the following is a true experience and my daughter gojira101 will verify that it happened to her.
an experience from our family's past that still haunts me and started my questioning whether this is the true organization of god or not.. my daughter, who has always been a good kid, never gave us any problems [she's an adult now] started regular pioneering.
within a few weeks of her starting, she fell on a steep hill and tore open her knee and had to have several stitches.
NE, sorry to hear that story. The lack of basic human compassion that many elders show is just disturbing.
I wish I could say that such experiences are the excpeption, but I'd be lying. I'll leave that the the WTBTS.
Glad you're Newly Enlightened!
00DAD
while looking at the pdf of the new "reduced in size is a blessing from jah" wt for january 2013, i noticed this latest sickening "how the bible changed my life" article.
under the history banner is listed "prodigal son".
(i also noted the person was born the same year as me.
As I recall, when the Prodigal Son was on his way home the Father ran out to meet him before he even got all the way back to the house. The Father hugged and kissed him making him feel welcomed and loved.
While he was yet a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was moved with pity, and he ran and fell upon his neck and tenderly kissed him. - Luke 15:20
At the KH, when a "Prodigal Son" returns he or she will be told to sit in the corner quietly and be shunned for an indeterminate period of time, usually many months, before they will be allowed to talk to anyone else in the congregation.
now that you realise how idiotic some of the jw beliefs are/were, do you feel ashamed of how gullible you were to believe them?.
if anything my past as an adult jw makes me understand how easily manipulated people are by the people and environment around them.
and that even intelligent people can be influenced beyond what is rational..
wasblind, you have a PM
after several months of leaving the meetings as soon as they ended or only staying for "the first meeting" then leaving the "second part", the elders finally cornered me at last night's meeting.. they said they were concerned about me and that being that i am a young brother in a recently divided congregation they saw so much potential in me to help out the congregation and become a ms.. i told them i was thankful for their thinking of me to help the congregation but that at the moment i could not due to my job.
then the began asking personal questions that got on my nerves.. they asked where i worked and how much i made.
they asked if i was going to college and what i was studying and for how long.
ODIBF: But the elders are indeed desperate for more male brothers to help them!
Desperate indeed. But that's their problem, not yours!
now that you realise how idiotic some of the jw beliefs are/were, do you feel ashamed of how gullible you were to believe them?.
if anything my past as an adult jw makes me understand how easily manipulated people are by the people and environment around them.
and that even intelligent people can be influenced beyond what is rational..
Cedars: Out of curiosity, were you going through any stress or emotional anxiety when the Witnesses contacted you?
That's a really good question. After I left, I asked myself why I ever believed. I realized that I was very cautious and skeptical about JW beliefs during my "study" ... that was until I had a personal tragedy happen in my life that made me very emotionally vulnerable. THAT was when I put my logical defenses down and began swallowing down whatever the WT & Awake! said with out questioning it any more.
Steven Hassan talks about cults taking advantage of individuals during emotionally weakened states during the recruitment process. If you think about it, how many times were we as JWs told to "keep calling back," you never know when someone's life circumstances may have changed (READ: "personal crisis").
The religion trains its members to strike when a person's defenses are down. Remember the "When Someone You Love Dies" brochure? It's a perfect example of just such a cruel, manipulative indoctrination tool.
00DAD
i've just held my vomit bag in from of me and taken a butchers at www.jw.org.
who is it designed for?.
what's the point of all those sterile vids?.
now that you realise how idiotic some of the jw beliefs are/were, do you feel ashamed of how gullible you were to believe them?.
if anything my past as an adult jw makes me understand how easily manipulated people are by the people and environment around them.
and that even intelligent people can be influenced beyond what is rational..
Not ashamed, no. But there is some embarrassment. Mostly I'm angry that people I trusted lied to me. Now they're the ones that should be ashamed!
nice to meet you all.
long time lurker, but now i can get my twopenneth in.. a brief history.. born into the religion, but it never really took hold - thankful for an easily bored mind and strong, worldly grandparents.. never very interested - dragged from meeting to field service.
in the teenage years i wanted university and my parents want a pioneer.
Welcome!
might be 9 months old but jesus...aint nobody got time for that.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh7ugaprdpm.
Ah yes, the art of the arranger!
Apparently some fairly talented individual had time for that!
Oh Lord Jesus!
so i haven't studied with this witness since october.
she had taken over when the other could not study with me.
reasons unknown to me other than that she told me her and husband had separated.
NeverKnew: I have a tough time being rude. But if the former witnesses are saying bail... yikes
How is saying, "No thank you!" rude?
When JWs, or anyone else for that matter, ignore polite refusals of unsolicited anything, it is they that are rude.
