xjwsrock

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Posts by xjwsrock

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  22

  Overlapping generation pushed me to the brink

  by Anator in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello, i haven't posted for a number of years.

  i've been struggling for years of wrestling in my mind regarding the organization.

  i guess the big thing for me to push me over the edge is the generation overlapping thingy.

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  xjwsrock

  After reading OEJ's comment I thought about this.

  Franz was pretty young by today's JW standards to have been "anointed" in 1914. Such a thing would never fly today. Just sayin!
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  22

  Overlapping generation pushed me to the brink

  by Anator in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello, i haven't posted for a number of years.

  i've been struggling for years of wrestling in my mind regarding the organization.

  i guess the big thing for me to push me over the edge is the generation overlapping thingy.

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  xjwsrock

  I think the new belief is that the "anointed" existed before 1919, but the "faithful slave" wasn't chosen until 1919.

  They essentially finished Rutherford's job of kicking Russell to the curb. They also elevated themselves even above the Apostles in that way. Imagine the arrogance.

  Also, they usually spin the pre-1914 prophecies as "The Bible Students saw the significance of 1914 as far back as the 1800's."

  This is sin of omission. They don't mention what the early Bible Students thought was significant about 1914. Like you said, they predicted Armageddon to break out in 1914. When WWI broke out, they thought they were right. Lol. Funny to think about now. What must they have thought when world conditions settled back down into relative peace.

  This entire organization was founded on false prophecy.
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  59

  Why don't you do anything?

  by WireRider in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i'm not jw, so i see this all standing up and very clear from an outsider perspective (i am still seeking my path).

  i joined the blog a few weeks ago.

  i dated a divorced jw (jw from birth) for a couple of years recently.

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  xjwsrock

  Is that a yes?

  Not sure what you mean. I do think that a mass exodus or movement would do some serious damage. I think the numbers, though, are less than you think of persons awake. It seems like millions when you visit websites like this one, but good god you should hear the asinine comments of these true-believer idiots in my hall.
  
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  59

  Why don't you do anything?

  by WireRider in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i'm not jw, so i see this all standing up and very clear from an outsider perspective (i am still seeking my path).

  i joined the blog a few weeks ago.

  i dated a divorced jw (jw from birth) for a couple of years recently.

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  xjwsrock

  I am just throwing this in the mix.

  Back in the day, when a large percentage of members left (1925'ish I believe), the organization had some different policies in place that actually made that easier to do.

  A big policydifference was - Disfellowshipping (shunning) was not a formal doctrine or practice of the religion.

  So the medieval social/psychological trap was not in place yet in the cult. You might could even argue it wasn't a cult yet.

  Translation: Members obviously felt they could air grievances to each other and subsequently take whatever personal action they needed to. This led to activist groups forming and leaving.

  Today this is not allowed. Today is is a full blown nasty-ass cult. You complain - you are quickly kicked out and the remaining members are not allowed to speak to you. This actually happens too. It is not just on paper. Look up jwstruggle on youtube and you can watch these confrontations and trials led by congregation elders.

  It is a sick complicated mess.

  I personally wish for governments to step in and enforce The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which includes as Article 18:

  • Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
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  27

  Major announcement, news, and video this upcoming Sunday in all kingdomhalls worldwide???

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  got a call from a relative that i should go to the meeting this sunday because something major to be announced.

  (they were told it has to do with branches closing down, missionaries being sent home, etc).

  i said it's probably money.

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  xjwsrock

  I'm just verifying the letter mentioned in the OP. And just for clarification it is not the leaked letter spoken of in many posts and on jwsurvey.

  It is a letter stating that a letter (prob the leaked one) and video will be made available this Saturday to be read at the next meeting. 99% of people will get it Sunday after an abbreviated Watchtower.

  I spoke with another elder briefly in a different congregation and there are rumblings about the construction stopping. He has CO this week and the CO made comments about finances being at the root of it.

  Who knows. Just letting you all know what is going around.
  
  
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  50

  Is the WT SLOW-ly Changing the importance of the Door to Door preaching work to something more profitable?

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  its been a couple of weeks since a new c.o.

  was appointed to the circuit and im starting to hear tidbits of his talks..

  one brother told me that in one of his talks he asked the question; .

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  xjwsrock

  I don't know about dropping the d2d, but they are definitely equating the construction work with the ministry in the publications. A recent WT had construction pics alongside preaching pics in the same collage. There were like 4 construction pics and 5 ministry pics. They barely put the ministry above in that example.

  They are also handing out titles like "remote bethelite" to people that are doing remote programming and drafting work for these construction projects. These persons are "full-time servants" and sometimes rarely ever go out in service (because they are doing important work for mother).
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  15

  It had sounded to good to be true.

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  because it wasn't true anyway.

  it was a dream.

  the insanest dream, to believe that i was going to live forever.. but today i am alive, and i am determined to travel the seconds between life and death aware of my mortality.

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  xjwsrock

  Firstly I enjoyed your OP. The earthquake analogy is a good one. The line about not being in love with your hatred for the WT was also something I can relate to.

  There seems to be a grieving process to waking up to this stuff. I think that process is different for each person depending on a lot of factors. Some of those factors being - how deep of a believer the person was to begin with - how sensitive a personality the person has - and what consequences potentially await the person.

  Now I will get to the questions...

  A) Where are you in your recovery stage?

  I'm not sure how to answer that exactly, but I will try. I think I am still in the final stages of letting go emotionally. Being a born-in and a true believer and defender of the religion for so long, it is a hard thing to admit emotionally, not to mention the emotions of seeing your imagined hopes dissolve. I know that the hopes were a fantasy, but we didn't know that at the time. The old you is still slightly alive inside and is hard to contend with at times. Part of me wants this "new truth" to be wrong. It would be so much easier. I still wake up each day and this ttatt thing is what comes to my mind. It's like I ask myself, "Are those thoughts still there? Do I still feel the same way? Did I snap out of it? Any easy solution come from my slumber?" Everyday it's the same, though. Nothing changes. Actually I progress slowly to increased conviction that the WT theology is a fiction and more than that, the bible is nothing more than an ancient book sprinkled with few flashes of wisdom.

  Just to put it out there, there is a youtuber that really resonated with me and helped me put the final nail in the coffin intellectually. You can find the videos by searching for "Joy of Unwitnessing". It is a numbered series of videos on his channel. He "unwitnesses" to a friend and recounts the points he made to her. It was very eye-opening for me to hear it put the way he did.

  I also benefited from reading some of Thomas Paine's (1737-1809) writings on the bible. One point that was incredible was the point that the spinning sword guarding the garden of eden had to be a mistake in the fictional story since swords had not been invented yet. It is a bronze age insertion into a story about the stone age. Incredible how people saw through this stuff well before Russell was even born.

  B) How long did it take to get where you are?

  Over 3 years.

  C) And where do you hope to be a year from now?

  I am a serving elder married to a quite devout JW wife. It is a slow painful process of backing away. The extent of my fading so far is getting off the service committee. I hope to back away from my elder stuff altogether soon. In a perfect world, my wife would endorse that move. I so wish that she could be on the same page as me with this. It's heartbreaking. We are really close. Like I can barely think of couples I know that are closer than us. I think part of my problem (and probably from my JW upbring and indoctrination) is that I am not really emotionally equipped to lose her and everybody else in my life. So..... I take it slow. Day by day.

  I hope to be further along a year from now. I hope my wife wakes up more. I would say she is probably 10-20% awake compared to a few years ago, but not nearly enough. She is still in the stage where she says, "but it's still Jehovah's organization", "Jehovah will fix things in his due time", "Jehovah's organization has had corruption in the past", blah blah blah.

  So anyway, sorry to get long-winded. Thanks for the thoughtful OP. Take care.
  
  
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  49

  Extreme emotions re today's watchtower

  by Tornintwo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was supposed to attend the meeting today, one of my once a month duties for the sake of my family and my fade.

  i read the wt and i just can't stomach going.... what this wt does is again and again reiterate that only jws will survive the coming destruction and that they should be happy about this and raise ourselves erect...eg:.

  we cannot expect that many people will suddenly convert to true christianity.

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  xjwsrock

  Powerful post Dumplin, thanks for that.

  JWs seem to only have emotions for characters in their "storybook."

  Its really scary what these religions make out of people.
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  13

  JW's Approach To Bible Interpretaion

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it will come as no surprise to many here that the jw approach to interpreting the bible is greatly flawed.

  the reason that it is so flawed is that before anything is examined there are already some false assumptions that are made.

  jws believe the following about the bible without evidence:.

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  xjwsrock

  OneEyedJoe:

  JW method of interpreting the bible:

  1. Decide what you want the bible to say.
  2. Take scriptures out of context to support your claim of what the bible says.
  3. ???
  4. Profit.

  3. Make a Cult
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  18

  "The governing body has asked me to..."

  by OverlappingGeneralizations in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have heard that phrase several times on the jw broadcast, uttered by gb members!

  "the governing body has asked me to bring to your attention (whatever)".

  aren't you the governing body?

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  xjwsrock

  Remember ... "Governing Body" - aka - "Guardians Of Doctrine".

  So when Lett says the Governing Body asked him to speak, he is really saying G.O.D. asked him to share those important pronouncements and admonitions...