Posts by ammo

"judge" rutherford defined or classified all religion as "a snare and a racket" in his books "religion" and "enemies".. after rutherford's death in 1942, his protege, watchtower vice president, and aclu darling, hayden c. covington, in the early 1950's, for reasons of legal expedience and supremacist aspirations, suddenly converted the watchtower into a religion.. this was done alongside one of the most audacious, spurious and longstanding swindles of the us legal system.

this involved twisting philippians 1:7 and misrepresenting the watchtower's true nature, objectives and activities.. .

this meant that it became necessary for the watchtower to suddenly reclassify and redefine religion (w51 1/15 p. 43 new legal booklet well named; w51 8/15 p. 511 questions from readers; yb75 p. 161 part 2 "for gladys bolton...").. two new watchtower classifications were suddenly created: "true religion" and "false religion".. now "true religion" meant "true beliefs" whilst "belief" in ever changing watchtower doctrine was equated with the one "faith" of scripture.. all this while the watchtower increasingly and maliciously truncated, obfuscated and hid the liberating full "good news" (or unabridged gospel) of scripture, which it lyingly claimed (in court) that it was actually "defending and legally establishing".. how would you have defined religion before learning ttatt?.

ammo

1 big guilt trip...

18

Ahhh Dagnabbit

by Jon Preston in

jw
friends

well afyer two months i get a message from an elder wanting to go out in service a few nights a week and to hang out more....i must now be labelled in the spiritually weak and reach out to group in my hall.

my hall is very nice and so are the people but dagnabbit i hate small towns.... i wonder if i should say no or just nite the bullet on behalf of our fade...hmm decisions.

ammo

Run forest run.....

X

26

how long before you felt refreshed and new?

by losingit in

waking up from jw-land is an extremely exhausting process.

about 3 years ago, i attended a month-long institute for grad school students.

during this time, i was surrounded by people from all over the united states and had active, deep conversations with so many about personal topics, such as religion and divorce.

ammo

Hey Losing It, I love the name its so accurate to so many that have left...

I've written to you now 3 time's and lost it, grrr I have to go to tafe now, but quickly Frasier is so funny, to me anyway, and keep going , it take's time, be kind to yourself but also make little goals for the day, you will feel better getting up,showering and being gentle but firm in the resolve to do little things initially, my self talk after I left and when In, was so derogatory no wonder I could'nt pull it together, love you as you do your kids, no guilttrips, you've left and this is the next stage, you've studied and know that things need hard work, and perserverance. There's no silver bullet.

Go back to therapy it'll help even just to get you motivated and get some baggage off you. be thankful you have your kids and your new man,and do what humans have been doing for ever, fight for a better way to live, I will try to send you a pm over the weekend, I just wanted to say I hear ya, where you are like so many here that have muddled- initially - through and are now reaping the rewards of a guilt/shame free life that really does get better and better with time.

Sorry if sounds all pollyanna on crack, I have been down and flat and isolated.... all of it, but now..... 3 yrs later.... I'm likeing life, making friends, and doing things, good things I would never have thought possible or acceptable as a JW.... GO FOR IT!!!

75

FORGIVENESS ... You owe it to your health

by ABibleStudent in

i'm cleaning up my home of unnecessary magazines/newsletters that i have accumulated over the years.

while i was working as an employee i did not feel like i had the time to read them.

now that i'm not working as an employee but work as a volunteer to network and maintain workplace skills, i seem to have more time to read.. after reading many threads by former jws, i thought that the following article might help some to heal.

ammo

Yes agree Robert and thanks.....

Anger sux and my body and mind were so tired of it.

It can take time and if you are able to distance. Long term anger never did anyone anygood, I've realised since leaving that my anger and frustration and even expectations of myself are a lot less, yet surprisingly I am actually doing and COMPLETING alot more in life.

Hmmm.... Who'd of thought that while in eh!

20

Some JW on the street, my reaction...

by sp74bb in

jw
friends

today i had some of my worst experiences.

i saw a jw group walking on preaching.

one of them knows me well, we share a lot of week-end on rbc.. my first reaction was rage and nerves.

ammo

Yes I had a similar experience 2 days ago, I actually wanted to come write something here as the people I was with would never of understood my feelings in regard to the quick but very freeing conversation that was had...

The lady was an elders wife and of course the group of them were having coffee, after a quick and friendly chat at the counter, which she seemed surprised and acknowledged 'you look happy and really good' I said that I felt great and yes was very happy, she than said ' Well do you want us to come round and see you or what?' now that I have learnt stuff here on jwn I thought wow you just can't help but get that time counting in anywhere, I told her no thanks life was good and It really was'nt for me, honestly I wanted to say more, but thought less is more, they all knew how heartfelt I was when in, so in this instance I looked her in the eye remained calm and gave her a big hug as we had gotten along well when I went, I than went over to the table the others were at and said hi looked them all in the eye and chatted than went back to my mate's it was a truly liberating experience to not feel guilt or shame or complacent just to feel like you had happily moved on and that they could see it, I wrestled alot of demons while in with the Jws, and they knew it...... It confused them a little, seeing me so confident and relaxed.... So I say if you can, whenever you come across those you meet try and show the non judgemental love they preach about but can't quite get to.

I do have to admit as well that its taken a couple of years to get to this point... initially after leaving there was alot of anger..........knowledge to be sure that it is nowhere near the truth and time, thats what heals if we want it too.

All the best.

31

Don't tell me that I am a priority in your life

by KariOtt in

jw
friends

valentines day.

another holiday that unbelieving spouses can't celebrate.

just one out of many holiday's and important days that we get the shaft on.

ammo

its bad enough what he has'nt done for you -even though its pretty thoughtless.

What worries me is how giving he is to others, thus proving he has a generous streak to whomever he so decides is worth it. Or does he just take your enduring consistant love for granted.

You will end up sick, alot of women develop thyroid disorders in marriage they have lost their voice and you keeping it all bottled up inside sure ain't going to help your state of mind or body-speaking from experience.

You say you love him....... you may have to start loving yourself as well.

5

Ponder daily these 6 things

by Terry in

6 things we probably need to wrestle with and keep before our mind to challenge our view of true and false, good and bad, right and wrong.. .

1. it boggles the mind.

most religions are smart enough to keep their doctrines out of the area of objective disproof.. the watchtower society obsessive date-setting has put it all to the test over and over again.. how do they get away with it?.

ammo

Terry you good thang!

As usual to the point.

Thanks, I like the clear cut way you come across without malice just facts and common sense.

16

Creationism or evolution, or do I believe in god

by moley in

in the past year or so i've been completely evaluating whether i believe in god.

i studied marine biology at uni for the last 3 years and it completely change my view on evolution.

even when i was in i believed in evolution to a certain extent (ie the flood made no sense, the earth being 60000 odd years old etc etc) and this has made me question the existence of god.

ammo

Its good your doing marine biology.... go with that, you can make a huge difference to our world with that kind of education.

Its true what Terry says, don't waste your life trying to work this stuff out, no one will ever be able to and in all honesty it just gets people all pissed off and make's the folks on jwn look like crazed loons. I've referred people here and they have told me they would rather seek help and guidance somewhere else because of the attacks- for want of a better word, that saddens me because this place can really help you deprogramme, but not everyones got the stomach for putdowns and mocking when first leaving I guess, fair enough.

I spent my year and a bit defending when I left, I know we all need that time initially to come to some kind of balance within us, but now I truly have come to the conclusion that its all way to big for me or any other bugger to sort, There's too much of the unexplained, and just because we can't put it all in a neat little scientific box with a ribbon on it do does not dismiss it .. to me.

I do like coming here from time to time but I get so dis-heartened seeing the same ol merry go round of individuals trying to prove their point over and over again.....

We can only change now and our future.... thats enough

There's bigger fish to fry baby!!