Posts by jwundubbed

2

Daily Scriptures questions

by jwundubbed in

i was wondering how long it would take to read the bible if one read only a single scripture everyday.

and then i remember there being a daily scriptures booklet/book.

in my memory it was purple.

jwundubbed

@Simon

That is insane, and awesome! Thank you for the knowledge!

9

What If?

by peacefulpete in

recent news about beards is getting lots of attention.

it made me wonder if any guys will return to the church under the impression that 'so much has changed'.

back when, i knew a couple guys who were outspoken about beards, seeing it as an issue, and was never terribly moved by their viewpoint.

jwundubbed

I always tell people that I left not because the doctrine was hinky but because the way they treat people is unethical and lacking in morals. That is true. I was shunned based on a rumor.

All the things they are changing... are smaller parts of a systemic problem. It will take more than the GB allowing things to change systemic problems. So, no. I would not return just because it seems like a different place.

Also, when I left I was diagnosed with Extreme PTSD. 'Extreme' isn't a word that medical/mental professionals easily put together with 'PTSD'. I have PTSD because of the cult and their practices and it goes so much further than a few things that make life uncomfortable. I have deeply unsettling feelings towards blood that aren't what they JWs teach outwardly. I have deeply disturbing and terrifying fears of the afterlife, because a basic doctrine is that there isn't one, and if there was one I wouldn't qualify. I'm not alone in these types of fears and thinking. What you are talking about changing is the outward obvious things, but that would not change the internal subtle things that we pick up on in our amazing brains. Having to live with the subtle ideas that they ingrained in us won't be suddenly removed because they changed their minds about those things.

'Changing their minds' is part of the problem. Whose to say they won't reverse their choices? They do that. They back peddle a LOT. It isn't as noticeable because years go between their choices. Or they made the choice in one country and not in others.

Even if all of those things change... I still wouldn't be able to live freely as a non-straight person. My friend who was treated so horribly when he came out as gay won't be treated any better. 'Changes' do not excuse nor erase the horrible way that they have treated people in the past and I don't believe it will change how they treat people going forward. It would be different but it still wouldn't be right.

JWs aren't Christians. They don't follow Christ. If they did they would be called Christ's Witnesses. I can't be party to a group that is so discombobulated that they don't even know they aren't Christians.

Finally, not long after I left I found a different belief system. It is a belief in multiple Gods. I've never been a Christian. I will never be a pseudo-Christian. My current belief doesn't force me to be someone that I'm not. My current beliefs don't force me to act in ways that go against my ethics, nor even that I simply don't want to engage in.

No. I still would not go back.

9

New Light and Update tracking

by jwundubbed in

does anyone have a list of all the new light or gb updates in order?

is there a post here that lists all the changes in the organization?

i left about 1996 and i haven't kept up, but it seems like a completely different organization than it was when i was in it.

jwundubbed

Does anyone have a list of all the New Light or GB Updates in order?

Is there a post here that lists all the changes in the organization?

I left about 1996 and I haven't kept up, but it seems like a completely different organization than it was when I was in it. Some similarities, but some major differences as well.

13

New GB update - beards are now perfectly ok (no really!)

by FFGhost in

to save y’all the agony of having to sit & watch lett (looking even more puffy and jaundiced than the last time), here is a summary:.

beards are now perfectly fine for anyone & everyone, including ministerial servants, elders, and “special full time servants” (cos and betheliites).. but don’t go and feel “vindicated” — even if you knew you were right about beards, you shouldn’t run ahead of jehovah’s “chariot”.. so there you go.. if you need explicit permission from a puffy steroid addled facial contortionist with an increasingly ridiculous combover to make personal grooming decisions…you might be in a cult .

jwundubbed

My father started wearing a beard when I was a kid. He wasn't allowed to be a ministerial servant. He wore the beard in protest because it wasn't a scripturally sound rule and all the people in the bible wore beards. He was 'marked' and people judged the hell out of him. My dad is POMO and has been for a while. I called him to see what his reaction is, but he didn't pick up. I'll be interested to find out what he thinks of this new light.

Since when does what is reasonable by people in the world have any bearing on what is reasonable in the JWs??? So weird.

2

Daily Scriptures questions

by jwundubbed in

i was wondering how long it would take to read the bible if one read only a single scripture everyday.

and then i remember there being a daily scriptures booklet/book.

in my memory it was purple.

jwundubbed

I was wondering how long it would take to read the bible if one read only a single scripture everyday. And then I remember there being a Daily Scriptures booklet/book. In my memory it was purple. My family had them, but we never used them as intended so I'm not really familiar with it. In my memory, it came out every year.

I don't think the bible scriptures could be covered in a single year. Does anyone know how long it would take to read the bible with only a single scripture everyday? Then I thought, I bet they leave out certain scriptures. There are scriptures that I never heard spoken of until I left the JWs. I know people who actually read the bible front to back have read them, but they aren't part of JW doctrine, for various reasons. This was just speculation on my part. Are there scriptures that have never been in the Daily Scriptures booklets?

If my memories and speculations are wrong, please let me know. Thanks to anyone willing to explain this to me.

2

Hindsight is 20/20 and Bizarre at Best

by jwundubbed in

when i was a kid, living in quakertown pa, i tried to play with the kids in the neighborhood.

it was a new and small neighborhood with just a handful of kids, but they were all in my generation.

one day the boy across the street comes up to me and two girls from down the street and tells us he just got a ouija board and we should all play.

jwundubbed

When I was a kid, living in Quakertown PA, I tried to play with the kids in the neighborhood. It was a new and small neighborhood with just a handful of kids, but they were all in my generation.

One day the boy across the street comes up to me and two girls from down the street and tells us he just got a Ouija Board and we should all play. I told him that I couldn't play because I was a Jehovah's Witness and demons are afraid of Jehovah and his witnesses so it wouldn't even work if I tried to play with the board.

All three of those kids had stunned looks on their faces as they went to play with the Ouija board together, somewhere else. It was literally 2 decades later that I realized how bizarre and creepy, in such a bad way, I must have come across to those kids. I mean, first, most kids think Ouija is fake while I clearly believed it was real. Second, most people think that if it is real it is a way to contact spirits of the dead, not demons.

Those kids never wanted to play with me ever again and I can totally understand why, now looking back. Now, I have to laugh at it even though it is kind of horrible. I didn't take offense and wasn't hurt that they didn't want to play with me at the time, because they were worldly and it was better off that way. I don't take offense now that I can see the situation properly.

It's just so weird, sometimes, to see how bizarre our thoughts and behaviors are in hindsight.

Has anyone else experienced looking back and seeing things, completely different, but so bizarre?

23

JW Restrictions on Children

by NotFormer in

issues raised in this thread:.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6496820625145856/non-jw-parent-dating-jw-who-wants-children.

i'm trying to list all the things jw children are not allowed to do, or are discouraged from doing.

jwundubbed

some parents I knew wouldn't let their kids go on school field trips to museums of art and natural history

you can't date like a normal human being. Everything is group dating, or dating with a chaperone, which weirdly can mean you have to take a younger sibling if no one else is available or willing.

No R rated movies. All the parents I knew wouldn't let kids see movies or TV shows that contained: magic, supernatural creatures, gun violence, even straight-forward sexual language, spiritual shows. I couldn't watch 7th Heaven or Highway to Heaven because they had the wrong religious views in them. No smurfs or rainbow bright. But weirdly, Benny Hill was okay. My mother didn't even like Mr. Rogers because of the magical creatures in pretend land. I still watched it anyway. There were a lot of mixed messages because a lot of choices made by parents seems to be both arbitrary and based on their own opinions about things that had nothing to do with JW doctrine.

We couldn't have toys that in any way looked worldly or had non-JW appropriate context/content. I could have a cabbage patch doll but I couldn't have a my little pony. I'm sorry, but what kind of kid naturally grows out of a cabbage patch? To me that is way more freaky than a brightly colored pony that may or may not have magical powers.

Music was heavily monitored. It depended on the parents if kids were allowed to go to concerts. My siblings and I were not, but other kids I knew were. Michael Jackson was okay at first because he was a JW, but then his behavior wasn't JW enough and we were discouraged from listening to him. Prince was not allowed even after he became a JW because his content was too racy.

Parents monitor their children for anything too sexual, violent, political, non-JW spiritual content, demonic, supernatural, educational, etc.

The biggest problem with all of this is that while parents are constantly censoring what their children can do and see, they are not actually watching out for their children.They care about the wrong things and I can't imagine this has changed very much.

To this day, my parents don't know that every time I went to a sleepover with my best friend (she had them all the time, always inviting all the girls from her age range) her father would sit in the room with us, drinking scotch, while wearing nothing but his whitey tighties. He would sit there watching us. So gross and creepy! And all the parents sent their kids to these slumber parties all the time.

I found myself in so many dangerous situations because my parents only cared about telling me what I could and couldn't do but they didn't actually pay attention to what I did do.

What I was allowed to do and what I actually did were two very different things. And the JW organization encourages this type of mentality. Guard your children but maintain your focus on what you need to be doing in order to be saved as one of the chosen few.

I lucked out in a lot of situations, but it could have gone the wrong way easily.I was allowed to have worldly friends on the premise of helping them and preaching to them, which I said that I did, but didn't actually do. One of those friends took me to go meet a guy, and his roommate, at their house. They were college age and we were in high school. I was in an adult worldly man's bedroom while she hooked up with his roommate. He was like, 'I can't do anything with you because that would be statutory rape' while his roommate was banging my friend. So creepy and weird.

The internet was new, but I had access and my parents didn't monitor everything... just the obvious things. I can only imagine that is so much worse now. And predators abound online in seemingly safe places for kids. But with lack of education also comes lack of technological savvy that parents in this day and age really need to have.

I grew up in an area that was heavily settled by Germans, so a lot of German-American heritage. I've been told this is one reason that so many of the parents treat their children like little adults, but I kind of feel like the JW organization has a lot to do with it also. Kids are expected to make adult decisions without the insight or experience to make good adult decisions. There are high expectations with little guidance from JW parents.

This was my experience of parenting among the JWs.

45

How Do Jehovah's Witnesses View Education?

by southyukon in

i have a question about this article.. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jw-education-school/.

higher education can lead to moral and spiritual dangers.

a bible proverb says: "the shrewd one sees the danger and conceals himself.

jwundubbed

When I was a tween the elders had all the kids in the congregation get up on the stage and answer some questions. They asked us what we wanted to do when we grew up. They had lined us up from oldest to youngest and I was right after my older sister. She loudly and proudly proclaimed that she wanted to go to college.. and then they rethought what they were doing and stopped asking an of us any questions. I didn't have an answer at the time so I didn't mind that the rest of us were asked to sit down after that. But I always remember it because it pretty loudly broadcasts how they feel about education.

The thing is, that they don't want people to get educated. But at the same time, people who go to college get better jobs, make more money, and can give more of their money to the JWs. People with money are treated better in the organization. There is also a truth that the organization needs lawyers and other people who have long college careers and they prefer to get them from within the organization.

So, while the organization is threatened by education, they also want people to make more money and provide more uses to the organization.

11

Are you driven by vengeance or Payback?

by Fisherman in

“there is nothing more ironic and curious than a trapper being caught in his own trap or a plot backfiring.

ironic justice is the best revenge.” the inventor of the brazen bull, one if the most heinous torture devices in history was tricked to go inside of it and died of the torture he created.. probably one of the greatest movies ever made features revenge as its theme: once upon a time in the west.

sadly in this movie the main character doesn’t rely on ironic justice happening by god or chance.

jwundubbed

I'm driven by a desire to live a decent life. That does not include vengeance nor payback. But if it did, the best payback is living the best and healthiest and happiest life that I can.

22

How Many Of You Knew Something Was Really Wrong Growing Up JW? What was Your First Clue?

by Sea Breeze in

this is directed to born-ins.

around age 10 or 12 is when it first hit me.

i started asking questions about how the world worked and i really wanted an honest opinion from my parents.

jwundubbed

When I was five years old I asked how we know the bible isn't just a made up story like a fairy tale. I have never once gotten a straight answer from anyone I have asked.

National Geographic did a documentary on where the bible comes from... and it made a good argument for the possibility that it is all real. It also made good arguments for the idea that it was truly written a long time ago but could have been authored and written for the same reasons as folk tales.

Suffice it to say, religious leaders aren't very good at answering ridiculously obvious questions about their doctrine and where it comes from. That never ever sat well with me.