Orphan Crow~ Yes! When I was growing up the WT was just too righteous to cater to kids like that. (ugh) Now they are so desperate they will stoop to the level of catering to kids if they can pick up that extra dollar. It's just beyond disgusting.
Spiral
JoinedPosts by Spiral
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11
Jehovah's Witnesses - Emotional Blackmail - Fear Obligation Guilt
by JT-LadyC inafter leaving the jehovah’s witness religion, we had the opportunity to read emotional blackmail by susan forward, ph.d. we could relate to the stories she discusses in the book and could make a direct correlation to our lives as jehovah’s witnesses.
while the experiences are somewhat different from what we encountered in our personal lives, we could readily comprehend how individuals use emotional blackmail to make others develop fear, obligation and guilt in order to manipulate them into furthering their own agenda.this podcast explains in great detail how jehovah’s witnesses live in the fog.
no one can dispute these comments as every current and former witness is most familiar with the culture of the organization!this podcast references the experience of a sister that lived in an iron lung and her experience was used as a tool to measure the faith of jehovah’s witnesses with otherwise good health that did not live up to the daily demands of the watchtower.
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Spiral
I haven't had time to listen (supposed to be working) but what a great way to explain it - FOG. I already used this as a "reasoning point" with someone this morning. Hopefully that will get some mental gears moving.
When you realize that's the glue that holds the whole thing together it's just......disgusting.
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92
So Proud of Pops
by brandnew inok so a car pulls up to the house and 3 eldurrs from my dads congo come up.
they come in and have thee nerve to ask me to step out so they can speak to pops!!!!
this is the good part.....pops says...and i quote " whatever needs to be said..can be said in front of my son".
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Spiral
Hi Brand New ~
Since I do all the bill paying anyway, I lock up the checkbook before I go anywhere...... just a precaution against someone asking my mom for a check when I'm not around.
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15
On Prayer
by kairos inso many prayers.. consuming.
the obligation.. when did you realize you were talking to yourself?.
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Spiral
I never felt like anyone was listening - it was all just talking to myself. How great it is not having to pretend anymore. -
31
Question for those still attending the Kingdom Hall
by ToesUp inthis a question more out of curiosity, because we have not stepped foot in a kh in 3 years.. how is the attendance at the meetings/assemblies?
i know the answer will vary due to location.. are you (especially elders) receiving any notification or communication from bethel or co's that there is an upsurge of people that are simply disappearing or out right dis associating?.
thanks, in advance, for your feedback!
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Spiral
The hall I have to go to is always half empty. I think a lot of people make an excuse and just dial in .... no new ones to see to justify the number of "studies" they are claiming. Absolutely no energy whatsoever.
From what I hear the circuit assembly does better, but I suspect a lot of people are not going to the summer "regional" convention - at least not every day. Easy to say you went (have to travel far out of town where we are) but not really go. Who would know? It's not like anyone is really talking about what they heard that was so wonderful after the fact.
And the same problem IgnoranceIsBliss mentioned earlier, most of the elders are old, the two young ones lacking speaking talent, so I don't know what will happen to this group in a few years.
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55
Would you have married your spouse if you weren't both JWs?
by 3rdgen inok, i've had some wine, but i'm curious.
objectively speaking, but for the religion, did you have enough in common with your spouse to have met and married as non believers?
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Spiral
No, because we would have never met.
Mr. Spiral and I have had this conversation before (again, the wine helps) and agree we probably wouldn't have considered ourselves compatible if we had met, although we would have been friends.
If I hadn't been a witness I would have been off to college, as would have Mr. Spiral. But his interests are very different than mine so we probably wouldn't have crossed paths.
But, we've had a great marriage and have stayed together 30 plus years. We were just incredibly lucky it worked out for us. Also incredibly lucky that we both realized TTATT independently, but at about the same time. We are in total agreement about that.
I know a couple of people who got married because they were told they couldn't break off their engagements without being DF'd. (What the h*&^ is an engagement even for then, anyway!) Both have been through bitter divorces. Same for many we knew that were just far to young to be getting married.
The cult and families in the cult exert considerable control on who you can meet, and who you pick, and why you think you need to be married in the first place. Therefore it does not surprise me when I see divorces, and obviously unhappy couples.
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What song explains what you have gone through in life?
by brandnew inthis is mine....watch "coolio ft. l.v - gangsta's paradise (official music video)" on youtubehttps://youtu.be/cpgbzylnz7c
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Spiral
It's My Life - Bon Jovi
It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just wanna live while I'm alive
It's my life -
30
Has anyone noticed the JW movies are trying to normalise their lifestyle?
by truthseeker inhaving watched the prodigal son returns movie produced by the organization and a recent mini-clip of a brother in london who is shown jogging and doing normal everyday things while wanting to "reach out" it occurred to me that the organization is trying to normalize their bizarre lifestyle and beliefs for the benefit of non-witnesses.. what do i mean by normalization?
they try to make the witnesses look like just another christian denomination who are reasonable while their members live and enjoy normal lives that appear to be within the mainstream.. they do this by not mentioning anything to do with higher education, armageddon or the urgency of the end of the world nor is their discussion or mention of the blood issue.
these are things mentioned often at kingdom halls and in study articles.. watching the prodigal son returns, the family appears to live a normal life, going to meetings and studying.
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Spiral
This is a great thread! I can't stomach watching those movies all the way through but I think it's entirely possible that they are trying to "normalize" their appearance - somewhat. Of course, they don't really know what "normal" would be.
In my area I would say the elder body is most middle class (left overs from those good economic years where you could actually make a living on one income) and those ones are old (75+).
There is one younger elder and two (or three?, not sure) MS that are younger, and they are poooooooor as church mice. The younger elder is in his 50s and pretty much never left home. (sad) A couple of other brothers who are trying to be MS are poor.
What pioneers we have are all poor, on assistance and just making by in old cars.
But poverty doesn't look very good in a movie, does it? I have had people tell me that all JWs are cleaners or window washers (and this was not in a positive way), so it makes sense that they would want to move away from that stereotype.
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19
Word spreading back home
by BeautifulMind inyou all know how much jws loooove to gossip.
so...i just finished a email conversation with one of my self-righteous, super jw relatives back home.
let me preface this conversation by saying this relative is someone i don't communicate with, at all.
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Spiral
I've had a similar experience twice. I just delete any emails from them without response.
Funny how how the simple concept of "we've made our [own] decision, it's not for us" is so unfathomable to them.
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Today's Daily Text - Being Uneducated And Ordinary... WTF!!!
by Divergent inthursday, march 3. they were uneducated and ordinary men.—acts 4:13.. in recent years, the spiritual instruction provided by jehovah’s organization has reflected an increased emphasis on simplicity and clarity.
consider three examples.
first, there is the simplified edition of the watchtower.
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Spiral
This is so insulting to the rank and file, but they eat it up. So nice to know that being uneducated and unable to think for yourself is a virtue.
Growing up, the JWs were always proud of "learning" (granted, their type of learning, but still) and studying. I knew a brother that had notebooks full of his notes explaining various prophecies. He was a bit of a celeb in the congregation because of his studies. I wonder what he thinks of all of this dumbing down of doctrine.