I was a third-generation JW and was an MS giving public talks. I am now an atheist.
I do now know or understand any of those phrases in a biblical / religious context.
when i began formal study of religion and biblical analysis it was like peeling off layer after layer of dark matter, sticky and putrid that had stuck over my eyes and ears and mouth.
i learned that under the watchtower one only builds a widening gap between yourself and the world of biblical academia and scholars.
i used to think i knew a lot because i learned to quote a few scholars or lexicons as a witness.
I was a third-generation JW and was an MS giving public talks. I am now an atheist.
I do now know or understand any of those phrases in a biblical / religious context.
i am not sure if this guy is really from bethel, or walkill, but if he is....this poor guy really tells it like it is from the heart.
he was surprised.. at the 'oh so fast, pack your bags, get your stuff outta here' layoff !.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk1xh1egjcu
This dude has clearly 'gone apostate'. Good for him. I suppose he was outed form bethel some time ago.
I was an overnight guest at the Sydney bethel just as I was on the way out. I absolutely hated everything about the place. The brown carpets, brown walls, weird art on the walls (WT originals - even more creepy than in the magazines), lifeless faces on zombies wandering around the silent corridors, people I'd known as vibrant and vital now seeming scared and unhappy, the truly bizarre dinner table conversations.
It just had a bad vibe. It made me wonder if spirits were real, and all the bad ones lived at bethel. Satan's House.
When we got people we knew in a place they felt safe to talk, they told us awful and weird stories about the place and the people in it and what they did. We saw a dorm for about 20 married couples (on construction) that had beds 3 feet apart separated by curtains, that was indecent. At least they knew where to get good, cheap alcohol. They'd need it.
There were contribution boxes EVERYWHERE and people kept telling is they were there. Despite sleeping in their bed and eating their food, I refused to put a cent in. That was my FU to the Society, a short, sharp one in the guts (even if they were too fat to notice).
But I did buy a JW branded pen: still have it.
i was just a teenager and have a vivid memory of sitting in a chair doing a microphone for the sunday meeting.
everyone was commenting that it didn't mean the end was far off, and it didn't change the condition of the dead, or the 144,000, or the trinity so we should still remain faithful.
this is my first memory as a kid being just a teen that i ever had a single doubt.
At about that time I asked myself if I'd stay a JW even if it could be proved wrong. I thought I might.
When the article came up, I was surprised the lack of response to it. The article made no sense, but it washed away a huge chunk of chronology. I brushed that off, but I probably also stopped bothering to care if the teachings were true or not too as a result. It didn't matter, since every teaching was evidently able to be made to go away with just one article that would just be accepted. What would be next?
I'd thought before about what I'd do if the religion was proved false, and I suppose I hadn't been able to comprehend being the first in my family to leave the JWs at tbat time. It took 2 more years to sort myself out and realize that I would not, could not stay and it was ok to leave.
So I left. The Watchtower is just a weekly science fiction series.
paragraph 14.
"the majority if unmarried youths who lose their virginity say that they regret what they did.".
where do they get this stuff?.
"The majority if unmarried youths who lose their virginity say that they regret what they did and promise to keep on practising over and over, every day that they can until they get it right"
or
"The majority if unmarried youths who lose their virginity say that they regret what they did and that they are looking for someone better looking and more experienced for next time'
or
"The majority if unmarried youths who lose their virginity say that they regret what they did and that they'll remember to pay a visit to the drug store first next time"
or
"The majority if unmarried youths who lose their virginity say that they regret what they did: they now realise they should never have turned up for those bible studies, meetings or their baptism that resulted in them taking so long to experience the joys of sex and to feel so worried and guilty about it"
or
"The majority if unmarried youths who lose their virginity say that they regret what they did that got them caught by the elders"
if any one has been taking note of my posts, it could be said that i often mention conversations i have had with dubbies.
in some ways not been dfed has allowed me to gain some real in sight into how they think and their justification for things.
the following is a conversation i just had with an ultra super dub relative, and to be honest i don't know weather i should be laughing or crying over it.. relative: the rc this year is going to be held in the assembly hall.
Well, he has a point since in the end 'the love of the greater number will cool off'.
So if they're closer, they'll be warmer.
are jws trying to make dysfunctional kids that wont "fit" in normal society so they will "return to jehovah"?
because there have been many stories about young people who have been out in the world only to find how bad it was and how correct the org was.. a good jw kid with "good" jw parents will have many big issues, some examples:.
fear of demons (fear, misfit).
Brilliant post.
That is what they do. By design or not.
Most JW / XJW are screwed up one way or another. And the irony is that 'the world' is much more helpful, accepting and safe than the 'Spiritual Paradise' for those who try to overcome the bad start the JWs get.
Go to the brothers for judgment, but to your choice of therapist / whatever for recovery, growth and a fairer crack at life.
during the rc today i heard this(i am paraphrasing and translating):.
"jehovah has created the physical universe for us.
he is a spirit and he can't enjoy physical things so he created it for us alone.
all of my years in the truth, i never understood why we had to study before each meeting.
the contents are self-explanatory with the answers to the printed question within the first or the last sentence of the paragraph.
then, commenting never made sense, especially comments and experiences that don't answer the printed question.
I couldn't bear to pre-study, hated it. But I was quite a regular fill-in Watchtower and book study conductor or reader: so, typically, I was up there having not much idea what was in the article / book, but I'd heard it all before so could usually guess the gist.
But I soon realised it didn't matter a damn whether the conductor knew if the answers were right or not, or even what the subject was. I just had to be nice to them all from the platform, utter some clichés, and get about three answers per paragraph, but avoid numpties who'd could be predicted to say something I'd be expected to recognise as wrong (but probably wouldn't coz I wasn't really listening).
Everything just seemed to take care of itself. I quite liked conducting / reading the studies since it relieved the boredom of sitting though one.
The only thing was that it was embarrassing not to have a marked Watchtower. Sometimes I didn't care, sometimes I did something cursory. Toward the end I just ran random highlighter pen over the page for appearances sake.
in addition to the above question, why do citizens of the two above mentioned countries, or other countries, feel the necessity to tell americans how they should interpret the american constitution for localized issues?.
i fairly much have an idea what the general population in the usa feels in regards to the first question.
this could be one of the possible reasons cnn piers morgan poor ratings and eventual firing.
Hi TD
I get the difference between holding an opinion and expressing an opinion.
I hold, however, that it's a bit redundant to question people's expressed opinions on an internet discussion forum on the basis of the country they're from.
By all means fire away on the basis of the expressed opinion being rooted in ignorance of the complexities of the issues or whatever other objective failure there may be in whatever someone might write.
But to say a Brit or a Canadian or whatever should have nothing to say about X because X is only for Americans to discuss is a bit rude. A foreigner may have as much of value to say as an American.
Or not.
I just say consider the value of the contribution made to the discussion, not the national origin of the poster.
on page 13 of the december 15, 2014 watchtower (study edition), the first 2 sentences of paragraph 10 say:.
"the symbolic separating of fish does not refer to the final judgment during the great tribulation.
rather, it highlights what would happen during the last days of this wicked system.".