my husband and i have talked about starting a support group but we feel we don't have the proper qualifications.
has anyone started a support group for ex-jws?
we even thought of hosting a social gathering or meet and greet.
"I'm thinking of having a more laid back meet-up like the beach or happy hour maybe."
Yes that is what "meetup.com" is all about of course people should seek professional help when needed but this is just a good way to meet casually and perhaps meet new friends.
Since everyone need friends and most people who leaves the Jehovah's Witnesses losses all of theirs.....why not?
chapter 1. the pledge.
just a few blocks from the world famous brooklyn bridge there is a huge four building complex.
this prime piece of brooklyn real estate built in 1926 is located at 117 adams street.
The entire book is at my editors, we are doing the final proof read. I hope to have it in print in 60 to 90 days.
The book will be dedicate to James Olson and the countless thousands who have taken their own lives because of their involvement with the Watchtower Bible and truck society.
my husband and i have talked about starting a support group but we feel we don't have the proper qualifications.
has anyone started a support group for ex-jws?
we even thought of hosting a social gathering or meet and greet.
I hosted the Ex Jehovah's Witness Meetup group in Portland Oregon for many years. Meetup.com is and excellent way to do this.
No you don't need a PHD to want to help people who are guilt ridden or stuck between the JW world and the real world.
Everyone needs support and your experience can help a lot of people.
Meetup.com is an excellent way to organize this.
my husband and i have talked about starting a support group but we feel we don't have the proper qualifications.
has anyone started a support group for ex-jws?
we even thought of hosting a social gathering or meet and greet.
Staring a support group is quit easy.
chapter 1. the pledge.
just a few blocks from the world famous brooklyn bridge there is a huge four building complex.
this prime piece of brooklyn real estate built in 1926 is located at 117 adams street.
Chapter 1
The Pledge
Just a few blocks from the world famous Brooklyn Bridge there is a huge four building complex. This prime piece of Brooklyn real estate built in 1926 is located at 117 Adams Street. With amazing views of lower Manhattan, the factory complex stretched from the base of the Brooklyn Bridge to base of the Manhattan Bridge. Each of these enormous buildings occupied a full New York City block. The massive buildings are connect by sky bridges so men and materials could move from one department to the next with greater ease. This was maybe the largest printing facility in the world at the time. However whether it was or not, there was no factory the world that matched this factory total production of books and magazines that were produced there every month .Every month millions of books and magazines printed in dozens of languages and then shipped out to over two hundred counties all over the world.
This was no ordinary printing facility. Some of the many things that made this factory unique was how 90% of the workers there were between the ages of nineteen and twenty four. Another thing that made this factory unusual was the fact that everyone there from the head of the factory complex Max Larson, to the young boy that cleaned the toilets James Olson, received the say pay every day. That’s right, they were paid just 73 cents a day! That didn’t go very far in New York City even in the 1970’s.
Over the years thousands of people have come from all over the world to take a tour of this unusual factory complex.
Many people who took these tours would leave the factory, shaking their heads in disbelief. Many of the jobs that were preformed there seemed insane to any normal outsider, no matter what the pay might have been.
On top of the Adam Street building were letters three feet tall, which commanded people who were passing by to, “READ GOD’S WORD THE HOLY BIBLE DAILY.” This statement wasn’t entirely true however. Of course they wanted you read the Bible, because, they were making Bibles inside their factory. However they really didn’t want you to read just any old Bible. The only Bible they said that was approved by god was the Bible they were making there, this was The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
Yes, the green Bibles they produced there where the only ones they really wanted you to read on a daily bases and not all those other Bibles they say were influenced by uninspired translators.
i have been rereading a lot about rutherford lately; about his personality and the kind of person he was.
i have come to the conclusion that he was a lot like donald trump.. he was an accused womanizer.. he was a narcissist with a self inflated ego.
he claimed to be persecuted by the media all the time.
The alcoholic and self-proclaimed “Judge” Rutherford after his hostile takeover of their organization (where almost a third of their members left) also gave the date of 1925 for the end of the world. He changes their name to Jehovah's Witnesses. He eliminated all of Russel’s "pagan" influences like the pyramid and numerology. He tells his followers how Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Moses, will appear at their conventions soon. However he doesn’t want these dead Bible characters at Bethel. He’ll put them all up three thousand miles away in San Diego California in his own mansion there. Just so no one gets suspicious about the house, Rutherford even puts their names in the deed to the house. He slams all other churches, and broadcasts hate messages against the Catholic Church and League of United Nations. He makes Prohibition the enemy, he even courted Hitler's favor. An alcoholic ego manic whack job for sure.
my wife has been a just " goes through the motions" jw all her life.
and once in while she will see a therapist to vent.
well she finally mentioned one her reasons for stress was being a witness and the therapist said she understands because she has had many clients are witnesses!
The society has said. “The Christian witnesses of Jehovah are the best oriented, happiest and most contended group of people on the face of the Earth. So why on Earth would any good follower need the help of a mental health professional?” The society tells about the evils of seeking help from outside their organization.
"As a rule, for a Christian to go to a worldly psychiatrist is an admission of defeat. It amounts to 'going down to Egypt for help' - Isaiah 31:1. ...Also, more and more psychiatrists are resorting to hypnosis which is a demonic form of worldly wisdom." Awake! 1960 March 8 p. 27
“Often when a Witness of Jehovah goes to a psychiatrist, the psychiatrist will try to persuade him that his troubles are caused by his religion, entirely overlooking the fact that the Christian witnesses of Jehovah are the best oriented, happiest and most contended group of people on the face of the Earth. They have the least need for psychiatrists. Also, more and more psychiatrists are resorting to hypnosis, which is a demonic form of worldly wisdom.” Awake! 1954
Why would the society not want their mentally distressed followers see a psychiatrist? Because they are concerned for the welfare and health of their disciples? No, they don’t care if you are about ready to blow your brains out, because your parents and Aunt Rose are going to die at Armageddon.
What are they worried about then? They state it very clearly. “The psychiatrist will try to persuade him that his troubles are caused by his religion”
Wow, they don’t even blink an eye do they?
What if this is true? What if your whack job of a religion is creating the grief and distress in your life!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8hzakyfazc this is a talk this year about how to stay loyal to the cult.
it talks about not blaming yourself when your child is dfed.
but wait, when i was in the cult the elders told the parents of dfed children that it was their fault.
Actually of course it is the parents fault if their kids get DFed because they were the ones who pressured their kids to get baptized in the first place. If they never got baptized they couldn't be DFed......right?
i don't really have an opinion on the them one way or another.. when i was growing up the only place you saw them were on old ex military guys.
they had eagles with american flags or a heart with a knife through it.
some were so old and faded out you didn't know what they were supposed represent anymore.
I don't really have an opinion on the them one way or another.
When I was growing up the only place you saw them were on old ex military guys. They had eagles with American flags or a heart with a knife through it. Some were so old and faded out you didn't know what they were supposed represent anymore.
Instead of the twenty dollar tattoo spent on shore leave, now people are spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars on them.
I do fine this rather new fad quite fascinating. I say fad because as beautiful as these works of art if we fast forward forty years I think it's going to be a different story. Grandma in her seventies with her two full sleeves of sagging flesh and the giant Koi fish swimming down her back towards her tramp stamp will look quite different in a few years.
Just like the old sailors that are long gone most people will wonder if grandma was totally toasted the night she decided to turn her body in a canvas so she could stand out or look more different than everyone else. She certainly stands out now with sagging flesh and distorted tattoos. Has much as a fad as it was by the time grandma's grand children are around my guess they will say no way to this strange primitive activity of permanent skin discoloration.
The pendulum will then swing hard in the opposite direction.
My daughter got some tattoos. Her second ex husband who was not a JW had some tattoos too. In fact he had 80% of his body tattooed. He had FULL facial tattoos. nose, neck, cheeks, ears. He was a sight to see. In fact I'll never forget the time we all went to Hawaii. He and I were walking through the airport and all eyes were on him for sure. I had never experienced anything like it before in my life. If he was wanting to make a statement, he certainly did. Of course it was really hard for him to get a job looking like that. That was fine with him anyway he preferred to stay at home and play video games, while my daughter worked two jobs. I have no judgement about his tattoos. His many excuses to sit at home and not look for employment is a different matter.
I saw my favorite tattoo of all time in Portland Oregon in 2006. It was brilliant! This girl was sitting on the curb in front of Whole foods. She was wearing a sleeveless blouse and was talking on her cell phone. I couldn't help but laugh my ass off when I noticed her arm. On the very top of her arm was the name "Steve" that was crossed out. Below Steve was "Mike" that was crossed out too. Under Mike was "Tom" which was crossed out also. Under Tom was "Jason" Jason had not been crossed out yet. She had loved these men so much she was willing to put their names on her arm in permanent ink. On the other hand she was in complete disclosure. She was telling the world "Yes I love you. However I have loved others also, you are not the first and you my not be the last." Bravo!
Anyway I do enjoy seeing them on other people. They're just not for me. There is no picture or statement I want on my body for the rest of my life. Nothing I want to share with the rest of the world.
In fact the Buddhist believe nothing is permanent. Does this mean tattoos too?
Have some tattoos send us a picture!
my experience in the kingdom hall was that racial discrimination and profiling was not typically practiced....that i know of.
i was in a diverse city with every type of skin color and nationality imaginable.. i’m wondering if the witnesses have changed due to the current affairs exposed by the media everyday.
are there discrimination issues in jw land??
An excerpt from my novel that will soon will be coming out.
About only 15% of all Bethelites were black. However about 60% of the guys working in the bindery are black. This seemed odd to me how misappropriate the numbers were. I couldn’t help to ask Calvin Chyke one day as we were walking to the factory together why this was the case? He was in charge of factory personal at the time.
He told me. “The black brothers had a natural rhythm that fits in well with the machines.”
I guess this is one time when natural rhythm wasn’t an advantage.
Ronnie Klineman from Ruston Louisiana. Told me my favorite story about Brother Swingle who was on the governing body. Ronnie sat on Lyman’s table. There happened to be a new black kid from Detroit assigned to Brother Swingle’s table. Of course as a new boy he was feeling pretty good about himself as most new boys do when they first get there.
Lyman glanced over to him and said to him at lunch one day. "Boy would you please pass me the potatoes?"
The black brother looked at Lyman with distain and fired back. "I'm not your boy!”
To which Lyman said, not even batting an eye. "Nigger pass the potatoes."
Hard to believe isn’t? Yes, Bethel was not the place to try and be uppity. Black or white we were all just boys in their eyes and of course they could say and do anything they wanted to us. Was this kid going to go and complain about something a member of the governing body said? I think not.
