Posts by Rainbow

13

Banned From The Kingdom Hall

by darkspilver in

banned from going to the kingdom hall..... a former jehovah’s witness has been banned from visiting any of the organisation’s kingdom halls in the uk – or face going to jail.. http://www.kentonline.co.uk/deal/news/judges-jail-warning-to-former-117012/.

previous thread / discussion.

youtube channel.

Rainbow_Troll

JUDGE JAMES O'MAHONY: It is perfectly proper to have strong religious views but you should have regard for the feelings of other people.

If only he knew!

I agree that this man's actions only reenforce the image of the bitter, morally depraved and emotionally unstable apostate but I personally applaud his actions anyway. When I went apostate my calm, reasonable demeanor didn't do anything for my image (one elder even thought I was demon-possessed). By putting himself out there he has at least attracted some attention and hopefully planted some seeds of doubt in the congregation.

The problem with behaving respectfully and hoping that your ethical actions will speak louder than words is that witneses won't notice any of that. No matter how good of a person you seem to be in public, they will always just assume that it's an act and that you really are shooting heroine, having promiscuous sex, and conjuring demons in cabballistic circles behind closed doors. Trust me, in terms of reputation, an ex-jw has absolutely nothing to lose by behaving like this guy did.

14

Has anyone out here read Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason"?

by Captain Schmideo2 in

jw
friends

i wish i had read this back when i was 18. it's an amazing take down of religious beliefs, the bible, and religion in general.

) a "reason"-able manner.take this quote, from near the beginning:.

when also i am told that a woman, called the virgin mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, joseph, said that an angel told him so, i have a right to believe them or not: such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it: but we have not even this; for neither joseph nor mary wrote any such matter themselves.

Rainbow_Troll

Yes, and it's one of my favorite books. Tom Paine is one of my heros and that book took a lot of courage to write back in those days. He didn't mince words and it cost him. From what I have read he became a sort of pariah after The Age of Reason was published, even Thomas Jefferson, who essentially held the same beliefs but was too prudent to publicize them, kept his distance from Paine after that.

32

Have any ex-jws considered joining the Bible Students?

by Rainbow_Troll in

their fundamental beliefs are much like jehovah's witnesses sans the paranoia, authoritarianism, stifling rules, and end-times enthusiasm.

you don't even have to become a bible student to be saved, you could be an idol worshipping heathen and still get resurrected in the milenium.

if i still believed in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, i would be a bible student.

Rainbow_Troll

You can still order the set of all six books from the Chicago Bible Students for $18.

Save your money and buy the Kindle version for $1.99.

Saved from what? Sounds to me like the same bible nonsense. To many of us ex-JWs, our leaving has nothing to do with doctrine. Some of us are not looking for anything bible related, nor religion related, not even spirituality related.

Well, I did leave over doctrine and, though I'm not Christian, I was interested in knowing if any ex-jws might have found the Bible Students a welcoming alternative. Some people need to believe and I would rather they be in a group like the Bible Students or some other religion that doesn't promote bigotry, superstition, and paranoid schizophrenia. My mom is never going to question her fundamental beliefs, but if she left the JWs and joined the BSs, I think she would be a much happier person

32

Have any ex-jws considered joining the Bible Students?

by Rainbow_Troll in

their fundamental beliefs are much like jehovah's witnesses sans the paranoia, authoritarianism, stifling rules, and end-times enthusiasm.

you don't even have to become a bible student to be saved, you could be an idol worshipping heathen and still get resurrected in the milenium.

if i still believed in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, i would be a bible student.

Rainbow_Troll

Their fundamental beliefs are much like Jehovah's Witnesses sans the paranoia, authoritarianism, stifling rules, and end-times enthusiasm. You don't even have to become a Bible student to be saved, you could be an idol worshipping heathen and still get resurrected in the milenium. If I still believed in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, I would be a Bible student. Alas, I know too much...

As a JW I was taught that the JWs are the Bible Students, having just changed their names for some odd reason. It was only later that I discovered that the JWs are the true apostates, Rutherford having changed the name to JW after the original Bible Students objected to his coup de tat of the WTBTS (which was really just a publishing company at the time) as well as his very wacky, paranoid, anti-semetic ideas. Rutherford knew that his new religion was radically different from Russell's teaching, so he actually did the honest thing and gave it a new name.

28

Did you ever experience true kindness in the Org?

by HereIgo in

i remember when i was about 17, i started shunning an older brother because he was disfellowshipped.

when i graduated high school, he pulled me aside and said " i know you are not supposed to talk to me, but i want you to have this" it was a gift that he had custom made for me.

i was so blown away, we never even had a real conversation before.

Rainbow_Troll

Of course. When I was a kid two of my best friends in the world were JWs. We did everything together and they stood by me through some hard times. Although they dropped me like a wet, smelly blanket as soon as I turned apostate, I can't bring myself to believe that our friendship meant nothing to them. I'm sure they still think about me, just as I think of them, but the mental programming and fear of shunning is just a lot stronger than even the bonds of friendship. Amongst all the uppity prudes and elitist snobs in the Watchtower, there are also some genuinely kind people, it's just that the WT has a way of smothering warm feelings.

37

Has the rebranding worked?

by MrTheocratic in

it's been several years since the start of the rebranding of jehovahs witnesses.

i believe it started with the website change.

ever since then the religion has moved in a more modern direction.

Rainbow_Troll

I think "rebranding" is too strong a word. The Org definitely has a much stronger online presence than it did when I was in it and there are the cute little cartoons (I just loved the one about the classmate with two mommies) but it's essentially the same old shtick.

The WTS has made no effort to appeal to a larger crowd. If they wanted to they could ease up on some of their more hairbrained rules (no blood, no college, no holidays) and start having charity drives like mainstream Christian churches. But they won't because the leadership is just too insular and out of touch with the rest of society.

43

If this system goes on.

by karter in

jw
friends

i heard my hard out jw sister say that for the 1st time in many years and i'm hearing more and more jw's saying that.

years ago when i was in they talked about the new system coming any minute..

Rainbow_Troll

Considering that 1914, the alleged beginning of end, is over 102 years behind us and the scientifically determined limit on the human lifespan (baring the intervention of anti-aging drugs) is 120 years, I'd say that this system has less than 18 years to go before Armageddon. It's truly great that within that period most JWs who remember the 1914 doctrine will either be dead or senile, which will allow the WTS to dupe a whole new generation of suckers.

23

Vegan paradise

by coalize in

if in the wts earthly-paradise fantasy, the wolf won't eat no more the lamb and they will be the best friends, will human continue to kill lambs to eat?.

the earthly paradise is vegan?.

Rainbow_Troll

...And yet I've never met a vegan or vegetarian JW. Granted, the odds are statistically against it (both being rather small minorities) but you would think someone who believes that humans were created by God to live on veggies might give it a try. Why wait until the new system of things?

All I ever got from JW friends over my dietary choice was resistance either in the form of genuine concern for my health or derisive comments that seemed to be questioning the manliness of not eating meat. It's said (with much truth) that vegetarians and vegans can be moralistic f*cktards who want to impose their diet on everyone else but, at least among JWs, I got the distinct (though covert) impression that foreswearing meat eating was a path to the dark side.

On a related note, the WT teaching that animals with sharp, spiky teeth and jaws powerful enough to break bones were created to eat plants was one of the many factors that went into my decision to leave. The idea is so idiotic that it almost seems like a test: if you can believe it, you're more than ready to swollow everything else the WTBTS teaches. To this day I don't understand how my mom or anyone else can accept such brazen nonsense! I once read a sociological study which found that the more intelligent a person is, the more prone they are to believing in 'crazy' ideas and, having a few crazy ideas myself, I find that rather flattering; but some things aren't just crazy or wildly improbable, they're impossible. Vegetarian lions are one of those things.

41

That One Defining Moment That Changed Your Life.

by new boy in

it seems that many times in life there is a moment or an action that changes your whole world.

it could be just a look that someone gives you.. many times it can be something rather small.

something hardly noticeable by anyone but you.

Rainbow_Troll

I was 14 when I resolved to read the entire New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures from cover to cover. Before I had finished Numbers, I was literally (in the correct sense of that word) nauseous. Apparently, Jehovah is a strong advocate of capital punishment, genocide, infanticide, and raping children. I mean, as a JW I didn't exactly have a nice 'n cuddly view of God to begin with, but this stuff really shocked me!

My beliefs were shattered and I made the imprudent decision of consulting my mother about it who, at a loss, called the elders to talk to me. I was hoping they might tell me how it was all a mistranslation or some other half-assed explanation. No such luck. An elder I had known for years, the father of my best friend in fact, assured me that everything I had read really happened. God is a frelling magalomaniacal psycopathic bastard but hey, he's all-powerful and since there aren't any other gods to run to, I had best get my shit together (Okay, he didn't exactly use those word choices, but that was the gist of his argument).

I didn't really try to argue with him much. I didn't know what to say. I kept going to meetings but didn't participate and didn't go out in service anymore. I wasn't allowed to visit my best friend anymore but, since she didn't make any effort to speak to me at the meetings, I guess I can't blame her dad for our alienation. My other friend, who had always been very macho, kinda wrote me off after I became a vegetarian and started dressing 'like a faggot'. With no friends left I had no reason to continue going to meetings so I officially left the Watchtower at 17 years of age.

I'm still a vegetarian and dress faggier than I ever dared before (I've since learned that the proper term is 'metrosexual') but my new friend is cool with it even though he loves meat and often doesn't even bother wearing a shirt. I've learned that not only can opposites co-exist, they can be best pals; something I've offered to teach my old JW friends but, so far, without success

35

Sanctimonious, "WE'RE Thankful EVERY day."

by stillin in

thanksgiving is really just a nice, traditional, family-oriented day set aside on a national level.

no babylon the great.

give me a break with the holier than thou, "we don't celebrate thanksgiving.

Rainbow_Troll

The very fact that Thanksgiving is the one holiday that has no pagan roots underscores the real reason the WT is opposed to holidays: they want to alienate JWs from mainstream society and most especially unbelieving extended family in order to make them more dependent upon their JW social circle and therefore less likely to ever leave even if they stop believing.

That said, I know that some JWs celebrate the holiday in secret. My mom, back when she was cool and less of a fanatic, would invite my unbelieving aunt, uncle and cousin over for a Thanksgiving feast every year. Once I realized that most JWs are hypocrites in one way or another, it became easy for me to understand why none of my erstwhile friends have left the organization. Why rebel and lose your entire social circle when you can lead a double life and enjoy the best of both worlds?

Rainbow_Troll

Posts by Rainbow_Troll