I'm glad I stopped by today to catch up with this news.
All this branding and merchandizing makes it look like a walmart catalogue. Without offending the American friends this manouvre is typical American marketing. Stuff that is cheesy and that in Europe if this was another brand people would clearly laugh at, who the hell goes around with pins??? 8 years olds and comic con fans... but this is not any brand so I am actually interested to ask my mother what she think of it.
yup, it's there now on the borgs website.
i even got a call from an excited still in family member about it, saying how people are crying about it.
(tears of joy :puke:) .
OMG I saw this too in the wall of a JW girl that i have in my facebook contacts. She put on the status: it's finally here and the link.
Wow! Is this what they spend money on now? Next level control. I wonder if thry will soon ban folks from going to the movies/watch tv seen only they have a spiritual schedule.
Fools.
hi everyone, it's a while since i visited the site so i hope everyone's well.
i want to ask a question that popped into my mind following my last visit home.
in july i went to visit my family (all jw) and as you remember in one of my ealiest posts i mentioned i don't know what's my situation whether i result df or not.
Thanks for input, and links.
Jgnat, I hope she does too.
After I posted I saw the thread on the November WT about not mourning if DF relatives die propaganda. They are focused on totally deprogramming any natural affection. Totally F'd up to the max.
hi everyone, it's a while since i visited the site so i hope everyone's well.
i want to ask a question that popped into my mind following my last visit home.
in july i went to visit my family (all jw) and as you remember in one of my ealiest posts i mentioned i don't know what's my situation whether i result df or not.
Hi everyone, it's a while since I visited the site so I hope everyone's well.
I want to ask a question that popped into my mind following my last visit home. In July I went to visit my family (all JW) and as you remember in one of my ealiest posts I mentioned I don't know what's my situation whether I result DF or not. When my husband and I visited my family last month, my mom told me about a girl I grew up with, who just found out to have cancer and suggested I go see her.
I had not seen this girl or her family for 18 years basically since I left my home country. She got DF then went back in then she got out again. Her whole family apart from her mom are out of JW. She was living on her own but, because of the illeness and pain she is in, she has moved back in with her mother.
I was already in contact with her younger brother via FB and seeing recent photos from last year's vacations I realised she still is out of JW.
Was a joy to see her and her mom again after all these years although the sad circumstances, and they both received me and my husband with smiles. We never touched the religion talk, but from little details of people mentioned I gathered that the mother is still inside the JW.
So I was wondering, seeing she is back living with the mother, what would happen if in the worst case scenario she would die? She is DF so...can the mother ask for a JW funeral service or not? Could people go to the funeral to support the mother even though the daughter was DF?
What's the official JW position on a situation like this?
The reason why I am also asking, beside curiosity, it's because depending on the answer I may have to add it to my will that I don't want to have a JW funeral in case both me and my husband died at the same time, and I got repatriated.
this is an offshoot from the jws then and now thread...it made me wonder what exactly people find attractive about the cult today?
why are they joining?
any thoughts?.
I think the reasons are the same as they have always been. Based on the congregation I was born in and frequented for 20 years the reason people converted were because:
- Low secular education
- bad or insecure economic situation
- family member/s being alcoholic or using drugs
- domestic violence
- suffered some form of abuse as a child
- recent loss of a dear one
- feeling depressed
- general unhappiness with their life at the moment
- sick or elderly
I went through my memories of each of the 90 witnesses including my own family who were in the congregation and I could fit each one in one of the listed situations.
To these criteria witnesses offer a (fake) sense of love care and security, a promise of utopia and most of all a place where you can escape your devil caused bad life.
something just downed on me when searching up a quote from the bible on google.. wasn't anything important was just gonna make a joke on a fb of a friend but i was looking for the exact words so i posted the essence on google which gave me the results and verse.
then i researched the verse itself and i realised that at least on the 3 first pages there are no links connecting to any wt site.
i mean that's great the least people lured in the better but if i were still in the "truth" i would wonder why, surely if i were preaching the truth and the internet is such a media in today's society i would want to see some reference of the any scripture linking back to the wt site at least on the first couple of pages and i would like to see them putting some effort on that when it's zero.
Something just downed on me when searching up a quote from the Bible on google.
Wasn't anything important was just gonna make a joke on a FB of a friend but I was looking for the exact words so I posted the essence on google which gave me the results and verse. Then I researched the verse itself and I realised that at least on the 3 first pages there are no links connecting to any WT site. I mean that's great the least people lured in the better but if I were still in the "truth" I would wonder why, surely if I were preaching the truth and the internet is such a media in today's society I would want to see some reference of the any scripture linking back to the WT site at least on the first couple of pages and I would like to see them putting some effort on that when it's zero. I checked a few other verses randomly, same thing. Just saying.
so chatter on the net and in coffee shops suggests lots of speculation about the re-emergence of russia as the king of the north.
does this political situation give the gb a golden opportunity to simply let speculation about prophecy fly and keep people distracted from the fact that nothing they have prophecied has actually come true?.
.
Of course they love to see signs everywhere. Earthquakes, diseases, wars you name it. And I love to dismantle them with science.
Crimea has been brewing since the breaking of USSR. Two of my good friends are Ukranian and they love to keep me up to date with their politics so this was highly expected.
When will mankind realise history keeps on repeating itself? And yet everytime people act so surprised. I don't get it.
hey everyone,.
i popped in today after quite a few months.
i hope everyone's well and looking forward to spring!
Hey Snowbird and DoC, thanks for your comments.
DoC yes my parents are early 60s, I agree with what you suggest, as long as they don't enslave themselves with the WT they should be okay.
My mother has changed so much in the past 5 years, she was a die hard JW but I also know she's had her fair share of disappointment with brothers and sisters not being as "brotherly" as they were supposed to be and behaving in some cases worse than wordly people. In addition the loss of her sister who wasn't JW also played a deep part in making her realise that family ties are run far deeper than faith does.
Even though there are many things that I don't agree with my mother's choices or way of thinking (unfortunately forged through the WT teachings) I also see a person who is very reflective and intelligent and as said in my OP she seems more open minded than she used to be. A great thing that I admire in my mom is the fact that she is able to see good in people regardless of their beliefs and she has been able to establish friendships with some, like her neighour who's my age, I guess she sees her a bit like a daughter too seeing I am not around, but I am pleased that they get to socialize as this indirectly allows for my mom to keep a balance between JW network and non.
And interesting things that I have asked and forgot to mention in my OP was that I asked whether in these 42 years of being a JW, has she ever had any doubts about doctrines or things that the WT was teaching especially and she said yes....then she added was normal to have doubts. I thouhgt that was interesting, I remember many times during our biblical study when I was a child/teen she would tell me that we must no doubt the WT as they are God's channel. LOL
There is one thing that it bothers me though and I will get to the bottom of it when I next visit them. Their will.
Last time I went home mom said the will was done and signed in presence of my paternal uncle. Which that would be okay in normal circumstances but what raised my antennas is the fact that my uncle is also an elder. Why him? I know they would want cremation, but I hope that's where their wishes ends and nothing else involves the organization. My dad at least had the smart thinking of putting the house in my name from when he bought it 20 years ago, so that shouldn't be an issue but I can't help it to want to see this will and make sure all is in order before it's too late. I read far too many bad stories of wills gone wrong.
hey everyone,.
i popped in today after quite a few months.
i hope everyone's well and looking forward to spring!
Hey everyone,
I popped in today after quite a few months. I hope everyone's well and looking forward to spring! Me, I have been busy with work and personal life that I haven't had the time to check in here and so this email is like 4 months over due so it might become long and apologies for that.
In October I had a major convo with my mom. Last year has been a demanding year for me so haven't been able to keep up with the regular contact that I have with my JW parents which usually is a text or phone call every 3-4 weeks. In addition to that the previous year which is when I discovered this website and TTATT I was so under shock that I had a brief conversation with my mom begging her to do some research on things like the UN issue.
Yes, I know text is not the right way to address such a delicate matter but I was under shock and I was really acting out of that plus we live in different countries and getting my parents to use skype is like asking a farmer to drive a space shuttle! Because of her silly reaction well the JW indocrinated reaction it kind of put me off contacting her again for a while. A few months passed. Summer came and I texted her and so I found out that she had 7 months of depression and had been to see a therapist and had not gone to meetings.
First of all I was shocked. My mom was the most zealous of the whole family, so for her not to be active for that long must of been something really major.
First thing I did was commending her for seeking professional help instead of trying to solve it "spiritually" as well as telling her that she should of called before and tell me, at least I could have gone to visit and be with her a little, but she said after she completed the therapy she was feeling a bit better. Again this was via text message.
Around the time of this conversation, I was addressing some issues in my own life and I did some hypnotherapy in the mean time and one of the things I addressed during that was my relationship with my parents, or rather how I feel about them because of the beliefs they have. It made me feel better to deal with it even though I felt I would still need some day to have the conversation.
Then in October I phoned her and we had probably the longest and most heart felt conversation we have had in years. My mom told me that she had not been going to the meetings for 8 or 9 months...however I got there too late as she had just started to go back! :( She said she didn't want to see no body for a long time and she had asked the elders not to pay her visits or ask her anything. She is lucky that they actually have quite decent elders in their congregation, I mean as human beings. Two of them being my uncles and others, being people they know for 40 years.
We got into the conversation of the JW and I told her quite a few of the things I found out and how she has been programmed and I have to say even though she still reacted as expected she wasn't so argumentative as I know her to be. She also apologized for a lot of behaviours that she had when I was growing up. She apologized for threatening me when I was a child with things like "If you lie the crows will come and dig your eyes from your sockets" or whatever things the Bible says with those drammatic terms.
I actually said I didn't really remember her saying things like that. She was surprised because she remembered it vividly and she said those are not things to tell to a young kid, that she was sorry and she hoped I would forgive her. Then went on saying how she loves me and how I was a wanted child, and I have been the best things that's happened to her. She asked me to say back to her that I loved her, which for me is a major issue because although I do love my parents, and I have no problem showing it with a hug or doing something nice for them but I find it extremely hard to say I love you. But between a breath and the next I managed.
As you can immagine it was quite emotional for the both of us, but for the first time I found it within me to come straight about what I found out. We touched on many things of the WT doctrines. I pushed strongly on how child abuse is handled, because my mother has 1st hand experience, and 1 of the things that triggered her depression. She didn't become a JW until she was an adult but having been through it as a child I asked her how could she support an organization that was covering for abusers?!
We went over other things like how they end up serving the organization and not God or Jesus etc showed her how the baptism questions changed. She said: "But I follow God. I even said this in a sermon last year I specificately said I don't follow an organization." So I was like...that what they have you believing.
We touched on the kingdom hall building funds and lending. She couldn't understand how the trick worked even if I explained it 4 times and said to her: When you and dad bought our house, you did a mortgage. The bank gave you money in advance to buy the house and you paid that loan back in 15 years. After those years, the house is yours. Is it not? She agreed. Did you give the house back to the bank? Did you put the bank name on the deed?
No she replied. Right, so you paid the loan and the house is yours, but the WT give you (the congregation) the money, you put free hours of work to build it, then pay the loan back. So...once the loan is paid shouldn't the KH be of property of the witnesses of YOUR congregation? No instead it belongs to the WT. So if it was always going to be of their property why make you pay for it? You had already given free labor...
This scam she was not getting it. That's when I saw the resonance at work...she was dismissing what her brain was telling her was right. It is a scam yet she dismissed it...noooo you are wrong she said....and what is the WT gonna do with KH's anyway? There is no value. I said: Mom!! You are so naive! NO VALUE?? IN REAL ESTATE?? Where do you live? In another planet? Do you know how many KH they own around the world that's a capital!
Anyway I saw that denial was strong so I dropped it. As a conclusion she said to me what many have said: I have been following this for over 40 years it's kept me straight and honest, can't be that bad.
I just kept quiet. We haven't touched the subject since october. Part of me would want for them to come out but at the same time she also has a point that her life is all about their beliefs. They have long term friends with whom have gone through thick and thin. They are blessed that they do have good elders and as a culture isn't so cut through as in other countries. There is also the fact that I have noticed a change in my mom since she did the therapy and has become way more welcoming of others opinions. Usually I wouldn't share with her my opinions on morality or doctrines even before I discovered TTATT, because I felt judged by her. She would have that patronizing tone or that look of pity for me for having different ideas or values to hers. I am sure many of you will have experienced what I am talking about.
This time I really didn't feel the judged. I feel that she has grown emotionally. So, now I am wondering if in future if the conversation comes up again, maybe some day when we are face to face, should I bother unmasking more about the WT or just leave it alone? At this point I am in a good place with my parents. I don't know whether them leaving or not (if that would ever happen) would make a difference on our relationship and I think it wouldn't.
Let me know your thoughts.
hi everyone, my name is mellow (some names have been changed) lol.
as no doubt many of you were, i was born in.
i am now in my mid 20s living in a jehovah's witness household.
Welcome Mellow :) Glad to see you on board.
