs?
Was the veil lifted from your eyes (i.e., Apocalypse in Greek)?

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert