"Bryan R. Wilson, who was a professor of Sociology at Oxford University, writes that apostates of new religious movements are generally in need of self-justification, and seek to reconstruct their past and to excuse their former affiliations, while blaming those who were formerly their closest associates. Wilson utilizes the term atrocity story, [a story] that is in his view rehearsed by the apostate to explain how, by manipulation, coercion or deceit, he was recruited to a group that he now condemns. (Wilson, Bryan R. (Ed.) The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism, Rose of Sharon Press, 1981) Wilson also challenges the reliability of the apostate's testimony by saying that "the apostate [is] always seen as one whose personal history predisposes him to bias with respect to his previous religious commitment and affiliations, [so] the suspicion must arise that he acts from a personal motivation, to vindicate himself and to regain his self-esteem, by showing himself to have been first a victim, but subsequently a redeemed crusader." (Wilson, Bryan R. Apostates and New Religious Movements, Oxford, England, 1994) " Read more quotes and get more good references at Teary's blog post (scroll down after clicking the link to find the post): http://tearsofoberon.blogspot.com/2009/10/brainwashing-and-apostasy-quotations.html
Teary Oberon
JoinedPosts by Teary Oberon
-
85
Hello--new to the witnesses...and you
by LKM injust wanted to introduce myself.
i went to the kh for the first time 2 weeks ago...and will go again tomorrow.
i don't believe anything witnessy...(i was raised in the assembly of god church and now the closest thing i "do" with religion is yoga or sometimes the buddhist temple).... but the man i'm in love with is a df'd jw (we've been together for 6 years).... and he wants to get reinstated just to talk to his family again (i can assure you he does not believe it).... and he wants his family to accept me because we are about to get married... so, i'm going to meetings...its very interesting, but only because it shows me more about how he was raised.
-
-
-
85
Hello--new to the witnesses...and you
by LKM injust wanted to introduce myself.
i went to the kh for the first time 2 weeks ago...and will go again tomorrow.
i don't believe anything witnessy...(i was raised in the assembly of god church and now the closest thing i "do" with religion is yoga or sometimes the buddhist temple).... but the man i'm in love with is a df'd jw (we've been together for 6 years).... and he wants to get reinstated just to talk to his family again (i can assure you he does not believe it).... and he wants his family to accept me because we are about to get married... so, i'm going to meetings...its very interesting, but only because it shows me more about how he was raised.
-
-
Teary Oberon
"Hi Teary Oberon, good evening! Where have you been hiding? It is always good to have an active, JW in good-standing comment on threads to give a balanced perspective. Too bad JWs don't allow exJWs (i.e., apostates) and "Worldly" people speak freely at KHs and assemblies to bring a balanced perspective to JWs."
And the distortions and unsupported assumptions begin almost immediately after posting...is this really what you want to get into LKM?
1. Teary has not claimed to be an "active JW in good standing." Only you assumed that for the sake of your strawman and personal attacks.
2. An apostate ex-Witness is one who consciously decided to reject their former affiliation and then actively criticize it and try to "bring it down" afterwards. They really wouldn't have any reason to be sitting through meetings since their entire role as an apostate is defined by their attacks against and opposition to the Witnesses, so your point is moot. Non-apostate Witnesses though, are perfectly free to come to meetings and comment freely during the question and answer sesssions. Also, assemblies aren't designed for Q&A from the audience, Witness or non-Witness (way too many people there to make that practical), so that point is moot too.
"P.S. - Teary have you been keeping up to date on the WTBTS' new light, which says that JWs must not visit and/or participate in forums such as JWN."
They discourage 'chat rooms' mainly because of the prevalence of silver tongued wolves in sheep's clothing like yourself. They also discourage using websites to carry out the same functions as the official site for Witnesses (providing official information about the group and its beliefs), since that would be redundant and could cause unnecessary competition. But just general hanging out on the internet and answering questions? They caution against it yes, but it not really banned. There used to be a huge group of Witnesses that hung out on Yahoo Answers, including several elders and a Teary. None of them really cared, nor did those in their congregations that knew about it.
-
85
Hello--new to the witnesses...and you
by LKM injust wanted to introduce myself.
i went to the kh for the first time 2 weeks ago...and will go again tomorrow.
i don't believe anything witnessy...(i was raised in the assembly of god church and now the closest thing i "do" with religion is yoga or sometimes the buddhist temple).... but the man i'm in love with is a df'd jw (we've been together for 6 years).... and he wants to get reinstated just to talk to his family again (i can assure you he does not believe it).... and he wants his family to accept me because we are about to get married... so, i'm going to meetings...its very interesting, but only because it shows me more about how he was raised.
-
-
Teary Oberon
haha wow. WRONG place to be asking questions about the Witnesses dear.
There are pretty much are no real Witnesses on this forum, even though it says "Jehovah's Witnesses" in the title -- they are all disgruntled ex-Witnesses with axes to grind that have simply hijacked an innocent looking 'Witness' site. So yeah, you aren't going to find anything helpful or positive here (unless you want to listen to these posters and end up destroying your relationship and making your life miserable).
-
34
Anybody got a full 1967 Awake set?
by Teary Oberon inanybody got the full year's worth of awakes for 1967 that they would be willing to share?.
.
the 1967 awake set is the only year that i am lacking before 1970. i've seen a partial set floating around, but never the full year though .
-
-
Teary Oberon
"to answer the question by the Op, yes, I do, if you consider the bound volume to be 'a set'."
But the other part of that original post was, "willing to share?"
Teary doesn't really expect anybody to just hand over their one physical copy -- he was referring more to the PDF versions like Atlantis has shared in the past.
-
34
Anybody got a full 1967 Awake set?
by Teary Oberon inanybody got the full year's worth of awakes for 1967 that they would be willing to share?.
.
the 1967 awake set is the only year that i am lacking before 1970. i've seen a partial set floating around, but never the full year though .
-
-
Teary Oberon
"Because you have not found a full 1967 Awake pdf does not mean it does not exist. Why don't you stop making such stupid statements and do some bona fide research with information you do have? Make of it what you will."
Oh ho...so Mr. Shilmer makes a rare appearance? Unfortunately though, he didn't use his post to say much of anything useful. Teary currently has over 740 unique Witness publications in PDF format, and over 300 Witness related works. So yeah, he has a fairly decent understanding of where to find these things. And the fact is, that a 1967 full Awake set just doesn't seem to be available anywhere at the moment (and yes, Teary did check all of the normal, go-to sites for file sharing and archiving). Even this forum's own resident 'rare publications' guru Alantis only had the partial version. So is there a need for a new full scan? Absolutely, because even if some individual somewhere already has one, they obviously aren't sharing it so what good does it do us?
-
34
Anybody got a full 1967 Awake set?
by Teary Oberon inanybody got the full year's worth of awakes for 1967 that they would be willing to share?.
.
the 1967 awake set is the only year that i am lacking before 1970. i've seen a partial set floating around, but never the full year though .
-
-
Teary Oberon
"No. I am calling you an apologist troll."
And Teary is calling you a hater troll. This site is techically called "Jehovah's Witnesses.net," so obviously the Witnesses and Witness supporters have just as much right to post here as you do. If you want a Witness free zone, then ex-JWs.net is down the road and to the left.
"TW - don't you trust the Watchtower Society to preserve these relics themselves?"
They've already digitized 60 years worth of their publications in the Watchtower Libraries, and things before that (such as Awake volumes) are already available in most Kingdom Hall libraries anyways. So the Society really isn't obligated to do more than that (and with all of the other responsibilities that they are taking care of currently, why would they waste their time with it?). If we want older publications digitized then we mostly do it ourselves.
-
34
Anybody got a full 1967 Awake set?
by Teary Oberon inanybody got the full year's worth of awakes for 1967 that they would be willing to share?.
.
the 1967 awake set is the only year that i am lacking before 1970. i've seen a partial set floating around, but never the full year though .
-
-
Teary Oberon
"My point was that the preservation is already done and does not need to be reposted here again and again by apologist trolls - who do not even have the information in hand themselves anyway. "
Teary's point is that the preservation is obviously not done, because a full 1967 PDF set of Awakes isn't available anywhere at the moment (and what was posted of it in the past only covers 3 months).
p.s. Atlantis posts old publications and magazines all the time (including links to every Awake set except 1967). Are you calling her an 'apologist troll'?
-
34
Anybody got a full 1967 Awake set?
by Teary Oberon inanybody got the full year's worth of awakes for 1967 that they would be willing to share?.
.
the 1967 awake set is the only year that i am lacking before 1970. i've seen a partial set floating around, but never the full year though .
-
-
Teary Oberon
"No, they wouldn't. It was BS in 1967 and it is nearly 45-year-old BS now. We already have references enough for purely historical purposes."
Actually, it seems that you could care less about real Witness history and real preservation -- all you want is something to bash the Witnesses with and to heck with everything else! To you, if it can't be used to insult the Witnesses then it is worthless.
But to a real historian and collector, all publications from the past have value and should ideally be digitally preserved.
-
23
Jan 1 2012 WT - increased printing
by Gayle inby 20,000 in 6 more languages.
not a big increase.. dec. 1 wt was 42,162,000 in 188 languages.. jan. 1 wt 42,182,000 in 194 languages..
-
-
Teary Oberon
It might also be good to take into account the recent change in the distribution process.
A year or two ago (can't remember exactly when) the order came down from the top that congregations would no longer order magazines on an individual basis, e.g., 10 magazines for publisher A, 20 magazines for publisher B, ect. Rather, after the change they would order a fixed number for the congregation as a whole, and then the publishers could just take what they needed from the literature counter when they needed it.
A change like that would most certainly reduce the overall production of magazines, because it would reduce the number of 'left-over' or 'unplaced' magazines from month to month.
-
34
Anybody got a full 1967 Awake set?
by Teary Oberon inanybody got the full year's worth of awakes for 1967 that they would be willing to share?.
.
the 1967 awake set is the only year that i am lacking before 1970. i've seen a partial set floating around, but never the full year though .
-
-
Teary Oberon
"Teary...Why do you need one? Some of your previous posts lead me to believe that you're quite possibly a WT apologist..."
Why does Teary's opinion on theology matter here? Teary is asking primarily as a historian and a collector, not an 'apologist.' And besides, everybody here would benifit from a link to a full 1967 set wouldn't they?
"Hello,
I have a recent 1967 hard copy set I received. It takes quite awhile to scan it, but if you are patient within a few months I will have it available for you and others."
I think that people would just absolutely fall in love with you if you scanned it for them. Because it seems that at this point in time, the full year sets of Awakes are available in PDF format (from various sites) for every year except 1967...heck, even Atlantis only had a few issues for 1967 in her big list of Awake download links. So there is definitely a need just from a digital preservation standpoint.