I like your idea of moving. It worked well for me. No one was knocking at my door or bothering me in any way. Life was paradise!
Hang in there. It gets easier as time goes on.
yet another update on my story:.
for various reasons, i still have to go to all meetings.
(i am looking to change my personal circumstances to allow me to live somewhere else so i can fade easier)... i actually don't mind going to the mid-week meeting since i can comment on the bible reading, and slowly but surely i can introduce little seeds of cognitive dissonance... making it seem like i am super interested in what the interlinear says or that people can actually go and check out the manuscripts for themselves online!
I like your idea of moving. It worked well for me. No one was knocking at my door or bothering me in any way. Life was paradise!
Hang in there. It gets easier as time goes on.
i have gotten a thought about how to wake active witnesses up.
since the book does not mention jws specifically, if you could get a active jw to read ccmc, what do you think their reaction would be?
could they clearly see how jws fit in as a cult?, or would the average jw be blinded to the obvious and just see how other groups like mormons, moonies, scientology, etc fit the mold?
I agree that it's worth a try. When I was a dub, I remember a discussion with a Bible student about patriotism. Pretending to agree with me, he said something like, "Yes, the U.S. is only 200 years old, but they're the best!" I immediately felt a twinge because I knew he was really talking about the religion and hoped I'd make the connection.
Lots of people said things to me that made me uncomfortable. That's how we learn.
Best wishes with your dad.
...i might drop in every now and then but i hope you all enjoy life, escape the watchtower(r) and live prosperous lives.. i can't say i contribute much here anyway (and i'm not attention seeking).. i'm just going to get on with life away from the constant reminder of the mistakes i made being a jw zombie drone.. i guess i'm just going to fade.......rather quickly.. of course i didn't need to make any posts here to disappear but i thought it'd be polite and very british to bid you all a fond farewell.. see you all sometime.....maybe.....maybe not.....maybe....... bye!.
ps.
don't pm me as i won't be checking the pms.. .
I have appreciated your astute observations about JW life. I understand your desire to distance yourself from anything WT-related.
All the best!
hi, i was here years ago but havnt been around for maybe 7 or 8 years.
i was brought up as a jw, my mum still is, ive studied and studied over the years but have never been baptized and have always had nagging doubts.. ive been trying to talk to my mum and her husband about my doubts but its like they dont understand what im saying, my mum's husband jumps from one topic to the next, throwing point after point at me and doesnt listen to any of the answers i give him.. for instance this week i told him that i doubt the bible because when it talks about the last days it fails to mention the ice caps melting or about the technology we now have but talks about wars etc that mankind has always known.
i just get the same answer from him everytime "it cant mention everything or the bible would be a mile long".
Welcome back!
Don't worry about what others think or don't understand. Live your life as you see fit, and let others do the same.
okay, what happens when a congregation member, a relatively new convert, approaches an elder and says, "hey, jim.
just wanted to let you know that i'm going to have to leave today's meeting as soon as it breaks....".
"really," says jim.
JW's advocate liberal views. Their own views are rock hard conservative.
JW's advocate freedom of religiion. They do not allow their members the option of considering fair play with another religion.
the material i've studied about early christianity leads to the conclusion that what passes for modern christianity is the result of luck.
ideas required support, so who was lucky enough to get the numbers at a conference?
(often dependent on who could get there).
A fact cannot be wrong. A fact is what is, indisputably. Maybe there was an allegation that something you said was wrong.
just got to thinking how long can the watchtower peddle the 'soon' story with any credibility?.
i would say there are the oldtimer or born ins in the 70+ age group - they possibly remember the 2nd world war, and maybe joined for 1975 or made life affecting decisions meaning they are so commited with 'nowhere else to go' that they have surrendered to the resurrection hope.. then you have the '1986 international year of peace, the 1914+70 year' generation crowd.
people in their 40s and 50s now.
We converts were the disaffected people "the man with the writer's inkhorn" was looking for, i.e., those "sighing and crying" about the condition of our lives. For me, one of the benefits of being a JW as a teenager (from age 15) was the illusion that there were people who cared about me and my well-being and having teenage friends to do things with on weekends.
I came from an uneducated and unambitious family, so the dubs seemed normal to me.
i have recently been using the expression "people not of our faith" and it shocks me to be corrected everytime by, "you mean worldly".
i dont really like the word worldly because i feel it is a degrading word to describe people we love so much that we try to find them in the ministry.
below are a couple of quotes from recent watchtowers that really give us the esscence of the word worldly as far as the watchtower is concerned.. janusz, who lives in eastern europe, became engrossed in his gardening business.
When I googled "definition of worldly," here's what I got:
1. Of or concerned with material values or ordinary life rather than a spiritual existence
2. Experienced and sophisticated
For most of us (including Jehovah's witnesses), it's necessary to be "worldly" in order to feed, house and clothe ourselves. Experience and sophistication are the long-term benefits.
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And they were not even Christians . . .
This is the 21st century, people! It's time we accept people for who they are (unless they're hurting themselves or others).
The article confirmed my belief about one thing: The same thugs would be in charge regardless of the form of government. Most of them have no philosophy, just self-promotion and self-absorbtion/narcissism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig9ce55wbty.
American schools are still run, as far as I know, on the factory model although we live in a high-tech society. Everything is regimented and lowbrow for people who are going to sort screws for a living. Why does an assembly line worker need to be creative?
As Pink Floyd so aptly put it, "We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control."
I was reading a novel once in which a upper class English "gentleman" was arguing against allowing "the great unwashed" to learn to read. He said that no man who could read would ever go down into a coal mine.
So, if we teach kids to think and come up with new ideas, they might have a sense of self-worth and not settle for living on minimum wage with government subsidies or being controlled by their corporate masters.