Posts by Giordano

24

Midweek Meeting looooooooong prayers.

by Davros in

jw
friends

one thing that aggravates me is long concluding prayers, especially at the midweek meeting.

you work all day, rush home, grab a quick bite, dress up in meeting clothes.

then, go to the meeting.

Giordano

Way back in the day like very early 1960's we had a visit by the Circuit Servant or CO. He was invited to have lunch with a good and decent JW family and I was invited.

The CO was known for his long prayers.

Now this family had an old dog who was beloved and tolerated.

One thing he did was to lay under the dinning room table during a meal. Knowing this dog pretty well I was surprised that they didn't lock him up.

We didn't know he was under the table until the CO started his prayer. It was like all long winded prayers as it didn't amount to anything just to impress.

The dog was not impressed it began to whine. It also stuck his head in every person's crotch to get a little attention.

Which of course set off a round of laughter...... the kind that starts with a hushed sort of giggle. As the dog made his rounds everybody lost control except the CO he kept mumbling JW this and JW that.

I do believe that dog didn't head bump him but I did hear a soft growl.

15

A thesis: The Discursive Construction of Freedom in the Watchtower Society

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

a thesis: the discursive construction of freedom in the watchtower society.

https://ris.cdu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/24632569/thesis_cdu_24577264_chester_h.pdf .

be aware, this thesis, although supremely stimulating, thought-provoking, fascinating, attention-grabbing, remarkable, noteworthy, and appealing, the author made use of out of the ordinary, worthy of note, and fascinating words and statements that, for the reader of average intelligence (like me), make for laborious reading.

Giordano

After reading through this dissertation one understands the following....it also generated my own thoughts as well: So this will be a mix.

This is a religion where men dominate......... as all theocratic decisions are presented by men. The entire congregation and the Society is a men's club.

Obedience is as important as faith....if not more so.

When the Society speaks, through it's publications, it's web site, it's Elders and CO's ................the thinking is done. Your thoughts or opinions will not matter. There is no real discussions, no real objections.....try to understand THE THINKING IS DONE!

The Ban on Blood has killed more JW believers every year....... then Jim Jones did one time out.

That No Blood card one carries around becomes a suicide note if bad stuff happens to you or yours.

The Society like other religions has a morbid fear of masturbation. Why?....... no one can adequately explain what the problem is. A healthy urinary tract and prostate care calls for at least a weekly release so my proctologist told me. What a nice thing to learn!

The hatred of gay people is a mainstay of just about every religion even though people do not choose to be gay........ they are simply gay. There are 100 species of animals that can manifest as gay including lions and tigers............ if there are no female partners........so much for creation.

The Watchtower....... as other religions like the Mormons and Amish practice the art of coercion. Coercion is a criminal act. In law it's called the crime of duress. If you don't shun a disfellowshiped person you in turn can be DF and shunned.............

The definition of coercion refers to the act of persuading or convincing someone to do something using force or other unethical means.

There are now over 100 reasons that a JW can be disfellowshiped for. Look up Shepard the Flock....... its available on jwfacts.com. Check out disfellowshiping and the reason for acting on it........ you will need to scroll down the page to see the reasons.

It is the fear that you in turn can be be disfellowhiped......... If you don't shun family and close friends. This is an impossible situation for many JW's.

The overall take I got re the WTBTS it's rules, changes and life time punishments is that this is a very sick religion.

How sick do you have to be to rejoice in the death of Billions of innocent people.

17

1 Corinthians 15:26

by Doug Mason in

you will die.

i will die.

those who have gone before us, the great and the small, the powerful and the weak, have shared the common fate of dying.

Giordano

Van we all get sharp pains in and around the heart........... glad yours was not the final pain.

And P.S......... your wife was right! Hope you bought a sufficient amount of life insurance for the wife and family.

The entire appeal of the WT and JW construct was summed up by Freddy the ass hole Franz......when he spoke about the 1920's when the doctrine was put forth......... that 'many living today will never die'. Soon changed by the legal dept. to 'many living today MAY never die'. The Society protecting their ass.

So many people born in the turn of the century experienced WW 1, the Spanish flu which killed a hundred million people world wide. All sorts of diseases that were killer diseases. Cancer of course had no cure, TB, Polio, heart disease etc.

So a new religion actually before the WT created a religion........ presented this doctrine of living forever.

If there was ever a bull shit doctrine that was a life changer....... not dying...... was dreamed up by the WT Society and to this day people are desperately holding on to that hope.

A typical JW from the old school of thinking is ready to sacrifice billions of people so that they can live forever.

Freddy Franz gave a talk about how popular that saying was and how it drove people to the 'truth'. A big smile on his stupid face almost breaking into gleeful expressions.

He was oh so happy that someone, maybe Freddy..... thought that expression up.

Of course the Ban on Blood made sure that the faithful would get a 'dirt nap' until the Resurrection.

Jesus only had to wait for three days....what about the rest of us?

My Mom clung to this belief until she passed at 91. Never gave up hope. Spent half her life going door to door.

13

Education vs JW?

by galaxia_moon in

i am 15 years old and recently just doubting this whole religion that was introduced to me when i was very small from a very good family friend.

doubt obviously comes with shame and guilt and i hate those feelings because it feels like i'm betraying this whole organization that i grew up in.... anyways, i've been doing research and found that jehovah's witnesses dislike/shun kids who attend colleges & universities that are more than 4 years long?

have you heard of this?

Giordano

Welcome to our forum. I think I can say that virtually no one on this forum would discourage you from getting higher learning........ especially in a field that you are interested in.

I'd start early to plant the seeds of your interest in getting some serious education with your parents. The society at times has a desperate need for college level JW's............ so that's a good fall back point. In fact Bethel itself looks for skilled believers as well as those who have useful educations.

I don't know if your baptized........ hopefully not. Hopefully never. Resist that option. Jesus wasn't baptized until he was 30 years old.....some how the Society slides past that fact.

There will be a number of options open to you in the years to come. In the mean time when you turn 16 an after school job working for a vet, or helping out at some health care facility.

When you work along side professionals it is amazing how much you can learn.

A lot of JWs teens these days are living at home while they attend 1 year or a two year community college.

In the meantime be kind and loving to your family members, keep up with house hold chores. And stay focused on who you are and what you want to be.

37

Weekly Meeting Importance Being Reduced - Your Thoughts?

by JWTom in

jw
friends

i am pimo, but now have 40+ years of being a jw as i was raised in a 3rd generation family of witnesses and continue to fake my way through things - fading as i can.. for the vast majority of my time as a jw, the meetings were the central focus for all jws to get teaching, association, information and so on.

nothing was more important than being at the meetings!

over the last 20 years starting with the elimination of the weekly book study in homes and continuing down to today - my opinion is that the value/purpose of the weekly meetings continues to be diluted or minimized.

Giordano

JWTom I know there is probably family issues so leaving could be difficult. However one could cite the JW pedophile issue as a major stumbling block to further attendance.

"Until Jehovah cleans up this issue there is no reason to attend meetings or go out in service until every single pedophile is cast out."

Lets put it this way....... Jesus in Luke 18:16-17 "Do not hinder the little children from coming to me. Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”…

So what are your family and friends going to say to you other then ' wait on Jah'.

Sorry my friend there is no waiting when a child is being raped.

Step away JWTOM....... it's a sick religion with many dangerous beliefs.

15

Jehovah? Oh dear.

by Giordano in

some recent new friends on this forum like friend kosonen are fixated with god's name being jehovah...unfortunately they are wrong:.

a quick bit of history:.

"about the 13th century the term “jehovah” appeared when christian scholars took the consonants of “yahweh” and pronounced it with the vowels of “adonai.” this resulted in the sound “yahowah,” which has a latinized spelling of “jehovah.” the first recorded use of this spelling was made by a spanish dominican monk, raymundus martini, in 1270.. interestingly, this fact is admitted in much jehovah’s witness literature, such as their aid to bible understanding (p. 885).

Giordano

Some recent new friends on this forum like friend Kosonen are fixated with God's name being Jehovah...unfortunately they are wrong:

A quick bit of history:

"About the 13th century the term “Jehovah” appeared when Christian scholars took the consonants of “Yahweh” and pronounced it with the vowels of “Adonai.” This resulted in the sound “Yahowah,” which has a Latinized spelling of “Jehovah.” The first recorded use of this spelling was made by a Spanish Dominican monk, Raymundus Martini, in 1270.

Interestingly, this fact is admitted in much Jehovah’s Witness literature, such as their Aid to Bible Understanding (p. 885). This is surprising because Jehovah’s Witnesses loathe the Catholic Church and have done everything in their power to strip their church of traces of Catholicism. Despite this, their group’s very name contains a Catholic “invention,” the name “Jehovah.

Jehovah’s Witnesses blast orthodox Christendom for “hiding the name of God” by replacing “Jehovah” with “the Lord” whenever “Jehovah” appears in Scripture.

They charge this is a Jewish “superstition” that dishonors God (which it does not). Yet their own organization has a name that was invented as a result of the same thinking that produced the use of “the Lord.”

https://www.catholic.com/qa/is-gods-name-yahweh-or-jehovah

By the way this was a cool move by the Catholic CHurch as there was no J in the Hebrew alphabet until some 400 years ago.

So how did the JW's become the JW's.

Rutherford dreamed it up. Probably with Freddie Franz whispering in his ear.

There was ONE scripture in the bible that told Isaiah to become a witness for good...... old YHWH. You remember him ......the god no one could call by name. It was the only mention ever made of god's name. Sort of like J.R. from the old T.V. show....... Dallas.

On the other hand being a witness for Jesus.......sorry Yeshiva....was mentioned some 22 times in the New testament.

So why did Rutherford pass up calling their newly minted religion Jesus's Witnesses or Jesus's Christian Witnesses......... which would have been a self explanatory name when knocking on doors?

Rutherford probably had his reasons which centered around his importance. He was also drunk on a daily basis. But like everything he touched........ he screwed up.

Calling themselves the JW's created a false religion that to this day....... one has to explain the name of their God.

Using the name on this site weakens any argument you can make.

17

What Did You Choose Jehovah Over?

by minimus in

jw
friends

some jws believe they have the truth.

they alone understand god, jehovah.

they are very happy being jehovah’s witnesses.👍👌..... many others realize what they have given up for jehovah, to belong to the jehovah’s witness religion.

Giordano

My wife and I gave up being a JW in our young 20's. We never really 'got' the Society and the reckless way they treated their followers. Fear mongering about Armageddon, discouraging higher learning, the Ban on Blood. The boredom of meetings and the publications.

It took me a couple of years to work through the religion. My wife as it turned out was way ahead of me........ as in........ she never believed.

We gave up all religion.

So for the rest of our live's it been all about us, our son, our grand kids, close friends and being volunteers in our community.

Jehovah and the bible is not part of our lives.

4

Article: Kazakhstan: Court Gives Victory to Former Jehovah’s Witnesses

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

https://watchtowerdocuments.org/kazakhstan-court-gives-a-victory-to-former-jehovahs-witneeses/.

the events described in the following report began over a year ago.

however, we did not receive correspondence with details regarding the court victory until late april 2020. you are about to read a disturbing account of exactly how representatives and elders of jehovah’s witnesses tried to intimidate and frighten a child in order to regain control over the adult members of a local kingdom hall.

Giordano

Wow the WT picked the wrong couple to mess with.

It's worth a read........ the couple is preparing their third Court case having won the first two.

Here's an excerpt:

"On March 6, 2019, in a letter, I informed the body of elders of my congregation that my family and I were no longer Jehovah’s Witnesses, and emphasized, “You are kindly requested not to disturb our family with questions and visits.”

But after some time the elders called my son, who has not come of age yet and said: “Rafael, your parents have become apostates. Do you also want to leave Jehovah?”

The tearful child ran up to me and started asking questions. In fact, we had not told our son anything; we wanted to prepare him for the changes in our life gradually as we were afraid it would traumatize him."

38

My latest letter to WT demanding correction from their side

by Kosonen in

jw
friends

brothers and sisters associated with the watchtower society may 9, 2020. i have tried to inform you of the necessary adjustments you ought to take in order to truly be in the truth.

but my efforts have remained fruitless.

you well know the biblical procedure.

Giordano

I gave you a thumbs up because of the effort you made in compiling your point of view.

You went pretty deep into the material you gathered. Unfortunately the Society is deaf and dumb towards any material they didn't invent. So deaf and dumb that they have systematically painted themselves into a corner.

This site,

if you haven't looked into it, may offer a better opportunity for your interests.

https://beroeans.study/who-are-we/

https://beroeans.study/articles/

A quick review reads like your point of view. It was founded by ex JW's who began to see that the Society was making mistakes.

18

New in the neighborhood..

by Italiancalipso in

jw
friends

i'm not totally new here, as i'm reading since some time...then i tried to sign up but had some technical issue with the email,eventually recovered..... i'm from north italy, for your info from the region where the covid is worse.

i'm male, generation millennial(...unfortunately not the overlapped generation :))) ) ..sorry to don't go in so much details, but i'm pimo ;).

hope i can contribute to this community and help as much i got from you guys.... have nice weekend!.

Giordano

Remember IC that cognitive dissonance is a powerful reaction to what you might be saying or trying to say to family and friends...... even with the best of intentions.

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, or participates in an action that goes against one of these three, and experiences psychological stress because of that.

A believing JW will fight hard to hold on to the perceived 'rightness of their beliefs'. The yelling, and borderline hate, the unkind remarks are signs of cognitive dissonance which include:

Making family and friends:

Feel uncomfortable.
The need to avoid Conflict.
Rationalization.
Shame.
Guilt.
Ignoring the facts.

Its very difficult to have a thoughtful conversation when family and or... friends are locked into a belief.

Show them how true love is shown......don't tell them unless they ask.

Accept that their belief may be more tenacious then your disbelief . Be gentle and be kind.

Maybe they will experience the Truth about the Truth..