Posts by TD

17

How would you respond?

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

if you tell a jw that he or she is in a cult and they asked you why do you say that?

how would you respond?.

"Cult" has become a pejorative that people apply to religions that they simply don't like, but if you can get past that connotation, Jehovah's Witnesses share a lot of traits with other high control groups.

1. It is very easy to join a cult, but surprisingly difficult to get out of one with your dignity intact. Cults do not recognize a legitimate reason for leaving. People who leave for reasons of conscience are labeled as "evil" and "mentally diseased."

2. Cults attempt to isolate you. A person joining a cult will be encouraged to break off all past associations. Friendships a person may have had their entire life are expected to wither away and die. After a few months, friends become very concerned about the individual who has joined a cult, because they don't even seem to be the same person anymore.

3. Cults attempt to control every aspect of your life, from medical care to leisure time, to education, to acceptable sexual practices. Sometimes there are sanctions, both written and unwritten for noncompliance

4. Cults attempt to control your access to information. They minimize or discourage access to outside sources in favor of their own internally generated literature.

5. Cults invent their own jargon. Their speech is littered with esoteric expressions and buzzwords that have special meaning to other members of the cult.

6. Cults rely heavily on fear. Fear of the outside world. Fear of invisible spirits. Fear of leaving. Fear of being branded and shunned by the group.

Jehovah's Witnesses exhibit all these traits. In spades.

32

Why is there a large cat in this picture?

by slimboyfat in

i wonder if anyone can explain this.

ezekiel 34:25 says .

and i will make a covenant of peace with them, and i will rid the land of vicious wild beasts, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests.. the land is said to be rid of vicious wild beasts, so why does the watchtower picture in the new pure worship book show a large predatory cat on the tree in this picture?

TD

I did not realize that JW artists were allowed this degree of expression.

In years past, whenever you saw an illustration in JW literature that made you stop and think, like this was does, it was plagiarized from another source.

10

Question for parents with a believing co-parent

by Anony Mous in

my daughter is being raised in a pimi household and spends a significant time with me in a pomo household.

i don’t pressure her to believe, so she is thinking/pressured about becoming a jw from the other end, so she is reluctant about celebrating holidays and birthdays, but as any kid, she loves the gifts and attention, so she will “not celebrate but still do things”.. she is becoming a teenager however, and showing interest in not-so-jw-things.

her mother forbids star wars for violence and magic, but she wants to watch it, she wants a few horror video games, she wants to shoot things and go hunting but guns aren’t allowed, so i’ve compromised for archery.. what do parents of teenagers do?

TD

With a daughter, I would make sure she understands the position of women in the JW faith.

(Which is why strong, smart, opinionated and informed is the Xenon in the reaction, so to speak...)

32

Why is there a large cat in this picture?

by slimboyfat in

i wonder if anyone can explain this.

ezekiel 34:25 says .

and i will make a covenant of peace with them, and i will rid the land of vicious wild beasts, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests.. the land is said to be rid of vicious wild beasts, so why does the watchtower picture in the new pure worship book show a large predatory cat on the tree in this picture?

TD

You sure that isn't the Cheshire Cat and Alice?

LOL - First thing that popped into my head

10

Question for parents with a believing co-parent

by Anony Mous in

my daughter is being raised in a pimi household and spends a significant time with me in a pomo household.

i don’t pressure her to believe, so she is thinking/pressured about becoming a jw from the other end, so she is reluctant about celebrating holidays and birthdays, but as any kid, she loves the gifts and attention, so she will “not celebrate but still do things”.. she is becoming a teenager however, and showing interest in not-so-jw-things.

her mother forbids star wars for violence and magic, but she wants to watch it, she wants a few horror video games, she wants to shoot things and go hunting but guns aren’t allowed, so i’ve compromised for archery.. what do parents of teenagers do?

TD

Anyone navigate these waters before?

Yes. Raised daughters with a believing JW spouse. --Not quite the same situation as yours, but I can certainly empathize.

What do parents of teenagers do?

This is what I did: (Other people's mileage may vary - It really depends on your child's personality...)

Be involved in their education. Know their teachers. Know what they believe themselves

Encourage the child to be informed. Show them how to do proper research.

Encourage them to have opinions on everything. Encourage them to defend those opinions. Above all, respect those opinions even if you don't agree with them. (I have no sons, so mine were especially sensitive to women's issues.)

34

“Well at least he doesn’t make mean tweets”

by minimus in

jw
friends

i asked a tennis friend this morning what he thought about what’s going on in afghanistan and he said it was terrible.

he was a military man and identifies as a middle of the road republican.

he supported most of trump’s policies but voted for biden because he couldn’t take trump’s mean tweets.

TD

I'm not a fan of Biden or the policies of Democrats in general, but I'm curious:

Has "mean" become the new euphemism for "Misinformed" or "Demonstrably false" or "I lack a grade school child's understanding of the Constitution"

27

Lloyd Evans keeps doing parts on how the JWs are guilty of follwing the bible.

by mickbobcat in

i have been watching evans videos for a while.

he keeps attacking the cult for following the bible.

women are to be subservient to men.

TD

This is not an argument against the cult its an argument against the bible.

I agree that criticism of the JW's should be strictly in the context of how they view the Bible and not how someone else thinks they should

In the larger context of Christianity in general, some of it depends on what you view the Bible to be.

JW's and kindred groups view the Bible as a single, contiguous, harmonious work from cover to cover authored by God himself via direct plenary inspiration.

Liberal flavors of Christianity tend view it more as what it actually is: A loosely organized anthology reflecting not only the culture in which it was written, but the different opinions of the authors themselves.

The clash in the NT between the Jewish and Gentile factions, Paul's open insults to James and the fact that the book of James reads as a rebuttal to the book of Galatians all make a whole lot more sense under that rubric

103

I'm now turned off by this site

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

in one form or another i've been a member of this site for almost 10 years.

in the past this was a great place for debate, news and support for ex jws.

i logged on several times a day and posted several times a week.

TD

Like all sites of this type, the mood changes over time

There was a point, for example, where the man-hate here was so thick you could cut it with a knife

I'm sure JW females come by it honestly, but it was directed at the wrong people. They type of man who would question the JW belief system is not usually the type of man who accepts the stone age notion that women are inferior in any way.

There was a time when I sounded like a psycho for pointing out that there are perfectly legitimate uses for firearms in the American Southwest.

But that changed in time. The pendulum has swung in cadence with the current resurgence of populism, but it won't stay there forever. Political moods come and go.

I am still very grateful to Simon for this site and the time he has put into it.

46

COVID not found

by Anna Marina in

alberta has just lifted all covid restrictions because they can't find any samples to prove it even exists.. https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/alberta-lifts-all-covid-restrictions-because-they-cant-produce-an-isolated-sample-of-sars-cov-2-to-prove-covid-exists-to-back-their-mandates/.

german paper bild apologises for pushing covid lockdowns and damaging society.. https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-07-30-german-newspaper-apologizes-covid-lockdown-hysteria-society.html.

wonder if the day will come when wt admits it lied?

TD

Reuters does not address the issue that Covid was not found by the Californian pathologists who had 1500 samples from the lungs of those theoretically dying of Covid.

I've been unable to locate a trustworthy source for this.

AP says that's because there is none:

https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-154815506152

Dr. Derick Knauss, the scientist behind the claim does not appear to exist at all.

46

COVID not found

by Anna Marina in

alberta has just lifted all covid restrictions because they can't find any samples to prove it even exists.. https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/alberta-lifts-all-covid-restrictions-because-they-cant-produce-an-isolated-sample-of-sars-cov-2-to-prove-covid-exists-to-back-their-mandates/.

german paper bild apologises for pushing covid lockdowns and damaging society.. https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-07-30-german-newspaper-apologizes-covid-lockdown-hysteria-society.html.

wonder if the day will come when wt admits it lied?

TD

However the other article I linked to pointed out that in Alberta they had been unable to FIND any samples of COVID-19.

Here is a deconstruction of that assertion by Reuters:

https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-alberta-case-idUSL1N2PE0EX