there is alot if press here in australua on the royal commission about child abuse in the jw faith.
however that is just one type of abuse, abuse can be physical or mental, we tend to forget about the various types of mental abuse in the jw faith.
my story is not unique and apologies for grammar etc.. my father and mother emigrated to perth australia many decades ago when i was very young.
Welcome Amanda
its our friends on here who can really empathise because we all sailed a similar boat. The abuse came in all forms, we were brain washed in cult tactics but on the bright side we survived even if a little battered. Again welcome
Chook .vic Australia
even thinking about born-ins here.
at what stage of your 'bible teaching' were you taught about the practice of disfellowshipping?.
reading john cedars book and the section about when the more crazy shit gets introduced to you is very telling.
When they have a front page "public" watchtower entitled" Is disfellowshipping Christian". I would like to know how many prostitutes Jesus shunned. I personally knew from an early stage about DF practice but I bought the story how the rotten apple spoils the bunch. But I'm a realist and know some people don't deserve association with a group united in a structure eg eg pedophiles should be shot. If I ruled a community I would have only ONE rule.... Don't encroach on the liberties of others.
i'm currently disfellowshipped and living at home with my parents, but because they are both still devout jws i have to keep going to the meetings and crap because i don't want to risk getting thrown out until i finish college or find a job that will let me support myself and go to college.. yesterday, my mother rode with me to the meeting and told me how much my best friend and my oldest sister are missing me, and it just tears me apart because during the meeting i was practically counting the minutes till it was over.
it didn't help matters that i had to sit with my family because the library was closed off, thus forcing me to follow along with the meeting on my tablet instead of reading something useful or interesting like i normally do.. when i got home i just cried out in frustration because it feels like no matter what i do, i am making the wrong choice.
either i have to keep pretending to support an organization that has caused so much pain to so many people, or i have to abandon my family and friends to it so i can save myself.
It reminds me of the Taliban, you can only stay in our community if you support our jihadists, Your free to leave but only in a box. If your family will only support this crazy fundamentalist view of Christianity you have no choice but to leave or participate in their beheadings. At the moment you have been beheaded, even a beheaded chook knows to run.
jws re-name things so they seem like they are different than other religions.
(of course we know they are different but that's another story).
i was just thinking about those things where they are like most everyone else in christendom but the re-name it to seem different.. for example god forbid they have a church, it's a "kingdom hall".. they don't have pastors and deacons they have "elders" and "ministerial servants".. they don't have tithing but they will have family heads fill out a paper saying how much they can contribute on a monthly basis (not sure if there is a name for that...unless it's tithing.
Everybody refers to the black book as the bible, not the Warwick apostles .Silver book refered to holy scripture. Renamed father- Jehovah ,Jesus - Michael , FDS as themselves , ect ect. There is not enough room on my computer to have a comprehensive list.
i'll start: stilton cheese.. (it was a toss up between that and sweet pickled beetroot).. thank you folks..
Imagine a CO asking that question ,spiritual steak would be the unified response.
on a serious note the inch and half thick scotch fillet steak medium rare, it's interesting its the food humans weren't meant to eat. Second place is Italian food cooked by my beautiful Italian wife. I asked a person only last week what would be their last meal on death row if they had a choice, his response was pussy. He was serious , then I got thinking the GB lastest guideline book for elders on page 98 put eating pus... in same category as bestiality.
so many things that i just discoved about the bible.. .
so from the book my book of bible stories, we all know how little moses was saved from a cruel pharaoh.
of course the king of egypt was afraid that those cute little babies would endanger his empire eventually.
The spoil of wars for the Jews was kill ALL male and females except young virgin girls ISIS has same policy.
i'm feeling very angry tonight as i watched my mother in law end her relationship with my husband, her son, tonight.
we were happily inactive, enjoying a distant but decent relationship with my in laws until they saw some christmas decorations and everything changed.
i spent two hours getting drilled on whether my husband and i celebrate holidays, to be told that my laws won't socialize with us anymore.
The mother in law is truly misguided, she is actually doing you a favour so your husband doesn't have to hear the cult policy. It's not easy but only look forward there is a reason front windscreen on a car is 50 times bigger than the rear view mirror. Your life will certainly have an accident if the focus is behind. The tearing apart of families is a JW legacy. This forum is good therapy and the variety of advice let's you make informed decisions. JW have flat earth syndrome, most on here see this religion now from outer space , we KNOW the shape of earth.
in his book "the righteous mind" jonathan haidt proposes that religion served - and continues to serve an important role in bringing about cohesion within non-kin groups.. to put it very briefly haidt advocates a form of group selection but only insofar as it applies to humans.
our unique brains have made it possible for us to cooperate in groups in ways that are impossible for all non-human species.
despite their intelligence you will never see two chimps helping each other to carry the same log or one chimp pulling down a branch while the other removes the fruit.. his description is that humans are 90% chimp and 10% bee.
All religions have common denominators, priest class don't work at the expense of the fold. All religions have a money collection method. They all have an after life story , the better the story the more money.
no doubt we have all heard that well used "illustration" in public talks etc over the years:.
"if you were handed a glass of water that looked pure, but were told it has just a tiny drop of poison in it, would you drink it?".
the society has used that illustration at length to say we should avoid all influences of every part of the world.. but, as we know, the society has had a track record of errors, false ideas and doctrines.
We've all drank the koolaid and survived. It's just a bad after taste and the JW drink machine has more flavours.
What causes them ?
