Posts by Xanthippe

16

Memories from the Edge

by neat blue dog in

when waking up it often isn't an instant switch, there's a period of time when your conflicted feelings are heightened and most uncomfortable.

can anyone remember specific instances in the time before you fully woke up that made you uncomfortable or guilty, despite you still being a 'believer'?.

i can think of two right now, both about a year or two before i woke up:.

Xanthippe

Still, I wasn't fully convinced and chalked it up to that maybe there was something I was missing or just didn't understand. - NBD

Yeah I remember that feeling. I never understood the ransom sacrifice but everyone seemed to be fine with it. I understood the internal logic of it but objectively sacrifice has always seemed wrong to me. When I asked others what they thought they looked at me as if I was stupid.

I struggled when they said we couldn't just study the Bible with people it had to be a WTS publication. Asked my friend in another circuit to tell me exactly what they said at her assembly. She treated me like a full-blown apostate, 'but it's from Jehovah!'.

Surely the point was to teach people about the Bible? It just felt wrong to refuse to do that if they wanted it. Bells really went off in my head when that idea came out, but still I stayed!

9

All the child abuse lawsuits are just a hiccup in the bigger picture.

by I believe in overlapping in

one of my uncles who has never been a jw is visiting for christmas.

my dad who has stopped being an elder and has stopped going to meetings started explaining to my uncle why he finally left the watchtower religion.

my dad had tried for years to convert my uncle but never succeeded.

Xanthippe

Interesting, I will say that the difference is the WTS does not have 1.2 billion members nor anywhere near the wealth of the Catholic Church to pay for many, many lawsuits. Has your uncle been to the Vatican?

32

What JW Beliefs Did You Find Difficult To Explain?

by minimus in

jw
friends

there are a lot.

anything blood related was difficult to reasonably prove from a witness perspective.. 1914 was another one.

what can you add to the list?

Xanthippe

God allowing his son to be tortured to death because two naked people ate some fruit and we lost eternal life. Struggled with that as a teenager.

20

Chaos at Gatwick Airport

by The Fall Guy in

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-46623754.

perhaps all major airports will eventually employ their own industrial sized drone, operated by a trained/authorised pilot who can track and pinpoint the nut-jobs who cause such disruption and possible catastrophe..

Xanthippe

Wow Amelia you really went for it! Much admiration.

20

Chaos at Gatwick Airport

by The Fall Guy in

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-46623754.

perhaps all major airports will eventually employ their own industrial sized drone, operated by a trained/authorised pilot who can track and pinpoint the nut-jobs who cause such disruption and possible catastrophe..

Xanthippe

I feel really sorry for all the people whose travel plans have been ruined. People trying to get to family and friends they're desperate to see or a much needed holiday.

13

Coming out of the Woodwork

by Solzhenitsyn in

jw
friends

who was i to think that we would be left alone?

it has been a dream for 2+ months.

a few calls i let go to voicemail but now the wife and i are getting bombarded with text messages.. this isn't going to be easy.. since we're not looking to throw a grenade into decades of relationships, text replies thus far have been..."thank you so much.".

Xanthippe

Everyone's relationships and friendships are different. You might have some really mature, intelligent people in you family and friend circle. It's got to be possible even among JWs right?

Only you can know the right way to handle them. Look at the advice and experience of others here then make up your own mind what to do.

23

What Are Ways You Can Tell Someone is a Jehovah’s Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

is it something they do?

how they say things?

how do you spot a jehovah’s witness?.

Xanthippe

When you text your sister because you hear she's had a heart/angina attack and she says 'thank you for your concern'. Thank you for your concern! I hate that JW expression. How about fuck, I'm scared, I nearly died!

18

Xmas, love it or leave it??

by DATA-DOG in

i have to say that i’m not enjoying the xmas season.

i have no emotional ties and i’m spending money that i have not set aside for xmas during a slow work season for my trade.. i’m not happy about it, because it’s foolish to spend money when you aren’t making any.

then i feel like i’m expected to do all this, and to be happy about spending money and time on persons that i’m not that involved with.

Xanthippe

I think being triggered is a good word because it does feel like cult behaviour on some level. Can't we just have a few days off work and a slap up meal with family and friends without buying people ridiculously expensive presents?

Advertising goes crazy at Christmas and it's a fight not to be drawn into the spending frenzy. I have bought small gifts for close family members but I'm certainly not getting them computers or TVs!

To be honest I'm just desperate to see my daughter for the holidays as it's been two months and I just want to spend time with her.

8

Two for One offer. You get one for the price of two!

by Slidin Fast in

did anyone else fall for this one?

i did pre-assembly work in my home town, this was obviously voluntary unpaid work.

i continued to do part-time work helping to support my mom who has been recently abandoned by my elder dad,.

Xanthippe

You had to do two pre-assembly work hours for each pioneer hour your missed? Wow I pioneered when it was a hundred hours too and worked part-time to pay my bills, how on earth can you do more than that. I was already working 45+ hours a week in total. The monsters to make you do that!

14

Dysfunctamentalism

by Incognigo Montoya in

in reading through many posts over the last few months, i have started to form a viewpoint towards at least some of those witnesses/witness families, who are abusive and overzealous in their thinking.. arguably, many, if not all here, would say all pimi witnesses are overzealous in their thinking, but i sort of disagree with that.

without revealing too much about myself, my parents who are still in (father long time elder, mother regular pioneer), i consider stable and balanced in their views.

while i was shunned to a degree, after being disfellowshipped (they didn't go out to dinner or the movies with me or socialize with me publicly or very often privately, they didn't attend my wedding) they still spoke to me on the phone every few months, as i checked in on them and let them know i was doing alright (i moved out of state in my late teens).

Xanthippe

It's a deeper subject than it appears. My post asks the question what if that cult didn't exist? What if they hadn't scooped up my mother and love bombed her when she was vulnerable because of her dysfunctional family?

Why do cults exist and attract dysfunctional people? There's always religion where there is poverty. There was a lot of poverty in the nineteenth century. It's arguably what led up to WWl. That's when Russell got going and he used the war to fit it into his nonsense prophecies.

The whole fundamentalist cult thing, IMO, is often tied in with poverty, war and misery. That will make anyone dysfunctional.