Posts by TonusOH

61

Elders hounding members to quit their jobs due to missing too many meetings

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

how many times did you see elders hounding congregation members to quit their jobs due to missing meetings?.

my brother worked at a grocery store at 16 years old.

he would miss tuesday's ministry school due to his work schedule.

TonusOH

Convincing members to quit good jobs that conflicted with the meeting schedules creates a version of the sunk-cost fallacy. Having given up something of value, it will be much more difficult to leave the JWs if they happen to have doubts or issues with the organization. The fear of having given up something and end up with nothing can cause us to mentally imprison ourselves.

It's no accident that the weekly/monthly schedule of a JW is kept busy with meetings or field work. Plenty of time to keep an eye on people, and plenty of ways to make sure they are conforming.

49

Jehovah's Witnesses: remembering the weird and wacky!

by Vanderhoven7 in

do you remember some of the weird and wacky stuff emanating from the watchtower society?

let's make a list from memory that we can use to inject a little humor into our discussions with jehovah's witnesses.

- venus may be an enormous jurassic park.. - germs don't cause disease.. - no beards allowed.

TonusOH

Didn't they once print that organ transplants were the equivalent of cannibalism?

33

UPDATE: Wife Pretty Much Knows That I Don't Believe

by JW_Rogue in

we had a nice long talk and i brought up some things that make me think that this isn't the "truth" and she somewhat agreed with me.

i stuck with things i personally experienced or had knowledge of plus all the changes in recent years.

she agreed on a lot of the points but still believes in god and the bible.

TonusOH

My family is ignoring me except for when they need something or to post passive aggressive FB messages.

This is the damage that the doctrine of shunning does. It destroys families and relationships. It's evil.

Best of luck with enjoying the freedom that comes from getting away from hyper-controlling nannies on a power trip. It takes time and you'll have some downs to go with the ups. But it's worth it in the long run.

25

Resistace to going back to meetings

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

lot going on.

i had a covid divorce last year over zoom.

not pretty but i got a good deal.. anyway,.

TonusOH

My friend who is still active said there is unconscious resistance towards going back to meetings.

"I'd rather stay home than go to church" is not a good sign for a relatively small group like the JWs. I'm sure that there is also quite a bit of "I'd rather stand next to these pamphlets than ever knock on a door again" attitude out there.

They need to keep the membership active and donating, because they have too many expenses to recover from a significant decrease in followers.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

Me too.

I'd rather treat any pro-lloyd posts seriously and with tact. If they post here in the hopes that they get attacked, so they can claim that it's just a mob out to get him, they'll be derailed if the response is to ask direct and uncomfortable questions instead. Then it will start to look as if his closest followers are just trying to disrupt the thread instead of trying to get at the truth of the matter.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

The thing is, *HE* isn't capable of doing that work. He's keeping all the earnings generated by the work of multiple other non-paid volunteers.

Yeah, he sounds like a grifter. I think it would help for anyone who was working for him for free (or for low wages) to speak up about it. He can keep pretending that all of the negative attention is due to a "green screen controversy" or people making accusations that he never admitted to. There's already enough stuff --that he confirmed as true-- to make it clear he's not a nice or good person. Some of his supporters will brush off the evidence that he's a world-class jerk, but it's clear that a lot of people aren't comfortable financially supporting him, even if the worst accusations aren't true.

'I'm not a killer or anything, and I do super important work! So I humiliated my wife and set an atrocious example for my kids? Who cares! I use people for my own selfish ends? So what! I'm a big shot activist! I make videos! I matter! I matterrrrrrrrrrr...'

12

Pandemic as part of Bible prophecy?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i was thinking that since russell started the movement in 1879 which became jehovah's witnesses in 1931 never has there been a period in time when all their activities just - stopped.

especially the preaching work.. do you think they will find some obscure verse in daniel that talks about this period of time and try to make a greater fulfillment?

like the 70 weeks of years or the 42 months?

TonusOH

Any major event gets turned into "part of the sign of the last days." A global plague is pretty much guaranteed to get played up by the WTS. The increase in crime, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the volatility of the economy... all of these are signs that we're just moments away from the end. I'm sure there will be another video soon, with Stephen Lett telling us that we are now in "the end of the beginning of the midpoint of the beginning of the end."

And if things start to get back to normal, or the world situation begins to improve, they'll find some way to make that a sign that the war of Armageddon is about to begin.

70

2034 - A Future History of Jehovah's Witnesses

by slimboyfat in

i don't know what i am talking about... read this post at your peril.

back in the 1960s there was, seemingly, a brief period of relaxation in authoritarianism among jehovah's witnesses.

those who have read raymond franz's 'crisis of conscience' will have heard the story about dan sydlik's remark about the need to 'open some windows to let some air in here'.

TonusOH

As for numerology and predicting dates, I think history has given us so many examples of how easy it is to make the Bible point at any particular year, that it should be clear that it's a fun but ultimately futile pastime. Just the fact that so many of these predictions were supposed to land within the lifetimes of some/most people of the time, indicates how our brains lead us to conclusions based more on what we want, than on any other consideration.

Remember that the WTS has enjoyed at least some level of success because Russell made the year 1914 a date of note. He got a lot of things wrong about it, and the organization has covered all of that up. But the fact that he managed to pull a date out of his hindside, and that date happened to correspond with a major historical event, laid the basis for the organization's success for almost an entire century.

Personally, I believe that if Jesus does return in the future, humanity is going to be very very sorry that he turned out to be real. But I'm an optimist at heart.

70

2034 - A Future History of Jehovah's Witnesses

by slimboyfat in

i don't know what i am talking about... read this post at your peril.

back in the 1960s there was, seemingly, a brief period of relaxation in authoritarianism among jehovah's witnesses.

those who have read raymond franz's 'crisis of conscience' will have heard the story about dan sydlik's remark about the need to 'open some windows to let some air in here'.

TonusOH

Seventeen years ago, Whiskeyjack wrote:

I think it will take another decade (of the older generation of JW's dying off in waves) before the "1914 generation" shit hits the proverbial fan.

Nailed it. If this was written in 2005, then it was almost exactly ten years later that the WTS put up the video explaining the overlapping generations idea.

Whiskeyjack also said "I think a western shrinkage will start in the 2020's." Looks like it started a bit earlier than that, but again it was a really good guess.

Of course, one can understand how a sudden and drastic (and honestly... nonsensical) change in doctrine could lead to slowed or reversed growth. Even cult members have varying levels of tolerance for nonsense.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

His claim that he dated a sex worker in Thailand is another of those missteps that he is already regretting. I think he made the claim to push back against the accusations that he went to Thailand to buy sex from hookers. Once again, if he felt there was no evidence of this, he could simply deny it. Slipping in the claim that he was dating one makes him look like both a liar and a fool. It also opens up a whole new avenue of ridicule-- imagine a woman who can get men to pay for sex deciding that the guy she wanted to date was... Lloyd.