TonusOH

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Posts by TonusOH

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  11

  Are JW's brainwashed?

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know as a jw i concluded several times that i was not brainwashed as i was not some unautonimous zombie and had not experienced anything akin to.... .

  but in reality, brainwashing is a control of thought and ideas over a person and changing the way they think.

  in normal life such sentences are not used, in fact they are highly discouraged... .

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  TonusOH

  According to Merriam-Webster, brainwashing is:

  1. a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas.

  I don't consider that the WTS uses force, though there are some blurry lines there. But the second definition is:

  2. persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship.

  In which case, yes-- the WTS brainwashes people. At the same time, that definition is a bit broad. It's not unusual for us to be persuaded through the use of propaganda or salesmanship, so we're all brainwashed in some way or other.
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  40

  How Do JWs Understand Salvation & What Is Needed to Obtain It?

  by LauraLynn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from my experience within the jw organization, i understood that salvation meant a person accepted the teachings of the wbts without question as the "faithful and discrete slave," thereby placing their trust in them, not jesus christ.

  salvation consisted of being found "righteous" by jehovah and resurrected to everlasting life in an earthly paradise.

  to obtain this salvation, one needed to obey the organization's teachings, remain a faithful jw, and lead a moral life.

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  TonusOH

  "We just don't know" does not mesh well with "Jehovah guides his people through us."

  "We just don't know" does not mesh well with "you must obey us without question."

  "We just don't know" does not mesh well with "disagree with us and you are an apostate."
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  37

  News of fires out of control in California

  by ballistic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hope everyone near to the region affected in california is ok. it's shocking to hear of the destruction.

  these affected areas are some of the places i visited when i came on a tour of the us.

  malibu, santa barbera, la, santa monica, hollywood and so on..

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  TonusOH

  If you get a lot of rain for one or two years, then a drought, you know that the conditions are there for a highly destructive fire. Under those circumstances, isn't it even more imperative to make sure to take action to reduce or eliminate the risk? "Oh well... nature" is not an attitude that someone responsible for the safety of thousands (or millions) has the luxury of adopting.

  I think it's too early to know for sure what the causes are, but if it turns out that there was too much growth that created conditions for a catastrophe like this one, then steps should have been taken. No excuses. It would have cost a lot less than the (potentially) hundreds of billions that will be required to fix it now, as well as the loss of life and the loss of property and the long-term effects that victims and their families will be dealing with.
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  27

  Do children still get destroyed at Armageddon?

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i know back in the day, that was taught, that if the parents were going to be destroyed, so would the children.

  i just can't easily find reference to anything.

  this thinking has been used to justify some egregious behavior towards children and their parents such as exclusion of children from jw family - why worry, the end is near, all will work itself out then - the end didn't come though.

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  TonusOH

  I wonder where the line is drawn between being a bad person and being a really bad person...
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  22

  The abuse of JW org

  by wozza in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  awhile ago i said on here i would like to show how wrong the jehovahs witness organisation is , in that they will not accept the testimony of a victim of sexual crime where the victim has no other witnesses to the crime.

  i faced this with helping my ex wife for about 15 years in exposing her father , an elder, to the jw org.

  his raping of her over years and they believed him.. so therefore the perpetrator knowing of the organisations stance can easily deny and therefore be free to pretend to serve as an innocent jw still mixing with the congregation ,and also i have witnessed an accused perpetrator of child molestation witnessing at my next door neighbors house in field service with a child of another family even though the elders knew of the accusations against him.

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  TonusOH

  It is a reminder of how women were viewed in that time and place-- as property. If you 'damage' a man's property by having sex with her (and thus making her verifiably a non-virgin), you had to pay the man the fee he would have otherwise gotten for selling her to her future husband. Men weren't going to pay top dollar for a woman who wasn't 'pure.'
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  22

  The abuse of JW org

  by wozza in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  awhile ago i said on here i would like to show how wrong the jehovahs witness organisation is , in that they will not accept the testimony of a victim of sexual crime where the victim has no other witnesses to the crime.

  i faced this with helping my ex wife for about 15 years in exposing her father , an elder, to the jw org.

  his raping of her over years and they believed him.. so therefore the perpetrator knowing of the organisations stance can easily deny and therefore be free to pretend to serve as an innocent jw still mixing with the congregation ,and also i have witnessed an accused perpetrator of child molestation witnessing at my next door neighbors house in field service with a child of another family even though the elders knew of the accusations against him.

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  TonusOH

  Elders also have no business performing what amounts to a criminal inquiry, either. They should alert the police and let them investigate, then base their actions on what that investigation reveals. If they need to interview the involved parties, they can do so afterwards. If they truly are concerned with protecting victims (and potential victims), they should allow the legal process to do its work, and then follow up with their 'spiritual' investigation.
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  40

  How Do JWs Understand Salvation & What Is Needed to Obtain It?

  by LauraLynn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from my experience within the jw organization, i understood that salvation meant a person accepted the teachings of the wbts without question as the "faithful and discrete slave," thereby placing their trust in them, not jesus christ.

  salvation consisted of being found "righteous" by jehovah and resurrected to everlasting life in an earthly paradise.

  to obtain this salvation, one needed to obey the organization's teachings, remain a faithful jw, and lead a moral life.

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  TonusOH

  Hi LauraLynn, as far as I can tell that is exactly what they believe today. I started my fade in the late 90s and was out by the mid-2000s. Nothing I've seen since then has made me think that they changed anything. Obeying the governing body remains the most important facet of JW worship.
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  25

  The Dangers of Independent Thinking

  by daystar in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "the dangers of independent thinking".

  reading mary's thread regarding the july 15th wt, i began to really consider what the wbts' problem is with "independent thinking".. what exactly is "independent thinking" and what about its opposite, "dependent thinking"?

  i think the following excerpt from an article here does a good job of defining them.

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  TonusOH

  Franz once testified that 'unity' had to be maintained, even at the cost of accuracy. If the GB was wrong, it was better for the rank and file to be wrong with them, than to think for themselves even if that led them to the truth. Better to follow the organization over a cliff, than to mind the path yourself and arrive safe.
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  23

  WT HQ is never proactive, they are reactive to everything put out showing their blatant hypocrisy and abject stupidity

  by WingCommander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few on here (and of course many on the ex-jw reddit forum) have mentioned that wt hq just recently (like in the past couple months) put out a video warning against the praising of jw actors, taking photos with them, etc.

  to not do it anymore.

  it was narrated by geoffrey jackson.

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  TonusOH

  The people who wanted to take photos with the drama actors were more interested in the Biblical character. It's not like they were getting Tom Cruise to act in the drama. I think they considered it cute to be able to take a snapshot with Moses or David. The six-year-old taking a picture with Mickey Mouse and Disneyland is not interested in worshipping the actor under that costume.

  The WTS worries about the dumbest stuff, sometimes.
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  18

  Changing the Date of the Memorial?

  by KalebOutWest in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i noticed in the latest memorial invitation, the dates for the observance are odd--well far more odd than usual.. what i mean is that forever as i can remember, jehovah's witnesses use to advertise really big that this was nisan 14. they don't tend to do this anymore.. and being jewish, their dates now tend to align with passover, or at least with the second seder night of passover.. 2025: saturday, april 12 (nisan 15).

  2026: thursday, april 2 (nisan 15/16).

  2027: monday, march 22 (nisan 15/16).

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  TonusOH

  I don't think the WTS should have tried to be so picky about the date. They don't observe the memorial as part of a larger observance or celebration, so they could have picked a more consistent day and time. For example, make it the second Saturday in April, or something like that. Based on the handful of times that they missed the exact date, and the changes in the next few years, it is clear that Jehovah wasn't picky about it.