Posts by BarelyThere

18

Has anyone seen "The Prodigal Son Returns" on JW.TV? A Masterpiece of indoctrination

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i'm watching the jw movie the prodigal son returns.. it is a masterpiece of indoctination and what i would call a "cult" classic.. it's about two brothers who work for their father's construction firm.

the older one is the most spiritual and the younger one isn't.

he befriends al, a weak brother, who persuades him to take a job in the city and move there.. it shows the "world" in the worst possible light.

BarelyThere

I felt so inclined to watch that movie shortly after I was DFed, when I still believed it was "the truth." Even then, the acting made me want to gouge my eyes out. Maybe that's a little dramatic 😜

But now, considering the movie from an outside perspective and not a JW perspective, it's easy to see the logic is flawed. Yes, his life became a mess and it all seemed because he left "the truth" (of course the movie is supposed to be a modern take on the bible story).

But really, anyone could end up in the situation presented. He wasn't properly educated for a position at work, so of course he would be the first person to be let go. He squandered his money because he chose to live out of his means. These could easily happen to anyone whether they're "in the truth" or not.

But what the movie (the org) doesn't tell you, that I'm coming to realize, is not being a JW doesn't equal a life in ruins. But unfortunately, a lot of JWs do end up in that predicament because they are poorly educated and don't have sound "real world" skills because they were too busy being taught how to do 'theocratic' things.

Just my two cents

20

My Story

by Freeandclear in

just thought i'd introduce myself and share my story.

up front, i'm not bitter.

okay now that that's out the way..... i first heard "the truth" when i was about 14 years old from a friends mom who was studying.

BarelyThere

Welcome! This is a great place to be for support and venting when you need to.

42

What I thought CLAM meant , can you think of anymore ?

by smiddy in

for a while there i was confused as to what clam stood for .. ideas that crossed my mind .

christ left a ministry , or meeting .

children`s lives are mine .....( pedo`s in the borg ).

BarelyThere

Complete Lonliness And Misery (for disfellowshipped ones)

49

"If I wasn't born a JW, I would never have become one."

by OneEyedJoe in

i've seen it mentioned by a few on the forum that at some point there was a realization that had they not been born a jw, they never would've converted no matter how many times the jws tried to study with them.

this was my experience too, and i'm wondering how universal it is for those that were born-in but eventually left.

i think i started having this thought (more specifically that if i were not born a jw, i would surely have become an atheist by now) in my late teens.

BarelyThere

I was a 3rd generation born in. I always knew I never would be a JW if I hadn't been born into it and for that I was "grateful" to my family. I was always told I was too independent and I knew if I had grown up any other way and witnesses came knocking, I wouldn't have had the desire to conform. Now I'm pissed off and depressed that my childhood wasn't as fulfilling as it could have been, especially in regards to never getting to fully form friendships with genuinely nice people at school/work. So many of them are still great friends to this day. Meanwhile, I'm now being shunned by most of my family and all of my friends. Trying to adjust to a new social norm is proving to be a mentally debilitating task.

10

Thoughts on John 7:53-8:11??

by BarelyThere in

jw
friends

i always accepted that the nwt said that these verses in john were not in the most reliable manuscripts.

i thought it was strange that while the "old" nwt at least included the verses, the "revised" nwt completely omits them.

now i'm trying to do research on my own, but my head is still spinning from all of the information i've taken in the past week.

BarelyThere

I always accepted that the NWT said that these verses in John were not in the most reliable manuscripts. I thought it was strange that while the "old" NWT at least included the verses, the "revised" NWT completely omits them. Now I'm trying to do research on my own, but my head is still spinning from all of the information I've taken in the past week. It's overwhelming because I've never questioned or really tried to understand the history of the Bible before. Any thoughts? Or suggestions for places to do research??

17

You don't paint the rooms on the Titanic

by TTWSYF in

this was the line my nephew gave me regarding why jws don't give alms.

i had several rebuttals to give him, but didn't.

i was hoping for some comments from this board.

BarelyThere

This was something that always bothered me.

When I was in high school I earned a 75% scholarship but had the opportunity for a 100% scholarship but with the requirement of 100 hours of community service. I thought it would be so easy being a JW. However, I was then told only a small portion of hours could come from religious activities. So, I was excited at the opportunity of volunteering at the local soup kitchen or doing Meals on Wheels. I was "counseled" that this was a waste of time and my time would be better spent preaching to others about the "real life" when all of these problems would be gone (e.g. hunger, old age, etc.). I thought it was a nice enough thought (and I believed it) but couldn't help but think "what about these people problems that they were contending with NOW?"

Nonetheless, I decided to forego the volunteer hours and settled for the 75% scholarship (thankfully my parents had no issue with getting higher education). Funny thing is, all the time I would have volunteered for these charitable places, I didn't replace with going in service. I was home watching tv! What a waste.

As an adult, I tried to do kind things for others that didn't involve my time (buying a homeless person something tangible that they needed, donating meals at the grocery store food drive, donating clothes to women's shelters). It just always seemed so pointless to me that JWs would be judged if they wanted to volunteer their time at a 'worldly' charity instead of going in service. Because that's what people need... "Sorry you haven't had a hot meal recently, here's the latest Watchtower & Awake magazines." There was even a local needs against doing charity walks for cancer/diseases because that time could be spent preaching. Smh.

Being DFed now at least gives me the opportunity to actually help people/animals in a real, tangible way.

65

How do I handle this situation?

by BarelyThere in

jw
friends

hey everyone.

i'm sorry that this isn't a very thought provoking post but i could really use some advice on how to handle this.

there isn't anyone else in my life i can ask right now because, being dfed, all of my friends are "worldly" and don't know how witnesses function.

BarelyThere

I just want to clarify, it is MY email account, not his. I made my ex his Facebook with one of MY email addresses. When I logged into the email this morning, I was looking for some old information I had stored in there, not related to any of this. I wasn't going snooping, it's my account. That's why I'm surprised he keeps using a FB that's connected to an email address that doesn't belong to him.

65

How do I handle this situation?

by BarelyThere in

jw
friends

hey everyone.

i'm sorry that this isn't a very thought provoking post but i could really use some advice on how to handle this.

there isn't anyone else in my life i can ask right now because, being dfed, all of my friends are "worldly" and don't know how witnesses function.

BarelyThere

Normally I would even say to myself "that was information you weren't supposed to be privy to" but my ex was using the FB I had made him using an old email acct of mine. Why he's still using it beats me to be honest. But those message notifications were in MY email account, not his. If he had created a new account and I was still able to "break in" and read the msgs, I think that'd be an entirely different story

65

How do I handle this situation?

by BarelyThere in

jw
friends

hey everyone.

i'm sorry that this isn't a very thought provoking post but i could really use some advice on how to handle this.

there isn't anyone else in my life i can ask right now because, being dfed, all of my friends are "worldly" and don't know how witnesses function.

BarelyThere

Hey everyone. I'm sorry that this isn't a very thought provoking post but I could really use some advice on how to handle this. There isn't anyone else in my life I can ask right now because, being DFed, all of my friends are "worldly" and don't know how witnesses function.

Just a recap, I was DFed a few months ago for adultery. I'm trying to get reinstated so I can have my family back. That's it.

This morning I was checking an old email account that I never use. I realized that my ex husband was still using the Facebook I had made for him on that email. I was getting email notifications for everything he was doing. He has been messaging a MS in my cong. This guy is on the fast track to becoming an elder. He has at least 2 parts each mid-week meeting, gives public talks every other week, etc. Anyway, my ex asked this guy "how's my whore of an ex wife?" (I don't blame my ex for saying that. He wasn't the greatest husband and I definitely wasn't the best wife at the end). I would have thought that such a 'spiritual' MS would respond a little bit differently...

He says "he avoids looking in my general direction when I'm at the meetings". "everyone hates seeing her. We wish she would switch to a different hall." "IF she gets reinstated in our hall she will have to switch because no one will treat her any different. No one will talk to her."

So my question is, what should I do? I'm supposed to be able to talk to my elders, or any elder for that matter, at any time. I'm really tempted to show my elders. I don't want it to backfire on me in some way though like "oh you weren't supposed to see those private messages!" But at the same time, how can this "exemplary" person be saying the things he did? Just trying to decide if I should sit on this or air it out.

62

Brooklyn news on sending the elderly packing

by I am a Bible Student in

johnny the bethelite on this program talks about the older bethelites being targeted by watchtower.they are getting rid of those at bethel who are 65-87 years old, some being anointed even the widows of former governing body members who gave decades of loyal service time to the watchtower organization.. the reasons the very elderly are being expelled are money in that for their age range they cost so much to cloth, fed, and medicate, having problems from high blood pressure to dementia.

they include persons such as sister henschel whose husband had been a watchtower president and marian sydlik whose parents are long dead.. https://soundcloud.com/rick-fearon/jan-16-2016-johnny-the-bethelite-watchtower-insider-host-his-radio-program-from-brooklyn-ny .

BarelyThere

I don't know if this carries any weight to it or not, but in the cong I was just DFd from, there was a "special pioneer" couple in their 60's. I live in a rural community with no need for special pioneers - there just isn't enough people to even preach to. I learned from working in service with them that they had been in Bethel for several decades and then just about 3 years ago, they were told they had a new assignment of being special pioneers. They could pick anywhere they wanted to live. They chose this particular community because that's where they still had family. They would even joke that they had been "sent out to pasture" because they were getting older.

I always thought that while it probably was better for the organization financially, to support two special pioneers with an "allowance" rather than take care of everything for them at Bethel, it was still rather cruel. To go from such a strict way of living with certain amenities to then having to adjust to the "real world".