Posts by out4good3

25

6 months out and at times doubtful

by Leander in

jw
friends

it was in may of this year that i resigned as a minsterial servant and stopped attending jw meetings.

i made a fairly clean break from my congregation without the typical disassociation process.

while some areas of my exit were very smooth others were extremely difficult.

out4good3

I am in partial agreement with you Pope

It's not about right or wrong, winning or losing, it's about respecting your mates rights to exercise the free will of their conscious.

And even if she does NOT respect your right of disassociation, that does not negate your responsibilities in repecting he decision to stay a JW

This is the statement I can't quite agree with. I believe respect has to be reciprocated or it wouldn't work. Although he may shower her with love, affection, understanding about her wishes this by no means should give her free reign to demean and constantly question the choice he made with respect to disassociation.

The battles have to be chosen very carefully. The decision has to be made...do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy. If you want to be right, you'll destroy your marriage trying to impose your will on the other. If you want to be happy, you'll look for an equitable solution you both can live with.

And anyway, whenever I have seen a situation develop like this, when I was still "in", it didn't take too long for the congregations "magic" to start working. The marriage mate who still kept coming to meetings was soon subtlely treated like an outcast or a leper, somehow to blame for the other mate leaving. So normally the faithful one soon got the hint and they quit too!!!

That's the state I think my wife is in. Her attendance is very sporadic at best. Her very suspicious nature, fueled inpart by WT psychobably, has left her ill equipped to deal with nothing more than the surface level friendships JWs are known for. When she does go, she's in and out of the KH without speaking to anyone and she currently gets copies of KMs from other JW relatives.

When the pedophile issue broke I actually got her to reluctantly admit that the WT is not the perfect organization they want everyone to think they are, which for us both is a milestone. All her relatives are drones, so, if she bails she has much to lose. If it weren't for them, it would only be a matter of time for her to see the org for what they truely are.

4

Employment

by Voyager in

jw
friends

an elder or ministerial servant is seeking a job, that will pay at least 5,000 a month.

using his watchtower credintials, in an effort to get it.

donald jay leske ll, seems to be quite proud of all of his experience as a jw.

out4good3

I've had relatives that used to put their WT credentials on their resume. In fact, my wife used to do it. Higher Education=Theocratic Ministry School, Jehovah's witnesses. In every case it got her absolutely nowhere.

It's funny how the frown upon worldly credentials but they will shamelessly try to use their useless WT credentials.

55

everone is in confusion

by zolensky in

jw
friends

i joined this site last week hoping to meet people that would steer me back to the organization.

instead the people i have talked to her are all trying to tell me too see the light and get out of the organization.

in my opinion, not that it matters, i really think that if a person had the truth deeply ingrained in them, they would never leave the truth.

out4good3

i stopped going to the meetings back in kenya because i could not handle all the rules and regulations.

The organization has really got you mind fu**ed, don't they, and I say that with the utmost respect. That is exactly what they want you to think and they've used this technique time and time again in their litterature to distance themselves from their false prophesying and deceiving ways and paint themselves as the perfect organization, the paragon of virtue.

Remember, all those RULES AND REGULATIONS are the exact things Jesus railed against the pharisees of his time for burdening the people with.

You should really try putting aside all the self-doubt and distrust of what your heart and instincts are telling you, kick the emotional attachement you have to the Organization aside and dispassionately really look into what they''ve taught both yesterday and today and see the inconsistancies for yourself. You'll find just as we have on the board that there was really nothing wrong with US, but there was a mountain of things wrong with the Organization.

25

Do you believe in Jehovah-God

by SpannerintheWorks in

jehovah-god is going to destroy ,annihilate all the wicked.

that includes us, people!

6,000,000,000 people.

out4good3

SW

What's equally disgusting is that under the thinly veiled guise of "vindicating his name", you have 6,000,000 people taking great delight in the supposedly destruction of the other 99.99% to get their "reward", and that we have to live with the thought that we were once part of such a depraved group.

Any God that would have his people conditioned to think in such a way, I want no part of.

21

What are your current beliefs on God and the bible

by Leander in

when i first left the wts initially my intentions were to continue studying the bible on my own.

but now i really don't see the bible as being a true source of guidance.

as a witness i used to constantly read in the articles that god loves mankind, but how much love could there be if there are so many different religions all claiming to be the right one?

out4good3

I currently consider myself agnostic also.

I've seen God portrayed on this and other BB's as an absentee landlord and based upon the state of affairs of the world and how todays religions portray and imitate him, I can't help but agree.

I just refuse to believe that my salvation lies in following one so-called "true" organization or that it depends upon a shared percentage of some fictitious ministry. For now, I'll just be content with trying to live a morally clean life, respecting other peoples opinions and treating all as I would like to be treated.

10

Pretty Cheap

by JH in

jw
friends

last time i set foot in a kingdom hall was in december 2001. it was sunday morning and i sat in the back as usual.

a handfull in the congregation greated me when i came in.

since it was the watchtower study, i needed a watchtower magazine to follow, but nobody had a copy for me.

out4good3

They used the KM like a punishment

Actually I think they unofficially do use them as a punishment. What better way to point out to the "skool" those that have missed the loving arrangement of the bookstudy by having them have to ask for KM to follow along.

Fortunately I usually get the "benefit" of my wife's monthly faxed copy.

25

6 months out and at times doubtful

by Leander in

jw
friends

it was in may of this year that i resigned as a minsterial servant and stopped attending jw meetings.

i made a fairly clean break from my congregation without the typical disassociation process.

while some areas of my exit were very smooth others were extremely difficult.

out4good3

I was following your story with great interest. I hope some of the advice you're getting here is helping you.

Yesterday morning my wife was feeling somewhat depressed (this usually happens on a meeting day) that I no longer attend the Kingdom Hall with her. When this happens I usually try to explain to her why I could no longer put my ;faith and trust in a organization with an established history of false prophecies and doctrinal changes almost every other month.

Your words are like deja vu' all over again for me. The mental conditioning imposed upon my wife by the borg made meeting nights a living hell in our house when I initially broke free. Every meeting night I was chided for her having to go to meetings alone and that "I know" I should be taking the lead in this matter. What made it more excrutiating was that she intensified her efforts in trying to force our then teen son to more meetings even though he was making his way out with no prodding at all from myself.

And while I DID honestly feel badly, I would exaggerate just HOW badly I felt -- trying to "guilt" them into accompanying me. It worked sometimes, but it was a hollow victory. I knew they were coming out of love and/or respect for me, rather than because they wanted to be there to honor Jehovah

That's exactly what it was all about with my wife and most likely with yours too. There lay exposed for all her JW peers to see that little chink in the perfect image JW try to portray themselves to be to each other. Anything used to get you back to the meetings is justified, not because it may get you closer to Jah, but more to repair that little imperfection laid bare for all to see.

My wife drug me through hell and back trying to get me back into the meetings. And on the occasion that I did acquiesce and go with her I was raked over the coals for going in scowling and with an attitude and for not projecting the image of "happy to be here". I finally found a way to turn her negative attitude of me not going back on herself by reminding her that Jah would not be happy with coerced or half-hearted service to him...would he? What would be accomplished by going back to meeting and pretending to listen to and take heart in something I no longer believed in. Isn't that in itself being hypocritical, putting on a front, faking trying to be someone I'm not?

Like I said before, it took a lot of arguments, a lot of yelling, a lot of crying, of me telling my wife that I was not abandoning her, had no intention of abandoning her, but that I could no longer follow the spiritual leadership of the WT organization and that there was no way I would be coerced to do so. Right or wrong I have to live my life as I want to and not as it would be defined by the WT org.

You may find that you'll have to exercise the most extreme patience you've ever had to do in your life to get her in the position that she's accepted your decision. In all, I'd say it took me about three years for my wife to accept the fact that I'll never be an active JW again.

Hopefully, it won't take you that long......

13

Printing /Jehovah Ain't Paying!

by metatron in

jw
friends

here are some choice phrases quoted from the letter (dated oct. 28) sent to congregations about changes in printing:.

"saved us millions of dollars" , "additional savings" , "consolidated savings of money.

and manpower", "less personel and more savings".

out4good3

announcing new publications by letter instead of the KM

Wheww !!!!!

They're really tightening the screws and battening down the hatches in JW land aren't they? NO more subscription service....downsizing and consolidating operations......15 minute publishing.....turning time in to BS conductors...special effort in searching out inactives....and now this. I read somewhere on this forum where it's been said pretty soon you wouldn't know where or when a meeting was going to be unless you went to the previous one before. At the rate they're consolidating control over the R\F, that's just around the corner.

7

Rosenburg Circuit Assembly

by out4good3 in

jw
friends

did anyone here attend this weekend's sales convention special assembly at the texas rosenburg assembly hall?

any "new light" or did they just recycle the same old garbage?

out4good3

If I'm not mistaken that hall clocked in at about 5 to 7 million dollars back in the very early nineties when it was being built. I could be mistaken though. When they started building it I was still very much "in" and though I had no means to participate in the building, we did take numerous trips out there to tour the facility at different stages in the building process..

I remember when I was on my way out going there for one of their ~~sales conventions~~ special assemblies. Me and the wife were walking around during the lunch hour and I guess word had gotten around that I'd been missing quite a few meetings because people who feigned friendlyness toward me while I was studying were now working hard trying to ignore my presence and acting as if they didn't recognize me. That would've been the last time I set foot in the place also.

When we were leaving that day, I couldn't help thinking that I would've had more fun at the county fair going on next to the place than I had trying to take in that "spiritual slop".

7

Rosenburg Circuit Assembly

by out4good3 in

jw
friends

did anyone here attend this weekend's sales convention special assembly at the texas rosenburg assembly hall?

any "new light" or did they just recycle the same old garbage?

out4good3

Did anyone here attend this weekend's ~~sales convention~~ special assembly at the Texas Rosenburg Assembly Hall? Any "new light" or did they just recycle the same old garbage?