i have often seen many categorise the organisation in different ways.
some say cult, some say high control religion.
cult or high control religion?.
It's what they do to people's minds that tells you it's a cult Unshacklethechains. My gentle sister who grew up loving animals and not hurting a fly leaving her sister and niece in grief to suffer alone.
So many stories on here of JWs rejecting their siblings, parents, their own children. You can't tell me this religion isn't a cult when it screws people's minds up so they are cruel and unable to show natural feelings anymore.
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
When evidence for reality hits you between the eyes you have the choice to accept it or reject it and go on believing fantasy, these are the only choices.
in conversation with an old jw friend today, it struck me that most jws have replaced their personal conscience with a collective one.. instead of training their own mental powers to distinguish right from wrong, as the bible encourages, they are content to shift personal accountability away from themselves and onto the impersonal org.
whatever behaviour may prompt an ordinary person to have serious misgivings ( such as ignoring glaring misapplication of scripture or rejecting basic human decency in favour of unchristian shunning ) they prefer to have those decisions made for them.. history teaches us, however, that there is no absolution for people who behave unethically or cruelly by allowing the excuse of 'obeying orders' to override what their inner voice should scream is inherently wrong..
In conversation with an old JW friend today, it struck me that most JWs have replaced their personal conscience with a collective one.
This is so true and when you study history you realise that JWs have set their consciences back about five hundred years. In medieval times people used to have a collective conscience. They would hand relatives over to inquisitions to be tortured or drive women who helped cure people with herbs out of their villages - or burn them alive. When I studied the medieval period I got the distinct impression people thought in group minds almost like bees or ants. I guess it was driven by the stark need for sheer survival.
So yes we have a religion that wants to take away people's consciences and put them back to medieval thinking. Primary example is they do hand their loved ones over to be tortured in JCs. Then when the 'clergy' say now treat them as if they're dead they blindly obey.
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
Like I said I learned from studying Campbell that the path of Atheism and agnosticism means figuring life out on your own.
Yeah I love it, you should try it! Thinking is my main hobby! Then go online or read other's ideas in books and see how your thoughts compare. Very stimulating. You know the best thing? Authors won't shun me if I disagree with them, some will even let me email them!
Like no extra boost to certain insights, like rocky road.
No I listen to a lot of insights from others then I make up my own mind. I'm allowed to do that you see, I'm over eighteen.
now that im not longer a jw this verse puzzles me.
being born and raised a witness, this verse confirmed to me that jesus was talking about a paradise on earth.
but now that everything the witnesses taught is 99.99% incorrect can somone explain what he was getting at here?
Look at the context, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven -Matt 5:3. Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven - Matt 5:10. Strongly suggests inheriting the earth as a possession as kings.
Having said that, who wrote it, who translated it, who decided this bit should go in the Bible canon and not be assigned as apocryphal, which verses in between were discarded etc etc.
exjw's of a certain age will remember randy's site well.
freeminds was instrumental in waking me up along with ray franz's books.
if net soup and armageddon okies mean nothing to you you're probably under 30.. whatever caused randy to post what he did recently is something i can only guess at but it won't be what i remember him for.. randy, i wish you well and thank you for all you've done over the years .
We got Randy's newsletter Freeminds sent by mail from the US in 1989. I know I've said it before but it shone a light in the darkness. Thanks Randy, I hope you're okay.
in appreciation of david bowie who died a year ago today.
also to george michael and all the other less famous people ( mouthy, school friend.
my aunt.
Victoria Wood, Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher, my cousin Julie.
so i had my first appointment with a counsellor, of course i explained about being a born in jw, mentally leaving, the penalty of doing so and therefore the mental strain of pretending to be someone i'm not.
her response was that she couldn't help me with that because leaving a cult was a "lifestyle choice".
i tried to say to her that its a cult not a religion and how it brain washed me but no.
The first counsellor I tried thought I should join her group therapy. I explained that cults were very different from most traumatic experiences. She was rather indignant that I thought I had had a totally different experience emotionally to someone who had been through a divorce or had a miscarriage. I gave up trying to explain it to her.
My second counsellor knew about JWs because her relatives were involved with it. She said when she took her kids to their grandparent's house they were not allowed to play with their cousins whose parents were JWs. Her kids were viewed as a bad influence so had to play in another room.
As usual people don't understand this cult unless they've had first-hand experience of it. I strongly suggest you try another counsellor.
when i was younger i used to hear about "marking talks" given in the past.
i believe they stopped in the 80's or 90's.
basically, if someone wasn't baptized or doing something unrepentant, they would get a "marking talk" and be treated the same as a df person.
Anyway how does dating an unbeliever reflect badly on the congregation? In whose eyes? NonJWs don't care who you date.
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-reasons-2016-is-the-best-time-to-be-alive-2016-8/#1-there-are-much-fewer-hungry-people-in-the-world-1.
is the world getting better?.
in which century would you rather have been born, given the choice?
The world is getting better, there are so many amazing things in this century. Technology, medicine, travel, literature, ethics and morality, compassion and charities, a wonderful array of food but in some ways it is still primitive. Cults, materialism, politics and the multinationals dominated by sociopaths. I would have liked to see the twenty-third century, I think it will be awesome.
