Posts by Scully

16

Forum updates

by Simon in

the rss feed should (may?

) be working again and hopefully performance should be a little faster now as well.. as always, please let me know if you have any issues or notice anything not working quite right..

Scully

I haven't selected a location in my profile, but I'm noticing that mine and lots of other people are showing the flag of Zimbabwe??

2

The Symptoms of Religious Addiction

by Scully in

so i'm re-reading a book that i first read in 1994, when i was considering leaving the jws.

it's called when god becomes a drug - breaking the chains of religious addiction and abuse, by fr.

leo booth (tarcher putnam, 1991).. on page 59 is a checklist of "the symptoms of religious addiction", and this was a complete a-ha moment for me when i read it such a long time ago.

So I'm re-reading a book that I first read in 1994, when I was considering leaving the JWs. It's called When God Becomes a Drug - Breaking the Chains of Religious Addiction and Abuse, by Fr. Leo Booth (Tarcher Putnam, 1991).

On page 59 is a checklist of "The Symptoms of Religious Addiction", and this was a complete a-ha moment for me when I read it such a long time ago. It just crystallized some of the behaviours of JWs (and expectations of the WTS) that were spiritually unhealthy.

The Symptoms of Religious Addiction

Inability to think, doubt, or question information or authority
Black-and-white, simplistic thinking
Shame-based belief that you aren't good enough, or you aren't "doing it right"
Magical thinking that God will fix you
Scrupulosity: rigid, obsessive adherence to rules, codes of ethics, or guidelines
Uncompromising, judgmental attitudes
Compulsive praying, going to church or crusades, quoting scripture
Unrealistic financial contributions
Believing that sex is dirty - that our bodies and physical pleasures are evil
Compulsive overeating or excessive fasting
Conflict with science, medicine, and education
Progressive detatchment from the real world, isolation, breakdown of relationships
Psychosomatic illness: sleeplessness, back pains, headaches, hypertension
Manipulating scripture or texts, feeling chosen, claiming to receive special messages from God
Trancelike state or religious high, wearing a glazed happy face
Cries for help; mental, emotional, physical breakdown; hospitalization

Not all of these apply to the JWs, but many of these criteria do. Some of the behaviours - like "shame-based belief that you aren't good enough" can haunt a person their entire lives, even after they've broken away from the abusive religious system. I struggle with it sometimes myself even though the rest of the list I've been able to reconcile over the last almost two decades.

24

I had NO idea about the letter to Hitler......

by Flg8ter in

this was brand new to me........did some research, like we're not supposed to do ;) and dug up crazy stuff that i had no idea about.

my whole life we were taught have bad and evil "christendom" was for trying to pacify hiter during his rise to power, and how different we were for standing up to him!.

then i found about the letter dated june 25,1933 from rutherford and his writting team to hiter.

Scully

Yes, nobody knew how evil Hitler was at the time, but weren't the JWs also preaching Political Neutrality™ by then? What's with the hypocritical sucking up to the Reich if you are Politically Neutral™ and "no part of the world"?

I just received "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich" by M. James Penton. I've got a lot of reading ahead of me...

19

after sending him a Fb message to be a truebrother to his brother, my BIL BLOCKED ME!

by losingit in

jw
friends

i'm absolutely furious about it!

no message, just deletes me from his friends list-- which is fine.... but i can't even *message* him.

funny, the bum of a bil just had his district convention in his home country, which he attended with his mother and father.

Scully

Been there. It sucks. Sorry that it's happened to you.

55

"You knew what the consequences were when YOU decided to leave The Truth. This is YOUR decision and the outcome is YOUR responsibility."

by nicolaou in

how many of us have had to deal with a version of that retort?!

it's hurtful and i suspect - for some - that's partly because of the nagging feeling that our families may have a point.. but do they?.

i was 15 when i got baptised, is it reasonable that as the 50 year old man i'll be on my next birthday i continue to be held to a decision i made as a schoolboy?.

Scully

The wife of an abusive husband may "know the consequences" of trying to leave him. He may have "promised" to make her sorry for abandoning him. He may have told her that he would tell everyone they know that she went crazy. He may have told her that he would turn their children against her. He may have told her that she would never be able to make it without him, that without him she is nothing, and that she has nowhere else to go.

The fact that she "knows the consequences" doesn't make him, or a belief system that behaves like him, any less abusive, or any less in the wrong.

The Watchtower behaves just like an abusive spouse, trying to keep their abused mate to stay in a horrible and untenable relationship:

They call us "mentally diseased" when we leave.

They turn our friends and relatives against us.

They tell us that when we leave, we are like "dogs returning to our own vomit", that our life will spiral into a nightmarish existence.

They say "Where else can you go?"

We went into a relationship based on promises of love, respect and honesty, and when we discovered the relationship was based on us doing all the giving and the WTS doing all the taking, that we were expected to obey without question and respect without having respect given in return, and that everything we were taught was a LIE, that relationship became null and void.

Walking away from abuse is an incredibly difficult thing to do, even when you know it's the right thing to do. Battered women are at their most vulnerable when they attempt to leave the relationship - that's when most intimate partner murders occur. That's when we can expect to be treated with the most violent reactions too - when we are trying to leave the JWs behind.

15

Question: In what cases is a transfusion of whole blood or the 4 wt prohibited components the only lifesaving solution?

by Daniel1555 in

dear friends,.

my mother in law said, that bloodless medicine works in all situations.. .

i don't have a lot of medical experience.

Scully

Daniel1555:

I think that there might be situations during birth or c-section where a transfusion is absolutely lifesaving (as there are a lot of sisters who died during childbirth (at least some cases in the media).

I've talked about a complication of pregnancy called PIH (Pregnancy Induced Hypertension) before. It needs to be monitored closely and managed effectively. One of the further complications of out-of-control PIH is called HELLP syndrome (Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, Low Platelet count). The red blood cells start breaking down and platelets are being destroyed due to stress on the liver. This can rapidly cause DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation) and becomes a medical emergency, threatening the lives of both mother and unborn child.

With severe PIH and HELLP syndrome, the most effective treatment is delivering the baby as soon as possible - sometimes extremely prematurely - and treating the mother with magnesium sulphate. If the conditions are such that DIC develops, infusions of red blood cells and platelets are really the only effective treatment to keep the mother from exsanguination.

Postpartum haemorrhage is also a very real complication - it's defined as a blood loss of greater than 500 mL of blood (approximately 1.5 units) with a normal delivery, and up to 1000 mL with a c-section. Severe postpartum haemorrhage is a blood loss of greater than 1000 mL. It can occur immediately after delivery or it can be delayed. It is the most common cause of perinatal maternal mortality in the developed world. The American College of OB/GYNs estimates that approximately 140,000 women die of PPH every year - that's one woman every 4 minutes.

The fact that these conditions only happen with pregnancy and therefore NEVER happen to men, has made me extremely angry with the Governing Body of the Watchtower Society. Ironically (or hypocritically, take your pick), one of the first "fractions" permitted were clotting factors used to treat haemophilia. Haemophilia is a recessive, sex-linked, X chromosome disorder - thus it appears mostly in male patients. The Watchtower Society shows its utter disdain for pregnant women and children by denying them potentially life-saving treatments, while favoring treatments that improve the quality of life for men - potentially Microphone Handlers™, Ministerial Servants™, Elders™, travelling Overseers™, Bethel workers™, and Governing Body™ members.

Another potentially dangerous condition of pregnancy is called isoimmunization, wherein a female with Rh-negative blood is exposed to Rh-positive blood from her unborn child. This causes the mother to develop antibodies that attack the Rh-positive blood cells of her unborn baby, causing them to break down. The child usually requires intensive treatments with phototherapy to mitigate the effects of jaundice caused by Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn. Isoimmunization can easily be prevented by giving the mother an injection of a blood fraction called "anti-D"/WinRho/RhoGam, which prevents the accumulation of antibodies in her blood stream. The injections are typically given around 26 - 28 weeks' gestation and within 72 hours of delivery. The effects of isoimmunization are compounded with each untreated pregnancy, with the accumulation of more antibodies in the mother's bloodstream, thus each subsequent pregnancy is more dangerous for the unborn baby than the previous one.

While the WTS permits the use of this fraction, many JW couples (i.e., the husband) will refuse the injection - basically they want to practice the doctrine more stringently, believing that will prove their Loyalty to Jehovah™ all the more. They are deluded in thinking that Jehovah will protect their babies because of their faithfulness, despite the biological processes that they believe Jehovah created in the first place.

You can't fix stupid.

15

Question: In what cases is a transfusion of whole blood or the 4 wt prohibited components the only lifesaving solution?

by Daniel1555 in

dear friends,.

my mother in law said, that bloodless medicine works in all situations.. .

i don't have a lot of medical experience.

Scully

Whole blood is almost never used, except in the case of autologous transfusion. Your own blood is stored and reinfused when required when you have surgery.

Packed red blood cells are transfused in cases of severe anemia and in life threatening situations of extreme blood loss, like a car accident or gun shot.

Platelets and red blood cells are used in cases of DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation), where a person literally "bleeds out" - I've known of cases where a person's entire blood volume had to be replaced several times over to save their lives (50+ units). Non-blood treatment almost never works with DIC.

77

I think a troubleshooter has been assigned to our congregation

by hoser in

jw
friends

this new couple moved in a couple weeks ago.

special/regular pioneers, he's an elder from bethel.

i think he might have been a co at one time.

Scully

Several families have packed up in the middle of the night and left. Moved to other locations with no notice. Just left.

That happened with one family in our Congregation™ when I was growing up.

I found out many years later that the dad had been molesting one of his step daughters and after being DFd, the Elders™ reported him to the local police. They left town to avoid him getting arrested.

17

Books used to study with JWs - what are they?

by Scully in

i'm on the jw.org website, looking at the publications.. i'm curious as to the books being used with the 'new' studytm, and the order in which they are studiedtm.. anyone still on the inside, can you help me?.

Scully

CoCo:

Solomon Asch did a series of experiments in social psychology back in the 50s to show how peer pressure induces conformity. Here's how one of the experiments worked:

Subject is recruited to be part of a panel for testing perception. The subject believes all panel members are similar to him, that is, other recruits/subjects, however they are actually confederates of the experimenter.

The panel is shown a series of images (what we would recognize as optical illusions or comparisons of pictures to select one that is different, etc.) and then the experimenter asks each participant to orally respond with their choice. What the subject doesn't know is that the other panelists have been instructed to deliberately choose a wrong answer, and each panelist is instructed to agree with the panelist who answers first.

More often than not, even when it was OBVIOUS that the answer is dead wrong, the subject's answer conformed to the incorrect response of the other panelists.

What's more disturbing is that even when the subject gives the correct answer initially, in the face of the other panelists' giving incorrect answers, the subject usually changed his answer to conform.

Make no mistake, the WTS is aware of these tactics.

Why do you think all the answers they want you to parrot back to them are already printed in their publications? They know that your better judgement will be supplanted by your subconscious desire to be accepted by the "in-group". Especially when other members are giving the answer that the WTS wants to hear, the JW - wanting to save face and maintain their standing with the "in-group" - just goes along, pretending to understand or agree, even when they don't.

Scary, isn't it?

55

"You knew what the consequences were when YOU decided to leave The Truth. This is YOUR decision and the outcome is YOUR responsibility."

by nicolaou in

how many of us have had to deal with a version of that retort?!

it's hurtful and i suspect - for some - that's partly because of the nagging feeling that our families may have a point.. but do they?.

i was 15 when i got baptised, is it reasonable that as the 50 year old man i'll be on my next birthday i continue to be held to a decision i made as a schoolboy?.

Scully

The vows I said Yes to when I was 17 have changed since then, yet I'm being held to the newer version.

Not only that, like others have said, I was threatened by my mother with being kicked out of the family home if I didn't "smarten up and get baptized". That's like being forced to get married at gunpoint. Is leaving that marriage safe, knowing the threat that existed on your wedding day?