Posts by Twisty

22

1914 a 100 Years on.

by Twisty in

jw
friends

i was thinking that in 2014 or possibly 2015 a lot of witnesses will start questioning the organisation and we might even see a mass exodus.. i know at a stage i thought 2014 wow a hundred years surely the end will be here by then.. do you think the fact that it will be a 100 years since 1914 might trigger a lot of leaving and questions?.

or possibly they will still follow blindly, especially since the overlapping generations could go till 2070 or something?.

there very well could be a mass exodus type of domino effect since many are there sometimes whole families because of one strong mate/friend/relative, and one seemingly "strong" person leaving could take a few with him and make many more question, thus the domino effect.. thoughts.. .

Twisty

I was thinking that in 2014 or possibly 2015 a lot of witnesses will start questioning the organisation and we might even see a mass exodus.

I know at a stage i thought 2014 wow a hundred years surely the end will be here by then.

Do you think the fact that it will be a 100 years since 1914 might trigger a lot of leaving and questions?

Or possibly they will still follow blindly, especially since the overlapping generations could go till 2070 or something?

There very well could be a mass exodus type of Domino effect since many are there sometimes whole families because of one strong mate/friend/relative, and one seemingly "strong" person leaving could take a few with him and make many more question, thus the domino effect.

Thoughts.

Twisty

66

Was The Internet The Clincher For You To Mentally Leave The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think it was for me.. i knew a lot of the history of the bible students, russell, rutherford and the "old light".

.

once i could see all of the overwhelming evidence right in front of my eyes, there was no ignoring the reality..

Twisty

A week ago The proclaimers book led me to Wiki which led me to C.o.C which led me to here.

As far as i can see the internet has helped us to stay out physically while we convince ourselves mentally which seems to be happening at an alarming rate.

Twisty

81

New Member

by Twisty in

jw
friends

hi.

my wife and myself are active witnesses.. before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure i am posting this in the right section.. i'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.. .

twisty.

Twisty

This sobering advice is much appreciated as is the link thanks.

I think it might be best just to remain silent although even this may be held against me, it goes against my naturally confrontational nature.

Ill be sure to let you all know of any developments.

I had to stop myself feeding a troll or maybe he might have Dissociative identity disorder combined with the psycho-pathological condition, Megalomania (Diagnosed via wikipedia)

Twisty

81

New Member

by Twisty in

jw
friends

hi.

my wife and myself are active witnesses.. before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure i am posting this in the right section.. i'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.. .

twisty.

Twisty

Thank you for all the responses, and i will make an effort to not get steered into a conversation that will force me to make a statement.

Some advice please on what to research first we are leaning towards the 607 vs. 587 teaching....

If it seems like I'm handling this well, its only because i have been unhappy and critical of the organisation for about two years but going through the motions because i felt i was at fault and of course for my wifes sake, so although alot of the info is new about the reality of "the truth" it somehow feels vindicating.

As Mrs Twisty said last night "I dont have to feel guilty all the time now."

Also if you could steer me towards threads of previous people in my position it would be greatly appreciated.

I have seen a few threads that i would like to post in the abuse thread and picture thread for a start, especially since i am very much into photography unfortunately it will have to wait as i might be on dangerous grounds regarding my identity already.

Twisty

32

Why don't JWs do much in the way of charity work?

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

so i argue with the boyfriend a lot about the fact that i think charitable work is every bit as important as preaching when it comes to serving god.

every church i've ever gone to has some sort of community outreach, if not several outreaches, that have little or nothing to do with preaching.

and i made the point that if these people know you're affiliated with a church, they'll think a little more kindly about christians, too, which would help in the whole witnessing arena.

Twisty

This particular question has arisen more than once with the Mrs and myself, thinking of the parable of the good Samaritan and love your neighbour etc.

T.b.h we are planning to give of our time and effort for an N.G.O helping educate in disadvantaged communities, a good education goes a long way to help(teach a man to fish etc)

Maybe we could look at a thread along the lines of "What are you now doing to help your fellow man in what was previously preaching time?"

I'm enjoying the forum, time is limited busy time of the year.

Laters

Twisty

81

New Member

by Twisty in

jw
friends

hi.

my wife and myself are active witnesses.. before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure i am posting this in the right section.. i'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.. .

twisty.

Twisty

Thank you for the advice.

Although in good conscience i cant resort to an ambigous statement or an untruth.

Would the aforementioned statement in itself lead to some sort of disciplinary hearing?

Im not willing to have any shepherding call, and any elder trying to confront me at my home wont be crossing the threshhold.

We need time, the idea is for us to do an independant study of the scriptures primarily the New Testament and also to run a parallel investigation on Society Doctrines.

This being said i have only received 1 phonecall and 1 email since fading after our recent DC.

It was along the lines of "Are you ok(health wise), let us know if you need us?"

So i will make an effort to avoid any conversation that put me in a corner, but if i get into that corner i will not feel shame in telling the basic truth.

Which is that we are taking a break from Organisation activities while studying the bible.

This would probably raise alot of red flags and attempts at some kind of intervention, but i dont think anything can be done if im not willing to cooperate?

Im still pretty clueless, have only been in the back room once awhile ago its quite a funny story actually.

Twisty

81

New Member

by Twisty in

jw
friends

hi.

my wife and myself are active witnesses.. before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure i am posting this in the right section.. i'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.. .

twisty.

Twisty

It really is quite encouraging to see the amount of support given here.

I believe we are quite fortunate to have started looking past the publications and listening to that little nagging voice while we are both still in our mid 20's.

We are fortunate to be in this together, but it was not always the case my wife only recently started really listening and thinking on what i said.

Previously i would bring up a point of concern and i could see it didnt really hit her heart.

I think the change came for her when i just asked her to be honest with herself and to ask "Why do you want to go to the meetings?"

After that there were no more emotional outbursts(she is very emotional) about lack of field service and meeting attendance.

Last night she wanted to discuss our public postion to elders,friends and family who enquire about our spirituality or apparent lack thereof.

We came to a reply along the lines of "We are taking a break from the organisation to re-examine the Bible by ourselves."

I'm not sure what this response will bring but i dont think the family will shun us completely.

Im hoping for the best.

Thanks again for all the warmth shown here.

Twisty

81

New Member

by Twisty in

jw
friends

hi.

my wife and myself are active witnesses.. before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure i am posting this in the right section.. i'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.. .

twisty.

Twisty

Wow I am slightly overwhelmed by the warm welcome and sage advice.

I'll try not be outspoken or rush into anything.

We have to get used to using different independant sources for discovering the real truth and no longer just excepting everything.

Since our financial lively hood is also entwined with witness family, we will have to be careful in the steps to follow.

Greetings from South Africa

Twisty

81

New Member

by Twisty in

jw
friends

hi.

my wife and myself are active witnesses.. before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure i am posting this in the right section.. i'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.. .

twisty.

Twisty

Initially i thought i might reply in a day or two, but the forum seems lively and the weather is too miserable to go the beach etc.

Where to start?

Mother and Father got divorced when i was two i think my mother had started studying so it may have been a factor, she later got baptized i was 4 and remarried when i was 6 to a manic-depressive/bi-polar pain in the....

He became an elder and i became the model witness boy...reading watchtower at 8, giving talks giving school experiences at District convention etc.

Meantime i pushed my "worldly" father away and we didnt communicate for years at a time, which i think i'll regret for a long time.

My Mom was diagnosed with MS and Rheumatoid arthritis at age 31 i think.

When i was 18 i moved out, and started courting a beautiful girl who is now my wife.

I think its a good time to mention i always considered my biggest flaw to be my problem with Authority and people who want to reach out to positions of oversight, so although i was spiritual i kept it to a degree that i wouldnt be asked for a position of MS.

We were married when we both were 20, my wife was a pioneer and pioneered for 5 years at which point she had a little business i resigned and joined her in the pioneer service.

Im not very good with age and dates they dont seem too important to me, it was around this time my mother passed away aged 43 after a very debilitating illness.

We applied to our local branch and were accepted, and my preconceived illusions came crashing down around me at that place.

We left within 6 months i went to see the branch commitee member and explained we couldnt stay there any longer and would like to go back to pioneer.

So we did unfortunately leaving Bethel at 6 months puts a black mark on you somehow and we felt we were no longer part of our cong.

The pioneering lasted 1 month and we moved as far as we could away.

It was around this time i started noticing how much emphasis was being put on being in subjection to the faithful and discreet slave and follow new direction etc...

So i started reasoning with a few family members but i think the only thing that went through their minds was "spiritually weak" .

So slowly for the last year or so my mind has been heightened to look for inconsistencies and sharing them with my wife in a logical way.

About a week ago i was reading the proclaimers book when i came across the name Barbour again and his early association with Russel so i looked up some info on Wiki on Barbour out of curiosity and noticed a tag to go to Russel.

Now this info was quite interesting, his marriage the pyramid etc...but then i saw something that said notable former members(thinking these were celebrities or such)

Which led me to Bro Raymond Franz and what i read there was sadly amazing and now i wanted to read C.o.C.

So i googled it and found 4 online chapters and read them but it also threw up this site which i browsed through which led me to several sites including silent lambs and its all so overwhelming.

So yesterday thanks to this site i read Bro R Franz's book on pdf, which was a bit heavy at times but most of all awakened in me an anger and an excitement and guilt for the excitement.

So we have been looking at some more info and websites.

Myself and my wife will be fading to prove things independantly for ourselves.

It has been a very rough time in the last few weeks, with many tears and outbursts of anger.

Thinking where this might lead and what stand i will have to possibly make leaves me feeling very sad, since everyone we know and all our close friends and family are witnesses and we are already looked at strange and fallen out a few circles for lack of meeting attendance.

Last month was the first month that i haven't handed in a field service report for 19 years.

Thats the gist of it i will be getting that Swedish brothers book that deals with the chronological aspects and be surfing back and forth here alot.

Feel free to ask me questions aswell, although i would like to keep my identity a secret for awhile not that it matters that much since i dont care much what others think of me.

Twisty

81

New Member

by Twisty in

jw
friends

hi.

my wife and myself are active witnesses.. before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure i am posting this in the right section.. i'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.. .

twisty.

Twisty

Hi

My wife and myself are active witnesses.

Before i go into great depth about our past and what brings me here, i would like to make sure I am posting this in the right section.

I'm a little technologically retarded so please bear with me.

Twisty