It made my blood boil when the elder arrogantly said he would destroy records again because it's what they practice. Truly sickening.
Israel Ricky Gonzales
JoinedPosts by Israel Ricky Gonzales
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Australian Witnesses shock bombshelled!! Arrogant Elders at Commision on Pedophiles!!
by Witness 007 ingetting alot of e-mails from angry brothers saying things like i qoute "this is the straw broke the camels back.." "bloody idiots.." etc.
last nights news featured the australian commision into jehovah's witness elders not reporting pedophiles.
it was very damning!
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Sam Herd’s comment on the 2001 Dateline expose
by Londo111 inim going by memory, so not an exact quote...i believe this was around 2002, at the crownsville assembly hall (now sold from what i understand)..
he said basically: some people watch an hour show and give up the faith that theyve had for decades..
the impact of this show was like a canon being shot into a swimming pool.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
When I lived in Maryland from 1988-1993, my congregation was assigned to go to the Crownsville assembly hall. Somehow, the PO at the time lived there in the apt designed for the CO.
I remember my elders at the time of the airing of the Dateline story making an announcement about it and warning us about watching it because it was made by apostates. It really irked my that they said a TV show was made by apostates. But, I just kept sleepwalking in the JW world and didn't watch it until last year when I had already woken up.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
A meet up??!!! -
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If disfellowshipping so important why is it not mentioned one time in the bible teach book
by poopie inif it is what page.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
The word is NOT found in the Bible Teach book. A word search will verify that. The subject is discussed in the God's Love book but that is rarely studied before baptism and still rarely studied after baptism. It is discussed with the bible student in the Organized book, which is given to those desirous of baptism, but the only part discussed is the section of baptismal questions, and even then, disfellowshipping isn't among those questions. Basically, before baptism, a student must specifically ask about it or hear about it at meetings. -
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exJW Billboard is up.
by cappytan inwaiting on higher resolution photos from wifibandit.. but here is the (redacted) notification from the company.
apparently they take photos with a potato.. (the billboard directs folks to http://jwawake.com ).
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
Driving southbound 35 from Dallas to San Antonio and didn't notice it. Kinda bummed out. I'm hoping its in the northbound side and I'll see it on the way home. -
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One year of being free
by Israel Ricky Gonzales inone year ago, this thursday, i went to work as usual.
i got home, ate dinner, got myself dressed for the meeting, and helped my kids get ready like i usually did.. my son had a talk that evening, his second one.
many of my family went to support him.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
Crazyguy
My kids are kinda torn. Their lives still revolve around the cult very much. They have seen the shunning up close and personal. I know they believe it is not right. My son always changes the subject whenever it rears its ugly head.
When I was first DF'd and still living with them,I told them that we didn't need to go to the Kingdom Hall for Jehovah or Jesus to be with us. Matt 18:20 For where there are two or threegathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.
Then we talked about the cross. John 20:25 So the other disciples were telling him: “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them: “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and stick my finger into the print of the nails and stick my hand into his side, I will never believe it.
I asked my kids how many nails it took to be plural. They said 2 or more. Then I showed them the pic of Jesus dying in the Bible Teach book and asked them if the picture had singular or plural nails.
My daughter, the younger, blurted out singular. My son, the older, waited to answer and he said: so dad, are you telling me this whole time all the other churches were right and we were wrong?
I said that yes, I think I may have been wrong to teach people that Jesus died like the way JWs teach and that is one of the reasons why I could not be a JW any more, because it may NOT be what the bible really teaches.
I do plan on showing them TTATT when they get older, but for now just showing them unconditional love.
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One year of being free
by Israel Ricky Gonzales inone year ago, this thursday, i went to work as usual.
i got home, ate dinner, got myself dressed for the meeting, and helped my kids get ready like i usually did.. my son had a talk that evening, his second one.
many of my family went to support him.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
One year ago, this Thursday, I went to work as usual. I got home, ate dinner, got myself dressed for the meeting, and helped my kids get ready like I usually did.
One person died that evening, the JW Ricky G.
It's been a struggle since then, I have to admit. Losing everything in your life, family and friends, and nearly losing my marriage as well, is traumatic. I had nothing, and no one to talk to except my 7 and 5 year old kids.
But I have weathered the storm and as we say in Texas, theres always a rainbow after a tornado. Good things are slowly falling in place and I can honestly say that despite the hardships, life is getting better each day.
How could I ever forget that Thursday July 24, 2014?! My daughters birthday will always have a very special meaning to me. Tomorrow I will celebrate my daughters birthday and let her have her big day, for the very first time. But today....Cheers to being FREE!
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Exiting the JW Cult
by Illuminated inthere's a book i wanted to share called "exiting the jw cult: a healing handbook: for current & former .
jehovah's witnesses".
i am not associated to the author in any way.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
The author is known as Stillness suite on Facebook. It's a good book. I'm reading this one slowly and digesting everything. I'm about 75% completed. It really helps you to heal and recover after leaving. The scars were deeper than I had imagined. -
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Wolves in sheep clothing
by Israel Ricky Gonzales ini was baptized then i was 15 years old and just entering high school.
i had been a perfect jw teenager through out my high school years, although i craved to be a little bit worldly.
when i graduated high school, i moved out and got a job working with my older non-jw brother.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
The young lady ended up moving away 6 months later but since I was DF'd, we couldnt speak. Even though she was unbaptized, any reprimands she received must have been in private. Never heard from her since. -
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Wolves in sheep clothing
by Israel Ricky Gonzales ini was baptized then i was 15 years old and just entering high school.
i had been a perfect jw teenager through out my high school years, although i craved to be a little bit worldly.
when i graduated high school, i moved out and got a job working with my older non-jw brother.
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Israel Ricky Gonzales
I was baptized then I was 15 years old and just entering high school. I had been a perfect JW teenager through out my high school years, although I craved to be a little bit worldly. When I graduated high school, I moved out and got a job working with my older non-JW brother. I quickly began living a double life for nearly a year. My conscience could not take it any longer and I voluntarily went to the elders to confess and get back on the narrow road that leads to everlasting life.
I truly believed that I was repentant and that ONLY unrepentant sinners were disfellowshipped. Up until then, the only person I had personally eyewitness attend their own their DFing announcement, stood up, flipped off the elder and walked out. So, it made sense that ONLY unrepentant sinners were DF'd.
Boy was I dead wrong. I laid everything on the line, totally open and honest about everything I had engaged in, even though I was shocked at some of the questions they asked. When they told me that their decision was to DF, it was like an atomic bomb went off inside my body and I literally lost feeling in my extremities. I was 19 and innocent of the DF'ing process and procedures, so I asked if I would still get my KM's. One of the elders looked at me puzzled and said, "Of course not, those are for kingdom ministers. It says OUR kingdom ministry. You are no longer a JW." I was completely devastated and utterly shocked. Unfortunately, I would get more chances to eyewitness the wolves fangs hiding beneath sheep clothing.
After a year of giving up on ever coming back, I came crawling back and was reinstated after 6 months. Had not my family been there, NO ONE would have come up to me and given me a hug or tell me congrats. My family spared me that embarrassment. Keep that thought in mind, because history repeats itself.
I get reinstated to such a cold welcome that I knew right then and there, that God's love was not in that congregation. I decided that the second I got my privileges back, I was skipping town and changing congregations. And that I did. Funny thing is, the bible says God forgives and forgets, but JW's certainly do not forgive and forget. Little did I know that your sins stay with you forever in the JW world, especially public/private reproof and disfellowshipping.(Later on, when filling out bethel temporary worker application, it asked if you were ever DF'd and if yes, to give specifics.)
After changing congregations, the new elders didn't take too kindly to a new, handsome, (LOL) 21 year old brother who was zealous to make a new start. They falsely accused me of dating an unbaptized single sister and told me that she is an UNbaptized publisher, so she is still considered part of the world and I would not be following the command to marry only in the lord. I had barely even talked to her at meetings, let alone really flirt with her or talk to her outside kingdom hall walls. I was so enraged of being falsely accused me of something untrue, that I decided to pursue this beautiful UNbaptized sister, which ended up leading to fornication, and another disfellowshipping. That judicial committee meeting is another whole post altogether.
But it took me 2 years and 5 letters of reinstatement to get reinstated. After 6 months, I put in another letter like the first time. They told me that since I was DF'd once before, for the same "crime", that they needed more time to see evidence of my true repentance. I asked how much time and they said that they didn't know. I was pretty much more set in my ways of proving them wrong, than I was devastated of a rejection. I knew they were wrong by disfellowshipping me because they could not read my heart. I was the one to approach them, not the other way around. But that is not enough in the elders determining repentance.
Had I got rejected for a 5th time, I was prepared to give up. I had been the most faithful meeting attender in the congregation for 2 years and by the looks of everyone else's WT and books, I studied the hardest and most often. But, they decided to finally reinstate me.
This time, I didn't have my family there to lean on for support. Once they announced it, I was excited and overjoyed, but that would only last until the final song and prayer. No one came up to me to shake my hand, to give me a hug, to say congrats and welcome back. No one. I stood there after the Amen, and waited........ and waited..... and you guessed it, waited. After about a minute of what seemed like forever, and starting to feel that feeling again of rejection, I started putting my books in my briefcase as slowly as possible, putting away each pen and highlighter as slowly as possible, not looking up, but waiting for something. But all I got was cold hearted shunning, still! All that hard work and that is what I got. I left the kingdom hall in a stupor and flabbergasted that I cannot describe the feeling.
Don't ask me how or why, because I cannot answer, but I stuck out that cold reception and stayed in that congregation from 2001-2014 when I was DF'd for the 3rd and final time. This time, I was DF'd for apostasy, knowing too much about "the truth about the truth".
The elders are supposed to be caring, loving shepherds. Even the elders (all elders who DF'd me moved away) whom I considered as close friends and had always encouraged me to reach out to be an elder, turned their back on me in the blink of an eye when they began to have suspicions of me and became aware of my doubts with the organization. Wolves in sheep clothing.