saw this on the exjw reddit forum - very thought provoking.. "when your own thoughts are forbidden, when your questions are not allowed and our doubts are punished, when contacts with friendships outside of the organisation are censored, we are being abused, for the ends never justify the means.. when our heart aches knowing we have made friendships and secret attachments that will be forever forbidden if we leave, we are in danger.. when we consider staying in a group because we cannot bear the loss, disappointment and sorrow our leaving will cause for ourselves and those we have come to love, we are in a cult .... when family and friends are used as a weapon in order to force us to stay in an organisation, something has gone terribly wrong".. deborah layton.
seductive poison: a jonestown survivor's story of life and death in the people's temple.. .
Bo Juel (former Witness and molestation survivor, author of The Least of God's Priorities) likened the organization to a "Jonestown in slow motion". That, it is.
@Half banana Everything you listed is what WOKE ME UP. The religion has taken a dark turn in the last few years, getting more and more macabre with each drama. At least they're being up front with how insidious its expectations are for Witnesses.
My advice for anyone floundering inside the organization:
7 years ago i was this "ultra spiritual elder".
you name it, i was visible all over the region.
i was the coordinator, on the convention committee, rbc, had a talk at every convention and assembly, regular pioneer, etc.
Believe in yourself. Believe in your son. Believe in your life. Christian theology may claim to know what the meaning of life is, so when that house of cards comes tumbling down, it is easy to feel empty and completely void of any goodness. I suggest you start fanning those smoldering embers left in the ashes of your faith by asking yourself "what is the meaning of MY life?"
watchtower october 2017, page 11, par.
17 - confess and abandon secret sins.
some christians who have committed a serious sin try to cover it over in order to avoid embarrassing themselves or disappointing others.
@Giordano YESSSSSSS.
growing up as a jw, i was told that kiss stood for knights in satan's system (or service).. i just did a google search and learned it's not true.
it's actually not an acronym for anything.. to be honest, apparently it's not just the jws who believe it means something related to satan.. http://www.snopes.com/music/hidden/kiss.asp.
one day paul [stanley] and peter [criss] and i were driving around, brainstorming for new names.
I was told that if you backward-mask Purple Rain by Prince, you can hear the words, "Satan haaasssss me". As a 10 year old, I was thoroughly spooked. Imagine the fear that gripped me a few months later when my oldest sister played 1999 on her car stereo while giving me a ride. I was paralyzed with this morbid dread that the demons were infiltrating her Nissan Pulsar as the music played.
watchtower october 2017, page 11, par.
17 - confess and abandon secret sins.
some christians who have committed a serious sin try to cover it over in order to avoid embarrassing themselves or disappointing others.
Let's just take the GB's theory that hidden sins prevent the holy spirit from flowing into the sinner's congregation. This would explain why the whole organization is such a f*cked up mess with zero holy spirit. Everyone has secrets. I would put my life on it that there is not ONE congregation out there without at least one or two members withholding information about their past (or current) transgressions.
for me, i think it was just the right time as i was starting to wake up on other fronts as well (anyone who had went through these will know what i mean).
but it started when i was looking for what info goes on a publisher card, which led to me reading one person's story (ex bethelite) which was pretty crazy to an all-in jw but who trusts those apostates...?.
then i started watching videos on cults, as if my subconscious was trying to tell my concord mind something... when i saw a particular one about a young man in lds getting ready to start their 2 year preaching campaign, including a school, social activities etc, i realized that i couldn't tell the difference between the folks of this mormon cult and the jws (save for some religious differences) .
Hey @MrRoboto, you're new here, so you probably haven't been regaled by waking up story, as I've written about it before a few times.
Basically, the bunker series of videos at the Remain Loyal to Jehovah convention set off an inner alarm in me. I was so disturbed by the content and the portrayal of what it means to be a "loyal" Witness that I took to Youtube to see if anyone had uploaded the drama. I just wanted to re-watch it to see if I was just crazy (everyone else at the convention seemed enthralled by the videos!). I stumbled across the John Cedars series called "The Worst Convention Ever".
And yes, @jookbeard, the rest very much is history.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0b-sccw9wai0qrkdwuhdgcwetcfe/view.
re: race.
.
I remember Lloyd doing a video about this called "Circuit Overseer Leaks" or something a while ago. Even he said he's had a long hard think as to why the race of the appealer would be relevant in a helpful way.
He came up with nothing.
what attracts you in a male or female?
give me an example or better yet a pic to tell me what you like.😈.
I just watched @pale.emperor's latest Youtube video on the Governing Body. Not a bad looking English chap!!! I don't remember brothers ever being that good looking, lol. Hey @pale.emperor, you do a great job representing apostates because you sure as hell don't look mentally diseased!!! Could easily see him on the cover of GQ.
i was just thinking that most witnesses can not approach a controversial topic without turning it into an attack of the person who raises that topic.. as we all awaken to ttatt (the truth about the truth), they simply can't discuss the actual facts or issues we discover without turning it into an attack of us as "apostates" with all the negative connotations that word entails.... how truly narrow minded and sad!
.
they would rather attack the person than the topic..
And any person within the organization who starts expressing legitimate concerns or doubts undergoes a character assassination: "you must be hiding some serious sin," "you never made the truth your own," etc. No consideration given to what issues have been raised - just instant blame placed on the enquirer for not practicing the religion correctly.
my wife and i for the past three months have been caring for a teenage girl who was abused by her parents.
she stole a car to get away, and living in prison was a welcome relief for her.
she was in prison for four years, and the state was going to release her, but she would not go back home.. a co-worker teacher that my wife knows told us the situation, and we agreed o help the girl get back on her feet.. well, she dealt with abuse from all aspects 😔, and is pretty messed up in the head from all of that.. but by being in our home, she was safe and was learning how to deal with her problems.
Auditory hallucinations are by no means a form of paranormal possession. This 14th Century phobia of the demons that Witnesses have is stupefying. Even before I was awake, I never bought the whole "demonic attacks" thing. I know too much about hypnopompic hallucinations and sleep paralysis than to conclude that "shaking beds" and "being restrained by an invisible force in bed" is the result of the Harry Potter book on the shelf. FFS.
