Posts by J. Hofer

12

12 year old ministerial servant!

by stillin in

just kidding....

J. Hofer

i know several in latin america who were MS at the age of 16. that is pretty common there. also "elders" younger than 24 years...

122

seriously, half day in (already had an argument with the wife this morning about individuality in the organization in which she conceded that a lot of it is based on looks) and this is already getting on my nerves.

i'll post a rebuttal based on my annotations later in the week but one thing i got to get off my mind: saying the feminist movement (women going to work instead of staying home) and the diversity laws (allowing for homosexuality - but also religious freedom, racial discrimination etc.

) caused a lot of the problems in our world right from the stage.. there are less people here than last year - about 500 less..

J. Hofer

glad i'm not going...

51

Do you believe in an annointed class?

by irondork in

regarless of their identity - in fact, if they are really "discreet" their identity should probably remain unknown - do you believe the bible speaks of a spirit annointed class of folks, a limited number of humans that have been called to heaven to serve with jesus?.

.

J. Hofer

"true seekers of the truth"

49

Help Please. Mother says she can prove I will die using the bible alone, no WT literature

by scooterspank in

she says she can prove i will die if i'm not in the "truth" strictly using the bible .

J. Hofer

adam and eve had sex outside paradise. the "make a baby" kind of sex at least, not sure if they did some kinky stuff before.

69

Who has NOT read Combatting Cult Mind Control or Crisis of Conscience?

by Mad Sweeney in

a lot of people here have read and highly recommend ccmc by steven hassan and coc by ray franz, myself included.

i don't know how i would have handled leaving the borg without that knowledge.. so thinking that got me to wondering, who here has not read them (or has read one but not the other), and how are you coping with exiting the borg?

did you get counseling?

J. Hofer

i haven't read either. crisis of conscience doesn't really interest me anymore (though i might parse through it one day), the hassan book sounds interesting though.

what i read on my way out was gilgamesh, herodot, xenophon, josephus etc, extracanonical bible books and gospels, several books about christian history, some texts by martin luther and finally a book about how to argue with a fundamentalist that showed me common fallacies like "red herring", "strawman", "ad hominem" and the like.

i didn't read any of those books because of someones recommendation, i just checked the quotes by the watchtower. i even ordered a few textbooks for historians or archaeologists (i always wanted to be one) about ancient israel, canaan.

never had counseling, that's not very common in my country. it would have probably been beneficial though.

PS: when i say "i left", that is i left the mindest and de facto also the organization. but officially i'm just "marked". i sometimes have to keep my mouth shut when some of my ultra-religious in laws come for a visit, that's all.

PPS: i'd first have to read the dawkins books before i consider reading either of the ones mentioned.

49

Help Please. Mother says she can prove I will die using the bible alone, no WT literature

by scooterspank in

she says she can prove i will die if i'm not in the "truth" strictly using the bible .

J. Hofer

just let her make her case. the question is not if you are going to die (you will, eventually, just like everyone else), but what "the truth" really is. no matter if you still believe in the bible or not, the JW religion is not "the truth".

12

A Shot Out to the Vid That Got Me Out!

by Diest in

i had not been to meetings in a long time, but i still had lingering guilt over what happens if the big a comes when i am out.

i found this video on youtube, which put the first nail in the coffin for the wt.

the posters on this site put in the final 32 nails and put the wt in hades for me.

J. Hofer

607 was my main issue too. along with the bible canon.

81

Belief in God: What were the difficult aspects and questions you had.

by designs in

two main one's for me were god being capricious and serendipitous..

J. Hofer

> The reason why an atheist is an atheist is because they have weighed the scientific facts personally and have concluded that God does not exist.

that's not quite correct. most don't generally conclude "god does not exist" (with the exception of many of those specific deities like jehovah or santa claus), but don't believe in god due to lack of evidence. it's like in a murder case, there is the possibility that the blamed person is the murderer, but if there's not enough evidence to support that claim, he/she goes free. there is the possibility of a god to exist, but if that's the case he hid really well and removed his traces.

44

Preventing a minor child from being baptized if you are their parent

by RayPublisher in

there may be no way legally for me to stop this, but it is a worry since i "woke up" to the truth about the truth a couple years ago.. now my young kids (9 and 11) are heading in that direction at the urging of their mother.

i am still inside and trying to do a fade (for family/friend reasons) but sometimes i wonder if leaving would be smarter in the long run for them.

any thoughts or strategies are welcome.. .

J. Hofer

remember that picture in the youth book with the two children in wedding dresses? it was something along the lines of "do you think these two are ready for marriage"?

they say baptism is the single biggest decision a person makes in his life. now if baptism is a bigger step than marriage, how would a child be ready for it?

when i grew up some brothers tried to pressure me into baptism, but i told them that jesus got baptized at what was considered full age back then, as an adult. so i did the same at what is considered full age now in my country, at 18 (should have waited till 30, i wouldn't have done it then...).

16

I kinda hope my wife finds out about me

by Anony Mous in

so we had a 'special' visitor today in our hall, somebody from patterson, young fellow with a wife.

off course i didn't catch that at first until he started name dropping in the first 5 minutes that he was from bethel .

so he goes on rambling about how we live in the last days and blah-di-blah .

J. Hofer

oh man, i've been there some 7 years or so ago. i didn't believe any of the lie, but still attended meetings and wifey didn't know about it, just suspecting some things. finally i had to tell her, it was terrible, she almost had a nervous breakdown. but life started to get better afterwards, i started missing meetings, stopped field service and simply faded step by step. she then started to miss meetings too and now attends maybe 4-5 times a year. she's still a believer though, but she's doesn't like the "friends".