Posts by scratchme1010

11

Let me get this straight I can greet a stranger who may be ax murderer

by poopie in

jw
friends

bit i can't greet or say hello to a poor soul at the kh that's df please help me with this..

scratchme1010

Bit I can't greet or say hello to a poor soul at the kh that's df please help me with this.

There's nothing to help you on, other than send the WT to hell and do what you feel it's morally right.

32

Have any ex-jws considered joining the Bible Students?

by Rainbow_Troll in

their fundamental beliefs are much like jehovah's witnesses sans the paranoia, authoritarianism, stifling rules, and end-times enthusiasm.

you don't even have to become a bible student to be saved, you could be an idol worshipping heathen and still get resurrected in the milenium.

if i still believed in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, i would be a bible student.

scratchme1010

...You don't even have to become a Bible student to be saved...

Saved from what? Sounds to me like the same bible nonsense. To many of us ex-JWs, our leaving has nothing to do with doctrine. Some of us are not looking for anything bible related, nor religion related, not even spirituality related.

Some of us just don't believe in the bible. And why on Earth anyone who wants to worship GOD, still wants to follow the writings of Charles T. Russell, a MAN?

17

The Book of Mormon

by dubstepped in

jw
friends

my wife and i went to see it today at the encouragement of some of our new friends.

we laughed until we cried, and it was so cathartic to sit in a room full of hundreds of people laughing at the ridiculousness of religion.

sure, the subject is mormonism, but it was very poignant and applicable to all religion.

scratchme1010

I'm in New York and haven't seen it. Good idea to go and watch it. Thanks for recommending it.

14

Malicious Content on Web Servers

by TD in

i hope nobody would fall for this.

not sure what can be done though.... .

scratchme1010

Thank you for sharing.

29

JW's arrogant as f...?!

by Alostpuppydog in

has anybody else noticed that almost all the jdubs are super arrogant?

i mean even from just the basic ones to especially the elders and the overseers omg.

they act like they are so high and mighty that you should just worship them.

scratchme1010

Has anybody else noticed that almost all the Jdubs are super arrogant? I mean even from just the basic ones to especially the elders and the overseers omg. They act like they are so high and mighty that you should just worship them. And if you dare to challenge them or have any disagreement you are immediately 'labeled' and shunned whether or not you are a JW or not. This then, I found, leads to being isolated in the congregation real quick. Not only that, but if you want to converse with someone at a KH about 'moving up' they are very quick to dodge and show you your errors and why it just can't be done... either that or they just plainly ignore you for several minutes and talk about some bull with someone else hoping you go away (lol).
I just felt like ranting for a bit and was just wondering if anybody had some input to add here or any past experiebces.

Definitely. They have been made believe that that are the ones who have the one an only truth, that they are going to live forever and no one else will, and that their interpretation of facts is the one and only right one.

They live like ostriches, with their heads buried in the ground, not realizing that their asses are all up on the air.

11

Religion, family structure and a successful life.

by SouthCentral in

this morning (12/3/16) on fox and friends ( a news show on the fox network) there was a great news piece.

it featured one of the newscasters and her parents, who happened to be the former governor of utah (jon huntsman).

religion ( the mormon church) has obviously played a large role in their family life.

scratchme1010

Religion ( The Mormon church) has obviously played a large role in their family life. It's great when people can embrace God and their life goals. After being a witness, it seems impossible to ever enjoy this type of euphoric feeling. The Mormon church may be flawed, but it seems to help make people better. It pushes people above and beyond mediocrity. Worldly/material success will always be viewed in a negative light in the world of Jay dubs! In hindsight, that makes it hard for any halfway intelligent family head to raise their children in a religion that pushes mediocrity ( but pushes good salesmanship skills).

Sure! What they don't show is when one of the members of the family doesn't believe what the church believes and ends up sunned, nor when one of the members of the church is molested by someone in the congregation, or when the congregation expects their members to give them all their money, or expect them to make decisions in their best interest, not in the interest of a family.

No church makes people better.

26

My presentation (new one here!)

by Skepsis in

jw
friends

i registered in the board and i wanted to present myself.. i used to visit this forum some time ago and even register an account but then i tried to convince myself all was ok in the congregation.

now, i'm coming back :).

i live in a southern european nation, i'm a young jw, a good example in the congregation serving as a regular pioneer and ms. for all in the congregation i'm the good guy, one of the best examples in the area i live.

scratchme1010

Welcome to the forum. In many ways you remind me of me at your age. The number one thing, before anything else, that I strongly suggest is DON'T GET MARRIED IN THE CONGREGATION. As is, although you have better choices, but your decisions are not easy to make.

The path that I took when confronted with a similar situation was finding some biblical reason to work full time. The way I framed is that I was "preparing to form my own family, and I want to support a nice pioneer wife". You may feel like a bigger hypocrite doing that, and it's definitely a lie if you (like I did) had no intention of following through with it, but it took the pressure from people in the congregation.

Also, regardless of what you do, including if you decide to stay in the congregation, try to push back from too many people being in your business.

Another suggestion is to make a physical change that can help you start over in a new congregation. You can go to a congregation in your first language. In the new congregation where no one knows you (or barely), you have a better handle of people around you.

In essence, at the end of the day, this is your life other people are playing with. Although you have an advantage of already having a college degree (even if you decided to pioneer now, your degree can still be useful in the future), the larger issue is the organization and/or some people in your congregation being too deep into your business, some of them in the form of looking up to you and expecting you to be a role model to them.

Regardless of what you choose to do, having so many people in your business is a key issue to address. It's not easy since the WT promotes this black-and-white mentality that you are either all for them or against them.

The two things keeping me from stepping down are:
1. Uncertainty and fear. I'm a born in, I've never lived in the world and even during University, I went to classes and had the least possible relationship with "wordly people".

This one is definitely something I relate to. Looking back, what helped me was a few things I went into "the world" with:

My attitude. I was not afraid of the world. I saw my life as a blank canvass where I can paint whatever I want. If you have been through college, you now have an idea that the world is nothing like the WT says it is. I was born-in too, but my JW experience was so bad that I decided that there's no way that the world can be worse. Embrace the world.
I didn't become "anti-JW". This is very important to remember. The negative influence of the JWs, again, it's very black-and-white. Just because you are no longer a JW, it doesn't mean that you have to do the opposite of what they teach. It is good advice to stay away from drugs, there are things about maintaining a healthy lifestyle that some of the JW teachings promote. From the JW teachings, keep what is good for you and protect you from making poor decisions.
Similar to the previous one, also notice that not only the WT teaches everything that you are supposed to do, but it also convinces people of what they are supposed to be/become if they leave. DON'T LET THAT NONSENSE INFLUENCE YOUR DECISIONS. At the end of the day, the WT has no authority over you, and you are the one deciding where you will be taking your life.
Prepare for things not going well. A number of people become isolated, depressed or even suicidal because life happens and they think that a bad event (an accident, illness, financial problems) are somehow consequences of leaving that organization. THAT IS NONSENSE. The sooner you realize that, the better for you.
Prepare a support system but use good judgement when letting certain people in your life. make good friends, but stay away from other people who may not be of good influence to your life.
STAY AWAY FROM OTHER CULTS. Look for your own spiritual path, but that should not be the only thing in your life; in fact, I didn't look for any spirituality for decades. I had too much shoved down my throat in the congregation.

2. Pressure from family, friends, brothers... They all expect me to continue doing things the same way I've been doing all these years.

Learn to set boundaries. My best guess is that all those who pressure you (a) have jobs, probably full time, (b) have their own families, (c) are not pioneers themselves. There are a lot of JWs who loooooove to "encourage" others to do the things they themselves don't do, nor they have the desire to do.

The issue of setting boundaries with people will come up time and time again if you don't take care of it now. I think that there's no way around this one but finding a way of getting them off your back. The truth is that IT IS WORSE IF YOU ACTUALLY DO AS THEY TELL YOU. If you don't set a boundary now, they will get used to having you do things their way. As uncomfortable as that feels, look for a way to keep them at bay. Trust me, I know how it feels to have those people around you trying to have you make decisions that THEY will not have to face consequences of.

I would like to stop altogether because I now feel like a hyprocrite. But I know it would do more harm than good so my plan is to take decisitions step by step. I'm planning to quit pioneering in 4-5 months and then move to another congregation as the one I'm attending now is very small and I have a lot of pressure on me to do a lot of things and it's hard even to miss one meeting!

As good as it is to just leave, I don't think it's in your best interest to do so. Your plan looks good, but I'd suggest to not time your fading. Let the fade happen gradually as it's important that it happens right, not necessarily fast and abrupt.

You are not the only one facing this, and know that there are a lot of people here who truly know where you come from because we have been through the same. I hope my long post helps.

13

Was the ransom premature? Shouldn't the effects of Adamic sin have been reversed at the time of Jesus' death?

by deegee in

if the ransom was paid at the time of jesus' death (mark 15:45, matthew 20:28, 1 timothy 2:6, hebrews 2:9), then why weren't the effects of adamic sin (sickness & death) reversed at that time?.

it seems to me that either:- the payment of the ransom was premature.

- god was not satisfied with the payment of the ransom; it was not sufficient to make up for adam's & eve's so-called "sin".hasn't god extracted enough from mankind as payment for adam's & eve's "sin" given the billions of persons who have lived and died?.

scratchme1010

OR

There was never an Adam, there was never a sin, there was never a paradise, there was never a garden of Eden, there were never such events.

9

Hey, remember when Family Guy had a Watchtower?

by schnell in

jw
friends

hey, remember that one time on family guy when the evil monkey in chris's closet became a jw?.

i remember thinking, pssht, they'd never do that.. hey, remember when they did it?.

i am dying to know if someone awake at bethel in the art department or whatever saw that episode and recommended this cover a few years ago.

scratchme1010

"A Jehovah's Witness with a caffeine problem" that's hilarious.

2

Planning my next steps...

by schnell in

jw
friends

i work a little over 40 hours per week, but i recognize that all good things are due to end.

i actually got to meet my company president this week, and she's a very nice lady who is very nicely offering $5000 yearly scholarships to her employees and their families.

i don't have a degree, though i did get a nice college experience before i dropped out, and i'm considering online university.. for starters, i could probably afford the computer science undergrad program at university of the people.

scratchme1010

That's great. Put the opportunity to good use. If may, it's definitely your call, and I know how important it's for parents who didn't have the opportunity to further their education to want their children to take advantage of every opportunity. That said, please listen to your children. Not all are college material and not everyone makes if big through college. Keep an open mind and listen if any of your children tells you that (s)he has no interest in college.

Forcing kids to college is as bad as denying it for those who do want to go.