Posts by sseveninches

21

Just wondering, who here is still a JW? x

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

just wondering who here still attends meetings, and lives the jw life?

i guess its interesting for the context of peoples comments.

also does anyone have a position such as pioneer, ms, elder etc ?.

sseveninches

I'm still in...I'm a young MS still living at home with my parents. After all the hyprocisy that I've discovered in pretty much one night, I wish I could just go off-grid (to the JWs), but I don't want to tear my family apart, so I'm kind of trapped. I got into this mess by looking up the word "porneia" on the internet, because I wanted to know what gave the WT such authority to just decide (and occasionally change) what a 2000-year-old Greek word means. Then the floodgates opened, and eventually I ended up on here as a member.

It's been hard for me to gather up enough will to continue at all, but I have to sell it - I have to pretend that nothing ever happened, that I still think about the WT and the JWs the way I always have, to keep people from suspecting. I have to keep it that way until I move out.

27

Talk Coordinator: A pretty sucky job

by Open mind in

i got this "privilege" thrust upon me for about 6 months many years ago.

i was a hubby, father of young children, service committee member, working 2 jobs and then this.

it truly is a thankless task.

sseveninches

"Let's face it, the JWs definitely don't want speakers who are good critical thinkers and can convey that in a talk."

If that's true, then my days are numbered.

24

Questions critical of 1914

by biometrics in

i have a relative coming over because he's concerned about my spiritual health.

i said i have some legitimate concerns about the watchtower claiming to be god's representative on earth.

we agreed to do a frank and open (if that's even possible) study of 1914 doctrine, and the "nu lite" about the overlapping generations.. does anyone have good questions or points to shoot-down the 1914 doctrine, and the "nu lite" on overlapping generations?

sseveninches

I brought up the overlapping generation/increasing partakers issue at our family study a few days ago, and to my surprise, my dad had the same questions in mind also. Unknown to me, he asked an elder why the number of partakers is increasing, and got a point blank "I don't know". When I made it clear that the WT changed its position on what "generation" meant, I then proceeded to ask my parents, "would the holy spirit give you false information?" Also to my surprise, the apostate shields didn't come up, but rather got them thinking. Mom was quick to give an answer (typical), but dad was more understanding, saying that I had a point - "a source cannot give two kinds of water at the same time". I was dismissed with a "let's wait and see" response.

12

WT Study for 6-17-12

by Bobcat in

i did not see a thread on the 6-17-12 wt study article, so i thought i'd put this here.. .

this is just a thought on unquoted references that sheds a little "light" on why they are not sourced.. in paragraph 4 of the lesson it says: 'as one reference work states, it is "the sum total of the interior man.

"' it is referring to what the bible means when it speaks of the figurative heart.

sseveninches

Nice find! I was wondering about that unquoted reference also, because ever since I've been reading Blondie's comments on the WT, unquoted references stand out to me like never before. This just shows that relying on the WTS as a educational source is a very bad idea.

5

A Weekend with Thousands of Jehovahs Witnesses

by betterdaze in

posted by rabbi john rosove @ jewishjournal.com.

their families are patriarchal and their denomination is autocratically led by an all-male religious leadership that maintains discipline, demands obedience, compels commitment, forbids independent thinking, and insists on conformity.

those who violate communal belief and behavioral norms risk disfellowship and shunning.

sseveninches

It's because they lure you in with so many promises, that seem too good to be true and 100% possible at the same time, since "nothing is impossible for God".

Then you get (kind of) unknowingly enter a binding contract with the WTS, where the unwritten but very real agreement is to believe everything that comes out the arse of the WTS as truth, whether it really is true or not. Anyone can break this contract, but there's an 'early termination fee' of sorts, that you never stop paying.

12

Duty to Protect (children, followers, customers....)

by skeeter1 in

i was out shopping this weekend, reading of candice conti too.

there's a few walmarts nearby in skeeterville.

one nearest me is pretty safe, but the other is closer to the interstate and jail, and you always feel wierd at it.

sseveninches

It doesn't matter whether he was appointed or not at the time of the crime. The WTS hides these cases, and thus puts them in the spotlight. THAT is why they'll lose the appeal.

99

Thought Reform and the Psychology of the 'Safeguard Your Heart!' 2012 Convention

by breakfast of champions in

to make attendance at my second district convention "mentally out" both a little more bearable and meaningful, i decided to take some notes of key points as if i were an outsider studying the thought reform methods of jehovah's witnesses.

at first, i was only going to share these notes with my therapist, but inspired by the "parsing the watchtower double-speak" thread, i figured i would share my amateur analysis with everyone.

here are some of the highlights:.

sseveninches

By now I feel like I already know the whole convention by heart, and I haven't even gone yet. It makes me sick that I have to sit through three days of this. I hope I get assigned to a department so I don't have to devote my full attention (and fall asleep in the process).

14

Young and angry

by d in

since i left the jw's in 2008. i have since struggled with feelings of anger at people in power and religous leaders.i feel that in this world you just can not trust anybody.i have given up trying to see the good in people and i just feel deattached from people..

sseveninches

I've learned that you really have to sift through a lot of people until you find someone that's trustworthy, whether it's a friend, or a potential boyfriend/girlfriend. I've also learned that you can't trust governments, businesses, or other entities until they prove themselves worthy of your trust. Using these two ideas alone have helped me a bunch.

31

My nine grievances against the Society from BEFORE I had ever visited a single apostate website...

by cedars in

i mentioned on a recent thread by irondork that my wife recently showed me a handwritten list of grievances i had against the society from before i had ever visited a single apostate website (apart from wikipedia).

the thread is below:.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/226934/1/how-did-you-long-timers-do-it-before-the-internet-ray-franz-books-abundant-information.

sseveninches

Very good list. It's nice to see what can happen when a JW starts thinking, as they rightly should. It makes sense that the WTS doesn't want people to go to college.

47

If you never have used the internet, would you have returned to the borg or stay in the organization?

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

if i have never used the internet, i would probably return to the borg by now.

.

sseveninches

The internet is why I'm slowly making my exit. Like Midwich, I was searching on the internet for things that were unrelated, and stumbled on incriminating information about the WTS.

I think the internet is going to claim lots more young minds, and I have a feeling that a lot of the people at the hall that are my age know something already. Their behavior is quite suspicious to me - one of them was a regular pioneer, but has quit, moved out of her parents' home, and has become relatively quiet at the meetings. I've "caught" others doing things among themselves that other witnesses would frown upon (before I started having doubts), but I didn't interfere, because I wasn't exactly a saint myself.

As for the 1914 issue, it's still a very important date, but the problem is that most witnesses aren't aware of the "overlapping generation" nu light. They still think it's just that one generation that was alive during 1914.