okay i know that there are people who began careers in medicine, law, etc.
then later got into the truth.
i know that pursuing a higher education is not forbidden but a personal choice.
To use the term "personal choice" is taking matters a bit far when you are talking about Jehovahs Witnesses and higher education. I was stopped from going to university by the congregation's elders (one in particular - the same retard who 12 months later made me abandon the apprenticeship I had just started).
There was very little "personal choice" involved, more like Hobson's choice!
Bill.
looking back at it, they must of thought we were really weird!.
funny story: yesterday i had to pick up meds for my mom and when they asked her date of birth, i couldn't remember!
the cvs druggist looked at me in a strange way until i mentioned, "sorry, but i was raised a jehovah's witness and i never celebrated her birthday".. she laughed, asked for my id, then whispered what her birth date was.. you gotta wonder what they must be thinking!.
When the WT Madness took hold of me, people I knew must have thought that I had taken complete leave of my senses.
Interestingly, though, when I re-contacted these same people 40-something years later, they were still quite happy to have me as a friend:
- just like nothing had changed.
All I can say is that they could teach the JWs a thing or two about forgiveness!
Bill.
i find that whether born in or converts, most jw's give their own conscience over to the gb (and writing dept) to dictate how they will react to any moral question.. they simply lack a conscience of their own.. this is not their fault, we should not look down on them for this, their conscience, their natural feeling of what is right and wrong has been:.
stolen from them !.
we all know how the cult does this to them, it did it to us, i really am almost in tears when i think that had either of my darling children needed a blood transfusion i would have resisted, believing what i have been taught all my life, that their eternal life was more important than their life now.. how can we persuade jw's to take back their conscience ?.
The art of persuasion is certainly something else again, and nobody is likely to change their beliefs while they feel under attack (A person's defensive mechanisms cut in under those circumstances).
There is a place on this forum, though, for also venting ones own feeling and frustrations: - "getting if off your chest" as the saying goes. This forum is not necessesarily only about helping those still in the JW religion, so I would not be too hard on Phizzy!
As to whether or not it takes moral courage to kill ones own children:
- as has often been observed "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good persons to do nothing."
Moral cowardice can also be exhibited in the passive (it is perhaps even most oftenexhibited in this form).
Bill
in 2008, the outline for meetings of circuit overseers with congregational elders and ministerial servants discussed that an elder can be removed for promoting university.
there used to be a spanish scan linked on this site, but the link no longer works.
i would be happy to find a copy of either the spanish or english version.
After just reading this, I can only wonder how come I was able to tolerate such bull$h*t for as long as I did!
Bill.
it was totally vacuous.
despite the promise of "new light" in the opening talk there was nothing.. a few of the more clumsy phrases in the nwt have been improved, and it has a nice new grey cover - so what?.
i am thinking about the jws who have spent a lifetime waiting on paradise.
Cofty,
The title you have given this thread sums it up perfectly!
Bill.
the title says it all.
Bigmac,
You arenotalone:
- I, too, regard the thing as being yet one more example of "Much Ado about Mothing."
Bill.
id like to know what personally convinced you jws are wrong about a particular doctrine/practice, that they are not gods true.people and/or what made you leave emotionally/physically.
.
Not being able to live the lie / keep up the charade anymore.
After the 1975 debacle, I knew deep down, that the religion of the JWs was no different from any others - after all.
However - and I am not proud to have to admit this - I did go through several decades of denial after that. I tried to justify myself with the thought that if this one wasn't exactly perfect, then it was still head and shoulders above anything else. I desperately wanted to believe the Society's post-1975 propaganda that it was all the fault of "some" individual JWs reading more into it than the WTS actually said.
In the end, though, the discovery hit that you cannot hide your head in the sand forever - and all ostritches end up with are cold backsides!
Bill
just out of curiosity, i picked up several of the religion's magazines that were laying in a public place.
half of them were recent editions of the wt and awake and the other were older editions over 12 years old.. the contrast is like night and day!.
i am not referring to the paper, either.
The magazines of 12 years ago contained more substance, and those in the days of Mad Freddy (aka FW Franz) even more so.
He was not averse to using such seldom-used verbal blockbusters as "revivify." While the content of Awake and Watchtower was if anything even whackier than now, the level of writing was at least more advanced. Someone with Grade 5 reading skills certainly would not have even been in the hunt!
Bill.
i'm a jw, and i have several bills to pay.
me: "oh my goodness, i have so many bills, it's ridiculous!
i have car rego, phone bill, electricity bill, rent...it's terrible!
I think that partly, the JW religion is one that tends to attract the complainer:
- the sort of person of the "glass is half empty, not half full" type disposition.
The JW message plays on that, encouraging the view that everything is completely and utterly wrong, that all this is a sign of the "Last Days" and that only God's Kingdom can and will put it right. Early in my time as a JW, I even recall two pioneer brothers being impressed by somebody who "was not happy", and thus regarding him as a potential "study." In fact, that person was just another old moaner - nothing more, nothing less.
Another poster on the old board here (jehovahs-witness.com) once summed it up perfectly that Jehovahs Witnesses are "experts in depressing people."
Furthermore, those of a negative disposition would be further impressed (initially, anyway) by the "love bombing" that all cults shower on newbies. Once more, I can recall at least one specific example of this:
i.e. Another person who was a serial moaner, drawn to the Witnesses largely because of all the fuss and attention that was showered on him as a "study". However, after his baptism, when the love bombing ceased, he soon gave the JW religion away.
Of course, once recruited into the cult , even a formerly well balanced person would find much to complain about!
So in answer to the question, "do JWs complain more than normal people?", the short answer is yes.
Bill.
does the organization of jehovah's witnesses do any charity work?.
answer from a wt apologist.
http://defendingjehovahswitnesses.blogspot.com/2013/05/does-organization-of-jehovahs-witnesses.html.
When my three children were very small and their mother was hospitalised for a three month period, I had to get assistance from a group run by the local churches. Initially, I tried to get help from our local congregation, only to be accused of trying to "use people."
I can tell you this, the irony was not lost on that local, church-run, welfare group!
Bill.
