Posts by MrDarkKnight

16

AN OPEN LETTER TO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

by hubert in

jw
friends

every year i like to bring up this letter for the "newbies" on this forum.. i found it very true, and right to the point.. thanks again, gaila noble.. hubert.

an open letter to jehovah's witnesses.

you may not remember, but i know you very well.

MrDarkKnight

Wow. That is all can say about this. Wow.

82

Watching the Leadership Crumble

by Damn The Watchtower in

jw
friends

i watch the watchtower leaders crumble, slowly crumble.

one nonsensical move after the other.

you have no idea how this makes me feel.

Damn The Watchtower - I feel your pain. It is difficult to watch an organization you have spent your whole life supporting slowly disintegrate before your eyes. For me it started when I went to Bethel over 25 years ago. It was there in the 124 Library that my confidence in the WTS began to slowely unravel. I read books and magazines from the past that most JWs will never see. What I read floored me. The "truth" is nothing like what was taught in the beginning, as I was led to believe. The "truth" has changed many, many, many times over the years based on the personality of the ones in charge. The "truth" turned out be subjective and open to interpretation. The "truth" is not THE "truth" at all.

The WTS leadership problem today is a result of there are no dominant personalities on the current GB or on the current GB committees or in the Writing and Teaching departments. There is no depth to the literature and no creativity or original thought. It comes through in the literature. It is milk, not meat. And if they simpify it anymore it won't even be milk.

The end of world was closer during World War II than it is now. It was closer during Cold War than it is now. The Kingdom Halls were packed on 9/11/2001 because everyone was sure all hell was about to break loose. Ten years later, Bin Laden is dead and there is really no discernable military threat to the USA. The urgency is gone. You would be hard pressed today to convince someone that the end of the world was near, that millions now living will never die.

This is the great conflict of being a Witness. I tried to live in two worlds. I preached the word, but I went to college as an adult in order to better provide for my family. I served as an elder with everything I had, but I bought the biggest home I could afford, bought a luxury car and went on expensive vacations wit my family. I taught the congregation to sacrifice for the future, but I planned a nest egg to live out my days in comfort. Eventually the hypocrisy almost killed me. Two hospitalizations, a suicide attempt and eight years of psychotherapy and powerful depression medication led me to one conclusion: This way of life is going to kill me if I do not let it go. I prefer to live and enjoy life and let the future take care of itself.

Everyone has to cope with what the knowledge that not everything they believed is true in a way that suits their nature. I would not presume to tell anyone in any forum to make the choices I have made. I have left that mentality behind. At the end of the day we all have live life in a way that suits our individual nature and we must make decisions and set goals that help us to achieve our values, whatever they may be.

Only by living a life based on values and doing all we can to achieve them can we truly be happy and help others to do the same.

83

I'm scared sometimes that the WTBTS might be right about everything.

by Chemical Emotions in

i wake up thinking: what if my boyfriend and i die a terrifying death during armageddon?

with no hope of any life afterwards?.

do any of you ever feel that way?.

MrDarkKnight

Godrulz - In my 38 years of door to door work I have spent thousands of hours talking to Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Mormons, Presbyterians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other organized religions. If I distill their messages down they are saying basically the same thing:

1. We are right.

2. You are not.

3. This life is temporary.

4. The death of self or others is the gateway to eternal happiness.

5. We can't prove any of this because it is beyond our mental capacity to understand, so just believe it and you will live forever on earth, in heaven, in nirvana, with 70 virgins, etc and so on.

I simply cannot accept organized religion anymore without demonstrable evidence. If the God of the Bible or Koran or any other so-called holy book exists, and he is love, then there must be evidence that the rational mind kind accept, not faith based on emotion or feelings.

83

I'm scared sometimes that the WTBTS might be right about everything.

by Chemical Emotions in

i wake up thinking: what if my boyfriend and i die a terrifying death during armageddon?

with no hope of any life afterwards?.

do any of you ever feel that way?.

MrDarkKnight

Chemical Emotions - This is my son's number one concern, that I will die at Armageddon. How is that fear different from being sent to hell? If God would not torture a person in hell, why would he make them suffer a horrible death at Armageddon? It is not logical to me, thus it is irrational.

All religion is obsessed with death. To them our present existence is only a bridge to heaven, paradise on earth, nirvana, another planet and so on. My realization of this fact was sobering. I have spent so much of my life worried about dying that I have never really enjoyed life. No more. We are all going to die. The question is, are we going to live?

42

Long Call With Elder: Doesn't Know About "Generations/Overlapping"

by daringhart13 in

jw
friends

i had a call with a good buddy......still an elder the other night.. when i mentioned generations/overlapping.......he had no clue what i was talking about.

such a good man.......... but it doesn't matter.....they don't even realize what is being said to them; what is being done to them.

a high stature elder in their organization....and he had no clue there was another change..... how the hell does this happen?.

MrDarkKnight

Cantleave - I empathize with the elder you speak of - I was like him for a longtime. But my bullshit meter pegged out last year and I finally left earlier this year.

I conducted the the WT for eight years. The generation study is memorable because whenever I asked a question all I heard was crickets. I had to explain the change because no one understood it. I understood it but was shaken to the core because my worst fears were coming to realization - I need to get a real job and provide for my familty BECAUSE WE HAVE NO IDEA WHEN THE END IS COMING. I was on my way out at that point but did not know it.

The change to an overlapping generations, along with the "not everyone who claims to be an anointed person is anointed" comment sealed the deal for me. Time to bounce!!!!

21

Has there been a change on how JW's view those that have drifted away?

by lonestar63 in

jw
friends

i wonder if an article in the wt came out telling them to reach out to those that have drifted away.

i suspect the defection has been great in the last few years, and they're trying to bring some back.

i've told my story here, how i was able to succesfully fade away along with my family, without being df'd.

MrDarkKnight

Alfred - LOL!!! You know the deal. I was the master of passing the CO visit. In my seven years as PO never dinged once!!!

21

Has there been a change on how JW's view those that have drifted away?

by lonestar63 in

jw
friends

i wonder if an article in the wt came out telling them to reach out to those that have drifted away.

i suspect the defection has been great in the last few years, and they're trying to bring some back.

i've told my story here, how i was able to succesfully fade away along with my family, without being df'd.

MrDarkKnight

Current policy is call on the inactive every February and the disfellowshipped every September. Most bodies of elders do not do this consistently. No one has made any effort to call on me the since I left and I was officaly inactive in February 2011.

96

Jesus was just a man?

by Joey Jo-Jo in

according to this video, jesus was just a man, but were can i find these books that speak of this.

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m23vv6moyf0&feature=related.

MrDarkKnight

Godrulz - I know you have been getting a lot of grief of late. I welcome your viewpont. I have tried to respectfully engage you on occasion because you and I are not that much different. You are passionate about what you believe and when I was an active JW so was I.

Your comment "JWs are rationalists" made me chuckle. My parents converted to JWs when I was eight years old. I became a member at age 15 and was a zealot for almost 30 years. I loved to debate my beliefs. I had many people in my "return visit" book like you, intelligent, well educated and feisty. I spent a lot of time with them with no expectation of converting them, but the thrill of the debate and the test of my knowledge always made me go back to their homes. Being forced to defend my beliefs convinced me at the that I was right and they were wrong.

Therefore I can tell you that after six months of RATIONAL thought that JWs are not rationalists in general. The fact is that all religion requires us to suspend rational thought on some level and simply BELIEVE. There are religious teaching that are simply NOT DEMONSTRABLE not matter how much we BELIEVE. Our belief is based on FAITH not REALITY. The reality of this hit me hard recently. I have spent my life debating and defending beliefs that I really can't PROVE with DEMONSTRABLE EVIDENCE. I am really asking people to just BELIEVE.

Believing something with passion does not make it REALITY. I really, really, really, believe I am rich, but my bank account says I am not.

I will not practice an organized religion until I have DEMONSTRABLE evidence that God exists, that he has made efforts to communicate with mankind and this chosen form of communication can be validated as his word. Calling me dumb, stupid, immature, uneducated, rationalist, atheist, agnostic or wicked are just labels that avoid the issue. Condemnig me to death at the hand of God without proof just supports my position.

And if I ever choose to practice organized religion again, I will never turn my conscious mind over to them again. I will always look for DEMONSTRABLE evidence that what they believe and practice is rooted in REALITY and can be proved by REASON.

I seek proof, not rhetoric.

42

Long Call With Elder: Doesn't Know About "Generations/Overlapping"

by daringhart13 in

jw
friends

i had a call with a good buddy......still an elder the other night.. when i mentioned generations/overlapping.......he had no clue what i was talking about.

such a good man.......... but it doesn't matter.....they don't even realize what is being said to them; what is being done to them.

a high stature elder in their organization....and he had no clue there was another change..... how the hell does this happen?.

MrDarkKnight

The only thing worse than ignorance if the refusal to know.

10

District Crapvention - Immense Image in Daniel

by outsmartthesystem in

since my exodus is yet incomplete.....i was there.

and it was indeed awful.

according to the talk.....the iron and clay feet of the immense image is the anglo-american world power.

MrDarkKnight

This is not "new light". It is a return to what was believed from1978 - 1985. The flip flopping continues.