Posts by Mum

30

First post venting

by Freethinking76 in

jw
friends

hello ,i am a jw,been in the "truth " for about 6 years.i have to be very careful because i know the witnesses monitors sites and report to the elders ,i know cause that is what my blood sister does,she spends hours trying to find apostates in the closet.i know stuped.. so this is my situation.i have known about jw almost all my life and heard that only them have the truth,lots of my family are in it.i was the one taking too long to baptize ,i knew it was expected from me.and i always had a need to make ppl like me .so i took the dip.i started to notice that there are lots of jws that belong to little groups.i wanted friendship so bad and at the time had a need o tell ppl about my horrible childhood traumas i guess i was not over it yet,and needed some to lisent since i had drove my spouse nuts already .what happend this ppl pretend to want to be close to me so they can know all my business and then tell everyone at the hall.then you realize uhhh,they never confided their personal stuff to me.is like a game " you can tell me your stuff,but do not expect me to keep it to myself and do not think i will tell you my dirty laundry.a lot of mind games.. so i was alone ,invisible ,i still can't believe i put up with so much !

i can't wright not even half of what i when through.i feel paranoic now.so i came across a youtube video by jwstruggle and blow my mind ,now i can't stop researching,my spouse is not a jw,and is very shock too.so i decided that i want to fade,i guess it won't be so hard since the sis and brothers did not had a close relationship with me.i have kids and i suffer from pts ,anxiety attacks,panick attacks and severe depression.i moved to the next town of my hall,so i have change hall too.i have not been to my new hall,and wanted to know,will the elders in my old hall contact the elders in my new hall just to see if i am attending?..

my spouse told me " i will tell them i am not letting you go" "and "i found out that your liars!

Mum

Welcome! We have a great influx of new people on the forum lately. It is good to have all of you here.

You are going through a lot right now. If at all possible, I would recommend that you move to another state without telling any of the dubs. You can start a new life much more easily that way. I left in 1979, pre-internet, and I thanked God every day that the U.S. is such a big country, and I could go so far away.

You might benefit from professional counseling as well. It sounds like you have unresolved issues from childhood, which is not unusual.

Best wishes for a successful transition to a better life. Keep us posted.

6

http://www.theocraticcollector.com/

by wordyword in

jw
friends

hi all, came across this website, ran by steve searles.

i believe he comes from carlisle, england.. it contains all sorts of "goodies" - talks, dramas, district conventions, old watchtower publications, videos etc.

he charges a "membership fee" for folks to download ripped off youtube videos etc.

Mum

Welcome to the forum, wordyword. Tell us more about yourself.

11

Why do witnesses listen to their GB

by speargrass55 in

jw
friends

hello everyone, i want us to discuss the gbs right to control jws.

the gb claim, and rf jws believe that they can't understand the bible without help from the gb.

when you ask them why they listen to the gb you hear stuff like .

Mum

When I went back to college in my 30's, I was having a discussion with another "older" student about people's priorities. My friend summed it up this way: Most people are just looking for somebody to follow.

As much as I detest my decision to become a JW, I'm so glad I didn't meet some other charismatic cult leader first. Charles Manson comes to mind, a man who appeared to "have it all together" as we said in the '70's.

63

Who from JWN would you most like to have dinner with?

by laverite in

jw
friends

if you could pick anyone from jwn to meet in real life to meet and have dinner with, who would that be?

let's exclude all those who you are already friends with, who you know and love from jwn in real life.

so or me, that excludes my friend ann and also curious butterfly.

Mum

I did have dinner with Barbara Anderson and her husband when we went to the Silentlambs march in NYC in 2002. I actually sat at the same table with them. They are sweethearts. The other people I sat with no longer post here.

63

Who from JWN would you most like to have dinner with?

by laverite in

jw
friends

if you could pick anyone from jwn to meet in real life to meet and have dinner with, who would that be?

let's exclude all those who you are already friends with, who you know and love from jwn in real life.

so or me, that excludes my friend ann and also curious butterfly.

Mum

LoisLane, Hortensia and Mouthy are my choices, although there are many others. These ladies are all so down-to-earth and kind.

If I would not feel so intimidated by their intellect, I would choose Leolaia and Billy the ex-Bethelite.

24

Black or white what Racial Discrimination have you experienced?

by usualusername in

jw
friends

i could give you hundreds of experiences but let me kick off with the following.

i boarded a train at 4am heading to an airport a few weeks ago.

in my carriage there were at least 100 people.. .

Mum

First, I am Caucasian.

I went to a Korean grocery store, and the owner or an employee followed me every step. She did not say anything to me at all, and I said nothing to her either. I got spooked and left without buying anything. When I told a Korean friend about the incident, he told me that the person was just ensuring that I found what I wanted. It's hard to understand other cultures. I'm not sure I believe what my friend told me either.

13

Contributing factor to Roman Catholics converting to JW

by NeverKnew in

my jw friend once asked that if churches were so great why did so many roman catholics convert to his religion.

now i have some semblance of an answer!.

i spoke with a professor who definitely had some familiarity with the wts.

Mum

juanvazquez, welcome to the forum.

I read a book once by Barbara Grizutti Harrison, who was brought up as a JW after her family left the Roman Catholic Church. She left the JW religion as a young adult. The title of rhe book is Visions of Glory: A History and a Memory of the Jehovah's Witnesses. She had a Jewish friend named Arnold who would defend her and even hold her hand when she refused to salute the flag or stand for the national anthem. There's a chapter in the book called "God Can't Kill Arnold."

Be supportive of your wife, but find ways to make her question the bizarre beliefs she has been taught. This can go a long way in getting her to open her mind to other ideas. But don't expect anything to happen too quickly. Overcoming the brainwashing takes a lot of time.

11

Shunning squared

by Apostating in

greetings my fellow warriors,.

i have not posted my bio yet, i tried but i can't yet.. however this i can share.

i have been divorced from my jw wife for two years now.

Mum

It's heart wrenching. I went through a similar situation with my daughter. It's hell. The best day of my life was when my daughter turned 18, and her dad couldn't use her as a pawn to punish me. She wants nothing to do with the Watchtower now. Her in-laws go to a fundamentalist church, and the service makes her physically ill. She can only go to liturgical churches, where the focus is on worship, not evangelizing and/or judging.

Take one day at a time. Be sure the kids understand that you love and accept them for who they are and regardless of their choices of religion. Be sure they have a good time with you, and are going to have good memories of their time with you when they're older. I hope you don't talk to them about what's wrong with the WT. They'll figure it out by watching behaviors.

Hang in there. It'll get better with time.

57

Casual sexism in Watchtower literature

by slimboyfat in

i notice the sexist language of the watchtower a lot more these days.

is it on the increase or am i simply more tuned into to noticing it now?

for example this statement in the june kingdom ministry:.

Mum

Galatians 3:28 says that in Christ there is no male or female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. Their rejection of Christ gives them free reign to classify some human beings as inferior in some way they never really explain, because there is no explanation.

Men have upper body strength. It's a simple physical phenomenon that keeps women down. He can hurt you if you don't obey.

3

WHAT HAPPENS when a lawyer starts his OWN RELIGION?

by Terry in

first, pastor russell had joined adventist bible students in their enthusiam for end times chronologies.. next, russell teamed up with leading adventist thinkers like george storrs and barbour to publish these chronologies and apologies.. finally, russell used his private wealth to cut and paste ideas from all over the religious map into his own peculiar name-brand version of adventism which included pyramidology.. local congregations kept autonomy.

russell would have it no other way.

but, russell had died in 1916.. .

Mum

I went to the site and copied Jan's thesis to MS Word. Jan is brilliant. I wish he still posted here.