Posts by krejames

38

Schizophrenia

by frankiespeakin in

while doing some personal research on the subject i came across this.

basically in the jungian world it is discribed as an overpowering of ego by the unconsciousness.

"if the human race survives, future men will, i suspect, look back on our enlightened epoch as a veritable age of darkness... they will see that what was considered 'schizophrenic' was one of the forms in which, often through quite ordinary people, the light began to break into our all-too-closed minds.".

krejames

My dad was paranoid schizophrenic. he had a nervous breakdwown and was subsequently subject to electro-shock treatment here in hte UK (this is going back to the late 70s). This made him worse and he ended up going back to Sicily for six months for treatment there, and he came back much improved. I have always thought that was probably what started it for him. A few years on from this terrible experience he developed a fear and suspicion of all authority and felt they were stealing his ideas from his brain and spying on him lazer beams. He avoided all form-filling, stopped paying his bills and mortgage and hoarded his money in a cupboard in his house. He must have been very frightened. He was not diagnosed for years and years later (the 90s) when we finally managed to take him to see a doctor, as the bank were threatening to repossess his house but he always refused to take the medication - he never took any as far as I'm aware. As he got older he mellowed and learned to keep himself to himself and eventually moved back to his sicilian hometown. I understand he was fairly reclusive there too and avoided his family there, but I hope he found some peace in his home environment and in the sun.

It's a really horrible condition and I feel for anyone living with it either a a sufferer or as a family member. Thankfully treatments, care and support are getting better in this country.

11

I need your help!!!!!!!!

by outsmartthesystem in

jw
friends

quick update - my wife moved out and took the kids with her while i was at work.

she went to live with her parents.

she took every last article of clothing and even some of her favorite furniture.

krejames

Sorry to hear you're going through this.

20

A question for Undercover and others

by tornapart in

undercover, i was interested in your last post and how you felt that believing in god is a delusion.

i'm not interested in any debates over it but i saw you have been here for 10 years!

that's some stay!

krejames

I'm still on my journey. I'm pretty much disconnected emotionally and mentally from the organisation (though I still attend meetings more often than not). However, I have woken up to the fact that I want to believe in God. I still have a certain kind of affection for my mental image of Jehovah and mind still turns towards him when I go to bed. But reason tells me, as a Gay born-in, that he surely can't exist or he would not have included the stuff about homosexuality in the Bible, whilst completely ignoring something as abhorrent as paedophilia. It's either that or he is an extremely cruel being that I would not want to worship or that it would be pointless to worship. but at the same time I have been doing lots of reading in scientific articles about evolution - while I can accept some of it to a degree, I still find a lot of it way too far fetched and still lean towards the involvement of some intelligent higher being. In summary: At this moment in time I guess I'm agnostic.

28

im stunned

by maccauk11 in

jw
friends

here is something tha thas just amazed me.

i had two witnesses at the door.

i invited them in for a few minutes because of the cold.

krejames

Even now that I'm ready and willing to believe many of the allegations against the Society, when people repeat the Freemason allegations as if it were fact, they lose all credibility with me. There is nothing but circumstantial evidence and hearsay to support the Freemason line of enquiry. nothing that would stand in a court of law to prove the matter "beyond reasonable doubt". I'm NOT saying it's not possible that Russell was connected with them, he may well have been - just that ultimately it's unprovable and so should not be stated as fact - otherwise we're no better that the GB we're so fond of criticising for their far fetched references in the reasoning book and all . By all means be honest a state that it is an allegation - an allegation that you choose to believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell#Alleged_connections_with_Freemasonry

59

Favorite JW Urban Legends

by Christ Alone in

what are your favorite urban legends that you heard as a jw?.

here's mine:.

a brother, through his work, was asked to give a speech to the united nations.

krejames

Oh and I forgot, back when I was a kid a circuuit overseer said at our congregation that we were not to eat red Smarties because they contained cochineal which he said is made from beetle's blood. This one spread like wild fire around the congregations with lots of JWs refusing to eat red Smarties and other red sweets. This gave rise to another rumour that Rowntree (Smarties' manufacturer) had threatened to sue the Society for spreading false rumours (now THAT I can believe lol)

59

Favorite JW Urban Legends

by Christ Alone in

what are your favorite urban legends that you heard as a jw?.

here's mine:.

a brother, through his work, was asked to give a speech to the united nations.

krejames

A sister was working on the field service on her own and called on this door when a strnage man answered. She does her presentation and leaves. Later the guy is arrested as a serial kiler. When asked why he didn't kill the sister too, he says he was scared of the two men who were standing either side of her (the angels lol) I've heard that one so many time and was completely taken in by it until a Born Again repeated the same story but about about a Born Again woman not a JW lol. Pure crap.

I've heard the John Denver story and I've heard of the same thing happening at numerous other concerts...the most laughable one was that Annie Lennox said in a concert that there "must be some Jehovah's Witnesses here, as I cannot contact the spirits...please leave" (there was a rumour among JWs that she was a witch, and that, I am sure was based on nothing more than a misunderstanding of one of her song lyrics that said something along the lines of "I used to have my demons in my head" or something like that (clearly meaning figuratively)). I love it when you hear the new generation repeating this same crap for newer artists - I guess every generation has them.

17

Should i tell him what is really going on with me? I care about him so much.

by make yourself in

for some reason the doubts came lurking back again.

i know this religion is messed up because a person should not be having creeping doubts surface up like this.

i have not posted or logged on to this site in a very long time.

krejames

Best to be honest and tell him as much as he needs to know to understand your behaviour and emotions. Your leaving the org is going to affect you for a while yet. He needs to know a little bit about what you're going through as you'll need his support if he can give it. If he can't give you any support then you're best without him for now as it will just be an additional emotional pressure. I'm very lucky I am going through the "leaving" journey with a very supportive and understanding boyfriend. He has never once criticised the JWs and even defends them when I am critical. He also doesn't judge me for the fact that I am still going to the meetings while in a relationship that's fairly and squarly against JW beliefs. This has helped me to see things in a balanced way - also from his perspective he knows I could never blame him for my leaving the org because I know my leaving is because of my beliefs and my opinions alone. I really hope all goes well for you.

56

Rutherford's love letter to Hitler

by irondork in

has anyone ever thought to send a copy of rutherford's letter to hitler & declaration of facts to the holocaust museum in washington, d.c.?

they have and entire section dedicated to the jehovah's witness in that museum.

i would hate for tourists to visit the museum and not get the whole story.. i would also assume there are jw displays at other holocaust museums around the world.

krejames

Rutherford's letter to Hitler was the most recent stumbling block to me. I was shocked when I read it on the JW Facts site recently. I wondered how JWs could point the finger at the Catholic Church for cosying up to Hitler when they had written this apparently anti-semitic and pro-nazi letter. However, I want my journey from the borg to be based on facts and not sensationalism or hearsay, so I have been doing my own research on this, this evening. A key matter for me was to find out if Jewish people considered JWs anti-semitic, having known about the letter and the Declaration...

The answer is "no". The Jewish Virtual Library (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org) has a section on Jehovah's Witnesses. It is a wholly positive article. It says "initially, Jehovah's Witnesses attempted to fend off Nazi attacks by issuing a letter to the government in October 1934..." They make no suggestion that JWs were pro Nazi or anti-semitic.

The Wikipedia article on the Jw Declaration of Facts quotes a couple of secular historians (1) Detlef Garbe. He acknowledged the witnesses were trying to make a good impression on the German Government but said that, in repudiating accusations that the witnesses had received financial support from the Jews, the religion clearly distanced itself from another group under persecution (I'm wondering whether that's referring ot the Christadelphians). He noted the use of anti-jewish slogans in the document....but said the Witnesses were not guilty of anti-semitism. Yet Garbe said that the Declaration's description of the Anglo-American empire as the "most oppressive empire on earth" did undermine the religion's claims to political neutrality. He also said later publications misrepresented the Delcaration as a "resolution of protest" and criticised the society's attempts to blame the German Branch leader for "the society's attempt to adapt".

It's interesting that the historian no.2, James Penton is the only one who scathingly accuses the JWs of being anti-semitic and he was an ex-jehovah's witness. So, like many of us on this discussion board, hardly unbiased.

I guess in light of the above and seen in context of the times, as elaborated on by Detlef Garbe, it's difficult to remain quite as shocked as I was initially. Sorry if this seems rather apologetic but this has taken the heat and shock value out of the argument for me. But nevertheless it's unsavoury that the GB has been less than candid about its past once again.

106

What REALLY Convinced You To Leave/Lose Faith in JWs?

by Recovery in

id like to know what personally convinced you jws are wrong about a particular doctrine/practice, that they are not gods true.people and/or what made you leave emotionally/physically.

.

krejames

Oh and I forgot to metnion, more recently, Rutherford's letter to Hitler made my blood run cold and made me realise the JWs had absolutely no grounds to point the finger at the Catholic Church...

106

What REALLY Convinced You To Leave/Lose Faith in JWs?

by Recovery in

id like to know what personally convinced you jws are wrong about a particular doctrine/practice, that they are not gods true.people and/or what made you leave emotionally/physically.

.

krejames

I guess I can't say I have left the org yet, though I have left mentally. Like others that have posted the process for me is the "pack of cards" effect (I'm still on my journey).

1. The first thing was accepting that I had been born into the "truth" and was gay, then realising that everything I had read in the literature about homosexuality was, basically, crap. No support for gay "born ins". Most literature experiences related to promiscuous, drug-addicted cross dressers who came into the truth and then were "cured" (i.e. got married and had umpteen kids). I knew from my research that there is not one documented example of scientific proof that anyone has been abole to change from being homosexual to heterosexual - even if they had managed to change their behaviour. Even though the org's attitude softened somewhat more recently (and has now apparently toughened again), I realised that any acknowledgment by the GB that there were gay people being born in the truth, who hadn't chosen a "lifestyle" etc was either never going to happen or is a long way off.

2. It took a long time for the implications of the above to sink in. Once it did, I realised if the printed material about "gays" was wrong, what else was wrong?

3. The idea of "shunning" disfellowshipped ones was completely alien to everything I felt morally. Despite the fact I thought the Bible supported it (now I know that's not necessarily the case), I couldn't get my head or my heart around it. Also two of my closest friends fell away from the truth (not difellowshipped) and suddenly everything they did in their lives (one got married to a non-JW and now has three lovely kids) was spoken of by JWs with an edge of suspicion and judgement. I couldn't "not" keep in touch with them. They were my friends whether they were "in the truth" or not.

4. Despite on the whole having no personal issues or conflicts with elders or others, I had long felt that the normal every day "busy-bodying" just isn't christian. The group of friends I was (am) left with in the "truth", despite being lovely in most ways, talk about their friends' and even their family's welfare in terms of whether they go out on the field service or get to every meeting. This really really annoys me. If I ask after someone I am not asking for a report on their "spirituality". I couldn't careless about that - it's none of my business. I just want to know if they are in good health and happy.

5. Ray Franz's Crisis of Conscience confirmed to me what I already knew (see 1 and 2 above). I had come across the redefining of "fornication" in the 70s from my research into homosexuality in the literature, but the experience of the woman from South Africa who was disfellowshipped for re-marrying after divorcing her first husband even though he had had anal sex with a woman (which wasn't considered fornication at the time)....How could Jesus be directing this kinds of ridiculousness?

6. The failed predictions hadn't really been an issue for me - I had always swallowed the org's blurb on that (the "some witnesses were over enthusiastic" argument). But it was the GB's attitude to reporting this stuff - blaming the rank and file witnesses for believing it - that really gets to me.

7. Researching the "cross". While I totally accepted that veneration of the cross is wrong and unscriptural, I realised there were absolutely no grounds to be dogmatic that Jesus died on a stake and not a cross. Basically no one can be absolutely sure either way.

8. Realising that much of the "evidence" in the Reasoning book about the Last Days is quoted out of context or completely made up. For instance there is no evidence that the number or seriousness of earthquakes have increased since 1914. I was brought up to belive that the numbe in the last days outnumbered all earthquakes in precending history. This is simply not true.

That's just for starters...