This my first time coming across this experience. It is the most impactful information that I have come across, short of Ray Franz books. These statements of JR Brown get to thecrux of my issues with WT, their iinsistence on being the only true religion, enacting life-altering family-ruining decisions, and alluding to the GB being inspired and Gods spokesman. Without these claims, insistence, and decisions, JWs would be free. I'm so grateful to have this info which thoroughly disgusts me. Sadly, its useless in influencing family members or friends unless they want to be influenced or honestly want truth. What a great experience and find.
jeremiah18:5-10
JoinedPosts by jeremiah18:5-10
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350
Called JR Brown regarding Cano Pedophile situation
by LDH injust called their media line:.
http://www.jw-media.org/contact.htm.
asked a young man named bryce where is the official press release on the cano pedophile situation.
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Religion vs. Spirituality
by Oubliette inreligion is for people who are scared to go to hell.
spirituality is for people who have already been there.
- bonnie raitt .
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jeremiah18:5-10
I think religion, especially JW since that's the only one I've been a part of, tries to use religious practices and regulations to measure spirituality. But spirituality cant be measured, its deeply personal.
Trying to use religion to measure spirtuality is like trying to measure air pressure with a tape measure.
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All those times Jehovah answered my prayers...
by Julia Orwell in...and granted me strength, friends, a job, whatever...was all either through my own effort alone or sheer luck.. i wanted a government job so i prayed for one and went out looking for one every day for ages and made a heap of applications...and got one.
my own effort.. i wanted a friend and prayed for one, crying myself to sleep with loneliness.....and after 6 months in the new congregation someone reached out to me.
chance.. i prayed to be able to stand up to my family when they put pressure on me about christmas etc...my own cult conditioning so strong.. i prayed to find a nice husband...luck when i moved congregations and one of those sisters who just has to match make introduced us.
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jeremiah18:5-10
Mealtime prayers, "thank you heavenly father for providing this food...." Used to bother me, because everyone else (non jws) were eating too. So if he's providing for them too, what makes us so special. Guess you can give credit wherever you choose to. You can see what you want, doesn't make it so.
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jeremiah18:5-10
GB : "see, only goats are willing to go out on a limb. Just do what we say and be sheep"
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jeremiah18:5-10
Happy birthday!!! Why do I still feel guilty saying that, geez.
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Did being a JW affect you socially?
by Mahtaw ini feel like i'm awkard in social situations.
i hate going up and talking to people i don't know.
i have trouble making friends.
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jeremiah18:5-10
This topic resonates with me on a deeply personal level. I feel awkward socially, although I fake it well. Perhaps being a JW is to blame or perhaps just the family environment I was in. As I type this, and every other post I make, I'm terrified of rejection. Many of my comments are qualified with statements of "I hope this doesn't offend anyone" or "I hope this isn't off topic or out of line". Every interaction is governed with this obsessive concern. I see it clearly when reflecting on my 30+ years as a JW, I was so fearful of going against the grain. I worried about what I said, what I wore, what I thought, where I was seen, who I was seen speaking to, what I liked, what I believed. I've now been out for 5+ years and things have changed very little. Even though I now have freedom to be me, I find it difficult to not be overly concerned with what people may think of me, even complete strangers. This has definitely affected my ability to interact freely with others and to make new acquaintances wknd friends. When I do make a friend, I am fiercely loyal and protective of that relationship. As an example, I so admire people who can get up and sing karaoke, I so badly want to, but find myself paralyzed with fear, even though I've delivered over a 100 public talks and assembly and district convention parts. I've done it a few times but on those occasions I was very drunk and the liquid courage was abundant. Is this because of being a JW, I don't know, but I just can't stand it. I call it the "don't give a shit" gene and figure I just didn't get it. This only scrapes the surface of the social retardation I feel and deal with daily. The practice of hiding who you really are and how you really feel is so unhealthy. I'm proud to say that I go out of my way to teach my kids to embrace who they are and not to hide it. I encourage them to not say or do anything that they would be ashamed of. If they do, I encourage them to analyze why they are ashamed and to try to help them not be enslaved to the world if political correctness as I have been. Our communication is outstanding and I hope they can have a solid sense of self-worth throughout their lives. For me, I feel it may be too late, I an what I am.
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A question for elders and former elders who have served on JCs
by slimboyfat inbased on your experience of judicial committees, how would you advise someone who is due to meet with the elders and has asked for the best way to avoid being disfellowshipped?
is denying everything ever a successful strategy?
does addressing a letter to the elders threatening legal action if they disfellowship ever work?
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jeremiah18:5-10
The repentance route is the safest and easiest to fake. This, in most cases, is what elders are hoping to find. The other two routes are a roll of the dice and depend heavily upon whether they have witnesses and/or the elders involved and how ballsy they are. Even if only one witness, they can move for df and force the person to choose whether to appeal or not. Then the appeal committee's bravery comes in to play. At that point a threat of legal action, if only one witness, could be effective.
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7/15 WT- Insane, Far Fetched, Narcissistic "New Light " about the FDS
by flipper ini know this article has been discussed, re-hashed upside down in past threads.
but there were at least 2 points i discovered in here that i felt were pertinent and important to bring out concerning the total control and narcissistic tendencies that these wt leaders possess on the governing body, i.e.
alleged " faithful slave " .
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jeremiah18:5-10
I agree with ctrwtf, they get around the sister thing by referring to a scripture that says there is neither male nor female in the kingdom of the heavens. Thus they boil it down to the person, and yet there is no soul that survives death?!?!
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In 12 Lines or Less: GIVE US YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY POETICALLY
by Terry inautobiography.
forever began at the day of my birth, but, it turns out that it was a lie,.
i am who i am when nobody's watching, then nothing is there to deny.. .
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jeremiah18:5-10
It wasn't by choice at the time that I left
My faith was taken as if by theft
An ambitious brother pursued my and took my peace
This led to my activity to pretty much cease.
The longer I was away the less I wanted to go
I began to question things, things i needed to know.
I started researching, I took to the bible to read
Slowly I saw real truth, I had planted a seed.
My eyes have opened and they can never be shut
Now I'm happy without an if, and or but.
I hope others can come to find what I have found
And break free from the falsehoods to which they are bound
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Is there a 'third' way to leave?
by Splash inonce baptised, apart from death there are really just two ways to leave the congregation: df or da.. but notice this quote:.
"does he really desire to disassociate himself, or does he simply no longer want to associate actively with the congregation?".
- shepherd the flock of god (2010) p. 111. .
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jeremiah18:5-10
Making known a firm decision to be known no longer as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
If the individual is agreeable, the committee should first try to speak with him and provide spiritual assistance.
It is also of note that this is in a committee setting. Therefore I suspect this is a scenario where a person actually approaches the elders and states they don't want to be a jw any longer. The elders are then to form a committe and ascertain if its for one of the two reasons above. A committee can't or at least shouldn't be formed just because someone is going in active. Only if they have taken the next step and vocalized a desire not to be a jw. If in fact they then, during the hearing, say they are discouraged or depressed and just want to be left alone but don't voice a rejection of the organization, they would or should not be labeled apostate or as DA. I believe Splash is correct in this assessment.