i guess the witnesses are rejoicing over the death and destruction of the latest earthquake in n.z.as proof of the imminent coming of armageddon,and their deliverance into the "new world system of things" i can just see it now ,the kh`s in nz will be filled to overflowing in the next month,......then in six months later it will be back to the status quo.. p.s when jesus said their would be" earthquakes in one place after another" couldn`t he have identified these areas for the faithfull ?
so at least beleivers would have been spared the trauma ?
of course non beleivers would have suffered the consequences,but why should beleivers suffer also ?.
My nephew just had a lucky escape in that earthquake:
- the building where he works collapsed, as did the vehicle hoist that he was working under when the earthquake struck .
Somehow, he and the other two mechanics managed to escape without harm.
Bill.
ok this thought came to me the other day.
i was thinking of the co who told me that he liked to see parents spank their children for not sitting still during the meetings.. i remember how hard it was to sit through two hours when i was four or five years old.
it was like forever.. i was thinking of comparing the hours that we have been alive to how long two hours is for a child.
There is only one word to describe what JW children are expected to do from babyhood onward - and that is INHUMAN!
No wonder two out of every three JW children gives the religion away:
- it is a miracle that they manage to hang on to even one third of those "raised in the truth."
The truth of the matter is that this lot is not family friendly. While no admirer of the LDS, either, they at least get that part right
i.e. the Mormons are a family friendly religion, and their retention rate reflects this.
Bill.
good grief!.
how dumb can this future landfill waste magazine get?
take a look at the march issue, "five keys to better health".
Those that reckon the reading of Awake qualify one for a Master in Stupidity won't receive any argument from me!
- University of Bulolo.
- Campus of Frog Hollow.
- As assured by its Chancellor, the Reverend Harley Davidson.
Bill
PS: My degree is displayed on the wall, above my desk, for having read that scientific journal continuously for 28 years.
good grief!.
how dumb can this future landfill waste magazine get?
take a look at the march issue, "five keys to better health".
Reading of the Awake magazine is said to give a person the equivalent of a university degree;
- this could well be true, if that degree happened to be a Bachelor of Stupidity.
Bill.
i ask this question in harmony with deedub's swan song thread which i linked below.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/205902/1/time-to-say-good-bye.
to some degree, i think i understand where she's coming from.
just speaking from my own experiences since stepping into the world of anonymous apostacy, i went through a few different phases of personal outlooks.
That is the same as asking me if I was prepared to continue to try and defend the indefensible:
- I broke with them when I was no longer prepared to forever live in their fantasy land.
As regards a JW congregation doubling up as a de-facto social club, its membership fees proved very costly!
Quoting Stevenson, in his 1975 - Year of Doom? "No religious group would demand as much from its members, in return for so little."
Bill.
it is so strange how once you distance yourself from your kingdom hall and friends, that they find it necesary to discuss and contemplate your departure and put out all kinds of statements that simply are not true.. i am licking my wounds today because some kind of nasty things were said about me to a friend of mine who is df, from her ubber righteous sister.
it was via text, so it was there to read.
the thing i can't figure out is i have nothing to do with this woman.
Gossip is very much accentuated in a small community - this from having grown up in a small and quite isolated place!
The JWs, being only a small - not to mention rather exclusive - minority, form what is in effect a small community.
As such, they are no more or no less prone to engage in gossip than members of any other small community.
Bill.
i went to both collage and uni when i was a jw, i got marked and shunned as a result.
it seemed like every week there would be some dig made from the platform about " those that chose higher education" , my so called "freinds" were constandly on at me " why don't you pioneer highdose?!!".
i even had the ciruit overseer denounce me from the platform as being "spirtualy weak" never mind that most of the peers i grew up with had got themselves reproved or disfellowed and that i was the only who had been good!.
In the hyped up JW world of the years leading up to 1975, they thought I was going slightly too far in even qualifying for University Entrance - which I did at the end of my last year of high school. (During those times, most Witness parents I knew took the WTS's instructions all too literally about only needing the bare minimum of "secular" education - and pulled their children out of school as soon as it was legally possible to so).
At the end of my final year at high school, a large organisation offered to sponsor me through the Engineering Degree Course at university (something I was very keen to undertake):
- but at that point, the elders had enough clout with my father to get that canned.
Instead, I took on a job with a Telecommunications company, in the which trainees studied part time for the Engineering Diploma Course. This was not good enough for the elders, either; after twelve months , they got me to throw that job in. This led to an almighty row with my father, in which I was obliged to use physical force in order to defend myself from violent attack (something I still have bitter memories about, some 40 years later).
Six years down the track, I found myself married, a family on the way, and not a marketable skill to my name. Fortunately, I managed to get into an adult apprenticeship, eventually learning the electrical trade.
Many in the congregation - whom I can only describe as narrow minded - had the daggers out for me even for doing this. However, I had learned enough of what was what by then to mentally give them all the famous "Two Fingered Salute"!
At the end of the apprenticeship course, my employer offered to sponsor me through the Engineering Diploma Course. The elders, and others in the congregation, were down on me for even thinking of doing that! However, it was family considerations that put a stop to any further academic studies for me (Three children under the age of five, plus an invalid wife!)
It was my experience amongst the JWs that not only was university education strongly disapproved of, but many - certainly a large minority - thought that even undertaking trade qualifications was inappropriate:
- i.e. tying up four years of your life in an apprenticeship, when "Armegeddon is just around the corner" etc. etc. etc.
Little wonder a disproportionate number of them are forever stuck as window cleaners - until they get so old that they practically fall dead on the job!
Bill.
i thought this would be an interesting poll that would show everyone the backgrounds of all of us when we left, if we have.. for myself, i am not df'd, but i am attempting a fade.
i still go to some meetings with the wife to help with kids, but that's it.
no commenting or field service.. what about everyone else?.
I was well and truly "Sent to Coventry" some sixteen years ago, and have made sure that I stayed that way ever since!
Bill.
whether you are a male or female, the organization was always making you try to reach out for extra privileges whether it be pioneering for a month, year or a lifetime, going to bethel, or becoming a "servant" in the hall.. did you feel compelled to "reach out" or did you want to do more for "jehovah god"?.
Yes, having rather felt compelled to (I know - bloody fool!).
As others have noted, the "reaching out" phase was not too bad. What followed afterwards was another story - and after making ministerial servant, I lost any interest in becoming an elder.
Bill.
so heres my story:.
i just turned 20 years old.
like many i was raised as a jw.
Seeing things from only a JW perspective does give you a very distorted view of the world:
- somewhat like looking at it through a surveyor's dumpy level, after firstly being reflected off one of those trick mirrors!
There was a time that I swallowed the WTS's line totally that the Witnesses were different from everyone else. Then for a long time afterwards, I desperately tried to keep on believing that this was the case.
In reality, the JWs are no different to any other religion - despite what they would have you believe.
There are some good people amongst the JWs, but no more than there are amongst the population in general. Furthermore, such ones would most likely have been good people either before they became Witnesses, or if they had never ever been JWs in the first place (as in those "born in"). Certainly, there is absolutely no basis for the claim (as discussed in a recent post on this forum) that, only upon being baptised as JWs, do people then become "productive and law abiding citizens."
Some four to five years ago, I made a point to reconnect with people that I had been very close to before the Watchtower Madness took hold. This served as a reminder to me just how many pleasant, decent people there are in "The World."
For sure, I knew any number of good people over the years amongst the JWs:
- but I knew none, absolutely none, amongst the Witnesses who were any better than these that I had known before "coming into The Truth."
- these same people that I had swallowed the WTS line about as being "evil", "wicked", "immoral"; and one or two other most unpleasant adjectives!
These same persons were even obviously happy to have me as a friend once more, despite the fact they must have thought that I had taken leave of my senses some forty odd years ago!
(Conversely, my first introduction to domestic violence was just after I began associating with the local congregation - quite a culture shock to a boy of 17, who had already been indoctrinated with the idea that the JWs are somehow "different"!)
What else is there to say, but best forget everything the JWs taught you about "The World" (or anything else, for that matter) - unless it can be corroborated by other sources.
Bill.
