Hi Victor
I remember you from the Philia email group, which I joined in 1993. Nice to see you’re still around.
Posts by Scully
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2826 Years Later
by Victor ini'm one of earliest adopters of the internet in discovering the real history of the watchtower.
back then it was the wild wild west with newsgroups being the primary sources of information.
then came watchtower observer, freeminds, and all the other sites that followed jwd was one of the later sites.
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10
We owe our children honesty, integrity, and the TTATT.
by Fognomore inin my waking up i have come to a very emotional and costly conclusion.
i have been waking up for about 2 years.
the greatest gift we ( i ) can give our children is honesty and ttatt.
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Scully
Those were precisely the same emotions Mr Scully and I went through when we were in the process of leaving the JW belief system.
The clincher for us was reading in the Aid Book™ and the Insight™ volumes under the definition of the word LIE.
It said words to the effect that "it is not necessary to tell the truth to individuals who are not entitled to it." Think about that for a minute. Who are they saying is "not entitled to" truthful information? The average JW thinks about opposers who want to incriminate them or the Organization™. But clearly, it could also refer to the GB withholding honesty from average JWs. We had noticed, multiple times in fact, where the Publications™ conflicted with one another (flip flops like who among those who were killed at Sodom and Gomorrah would be Resurrected™; or wholesale rejection of higher education, then allowing for it, then rejecting it again; saying Armageddon™ was Just Around the Corner™ for exactly how many decades now?).This plus so many other things made it abundantly clear that JWs were not purveyors of The Truth™, they never were and they never would be.
We were humble with our eldest, who was old enough to understand the ramifications of leaving. We told him that we had been fooled by people who didn't have our best interests at heart, and that we were going to start making our own decisions instead of allowing the JWs to influence us. It was a great feeling to let go, and get out as a family.
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If you are reading this Courtney and Helene
by newsheep inplease please contact us by private messaging us.
we didn't know what to put this under so sorry in advance but this is why we are here.
courtney was a co serving in another country when his father was dying.
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Scully
CO now refers to Congregation Overseer™ *and* Circuit Overseer™.
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If you are reading this Courtney and Helene
by newsheep inplease please contact us by private messaging us.
we didn't know what to put this under so sorry in advance but this is why we are here.
courtney was a co serving in another country when his father was dying.
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Scully
http://www.lifenews.ca/announcement/9030053-clarke-clarence-levy
Perhaps reach out to the family through the guest book or comments?
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Our daughter was free to make her own choice.
by StephaneLaliberte inwhen eloise dupuis gave birth to her son in 2016, there were complications where a blood transfusion would have saved her live.
however, she refused and died; to the horror of the medical staff and the entire province of quebec.. two years later, there was a change in politics and the topic came back up in the media.
the parents of eloise dupuis, obviously exhausted by the media coverage, wrote a comment to a well known news paper in quebec.
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Scully
With the Blood Issue, in a hospital life-and-death situation, keep in mind that the HLC arranges to maintain a constant JW presence at the bedside of the person deemed in need of blood transfusion.
Had Elöise agreed to a transfusion that could have saved her life, the JWs at her bedside would have initiated the judicial proceedings without delay. How terrifying it must have been for her, knowing she would certainly die without transfusions, with people actively discouraging her from doing the one thing that could have prevented her death, praying for her to maintain her integrity, watching her weep for the fact that she would be leaving her child motherless and holding her newborn son for the time that remained for her.
The fact that the WT needs “enforcers” to hold vigil at a person’s bedside to make sure they don’t take a transfusion, tells me that without these “enforcers” JWs would, more often than not, accept transfusions to save their life. That’s the reason why it is a coercive tactic.
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Our daughter was free to make her own choice.
by StephaneLaliberte inwhen eloise dupuis gave birth to her son in 2016, there were complications where a blood transfusion would have saved her live.
however, she refused and died; to the horror of the medical staff and the entire province of quebec.. two years later, there was a change in politics and the topic came back up in the media.
the parents of eloise dupuis, obviously exhausted by the media coverage, wrote a comment to a well known news paper in quebec.
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Scully
A choice made by someone who has a gun pointed in their face isn't a free choice, nor is it necessarily the choice that is in the best interests of the individual.
With the WT, the Choice™ being made is, first of all, based on an incorrect premise. Obedience to God's Law on Blood™ is based on someone's interpretation of a biblical text allegedly uttered over 2000 years ago, which interpretation is also based on that someone's claim (a statement without proof to back up its authenticity) that they are guided by Holy Spirit™ to have an accurate understanding of God's™ intentions.
The other issue regarding this Choice™, is that there is a consequence for the individual should their "free choice" be the wrong one in the eyes of the WT. There was a time when WT published the Suggestion™ that Disfellowshipped™ people should be regarded as "dead to us". This threat is Inculcated™ into JWs from infancy if they are "born in" as Eloise was, and being part of an insular group like the JWs, the flow of contradictory information is severely hindered. The WT and likewise her JW family were the gatekeepers, preventing alternate points of view from entering her thought process and training her to reject those alternate points of view.
We've all heard (or maybe even said ourselves) "I'd rather die than [insert unpleasant or repugnant something]." For JWs, that phrase becomes "I'd rather die than be DFd and treated like I'm dead / be killed by Jehovah at Armageddon™ / lose all my friends and family / feel ashamed for being Unfaithful™; at least if I die, I will be Resurrected™." That's the gun, with a carrot attached. She had the choice to pull the trigger herself, or everyone around her would have pulled it for her. What kind of a choice is that? The carrot of the belief in a future Resurrection™ is more powerful to JWs than the carrot of being able to live to see your newborn child grow up. That's actually pretty fucked up.
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Scully
There is the option (at least in Canada) to have medical marijuana in pill form. It’s prescribed under the brand name Nabilone.
It doesn’t contain THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, but does contain cannabinoids.
So there, you lose, WT. It’s legal in Canada. It doesn’t need to be smoked. It doesn’t make people high. And it’s a life saver for people suffering with chronic pain. If only it helped people to walk away from your petty little cult.
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A question for you women; what was it really like for you being in the Org?
by Tallon inhi there folks.. i took a bit of time out from the forum, however i'm back again.. what was it really like for you, your experiences good or bad, etc, in the org?.
if you were granted a listening ear by the gb, what changes would you like to see implemented?.
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Scully
"they covered their heads with Kleenexes and shoes"
Considering women's place in the Organization™, having a shoe on one's head seems strangely appropriate.
Personally, I balked at the thought of being Submissive™ to men; I hated it. But then wanting to fit in and not knowing there were other options available to me, I caved in, Humbled™ myself, and toed the line. It did a number on my mental health and I was severely depressed as a young wife and mother, and contemplated suicide more than once. I felt invisible, insignificant and merely a means to support my husband's success within the Congregation™, and someone to entertain Elders™, Ministerial Servants™ and their families while Mr. Scully schmoozed with them over dinners and desserts that I made. I felt like my talents and intellect were completely wasted.
Once it became evident that the Congregation™ only cared about what they could use us for, at a time when we really could have used their encouragement and support, I didn't care anymore about following their rules. I realized that should we fall into hard times, we needed an additional income to look after our family. I went back to school and became an RN, and somehow in that training, learned how to use my spine without being shamed or apologizing for it. I also learned that JW gender roles and gender biases and sexual obsessions were not the norm in the current cultural landscape, and it was all right.
It's been almost 25 years since I made that decision, and I have absolutely no regrets about it. I don't know how I actually did it, possibly being so disgusted at the way we were treated and wanting to NEVER need to ask for the JWs' help again were factors that fueled my will to succeed.
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In search of custody hearing advice ...
by dubstepped ini don't have kids, but i recently found that someone with kids that lives in my town is also an ex-jw.
she just happened to post on an apostafest thread on facebook for an event that i attended, saw that we lived in the same place, and i met her for the first time tonight.
pretty cool.. she has a 14 year old boy that is super smart and very articulate.
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Scully
The kid is 14. He's articulate. He should be able to testify on his own behalf.
First of all, he can say how the religious environment of the JWs tries to pit him against his mother in favour of the JWs/his father. That, in legal terminology, is called "alienation of affection". It's like a kid being around a father who refers to the child's mother as being a 'slut' or a 'whore', in an attempt to coerce the child to distance himself from the mother.
Secondly, he can explain how the religion impedes his ability to have friends Outside the Truth™. The old School brochure, the one we had to bring in on the first day of class every year, to explain to the teachers and headmaster why we couldn't do all the fun stuff that other students got to do - celebrating birthdays, Christmas, Hallowe'en, participating in debate club, sports or other extracurricular activities, does a really good job of that. I seem to recall how some of the Caleb and Sophia videos show how kids are expected to Make Disciples™ of their classmates rather than establish true friendships, as well as how it's okay to tell a "friend" that their same sex parents are living a sinful life that Jehovah hates.
Third, there's that 1994(?) Awake magazine with the cover that has all those pictures of now-dead JW kids who died because they were brainwashed into refusing blood transfusions.
Let the Watchtower's own literature be used against them. Let the kid say that he doesn't like being told he's going to die if he doesn't follow the religion. Let him say that he just wants to be a normal kid, and to be able to make up his own mind when he's a grown up. Let him say that Jesus didn't get baptized until he was 30, why do they want him to do it now, when he's not even old enough to drive a car, or open a bank account, or enter into a contract?
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Judge Rules on Blood Issue
by moreconfusedthanever inhttps://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/judge-rules-against-pregnant-teen-who-wanted-to-refuse-blood-at-birth-20180831-p5012k.html.
this article has come up in my newsfeed on facebook today.
it was posted by a non witness midwife who is up in arms about the girl not being able to choose her own course of treatment in pregnancy.
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Scully
She didn’t actually answer your question. She dodged it like a professional though.
The question was about how she would feel if one of your kids died for lack of a blood transfusion, and shortly afterward Watchtower changed its position and allowed transfusions?