for those of you who have a minute to read this, here is a report from my family trip.. i was in florida for the holidays visiting my older sister and family, along with my parents which were also visiting.. although i've had conversations with my mother about the organization, my sister and her family had no idea of my position in regards to the (un)truth - perhaps because we live far away from each other.
i knew the day was coming.... on my second day there, the whole family was sitting around bs-ing about different stuff, and as usual my mother starts with the "world is getting worse by the day" conversation, followed by approving nods and smart remarks from the rest of the family.
i then politely told them that this was not true, that in fact the world has never been better.
Congradulations redvip2000 on sticking with your decision not to discuss beliefs with your JW family after your intial comments. That must have been very tough for you. Is there anything that you can give to your nephew to help him to stay unbaptized without causing you any adverse reprecussions? Send him an anonymous email like, "If you want to talk about your feelings without being judged, visit www.jehovahs-witness.net like I did."
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
for those of you who have a minute to read this, here is a report from my family trip.. i was in florida for the holidays visiting my older sister and family, along with my parents which were also visiting.. although i've had conversations with my mother about the organization, my sister and her family had no idea of my position in regards to the (un)truth - perhaps because we live far away from each other.
i knew the day was coming.... on my second day there, the whole family was sitting around bs-ing about different stuff, and as usual my mother starts with the "world is getting worse by the day" conversation, followed by approving nods and smart remarks from the rest of the family.
i then politely told them that this was not true, that in fact the world has never been better.
Hi redvip2000, I'm glad that your family decided not to shun you for now.
You might have planted more seeds with them if you asked them more questions like: "Did you ask the elders whether the organization is inspired? or What did you learn from your research about ______ and did you just use WTBTS resources like Cubans only use their approved resources?"
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
i havent been to a meeting in four years.
during that time i completed a successful fade from the organization after almost 40 years being baptized.
it seems nothing anymore will surprise or shock me with these latest bunch of brooklyn leaders.
IMHO the WTBTS promoting the internet is like a double-edge sword, unless all free Wifi services/WTBTS software come with monitoring of where JWs visit on the internet. Without some type of monitoring, the WTBTS benefits from lower printing costs and the ability to quickly change its propaganda. With some type of monitoring, add that the WTBTS will be able to submit in a JC that a JW visited a forbidden website. I wonder if the WTBTS will name forbidden websites for JWs to avoid or just state that all websites are forbidden except for jw.org.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
ok suppose a man met an inactive jw woman.
started dating, had a child.
and throughout his and her relationship there were many ups and downs, drug issues on the womans part , too much drinking on his, she cheats then they find out they are pregnant and move intogether.
Hi DS211, Find a good marriage/cult-exit couselor or a good lawyer. Until someone's emotional baggage is resolved, a person will not change. Marriage/cult-exit counseling will either help the wife resolve her personal baggage or help the husband to realize that he is better off without his wife and should seek to exit the marriage as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
need to put it in writing.
i think of it every day.
i know so many of us have gone through this, but it sure hurts.
Hi mzmmom, You are alive. Your parents may be in a coma or dead. Happy New Year!! Yeah I know that it sucks that your parents are controlled by a dangerous cult, but why waste your life trying to please them.
Are you planning to write to your parents about your feelings? If you are, keep it simple. You love them unconditionally, (worded incase you are not a Christian) there is no sense in continuing to disipline you by shunning you because you would rather believe that Jesus Christ is your mediator with God and not the WTBTS, and life is too short to talk about the WTBTS.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
so while i'm symbolicly burning at the stake for hericy, my wife is getting consoled by the very priests that lit the match.
doesn't get much more ironic then that does it?
i don't know how much longer i can take this.
Hi Crazyguy, I'm sorry that you are going through so much frustration communicating with your wife right now. Could it be that she is afraid that you are too good contradicting the WTBTS's doctrines and therefore causing her cult persona too much cognitive dissonance?
If you still love your wife, what would you do to prove that you love her? How would your wife respond to you texting her, "I love you and want to go on a date with you to have fun together without talking about the WTBTS. I will not put down the WTBTS if you do not talk to me about WTBTS teachings. Life is too short to waste it not talking and sharing our lives together."
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
i made a graph of the new members from 2012 to 2013 in all countries that had positive growth, and graphed them against the country's gdp per capita.. .
the general trend is, as expected, less growth the more money there is in a country.
but there were some unexpected results.
Hi ILoveTTATT, Have you thought about normalizing the increase in publishers from number of new publishers to a percentage increase in publishers (or a ratio of new publishers divided by number of publishers in the previous year for a country)? Assuming that the WTBTS's indoctrination methods are equally efficient from country to country, then the percentage of new publishers should not change from country to country, where as the number of new publishers will vary by how many publishers were in a country in the previous year.
Simon does have a valid point about using disposable income instead of average GPD. The following link shows disposable income for some countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_per_capita_personal_income. Unfortunately, fewer countries are listed with disposable income than by using minimum wages by countries in the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country, as I previously suggested that you use.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
when you were in the truth did you find websites like this and read what the other side has to say?
i am in that stage and i feel as if i'm seeking out the ttatt.
i feel the wt society is hiding way too much.
Hi Brother Mike, Do your own independent research of the WTBTS and your beliefs to convince yourself. Then, make a plan how to live the rest of your life the way that you want to and not the way that other people want you to.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
this was just said to me by a friend who was disfellowshipped just over 2 years ago.
she just had a miscarriage, and her partner dumped her rather than supported her through this process.
she told her jw parents, and they refuse to even call her or offer her any emotional support.
Hi Julia Orwell, Your friend's family sounds really messed up. She almost sounds like she is suffering from something like Stockholm syndrome. Since she is your friend, do you want to adopt her into your family?
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
ok, i haven't introduced myself properly.
sorry for that, but i just never feel like i've got something really interesting to say.
so i rather respond on topics of other people.
Bruja-del-Sol - We both thought he had a pretty good image of my life when I was a JW, but the movie had great impact on him. It was definitely an eye opener to him.
Hi Bruja-del-Sol, I would be curious what your husband thinks of the other video: Strategic Interactive Approach explained 2003 (1:23:23) by Steve Hassan. His eyes should really open wide after watching it.
Peace be wtih you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
