Re. Hoser’s post…
… personally, I think it’s even more basic than that.
An education helps you realize that the WTS is, quite simply, wrong.
how many times did you see elders hounding congregation members to quit their jobs due to missing meetings?.
my brother worked at a grocery store at 16 years old.
he would miss tuesday's ministry school due to his work schedule.
Re. Hoser’s post…
… personally, I think it’s even more basic than that.
An education helps you realize that the WTS is, quite simply, wrong.
https://youtu.be/tbbxaasj6ki.
Going around jabbing people in the eye with a stick and then whining when you get a beatdown for it doesn’t make you “persecuted”…
…it just makes you an asshole.
lot going on.
i had a covid divorce last year over zoom.
not pretty but i got a good deal.. anyway,.
I took my elderly mom last weekend…
… there was a really big turnout.
do you remember some of the weird and wacky stuff emanating from the watchtower society?
let's make a list from memory that we can use to inject a little humor into our discussions with jehovah's witnesses.
- venus may be an enormous jurassic park.. - germs don't cause disease.. - no beards allowed.
Flood geology… Dinosaurs and humans were contemporaries… Basic fundagelical stuff.
Jehovah living in the Pleiades star system was one of the more original ones.
Saber-toothed tigers used their oversized fangs to crack coconuts (that one was specifically Fred Franz’s).
Smurphobia.
we had 2 fancy dress parties in our congregation...before the ban.
it was the best fun we ever had together.
problem was some came as pirates with swords!
I remember a couple back in my younger days.
One was “jungle”-themed… I went as Indiana Jones. The other was just to dress “tacky”. I wore a silly necktie.
A couple goofball guys cross-dressed for the second, and it got the more uptight older folks in a twist, but they turned out to be the life of the party.
The LDS is the WTS’s nicer but weirder older cousin.
the watchtower—study edition | february 2022. study article 6. do you trust in jehovah’s way of doing things?.
15 as the end of this system of things draws near, we need to trust in jehovah’s way of doing things as never before.
during the great tribulation, we may receive instructions that seem strange, impractical, or illogical.
I took my 90-year-old mom this morning, since they reopened.
Damn, was the God's-Earthly-Organization-Governing-Body-fan-reverence always this dialed up???
Holy fuck.
974 results found,this is the number of congregations of jehovah`s witnesses that have signed up to the redress scheme for child abuse victims in australia.. what does that tell us ?.
and that number may not be all ..
The really interesting part that, IMO, needs to be focused on more...
...is that the only penalty for not signing up was - to my knowledge - loss of "charity status".
Thing is, the only benefit they really obtain from charity status is... tax exemption.
So, why TF would the Org show its throat to "Satan's World" for something so minor?
Unless...
...financially, their business model has basically become unsustainable without it...
...i.e., the WTS has essentially become dependent on its tax-exemption to survive.
And make no mistake...
...the Org's continued survival is of absolute paramount importance to them...
...not only because - for the WT leadership - this is their very livelihood... but also because if the Org did not survive, it would be the ultimate proof that the WTS is NOT "God's Exclusive Earthly Organization".
And that cannot be permitted to happen under any circumstances...
...because based on over a hundred years of internal stated standards and rhetoric, there's virtually no reason or justification for the WTS to even exist (let alone provide incentive for your average rank-and-filer to even be a Jehovah's Witness in the first place).
In my opinion, the real problems will come when the actions they feel they have no choice but to take to survive...
...can't help but undermine the Organizational claim.
blondie suggested someone start a thread with a list of books that are valuable to read when exiting the jws.. i will start.. i left the jws way back in the early 70s and didn't actually deprogram until into the 80s.. one of the first books i read was "the orwellian world of jehovah's witnesses" by gary and heather botting.
canadian exjws from calagary.
an excellent book and one that still resonates with young people today.
I started reading theology and philosophy stuff by other writers completely unconnected to the WTS (ironically, I was trying to find reasons why the Org could still somehow be right at the time)...
...and much to my surprise, found most of it way more uplifting and enlightening than anything the Society put out.
Pizza.
Burgers and fries.
Chinese.
Not the best for my health at my age, I'm sure, but I'd fall into too deep a funk if I had to give 'em up.