Landy, you probably know better than I do. After all, you weren't there.
I think your number three applies to you. My windows are a bit soiled. Will you do them again, please?
why were we ever a jw?
were we mad?
we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.
Landy, you probably know better than I do. After all, you weren't there.
I think your number three applies to you. My windows are a bit soiled. Will you do them again, please?
my wife just asked me this.
my answer, in no uncertain terms, is no.
we both grew up in the dub religion.
WHAT "did you have"? A basket full of lies and false hopes and a completely wrong understanding of the nature of reality and how the world works with irrational superstitions.
In other words, you had a mental disease, with spiritual maggots eating your brain.
You want your kids to have THAT?
why were we ever a jw?
were we mad?
we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.
Fascinating topic!
Look at how many adults are hung up on not admitting that their parents had "standard issue" human failings.
Speaking for myself, one look at my 'rents (I've been told that's the "hip" term for "parents," and it saves TWO LETTERS) and an examination of their life events lead incontrovertibly to the conclusion that YES, my parents were idiots!
Want more proof? Read my posts.
My mother was the idiot who bought the JW sales pitch.
Through the years I've analyzed her in absentia (she won't talk to me, and I gladly reciprocate). Her dad died when she was just entering her teens. She was the apple of her daddy's eye, and his death left her in the custody of her crazy inbred hillbilly mother and her older unkind brothers. She was sexually abused within a year of her dad's death, and soon fled north to join her older married sister who did provide her with some sanctuary. But sanctuary doesn't prevent a person from making a whole bunch of brand-new bad decisions, and she did. Instead of seeking knowledge and wisdom, she decided she "knew it all" and sought good times and parties and such.
That led to an unwanted pregnancy (Hi there!) and a lousy marriage, yoked to an undisciplined man who felt trapped and directionless. His favorite excuse was that everybody always lied to him.
When his new bride told him about how she was the victim of sexual abuse in her early teens, he slapped her and called her a whore. Mr. Nice Guy.
One day a couple of liars came to her door and told her that her daddy was going to be resurrected. Soon. VERY SOON. Quick! Study the Bible with us!
She couldn't read, so those nice Bible grifters taught her how to read and how to tell her husband that his family's church was Satanic.
He listened to their crap for a while. Everybody always lied to him. Then he tried to murder his bride. Failed at that. Split. Everybody always lied to him.
He's dead now. When he died, I took pleasure in reminding her that according to the Faithful & Discreet Slave, soon he would be resurrected too. THAT almost drove her crazy*, and she had to have one of the lying grifters promise her that he would not be resurrected.
I'm just glad this idiocy isn't hereditary.
*Seriously. The thought of this abomination (my father) benefitting from her Lord's ransom sacrifice CONSUMED her for several weeks; it was nearly the only thing she could talk about with any Theocrat. It was like watching a cat chase it's own tail, on a spiritual level. PRICELESS!
i never was a jw.
i was brought up in a fairly fundie sect (pb) and have been for many years an interested atheist.
i am an admirer of the work of bart ehrman (and recommend his blog).. from time to time, jws call at my door and invite me to partake in a 'bible study'.
I _like_ the idea of giving the presumptive "Bible teacher" a little quiz first, it's diabolical, and these "experiences" are very entertaining.
could the religion have survived?.
i know it was never forbidden, but i remember growing up, how we were encouraged to put it off until the new system, and instead focus on a career in the full time service.. can you imagine if every young jw had chosen to follow that counsel?
it's difficult to imagine the religion being sustainable without the next generation of born-ins..
I would offer that, as originally conceived (pun unintentional), the JW religion was NEVER INTENDED to "survive"!
C. T. Russell thought his job was to gather "the elect" out of apostate Christendom so they could be joyously joined at the hip as The Bride of The Christ.
As time passed and the CASHFLOW possibilities of the Brooklyn Org were realized, it was still thought that JWs would remain a minority religion until their loving YHVH killed 90% of humanity. THEN the faithful dubs would be vindicated and the entire planet would become of one mind with the rest of the Universe.
Today, however, the prophetic failures of the WTB&TS have given the leadership a rude wake-up call. They NEED to keep the CASHFLOW going; they NEED their phony-baloney jobs and their submissive flock! How else could they survive with a résumé that says:
"1878 to Present: Failed Prophet"?
the british library has a copy of this important historical work (dated to may 868 ce), and has been working to conserve its copy.
this film made by the international dunhuang project (formed to conserve relics from the silk road (the east-west trading network) backgrounds the sutra's story:.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgn5hqxtlmc.
"Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn,
A bubble floating in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp,
A phantom,
and a dream."
More TRUTH here than The Watchtower ever dreamed of.
this was first said in 1918 and adjusted to "will never die" in 1920. of course, the wts taught that the anointed had to die to go to heaven; but there was no great crowd teaching then, so they were talking about all non-anointed people on earth.
the wts members were known as bible students then and had been expecting the end in 1914 and it was adjusted.
one date that was stressed at that time was 1925. so i think they idea was that people living in 1918 would be alive to see the end in 1925, which of course did not happen.
i just wanted to intoroduce myself.
i have been lurking for some time and finally decided to register and hopefully contribute to this great forum.. i am in my mid 30s and have never been in the truth.
my wife became a jw several years ago and since she is a (mostly) stay at home mom my two boys are also jws.
Welcome!
As an non-practicing atheist, I weep into my pillow that you cling to your imaginary invisible friends. I will pray for you.
http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/08/113_212343.html.
korean ex-jw brothers contacted the police and hinted to them that this murder could be related with wt's evil policy of shunning because.
father was an elder (ministerial overseer).
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https://culteducation.com/group/1289-general-information/8227-disclaimer-regarding-steve-hassan.html.
Did you think that Steve Hassan made his living selling hot dogs from a cart?
THIS is his career!
I am constantly AMAZED and AMUSED by the number of whining freeloaders who think everything should be given to them for free. They expect boneless BBQ'd chickens to fly into their mouths!
Well, time to pay the piper, crybabies! FREEDOM ain't FREE!
And for those who complain that the deprogramming sessions were ineffective: that just demonstrates how "devoted" (aka fucked up) you cultic family member is! ...and you're blaming the deprogrammer for that?
Investigate any of the other anti-cult practitioners out there and tell me if you find ONE who is a totally beyond reproach. They are the "Yin" to a cult's "Yang."