Women in the religion who are strong and have their own opinions are treated as if they are immoral in my own experience. What opportunity does it allow for research or independent thought if they look at you as if you're a prostitute every time you offer an opinion?
Xanthippe
JoinedPosts by Xanthippe
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39
Why Is it the Girls who Hang in There?
by snugglebunny inhaving seen many, many people leave the org over the years, i have to say that, when it comes to married couples, it's almost always the man who makes the first move to leave.
conversely, when it comes to being converted into the witnesses, more often than not it's the wife who joins up first.
although that wasn't the case with my own parents, my father became converted and my mother followed very reluctantly..
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13
So does the Almighty God Jehovah make mistakes, or is the society NOT his spokesman?
by stuckinarut2 inthe society claims to be jehovah gods sole channel on earth - his spokesman.. if any witness disagrees with this claim, they are branded as an apostate and punished.. but the society has made countless errors over the century, and repeatedly changed doctrines and beliefs.
not to mention the appalling foundation teachings of the organisation's teachings!
so a simple question: is god making msistakes and getting things wrong, or is this proof that the society is not guided by god?.
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Xanthippe
Apparently the one who created the universe, billions of galaxies, the earth and the human ear cannot get his message across to the GB. If his son really could walk on water and raise the dead surely he could get his spokesmen on earth to get the message right first time.
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55
Let's Be Honest - You or One of Your Ancestors Was an Idiot
by Simon inwhy were we ever a jw?
were we mad?
we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.
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Xanthippe
I wonder though about the people who unlike my family had a good education. Doctors, teachers, architects who I've known personally. Intellectually they were not idiots but they became JWs.
I suspect it was the same as everyone else who joined, either a traumatic event or a chronic situation in their lives that made them psychologically vulnerable to love bombing.
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29
So I just watched Jackson's ARC interview...
by schnell inthank you, everybody here, for introducing me to this.
no, no i had not heard of this.
child abuse issues have been roundly dismissed as apostate attacks in the congregations i've attended in the last decade.
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Xanthippe
' If they don't want to apply to officially leave the JWs they can tell anyone they like they are no longer a JW ' - G Jackson
Yes Schnell he's implying members could do this without sanction which we know is rubbish. Going around telling JW friends and family you no longer want to be a JW and why is apostasy and will get you disfellowshipped.
You're right he unbelievably says it's not his field but as Stewart says everything is his field because he's one of the GB. The ultimate spiritual shepherds of the JW religion cannot answer a straight question to save their life. Shocking. Good to see this again thanks. Glad you can see it's not the truth and welcome to the forum.
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12
Do you feel regret?
by HereIgo into help me move on after leaving the org and to maintain my sanity, i have worked on not regretting the time i spent in it.
granted, i have only been out 6 years and was 22 when i left, i still was an active jw from age 16-22. those were prime times of my youth that i will never get back.
i wanted to play high school football and basketball but couldn't.
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Xanthippe
Of course I wish I'd got out sooner, I was thirty when I left but I'm not weighed down with regret. I came from a financially poor, uneducated family which is why my mother got sucked into the cult. I can't see that my childhood could have been much different because of my parents circumstances. My parents didn't even understand about further education and my mother had depression so she just wanted paradise to make all the nasty scary world go away.
I try to look at the big picture because there's so much poverty in the world that people struggle so hard to get out of and many never do. My husband and I left and got degrees and did get out of the poverty trap but I'm not rich I just value everything I have now. Freedom, a little home, books and a daughter who did go to university and has the freedom to do whatever she wants with her life.
When I looked round universities with her I do remember a sharp pang in my stomach when I thought I could have had this life, but then she had me for a mother and I had my JW mother. Hey ho. Life is what it is and for us in the west, the first world it's damn good, make the most of it!
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33
Jesus, the Great Convincer?
by Simon insupposedly the disciples witnessed jesus' super-power awesomeness first-hand.. so they were all 100% on-board to-the-death martyrs ... right?.
erm .... judas betrayed him.
thomas didn't believe he'd come back.
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Xanthippe
Interesting question. It makes a huge assumption, creates a false dichotomy and attempts to belittle the experience that can be gained from learning proper debating. - Viviane
So you were never a JW, that answers my question. Belittles debating, seriously? How terrible! How about your belittling of people who come on this forum because their family has been trapped in a fucking cult for decades.
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33
Jesus, the Great Convincer?
by Simon insupposedly the disciples witnessed jesus' super-power awesomeness first-hand.. so they were all 100% on-board to-the-death martyrs ... right?.
erm .... judas betrayed him.
thomas didn't believe he'd come back.
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Xanthippe
The prophecy is that one of the disciples would betray Jesus. Which one is never specified. The belief is that each disciple had freedom of choice.
Uh, which prophecy?
This prophecy -
'He who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me shall betray me' - Matt 26:23
Viviane were you ever a member of the JW religion or just the college debating society?
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33
Jesus, the Great Convincer?
by Simon insupposedly the disciples witnessed jesus' super-power awesomeness first-hand.. so they were all 100% on-board to-the-death martyrs ... right?.
erm .... judas betrayed him.
thomas didn't believe he'd come back.
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Xanthippe
devil's advocate here:
JWs and other Christians would say that doubt and betrayal among some of the apostles is evidence for the gospel being genuine, i.e. if all Jesus' followers perfectly believed and were all faithful it would be 'too good to be true'. LUHEAll the best fiction contains villains, anti-heroes and flawed humans.
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25
It was never, ever, a warning work, was it?
by jambon1 inmost witnesses i knew were exteeemly reluctant to go out in the ministry.
but when they did, they were simply scraping by, eager to avoid conflict and just do their hour or so speaking to lonely old ladies or widowed old men.
placing magazines in a car group, doing route calls, plodding along in the utter boredom of their responsibility to get some time on a report by the last day of the month.. this was never a warning work.
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Xanthippe
The witness work was a tepid, ridiculous charade that people went through.
Actually it wasn't for me. I really meant it. Perhaps that's why I don't feel so frustrated that I've totally wasted the first thirty years of my life. At least I lived authentically and when I realised the religion wasn't about love or caring about peoples' survival that helped me to leave.
I'm not the only one who feels this way but sometimes we feel bad admitting we really believed it and tried to help people. We shouldn't feel bad IMO because always living authentically shines a light on bullshit and helps you, eventually, avoid it.
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Janet Jackson before and after pics
by moomanchu inguess she is a muslim now, golly.. http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/janet-jackson-spotted-first-time-9106989.
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Xanthippe
This family is such an advert for not being raised a JW.