Posts by 00DAD

12

Differing views of education in the JW cult

by hybridous in

jw
friends

while reading the thread about the jw elder clearing his conscience, i had the thought.... .

while taking everyone's experiences in the jw org at face value, we all certainly had different influences present around us concerning education.. .

it is clear to me that within the jw org, there is a spectrum running from hard-liners to very liberal, in this particular matter.

00DAD

WT Rules and Regulations breed hypocrisy. This is true of any religion. When rules multiply, especially overly-restrictive rules intended to do no more than reinforce the authority of the ruling class, people are going to break them. Often the rule-makers feel that the rules don't apply to them because they made them. Their immediate underlyings get caught in the middle. They don't want to follow them either because they think they're part of the "ruling class," but they know they need to look like loyal subjects to those ruled.

It's clear to me that if Jesus really were to somehow return today, he would completely reject the way JWs misrepresent him.

"He strongly criticized the religious leaders when he said to them: 'You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.'—Matthew 15:6." - w10 7/1 p. 4

JWs are brilliant at picking up on the hypocrisy of other religions, but generally turn a blind eye to their own duplicity. Either that or they invent sophisticated excuses to justify why they are some how exempt. This is the definition of hypocrisy.

33

Did you ever have any real weirdos ? in your congregation who were Elders ?

by smiddy in

.....some of the things he did and got away with , to me now is unbeleivable , and maybe to you.. in all fairness he was well versed in the bible and very clever how he used it to put a critic to rest at the doors and in one instance when i was witnessing with him , he demoralised a pastor of his church .and i was impressed at that time.. but he had some strange ways , he was always looking for someone to break gods laws so to speak .he did set himself up as the policeman for enforcing gods law on the congregations .

( this is my description ) he was known to stand outside bros/sis.

homes to see if he could find something incriminating against them .

00DAD

Yes, several.

One that stands out was this old geezer that'd never been married. He was in the habit of saying the most insensitive things to people. No clue how he ever was appointed an elder in the first place. (He was appointed in another congregation and moved in with a favorable letter.)

There were a few others as well. Mostly I'd have to say that the elders started out as well-intentioned people, but between being grossly under-qualified to deal with the real human issues that arise in the congregation and the ridiculous and restrictive rules of the WTBTS they often ended up being tools of the WT "theology," which is in itself and hopeless mess.

The worst were ones that enjoyed their little power trips. But there's not much else that can give an uneducated guy the feeling of importance that comes from being "an appointed man." It really goes to the heads of some of them.

00DAD

25

New GB Light - Increased JWN Membership?

by jw07 in

i'm relatively new here.

this is a question to admin / longer members.. have you noticed a greater influx of membership here since the 'new lighttm' regarding the 'governing body' was revealed?.

00DAD

The WTBTS has been really encouraging the R&F to go to their jw.org website. Probably a lot end up here by mistake.

Evil internet! Bad, bad internet: tool of Satan ... except of course when they use it. Then it is a hammer of God.

96

My Humble Opinion of This Forum

by turtleturtle in

jw
friends

first off, i love frequenting this forum.

it has given me the opportunity to truly put jw stuff to the test and i thank everyone for their helpful responses.. however, i have noticed a couple things.. 1) the use of the word "troll" is completely childish.

this is no different than the name calling used by jws (e.g.

00DAD

Welcome, what Cagefighter said!

31

Hi All - Finally Posting Here!

by Pyramid Scheme in

jw
friends

first off, i owe this site a tremendous debt of gratitude.

i have been an inactive witness for 4 glorious years, and the spark that began my fade out of the organziation was this site and paul's jwfacts.com.

it opened my eyes to a whole new world of insight, and i discovered that there were so many people out there like me - still a "spiritual" individual, but completely disgusted with the jw organization.

00DAD

Welcome, I'm looking forward to more of your story.

00DAD

15

The new FDS version 4.0. From the 3-1-22 Watchtower

by trujw in

ok guys i have cut and pasted from the march 3rd 1922 watchtower.

i think this is great and can be shown to any witness to have them sratching thier little heads.

one notice that they are still teaching christ's presence began in 1874 in 1922 and two this to me is a whopper.

00DAD

When I started studying with JWs in the early '80s they often spoke of Russell in reverential tones. Now the GB is clearly distancing themselves from him.

The latest teaching on the identity of the FDS confirms that trend.

Pretty soon it'll be "Charles Taze Who???" among the R&F.

36

Rant #77

by 00DAD in

this isn't actually my 77th rant.

i've completely lost track of all my rants.

i'm quite sure i'm way passed 77 by now.

00DAD

mamochan13 - Your words are wise and good counsel. I do try and keep myself strong and healthy. I've got several personal projects I'm working on now that keep me moving forward. They are personally very rewarding and hopefully will be financially rewarding in the future.

Your comment about how my kids may change when they become parents is ironically both encouraging and discouraging at the same time. It is encouraging that there might be something will help them look at things from a different perspective. But it is discouraging that it could be that long!

Either way, you are so right: I need to be whole and happy. I'm working on it, but admittedly it is a struggle. Most days I feel pretty good, but some days it's really difficult, especially when something reminds me of them.

I've started making friends outside of the religion. It's nice to have people that care about me for WHO I am and not WHAT I pretend to believe. The amount of support and encouragement that I find here on JWN is really amazing too. Some of you have become good friends. Also, I've been able to help a few people here that are not quite as far along in their journey out of this nightmare.

Muddy Waters - Wow, that is an interesting experience. Thanks for sharing.

We don't often get to read or hear about shunning from the perspective of a JW or ex-JW that is now ashamed of how they treated another human being.

Still, it emphasizes the need to control my anger and other negative emotions, particularly if and when my children could observe it. I guess that's once reason many of us vent here. It's safe. This is a place where others understand.

perfect1 - I'll see if I can find some specific references about that in Hassan's book.

36

Rant #77

by 00DAD in

this isn't actually my 77th rant.

i've completely lost track of all my rants.

i'm quite sure i'm way passed 77 by now.

00DAD

cobaltcupcake - Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. I hope you can reach your family too! This religion is messed up!!!

wha happened? - My youngest does have some contact with a few of my non-JW family members. He's a little hot-and-cold about it, but at least it's some connection to family outside of the cult. According to Steven Hassan and confirmed by many here, it helps ones leave if they feel they have someone to be with and somewhere to go. They aren't isolated. This is actually why the WTBTS tries to get JWs to minimize contact with non-JW members.

In my experience, JWs get obviously embarrassed about shunning when non-JWs are around. Deep down, I think most, except the most hard-core JWs, know that shunning is wrong.

perfect1 - Good questions with interesting answers. I felt my relationship with my kids was pretty good before. It was certainly way better than the one I had with my father. I have many, many fond memories of good times. Of course it wasn't perfect, no family is, but it was good, at least I thought it was.

Interestingly, after I left, my youngest told me that he had no good memories of our time together! I was shocked. I couldn't believe it! I reminded him of many things we did that I know he liked. (I have pictures to prove it!) When I did, he was kind of silent, didn't really respond.

I couldn't understand it until I read Steven Hassan's second book. In it he describes how manipulative cults will do things to get cult members to not remember good things outside of/before the cult. Since reading this, I see that in many current WT publications there are frequent statements that manipulate the minds of the unsuspecting creating false memories and coloring their perception of things to fit only a WT approved world-view. It's actually quite bizarre.

You're also correct in your assessment that my leaving "The Truth" is the same as me leaving them. That is clearly NOT true, but that is their carefully manipulated perception of things. It's frustrating and maddening. I know they think I abandoned them, but in reality it is they that have abandoned me. I live very close to them and have made sure that their financial and material needs were met up until the time they reached the age of majority. But they just don't see it that way. I know their mother constantly says negative things about me and they get no Reality Checking by interacting with me. Another reason the WTBTS doesn't want cult members to associate with disfellowshipped ones, the JWs would see through the WT lies and illusions!

00DAD

30

Has the GB ever explained how they receive "new light" from Jehovah?

by cobaltcupcake in

i remember a long time ago the explanation was that various anointed ones would write to the gb with the same new understanding of a teaching, the gb would investigate it, and if it was acceptable, they'd pass it on to the r&f.

of course, now we have the new light that new light occurs only to the gb, not the anointed at large.

so, if any anointed ones get new ideas, they're just apostates, right?.

00DAD

In Crisis of Conscience, Ray Franz said there was no mechanism for "anointed" ones to communicate with the GB and the GB did not seek out the advice, counsel, insight, whatever of any "anointed" ones.

Now that the GB = the FDS and the rest of the "anointed" are out, that troublesome little detail is no longer an issue.

21

Happy Hogmanay Everybody

by cofty in

jw
friends

best wishes for 2013. .

here is a scene from last year's hogmanay celebrations in edinburgh... .

00DAD

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