Posts by roxanesophia

21

Panic Attacks

by trailerfitter in

hi, i was reading on here a while ago that some of you guys and girls suffer from panic attacks.

how common is this in the jws?

the wife had a bible study today and i was sort of listening looking for a discussion point.

This reminds me...

The first time i'd ever encountered panic attacks was at a kingdom hall. The girl in front of me was shaking and sweating and then got up and ran out of the room. I turned around to see if she was going to be OK, and people in the row behind me were laughing. God's people, eh?

I told my study conductor that their behavior is disgraceful and she said "They're not perfect." What a bunch of hypocrites. Put serious doubt in my mind: they go door to door apaprently caring for people but haven't got compassion for one of their own?

Took everything in me not to yell at them "You're going to the hell you don't believe in!"

I almost have a panic attack myself thinking i nearly became a judgmental jehovah's witness who thinks peddling man made literature and being a good pioneer matters more to God than being a good person.

13

If You Had 5 minutes to Create Doubt

by roxanesophia in

i regularly encounter jw's i knew while studying and it kills me that they would likely not listen long enough for me to tell them the truth about the truth.

my mother says "don't even bother.

it's like finding out you were adopted.

roxanesophia

I regularly encounter JW's i knew while studying and it kills me that they would likely not listen long enough for me to tell them the truth about the truth. My mother says "Don't even bother. It's like finding out you were adopted. Not everyone is going to accept it or they might even choose to stay where they are anyway if the biological parent was to come back into the picture." I think that's a good illustration. The estranged parent being Jesus. When I decided to stop studying, I felt like i was torn between two masters, too.

I feel like it's a lost cause. I'd need 5 days to tell people i care about stuck in the cult all that I know in order for them to wake up. Or maybe I'm underestimating what 5 minutes of reverse witnessing can do. My question is: from what you've learned about the WBTS, what seed would you plant in 5 minutes?

9

Expectations of the New System: Classic example of JW stupidity

by roxanesophia in

though i've stopped studying and have no interest anymore in the religion, bits of conversation with jw's keep coming back to me to confirm why that was the best decision.

like this particularly idiotic belief:.

since the jw's believe the faithful men of bible stories will be resurrected into "the new system" , i remember a discussion about 'how awesome it's going to be to meet job" or "you can marry one of job's sons!

roxanesophia

lol, yes the more we look at it in restrospect, the sillier it all seems.

YEP! It's true. I do remember though, even when i believed it was "the truth", wondering how we could go from this world into one where we'd have to build everything from scratch, carry dead bodies around in wheelbarrows (which would come from where?) and when i brought that up, an older JW man said "Just worry about getting there." Hmmph. Convenient way to brush me off, (while planting the seed to DO MORE TO GET THERE!) and hypocritical for someone who criticized the Catholic priest for telling him as a young boy "It's a mystery, don't think about it" to questions he couldn't answer. LOL I love how anything that didn't make sense if we used the brain God gave us instead of follow the WBTS was pushed under the rug so quickly with the "We don't have to know that" excuse. If only they published an article on what life in their version of the new world would be like that was so ridiculous it'd wake some people up like it did myself. I guess that's why they dont think about it too much, they're scared common sense will happen.

I know loads of long time JW men who think they will be princes in the new world.
LOL. Not that it surprises me that JW men who were window washers in this life in order to serve an organization would have big dreams about the next life the false prophet has promised them. It's sad.

Lots of witnesses think they will become physically beautifulWorse than that, I've heard them say they'll always look like they're in their 20's because "that's when we looked our best." lol not everyone, but even for people that's true for, I could never get my head around that one.

they'd both fantasize about paradise men!!! It's just so twisted. How about accepting reality that no one is perfect? No, they will put off marriage in this life because they're waiting for when men will be perfect. It sounds more and more like science fiction.

Mr Flipper, that's outrageous! LOL. I know of the scripture they probably took that from, Jesus was talking about the children of this world marrying but there's no marriage in the afterlife which i take to mean heaven, and that eternal life isn't in a fleshly body as the witnesses claim.

9

Expectations of the New System: Classic example of JW stupidity

by roxanesophia in

though i've stopped studying and have no interest anymore in the religion, bits of conversation with jw's keep coming back to me to confirm why that was the best decision.

like this particularly idiotic belief:.

since the jw's believe the faithful men of bible stories will be resurrected into "the new system" , i remember a discussion about 'how awesome it's going to be to meet job" or "you can marry one of job's sons!

roxanesophia

Though I've stopped studying and have no interest anymore in the religion, bits of conversation with JW's keep coming back to me to confirm why that was the best decision. Like this particularly idiotic belief:

Since the JW's believe the faithful men of bible stories will be resurrected into "the new system" , I remember a discussion about 'how awesome it's going to be to meet Job" or "You can marry one of Job's sons!" (or worse than that, a single 30 year old woman saying "I'm waiting to get married in the new system, then I'll have my perfect man." It really is such scary fairytale nonsense. No wonder i fell for it.)

But it never occured to me then how stupid it was. It's amazing what happens when the Watchtower blinders are off. I wish i had thought back then to say "Won't there be billions of people on that new earth? What exactly are the odds of ever meeting any of these people? Somehow I don't think "JOB, JOB, JOB WALK 1000000 MILES SO I CAN MEET YOU" over a loudspeaker would work, either. Then i thought, they'd probably have some ridiculous remark like "Well if we're living forever, we'd have plenty of time to find him!"

It got to the point where looking at the illustrations of this so called new system and fantasizing about what'd be like to live there was entering mentally ill territory. The inter marriage in the congregation i attended was big, but there was one particular family that was huge and there was a huge house in the illustration (looked a lot like a worldly mansion actually!) and I said "Well they've already got their house." LOL.

Then there was "Michael Jackson will be singing kingdom melodies!" and i was so deluded, when an actor i'm fond of was filming in my town, i wanted to meet him so i could witness to him so he'd be in the new system, too. I KNOW. Good thing all prayers aren't answered. Then there was a dumbass young brother who said he'd go surfing every day, so i said thats funny since the bible says there wont be ocean in the new world and he said that was just symbolic. Hahaha. OH ,and this other one who was NOTHING to look at himself, said to a group of other guys "If you get with a fat chick now but with a really beautiful face, in the new system, she's gonna be thin."

So I just wanted to share that and was wondering what other absurd expectations of the new system that JW's have been vocal about. I need the laugh and I'm sure there's plenty to be had.

28

Meddling

by The Quiet One in

wt july 15, 2011 page 18 paragraph 15 "meddlers in other people's affairs".

it is not our right to tell others how to run their personal affairs'' anybody here ever been told to do something/how to do something by an elder or other jw?

in regards to job situation/family for example, with no direct scriptural backing...

roxanesophia

The Quiet One: I found they're so backwards and ignorant when it comes to male and female relationships. That's something I couldn't deal with if I became a JW. I'll talk to and befriend females but I get along much better with boys having grown up with 4 brothers and no sisters. Also in JW world, the boys were more interesting and the conversation definitely wasn't strictly spiritual things. the girls seemed to have nothing to talk about with me, a study, other than "Did you enjoy the talk? It was so encouraging!" and when there was a group of them together the topic of conversation was the lives of everyone else in the congregation.

Blondie: Although it's a stupid rule, i sorta understood not associating with 'worldly people', but i was interested in "the truth" and still was excluded anyway. Now I'm curious, is there any instruction not to associate with the unbaptized study, too?

23

Zealous JW nails description of the governing body!

by roxanesophia in

recently stopped studying, and stopped in the street to talk to a jw i met during my time studying.

we were sorta friends (well, in the small way jw's and worldlies can be) and here's how it went:.

him: "did you have a problem with someone?

roxanesophia

Thanks guys, you're all awesome :) He made it TOO easy, what can I say?

" also good on you for mentioning the specific website. hopefully it will linger in his mind until curiosity takes over."

I really hope he gets out, he's a really good guy who has put aside everything good in life to serve the GB. Last I heard he hasn't been at meetings and has also left town, but it wasn't announced from the platform so does that mean he didn't leave in good standing or they just couldn't care less? I've been at meetings where leaving ones were announced, even those who had already gone. I hope he left to fade. I've read here that's one way people get free, so i'm gonna be optimistic.

39

911 forgotten amongst JWs

by fade_away in

jw
friends

i noticed over the last 10 years that in every 9/11 anniversary, jws that i know personally don't even mention it.

not a word about the anniversary.

not a compassionate comment, not a prayer....nothing.

roxanesophia

Yep... world events don't seem to really affect them. After the Japan earthquake, I brought up how upsetting it was and the pioneer I studied with said "I don't really have that kind of compassion" and "It's in Jehovah's hands."

Incredible that someone who claims to be God's spokesperson is devoid of sympathy for human loss and suffering.

28

Meddling

by The Quiet One in

wt july 15, 2011 page 18 paragraph 15 "meddlers in other people's affairs".

it is not our right to tell others how to run their personal affairs'' anybody here ever been told to do something/how to do something by an elder or other jw?

in regards to job situation/family for example, with no direct scriptural backing...

roxanesophia

ABibleStudent: "My former devout JW friend was told not to associate with me shortly after we first met. According to my former friend, her spiritual father, an elder, said it out of concern and love for her. I do not know what the elder said, but I do know that the elder never met me and probably said it to my former friend because I am a 'Worldly' person."

Same thing happened to me, and i think its an odd practice. The lack of trust is a poor foundation for a friendship. My study teacher (also an elder's daughter) pretty much told me "You're not one of us yet" and still wouldn't hang out with me even though she knew I had abandoned my worldly friends. I was still worldly to a JW, though. The rare party i did get invited to was always frosty because my presence would upset at least one JW there. But being excluded didn't make me want to get baptized any faster... feeling like they didn't want me around (even if they were only obeying the 'rules') only expanded the gap between me and them and going to hall got uncomfortable because of it, so it didn't work to their advantage. I was lovebombed at the KH initially but it all cooled off when i wasn't progressing fast enough for their liking and who's to say anything would heat up after baptism anyway. I don't even know who really would have been my friend had i got baptized because some people did seem to genuinely like me but held back from associating with me. I have an inkling you become even worse in a JW's eyes when you studied for a long time, and have regular meeting attendance but don't progress past that without good reason. Not that there is any good reason when it comes to not doing Jehovah's will.

You're right that an elder most likely got in her ear about it, if not just another zealous JW. In my experience, there are different kinds of dubs. Some would say to me after meetings "You coming with us tonight?" which was always awful because i hadn't been told a thing about "tonight." because my teacher & her closest friends were the zealous ones. I can't tell you how many times I was so blatantly excluded. And when i did hang out with them, it was never really a good time because we didn't have anything much in common. The only relaxing time i had at a party was spent talking to another study who had been invited and who i convinced not to get baptized. She never came back to the hall, either. The fact that we were left to talk together for hours with no one coming over to include us in anything or say hi just goes to show how the JW's there felt about associating with studies.

On the subject of meddling, talking to the opposite sex in the KH. OH GOD the scrutiny and the obvious attempts to get brother reformed-wild-child-now-highly-esteemed-pioneer-MS away from spiritually weak worldly girl. One woman yelled out that she had to talk to him and refused to come to him, like she was a 3 year old throwing a tantrum and an old guy nearby us pretty much did the same thing, repeatedly yelling out "She wants to see you. OVER THERE." Subtley eludes them. We were discussing "the truth" anyway and he was probably counting his time. Another woman who'd never met me came over and asked me "Are you his girlfriend?" (Uh, hi, how are you? or introducing herself would have been nice) as if to say we looked that intimate. LOL. Talk about wanting to run, not walk, out of the kingdom hall.

23

Zealous JW nails description of the governing body!

by roxanesophia in

recently stopped studying, and stopped in the street to talk to a jw i met during my time studying.

we were sorta friends (well, in the small way jw's and worldlies can be) and here's how it went:.

him: "did you have a problem with someone?

roxanesophia

Thanks guys, I definitely got a kick out of it, and I'm not getting my hopes up and making assumptions but this guy was really something valuable to the local congregation and has suddenly left town and i'd like to think he's planning an exit.

One of the studies i met in the KH is someone i'm still in touch with (and she says she's NEVER getting baptized) and she asked me if it's announced at meetings if someone leaves the cong for reasons other than "John Black is no longer a Jehovah's Witness."He's leaving or might have already left, just waiting for the announcement, is there one for that?

23

Zealous JW nails description of the governing body!

by roxanesophia in

recently stopped studying, and stopped in the street to talk to a jw i met during my time studying.

we were sorta friends (well, in the small way jw's and worldlies can be) and here's how it went:.

him: "did you have a problem with someone?

roxanesophia

Recently stopped studying, and stopped in the street to talk to a JW i met during my time studying. We were sorta friends (well, in the small way JW's and worldlies can be) and here's how it went:

Him: "Did you have a problem with someone? You can't judge the whole organization on that person and you can't expect perfection in individuals."
(why do JW's always jump to problem with an individual when you don't want to be involved with them anymore?!)

Me: "No, I like the people. It's the organization you listen to that i have utter contempt for and jwfacts.com opened my eyes to the truth about it."

Him: "Ahhhh. They're the apostate websites we're always being warned against visiting. It's a shame that's what is swaying you. These people are disgruntled and left Jehovah and they're only out to make life hard for you."

Me: "If it was the truth, the governing body wouldn't be threatened at all by any websites. The fact they're running scared and still claim to be the truth is hard for me to swallow. There would be nothing hidden that they were afraid of being uncovered. Yeah I could have just accepted the organization's teachings and be one of you by now, but sorry, common sense says you don't commit to something without a thorough background check"

Him: "It's an instruction to ignore apostate websites because the governing body are aware that people are ignorant and easily misled."

Me: "Ha! I bet they're aware people are gullible. They started a religion, didn't they?"