i'd really like to know if any of my old friends are hanging around in here.
i know how scary it is to even think of revealing yourself so if it helps just send me a private message.
perhaps we could meet up for lunch or a drink sometime.. i was in northampton until 1988 when i moved to milton keynes and became 'inactive' in 2000. don't worry, i know how to keep my mouth shut if that's important to you.
I lived in Northampton (East Hunsbury) not as a JW mind. from 98-02. Loved the beer. Queen Eleanor next to the A508/A45 was a lovely little pub as was The Yeoman of England in Wooton. Cracking carvery there...
Back home in Scotchland now in Glasgow.....
Never liked Milton Keynes when i lived down there... reminded me far too much of East Kilbride i.e concrete jungle (which is a Scottish new town) where i was brought up and therefore too many JW memories.
Craig
yes, many will remember the panorama programme shown on channel 4 (uk) a few years ago.
the one that highlighted the child abuse scandal and the disgusting manner in which the borg deals with it.
then when the letter was read out to the congregations a week or so later addressing this issue by dismissing the programme by simply saying that two witnesses were needed before a person could make an accusation.
I also recall the program broadcast a short time later featuring the host, who stated that Watchtower sources in the US and UK were given numerous opportunities to appear on camera to give their side of the story.
They declined all offers.
Also remember all the cases featured were about JW's who had been convicted in a court of law for their crimes, it was not as if allegations were being made.
I followed the BBC News and Panorama website for several months after the initial UK broadcast and never once saw anything resembling a 'formal apology' from the BBC.
Craig
the simple answer is no.
but i had a funny text from an irish friend that said the following:.
"the govt has done a survey on the size of an english penis.
Speaking as a totally unbiased Scot...
Top 3 but would be surprised if they win.
Scotland won the world cup in 1978, but no-one noticed... we just had the party at Hampden before we went.
(I dogged the meeting that night to see the first game in Argentina! :-o
P.S What i mean is i just didnt go to the meeting and stayed home to watch it on TV. I didnt actually go to Argentina!
could it be that the wts actually thinks it can win this war?
i mean, they are forcing sites to close down, suing the people that run them etc.
i wonder if this is the way they want to "handle" the internet problem.
The Watchtower is at a huge disadvantage simply because they do not have a single coherent enemy to fight. They misguidely assume that we are the 'evil slave' as if some such cohesive organisation existed that they could train their weapons at. No such group exists. The enemies of the Watchtower are a loosely connected group of people who despite having varying agendas all have one thing in common: to see and end to the Watchtower. All the apostate sites on the 'net bring together a myriad of different viewpoints and opinions all of which contribute to holding the Watchtower to the ridicule it deserves.
Imagine going back to say the mindset of the WT organisation in 1970 for example; never in their worst nightmare could the Watchtower back then have imagined a scenario whereby every last foolishness they have ever published would be a click away in the privacy of someones own home. That private letters to DO's, CO's and Elders would be visible for public viewing worldwide. Never could they have forseen that a network would exist whereby former JW's could get together and air their views and more importantly offer support to each other. The advances in technology in the last decade absolutely stagger me; and who knows what lies ahead!
I personally believe that, say 50 years from now, religious historians of the future will look back at the years 2000 - 2010 and draw the line saying 'here marks the true end of the Watchtower Society.'
Craig
it's been a while since this topic has been brought up.
use it as a chance to see if there is someone you might know from years past.
1973-1976 --- lakeside, ca??
1974 - 1990 East Kilbride - Whitehills Scotland
1990 Freeeeeeeeeee
Come get me ya b*stards...
Craig
i have never posted my story on jwd and it was only recently that it occured to me that i should really make more of an effort to; here is the first part....sorry if its longwinded.... .
i was brought up in the borg from the age of 18 months old and as you can understand i have known little else.
previous to being in the truth my mother was an unwanted child and beaten by her mother, sure enough she fell into an abusive relationship with my father which left her with minus zero confidence and on the verge of a nervous breakdown; apparently my mum was considering throwing us both off a railway bridge she was that depressed and to her there was no point in living.
Yep DB ringing a few bells with me here too.
My mother was a single parent die hard dub (or so I thought) until she married my step-father when I was 11. Reading your story was quite painful as I had very similar experiences.
The thing is, nowadays, (particularly in the UK) their feet wouldn't touch the ground on the way to the Police Station as they were charged with child abuse. JW parents shouldn't have kids. That religion simply has no idea.
Craig
ughhhhh, i left "the truth" when i was 16 i had my daughter when i was 18. while is was finishing college my mother watched my daughter for me , so they are very very close.
well whenever my daughter goes to visit usualy about a week at a time my mother takes her to the hall .
she fills her head with the doctrine and tells her that ill say bad things about it and scares her into not telling me about it .
Sorry I have to agree with Luna here.
I had to press the nuclear button with my mother as she would not give me a categorical assurance that she would not talk to my kids about 'the truth'.
I would rather have my kids angry at me for cutting off contact with their gran, which i can rationalise with them when they are old enough to understand than lose them to the dangerous cult that is the Watchtower. I would make it clear in no uncertain terms that she stops talking to them about it now or you will severley restrict future communication. A kind of reverse shunning if you will.
Craig
a common feature many of us suffer from after exiting from the wts is that we are often left submerged in a morass of financial problems.
the 'live for today' attitude induced in us by the wts is certainly no help in building wealth, so few of us leave the wts without some damage happening to us financially.
in my own case it was a business partner who cleared out the business accounts when i was an overseas trip, no doubt justifying his fraud as i was now not attending meetings.
I agree with HS's analysis.
My upbringing in the Watchtower gave me no financial sense at all. This was combined with clueless parents who bought into 'The End is Soon' dogma big time gave me a very poor start in life from a financially.
So... by the time I'm 25 I have amassed nearly £25k in debt through credit cards, bank loans and store cards etc. I was very fortunate to have a wife who worked with me to pay these off and learned the hard way that you have to plan for tomorrow, and the next day ... and the rest of your life!
I don't blame the Watchtower for every last penny of my debt problems, because by nature I'm not that great with money; but I do think they bear a great deal of responsibility for not allowing people to plan for their future financially with their 'end is real soon now' approach to life.
Craig
the term 'generation' can mean a number of time frames.
it can refer to the time from the birth of one generation to the birth of the next, which is about 20 years.
the society used the psalms to determine the length of a life-span to calculate the "last generation" in making its case that 70 years from 1914 would put us at the threshold of 1975.psalm 90:10 says, "the days of our years are threescore years and ten [70 years]; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years [80 years], yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.".
Quote from Watchtower August 1st 2023 (Quarterly US and European Edition)
"Not misled by the past"
"In recent times some of Jehovah's people have made reference to 1914 as being of some biblical significance! In their eagerness to see the Kingdom Work fulfilled they have speculated that somehow 'the faithful and discreet slave' has in the past promoted this date as being tied in with Bible prophecy. How foolish!
True, some over zealous brothers in the mid to late twentieth century indicated that this may be the case, however 'the faithful slave' has at all times 'kept on the watch' (insert out of context scripture here), not knowing the 'day or hour'. We always strive to be 'cautious as sperpents and as innocent as doves'.
How happy we as Jehovah's People are that we are not slavishly bound to some date, but rather spread the good news as Christ's faithful followers!"
Just you watch, 20 years from now they'll be printing stuff like this.
Craig
i submit the following for your thoughts and comments.
making the claim.
the single most significant problem i have with the jw doctrine, is that they claim that god chose them to be his earthly organization, to the exclusion of all others.
The FDS doctrine is the one doctrine they can never ditch no matter what the cost. If they throw that out then all else falls.
