Posts by Phoebe

20

Whatever happened to the "written review"?

by pale.emperor in

does anyone know why the written review was stopped?

i relished the half hour silence they'd give you to "write down your answers", time i spend doodling or thinking up cool song lyrics..

Phoebe

I remember my mum saying she had to hand in her review to be marked and how much she hated it.

When I was a teenager, two of my older friends did their review in shorthand so no one could read their answers!

66

Since leaving the JW Organization, who is believing?

by Issa in

jw
friends

i left the jw organization last year during summer.

maybe some of you can relate.

who of you are agnostic or an atheist?

Reading all the posts, I guess I shouldn't be here really then because I do still believe in God. I try very hard to look at things without my JW eyes so to speak but nevertheless, I do still believe in God. Someone said here this isn't the place for faith but I have faith and I do believe this life isn't all there is. I don't know what else there is but I believe there is something.

I will never become involved in an organized religion ever again though. At the moment I am just praying a lot and reading my bible. Sorry, but it's just how I feel. You can all shoot me now hahahaha

10

Eavesdropping on a home Bible Study

by doubtfull1799 in

my mil held a bible study round to our place today and i was home so was interested to listen in from the next room to see what the quality of the study was like.

and whether the new clam meetings are helping jw’s to be better teachers at all.. .

participants:.

Phoebe

I got invited to sit in on a study a couple of years ago and every time the student raised an issue she didn't understand for example: 'I don't believe there is a devil.' She was told to 'put it on a shelf in her mind and we'll come back to it.'

I don't think they ever went back to that shelf.

35

Local elder dies of starvation

by Steel in

well , not really.. our hall recently had a secret collection for our head elder who is almost on the verge of becoming homeless.

i guess he lost some cleaning contracts because his clients were just sick of his no shows because of his pioneer work.

there is always something more important to do than earn a living.. this is the same assholes he is always shaming people to not doing enough.

Phoebe

redpilltwice

I was in a very poor congregation and horses are not cheap, but everyone was pressurized to contribute. As someone who has suffered from depression myself, I felt for the poor lady but to me, it wasn't right pressurizing people to help pay for it. It never did anything to help her depression, either, and in fact, some years later people were actually asked to contribute towards a second horse for her as she wanted to sell the first and get a better horse That's when a lot of people drew the line.

I think it's great for people to help those that are in need, but it has to be for everyone not just 'elder's and their wives'

22

Things society interferes with

by Jrjw in

i was just lying here thinking about mind control and thought it'd write a list just to see how much the wts does try to control every aspect of people's lives.

some of the things i've come up with are:.

xmas,.

Phoebe

Day Dreaming!

We had a talk saying day dreaming was wrong as we should be meditating on spiritual matters not day dreaming!

I have always been a day dreamer. Because my childhood was so awful, I would disappear into my own little world in order to cope. I created an alternative me, who was happy with a loving family. I had a good imagination and later on I actually wrote some fiction for women's magazines, albeit it under a pen name so no one knew.

And what man hasn't listening to rock music and imagined himself as the lead guitarist or imagined himself scoring the winning goal in a football match.

But then we had the talk telling us how very, very, very wrong this was!

I went home from that meeting and I felt so guilty. I'd spent half my life day dreaming about one thing or another. I asked Jehovah for forgiveness and said I wouldn't do it again.

Now my eyes are wide open, I see how utterly stupid I was! How much under their control I was and how much they actually controlled us.

I am so happy to be free of that constant guilt that I'm doing something - thinking something - the organization disproves of.

35

Local elder dies of starvation

by Steel in

well , not really.. our hall recently had a secret collection for our head elder who is almost on the verge of becoming homeless.

i guess he lost some cleaning contracts because his clients were just sick of his no shows because of his pioneer work.

there is always something more important to do than earn a living.. this is the same assholes he is always shaming people to not doing enough.

Phoebe

When we hit hard times and were living on cheap soup, we were told we needed to put our trust in Jehovah and he would provide. No one helped us - ever. There were other people like us, too. One sister had 5 kids and an empty fridge - always. No one ever helped her.

But when an elder's wife started suffering from depression, her brother, who was also an elder, said 'I know what she needs to cheer her up - a horse!' And, I kid you not, there was a collection and they bought her one!

19

Prophecy question as hysteria sets in

by Isambard Crater in

a load of j.w's in my family and the congregation i attend as a pimo have been saying the end is very close because the anglo american world superpower is clearly still the king of the south, and russia is now clearly king of the north due to persecuting and banning the religion there and seizing property.. i've forgot what the religion used to teach and maybe still does, about the timing of all this king of north + south stuff, the attack on all religion by the u.n and then the attack on j.w's who will be left standing.

i mean, i thought jehovah was going to put it into the u.n's minds to ban or attack all other religions, then the attack on j.w's, but witnesses seem to think the end is so, so close because russia has banned them.. it's sad, as some dubs i know have sold their homes and made other big decisions so they can pioneer in these 'very last of the last days'..

Phoebe

It's imminent the GB say. But how does this work with the 'coming as a thief in the night' and 'concerning the day or the hour no one knows, not even the angels or the son himself'?

It's been imminent my whole life and I'm mid 60s now.

I've heard people say 'we can practically hear Jesus sharpening his sword.'

64

Wave your phone lights and dance at the Assemblies!

by days of future passed in

my sister sent me this youtube.

in it are witnesses waving their phone lights and dancing in the aisles.

sorry if this vid has been posted before.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k7iw-zisgw.

Phoebe

To think when we went to Twickenham once and the drummer out of The Shadows who became a JW 'jazzed' up some of the songs, they played them in the lunch break and they were fun (for a young ones anyway) but we were told afterwards by the Society 'that would not be happening again - ever!!!' They were so cross about it and yet now, music videos, dancing...

I know I'm old school but it just seems so irreverent.

30

Annoying jws

by Jrjw in

jw
friends

a 'concerned' jw in my congregation rang me earlier and said she's noticed my daughter sits miserable at the meetings and said she's a right miserable girl in general.

i said she's happy and hyper when she's not at the meetings they're just really boring and she doesn't want to be there.

apparently i'm a bad parent coz she feels that way.

Phoebe

smiddy3

we put up with it because we're brainwashed to put up with it. The old throwing a cover over a dirty sofa illustration of covering over people's shortcomings like God forgives us. Not looking for the bad in people, rafter in the eye etc etc. You know the drill.

I had loads of trouble from an elder's wife, she was a triple A bitch, everyone said so. She singled me out every meeting. She had a go at one of my kids once because he asked if we could just stay for the Sunday talk one day. As we left she followed us out and told us off.

I always struggled getting to the conventions with my kids because no one would help me. One meeting she actually shouted at me in front of people 'You will have to answer to Jehovah for not attending the convention.'

Every month she'd come up to me and ask me if I'd been out in field service to check up on me.

My God, I was so happy when they moved. She was a total nightmare. I never stood up to her. I should have but I was so beaten down by it all, I didn't and that's probably how this sister is, too.

21

Christmas as a JW child

by Phoebe in

jw
friends

i am sitting here, so utterly bored and waiting for this day to be over.

so i'm starting a new topic that probably has been done a thousand times but hey, i'm fairly new here.

humor me :).

Phoebe

I am sitting here, so utterly bored and waiting for this day to be over. So I'm starting a new topic that probably has been done a thousand times but hey, I'm fairly new here. Humor me :)

So here's my Xmas as a young JW. I will try and be brief.

I never had gifts - obvs - but once my dad did actually buy me something because he felt so bad. It was a doll and he left it at the bottom of the bed so I woke up Xmas morning and it was there. Oh my, was I happy? Overjoyed! But my dad, overcome with guilt that he had disobeyed the WT, informed me later there would never be another Xmas present.

On Boxing Day we traditionally visited my non-JW aunt for tea because she insisted, although my parents always tried to get out of it. I loved her because every single year she gave me a little gift. Six cubes of lavender scented bath salts wrapped up in pretty paper. Same thing every year but oh, how I loved that gift. It meant so much to me.

All this baloney we tell people how JWs kids get gifts all through the year. Total rubbish. I never had anything. In fact, I cannot recall one single gift from my parents part from that Xmas doll and a bike when I was in my teens and I only got the bike because I begged and begged for one. I never wanted anything grand. If they had bought me a packet of pencils I would have been overjoyed.

Xmas was pure agony at school. From mid November onward I was overcome with a sickening dread. I was mercilessly taunted by school mates because I was't getting any Xmas presents. The school disco was always a nightmare because I wasn't allowed to go. So all the girls would get on the school bus dressed in party clothes, lessons would finish at lunch and then a disco in the main hall all afternoon. And where was I? Sitting in a classroom on my own doing work. Do you know what it was like getting on the school bus later that day? Horrendous. I would go home in tears. Did my parents ever care? Nope.

One year, I couldn't face it so feigned illness and didn't go to school the day of the disco. But the headmaster noticed and I was hauled into his office the next day and asked outright if I had played truant and of course, I had to say yes. So although he said he was sorry my parents forbid me to go to the disco I was never to play truant again and was duly punished for it.

Xmas day - ministry. Forced to go out. But householders were often kind and felt sorry for us and gave us mince pies and sweets. I remember one old man being particularly kind, he gave me some money. I was only about 10 or 11 and didn't know how to react. His insisted I take it and his kindness just overwhelmed me. I ran out into the street to my dad, I was crying. I was just so overcome. My dad immediately spun me around, marched me back to his house and made me give it back. The man was embarrassed and felt bad for upsetting me. But how could I tell him, I'm crying because I was overcome with his kindness?

All throughout the Xmas school holidays I felt sick, knowing I had to face it all over again when we went back to school. All the girls discussing their Xmas presents and me with nothing except my bath cubes. So they taunted and laughed and said I was a loser and my parents were losers, too.

So one year, I came up with a cunning plan. I was going to lie. I wrote down a list of make believe gifts and memorized them. I planned a Christmas dinner in my mind and memorized it all. So after Xmas, on the school bus, when they taunted me for not celebrating I was ready with my imaginary Xmas. They asked how come I celebrated it this year and I just shrugged and said, my dad's family weren't witnesses and had insisted we go over to them and I'd been showered with gifts and it was wonderful.

It got them off my back but oh, I felt so bad for lying and was sure Jehovah was going to strike me dead for it. I walked around for weeks expecting a lightning bolt to shoot out of the sky and kill me.

But you know, the sad thing is, I did it to my children too and I feel bad, really bad that I did exactly as my parents. They must have really suffered at school, the only saving grace is they weren't alone as they had loads of witness kids in their school whereas I was the only one.

So, that's a very condensed version of my Xmas as a JW child, what is yours?